Krakow and the first day

After the physical demands of travel - trying to sleep on an overnight flight, waiting for the connecting flight in Brussels, trying to sleep on a 2 hour flight in bright daylight from Brussels to Krakow, and the train rides and short hike to get from the airport to "Hostel Atlantis" - all following a sleepless night in Montreal, I was pretty beat upon arrival yesterday.

I did manage to squeeze in a nap before catching the Jamie Saft Trio concert at Tempel Synagogue last night.  The concert really made me think about the nature of what we call and consider "Jewish Music."  Saft, who records music under John Zorn's Tzadik record label's Radical Jewish Culture series, programmed a concert of music by him, Zorn and Bob Dylan.  The compositions were simple in nature, and conformed highly to the standard jazz format of "head-solos-head" (for the most part).  The musical content for most songs also could not be considered to draw on Klezmer modes or other typical Jewish melodic conventions.

So what makes music Jewish?  Is the fact that the composer is Jewish enough?  Zorn himself disuptes this notion: "I do not and have never espoused the idea that any music a jew makes is
Jewish music." But if one examines the musical content of the songs that Saft played, and the styles in which he played them, one would find "Jewish Music" to have been lacking.  Curt Sachs is often quoted as saying that Jewish music is "music which is performed by Jews, for Jews, and as Jews."  While Saft's performance satisfies the two of Sachs's criteria, it certainly comes up short for the second - most of the audience last night was made up of non-Jewish Poles.

This morning I interviewed festival founder Janusz Makuch, who made it very clear that the mandate of the Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival is to return a living Jewish culture to Krakow.  The question remains then, as to what Jewish Culture is.  Makuch has been making a conscious effort to include all Jewish culture, and not merely Ashkenazic. Because, in my humble opinion, Saft's concert from last night lacked any real strong Jewish musical content, I have concluded that it is merely his association with Zorn and the Radical Jewish Culture series that has not only put him on Makuch's radar, but in the "Jewish Music" category.  However, I say this not being entirely familiar with his entire oevre.  Saft may very well have an extensive body of music that displays a much greater connection to the sounds that we consider "Jewish," and have then chosen music for this particular concert to be more "straight-ahead jazz" in orientation.

Whew. And you thought this would be a light and entertaining read.  That's what you get for reading a PhD student's blog.

Thoughts about Krakow itself (although I've only really seen the Jewish section - Kazimierz) . . . It's very pretty, although it's definitely not as well preserved (or maintained) as somewhere like Prague.  These two cities invite comparison because, although they're not comparable in size, neither was destroyed during World War Two, so both are in the fairly unique position to show off their medieval (and more recent) spendour.  While Prague has been spit-shined to a high gloss, Krakow's age shows.  Dingy-ness shows in the buildings in Kazimierz, and during the morning, the place seems like a ghost town, but at night, things come alive with pubs, bars, the central market, cafes, restaurants, and a bustling nightlife, especially during the festival.  It also appears that the Jewish Cultural Festival is a big deal around town, with lots of advertising, even in the Old Square section of town...

Well, that will wrap it up for now.... tonight is Brave Old World!