Klezmer
Maven Seth Rogovoy
By Susie
Davidson
Advocate
Correspondent
BELMONT -
Truly an improbably successful story of historical revival and perennial
entertainment, klezmer music has, in the past couple-three decades, united the
old and the new in a veritable explosion of regenerative, constantly emerging
product and practitioner.
Seth
Rogovoy, at the helm of the movement, who authored the 2000 Algonquin book
“The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul
Music, from the Old World to the Jazz Age to the Downtown Avant-Garde,”
will, in the final installment of a three-part series, bring his klezmertise to
Belmont’s Temple Beth El (2 Concord Ave., Belmont) this Saturday, June 1,
from 2-3 p.m. And locals figure in the story.
“With
references to recordings, interviews with key figures of the revival, and video
clips,” says Beth El spokesperson Dr. Jeanne Rose Century, “Seth
Rogovoy will show how the work of revival bands, including Boston's own Klezmer
Conservatory Band in the 1970s and 1980s, saved traditional Yiddish wedding
music from extinction, setting the stage for the full-fledged klezmer
renaissance we are now enjoying with creative bands like the Klezmatics, Brave
Old World and Boston's own Naftule's Dream and Klezperanto.
“He
will also show how klezmer has begun to fuel the creative improvisations of
leading avant-garde jazz musicians like John Zorn and Anthony Coleman, echoing
immigrant-era klezmer's influence on jazz and swing, which was recounted in the
second class last month.”
The format
has included lecture, samples of music, film clips, and questions and answers.
This segment will specifically recount the miraculous revival.
“I
fell in love with the sound of klezmer as soon as I heard it,” says
Rogovoy, who grew up in Islip, NY and attended Sinai Reform Temple in Bay
Shore, “and it became an obsession. The music was instantly familiar,
intellectually exciting, and emotionally comforting. It also featured some of
the best playing I’d heard, and I’ve heard lots of music,” he
says.
Rogovoy,
who has written regularly about popular music and jazz for publications such as
the Boston Phoenix, Newsday, the Berkshire Eagle, Sing Out!, The Forward,
Moment and others, lives with his wife and their two children in Great
Barrington, Mass., where they are members of the Reconstructionist Congregation
Ahavath Sholom. He also hosts a bimonthly, traditional-egalitarian minyan at
his home, and moderates "Essential Torah," a Jewish-learning Internet
discussion group.
In his book,
The Essential Klezmer, he traces klezmer music from its Old World roots to its
American incarnation, which stemmed from the end of the 19th century. He
includes text boxes which describe klezmer instruments, common terms and
information on notable musicians. The highly comprehensive book includes an
annotated discography and glossary, klezmer resources, bibliography and index.
For a clue
to Rogovoy’s thoroughness, he lists 10 essential klezmer albums and
includes "10 more for good luck." The discography is arranged by
band, with descriptive detail about each’s music. His summaries include
compilations, soundtracks, and bands, grouped by style. In the appendix,
bands’ websites are compiled as well as workshops, documentaries and
films which include klezmer in their soundtracks. It’s quite a
coompendium.
Reviewers
agree. “Invaluable,” said the New York Times.
“Indispensable” echoed The Jewish Week.
Rogovoy has
taught classes and groups about klezmer at Williams College, the National
Havurah Committee's Summer Institute, the Workmen's Circle Lodge, and at Makor,
New York's leading Jewish cultural center. "As fulfilling as writing the
book was,” he recalls “- and it was both fulfilling and thrilling -
I really enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for the music with people first-hand, in
my talks and classes."