Allen Kanovsky, Klezmerist.

Submitted by Al Kanovsky 3/11/13

It's September 1944. America is winning the war in the Pacific and Europe. People are working hard but there are jobs to be had. My father (RIP) said in a heavy Russian heckcent, "Sonny boy, bar mitzvah lessons or music lessons, vun or de udder. But effen its music it gotta be heckordion." My friend Freddy Mooke was taking saxophone lessons and his teacher taught other instruments as well. That Friday, after school, Fred and I got on the subway and after a couple of transfers ended up on the north end of the Grand Concourse in the west Bronx. We were headed for the Schwiller Institute of Music. The proprietor of said school was Dr. George Schwiller. The faculty of the Institute consisted of Dr. George Schwiller. I don't care what instrument was your choice, Dr. George would teach you. After 4 lessons on "heckordion" I developed a tic and a twitch. Two hands doing two different things in addition to pulling and pushing was far too much for a kid who didn't even want bar mitzvah lessons. Dr. George handed me a trumpet. The rental was cheaper than the push-pull thing so my Dad wasn't too disappointed. 12 lessons later, Professor (he liked that better than Doctor) Schwiller handed me a music book. The cover read "Kammen Book #9 for Bb Instruments"** In the upper left hand corner it read $1.50. I asked what it was. He said "A music book". I said "What for?" He replied "For the job". "What job?" "Sunday you will play a bar mitzvah". "Professor Schwiller, sir, I am still only studying scales and what's that little b after the big B mean?" "Don't worry. Practice the five songs I marked and then play loud. Nobody that will be there will know the difference". We were paid $5 a man and had to give the Professor $2 each for booking the job. Fortunately, the tenor sax is also a Bb instrument, so Freddy and I shared the cost of the book, which also came out of our 5 bucks. We netted $2.25, Talk about tax rates!!! That was my introduction to "klezmer" and the music business.

It is almost 70 years later and Sunday afternoon at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center, I heard that kind of music played the way it should be. Paul Green, a klezmer and JAZZ clarinetist was in concert with special guest Maria Rivas performing a fusion of Yiddish, Latin and JAZZ. Now that's a tri-fecta!!  On stage with Paul and Maria was an all-star rhythm section including Bob Weiner playing piano & keys, Dr. Jaime Ousley on upright bass, soon to be Doctor, Carlomagn(ific)o Araya on drums and displaying his "chops", Seth Merlin playing trumpet. There were stunning performances by each and everyone. Maria came on stage looking absolutely stunning in a self-made dress whose fabric she had owned for over 30 years. Paul and Maria drifted from idiom to idiom flawlessly. Klezmer to Latin, From Streisand's "Can You See Me" to Gillespie’s "Night In Tunisia" to Cab Callaway's interpretation of a Yiddish song, "Aht A Zoi" complete with cantorial scat vocals. Paul and Maria did Paul's arrangement of "Funny Valentine" with Paul doing the instrumental parts in "klezmer" fashion while Maria did the lyrical portions "straight". Maria dedicated a song to Dr. Jules Oaklander who had been instrumental in bringing Maria to the U.S. from her native Venezuela. They closed the show with  "Bei Mir Bist Du Shain". that Benny Goodman, the Andrew Sisters and Ella Fitzgerald made famous a hundred years ago. Seth Merlin did a Ziggy Ellman inspired solo during that closing number. Maria had totally captivated the audience, many of whom had never heard her sing before. Maria is taking some time for herself. We pray for her quick return to the stage.

It was now cocktail(happy) hour so I made my way to Michelle's on Oakland Park Blvd. Barbara Van along with Mike Orta(piano) and Linc Lackey(bass) hold a Sunday JAZZ Jam that attracts many of our local players. My road buddy Bill Rutan followed me from Paul and Maria's concert. Laying on the table adjoining ours was a trumpet. I asked of the occupants was that a trumpet I spied. The gentleman replied "Yes it is. Would you like to play it?" Remembering my "yute" I deferred. But the guy and his companion, who turned out to be his wife of 27 years, looked familiar. Then I recalled I had seen this attractive woman and her trumpet playing husband before. Thursday night at Ye Olde Falcon Pub. Had George and Shirly Pontrelli been shadowing me? No, George was there to sit in and Shirley to listen in. They have an interesting life story which will wait for another time. Also sitting in was guest artist Mo Morgen(multiple reeds!!! and vocals???), Steve Eskin(vocals /piano) and the bad boy of local music Bobby Reynolds (trumpet/flugelhorn/piano and also "vocals"). I wonder if Bobby and Mo have the same voice coach? Gene did a trumpet solo on "Days of Wine and Roses" for me and Barbara did "Funny Valentine" in memory of Flo. Thank you both. All of it made for good company and a really HAPPY happy hour---or two.

Buddy Bill in tow, we're off to Blue Jean BLUES and the HOPE Band. BLUES, Soul and Funk. Hope and her husband are from Georgia where she sang in the choir of the Open Bible Worldwide Church. I often say "You can take the girl out of the Church but you can't take the Church out of the girl". When you talk about "soul" Hope does it from her very depths and with a capital S. Mike Orta came in and after his listening to only a few bars said to me "This gal CAN sing". Her band tonight had Bobby Nathan on guitar with his wife Joanne on keys(the dynamic duo), Fofi Lancha at the drum kit and Rafael Valencia playing bass. Ms. Hope sings a few notes and before she is into the second chorus half the crowd is up shaking their proverbial you know whats. The rest of us are all tappin' and clappn'. The Nathan's are talented and versatile, covering the entire spectrum of the genres of soul, BLUES and funk. Fofi drove the band relentlessly, with Rafael adding the fullness that the bass provides. Fun, fun, fun. It turns out that Mike knows Rafael from way back when and Rafael remembers Mike at 6 or 7 years old sitting at the piano, playing the BLUES. Rafael's sister(ballet) and brother-in-law were in the audience and his sister remembered Mike and her brother having a band and practicing in Rafael’s bedroom. They have interesting stories to tell of those days and the early local Latin JAZZ bands. The last note had been played. I said goodnight to all the musicians and staff and then, Marty (the manager) threw me out. Such is "A Day in the Life of a Fool" or if you prefer "Lush Life" or as I look at it, Al's "What a Wonderful World".   

** Klezmer songs have no titles, they are numbered like Freilach #2 or Freilach #6. Additionally they do not appear in the book in number order. They are placed in the book in the order in which they are to be played at the "simcha"(party). So #6 could be on page 2 and #4 on page 1. I remember that each was not very long, written in 12 bar segments with repeat signs. The Jewish "fake books" of the time. I also lost the tic and twitch because not only did I not need both hands to play, the music was all in the G clef( the one with the strange lookin "and" sign) and not in the Bass Clef(the one with the backward apostrophe and colon). I lost the T&T but never my love for the music.  

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