Klezmer Music Resources - Sound Recordings:

A Statement of Purpose by Kurt Bjorling

Sound recordings are the most important resource for learning, and learning about, klezmer music. Although the klezmer 'revival' has been going and growing since the late 1970s good resources have remained rare and difficult to put to practical use.
Soon after I began playing it, I came into contact with several people who had gained prominence as performers and/or researchers of klezmer music. ALL of these people relied heavily on recorded sources in acquiring their most basic knowledge about klezmer music and each of them had either actively sought out collections and archives of Jewish sound recordings or had direct access to them through others who had done this.
I was extremely fortunate in that several of these people were willing to make copies for me of some of these rare recordings. In particular, Joel Rubin, Pete Sokolow, and Henry Sapoznik, without my asking them for anything, went out of their way to send me important recordings that I didn't even know existed. In addition, Hankus Netsky made a series of compilations on cassettes which he distributed to staff and students at YIVO's "Klezkamp" in 1986, 87, 88, & 89. These served as a rough early model for the series of collections I now produce.
During these years I noticed two important things:

1. In spite of the growing interest and participation in klezmer music, access to valuable resources did not generally improve.
2. Those of us who taught klezmer music at workshops and 'camps' often made reference to these historical recordings in describing or supporting the suggestions we made - as if these resources were familiar to all our students!