Ivan Rosenblum has said it once, and he’ll say it again: He is not a pigeon.
He’s a piano player.
“In the music industry, it’s very easy to get pigeonholed. Either you do this or you do that. Record stores say, ‘Which bin do we put you in?'” said a jovial Rosenblum, who, along with saxophonist Dale Wolford forms the Wolford/Rosenblum Duo.
While there are a few piano-saxophone duos, there are fewer whose work ranges from Ravel to ragtime, and, to Rosenblum’s knowledge, his is the only such group that also performs Jewish music. In fact, the duo’s latest album, “Laughter & Tears: A Jewish Saga,” is completely devoted to it.
“So if they have a Jewish bin, that’s fine. But, very often, they don’t,” continued Rosenblum, who lives, teaches and performs in Santa Cruz. “They have klezmer, or cantorial or Israeli, so we sort of roll the dice and say, ‘Pick one.’ But at least they’re all Jewish. When we do other albums, hopefully they have a sax section, so it’ll go in there.”
The Brooklyn-born Rosenblum, whose noticeable accent begs the question, “What part of New York are you from?” linked up with Wolford in 1987. And while a piano-sax classical duo is far from the norm, Rosenblum points out that, before it gained its greatest fame hanging from the necks of musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane or even Bill Clinton, the saxophone was invented with classical music in mind.
Wolford’s alto sax sounds like a deeper, richer clarinet, while his soprano substitutes nicely for an oboe.
“There isn’t anything a sax can’t do that an oboe or flute or clarinet can. In fact, I think a sax is closer to the human voice than some of those other instruments,” said Rosenblum.
“One of the great frustrations of our career is people who would come out for a flute or clarinet and piano duo hear about a sax and piano duo and think, ‘Oh, raunchy. How can a sax be beautiful and classical?’ It’s a particular challenge for the duo to show the whole spectrum. Even the Jewish CD has great breadth.”
While most Jewish albums are either klezmer or cantorial or Yiddish or Israeli, “Laughter & Tears” combines them all.
Rosenblum’s interest in Jewish music was kindled by poems a friend wrote about her great-grandmother’s life in the ghetto. He penned a musical cycle titled “Shtetl Voices” in 1981, combining contemporary music with klezmer, Yiddish folk songs and even blasts of the shofar.
Rosenblum included a few of his “Shtetl Voices” series on “Laughter & Tears” along with klezmer, Israeli songs, Holocaust poetry set to music and even early Irving Berlin vaudeville tunes the composer spent the rest of his life disassociating himself from.
The overtly Jewish, 1909 Berlin numbers, which play on archetypal “Oy! Sadie shoulda married a doctah!” Jewish stereotypes may not sit well with some Jews today.
“In America, various ethnic minorities are accepted into culture first by being made fun of. Berlin’s songs make fun of Jewish stereotypes, and that kind of satire is best done by the same ethnic group. Some Jewish people are offended by that,” said the pianist. “It’s the same people who think Philip Roth is a terrible author because his books have naughty things about Jews.”
Wolford, a faculty member at Cal State Stanislaus who lives in Castro Valley, is not Jewish, but as Rosenblum recalls his late father gushing after a concert several years back, “Are you sure Dale’s not Jewish? He plays Jewish!”
“His origins are in Texas,” said Rosenblum of his musical partner. “He keeps joking that now I’ve done my Jewish roots, the next thing should be some Texas hee-haw. I said ‘over my dead body.’ I’m not as nice as he is.”