The Linetzky Family - Diaspora in Buenos Aires

Release date 2012

A Mandolin goes on a Journey

For almost a century the Linetzkys keep up an intensive love for Hausmusik [home concerts] far from the old 'Heimat' [homeland]. 1929 dramatic social changes in Europe force the family to leave Europe and to start a life in the diaspora. The album »Diaspora in Buenos Aires« is a unique, moving AudioFilm [sound story] about the Jewish traditions far from home but not uprooted and homeless.

Andrés Linetzky's grandfather José Linetzky is born during World War I in the village Belz in Eastern Europe. At that time still 3,600 Jewish people live in that village with a total population of 6,000. Jewish culture is here at home. The Linetzkys stay in a house in the ‘Musician's Street‘, they are Klesmer, that is the name of musicians who play Yiddish music. And they have a book shop. The family of Andrés' other grandfather Jaime Szczupak comes also from Europe, from Poland, and also that part of his family moves to Argentina to find a new place in 1929. In the year of the emigration José celebrates his thirteenth birthday and his mother teaches him how to play the mandolin. Much later, José falls in love with Rosita Garber. She has music in her veins, too. She plays clarinet, and during a rehearsal for home concerts both sit on one chair at the piano, and José plays the left hand and Rosita the right. Secretly they kiss each other and tell that later to the family. 1934 they get married. Several decades later in 1988 Zeide [grandfather] José – now 72 years old – plays a polka [track 23] together with his fourteen year old grandchild Andrés. The second last track represents this scene as a flashback and is an important structural component of this story.

In the history books is written that 1929 is the year of the Wall Street crash and the start of a worldwide Great Depression. In Europe significant changes happen also before this date, and the village Belz is at the center of the dreadful development. Beginning of the 19th century Poland falls apart and the originally Jewish homogeneous population in Eastern Europe is separated in different national states. The situation for the Jewish people has grown steadily worse decade by decade. The largest part of the Jewish population is now part of Tsarist Russia. Pogroms are growing, and the Jewish are losing almost all rights and have to stay in the so-called Pale of Settlement, the Western border regions of the old Russian Empire. In between 1890 and the end of World War I around two million Jews flee from that area to start a new life in America. George Gershwin's parents are part of them, and [track 8] »Suite mozaica« shows where his roots lie. In 1924 the immigration into the United States abates because more stringent restrictions come into force. Mauricio Kagel's father flees like the grandparents of Andrés Linetzky to Buenos Aires. And also Uri Caine's grandparents immigrate to the US. Through Uri Caine's »Primal Light« floats Jewish music, which is a reference to his roots and also to the source of Gustav Mahler.

Because of the international politics Belz has to change the nationality many times. After the partition of Poland Belz belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Belz is part of the West Ukrainian Republic. 1919 Belz turns Polish again, then Germany rules brutally over Belz, and after that Belz belongs again to Poland, and then to the USSR, and since the end of the USSR Belz is now part of Ukraine. The traditional Jewish life and the Jewish culture are almost totally wiped out.

Back to the year 1929, José is thirteen years old, the Linetzkys escape the Holocaust by moving to Buenos Aires. Among the few things they carry in their luggage, there is José's mother's mandolin. Her instrument can be heard on this album. The Young Linetzky generation plays »Beltz mas Sher«, a tribute to Belz. In their South American environment, the Linetzkys meet regularly to play music at home [Hausmusik]. Klezmer is played, cultivated and transmitted from the grandfather, to the father, the son and the grandson. Diaspora in Buenos Aires. Andrés' mother Susana encourages the family to play music at home Saturday after Saturday. The young generation is not so crazy about that habit to make music every Saturday. But today Andrés and his sister and brothers are totally happy that the mother did not give up. Her commitment keeps the family together and the Jewish tradition alive.

The key theme »Belz« opens this album. At the house of Andrés Linetzky's mother a music cassette recorded many years ago plays »Polka + Sher« [track 2] featuring the grandfather José and his grandchildren. Years later the young generation takes their instruments and plays »Belz« and other songs. The Hausmusik starts. In track 7 the grandfather talks about the synagogue, ecstasy and sings the Havdalah. Then the Hausmusik goes on. These sounds might not exist without the encouragement of mother Susana. »The Melody of Belz« sounds from far away, Children play [track 10] and sing. Zeide [grandfather] José tells stories about Belz, about a violin player, a street musician who plays a waltz over and over. A piece of nostalgia becomes alive and fades away. The young Linetzkys make Hausmusik. Melodies, harmonies and rhythms sound through the house of the mother. Gustav Mahler, George Gershwin and Uri Caine know this music, and they adapt and carry parts of that tradition in their new compositions. The old Europe sounds in Buenos Aires in a little house. The song »Oifn Pripitchik« [track 16] rock still today children to sleep because singing creates a sense of security. »Bulgarish« [track 24] calls Zeide, the music comes from an old cassette recorder, and in the middle of the song the young generation takes over. »Belz« [track 24] opens, recalls and closes in different variations and fragments this album. Andrés' grandaunt sings at the end the little hymn about a little village in Eastern Europe.

Since fifteen years Andrés Linetzky is connected with Winter&Winter with different Tango productions of his groups »Tangata Rea« and »Vale Tango«. Already in 1997 he plays – twenty three years old – piano in the AudioFilm »¡Tango Vivo! Noches de Buenos Aires«.

»Diaspora in Buenos Aires« is Andrés Linetzky's fifth Winter&Winter album. In the fall 2012 »Las huellas en el mar« [»The traces in the sea«] featuring the ensemble Vale Tango will be released. The compositions by Andrés Linetzky are like sound paintings of scenes in Buenos Aires, the city which the Linetzky family has reached over the ocean.

– Stefan Winter