Needless to say, this is the mere tip of the iceberg of traditional and revival klez music. I've concentrated on the didactic, since the object was to introduce the audience to the broad sweep of evolution and influences.
See also a collection of links to more materials
Several to sketch 'traditional' Eastern European roots:
Alas, the links will only work for W&L network users...
S. Koch, recorded in Lemberg Poland in 1910, flute with tsimbl accompaniment
Yenkowitz and Golberg, recorded in New York City in1913, accordion and tsimbl (very little of the tsimbl [hammered dulcimer] made it to the New World
H. Steiner, recorded in Rumania? in 1910, violin with tsimbl
Josef Solinski, recorded in Warsaw Poland in 1908, violin with piano (somewhat more concert-stage than most of the others, but very 'Jewish' in style)
Joseph Moskowitz, recorded in New York City in 1916, cimbalom [large hammered dulcimer]. Moskowitz ran a Rumanian wine shop on the Lower East Side, much frequented by people longing for the ambience of the Old Country.
Beginnings of distinctive New York sound
Naftule Brandwein, recorded in New York in 1923
Raderman-Beckerman Orchestra, recorded in New York City, 1924 --an early example of what was marketed a bit later as "Jewish Jazz"
Follow a single tune:
Belf's Rumanian Orchestra, recorded in Bucharest 1908-1910
Abe Schwartz' Yiddisher Orchester, recorded in New York City in 1917
The first of the 'revival' groups --they note many other names for the tune, including Ukranian, Polish and Greek versions
The same tune (following the forshpil), but here traced back to a 'table song' more devotional in character
And another evolution:
Already a well-known tune when it was recorded in New York by the Abe Schwartz Orchestra in 1918, it has Rumanian and Greek parallels
Harry Kandel's Orchestra, New York City 1926 --a clear jazz inflection
Ziggy Ellman played cornet in Goodman's band, and arranged the tune in the swing idiom; this version features Martha Tilton
Two treatments of a classic
Naftule Brandwein's Orchestra, New York City 1924. Clear connection back to the Eastern European base, with virtuoso clarinet
A hot arrangement, from the 1981 KCB first record
Yiddish Theatre overlapped with instrumental klezmer in various ways: borrowed tunes, many klezmers who played in the theatre pit orchestras, and a common process of acculturation for actors, musicians and audience.
Aaron Lebedeff, with Alexander Olshanetsky's Orchestra, New York City 1929
Naftule Brandwein's Orchestra, New York City 1924 --this version is an update of a much older song ("Where were you when there was youth and money?")
The tune of the previous example, appropriated for a leftish melodrama which appeared first as a play and later as a Yiddish film --you can see some clips from it in the film Almonds and Raisins, an introduction to the 300-odd Yiddish films made in the 20s and 30s.
Romanticizing the Old Country
Vilna, city of spirit and innocence,
Vilna, deep in Jewish thought...
Vilna, Vilna, our home,
Our longing and our desire...
Aaron Lebedeff wrote/compiled this one, Sholem Secunda popularized it.
Borscht Belt Entertainment
The Bagelman Sisters (later renamed Barry Sisters), 1944
Takeoff on the late-40s "Cry of The Wild Goose" (lyrics on back of last handout page)
All sorts of in-group jokes along with virtuosity
Chaim Tauber seems to be the origin of this confection --the singer starts out for Cuba, but only gets as far as Miami Beach
Two more comparisons
Abe Schwartz's Orchestra, New York City 1927 --a tune probably written for the Yiddish theatre in 1924, using the materials of traditional dance music.
1981 arrangement by the KCB, full of hot stuff
Naftule Brandwein again, 1923. The tune is in a rhythm common in Greek music (sirto), and has quite a few variants. The connection of Ashkenazic klezmorim to the (primarily Sephardic) Ottoman diaspora wants investigation
And this is the bleeding edge of klez in the 1990s --virtuosity, disinclination to just play the tradition
And where's it going NOW?
1995. What are they up to here?I met a man in a hat with a tan
Met a man in a hat with a tan
Man-hat-tan, I met a Manhattan man...
Three versions of "Araber-tants"
Addenda, 4 March 2005:
Uri Caine is a piano player of great imagination whose wild reconfiguring of "Hava Nagila" into an "out jazz" standard illustrates that the JAM sound is not merely a rethinking of Klezmer music, but rather a wider attempt to integrate traditional Jewish music, culture and identity into the world of today, into the contemporary life of these male and female musicians. For Caine, this means taking "Hava Nagila" and imaging how Miles, or Coltrane, or Monk would have played it. The results are block chords on piano, and rolling Trad Jazz drum and acoustic bass lines. Caine's next venture will take him even closer to melding past and present when he releases an album in July called "Zohar", on which he collaborates with DJ Olive and a Sephardic cantor, mixing DJ Olive's looped beats with the Cantor's singing to create the first known example of techno meets Orthodox in the land of funk.
(http://www.jvibe.com/popculture/jam.shtml)
Cuban and Brazilian flavors:
version from http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~ilya/lit/ABislLb2.htm :Two more versions:
DIE GRINE KUZINE (Prizant / Schwartz)Tzu mir iz gekumen a kuzine,
Shein vie gold iz sie geven die grine.
Beckelach vie roite pomerantzen,
Fiselach vus beyten sich tzum tantzen,
(repeat last 2 lines of each verse)Nisht gegangen iz zi nor geshprungen,
Nisht geret hot zi nor gezungen.
Lebedik un freylekh yeder mine,
Ot azoy geven iz mayn kuzine.Un azoy ariber zaynen yorn,
Fun mayn kuzine iz atel gevoren.
Peydis hot zi yorn lang geklibn,
Biz fun ir iz gornisht nit geblibn.Haynt az ikh bagegn mayn kuzine,
Un ikh freg ir, «`s'makhstu epes grine?»
Zifst zi op un ikh leyn in der mine —
«Brenen zol Columbus's medine.»THE GREENHORN COUSIN (trans: unknown)
Have you heard about my greenhorn cousin?
She has boys around her by the dozen.
Her red and rosy cheeks just draw your glance in,
Her dainty feet just begging to go dancin'.
(repeat last 2 lines of each verse)And when she walked, it seemed like she was dancin',
And when she talked, her voice was so entrancin'.
Pretty as a doll, you should `a seen `er,
That's how I remember my kuzine.As time went by, I saw my greenhorn cousin,
Working day and night, it seemed for nothin'.
Her payday checks just barely had her eatin',
A life of toil just simply had her beaten.Not long ago, I saw my greenhorn cousin,
And I asked her, «Grine, so what's buzzin'?»
She sighed and said, «The sweatshop has undone me,
Curses on Columbus' discovery.»another version, from the liner notes to The Klezmorim East Side Wedding (1977)
(http://klezmo.com/disko_esw_liner.html):To me there came a cousin,
Pretty as gold was she, the greenhorn.
Cheeks like red oranges,
Feet that just wanted to dance.Hair curly like a web of silk,
Teeth like polished pearls,
Eyes like heaven's blue in springtime,
Lips like twin cherries.She did not walk, but skipped,
She did not talk, but sang.
Joyful and lively her every expression —
Such a one was my cousin!...And so passed the years;
My cousin became a ruin.
She gathered paychecks week by week
Until nothing was left of her.Today, when I meet my cousin
And I ask her: "How you doing, greenhorn?"
She sighs and I read from her expression:
"Columbus's land should only burn!"
My little cousin Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman, 1940s
Comedian Milton Berle was friendly with a tailor who had a show-buisiness clientele. Berle writes, "When Sam announced that he was getting married, a bunch of us decided to throw him a stag dinner..." (Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish, pg 150)