Joseph Frankel

Joseph Frankel (1885-1953)

Joseph Frankel was born in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine). Kiev conservatory trained bandmaster and a band leader in the Tzarist army, he toured the US in 1904 leading the 14th Regiment Military Band. In the early 1910s he led theatre orchestras in New York. When WW1 started Joseph Frankel was touring South America with a Russian Symphony orchestra. He took US citizenship and became a band leader in the US army. 

After the war he recorded traditional tunes as well as his own contemporary compositions including 'Yiddishe Blues'.

"Yiddishe Blues" is a 1918 experiment by Joseph Frankel. The piece blends ragtime sensibility in instrumentation and syncopation, a klezmer melodic line with "Mi Shebeyrekh" cantorial mode. By insisting on including the rank "Lt.", Frankel was already signaling to American-ness for the Jewish nation. Suitably, Frankel was a band officer in both the Russian and American armies, a fact that reveals the futility of trying to anchor any specific Jewish national identity in the XX century. Even as Frankel was evolving a hyphenated Jewish-American musical identity, other bandleaders were still "national" to reference the European side, as in Abe Schwartz's "National Hora". Updating Frankel's work of hybridization has become basic to recent klezmer bands.

с добавлениями Mark Slobin

[78RPM]

Aheim, Kinderlach Aheim Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4498 1919

Dem Rebin's Nigun Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4439 1919

Dem Rebin's Nigun - Oy, Tate Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4466 1919

Der Kaleh's Cholem Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4704 1919

Der Nayer Beis Hamikdosh Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4552 1919

Frehlichs Noch Der Chupeh Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4466 1919

Freitog Noch'n Zimes Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4439 1919

Yiddelach Shimmy Tantz (Joseph Frankel) Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4610 1919

Yiddish Chosid'l Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4704 1919

Yiddishe Blues (Joseph Frankel) Leutenant Joseph Frankel's Orchestra Columbia E4610 1919

Last update 24-04-2009