The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #26761   Message #325402
Posted By: M. Ted (inactive)
23-Oct-00 - 01:36 PM
Thread Name: Help:name?gypsy fiddle tune
Subject: RE: Help:name?gypsy fiddle tune
The Kammens books reflected what the old time Yiddish/American audiences wanted to hear--the books were published in the 20's, and were widely circulated for years--I once had (but seem to have lost over the years) an LP called "Live from the King David Hotel" that was basically just a hotel dance band (and not a particularly inspired one) playing from the Kammens books--I believe that they actually used the Kammens numbers to identify the tunes--

The contemporary Klezmorim have a more diverse repertoire, and it doesn't necessarily correspond to what Bubbie and Zayda danced to--Our Bubbie, my daughter's maternal grandmother,(God, rest her soul!) preferred the Yiddish Music Hall songs and Russian songs, rather than the actual Klezmer stuff--she was always complaining because the young people didn't know how to play the songs that had been popular--

She said that, when she was young, they used to go dancing every nite--In recent years, I have discovered that the old urban Jewish neighborhoods were filled with dance halls, and they tended to be very important community centers--