New Archive:

November 2001 Issue

Andy Statman, Mystical Jewish Performer
A Profile By David J. Litvak

It1s a Thursday night in New York1s famed Greenwich Village, the traditional heart of bohemia in lower Manhattan, where legendary folk artists like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan got their start in the music business. Inside the cozy confines of Derech Emunah, an Orthodox synagogue also known as the Charles Street Shul, a three-piece band has taken to the bima (stage) for a riveting and intense performance of mystical Jewish music.

Led by Andy Statman, the band (featuring Statman on clarinet, Larry Eagle on drums, and a guest accordionist) performs an inspiring set of Hassidic nigunim (melodies), a few klezmer tunes, and even some bluegrass thrown in for good measure. Statman effortlessly switches from the clarinet to the mandolin; his performance is so intense that it seems like he1s davening (praying) with his clarinet, using it as a means to bridge heaven and earth and take his enraptured audience, (which includes a local Priest) on the mystical journey with him. The evening itself is appropriately billed as "Music of the Jewish Mystics"--the music of Hassidic Rebbes and Spiritual masters.

Andy Statman is one of the most talented contemporary Jewish musicians on the planet, having recorded some classic Jewish music like "Between Heaven and Earth," (a collection of Hassidic niggunim) and collaborated with legendary Jewish artists like Yitzhak Perlman (on "In the Fiddler1s House," one of the best selling Jewish CD1s of all time) and master mandolin player David Grisman (on the recording "Songs of Our Fathers").

In fact, prior to recording Jewish music, Statman was an accomplished and critically acclaimed bluegrass mandolin player. In the 19701s, he was the founding member and mandolin player in the avante garde bluegrass fusion band Country Cooking. Statman was also David Bromberg1s sideman and recorded and performed with legendary artists like Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

After mastering the mandolin and bluegrass music, Statman, who was exposed to klezmer while growing up in Queens, realized that "no one was playing it" and decided that he wanted to "help keep it alive." So, he approached legendary Klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras, won a national endowment award to study with him, and became his star pupil and protégé. In fact, Statman says Tarras viewed him as his successor and even "bequeathed his clarinets to him."

"I ended up having an old-style apprentice relationship with Dave," Statman said. "I was lucky to be from one of the last generations that was able to have living contact with living masters like Tarras as well as other roots and ethnic musicians, and I was able to hang out with them and learn from them."

Statman then immersed himself in klezmer music and went on to produce several recordings with the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra. Statman and his band were klezmer pioneers, being the first to actually perform a klezmer concert in New York City in 1977. In addition, because of Statman1s virtuosity, originality, spirituality and spontaneity, he was hailed by Billboard magazine as "the John Coltrane of Klezmer."

Statman notes, however, that much of the music he records and performs today is not necessarily klezmer music but Hassidic niggunim. In fact, he states that, "most Klezmorim [klezmer musicians] were from Hassidic families" and that klezmer instrumental music is itself "the child of Hassidic vocal music." Their niggunim were composed, he said, "to induce a spiritual transformation in the person playing or listening to them." In a conversation that Statman had with David Sears (for an article that was published in Farbrengen magazine), Statman notes that, "Many of the popular Klezmer dance tunes performed at weddings "are really Hassidic rikkudim" [dances] and not even in disguise. Traditionally, they serve the same purpose to fulfill the mitzvah [commandment] of gladdening the Chason and Kalah [groom and bride], and to bring the soul closer to G-d through joy."

In 1997, to further explore the link between spirituality and Hassidic music, Statman recorded the classic CD, "Between Heaven and Earth," The Music of the Jewish Mystics. The CD is a collection of Hasidic niggunim that were composed by Jewish mystics to "touch the neshama" (soul) and heighten spiritual awareness. This recording, with its jazz sensibility and kavanah (devout intent or sincerity) spirituality, helped to distinguish Statman from many of his Jewish contemporaries. Along with "In the Fiddler1s House" and "Songs of Our Fathers," this CD helped to cement Statman1s role as one of the leading lights of Jewish music, a worthy successor to the great legacy of Dave Tarras.

Statman is currently working on three new recordings--one of Jewish music, a collection of Hassidic melodies called "Birth of a New Moon," (which the Shanachie label will put out in December of this year); an improvisation and exploration of bluegrass and American roots music; (also on the Shanachie label); and a solo clarinet CD for John Zorn1s recording label Tzaddik.

More immediately, Statman can be heard performing Music of the Jewish Mystics every Thursday evening, and Bluegrass and American roots music on Monday nights at the Charles Street Shul. He can also be heard performing on the Upper West Side with Country Libations on Saturday, November 3rd, at 8:30 p.m. at Makor. So, if you happen to be in New York, drop by one of these locations and hear Andy Statman perform; you'll experience a taste of the world to come.

(For more information about Music at the Mystics at the Charles Street Shul call (212) 242-6425. The Makor performance schedule can be viewed at Makor.org. And, for more information about Andy Statman, e-mail info@andystatman.org or check out his website, (which is still being built) at www.andystatman.org .

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