Klezmer

I don't know much about Klezmer music. In fact, strike that. I don't know near enough about Klezmer music. A few years back, I was lucky enough to meet with French graphic novelist Joann Sfar. He'd just released a journal entitled Harmonica where he described (amongst other parts of his life) his struggle to learn harmonica. I wrote to him and we met in a chinese tea-house in Paris. It was a really cool afternoon.

I remember back then, Joann kept talking about Klezmer music, and his enthusiasm about it was obvious. The one band he kept mentioning was the Amsterdam Klezmer Band. I promised myself I'd check it out if the opportunity arose, but I never stumbled upon one of their records...

Joann and I met another time when he came by my house during a rehearsal (and drew many of my weird collection of harmonicas), but this guy's life seems like a whirlwind, and we never got a chance to connect again.

Cue to two or three years later. I've continued to purchase some of his graphic novels, but the themes are often similar and I'm growing a little tired of his stuff. These things happen. I figure I'll get back into his releases in a couple of years,  see how they have evolved. And then I stumble upon Klezmer. This half-sized graphic novel, as the title suggests, is about music, and that's a sure way to get me interested.  I hesitate for a few months, looking sideways at the cover every time I walk into a comic book shop. Finally, last summer, I fold in and purchase the two volumes released in France. Man, am I happy that I did...

Klezmer tells the story of five characters in early XXth century Eastern Europe: Noah is a jewish musician whose band is massacred and instruments are burned by rival musicians. In retaliation (so to speak), he steals their show playing only a harmonica. Chava, a beautiful and resourceful young lady from the village he plays in joins him when he leaves, more or less against his will. He teaches her to sing Jewish songs.

Yaacov is a young rebellious genius who is expelled from his Yeshiva (religious school) for stealing  the headmaster's coat. He stumbles upon the remains of Noah's caravan, where he finds (and takes) an intact banjo and a clarinet. He later meets with Vincenzo, another religious student who was expelled for stealing apples. Yaacov is as lively and daring as Vincenzo is timid and introvert. They both save the life of Gypsy guitarist Tshokola when Cossacks hang him to a tree the two jewish boys were hiding in.

Klezmer is kind of a road novel (does the term even exist ?) revolving around music and what it does to those who play it and hear it. It's funny, touching, humane, and above all, it's driven by a visceral love of music. Not music as written on sheets and played with the brain, music as written on faces and played with the heart. Through this medium, Sfar also explores some of his traditional themes, in particular the nature of Jewishness, but he does so in a more lighthearted and, in the end, enlightening way than in the rest of his work. The first volume (Tales of the Wild East) has recently been released in English by publisher First Second.

After reading the two volumes currently available, I decided to actively try and find the Limonchiki record by the Amsterdam Klezmer Band (it was the one Sfar recommended in the notes at the back of the first volume of Klezmer). I haven't succeeded so far, but there are several clips of theirs on Youtube. They have a kind of relaxed exhuberance that I just love. They can shift from somber, like on Der Gas Nigun, to brassy festive, as displayed on this tune.

So, from this day on, I seek good klezmer music, and welcome any further recommendations. I'm already on the war path to conquer this fabled Limonchiki album that I can't seem to get hold of. If anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know. In the meantime, I leave you with that same title by the Amsterdam Klemzer Band, Limonchiki.

 

Comments

[George Robinson]

You should check out www.klezmershack.com, which is far and away the best clearinghouse for klezmer and other Jewish music.
And you might be interested in the band Shtreiml, whose leader is a very, very good chromatic harp player, Jason Rosenblatt. They don't sound like any other klezmer band you'll ever hear.

[Benoît FELTEN]

Hey George, thanks for the tip !

I think I have located a copy from an Amazon reseller. If that doesn't work, I'll check out Klezmershack.

I do know Shtreiml, in fact there's a review of it on this very blog, here :
http://harmonica.typepad.com/harmonica_ramblings/2004/11/shtreiml_spicy_.html

[marc]

It's also available at:
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/2901486/a/Limonchiki.htm

We're quite spoiled in the Internet age to be able to say I heard this great music... here, you can listen (or watch it) too!

You post some great stuff, Ben. And I'm groovin' on Milteau's Blue 3rd which you recommended. Been listening to lots of this and Sonny Terry's "Wizard of the Harmonica" (oh, how I love the public library).

[Benoît F.]

I aim to serve, marc !

Thanks for your support.

Oh, is this the time and place to say I could never enjoy Sonny Terry ?

[marc]

The first time I put the Sonny Terry CD on, I was like, "What the f$#*?" and popped the disc out after a couple of minutes (the other day, I was playing his "Fox Chase" and my wife walked through the room and said, "What the hell is that?" in response to all the hootin' and hollerin'). But after letting it sit for a while, then trying it where I could actually hear it better (i.e., not on my computer at work), it really started to grow on me. Not all of it, but "Diggin' My Potatoes" is now a favorite. Harmonica music is not usually my first choice by genre, but I'm developing an appreciation.

Nonharmonica CD: Over the winter holidays, a relative got me a copy of "In the Heart of the Moon" (Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate)--it's one of the most beautiful albums I've ever heard.