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Friday January 5, 2007

Klezmer band adds a dash of paprika

by dan pine
staff writer

Sound the bayan, pluck the tsimbl and bang the baraban! Budowitz is coming.

If the preceding seems like so much gibberish, the members of Budowitz would like a word –– and a song –– with you.

The Connecticut-based klezmer band specializes in the Jewish music of a specific region in and around Hungary (three members are Hungarian natives), and their instruments go beyond the customary fiddles and clarinets, though they play those, too.

Budowitz will perform at the opening night of KlezCalifornia, a celebration of Yiddish culture and klezmer, on Saturday, Jan. 6, and will be on hand all weekend to teach workshops. KlezCalifornia is a presentation of the Friend Center for the Arts at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, in association with the Jewish Music Festival.

Violinist Cookie Segelstein says her band seeks to regenerate a form of traditional Jewish music nearly wiped out by the Holocaust. “We take the regional music of the Carpathian Bow,” she notes, “the Hungarian, the Gypsy, and play it with a Jewish accent.”

Her partner in the band, accordionist Joshua Horowitz, is also her partner in life. He, like the other members, is conservatory trained and well schooled in music theory. But a passion for klezmer led him to live in Austria for a time, researching the music first hand. Ten years ago he formed Budowitz, named for the maker of his beloved 1889 bayan, or button accordion.

“The sound ages well,” says Segelstein of Horowitz’s rare instrument, which is made of brass, wood and goat leather. “You buy the history and the problems, but you get the great sound, like a bunch of fiddles out of tune but sound good together.”

With Jewish dulcimer (tsimbl), 3-string viola and shoulder-strapped cello (bassetl) among their other instruments, Budowitz does create an unusual sound, at times akin to the pleasing dissonance of Bulgarian folk music or the hard-driving verve of Hungarian verbunkos.

But not everything the band plays is a golden oldie. They write originals as well. “There’s lots of new music,” adds Segelstein, “but in an old style.”

Budowitz releases its fourth CD, a live album, this month.

Segelstein and Horowitz do double duty as members of another ensemble, Varetski Pass, which plays a different brand of Jewish music. Budowitz, however, allows her to stay in touch with her inner Budapest. As it happens, Hungarian was the first language of her parents, both Holocaust survivors.

“The language [consists of] the most difficult, recalcitrant sounds coming out peoples’ mouths,” laughs Segelstein. “I grew up with the music and I despised it.”

That’s because, she says, her parents thrust a fiddle in her hand at age 5 and expected her to entertain them. “Growing up in Kansas City, I didn’t want people to know I was Jewish,” she says. “I shied away from it.”

She went on to study classical violin and was on track for a distinguished career in the classical music world. Then everything changed when she had her first child.

“I felt a sense of responsibility,” says Segelstein. “By then klezmer was coming into its own, and with this music under my fingertips, I felt I was going to have to let the music in again.”

Having a thorough music education is helpful for context and technique, but it’s not the most important thing for the members of Budowitz.

“The bottom line is, we’re musicians,” says Segelstein. “We’re not ethnomusicologists. We want to play the music and we approach it as musicians do.”

As a popular working band, Budowitz has toured all over the country and around the world. Later this year, the band will perform at the prestigious annual Jewish music festival in Krakow, Poland.

As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Segelstein is always amazed when she finds herself playing with enthusiastic non-Jewish klezmer musicians in countries that formerly persecuted Jews. Budowitz’s clarinetist, Christian Dawid, she quickly points out, is German.

Which reminds Segelstein of the time she and her band were about to depart for a concert tour of Germany, and her mother called to wish her daughter bon voyage.

Recalls Segelstein: “My mother said, ‘I hope you’re overcharging them.’”

Budowitz performs 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6 at KlezCalifornia, held at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. Tickets: $15-$25. Information: (415) 292-1233.

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