VA - Klezmer American Recordings, 1909-1952 (2021)

Jewish exiles left Central Europe before and after World War I. They took their elaborate musical traditions to the United States and recorded dazzling evidence of their very expressive, Gypsy-tinged party dance music, which thrived on rhythm and where improvisation preceded that of jazz. Bruno Blum comments on these genuine rare, precious, influential and founding recordings of modern Klezmer, a genre overlooked since the 1940s and revived in the Twenty-First Century as it merges with current jazz. Often instrumental, Klezmer music featured virtuosos such as clarinetists Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Essential, compelling, one-of-a-kind documents — all remarkably well-recorded for the time. Patrick FRÉMEAUX