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about

With our February release we are inaugurating a series of trio recordings featuring Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion, Doug Garrison on drums and myself, Ben Schenck, on clarinet. While it is certainly true that Panorama needs to start living within our means (the trio is considerably more affordable to record than the seven piece), it is also true that we are very excited and inspired to explore some new sounds in our "Good Music For You" club. For example, there is an incredible range of tone color available on the accordion alone that we don't get to hear as well in the context of the full band.

Therefore, to start the party, we tracked a number we've been playing at the Spotted Cat with the whole Panorama for several years. It's a medley of Jewish "bulgarn"* consisting of eleven different strains, or sections. The music was compiled by the New York based clarinetist Alex Kontorovich who learned the lines from the late Moldovan clarinetist German Goldenshteyn (1934-2006). When Mr Goldenshteyn emigrated to the US in 1994, he brought with him a notebook of roughly 1000 Jewish melodies. The Jewish community in Moldova still has an unbroken connection to Yiddish heritage going back many centuries, and 90% of the music Goldenshteyn brought with him had never been heard in the US. (See also Panorama Brass Band's recording of the "Goldenshteyn Hora" from our album "17 Days.")

Most Jewish melodies coming from the Old World don't have titles other than generic labels like "Hora #42." So when we record them and put them out, we usually need to come up with a title. And for that I usually need to turn to local musician, Panorama sub and our klezmer rabbi Mark Rubin (see also "Di Shikerer Tantz," ie the Drunkard Dance which we released in our song-of-the-month club "Good Music For You" in July, 2014). For this one I asked him for a Yiddish word meaning a "rowdy party" and he came back with "Balaban." In addition to a type of Azeri double reed instrument, the word also identifies an eastern European Jewish drum and, by extension... a rowdy party. The name "Bessarabia" refers to an Eastern European region in what is now Moldova and the Ukraine. This suite comprises tunes that are Jewish in origin as well as some that are more Moldovan/Bessarabian. Some are folk tunes, some may be from the great Moldovan accordionist Emil Kroitor and Mark tells me that the "J" section is actually an old Soviet anthem. It was Mr. Kontorovich though who knitted them all together into one big Bessarabian Balaban.

Thanks for listening! It is our mission to put a little extra bounce in your step every month.

Ben Schenck
Panorama Jazz Band
New Orleans, LA

*Plural of "Bulgar," a fast Jewish dance in which the rhythm often carries an accent on the "and of two."

credits

from Song​-​of​-​the​-​Month Club: Good Music For You, track released February 1, 2019
Recorded January 18, 2019 at Oak Street Recording, New Orleans, LA

Credits:
Panorama Jazz Band Trio
Ben Schenck - Clarinet
Michael Ward-Bergeman - Accordion
Doug Garrison - Drums

Music - Public Domain
Arrangers - Alex Kontorovich, Ben Schenck, Michael Ward-Bergeman + Doug Garrison
Published by Snack Daddy Music (ASCAP)
Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by Lu Rojas at Oak Street Recording, New Orleans, LA
Cover photo - Ben Schenck
Graphic design - Ben Schenck

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Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New Orleans image

Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana

"New Orleans' genre fluid jazz band"

The Panorama Jazz Band and the Panorama Brass Band have been working steadily in New Orleans and beyond since 1995. Many hundreds of nightclub gigs, festivals, weddings, crawfish boils and Mardi Gras parades have added to this community of musicians' collective experience, all of which they bring to each of their recordings. ... more

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