Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: World Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 14-JAN-1997

Track Listing

1. Heiser Bulgar
2. Freit Sich, Yiddelach (Be Happy, Jews)
3. Der Terkisher-Bulgar Tanz
4. Kolomeika (Ukranian Dance)
5. Naftule Speilt Far Dem Rebin [Naftule Plays for the Rabbi]
6. Nifty's Freilach
7. Oi, Tate, S'is Gut [Oh Daddy, That's Good!]
8. Der Terk in America
9. Wie Bist Die Gewesen Vor Prohibition? (Where Were You Before Prohibit)
10. Teureste in Bukowina [The Dearest One in Bukovina]
11. Der Heisser (Tarter Dance)
12. Hora Mit Tzibeles [Hora with Onions]
13. Fun Tashlach [Returning from the River]
14. Leben Zol Palestina [Long Live Palestine]
15. Dem Rebin's Chusid [The Rabbi's Disciple]
16. Der Yid in Jerasuleim
17. Bulger Ala Naftule
18. Kleine Princessin [Little Princess]
19. Turkishe Yalle Vye Uve
20. Naftule, Shpiel Es Noch Amol [Naftule, Play It Again]
21. Araber Tanz
22. Nifty's Eigene [Nifty's Own]
23. Fufzehn Yahr Fon Der Heim Awek (Fifteen Years Away from Home) (Russia)
24. Vie Tsvie Is Naftule Der Driter (Where There Are Two, Naftule Is the
25. Freilicher Yontov [Happy Holidays]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21348 in Music
• Brand: BRANDWEIN,NAFTULE
• Released on: 1997-01-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
These days the New York City jazz scene is filled with klezmer-influenced musicians: guys like John Zorn and David Krakauer, who learn the minor-keyed melodies of their Jewish grandparents and subsequently tear it to pieces, driving forward while also looking back. There's just something magical about klezmer: it's all about energy and swing, but it's also (almost always) tinged with sadness. Which brings us to Naftule Brandwein. Brandwein was unique back in the '20s and '30s (he'd be unique now, too), a legendary self-promoter, drinker, gambler, but--most of all--player. Unlike that of Dave Tarras, the delicate and couth klezmer artist we all remember, Brandwein's music is loud and sweeping; he's a powerhouse on the clarinet. Rumor has it he played with his back to the crowd (à la Miles Davis) because he didn't want the competition stealing his moves. Decades later the jazz underground has. This is an essential album in the Yiddish-American musical canon and a gorgeous reissue of a musical genius. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

On fire
Descended from the Strettener Hasidic family of Rabbi Yehuda Hirsch Brandwein of Stratyn, Naftule Brandwein was born in the Polish Galician town of Przymyzl in 1889 and died in 1963. By the time of his death, klezmer was on the wane, and though Brandwein was a pioneer of a peculiar Yiddish American style, and a legendary talent, he was largely forgotten.

That's sad, because this rogue clarinetist known in the 1920s, 30s and 40s for inebriated antics both onstage and off, in 25 cuts reproduced here demonstrates an extraordinary talent.

Like Dave Tarras, Brandwein came from a long line of musicians. His family was the primary source of music in his region of Poland. His father Peysekhle played a violin and was (also like Tarras' father) a badkhn, or improvisational wedding poet. Brandwein had 12 siblings. His brother Moyshe played the violin, French horn and valve trombone, Mendel played the piano and Leyzer and Azriel played drums and cornet respectively. The latter was Naftule's teacher. Also like Tarras, Brandwein did not start on clarinet. His brother first taught cornet. Only later did he switch.

But unlike Tarras, Brandwein never learned to read music. His daughter recalled her father's stories of playing Poland, for Poles, Gypsies, Jews. He left Poland for America in 1908. By then the Yiddish theater had been invented and dramatists were earning their keep, and giving work to orchestras as well. But Brandwein brought the musicians out of the orchestra pits and onto the stage in their own right. Within nine years in New York, Columbia Records A&R (for artist and repertoire) man Abe Schwartz had discovered Brandwein.

The clarinet virtuoso left Schwartz in 1923, when he formed his own band and moved to the Victor label. But where Tarras' musical literacy afforded him many theater jobs, for Brandwein these fell off as the American jazz style of klezmer took hold.

He recorded 24 numbers between 1922 and 1927, nearly a third of them with his own name in the title. He did not record another until 1941. (Two of these cuts are duplicated on Music from the Yiddish Radio Project.) These were sold to the Jewish community through Ukranian, Rumanian and Russian catalogues. Brandwein composed many of the numbers, but according to the Library of Congress Copyright office he failed to copyright his work.

Brandwein may have been difficult, but he was also a musical genius. This recording is brilliant. Alyssa A. Lappen

A must for any klezmer fan
Twenty-five tracks, mostly from the twenties, the best period for Naftule Brandwein. This album is a must for any klezmer fan, or for any who wishes to know more about klezmer. The technical quality of the recording is sufficient to appreciate the skill and the sensitivity of this disorderly genius of the clarinet. Most of the tunes in this album have been recently revisited by several modern performers, but listening to them in their original version is a strong emotion. Brandwein's style is naive, irruent, powerful, virtuous. The booklet is lean and informative.

OK he's a relative but still is the King
I learned about Naftule when I was watching the Pearlman Klezmer special on PBS. When they mentioned Naftule , my father screamed, "hey thats my mothers 1st cousin who played at my parents wedding". I learned that my grandmother loved this guy but thought he was a little mashugana(crazy). After listening to this I can state, yea he was crazy- as a fox, the same way mad geniuses like Hendrix , Mozart etc were tagged. Not to be missed