Working on a Klezmer repertoire is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Perhaps the timing isn't right. Or perhaps it's the opposite? Ultimately, you can't control everything when you're just a musician.

I've always played Klezmer. Among the first melodies I learned by ear were, among others, Klezmer tunes heard at home. Despite this, it took me a few years of working on Balkan music, not to mention my jazz practice, to better understand what I felt to be so profound and mysterious in this music, to be able to embrace it and offer my own version.

While Klezmer is indeed originally from Europe, it underwent a forced exile and found an adopted homeland in America. Separated from its Balkan cousins, it followed a different path, meeting jazz, rock, and contemporary music. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, folk music continued to evolve within a traditional framework, to the rhythm of weddings and funerals, adorned with increasingly subtle ornaments. It is said that in the past it was not uncommon for Roma musicians to play in Klezmer orchestras, and for Jewish musicians to join Roma ensembles. I was keen to reunite these cousins, who had sometimes lost touch. It's also an opportunity to reconnect with a certain aesthetic freedom, which historically belonged to Klezmer, a tradition that knows how to make the most of everything, like jazz. Listening to some ethnomusicologists and other self-proclaimed purists, one comes to doubt an obvious truth: mixture is at the heart of this stateless music, always enriched by what it gathers along the way.

The transcriptions by ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski, compiled in a large purple volume, were a formidable playground for me and my collaborators. He collected these tunes during the first half of the last century in the Soviet Union, from musicians who were sometimes amateurs. The harmony is not specified. I made a selection of those that seemed least known and most interesting to me, reading these scores during my frequent train journeys. Then I arranged everything very quickly, in one day and one night. And then it took us months to rediscover the spirit that runs through these popular melodies and to perform them naturally. Yes, simplicity is also something that needs to be worked on...

In my home, we are not religious, nor are we practitioners. "There is only one God and we don't believe in Him" was the first verse I was taught. This did not prevent me from culturally identifying with my Jewish roots. That said, if I have to use labels, I wear the one of "intellectual, child of the diaspora" with even greater pride. Today, what comes closest to spirituality in my life is music. I'm happy to be able to pay tribute to this important part of my heritage. It's certainly commonplace, but I've vowed to work joyfully with my friends and colleagues, regardless of their beliefs. We keep this promise on stage, as in life, when we furiously strum our instruments or exchange a musical phrase, when we share a meal and debate current events, eternal students of music, which is the river that flows through our lives and connects us to each other.

Marc Crofts Frémeaux & Associés 2025

Tracklist:

01 Ukrainian Medley 02 Farmer’s Zok 03 Belorussian Skotchne 04 Ven Ikh Zol Hobn 05 Volekh 06 Volynsk Nign 07 The Poet’s Nigun 08 Papir iz Vays 09 Rozmarin Nign 10 Weaver from Jelal 11 Anonymous Nign 12 Zay Gezunt 13 Perelman’s Tish-Nign 14 Sakhinovski Skotchne

Musicians:

Marc Crofts – violin, vocals (4;8) & arrangements (© Éditions Frémeaux & Associés) Atanas Marinov – clarinet Seraphim von Werra – accordion Piotr Wegrowski – double bass

Production:

Recorded at Blend Studio, Switzerland, November 2023 Mixed & Mastered by Antoine Estoppey Cover photos: Nicholas Crofts Sleeve design: Marc and Nicholas Crofts Group photo: Angini Pai Manufacture and distribution: Frémeaux & Associés Coordination: Augustin Bondoux www.marccrofts.com www.fremeaux.com

Acknowledgements:

My thanks go first and foremost to my fantastic colleagues, Atanas, Seraphim, and Piotr, who give their best to this project, and who are also excellent friends whom I am honored to know. Thank you also to Antoine for his wonderful work on this album. A big thank you to Priscilla who supports me daily, in a very concrete way, and not just with empty words, which in the end mean so little. Thank you to Frank Fredenrich, who gave this project its initial impetus, and thank you to Michel Borzykowski, for his Yiddish pronunciation advice, and without whom I might not have continued to play Klezmer. Thank you to Brigitte Sion for her efficiency and kindness. Thank you to my friends, for the courage they give me and the help they provide: Louis for moral support, Yardani for inspiration, Adrien & Neth, the musketeers, Hélène, Mélissa, Sâm, Sarah, Raul, Diego, and Kim for the proofreading, last-minute advice, and the rest! Thank you to Christine, my violin teacher who is always there when I need a refresher or an apéritif! I would also like to thank my family, for whom I made this album: my parents, my sisters, my uncles, my cousins, my grandmother who is still in this world as I write these lines, and my ancestors whom I wish to honor.

Song Lyrics:

04 Ven Ikh Zol Hobn Fligelekh:

Ven ikh zol hobn fligelekh Ay, volt ikh dokh tsu dir gefloygn. Un ven ikh zol hobn keytelekh Volt ikh zikh tsu dir getsoygn.

Oy, af yener zayt taykh, af yener zayt breg, Oy, zaynen di tsvaygn geboygn. Dortn, dortn shteyt mayn zis-lebn Mit farveynte oygn.

Oy her shoyn uf tsu veynen, her shoyn uf tsu klogn, Mit veynen vestu gornit makhn. Efn uf mayn harts, vestu zen, vi s’iz shvarts, Vestu visn, vi lib hob ikh dikh.

(If I had wings, / Oh, I would surely fly to you. / And if I had chains, / I would pull myself to you. / Oh, on that side of the river, on that side of the bank, / Oh, the branches are bent. / There, there stands my sweet life / With tear-stained eyes. / Oh, stop crying, stop complaining, / Crying will do nothing. / Open my heart, you will see how black it is, / You will know how much I love you.)

08 Papir iz Vays:

Papir iz vays, un tint iz dokh shvarts… Tsu dir, mayn gelibte, tsit zikh mayn harts. Ikh volt nor gezesn dray teg nokhanand Tsu kukn nor in dayne eygelekh un gletn dir dayn hant.

Nekhtn bin ikh af a khasene geven, Fil sheyne meydelekh hob ikh dortn gezen, Fil sheyne meydelekh, tsu dir kumt nit gor, Tsu dayne shvartsinke eygelekh un tsu dayne shvartse hor.

Dayn talye, dayn poze, dayn eydeler fason, In hartsn brent a fayer, me zet im nit on, Nito der mentsh, vos zol sen, vi mir brent, Mayn toyt un mayn lebn iz ba dir in di hent.

Dayn mine, dayn shmeykhl, dayn eydele figur… Oy, zog je mir, du oyg, vos iz mit dir der mer, Az ven du lakhst, mit groys freyd, Dan rint fun dir a trer...

(Paper is white, and ink is black… / To you, my beloved, my heart is drawn. / I would just sit for three days straight / Just to look into your eyes and caress your hand. / Yesterday I was at a wedding, / Many beautiful girls I saw there, / Many beautiful girls, none compare to you, / To your dark eyes and your black hair. / Your waist, your pose, your noble fashion, / In my heart burns a fire, one doesn't see it, / There is no one who can see how I burn, / My death and my life are in your hands. / Your expression, your smile, your delicate figure… / Oh, tell me, you eye, what is more with you, / That when you laugh, with great joy, / Then a tear flows from you...)