THE BEAT

by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 11, 1997)

Andy Statman, Merrie Amsterburg, Radio Beat

Andy Statman's Jewish jazz

Klezmer music is often mistakenly referred to as "Jewish jazz." While in the hands of some Klezmer groups there are superficial resemblances between the two musics -- and while some contemporary Klezmer groups fuse aspects of jazz with traditional Yiddish music -- Klezmer is a musical tradition wholly unto its own, predating jazz by hundreds of years.

Perhaps it is all the more ironic then that the latest album by Andy Statman, the clarinetist/mandolinist generally credited with spearheading the contemporary Klezmer revival, is a jazz album.

On "Between Heaven & Earth: Music of the Jewish Mystics" (Shanachie), the Andy Statman Quartet approaches traditional Chasidic prayer melodies in much the same way that jazz musicians approach pop standards, using their basic melody and structure as the raw material for deeper, improvisational investigations into the heart of the compositions.

Jazz musicians like John Coltrane have long used improvisation to further spiritual awareness. In fact, it was Coltrane's mid-Sixties experiments with Indian music and jazz that first caught the ear of Statman -- who at the time was a bluegrass virtuoso on mandolin -- and led him to study saxophone and jazz. Further investigation led Statman to explore Klezmer and study clarinet with Dave Tarras, one of the last great Klezmorim, who passed on his instruments and mantle to Statman, now widely regarded as the contemporary virtuoso of Klezmer.

Indeed, at this summer's "In the Fiddler's House" program at Tanglewood, which featured four of the top contemporary Klezmer groups playing with violinist Itzhak Perlman, only Statman seemed up to the task of challenging Perlman to rise above his natural talent and explore an area of emotional spontaneity.

On "Between Heaven & Earth," Statman uses the sonorities of Klezmer and Jewish prayer music to achieve heightened emotional, musical and spiritual awareness. While this is a far cry from the more typical, existential Jewish party music exemplified by Klezmer -- a functional style employed at celebratory functions like weddings and bar-mitzvahs - - Statman sees his new music as returning Klezmer to its roots in spirituality.

"There was tremendous spirituality built into it," he said in a phone interview earlier this year. "It was music created to serve a particular religious function: to make a bride and groom happy at a wedding. The musicians of old had in mind that they were fullfilling a particular MITZVAH when they were playing at weddings."

In a sense, "Between Heaven & Earth" reclaims Klezmer as a sacred music. In the process, Statman and his bandmates -- along with guest musicians David Grisman on mandolin and Bela Fleck on banjo -- create a sort of Jewish/new-age fusion. The alternately laughing and weeping tone of the Klezmer clarinet is recognizable in Statman's playing, but here it is the trance-like voice of the CHAZAN, or cantor, and not the party maven. And rather than providing the soundtrack to a party, the band here are DAVENING, or praying, improvising a kind of collective, call- and-response session patterned after the communal worship of religious Jews.

With his new album's undeniable foundation in Jewish religious melody and its instantly recognizable modern-jazz approach -- it's not a far leap from the "Chassidic Waltz" to some of Dave Brubeck's Eurasian- influenced compositions, or from "Purim Niggun" to the Modern Jazz Quartet's Bach treatments -- has Statman accidentally stumbled on the real "Jewish jazz?"

"It's jazz, it's Jewish music, it's a number of different things," said Statman. "Is it the real Jewish jazz? I don't know."

The Andy Statman Quartet performs at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton on Monday, Sept. 22 at 7.

Merrie Amsterburg's sinuous melodicism

While critics most often emphasize Merrie Amsterburg's dark, quiet side, as sort of a one-woman Cowboy Junkies or an acoustic Velvet Underground, say, she also has her sprawling, tuneful side, as heard on the song "Great Divide," off her wonderful debut album, "Season of Rain" (QDivision). "Great Divide" is a gorgeous, timeless bit of pop-rock by the Boston singer-songwriter, a kind of cross between Aimee Mann and Chrissie Hynde. "Season of Rain," produced by Mike Denneen (Letters to Cleo, Aimee Mann, Jennifer Trynin) in Boston, is chock full of such gems. With Amsterburg's carefully honed lyricism and her instrumental prowess -- she handles multiple chores on guitar, mandolin, bass, cottage organ, Indian banjo, bouzouki, trumpet, piano and harmonium -- and her edgy melodicism, she is the missing link between the Patty Larkin/Shawn Colvin folkie crowd and the Tori Amos/Fiona Apple rockers.

Catch Amsterburg, a veteran of the Boston indie music scene, this Saturday night (Sept. 20) in a free performance at CC's Cafe at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (formerly North Adams State College) at 8:30.

Radio Beat

Our occasional attempt at an imaginary playlist of our most-played albums of the moment:

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 18, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]

Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.

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