Ellen Kushner's LJ (RSS Feed)
12-13-2007, 01:58 AM
Ari Davidow (http://www.klezmershack.com/) says I have to blog this, and he is a man of parts, so here goes. Besides, a lovely quote from Ari saved my butt when I was writing the script for The [Then (http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/shows/072bibl.html)-] New Klezmorim (http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/shows/072play.html) for Sound & Spirit (http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/index.html)! I did get his permission, but did not name names; so this is also my chance to tell everyone at last that this quote (attributed at the time simply to "one New Klezmer enthusiast") is his:
I often think of the Jewish belief that the Creator already knows all of human history - and then I think of Her sitting in heaven right now, listening to these bands, exclaiming, "At last I can hear it live!"
Well, it sounds even better coming up out of a gorgeous tune by Davka - and you can, indeed, hear the entire show online (http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/listen.html). It is 10 years old, now - the "new klezmorim" are not so new anymore - but it still gives a pretty solid grounding in the music. By now I always assume everyone in America knows all about klezmer - and I'm always being stared at blankly when I bring it up, so let's go!
Anyway, Sound & Spirit is still broadcast on public radio in some discriminating markets. Last week we re-aired "The New Klezmorim." At one point I back-announce:
. . . Two versions of Andy Statman's "The Flatbush Waltz": that was the Irish band De Dannan, from their album "A Jacket of Batteries;" before that, the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra, from the public television documentary, "In the Fiddler's House." (http://www.amazon.com/Fiddlers-House-Itzhak-Perlman/dp/B000002SLV) This was a project in which violinist Itzhak Perlman and several American Klezmer groups toured Poland . . . . bringing the old Eastern European Jewish musical tradition back to the ground it had sprung from, to people who had not heard it since the great prewar Jewish communities of Poland were destroyed. More musical and cultural cross-pollinization still to come in this hour of Sound & Spirit, as we examine the New Klezmorim. I'm EK.
And the mailbag this week contained this note from a listener in California:
In today's program, Ellen mentioned a PBS program titled Violin in the Home with Itsak Perelman. Can you give me any help in obtaining a copy of this video?
[Your witty quip here.]
(Original Post) (http://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/140384.html)
I often think of the Jewish belief that the Creator already knows all of human history - and then I think of Her sitting in heaven right now, listening to these bands, exclaiming, "At last I can hear it live!"
Well, it sounds even better coming up out of a gorgeous tune by Davka - and you can, indeed, hear the entire show online (http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/listen.html). It is 10 years old, now - the "new klezmorim" are not so new anymore - but it still gives a pretty solid grounding in the music. By now I always assume everyone in America knows all about klezmer - and I'm always being stared at blankly when I bring it up, so let's go!
Anyway, Sound & Spirit is still broadcast on public radio in some discriminating markets. Last week we re-aired "The New Klezmorim." At one point I back-announce:
. . . Two versions of Andy Statman's "The Flatbush Waltz": that was the Irish band De Dannan, from their album "A Jacket of Batteries;" before that, the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra, from the public television documentary, "In the Fiddler's House." (http://www.amazon.com/Fiddlers-House-Itzhak-Perlman/dp/B000002SLV) This was a project in which violinist Itzhak Perlman and several American Klezmer groups toured Poland . . . . bringing the old Eastern European Jewish musical tradition back to the ground it had sprung from, to people who had not heard it since the great prewar Jewish communities of Poland were destroyed. More musical and cultural cross-pollinization still to come in this hour of Sound & Spirit, as we examine the New Klezmorim. I'm EK.
And the mailbag this week contained this note from a listener in California:
In today's program, Ellen mentioned a PBS program titled Violin in the Home with Itsak Perelman. Can you give me any help in obtaining a copy of this video?
[Your witty quip here.]
(Original Post) (http://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/140384.html)