TRANSCRIPT

CHRIS NORMAN:  Hi, I’m Chris Norman and you’re listening to Boxwood’s Artist Huddle – Conversations.

Our September 15th 2020 Artist Huddle featured the Klezmer flute player Adrianne Greenbaum.  We chatted about the history of Klezmer in Eastern Europe and North America and its long history with the flute.  She shared some of her musical philosophy, experiences, and some great tunes.

CHRIS NORMAN:  For a lot of people, Adrianne, Klezmer is a music that’s so closely associated with the Jewish faith and with Jewish identity, I think for those of us who are not Jewish, an immediate question would be – Are we welcome here in this music and what would be our place in the music as non-Jewish people? Should we have any concerns about cultural appropriation as we talk about this music?

ADRIANNE GREENBAUM:  Excellent, excellent.  So, it’s not as complicated a concept as you might think.  First of all, we can erase any kind of inappropriate like “I’m not Jewish.”  It’s not really based on any kind of faith, it’s cultural and so we Jews, of course, call it our music and it is.   It’s the music of the Jewish people.  But I’d rather think of it as the Jewish people rather than the Jewish faith.  I am not particularly religious myself.  On the other hand, certainly you’ve got those who are religious, but we also have stars in Klezmer who are not Jewish at all.  And there’s even a group in Amsterdam called Di Gojim.  They just like the music and I don’t think anybody

CHRIS NORMAN:  Yea, it’s interesting because these objections rarely come from musicians or from artists in any genre, it’s often people that are outside the artistic pursuit that tend to raise these objections, but generally speaking …

ADRIANNE GREENBAUM:  Sure

CHRIS NORMAN:  But in my experience if you’ve got an understanding of the music and you have the contextual basis to play the music just in your own musicality there’s just no question about it.

ADRIANNE GREENBAUM:   Exactly, and you know I’ve fallen into “I want to be Irish, I want to be Scottish.”  I had my sister sort of dig deep into our DNA and she said “Sorry, there’s nothing there” and I’ve always felt that I should have some, some lineage there in order to be allowed.  But they all welcomed me in Scotland and of course there were the Jews that came out to hear me.  No one complained and you know when I found that Scottish set mislabeled in the folio, it was trying to say Caledonia but it was really butchered spelling by this Polish guy who just scrawled something, but we figured out it was definitely Caledonia, and there were four tunes.  That was right in the Klezmer folder and obviously it existed there because they either liked it and/or someone requested it for a fair.  Klezmer bands played for county fairs, so whatever that means in Eastern Europe.  So, it’s not just Jewish music that they have to know, it’s just like any, any Klezmer has to know how to play – back in the day when we were really working – at weddings, if someone requested the Macarena, fine.

CHRIS NORMAN:  Right, they’re just there to play the popular music, whatever people want to hear.

ADRIANNE GREENBAUM:  Yeah

CHRIS NORMAN:  So, I know Klezmer has a very close association with music of the Roma from the Romani and Gypsy population of Eastern Europe.  Help me understand the delineation th