Before returning to play his latest album recorded with The Mazel Tov Cocktail Party Orchestra at summer festivals, New York clarinettist David Krakauer will be on the New Morning stage on Sunday May 29 in Paris, then on tour for a exciting “klezmer funk” project with the group Abraham Inc. A little musical madness imagined and created about fifteen years ago with two accomplices in phase with him: the DJ, beatmaker, keyboardist and Canadian rapper SoCalled (Josh Dolgin) and trombonist Fred Wesley, a boss of funk music (he played among others with James Brown, of whom he was the musical director, and George Clinton).
These three cheerful fellows will be accompanied by six musicians (Gary Winters – trumpet; Jay Rodriguez – saxophone, flute; Alvin Walker – trombone; Allen Watsky – guitar; Jerome Harris – bass; Tony Lewis – drums) and the rapper and singer Montrealer Sarah MK. Abraham Inc. has no new album to defend, no release is announced after Tweet Tweet (2009) et Together We Stand (2019), the only two discographic testimonies of the group. It is simply for the pleasure of getting together and spinning again this powerful groove – which they invented – that this tour was organized.
“Fascination for samples”
David Krakauer’s eyes sparkle when he tells us about the gestation and birth of Abraham Inc., during our meeting at the end of March, in the Bordeaux region: “It all started with my fascination with samples. There were some in my first two albums, published by Tzadik [label du compositeur et saxophoniste américain John Zorn, fédérateur du mouvement musical new-yorkais Radical Jewish Culture au début des années 1990]. » The clarinetist has, for example, invented for Klezmer, NY (1998), an imaginary meeting in a cellar in New York between Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) and the klezmer clarinettist Naftule Brandwein (1884-1963), created from samples by the musician Ben Neil.
When he meets SoCalled, David Krakauer pricks up his ears to listen to his crossovers of synagogue cantor voices, sampled Hasidic songs that he mixes with hip-hop, rock, reggae, klezmer and funk. “I said to myself: this guy has something very interesting to say. It is notably the first, to my knowledge, which mixes hip-hop with Yiddish music. »
The clarinetist has found his kindred spirit in his quest for this “Magical Association” klezmer, funk, jazz and hip-hop culminating in ecstatic trance. He invites her to join him in his Klezmer Madness orchestra. In 2005, during a tour in Europe, both said to themselves that they had to go further. “Suddenly we started dreaming”, recalls Krakauer. SoCalled launches the name of Fred Wesley. “I think he was a little dubious at first, puzzled, he was like ‘what do these people want from me?’ We found ourselves in a studio, a little intimidated, as on the first day of an important meeting. “What should I do?” asks Fred. “Do what you do!” SoCalled threw a beat, we played, it worked. » Abraham Inc. was born. This was followed by a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, another at the Trans Musicales in Rennes, in December 2006. The adventure was underway.
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