By Sara Appel-Lennon
SAN DIEGO–Two melodies beloved by English-speaking children recently were played by Klezmer clarinetists at San Diego State University to demonstrate that any song can be Klezmer if played with Klezmer flavor.
Yale Strom, Jewish Studies Artist in Residence coordinated the Klezmer complementary concert on Wednesday, November 4, featuring Leo Chelyapov, Robet Zelickman, and Gary Gould.
Strom used humor to encourage turning off cell phones when he said that they don’t ring in G minor. The concert was a combination of music and education as each clarinetist gave a mini Klezmer music lesson.
According to Leo Chelyapov any music with Klezmer flavor including non-Jewish music is Klezmer. Chelyapov demonstrated Klezmer flavor on his clarinet by playing “Old McDonald Had a Farm”. He showed how to modernize Klezmer music by combining Klezmer flavor with a Jazz tune to create Funk.
Zelickman distinguished between folk music and art music. Art music occurs when an audience attends a concert to hear musicians. Folk music takes place when musicians perform at a bar/bat mitzvah, party, or wedding.
To Zelickman, everyone is a Klezmer, meaning a vessel of song.. Zelickman told the audience “I’m gonna play for you” A young boy said “Play for me.” The audience responded with a collective chuckle.
Zelickman shared that Klezmer serves the community and Klezmer is secular music not religious music. Zelickman played bass clarinet, which has the same range as a bassoon.
Gary Gould mentioned that Klezmer musicians were transients in the shtetls. Gould, a showman, portrayed this by placing his opened clarinet case on the floor in front of him, as he waited for contributions. Gould said that Klezmers only started performing after the first coin was tossed.
Klezmers are looked upon favorably today, yet this wasn’t always the case. Gould said that “Klezmer” was rarely used in a sentence except to say “I wouldn’t want my daughter to marry a Klezmer.”
Gould taught the audience to listen to Klezmer music by recognizing the ornamentation. He described four ornaments as the trill or grace notes, the kvetch-little complaint, the bend, and the laugh.
Like Chelyapov, Gould demonstrated Klezmer flavor by playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on a pennywhistle.
Yale Strom accompanied the trio of clarinetists and told of a little complaint by a Jewish woman in New York. After Strom and his band played Klezmer music at a Hebrew Home, the woman said “That’s not Klezmer music. There’s no clarinet. Strom said “It’s ‘Yidl mit ‘n Fiddle’ not Yidl mit’n clarinet.”
The evening ended with the tunes of “Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn” and “Yiddisheh Mama” with Strom on violin, Jeff Pekarek on bass, Elizabeth Schwartz doing vocals, Leo Cheyapov and Robert Gould on clarinet, and Robert Zelickman on bass clarinet.
The evening was fun, informative, and pleasant to the ear. Since San Diego State is on the trolley line, one can avoid paying campus parking fees by taking the trolley at minimal cost like my husband and I did.
Strom and Hot P’Stromi will be performing with a Flamenco dancer from Spain next year at San Diego State University in a bigger venue, in Smith Hall, on Tuesday April 13 at 7:00 p.m.
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Appel-Lennon is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Her email: appels@jewishsightseeing.com