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Klezmer and classical, jazz and judaism, meet here
- in the music of Paul Brody. Paul Brody grew up in California. His trumpet
playing got him to Germany, in a touring Broadway show of Duke Ellington
songs. Brody liked Germany so much he stayed there. He's been living in
Berlin for more than a decade. And he's gotten into a whole new musical
thing. Brody founded his own band, "Sawadi." The group plays a
mix of all kinds of styles. Brody told The World's Marco Werman that eclecticism
is nothing new for him.
Paul Brody: I've always juggled a lot
of things. I've studied classical music, classical composition. I'm from
a Jewish family, my parents, my family heard both Jewish music and a lot
of jazz and of course a lot of classical music, so it's all been up there
in my little brain (laughs), so it was bound to come out the trumpet some
time and especially from living in Germany, of course, because of the history
has forced me to really examine my past, my family's history, where I fit
in in Jewish music and, of course, Jewish culture in general.
Marco Werman: You have a tune on your
CD called "Klezmer a la Bechet" which is in reference to Sidney
Bechet which was written several years ago by the great klezmer clarinet
player and composer David Krakauer, let's first listen to what you did with
the piece and then we'll talk about it. Sure.
MW: 'Klezmer a la Bechet' courtesy of
Paul Brody and Sadawi. What I'm hearing there Paul is klezmer, post bop,
turning into free jazz, turning into acid jazz and then surf guitar and
that's just the untrained ear (laughing). So first explain what's happening
in "Klezmer a la Bechet" as envisioned by the composer David Krakauer
and then tell us what you decided to do with it.
PB: I think David Krakauer just wanted
to write one of his beautiful high powered fresh energetic tunes. We both
like Sidney Bechet very much, the soprano clarinetist, he lived around the
same time as Naftule Brandwein who's one of the legendary klezmer clarinet
players. His piece is sort of molding together the music of Sidney Bechet
and klezmer music of Naftule Brandwein.
MW: And what did you want to do with
it?
PB: Well, on a number of pieces on this
CD, "Beyond Babylon", there are what I call composed re-mixes
and I took tunes from living klezmer musicians, that is, instead of taking
a traditional song from the klezmer repertoire and making it modern, I re-mixed
in my compositional way, music from living klezmer composers. And so I transcribed
"Klezmer a la Bechet" from David Krakauer and I cut it up and
I re-composed it.
MW: What's interesting about this CD
Beyond Babylon is as you've just explain with "Klezmer a la Bechet"
there are some deep artistic concepts at play here. And at the same time
it's kind of an exploration of your own Jewish side. How do the arts and
religion reconcile with each other on this CD. How do these things generally
work together, do you think?
PB: Stories...
MW: Stories. What do you mean by that?
PB: You learn how to act, you learn
how to live, you learn about inspiration through stories, through stories
of old rabbis, stories of Moses. In Jewish culture, dialogue is very important.
In "Timepiece" there are individual lines playing against each
other, and with each other, Alan Bern on accordion is a guest in the band
and he's having a dialogue with the trumpet throughout the entire "timepiece"
in a very melodic way.
MW: It's interesting because the first
tune on "Beyond Babylon" is called "To Be Simple" and
there's a reference there to an old American Shaker tune.
PB: Yeah.
MW: What is that about?
PB: The Quakers were responsible for
bringing my mother from Nazi Austria to England and then to America. So
that's a dedication to them, and so in the middle of this song, the Klezmer
music often goes from a minor sound to a very happy major sound, when this
tune goes to this happy major sounds I put in the Shaker tune and it sort
of fits.
MW: Paul Brody's latest album is entitled
"Beyond Babylon." Paul Brody thank you very much for your time.
PB: Thanks, Bye.
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