The second world war and the Holocaust resulted in the decimation of the Askenazi
Jews of Eastern Europe.
The communities that had fed the emigration to
the West and the US ceased to exist (those who remained became invisible in the
post war Soviet era). Those who had already emigrated were often upwardly mobile
and as they assimilated into the mainstream their music became increasingly 'americanised'.
Moreover, with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the focus of Western
Jewry shifted to the future (the past was too painful to remember) and there was
an accompanying cultural shift. Israeli songs and dances became popular, for example
Tsena Tsena was a chart hit.
However the thread of traditional klezmer
did not entirely disappear. Sam Musiker played in the post war period in the US,
a mixture of klezmer and jazz music some call 'americanised klezmer'. He became
Dave Tarras' son-in-law and persuaded Tarras into the studio to record 'Tantz'
in 1956. Abe Schwartz continued to play in the Catskill hotels after the war,
as did Tarras, also playing for simchas. Many top jazz musicians gigged with Tarras
at these engagements. Other jobbing bands met the need for music in the Jewish
community, playing mainly jazz and modern pop for simchas with the occasional
klezmer or Israeli tune thrown in such as 'Hava Nagila'. Some Yiddish theatres
continued in New York and elsewhere in the US and Europe but the number of Yiddish
speakers steadily declined.
At the same time Hassidic groups settled in
places like Brooklyn, New York. They continued to speak Yiddish, practice their
religion and maintain the Yiddish folk culture (slightly Americanised but not
assimilated). Their music adopted electric keyboards and bass etc but continued
the klezmer thread with additions of Hebrew and religious melodies and words as
well as some middle eastern sounds. By the 1960s traditional klezmer music only
really survived in the Hassidic communities and the memories of the older generation.
Meanwhile
many Jewish musicians played in the mainstream whether classical, jazz, pop, rock,
film or theatre music (the list is far too long to mention). There was a growth
in popularity of Israeli folk dance - many folk dance groups were established
and it was a popular activity for youth groups but it was usually danced to recorded
music (or voice and guitar). Even in the Catskills, over 80% of the music was
American, the rest Latin or Israeli. A couple of crossover tunes from the time
were Twistin the Freilachs and the Latin Raisins and Almonds Cha Cha Cha and Merengue!
Next
- 1950's -1960's - 1970's
