Ceilizemer, Shalom Ireland (private release, 2003)
As the sleeve notes say, "To combine traditional Irish music with klezmer is a compelling, but little explored, idea." To the outside eye, one might imagine that there is a great deal of common ground between these two traditions, but maybe there is a reason why that compelling idea has not yet been explored.
I admit that, before listening, I was expecting either Irish tunes played in correspondence to a klezmer scale, or klezmer tunes played on pipes and whistles. But that's not what we have on this fourteen track (55 minute) disc. Generally speaking, the Irish-sourced tunes sound like Irish tunes, and the klezmer tunes sound like klezmer, with very little cross-pollination in action.
The players split neatly along the cultural divide: David Kidron (fiddle, whistle and vocals) and Andy Rubin (banjos, mandolin and guitar) come from the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band, whereas Vince Wolfe (pipes, whistle and guitar) and Lewis Santer (guitar, bouzouki and mandolins) are the Irish band Driving With Fergus. Despite these differing backgrounds, all the musicians play with the fire and confidence that comes from knowing one's material intimately.
The tracks on this disc were produced for the soundtrack of a documentary about the Jewish community of Ireland (yes, there is one, albeit small these days; the President of Israel in the 1980s was born in Dublin, as the son of the then-Chief Rabbi of Ireland). Once this is taken into account, the direction of the tunes becomes more apparent. Presumably, "Hatikva" (the Israeli national anthem) and "Khosn Kale Mazltov" (a.k.a. "Congratulations to the Groom and Bride"), two well known klezmer tunes, were included to give certain scenes a familiar-sounding background.
The documentary has its own Web site, but though the soundtrack is mentioned there, there are no musical samples. For these, one has to track over to the Driving With Fergus site, from which it's possible to download minute-long samples of most of the tracks.
The tune that comes closest to the ideal marriage between Irish and klezmer music is the aptly titled "Planxty Ginsberg," which was composed by Lewis Santer a few years previous to the making of this disc. Incorporating elements from both traditions, the group succeed in making this tune sound, not like a hybrid, but rather like a traditional tune of some new nation, yet to be created. Another musical highlight is the lyrical "Lament for Limerick," with its plaintive pipes and whistles, although I confess that I've always had a soft spot for laments like this, whether it's a harbour in the Shetlands, a comfortable home in Sussex or the town of Limerick that's being left.
The violin takes the lead in "Poirt na bPucai/Cordal Jig," an air from the Blasket Islands of Co. Kerry, producing a sense of stately sadness. But however good this track may be, one can't help feeling that its proper place would be alongside other traditional Irish tunes, without the intervening violin-led portions of schmaltz which fill a fair amount of this disc.
To conclude: if the musicians set out to create a new hybrid music, combining elements of Irish and klezmer music, then I think that they have failed, or at least not gone far enough in the combination. But if their aims were to produce a soundtrack detailing Jewish life in Ireland, then I think that they have succeeded. What the listener may make of this is another matter, however.
