news. photos. stories. a clip or two.
A blog? Not really. Call it Dr Dawid's photo album.
But there's a lot to tell anyway, so keep watching this space for updates!
May 5-9, 2007
Zagnitkiv - Odessa
I went to Kodyma to meet Maria, mother of the three Baranovsky brothers, grandma of our drummer Slava. I visited her home in Zagnitkiv, just steps from the Moldovan border. I've been told that she'd been quite a drummer all her life, and luckily we really got to jam a bit! There was no drum at her home, but she didn't really need one anyway...
Here you can see her groove and drum along with her eldest son, Vasya, who plays his fathers old accordion.
Maria lives in one of those pretty blue-painted houses, beautifully decorated, with her own yard and well. A place you'd immediately want to move in - if there was any work in the village, and if it wasn't so hard making a living on the countryside. Either way, Maria wants to stay and refuses to move to the city. She still prefers to work her own piece of soil.
We went for a walk to the Ukrainian-Moldavian border. The following pictures show borderland and the path that Vasya and his father often walked on sundays, to play music in Moldova.
Moise Baranovsky had a deep love for—and understanding of—Jewish and Moldovan music, which he passed on to his sons and grandchildren.
The other picture shows Vasya and Moise 1963, also in Zagnitkiv.
The next purpose of this trip was meeting the amazing klezmercruise in Odessa. Montreal's Yiddish Hip Hop Superstar Josh Dolgin aka Socalled had co-organized this musical roots trip through Ukraine, on the riverboat Princesa Dnipra.
So we left Kodyma in the middle of the night to arrive in Odessa at dawn - the 'Dniepr Princess' arrived a few hours later, and we greeted the boat playing. On board many musical friends like Alex Kontorovich, Eric Stein, Michael Alpert, David Krakauer, Bob Cohen or our own Guy Schalom!
Followed a concert in town and a one-of-a-kind session on the boat.
Not many photos here (we were too busy playing!), but the klezmercruise itself is wonderfully documented and commented by the inimitable Bob Cohen, who also put a couple of nice video clips online. Mr Socalled's own comment about our session contained too many, uhm, passionate expressions to be publicized here.
March 9-17, 2007
Germany (and Zürich!)
Everyone who ever got musicians from Eastern Europe to the West has a couple of frightening stories ready, about visa and related issues... here's our latest fun experience:
through some interesting mistake at the German embassy in Kyiv, we still hadn't gotten the connected Swiss visa for our concert in Zürich - when our Ukrainian friends were already in Berlin, ready to go on the road! Through a single wonderful official at the Swiss embassy in Berlin—and some hectic last-minute flight bookings—we could eventually pick up the visa two hours before we went on tour.
We lost some kilos (and quite a few Fränkli), but not the gig!
So here are some impressions from our first German tour. No comment.
If you really wanna know what it's like, come see us on the next tour!
Thanks for visiting, and please come back soon! We have more stories to share... Real Ukrainian Wildlife. To be posted in a short while (he said).
Using old Podolian meditation techniques. Only the focussed records well.
November 27-30, 2006
CD recordings in Kharkov
We met in Kodyma for last rehearsals and went on the night train to Kharkov two days later, where we met Guy Schalom, who flew in directly from London. Kharkov is one of the biggest towns in Ukraine, counting about two million inhabitants - one of the best being the great clarinetist Gennadiy Fomin from the Kharkov Klezmer Band! Nothing would have worked out without Gena and his wonderful family. Gena, working in Kharkov's best sound studio, also organized the recordings. I took the hard disc to Berlin and mixed the tracks with the amazing Jens Tröndle of 1. Futurologischer Kongress fame.
This is Kodyma!
Join trumpeter extraordinaire Vova Voronyuk on his way to a rehearsal.
Listen to the sounds, smell the fog.
Smell the Lada, too.
In Kodyma, there's hardly talk about anything else than the upcoming recordings.
Some food to take on the road.
It's fourteen hours to Kharkov.
Mr Voronyuk at his very best
Getting the band equipment to the station
left: That's how you travel in Ukraine - and it's good that way!
below: midnight at some train stop - the sad end of two Ukrainian chickens
Rita, physicist, host, mother, tour manager, cook
Kharkov center
Kharkov suburbs
A modest welcome
A public building in the suburbs. This is were we recorded.
A nice theater hall with a great sound for a brass band...
... but cold as ice! There was no heating in the building.
Yes, it was November in Ukraine.
Strong Ukrainian men singing tender Ukrainian songs
Sergey, our recording engineer, being interviewed by local TV
A break: coffee, cookies, cognac
The general seems content
We recorded some very funny tracks
After the recordings we went into town to visit the studio
Studio M.A.R.T. - here's where 5'nizza and other Ukrainian hipsters record
Workers of the culture front:
Gena Fomin, Vasya Baranovsky
[...]
"Workers of the culture front - don't forget to clean up your stuff"
"No littering 1 $ fine"
just a bad copy
Authentic Ukrainian-Jewish Art at Kiev airport
Smiling goodbye at a rehearsal for the Kharkov Klezmer Teg
2006/2007
Kodyma, Odeska Oblast
Some impressions from the last trips. More to come.
Vasiliy Moiseevich, the general, ready to go for a picnic. You can't just rehearse all day.
Backyard in Kodyma. Watch out, if you're a chicken.
Mediocre Soviet art
Bad Soviet art
Some colleagues of konsonans retro playing the ever popular October march at a wedding. Custom asks that the bride and groom lay down some flowers at the local WWII monument. Also, as the late German Goldenshteyn pointed out, marches put everyone in the happiest of moods.
May 7-18, 2008
Germany & Belgium
Some pics and clips from our second tour through Germany and, for the first time, Belgium. Good music, good weather, good barbecue. Oh, Belgium: good beer, too! Lekker, zech. Must come back.
[Sorry, no black-and-white this time. Life has been getting too bright recently to further ignore color.]
Maybe the most beautiful and friendly venue the band ever played: the amazing De Roma in Antwerpen. We shared the stage with our friends from the Amsterdam Klezmer Band and DJ Gaetano Fabri.
Making a set list after the computer broke: cut-and-paste in the true sense.
Making stitches after the trumpeter broke: Vova hurt himself bad in Offenburg. Wouldn't keep him from playing, though!
A moment just like home: singing at camp fire on a truly free evening at German folk sanctuary, Burg Waldeck.
home-cooking: 16-egg-omelette,
just a starter for breakfast
Too tired to eat: touring is not for the faint-hearted
Last show in Berlin: Roadrunner's Club, the heart of Prenzlauer Berg
The beginning of the afterparty.
[Yes, it's dark. But the music's not.]
Ukrainians, pretty red: Vasya & Berlin klezmer hero Boris Rosenthal
Midnight fight:
Baranovsky vs Möricke