Praise for "Joy of Klez" charts
David Chevan writes to the Jewish-Music list last month:
I've been meaning to share this with the list. For the past five years I've been giving a Family Concert at my synagogue, Mishkan Israel in Hamden, CT. Unlike my other performances this rarely involves more than one or two other professional musicians. The group consists pretty much of amateur musicians--computer programmers, dentists, etc. who come together for three or four rehearsals and then we give the concert. While we always have a good time it is challenging to obtain the quality performance I seek. So I am happy to report the wonderful results that I obtained using the Maxwell St. Band's Joy of Klez book. It is really a terrific introduction to Klezmer for musicians who are not familiar with the idiom. The charts are not overly challenging for these part-time musicians and I was surprised how quickly everyone was able to feel the music. It was so much easier to get my trombonist and clarinetist to get the right sound and figures than ever before. I highly recommend this set of charts to anyone--especially the type of ensemble I worked with.
My only complaint is that there are only ten charts in the collection. I hope there will be a volume two as I will probably be giving these concerts for years to come!!
For more on "Joy of Klez," see our original announcement:
www.klezmershack.com/articles/davidow/2001_0930.musicbooks.html#maxwellst