{"id":2155,"date":"2010-10-06T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=2155"},"modified":"2012-03-26T17:23:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T21:23:13","slug":"the-klezmer-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/06\/the-klezmer-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"THE KLEZMER RANKINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Irish rank musicians<\/strong><\/span> with fiddle contests.\u00a0 So do bluegrass players.\u00a0 There is now even a $50,000 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.<\/p>\n

Jews established rankings at the Safed (Israel) Klezmer Festival, then stopped for some reason. \u00a0Former Klezmatics violinist Alicia Svigals<\/a> won first prize.\u00a0 This was more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Nowadays the Jewish plucking order is out of order. \u00a0Is one’s Jewish music ranking determined by where one sits at klezmer conventions?\u00a0 If you eat with the students, does that mean you’re amhoretz<\/em>? (commoner\/person of the earth). \u00a0If you sit with the German long-hairs, are you going on tour in Europe soon? \u00a0If you’re dining with the dentists, doctors and conference board members, do you have ulterior — biz! — motives?<\/p>\n

At KlezKanada,<\/strong><\/span> one staff instructor kvetched she wasn’t paid enough for the walk-by consultations from the amhoretz <\/em>in the dining hall — students asking for musical pointers and xeroxes of transcribed music.<\/p>\n

I knew about that — pestering the staff. \u00a0I bothered virtuoso clarinetist and teacher Kurt Bjorling<\/a> at KlezKamp on Christmas morning.\u00a0 He was assembling a model train on his hotel room floor. \u00a0I asked about krechts<\/em> (klezmer groan\/sob) technique.\u00a0 I wanted to be the klezmer king.\u00a0 The Christian king’s birthday could wait a few minutes.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I am a klezmer <\/strong><\/span>king now. \u00a0(One of a few. I make the rankings.)<\/p>\n

Here are the latest King of Klezmer rankings from The Challah Fame, Cleveland.\u00a0 The ratings change daily, except Saturday.<\/p>\n

#1.\u00a0 Martin van de Ven<\/a>.\u00a0 Clarinet.\u00a0 Canada. \u00a0Van Da Man.<\/p>\n

#2. \u00a0Alan Douglass<\/a>.\u00a0 Keyboards.\u00a0 Ohio.\u00a0 His smash hit was “Gentile on My Mind”<\/a>, 2004. [Listen.<\/a>]<\/p>\n

#3.\u00a0 Ari Davidow<\/a>.\u00a0 Klez cyberczar. \u00a0Massachusetts.\u00a0 Operates the KlezmerShack<\/a> in the basement of the Brandeis student union by the Foosball tables.<\/p>\n

#4.\u00a0 Steven Greenman<\/a>.\u00a0 Violin.\u00a0 Ohio.\u00a0 Born Steven Chemlawn.<\/p>\n

#5.\u00a0 Annette Ezekiel Kogan<\/a>.\u00a0 Accordion.\u00a0 New York.\u00a0\u00a0 Her name is longer than her skirt.\u00a0 She donates letters from her skirt while playing.<\/p>\n

\"annette2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n#6.\u00a0 Michael Alpert<\/a>.\u00a0 Violin\/mustache. New York.<\/p>\n

#7.\u00a0 Gary Gould<\/a>.\u00a0 Clarinet.\u00a0 California.\u00a0 Bandleader to the stars’ sons’ bar mitzvah parties near, but not in, Santa Monica.<\/p>\n

#8.\u00a0 Cookie Segelstein<\/a>.\u00a0 Violin.\u00a0 California.\u00a0 Rugelach<\/em> Queen.<\/p>\n

#9.\u00a0 Christian Dawid<\/a>.\u00a0 Clarinet.\u00a0 Germany.\u00a0In the States, Christian says, “Call me Dave.”<\/p>\n

#10. \u00a0Cookie Lavagetto. \u00a0Third base.\u00a0 Washington Senators.<\/p>\n

#11.\u00a0 Bert Stratton.\u00a0 Clarinet.\u00a0 Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0 Klez merch mogul.\u00a0 Worldwide distributer of Yiddishe Cup mugs, baseball caps and T-shirts.<\/p>\n

#12.\u00a0 Margot Leverett<\/a>. \u00a0Clarinet picker.\u00a0 New York. \u00a0Former Miss Jewish Indiana.<\/p>\n

#13.\u00a0 Lori Cahan-Simon<\/a>.\u00a0 Vocals.\u00a0 Ohio.\u00a0 Produced Der<\/em> Yiddisher Soul Train, <\/em>KYW-TV, Philadelphia, 1967-1971.<\/p>\n

#14. \u00a0Marc Adler<\/a>.\u00a0 Clarinet.\u00a0 Rhode Island. \u00a0Invented the clarinet suck vac, available only at Adler’s Hardware, Providence, R.I.<\/p>\n

#15.\u00a0 Yale Strom<\/a>.\u00a0 Violin.\u00a0 California. \u00a0Born University of Pennsylvania Strom.<\/p>\n

—-<\/span><\/p>\n

1 of 2 posts for 10\/6\/10.\u00a0 Please see the post below too.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Irish rank musicians with fiddle contests.\u00a0 So do bluegrass players.\u00a0 There is now even a $50,000 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Jews established rankings at the Safed (Israel) Klezmer Festival, then stopped for some reason. \u00a0Former Klezmatics violinist Alicia Svigals won first prize.\u00a0 This was more than a decade ago. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezfiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2155"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8706,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions\/8706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}