IT HAS TO SAY “MILLED”
The only advice I ever gave Yiddishe Cup’s drummer, Don Friedman, was buy the roasted, milled flax seed with blueberries at Trader Joe’s.
I don’t tell him how to play drums.
Our keyboard player, Alan Douglass, tells our drummer how to play. In fact Alan tells everybody how to play. Good, somebody has to do it.
Except some guys don’t like being told how to play.
Me, I’m open to constructive criticism.
Danny Rubenstein, the legendary klezmer clarinetist, told me I play with “a lot of guts but little technique.” I’m OK with that. Beats the alternative.
I like wailing. I like Kramtweiss and Brandwein — big wailers. (Kramtweiss and Brandwein recorded in the 1920s.) But the older I get, the more I prefer Tarras — Mr. Subtle, Mr. Refined. Dave Tarras (1897-1989) was the Sinatra of klez.
1 comment
KG
I myself love wailers, preferring gut to technique. Perhaps your growing affection for Dave Tarras is from reaching your own greater mastery of the instrument.
I know I can’t play my bass quite as energetically as when I was in my 20’s, but I sure have better ideas for placing my notes. And all that weird spastic overplaying has become great fluidity. The difference between the lindyhop and theTango.
I still have my moments of fire, but I think we players who have kept at it do mellow with age.
I am enjoying your blog, even if we are on opposite sides of the class war.
Sincerely
Bobo Bubalisky
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