It might not have been a deliberate misrepresentation, but a San Francisco
Performances family matinee Saturday in Herbst Theater was far more than
the exotic-ethnic fun-fest for kiddies you might have expected.

Mommies, daddies, and the little tykes crawling around on both sides of
the stage and elsewhere - without interfering with the concert - had a
riotous good time, to be sure, but that was not the real point of the
event.

The San Francisco Klezmer Experience, a newish group of young artists,
presented an extraordinary musical performance.  The six-year-old
organization not only swings, but it also dazzles with sheer virtuosity.
These musicians present "shocking" rhythmic changes and rich Bartokian
dissonances at the drop of a yarmulke.

Founder-bandleader-violinist Daniel Hoffman and clarinetist Sheldon
Brown handled the klezmer's wicked syncopation and wild dynamic changes
with the kind of expertise and aplomb that would serve them well in any
concert hall, playing any kind of music.  Although the word comes from
"klei zemer" (musical instruments), SFKE plays from the heart, making
the instruments transparent.

Singer-accordionist Jeanette Lewicki (who learned Yiddish - wait for it!
- at Oxford University) is a Musical Personality with well-earned initial
caps; Stephen Saxon, on trumpet and cornet, also provides amazing,
appealing cantorial/Broadway vocals; Stuart Brotman (cimbalom), Richard
Saudners (bass) and Kevin Mummey (drums) are all first-class musicians.

It's so easy - and so frequent - to hear klezmer played loud and fast
(or with krekths-and-knetsch, groaning and sobbing) without variation
or depth, but our local klezmerites bring all kinds of superb musical
values from what otherwise can sounds like a monotonous hybrid of Middle
East melange.

Often a Yiddish pasteurization of the music of Jews from Lybia, Egyptian
songs with Hebrew text, Moroccan liturgy, Arabic and Turkish lute, and
sacred music from ancient cantors, klezmer can be a unique, integrated
musical form. In the presentation of SFKE, it surpasses its elements,
goes beyond the domain of ethnomusicologists on the one hand, kitschy
"wedding music" on the other.

Next time you see a concert announcement by this group, put on a tux or
a gown and attend an important musical event - don't be fooled by the
"family matinee" come-on.

Janos Gereben/SF
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