Balkan Camp, August, 2010

Just came back from a week at Balkan Music and Dance camp in Monticello, NY   (Catskills) at Iroquois Camp.

The core of the experience is overwhelming presence of live music.  Greeted the first night by a friendly experienced camper I listened to a phenomenal Bulgarian band, XXXXXXX,  They included a singer, accordion player, gaida (bagpipes) and kaval (flute.)   Great energy.  I really liked the hot leads taken by the gaida player.  He and I exchanged friendly smiles all week though he spoke no English, and me no Bulgarian.

Right from the start I found the people welcoming.   Plenty of interesting meeting, greeting, and talk at meals (we generally ate at outside picnic tables)   Cabin six was coed and (except for Abby and me) all middle aged couples. It was a very friendly group. 

The schedule called for 5 class slots.  I ended up taking 4 and taking a nap or doing other things the last period of the afternoon.   I took:  Santouri (Greek Hammered Dulcimer) Accordion, Albanian Ensemble, andTupan (a field drum with a high sound on one side and a low on the other)   Teachers were both great musicians and great teachers.   Everyone was good.

The accordion class(about 17 of us) worked on the same music that was performed in the Albanian Ensemble.   It was very high energy music and tough to learn by ear.  The ensemble included the accordions,  drummers, some brass, a few violins (including Abby) and a bass.  It was a wall of sound....like being on a freight train that just kept running.   Was I a passenger car, the caboose, or an engine?   Each from time to time.

Tupan class required a new kind of left side right side independence that was challenging.   As I got it, I felt somehow this was good for my brain...to stretch in this way.    This class did its performance for a dance (no melody instruments) and I hear it was pretty powerful.   It was a lot of un.

The Santouri class learned one song with (for beginners) a fair amount of left hand right hand complexity.  I think the sound of 7 instruments was really great.

Each night there was a dance with a professional group (some assembled by faculty for the camp.)   Besides the Bulgarians who played twice, high points were an Albanian folk/pop band with a charismatic singer (wife of the Albanian accordion teacher.)   They live in Caldwell, NJ, but apparently she is very popular in Abanian.

A great Hungarian fiddler also pulled together a high energy group.

Each night after the dance ended at midnight, the camp opened up a Kafana (cafe) with drinks, grilled food, and volunteer groups.   Abby and I played a klezmer set with a bass player I've known from Northampton and a cello player from Madison, WI.   We sounded pretty good considering.   I really enjoyed playing back and forth with the cello.   Mostly I didn't stay up late enough to go to the Kafana.

There were a lot of other camp traditions.   One afternoon was Martini's served before dinner.   Another afternoon there was a soccer game between the brass ensemble and the Trans Carpathian ensemble.  (brass won, despite Abby playing for Trans Carp)

One night they held a benefit auction.   I offered a beginning or klezmer accordio lession.  Two parents were bidding up to $100 for this, so I said I would do both.   I had a 14 yr old girl and a 16.  They both did very well, and it was great fun for me.   I also gave two "lessons" to an accordion player on Klezmer style.   She said the most useful thing I taught her was to breathe and visualize the music before she started.

After camp and before Abby flew out of JFK for Israel, she and I had an afternoon in NYC.   We walked some of the southern part of Central Park  (seemed like half of New York was out on a nice day), listened for a while to a latin music concert, and then ambled down Broadway for a while, the took the subway to Katz's.   Ate pastrami with (of course)  cole slaw and Russian dressing.   Our transport from the hotel at JFK to Manhattan was on a bus and subway.   We were the only caucasians on the bus....an interesting turn around for the environment in which I live.  The subway at the LIRR in Jamaica was actually a Jamaican neighborhood (I think this is accidental but don't kow) was vibrant and we at a fast food meal of "patties."

Next day on way home I returned to Manhattan and stocked up on knishes at Yonah Shimmels.  It was also a culture shock to turn on the radio and hear a yiddish music program.  

These things can make me miss New York!