{"id":32919,"date":"2019-07-12T03:59:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T10:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=32919"},"modified":"2019-07-10T13:15:11","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T20:15:11","slug":"blues-klezmer-at-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/07\/12\/blues-klezmer-at-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues, klezmer at Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriel Paquin-Buki, far right, founded the band Oktopus, which started performing in 2010. (photo by R\u00e9mi Hermoso)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Among the Jewish performers at this year\u2019s Mission Folk Music Festival, July 26-28 at Fraser River Heritage Park, are Vancouver\u2019s Jesse Waldman and Montreal\u2019s Gabriel Paquin-Buki. For both musicians, family has been a key inspiration.<\/p>\n

Waldman is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, studio producer, sound designer, and film and TV composer. Originally from Thornhill, Ont., just north of Toronto, his bio describes a cassette of his grandmother singing the Yiddish folk song Papirosen<\/em> to his mother as one of his \u201cmost cherished possessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat recording was from the late \u201950s, most likely 1957,\u201d Waldman told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cMy family had one of the first consumer-level tape recorders, they also had one of the first eight-millimetre film cameras, too. They always loved documenting the family, taking time capsule-like snapshots to cherish and enjoy later on in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recording of that particular song \u2013 which is about a young girl selling cigarettes on a street corner \u2013 has a beautifully haunting melody. I believe my grandmother learned it from her mother, my great-grandmother. At some point, it was transferred onto a stereo cassette recorder and a few copies were made. The same tape also contains interviews with my mother, a toddler at the time, and other family members, since passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

A guitar he found in his parents\u2019 basement also played a part in the start of his musical career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guitar was an old beat-up nylon-string classical guitar that belonged to my Aunt Sherri,\u201d said Waldman. \u201cActually, I suspect it belonged to one of her ex-boyfriends. I figured out how to play \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019 on one string and was hooked for life! That was back in 1989.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waldman made his way to Vancouver in 1995 \u201con a whim,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to go somewhere where no one knew me and reinvent myself. From the moment I saw the mountains and smelled the ocean, I instantly felt at home. Then, after meeting the people and getting a feel for the laidback vibe of the West Coast, I was sold on Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Paquin-Buki, whose group Oktopus began performing in 2010, it was his father who introduced him to klezmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was born into a Polish Jewish family and has carried klezmer music with him all his life. His transmission to me of this cultural legacy occurred quite naturally. The cassettes he would play in the family car, the klezmer recordings during parties at our home, the live bands at family weddings and those rare times he would play songs on the piano were enough for me to access the roots of this musical tradition,\u201d said Paquin-Buki.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it is for many children, I believe it was the rhythm of this music that excited me. The recordings we listened to were mostly of fast songs and, for me, were synonymous with joy. My love for this music today has so many facets! When we listen to klezmer, we can somehow feel the richness of the Jewish people\u2019s millennial history and hear their encounters with musicians from all over the planet and across centuries. Also, major-minor ambivalence in the main klezmer scale (the freygish<\/em>) embodies the dichotomy between laughter and tears so characteristic of Jewish culture. And it\u2019s always fun music to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waldman has similar views. \u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed klezmer music,\u201d he said. \u201cThe mile-a-minute dance numbers, the sorrowful ballads and the cheeky vocals. Many klezmer compositions use melodies based on the harmonic minor scale, which includes a minor third and a major seven, which makes it sound particularly haunting and mournful to me. In terms of culture, all of my band mates in my early days were Jewish. I definitely cut my teeth with fellow Jews who know the delights of Shabbos dinner and a good bagel with lox and cream cheese!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Jesse Waldman (photo by Jodie Ponto)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While he enjoys klezmer, Waldman\u2019s music is predominantly folk and blues. \u201cI love the sound, the rawness and heavy emotional weight of those styles,\u201d he explained. \u201cI also love the storytelling aspect of it, specific life experiences, places and relationships. Real folk and blues is unique to each artist but also has a tradition of carrying classic songs through the generations. I also love how blues has a way of transforming deep pain into something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waldman\u2019s debut album, Mansion Full of Ghosts<\/em>, which was released in 2017, is described as \u201can exploration of the city\u2019s vast duality, a backdrop of beauty mirrored by a fierce underbelly and a need to keep a light on in the dark.\u201d It includes songs about his neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside, and, in talking about what drives him to make socially conscious music, he said, \u201cI think mostly my compassion for other people, particularly those less fortunate than myself. I also yearn to connect with people on a deeper level and music and honest lyrics are a good way to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the talent featured on that album is his partner, Megan Alford. Currently, the two are working on a recording of her music, Field Guide to Wildflowers<\/em>, scheduled for an early 2020 release. \u201cMy role is producer and guitar player,\u201d said Waldman. \u201cShe is an outstanding songwriter with a great voice and poignant and deeply personal lyrics. We\u2019ve been working together for a couple years now and the songs have really come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As can blues music, klezmer holds space for both happiness and sadness. In addition to being a musician, Paquin-Buki holds a master\u2019s degree in comparative literature. In his first semester, he took two courses that focused on literature from the concentration camps. Le Verf\u00fcgbar aux enfers<\/em> (The Lowest-Class Worker Goes to Hell<\/em>), written by Germaine Tillion, a prisoner at Ravensbr\u00fcck, particularly caught his attention. \u201cThis work has a substantial musical dimension and contains a lot of humour\u2026. I was very keen on exploring this taboo subject of laughter and the Holocaust and especially on trying to understand what its benefits were and what shapes it could subsequently take…. For the time being, there is no direct connection between this topic and Oktopus\u2019s music but, in performance, it allows me to flesh out historical intros between pieces. It also adds a new dimension to these tears that are halfway between laughter and sorrow, since klezmer music \u2013 and particularly the clarinet \u2013 reproduces vocal inflections that convey laughter and sorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would very much like to compose a piece based on one of the works I used in my thesis, \u2018La danse de Gengis Cohn.\u2019 I also have a mind to add a work from KZ Muzik, a vast box set recording that traces and publishes many works composed in concentration camps. But, overall, the fact remains that my own academic project on such a profound and terrifying topic has changed my general view of the world and impacts everything I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Gabriel Paquin-Buki (photo by Julien Patrice)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paquin-Buki is the driving force behind Oktopus\u2019s mission to perpetuate klezmer. \u201cBy striving to perpetuate this musical tradition, I am keeping the culture of my ancestors alive and this is of special significance to me,\u201d he said. \u201cNevertheless, since klezmer carries universal values, our approach also makes substantial room for the musical traditions of Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Oktopus combines elements of different cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe klezmer repertoire is so vast that we cannot possibly cover it all in our lifetimes,\u201d said Paquin-Buki. \u201cBut we have also chosen to incorporate classical melodies \u2013 we are all classically trained and so we necessarily view klezmer through the lens of classical music, in the way our ears have been trained to hear it \u2013 as well as Quebec chansons<\/em> [folk songs] and, sometimes, songs from other cultures around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to somehow recreate these songs as they were played decades or even centuries ago is not really in line with our view of tradition, which is not a static concept for us. Tradition is something that evolves and so, in certain respects, we try to imagine what the klezmorim repertoire might have been like if they had settled in Montreal. They would have necessarily incorporated Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and Canadian songs and styles. Historically, klezmer absorbs the different cultures it encounters along its way, while staying true to its deep roots, which colour everything it touches. The important thing is to remain connected to those roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

One challenge in maintaining that connection for Paquin-Buki has been that his \u201cclassical training got in the way in some respects because klezmer is largely an oral tradition.\u201d He couldn\u2019t find any scores for a klezmer ensemble and, he said, \u201cIn the environment in which I functioned as a musician, nothing was possible without written-down notes. But, to make a long story short, I finally decided to write out the arrangements myself. They turned out very badly at the beginning, but with help and a lot of work, they evolved into something presentable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group\u2019s configuration,\u201d he said of Oktopus, \u201cis loosely based on what I heard on recordings of the Klezmer Conservatory Band: clarinet, violin, flute, trombone, tuba (now bass trombone), piano and drums. Back in 2009, I was not acquainted with that many musicians, so I recruited a few friends and other promising students from the faculty of music. The group began playing in 2010 \u2013 three pieces performed in a chamber music concert at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al. The following year, we were offered our first professional engagements.\u201d Oktopus has two albums \u2013 Lever l\u2019encre<\/em> (2014) and Hapax<\/em> (2017) \u2013 both of which were nominated for Juno and Canadian Folk Music awards.<\/p>\n

Local Jewish community member Geoff Berner (jewishindependent.ca\/songs-of-justice-and-of-hope<\/a> and jewishindependent.ca\/songs-with-meaning<\/a>) is also on the Mission Folk Music Festival lineup this year. For more on the festival, visit missionfolkmusicfestival.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabriel Paquin-Buki, far right, founded the band Oktopus, which started performing in 2010. (photo by R\u00e9mi Hermoso) Among the Jewish performers at this year\u2019s Mission Folk Music Festival, July 26-28 at Fraser River Heritage Park, are Vancouver\u2019s Jesse Waldman and Montreal\u2019s Gabriel Paquin-Buki. For both musicians, family has been a key inspiration. Waldman is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[7627,6422,9132,9135,9133,9136,9134],"class_list":["post-32919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-blues","tag-british-columbia","tag-folk","tag-gabriel-paquin-buki","tag-jesse-waldman","tag-mission-folk-music-festival","tag-oktopus"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}