Der Gasn Nign

Naftule Brandwein's "Der Gasn Nign" — "The Street Melody" — captures one of klezmer's most important and flamboyant personalities at full creative velocity. Brandwein was nicknamed "King of the Klezmer Clarinet" for reasons immediately audible here: his tone is fat and reedy, his ornaments extravagant without becoming self-indulgent, his rhythm feel irresistibly loose-limbed and swinging. This street melody tradition draws on the practice of musicians playing through neighborhoods during celebrations, the melody drifting and transforming as it moved through different acoustic environments. Brandwein's interpretation is theatrical in the best sense — you can feel the crowd, the occasion, the specific texture of immigrant Jewish New York in the 1920s. The recording crackles with period atmosphere, but Brandwein's personality punches through every technical limitation with the force of an artist who simply had more to say than any medium could contain.