Pearl Sapoznik singing in the hall..

Pete Sokolow at the controls...

It's starting....

People have started to arrive, and in a couple of hours the trickle of arrivals will swell to a torrent. The registration folders are in pristine alphabetical order, waiting to be handed out; signs point the way to all the classrooms, the tees and sweatshirts are folded and sorted by size. Even the sun is shining.

My late entry to the Klez Kamp Zhurnal

I screwed up and delivered my Zhurnal story a week too late to make publication, so here it is at least on line:

Man, it was cold, colder than I could ever remember with snow everywhere. Sure it got cold on the Oklahoma plains where I was born and raised, but I had been living in Texas for a long while now and tonight I stood shivering in my cowboy boots there in the foyer of the Paramount. Just as unfamiliar to my experience was the great bus-load of little old folks and precocious little kids streaming into the old resort, all a ruckus with big hugs and joyful reunions, chattering away in this strange Germanic tongue. Up to that point, the only Yiddish I had heard was my Godfather Morris Katz calling his milk cows into the barn for the night back in Stillwater. Frankly, I had never around this many Jews before, not even at High Holy Days. My head was swimming.

“Oh good, you made it!” said the guy who invited me as he bounded towards me in the lobby. I had never met Henry Sapoznik in person but we had corresponded for years and for just as long he had been cajoling me to come up to “Kamp.” Though technically a stranger (heck I didn’t know a soul there really,) he hugged me like an old friend. “You’re just in time! The dancing is starting. We need a bassist.” He led me down into the Tanzhall and bade me onstage. I took of my coat, inquired about a key from the amiable clarinetist, and proceeded to clam my way through a thrilling set of dance tunes with Merlin Shepherd and Loren Brody.

Back home in Texas I play for dancing quite a bit, it’s one of the reasons I live there in fact. But here for the first time in my life I was actually playing Yiddish music, MY people’s music, for room full of Jewish dancers dancing Yiddish dances. Not a concert, with lifeless music set in amber, distant and removed. Tonight, here at this place music had sprouted legs, was drinking a bit too much and was tearing up the dancefloor. I don’t know if I can properly express how huge a thing that is, how music literally comes alive when it’s simply just a part of a greater function, in a living context. 13 trips back to the Catskills over Xmas week later, I am still in awe of that first of what was to be many, many “Klez Kamp Moments.” If only for this one gift, dayenu.

Truth is I’ve got quite a lot of stories I could tell you; of the musical relationships that formed here, of the people I now call my family, how these experiences have in many ways made me who and what I am not only as a musician, but as a person and as a Jew. Of the deeply moving naches of watching the same little pischers who were running around wild when I first came here mature in the adults that we now look to continue our work. I could tell you about the time I was down with no one to turn to and how this community, the Yiddish Culture family that Klez Kamp gave birth to 25 years ago and nurtures to this day, lifted me up with love and support.

I don’t know if I can properly express how huge a thing that is.

The hotel is quiet tonight. Five of us are quietly working on our computers in the lobby; the bartendder has a football game on the tv, and the Epes Center is starting to take shape. Once again, KlezKamp is about to happen. In a few short hours, old friends and new will start trickling then pouring in, and by dinnertime the lobby will no doubt be full of music.

It's just as exciting now as it was 22 years ago when I walked in for the first time.

On the verge of the next 25....

KlezKampers and KlezKamp fans:

On the verge of celebrating our 25th annual winter KlezKamp, starting tomorrow at the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa in lovely Kerhonson, NY, we have brought our blog into the modern era by linking to our Facebook page. Please join us, either in person or in cyberspace, as we keep you up to date with our celebration of our first quarter century. And for a forshpayz (a taste) of what's to come, check out last year's blog entries for some fine music and photography, as well as on the spot impressions of the program.

"Set the Way-Bac Machine for 1989, Sherman...."

This transmission comes to us from that far off universe called 1989, when, after only a few short, successful years of running KlezKamp at the late and very lamented Paramount Hotel, we launched the first of two summer KlezKamp West events in northern California. This one was at Camp Swig in Saratoga, California. The next was in 1998 in Petaluma.
The wonderful thing about this surprisingly sweet little piece is that it very accurately captures a crystalline moment when we were collectively creating and honing our shared common Yiddish culture as we were inventing the context of KlezKamp. The enthusiasm and vitality displayed here -- fresh as all things back then always seemed to be -- is what made creating, learning and playing together the great experience it was. Oh, yeah: and we were nerdy, too!
Among those you'll see here are: Adrienne Cooper,her mom Buni Cooper, Joel Rubin, Gerry Tenney, Alan Bern, Margot Leverett, Wendy Marcus and her daughter Sophie Shifra (in the very touching scene where Wendy signs for her) Michael Alpert, Harvey Varga, Sarah Felder, Alan Senauke, Dan Peck (shlepping boxes in the background of one interview) and some young skinny kid who looks like Groucho Marx in a Brooklyn Dodgers cap.
Thanks to KlezKamp KlezKids Co-Director Sarah Gordon (who is also in it) for unearthing this video cuneiform and reminding us that, though we've changed on the outside, we're still as youthfully passionate and devoted to Yiddish music and culture as ever. HooHA!

Henry

http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bclid=1138125718&bctid=932508392

KlezKamp Podcast now available!!

Thanks to our friends Mark Rubin, Mitchel Mernick and many others, you may now subscribe to the KLEZKAMP PODCAST.  We intend to add new episodes to the podcast offerings on a regular basis.  They will reflect not only this past KlezKamp 23, but gems from our sound archive of 23 years of KlezKamp concerts and, more recently, Radio KlezKamp, the in-house radio station run at KK by Mitch Mernick.

Podcasts available at this time include interviews with Elaine Hoffman Watts, Andy Statman, Judith Bro Pinhasik, Ray and Julie Musiker, and Pete and Vera Sokolow.  Also available are music from the KlezKamp Youth Orchestra, the Staff Dance Band and the "Philadelphia Shers" by the Elaine Hoffman Watts Ensemble.

You may download these podcasts individually or you may subscribe to the podcast and have them delivered automatically to your computer at http://klezkamp.mypodcast.com/

We are thrilled to be able to share these treasures with you.  It is just one of the ways that Living Traditions is fulfilling its mission to bring Yiddish culture to new generations in ways both inspiring and relevant to contemporary Jewish life.

Fortunately, there is much more to come.

More KlezKamp photos

Here is another set of KlezKamp photos, these by Alan Lankin.

More photos

Here are more KlezKamp 2007 photos, these courtesy of Bonnie Greenberg.

KlezKamp 2007 Photos!

Here are photos of KlezKamp 2007, courtesy of Bob and Aaron Blacksberg:

http://rblacksberg.com/KlezKamp2007/index.html

Thanks Bob and Aaron!

If you have an album of KlezKamp 2007 photos you would like to share, please send the link to info@livingtraditions.org and we will post them here and on the KK website.

Well, THAT was quick!

Yet again, the week for we spend months and months planning, is gone for another year. KlezKamp23 is over, and with it, the memories we created for the over 425 people who joined us -- 70% of them first timers -- are now in place.
It seems like only hours ago that we made our quiet arrival on Saturday the 22nd in advance of an uncharacteristically thick London-like fog which enveloped scenic Kerhonkson. Our tiny crew which set up KK (Dan Peck, Sherry Mayrent, Sabina Brukner. Carol Master, Laura Wernick and Amber Feldman, among others) were soon joined by the eager masses of people from around the world who came to share the lush bounty of Yiddish culture with us. It was non-stop from then on.
Highlights for me this year were: My sessions on khazntes, Yente Telebende and Yiddishe Mames and my enthusiastic class of over 60; Part 2 of the late night bluegrass jam session with Andy Statman on mandolin and Mark Rubin on guitar and myself on banjo included warp speed bluegrass instrumentals -- one of which Andy is being nominated for a Grammy this year -- and a bevy of terrific Jesus-themed songs for which the ultra Orthodox Statman knew all the words; the rip roaring popularity of "Liquid Apple Pie" an accurately named mason jar filled confection imported all the way from Rockingham County, North Carolina; playing for Steve Weintraub's "Go Figure" dance class with Cookie Segelstein, Mark Rubin, Josh "P.J." Horowitz and Mike Cohen; Michael Winnograd's 3:00 AM tsunami of musicians who flooded the hotel lobby in advance of Steve Weintraub and hordes of followers dancing backwards in an eye popping flashback to the old KlezKamp days at the Paramount Hotel; performing and recording with the great Elaine Hoffman-Watts orchestra and the release concert of the new Living Traditions CD by Ray Musiker; my mother singing in the late night cabaret; Bob Berkman's kickass Klezmerola concert/lecture and the amazing contraption he brought to play his Yiddish piano rolls. There are many, many more memories but I have to leave SOMETHING to the imagination...
Now begins the real work: finding a new year round home as the Workmen's Circle has sold the building in which we have our offices and have evicted us with less than a month's notice....
Despite that, we are excitedly planning KK24. See you then!

Carpathian Jewish Ensemble

Lead by one time Kamper, now staffer, Jacob Shulman-Ment:

Jake Shulman-Ment is among the premier young performers of klezmer violin. He has performed and recorded with many of the stars of the international klezmer scene, as well as with his own groups. Proficient in a variety of styles, Jake has travelled extensively in Hungary, Romania, and Greece documenting, recording, and performing traditional folk, Gypsy, and Jewish music.

Elaine Hoffman Watts Ensemble

A short excerpt of the epic Philadelphia Sher, which ran close to 20 minutes of continuous playing and dancing, the later ably lead by Steven Weintraub.

Elaine Hoffman Watts on traps, Mike Cohen, clarinet, Ken Maltz, alto sax, Adrian Banner, piano, Susan Watts, trumpet, Dan Blacksburg, trombone, Henry Sapoznik, tenor banjo, Mark Rubin, tuba and conductor-arranger Aaron Alexander.

Cookie and Josh

Here violin instructor Cookie ("Marlene") Segelstein and tsimbl-accordionist Joshua ("P.J.")Horowitz of Veretski Pass play a snippet of a tune from their newest CD "Traffik," released just this week.

Arkansas Traveller? Arkansas Traveller!

Staffers Mark Rubin and Andy Statman play a little American music at the staff concert.

Introducing the Klez Kamp Podcast!!

Cookie Segelstein & Mark Rubin

Photo by Alan Lankin

First up, a snippet from the Klez Kamp Staff Dance Band

The Living Traditions CD Series Concert

Tonight's evening program was an opportunity to introduce this year's KlezKampers to the Living Traditions CD series documenting some of the treasured elders of our community. These recordings are each made during the four days of a KlezKamp and feature stellar ensembles of our staff musicians. The first one, recorded atKlezKamp 21 and released last year, documented the playing and repertoire of the late German Goldenstein, who died unexpectedly shortly after it was completed. Fortunately, the subjects of both last year's effort, Ray Musiker, and Elaine Hoffman Watts (who is being recorded this year) were on hand to received some well-deserved koved from the crowd in the Manhattan Theater.

The evening began with the ensemble that recorded the Ray Musiker CD: Ray (of course), Ken Maltz, Mike Cohen, Aaron Alexander, Jim Guttmann, Henry Sapoznik and Pete Sokolow, who was the musical director for the project and provided informative introductions to each tune. They performed six selections, and I found the arrangements totally delightful. The playing was wonderful, as were the tunes, many of which had been written by Ray himself. This half of the show closed with the beautiful arrangement of Papirosn by Sam Musiker that I had last heard played on the KlezKamp stage by Ray, Howie Leess and Paul Pincus.

After a brief talk by Henry on the need for community support of this important series, the ensemble that is in the process of recording Elaine and her family's unique musical heritage came on stage. I have always loved both Elaine and her drumming, and she was in excellent form tonight. I was especially moved when she pointed out it was kind of amazing that KlezKamp had on staff this year not one, but two winners of the prestigious National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and that both were women.

This band consisted of Elaine, her daughter Susan Watts, Mike Cohen, Ken Maltz, Dan Blacksberg, Adrian Banner and Mark Rubin, and they performed some amazing tunes from the Hoffman family archives, including a freylekhs that Elaine's father had written for her. The concert closed with a beautiful waltz that made me cry, and I remembered that it had also made me cry the first time I heard it, back at the Paramount in a class in which Hankus Netsky was interviewing Elaine and a fellow Philadelphia musician, Joseph Buloff. It was a moving end to a very moving evening.

It occurred to me while I listened how incredible and unique this project is: When the current CD is completed, we will have three recordings representing three completely different klezmer styles and repertoires, each equally authentic and each equally beautiful and engaging. As Henry said this evening, we may not have the money we need to support all the projects we want to accomplish, but we beyond wealthy in human resources. I feel really lucky to be a part of this organization and to play a role in making these projects happen.

Photos from the Front.....

Pete Sokolow

Andy Statman

Beyle Schaechter-Gotteman

Some guy on Bass

Jimmy Gutman and other dancers

Photos by Alan Lankin