The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band
A DAY WITH THE FREILACHMAKERS KLEZMER STRING BAND ON LIBRA RADIO: Wednesday, 29. 06.2005
ONE HOUR SHOW WITH THE FREILACHMAKERS
Thursday, 30. 06. 2005 at midnight (Central European Time)
Anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of the capricious, passionate klezmer and gypsy roots music will certainly enjoy The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Their two last albums (The Flower of Berezin, And I in the Uttermost West), bustling with uninhibited exuberance and infectious energy i just received from the band's leader Andy Rubin.
It is impossible to ignore the importance of music in Jewish life. One need only look to the Bible to see descriptions of large orchestras and the importance of the Levites as music makers. After the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 C.E. music making in the synagogue was banned by Rabbis and instrumental music survived only by virtue of the fact that merry-making and song were necessary at weddings.
The evocative sound of klezmer music is achieved through the use of the 1st, 4th and 5th modes of the harmonic minorscale. The most distinctively Jewish-sounding use is the 4th mode. This key can be signed by using the key signature of the relative major of the 4th mode tonic and sharping every second and naturalizing every fourth throughout the piece. The dominant instruments in klezmer music are the violin and clarinet. The expressive and emotional klezmer violin intentionally mimics a human voice - sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing .It is extremely hard to stay calm while being attacked by the cascading shrieks and gibbering of the klezmer style clarinet. It just simply opens your heart and forces you to love what you've been doing with your life at this particular moment. This is not rarely articulated as a scream coming out of your mouth!
Andy Rubin (5-string banjo, mandolin, guitar)
Andy founded The Freilachmakers with fiddle player David Kidron (no longer with the band) in 1995. Until that time specializing primarily in American and Celtic folk music, Andy began adapting the "clawhammer" style of 5-string banjoplaying to the klezmer genre. With its incisive and syncopated sound, clawhammer banjo immediately became an integral part of the Freilachmakers approach.
Klezmer music has always been an adapting and evolving process, highly related with the wandering spirit of Yewish communities who have relocated to new cultures. Now Klezmer is undergoing yet another transformation. The Freilachmakers substitute the banjo and mandolin for the clarinet, and add a guitar, cello and accordion. Mixing bluegrass with klezmer is nothing new. Indeed, this mix has been central to the renewed interest and cross-cultural buzz that klezmer has enjoyed over the past decade or so. One of klezmer's most prominent ambassadors, Andy Statman, is arguably equally revered for his poly-rhythmic banjo picking as for his saxophone niggun noodling.
The Freilachmakers - who in the liner notes credit Statman with having introduced them to some of their repertoire - take this mixture to another level, turning it into a concept in itself.
Hailing from the 1849 Gold Rush capitol of Sacramento, California, The Freilachmakers are a self-described "old-timey American string band" that happens to focus on klezmer, so the bluegrass flavors found in its sound are not contrived.
Since releasing The Flower of Berezin in 1998, The Freilachmakers have gone through some changes, returning to a more shtetl-based, "classical" klezmer sound; adding some Israeli and Sephardi influences; acquiring Annette Brodovsky, and deepening the line-up with bassist Lou Ann Weiss learning the cello.
You can buy their music here.
Thank you for the music sent to Libra Radio, Andy!
ONE HOUR SHOW WITH THE FREILACHMAKERS
Thursday, 30. 06. 2005 at midnight (Central European Time)
Anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of the capricious, passionate klezmer and gypsy roots music will certainly enjoy The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Their two last albums (The Flower of Berezin, And I in the Uttermost West), bustling with uninhibited exuberance and infectious energy i just received from the band's leader Andy Rubin.
It is impossible to ignore the importance of music in Jewish life. One need only look to the Bible to see descriptions of large orchestras and the importance of the Levites as music makers. After the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 C.E. music making in the synagogue was banned by Rabbis and instrumental music survived only by virtue of the fact that merry-making and song were necessary at weddings.
The evocative sound of klezmer music is achieved through the use of the 1st, 4th and 5th modes of the harmonic minorscale. The most distinctively Jewish-sounding use is the 4th mode. This key can be signed by using the key signature of the relative major of the 4th mode tonic and sharping every second and naturalizing every fourth throughout the piece. The dominant instruments in klezmer music are the violin and clarinet. The expressive and emotional klezmer violin intentionally mimics a human voice - sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing .It is extremely hard to stay calm while being attacked by the cascading shrieks and gibbering of the klezmer style clarinet. It just simply opens your heart and forces you to love what you've been doing with your life at this particular moment. This is not rarely articulated as a scream coming out of your mouth!
Andy Rubin (5-string banjo, mandolin, guitar)
Andy founded The Freilachmakers with fiddle player David Kidron (no longer with the band) in 1995. Until that time specializing primarily in American and Celtic folk music, Andy began adapting the "clawhammer" style of 5-string banjoplaying to the klezmer genre. With its incisive and syncopated sound, clawhammer banjo immediately became an integral part of the Freilachmakers approach.
Klezmer music has always been an adapting and evolving process, highly related with the wandering spirit of Yewish communities who have relocated to new cultures. Now Klezmer is undergoing yet another transformation. The Freilachmakers substitute the banjo and mandolin for the clarinet, and add a guitar, cello and accordion. Mixing bluegrass with klezmer is nothing new. Indeed, this mix has been central to the renewed interest and cross-cultural buzz that klezmer has enjoyed over the past decade or so. One of klezmer's most prominent ambassadors, Andy Statman, is arguably equally revered for his poly-rhythmic banjo picking as for his saxophone niggun noodling.
The Freilachmakers - who in the liner notes credit Statman with having introduced them to some of their repertoire - take this mixture to another level, turning it into a concept in itself.
Hailing from the 1849 Gold Rush capitol of Sacramento, California, The Freilachmakers are a self-described "old-timey American string band" that happens to focus on klezmer, so the bluegrass flavors found in its sound are not contrived.
Since releasing The Flower of Berezin in 1998, The Freilachmakers have gone through some changes, returning to a more shtetl-based, "classical" klezmer sound; adding some Israeli and Sephardi influences; acquiring Annette Brodovsky, and deepening the line-up with bassist Lou Ann Weiss learning the cello.
You can buy their music here.
Thank you for the music sent to Libra Radio, Andy!
posted by O.marian at 18:25
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