This exceptional melody was recorded by the great klezmer clarinetist Naftule Brandwein in the mid-1920’s, and it is a must-learn for every klezmer clarinet player playing today. It also has a warm place in my heart for two reasons. First, because it is the very first klezmer song that I learned to play on the resonator guitar. Second, because my mother once just happened to mention in the course of conversation that her father had hired “Nat Brandwein” to play music at her brother’s bar mitzvah dinner back in 1937. Brandwein, like my grandparents, (and like Harry Kandel, see song #1 above) was born in eastern Galitizia (roughly comprising southeastern Poland and other neighboring regions), so they were “landsmen” (pronounced “londsmen”),
i.e. hailing from the same “land”. My mother had been only 9 years old at the time but she remembered Brandwein’s playing. When I asked her whether her family recognized that Brandwein was one of the greatest Klezmer clarinetists, she said yes, he was very well known in her community and highly regarded.