ABOUT

Yale Strom (violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer, playwright) is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Roma communities.  Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music among these two groups.  Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present.  From more than 3 decades and 75 such research expeditions, Strom has become the world’s leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer music and history.

PROGRAM NOTES

Detroit (world premiere, Art of Elan commissioned work)

“Each movement represents a group of people who lived in and around Detroit and had a strong influence on the local culture and on myself as well. My politics, how I view the world, the music, I listen to, my creativity was greatly influence by my first 12 years of life living in Detroit.

The first movement is called ‘Anishinaabe’ which was the Native American name for all those indigenous peoples who lived in and around Detroit. I lived next to a street called Chippewa (The Ojibwa), and did a report on them in 5th grade. And when I found out my friend Chris Heron was African American and Ojibwa, it peaked my curiosity even more.

The second movement, is called ‘Hastings Street.’ From the 1890s to about the 1930s this was a very predominantly east European Jewish neighborhood where my grandparents and both sides of my family grew up in. This predominantly Jewish neighborhood had a strong influence on me because I would hear all the stories I would visit later in life when I was born, the Khasidim that lived there, etc. all this came to help shape who I am today and influenced my composing.

The 3rd movement is called ‘Black Bottom.’ The French who lived there in the first quarter of the 18 century name. The reason this neighborhood in Detroit was called Black Bottom because of the river that went through the neighborhood flooded often and left rich, dark silt, soil so then came the nickname, Black bottom.

This neighborhood starting in the 20s through the 50s early 60s became predominantly African-American. And I was influenced by African-American culture because my best friends through my elementary school years were either Jewish or African-American. Thus I grew up hearing a lot of their music, slang, saw their folk art in their homes, and as a kid, I thought nothing of it, but I realize later in life, how it influenced me, particularly with my composing.”

-Yale Strom

DJU TONGO

“Here is some information on this fascinating "creole" language that was created with the intermingling of Portuguese converso Jews, and various West African tribal people. This information is about the time period 1675-80.

At least as important as circumcision and ritual immersion in establishing the early culture on the Jewish (Sepharidic) plantations were language and the rhythms of body care, work, and leisure. Among the first generation of Africans on the Jewish plantations, a distinctive Creole developed to enable communication among men and women from diverse Gbe and Bantu-Kikongo language groups. With a lexicon of Portuguese, West African, and English words and an African grammatical structure, this language was called Dju-tongo, “the Jewish tongue,” (now known as Saramaccan), distinguishing it from the more fully English-based Ningre Tongo or Neger Engelsche (now known as Sranan) on the other plantations.”

-Yale Strom