Guest Player: 2004 [concerts in Holland]
Instruments: Clarinet
Profile: Jack's clarinet stylings astonish the ear with a hurricane of shrieking, bleating proclamations and counter-assertions. His melodic interpretations threaten to careen off the tracks, but somehow he gets you to the end of the tune intact, if breathless. Since Jack -- as a member of the marvelous Budapest-based Euro-roots klezmer band Di Naye Kapelye -- was already on the 2004 Holland tour, it seemed natural to have him sit in with The Klezmorim on some classic klezmer tunes so he and I could do the infamous screaming-reeds thing we'd been perfecting for years in various ensembles including Yankl Falk & Friends, Klezmocracy, and Lung Tung.
Laughing, singing, crashing the party, Yankl is larger -- and louder -- than life. A truer friend cannot be imagined. I owe him. He pulled me kicking and screaming out of a self-imposed exile from the music biz... got me gigging again... and helped re-activate The Klezmorim. For this alone he should get an extra serving of ice cream in heaven.