Monday, October 20th, 2:15 pm. CIT
Andy: Let's get started with how you joined Yarmulkazi. Did you have any history playing klezmer music?
Sam: I had never played klezmer before, I had really liked playing [trumpet] in high school, in jazz groups the most. And it seemed like a pretty improv [based] group, you know, not learning from sheet music, and just learning everything by ear was completely new to me. How I joined - they had posters up for auditions, which didn't have a time or date on them; they were just advertising for auditions. I ended up running into a friend of a friend from Jewish summer camp, and she was in the klezmer band. So I basically went to a rehearsal, didn't really have a formal audition, and they were like, Yeah, you're in.
A: So you said you played in jazz bands in high schools. Do you still see parallels between klezmer music and your jazz band? Specifically is Yarmulkazi's interpretation more like jazz?
S: The improvisation is pretty much in klezmer music throughout. There will be people playing melody, and all the texturing and fooling and fiddling around on top of that is prevalent throughout every song. Very rarely is everyone playing the melody. Usually someone is doing some little trill, above and beyond. As far as jazz, it's definitely less structured. We'll have some solo sections, but it's not written out like "ok, in this place you're gonna trade fours with the drummer". It's just, whenever the melody is going on, someone can just go off and start soloing.
A: So in these solo sections, are they predetermined solos or are they improvised on the spot?
S: Yeah, it's definitely improvised. At least with respect to jazz, it's a little more. In what we play, and in the traditional songs, there aren't as many changes, you're not playing over a lot of chords. You can almost just vamp on a section. There's actually long form improv, called a doina, which is an intro to a song, and it's usually that someone will start off, and there will be one or two bass instruments, and maybe a melody playing on one chord for a long time. And they only change chords after a signal from the melody instrument. So it's a long drawn out solo, building and fall and building and falling.
A: So it's pretty much based around the melody itself, and that's what determines the harmony that supports it?
S: Yeah.
A: So I read on your website that Yarmulkazi does modern interpretations of traditional klezmer music as well as traditional klezmer music. What would you say are the differences between these?
S: So the modern interpretations, what we play, some of our repertoire is taken from more modern klezmer bands, and these will have more jazz infusion - little more 'rocky', and less traditional. More major [key songs] will be modern. But the traditional stuff is still modernized in the way that the improvisations are happening. The solos over them can be whatever the soloist wants. If someone plays a lot of jazz, they will solo sort of like a jazz artist. But I guess the more modern stuff, things like playing around with crazy time signatures, will be in more modern pieces. Also, just not sticking strictly to the klezmer scale [is more modern].
A: What is the klezmer scale?
S: There's like the Freygish mode. I'm not super clear, behind this. It's kind of minor, it's based on... I don't even know. It's almost a minor scale. It's pretty much what most of the songs are in. Any variations from that is where you get the cool texture.
(The "Freygish" mode is also called the Phrygian dominant scale, or the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale. It is like the Phrygian mode, but with a major 3.)
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