Yikhes: Early Klezmer Recordings, 1911-1939
The first of three volumes in Trikont's Klezmer series puts to shame the ones issued by Yazoo and Music & Arts. These early recordings of Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, Josef Solinski, Leon Ahl, Abe Schwartz, Joseph Moskowitz, and many others on this 18-track retrospective reveal the deep and ancient roots of the Lineage Stammbaum. Culled from the personal collection of klezmer historian Dr. Martin Schwartz, the music presented here traces the movement of Jewish music around Eastern Europe from 1911 to the Shoah, Stalinism, and dispersion of Jews to other parts of the world where political forces and cultural assimilation all but destroyed this great music until the 1970s when it was recorded again. What took place before this time is part only of cultural memory; what happened between 1939 and the '70s is horrific. The Klezmorim were musicians. Klez, translated, means musician. Mer means song, and this we have klezmer music as the musician's song. The recordings here bare out why the definition is important; these are rigorous instrumental workouts, full of improvisation and tempo and mode changes, they are dizzying. 2005.