This reissue of 1962's "Jewish Wedding Dances" showcases the klezmer clarinet of Marty Levitt and the extraordinary arrangements and trombone playing of his father, Jack Levitt.

Almost entirely neglected by the recent klezmer "revival," Marty Levitt's Jewish music repertoire was arguably the most encyclopedic of any clarinetist of his generation. Born in 1930 in Brooklyn and taken by his mother to live in Poland at a young age, Levitt’s first professional engagement had him working for klezmer icon Abe Schwartz at a small hotel in the Catskills in the late 1940s. He continued for many summers as the regular bandleader at the Delano Hotel, also making his mark as a featured musician in 1951’s Broadway Revue, “Bagels and Yox.” Soon he earned a reputation as one of New York’s most enduring and entertaining bandleaders, especially when heard in tandem with his wife, the wonderful Harriet Kane. He passed away in Marchl of 2008.

Born in Kiev in 1901, trombonist, accordionist, pianist, and violinist Jack Levitt (Jack Levinsky) was a musician’s musician who worked and recorded as a perennial sideman with such legendary klezmer icons as Dave Tarras, Abe Schwartz, and Naftule Brandwein and with his own brothers, trumpeters Lou, Phil, and Frank Levinn. According to his grandson, trombonist Dave Levitt, “He went to school through the six grade – then my great grandfather took him out of school, told him go learn to work and do something, so he apprenticed at a barber’s shop, and the barber taught him to shpil (play) violin too.” He spent his early years in Philadelphia, but by the 1920s , he was living in Brooklyn, leading a band in the Catskills, making iconic recordings with Hershl Gross’ Boibriker Kapelye (an ensemble that also included violinist Beresh Katz and clarinetist Dave Tarras), and filling music manuscript notebooks with every Jewish tune he knew, using them on engagements with younger musicians who were less familiar with the repertoire.

Jack Levitt earned a reputation as a musician who not only know every klezmer dance tune, Yiddish theatre tune, and Yiddish folksong, but also had a definite idea of how these tunes should be harmonized, leading him to create some of the only extant reliable piano manuscripts from the classic days of American klezmer. His arranging style drew on the work of the best Jewish composer/arrangers of his day, including Joseph Rumshinsky, Sholem Secunda, and Alexander Olshanetsky. Of course, as a working dance musician, he made sure to add in his own personal touches. The fruits of his labors are the wonderfully idiomatic yet truly original arrangements on this CD of classic Klezmer dance repertoire, really a panorama of what one might hear at a traditional New York Jewish Wedding in the 1950's. It’s a recording that captures the music at crucial moment, just before American, Israeli and Hassidic music took over the Jewish party-music scene.

Also featured are drummer Arnold Jakowsky, trumpeter Al Beck, and the Gerber brothers on bass and piano. So sit back and enjoy a recording that brings the classic age of New York’s Jewish wedding musicians alive for all to appreciate for generations to come!

Dr. Hankus Netsky
Chair, Contemporary Improvisation, New England Conservatory
Founder and Director, Klezmer Conservatory Band