Dave Tarras
{{Short description|American klezmer musician (c. 1895–1989)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
Dave Tarras (c. 1895 – February 13, 1989) was a Ukrainian-born American klezmer clarinetist and bandleader, who was instrumental in the Klezmer revival.{{cite magazine |last=Strom |first=Yale |title=The Mesmerizing Sounds of Klezmer |url=https://www.neh.gov/article/mesmerizing-sounds-klezmer |access-date=27 December 2023 |magazine=Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities |date=Winter 2024}}
Biography
=Early life=
Tarras was born David Tarasiuk in Teplyk, Ukraine and later moved to Ternivka, a village which was then in Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire and which is now in Teplytskyi Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine.Shulamit Shalit, [https://berkovich-zametki.com/2013/Starina/Nomer4/Shalit1.php "Король клейзмеров Дэйв Таррас (1897-1989)"], Evreyskaya Starina, no. 4(79), 2013; Quote: "Родом мы из Теплика, это на Украине. Потом уже в Терновку перебрались" ["We hail from Teplyk, and only later moved to Ternivka"] His exact birthday is disputed; it is often given as March 15, 1895,{{cite web |title=David Tarrasiak in the New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794–1943 |url=https://search.ancestrylibrary.ca/ |website=Ancestry Library |access-date=14 February 2021}}{{cite web |title=David Tarrasiak New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791–1980 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7W2L-NPPZ |website=FamilySearch |access-date=14 February 2021}} but other credible accounts give it as 1898.{{cite book |last1=Rubin |first1=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |page=290}} He came from a klezmer family; to the family of Rakhmil Tarasyuk, who was a klezmer trombonist, and Sheyndl, his grandfather was a fiddler and badkhn and Dave's five brothers became professional musicians as well.{{cite book |last1=Rubin |first1=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |pages=17–19}} Dave grew up playing a variety of instruments and immersed in klezmer music. His main instrument was the flute for several years, until he switched to the clarinet in around 1909.{{cite book |last1=Rubin |first1=Joel E. |title=New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras |date=2020 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=9781580465984 |pages=23–25}} By that time he could also play the Balalaika, guitar, and mandolin. He was conscripted into the tsar's army in 1915, but his talents as a musician kept him out of the trenches.
After leaving the Russian empire, Tarras lived in Bucharest, Romania for a short time. After making his way to Great Britain, he sailed for New York City in 1921, where he worked in a garment factory for a time.{{cite news |last=Pareles |first=Jon |date=February 14, 1989 |title=Dave Tarras, 95, Clarinetist, Dies; Purveyor of Klezmer Dance |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/14/obituaries/dave-tarras-95-clarinetist-dies-purveyor-of-klezmer-dance.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 21, 2019}}
=Music career=
Eventually he found he could make money as a musician, and worked as a clarinetist in many of New York's klezmer ensembles. He also became the preferred accompanist to many popular stars of Yiddish theater and for some of the great cantors of the time period.{{cite book |editor-last=Govenar |editor-first=Alan |year=2001 |chapter=Dave Tarras: Jewish American Klezmer Musician |title=Masters of Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=2 (K–Z)|location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-Clio |pages=609–11|isbn=1576072401|oclc=47644303}} In addition to Jewish music, he also recorded Greek, Polish and Russian tunes. His ability to play different styles was further masked by the use of pseudonyms on his recordings for Columbia Records.{{cite web |last=Rubin |first=Joel |authorlink= |title="They Danced It, We Played It": Adaptation and Revitalization in Post-1920s New York Klezmer Music |work=I Will Sing and Make Music: Jewish Music and Musicians Throughout the Ages (Studies in Jewish Civilization: Volume 19) |publisher=Creighton University Press |date=2008 |url=http://joelrubinklezmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/They-Danced-It-We-Played-It.pdf |format= |doi= |access-date=6 April 2016 |archive-date=April 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407004936/http://joelrubinklezmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/They-Danced-It-We-Played-It.pdf |url-status=dead }} It is conservatively estimated that he participated in 500 recordings during his career. The Dave Tarras Orchestra made numerous New York City radio appearances, starting in the 1930s.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96914101/todays-radio-programs-the-brooklyn/|title=Today's Radio Programs|date=July 10, 1932|work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle|access-date=March 4, 2022|page=E5|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96913824/radio-programs-wfox-times-union-22/|title=Radio Programs: WFOX|date=August 22, 1932|work=Brooklyn Times Union|access-date=March 4, 2022|page=16|via=Newspapers.com}}
His skill and reliability enabled him to play for many years longer than the other klezmer pioneers of his day (Naftule Brandwein, for example had retired or left the business).{{Cite news|first=David|last=Hinckley|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96912634/david-hinckley-spirit-of-the-music/|title=Spirit of the Music: Dueling Klezmers|date=April 2, 2004|work=New York Daily News|access-date=March 4, 2022|page=35|via=Newspapers.com}} Tarras' experience playing in the czarist military band, his ability to read music, and his excellent command of the Yiddish style made him a favorite among bandleaders.{{cite book|last=Sapoznik|first=Henry|title=Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World|year=2006|publisher=Schirmer Trade Books|location=New York|pages=11, 108–11}} After klezmer music fell out of fashion following World War II, Tarras remained one of the few musicians to still record and play actively. His style has been characterized as smooth and dignified, with deliberate and rhythmical phrasing. His personal repertoire came from his Bessarabian roots and the influences of Jewish and Gypsy (Roma) music. Zev Feldman has credited Tarras with not only "Bessarabianizing" Jewish dance music,{{cite book |last=Strom |first=Yale |title= The Book of Klezmer |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofklezmerhis00stro_0 |url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher= Chicago Review Press, Inc. |location= Chicago |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofklezmerhis00stro_0/page/160 160–61]|isbn=9781556524455 }} but also with replacing what had been the dominant tune style of the freylekh with the Bulgar.{{cite book |title=American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots |url=https://archive.org/details/americanklezmeri00slob |url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |author= Feldman, Walter Zev |chapter=Bulgărească/Bulgarish/Bulgar: The Transformation of a Klezmer Dance Genre |editor=Mark Slobin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanklezmeri00slob/page/101 101–08]|isbn=9780520227170|oclc=45223552}}
Tarras' most enduring recording, Tanz! (1956) was the brainchild of his son-in-law, clarinetist and saxophonist Sam Musiker.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96472547/yiddish-dance-tunes-released/|title=Yiddish Dance Tunes Released|date=June 1, 1956|work=Indianapolis News|access-date=February 26, 2022|page=24|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|first=C.H.|last=Garrigues|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96914853/c-h-garrigues-folk-songs-are-what/|title=Folk Songs Are What Folks Sing|date=June 24, 1956|work=San Francisco Examiner|access-date=March 4, 2022|page=ML1|via=Newspapers.com}} The San Francisco Examiner called it an "unusual folk album," noting that Tarras and Musiker "provide lively, gay, dancing music, under which lies often that same sardonic note which underlies the humor of Sholem Aleichim."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96917231/folk-songs-tunes-of-our-youth-sf/|title=Folk Songs: Tunes Of Our Youth|date=June 24, 1956|work=San Francisco Examiner|access-date=March 4, 2022|page=ML22|via=Newspapers.com}} The album, which successfully combines jazz and klezmer idioms, was not generally well received in its day, but remains central to the canon of present-day revivalists.{{cite book |last= Sapoznik |first=Henry |title= Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World |year=2006 |publisher= Schirmer Trade Books |location= New York |pages=145–46, 156–60}} Over the course of his career, Tarras was recognized for creating "a new klezmer sound that fused popular American music with recognizable European roots".{{cite web|url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/dave-tarras|title=Dave Tarras: Klezmer Clarinetist |author=|website=www.arts.gov|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts|access-date=November 25, 2020}}
At the beginning of the klezmer revival in the 1970s and 80s, Tarras mentored many young musicians who went on to become famous, including clarinetist and mandolinist Andy Statman.{{cite book |title=American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots |url=https://archive.org/details/americanklezmeri00slob |url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |author=Netsky, Hankus |chapter=American Klezmer: A Brief History|editor= Mark Slobin |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanklezmeri00slob/page/21 21]|isbn=9780520227170|oclc=45223552}}
Tarras was a recipient of a 1984 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984|title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1984 |author= |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=November 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810221411/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984 |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |url-status=dead}}
Tarras died of pneumonia in February 1989 at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, New York. He was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery.{{cite web |url=https://montefiorecemetery.org/search/?x=54&y=16&fname=&lname=tarras&dob_month=2&dob_year=1989&page=1&view=1 |title=Locator |author= |date=n.d. |website=Montefiore Springfield L.I. Cemetery Society |access-date=May 25, 2024}}
Family
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{AllMusic|id=mn0000678335|title=Dave Tarras}}
- {{Discogs artist}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American clarinetists
Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners
Category:Jewish Ukrainian musicians
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:People from Vinnytsia Oblast