[78-L] Klezmer [FWD]

[ERIC BYRON]

Klezmer comes from the Hebrew kley, which means "tool, instrument, vessel" 
and zmer, which means among other thing "song." In Hebrew it can mean 
"musical instrument." Uriel Weinreich's English-Yiddish and Yiddish-English 
Dictionary defines it as "musician (player)."  However, among my Yiddish 
speaking friends we also use it to describe a genre of music.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Harkin" <harkinmike at yahoo.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 3:17 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Klezmer [FWD]


> An online yiddish-english dictionary defines 'klezmer' as 'musician'.
> I haven't check etymology from other sources....
>
> Mike in Plovdiv
>
>
> --- On Mon, 1/26/09, yves francois <aprestitine at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> From: yves francois <aprestitine at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Klezmer
>> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 5:38 AM
>> Taylor
>> It may of been Tarras that was offended by the term. In the
>> later 1970's younger musicians came back to the
>> Freileich music in the 1970's they used the previously
>> pejorative term Klezmer, something Tarras (if I recall in
>> something I read or heard in a documentary years ago) was a
>> bit surprised on.
>>     The term was like jazz, a term that became a positive
>> term over time, but also a bit like "space age bachelor
>> pad music" (eg Esquivel and the like, yet another genre
>> that I enjoy very much), where the term was coined after the
>> fact, in Klezmer's case it was somewhere between the
>> two.
>>     I believe at one point in time he (Tarras) was
>> considered to be the Goodman of Freileich /Kelzmer music. He
>> certainly was a complete musician, and his recordings show a
>> clear scene of jazz timing and technique, even if he really
>> did not play jazz per se (here I can only talk about the
>> recordings I have heard and what i have read about him)
>> Yves Francois (who enjoys playing a Freileich when the
>> occasion arises)
>>
>> --- On Sun, 1/25/09, Taylor Bowie
>> <bowiebks at isomedia.com> wrote:
>>
>> > From: Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
>> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Klezmer
>> > To: "78-L Mail List"
>> <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> > Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 11:52 PM
>> > That is interesting...hard to imagine anyone thinking
>> that
>> > somebody like
>> > Dave Tarras was anything but first class,  all the
>> way!
>> >
>> > Maybe the word started out the same way the American
>> word
>> > "jazz"
>> > did...happily the original negative connotations are
>> all
>> > long gone.
>> >
>> > Taylor
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message ----- 
>> > From: "yves francois"
>> > <aprestitine at yahoo.com>
>> > To: "78-L Mail List"
>> > <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> > Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 6:12 PM
>> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Klezmer was:Newspeak (was:Racially
>>
>> > OffensiveLanguage/Robeson)
>> >
>> >
>> > > Mike
>> > > A very happy new year to you
>> > > Was not klezmer was originally a designation of
>> an
>> > itinerant Jewish folk
>> > > musician (a sort of "back alley
>> woodsman"),
>> > I seem to recall that some of
>> > > the survivors did not like the term at all and
>> saw it
>> > to mean a second
>> > > class musician.
>> > > All the best
>> > > Yves
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --- On Sun, 1/25/09, Michael Biel
>> > <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > >> From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> > >> Subject: [78-L] Newspeak (was:Racially
>> Offensive
>> > Language/Robeson)
>> > >> To: "78-L Mail List"
>> > <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> > >> Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 6:55 PM
>> > >>
>> > >> Closer to our theme of 78s is another word
>> which
>> > seems to
>> > >> have popped up
>> > >> for no reason -- Klezmer.  For the entire 78
>> era
>> > and well
>> > >> thru most of
>> > >> the LP era, this music was referred to as
>> > Freileich.  This
>> > >> was seen in
>> > >> song titles, album titles, musical
>> descriptions on
>> > record
>> > >> labels, liner
>> > >> notes, and record catalogs. and even in the
>> names
>> > of
>> > >> musical groups.
>> > >> Then suddenly in the mid-80s there was a
>> > documentary on PBS
>> > >> about Henry
>> > >> Sapoznik and several musical groups and this
>> > mystery word
>> > >> Klezmer shows
>> > >> up over and over for the first time.   What
>> was
>> > wrong with
>> > >> the word
>> > >> Freileich  which we already knew???  In the
>> recent
>> > book
>> > >> about Jewish LPs
>> > >> "And We Shall Know Them By The Trail Of
>> Their
>> > >> Vinyl" they use the term
>> > >> Freileich and show many records that used
>> that
>> > term in the
>> > >> 50s -70s.
>> > >>
>> > >> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> _______________________________________________
>> > >> 78-L mailing list
>> > >> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>> > >>
>> > http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > 78-L mailing list
>> > > 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>> > >
>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>> > >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > 78-L mailing list
>> > 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>> > http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 78-L mailing list
>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>