Dave Tarras was possibly the most famous 20th century klezmer

Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...

 musician. He is known for his long career and his very skilled clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 playing.

Biography

Tarras, born Dovid Tarraschuk in Ternivka

Ternivka

Ternivka or Ternovka is a city of oblast subordination in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine. Population is 29,226 .-Industries:...

, (a village in Teplytskyi Raion

Teplytskyi Raion

Teplyk Raion is a raion of Vinnytsia Oblast in west-central Ukraine.-Settlements:Rural settlements in Teplyk raion include:-External links:...

, Vinnytsia Oblast

Vinnytsia Oblast

Vinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:The area of the region is 26,500 km²; its population is 1.7 million....

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

), was the son of a klezmer trombonist and Badkhn. He grew up playing a variety of instruments and surrounded by the music. He was conscripted into the tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

's army in 1915, but his talents as a musician kept him out of the trenches. In 1921 he emigrated to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where worked in a garment factory for a time.

Eventually he found that he could make money as a musician, and found a place as a clarinetist in many of New York's klezmer ensembles. In addition to Jewish music, he also recorded Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n tunes. His ability to play different styles was further masked by the use of pseudonyms on records for the Columbia company.http://joelrubinklezmer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/They-Danced-It-We-Played-It.pdf

His reliability and skill saw him play for many years after that other famous klezmer clarinetist, Naftule Brandwein

Naftule Brandwein

Naftule Brandwein, or Naftuli Brandwine, was a Jewish clarinetist and influential klezmer musician.- Early life :Brandwein was born in Przemyslany, Poland-Galicia , into a family of klezmer musicians, part of the Stretiner Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Yehuda Hirsch Brandwein of Stratin...

, died, and he was certainly the most famous one from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. He also mentored many younger klezmer musicians who went on to become famous, such as Andy Statman

Andy Statman

Andy Statman is a noted Klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.Andy Statman was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering bluegrass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, who grew up in a traditional but secular Jewish...

.

Tarras died in 1989 in Oceanside

Oceanside

-Places:*Oceanside, New South Wales, Australia*Oceanside, British Columbia, Canada*Oceanside, California, United States*Oceanside, New York, United States*Oceanside, Oregon, United States-Other:...

, Nassau County, New York

Nassau County, New York

Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...

 and left a daughter, Broune, and a son, Seymour, and seven grandchildren.

He is the subject of a recent biography by Yale Strom

Yale Strom

Yale Strom is a pioneer among klezmer revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities since 1981. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music between these two groups...

 entitlde Dave Tarras - The King of Klezmer.http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Tarras-Klezmer-Yale-Strom/dp/9655050556

External links

• Obituary in The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , February 14, 1989 (retrieved January 25, 2010)
• National Fellowship Heritage 1984