[78-L] Klezmer [FWD]

ERIC BYRON bear128 at verizon.net
Tue Jan 27 16:02:51 PST 2009


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
>> > >>
>> > >>
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>> > >
>> > >
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