By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Josh Dolgin fronts a Canadian band that mines the rich musical genre of klezmer and brings it to places it has never been before. His stage name is Socalled and he’s on a tear. Welcome to Klezmerica, North American style
Combing melodies, languages and rap grooves that translate into something klezmeric, Socalled & Friends bring klezmer to a new level. With a fifth collection of songs out this month, titled ”Peoplewatching,” he and his bandmates will be performing in June at KulturFest in New York and in July at an event called YIDSTOCK in western Massachusetts.
The term ”klezmer” in Hebrew comes from a combination of two words: “klay” and ”zemer” — tools to make music — with the new term in Hebrew, ” כְּלִי זֶמֶר” or klay-zemer, coming to mean “vessels of a song” or that is to say, musical instruments.
Early 20th century recordings and texts refer to the klezmer style as “Yiddish” music, but it can also be called ”Freilech” music (“Happy music”).
Klezmer had its heyday between about 1850 and 1920 in eastern Europe among Ashkenazi Jews. It was later taken up in Americaby people like Abe Schwartz and had a revival in the 1990s.
With Socalled putting his signature touch to klezmer’s rise in North America, there’s no telling where this genre will go no. He’s worth kvelling about.
Dolgin is a multi-tasking creative soul, serving as singer, songwriter, rapper and producer. In a recent interview with San Diego Jewish World, he told this reporter a few things about being Jewish and where he is coming from.
“I’m Jewish. It’s like pregnant, you can’t be a little pregnant. Either you are or you aren’t… people can tell you that you’re not really Jewish but if you believe you are, you are. Some people say you can’t convert, but you can convert, and people do, and they’re Jewish. Or are they? Some people don’t believe in God or follow the Kosher rules but they’re still Jewish, sorry. It’s about attitude. You have to believe. I was told I was Jewish my whole life, so I believe it.”
“I feel human. I feel Canadian. I feel a little chilly. I feel hungry, sometimes, when I’m hungry. I feel Jewish, but I don’t know what that feels like because I have nothing to compare it to, it just feels like me, and that feels normal because I’ve always just been me, even when I’m high.”
“I first heard klezmer as a little kid when Finjan, a band from Winnipeg, played at the Ottawa jazz festival. I remember wanting to dance. I first really loved klezmer when I heard an Abe Schwartz 78 rpm record that I got at a Salvation Army one day.”
“One of the songs on the new CD, “Fire on Hutchison Street,” is a true story about a fire on my street here in Montreal, a fire next door. It’s about my city and my neighborhood. But it’s also about a failed relationship, about broken dreams, about personal disasters, about fires in your own life.”
“Didn’t you know it’s not polite to ask a rapper his age? I’m 38.”
See you at YIDSTOCK.
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Bloom, based in Taiwan, is a freelance writer and inveterate web surfer. You may comment to dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website, per the rules below.
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