Really getting into klezmer lately

Here’s the beginning of a fun little khosidl I’m working on today.

A little klezmer music theory from Yonatan Malin...

"Here, I would like to dig a little deeper and ask questions about the tunes themselves, and especially their use of musical modes. What can we say about the klezmer modes based on this repertoire? How do the modes differ by genre or by informant?"
https://blog.klezmerarchive.org/posts/between-two-worlds-modes-in-motl-reyders-notebook-from-the-kiselgof-makonovetsky-digital-manuscript-project/

Riding the bus to work and thinking dang I should learn this 1952 banger of a #klezmer tune
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AHTZOTUMCJNPMX8P/A3N3354JTG3KIM8N

a rather mild mannered civil servant klezmer musician of old New York? Max Matty Silvey (born Silverstein), customs official at the Bowling Green port as his day job, but cornet player and bandleader by night. AFM local 802 member. in my YIVO research he shows up playing banquets for the Poltaver Sick Aid Society in the 1930s. born in NYC c.1889, but his father was an immigrant roofer from Vilnius.

Had to kill time in the west end for a few hours on this sunny day but I can't leave this area so I'm battling my perpetual white whale the Wikipedia article "klezmer" on my laptop lol

It was so bad a few years ago and I did a lot of work on it but it still has a lot of gaps I sort of abandoned the section about dances and non-dance forms back in 2023 after taking a pass at it so I was trying to tidy it up and copyedit just now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer

I don't know how I spent 2.5 months doing musician research at YIVO and I never knew to call up RG 112 "Music collection" which is like a huge mix of old musical scores. Didn't even know it existed...

not necessarily relevant to my research project so not a huge loss in that sense but I definitely would have looked through and photographed some of the old klezmer scores from NY of the 1910s/20s...
https://links.cjh.org/primo/CJH_ALEPH000133752

Found out about her while researching a blog post about old Jewish #cimbalom players from New York... Regina Spielman (née Szegeti?) born in Máramarossziget, Hungary in 1885, lived in Budapest for a time and possibly Kolomyyia; came to NY in 1923. Played on the radio a bit in NY in the 1920s with a family trio. Apparently related to the violinist Joseph Szigeti. Lived in the Bronx most of her life and died in 1966.

new #klezmer album just came out by the Magid Ensemble, who are playing here in Vancouver next week
https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/shterna-the-lost-voice

#Vancouver folks, at the Peretz Centre we're hosting this very cool art+music+storytelling ensemble from Boston/NY later this month as a part of their west coast tour. we're trying to get more attendance than our usual small local events so pls pass it on if you know any locals who'd be interested!
https://www.peretz-centre.org/post/retelling-eastern-european-jewish-folklore-interview-magid-ensemble-vancouver

my lecture for YIVO is tomorrow, on zoom at 1pmEST/10amPST
can be watched later on youtube if you're interested but busy, on YIVO's account
https://yivo.org/NY-Mutual-Aid

I'm sure I passed by this piece from the Library of Congress collection many times without giving it another glance, but in googling Jacob Manishor (klezmer from Iași born in the 1860s, active in NYC till the 1920s) I was led back to it. Despite the title it reminds me a bit of the Romanian "Carmen Sylva" waltzes you find in old NY klezmer.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2023796248/

highly recommend this new klezmer tunebook from Szilvia Csaranko & Susi Evans, a well known clarinet and accordion duo. they curated a set of pieces that would be good to know in a jam session in Berlin, Montreal and NYC.
https://www.shades-of-folk.com/english/klezmer-playbook/klezmer-playbook-2/

I'm preparing my post-fellowship lecture (May 8th) and went back and listened to my friend Uri's lecture after the same fellowship in 2023.
I thought I had seen it but I now realize it was a different zoom lecture (a great one about Mickey Katz). this one is great too, I learned a lot about the post-WWII Jewish music biz in New York. some of his conceptual framing is quite interesting too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CrA-8C4zs&ab_channel=YIVOInstituteforJewishResearch

Yiddish New York has put out a 2025 Call for Proposals for presentations this coming December. It's the first time they've done it this way, and because it's hybrid you don't have to be in NYC.
https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/2025-call-for-proposals/

think it's time I made an #Introduction

I'm Orthodox #Jewish tho in my small local community it can be hard to find friends bc I'm also a #Leftist #AntiNationalist. I play #Violin; currently: translations of songs with themes of #Anarchy & #WorkingClass #Solidarity. influenced by #Klezmer, #Celtic & #Folk #Music. I work in a community #Ceramics studio & study #IMLS (Info Management & #LibraryScience) / #GLAM (Galleries Libraries #Archives Museums), & #Yiddish culture/history of #EasternEurope.

it's entirely likely I'm misreading this grainy old ad, but Professor Vitriol's Union Orchestra is an excellent name for a klezmer band. (from Di Varhayt, ad for the Graiever Full Dress and Civic Ball, printed 15 Jan 1909)

someone in NY was telling me about Terry Gibbs the other week but I'm not sure who. Anyways I came across him in my research while filling out the bio of his father Abraham Gubenko, a NY violinist & bandleader who came up in some of the landsmanshaft docs at YIVO. Terry is still alive & going strong a century later.
https://forward.com/culture/music/663256/terry-gibbs-100th-birthday-jazz-vibraphone-1959-brooklyn-jewish/

I was lucky to meet Chaia in Brooklyn at one point last month. very cool dude
https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/04/chaias-yiddish-electronic-finds-home-in-the-underground

Was poking around on genealogy sites this morning filling out the bio of a minor research subject of mine (Frank Reiff, NY klezmer born in Zolkiew (Жовква), Galicia, performed for Zolkiewer landsmanshaft in NY circa 1930). Came across this fascinating chapter from a translated Yizkor book from Zolkiew, about a klezmer and a badkhn who were killed in the holocaust (do ctrl+F 'klezmer'):
https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Zhovkva1/files/Zolkiew.pdf