The klezmer fiddler librarian

Two entries ago I mentioned going to KlezKamp during Winter Break. How did I get interested in such a thing? Through reading a book, of course. Author, musician, record producer, and ethnomusicologist, Henry Sapoznik, has been a major force in the revitalization of Klezmer music in America. His book, Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World (781.62924 Sa68k), tells the story of how klezmer music immigrated from Europe along with the Jews and went through various changes over the course of the twentieth century.

Here's a picture of my "predecessors," the Spielman family kapelye (band) in Ostrovke, Pland, c. 1905:



Notice: Four violinists, only one clarinetist, a drummer, a cellist, several horn-type players, a flutist, and a bass player. Not an unusual arrangement for traditional klezmer bands.

Sapoznik also wrote about his dream to start the Yiddish folk arts institute which quickly became known as KlezKamp and has been going strong since 1987. My husband and I have attended for three years now and had a blast each time.

Now Henry has gotten together with my fiddle teacher, Cookie Segelstein, and with bassist Mark "Check-Out-the-Tattoos" Rubin to form the Youngers of Zion. Their new CD is called the Protocols. I'll save the lengthy explanation of these names for another day. Suffice to say, they'd make good fodder for one of our Computer Literacy website evaluation exercises. The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is an infamous phony tome, supposedly written by a cadre of Jewish elders dictating an international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.