Albert Misak

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Albert Misak (born 1947 in Vienna ) is an Austrian musician , radio and television technician. He formed the Yiddish duo Geduldig un Thimann with Edek Bartz .

life and work

Albert Misak and Edek Bartz are school friends. Bartz was born in 1946 in a camp in the Soviet Union, Misak in post-war Vienna. Encouraged by Shlomo Carlebach , the “singing rabbi from New York”, the two of them began to grapple with their Jewish roots as teenagers. During the day they worked as electrical engineers or record salesmen, in the evenings and on weekends they made music. In 1966 or before that, the two founded Les Sabers and from the beginning sought a wide audience, performed in workers' homes and Catholic monasteries, played on peace marches and at amusement balls. An album and two singles were created. The scene original Padhi Frieberger created photographs of Les Sabers .

Inspired by the cult film Yidl mitn Fidl , the two school friends decided to devote themselves to Yiddish music . In order to realize their project, both had to learn the Yiddish language first. They then chose their mothers maiden names as their stage names - Bartz called himself Edward Geduldig , Misak became Albert Thimann . This is how the duo Geduldig un Thimann came about . The mothers were admittedly not enthusiastic and warned their sons not to openly portray their Jewish roots and culture in rigid post-war Austria. The mothers feared they would be beaten. One of the two musicians in an interview with Thomas Mießgang on Ö1 : "They were still afraid!"

The duo quickly established themselves and they liked the combination of Yiddish music with cosmopolitan, contemporary pop elements. Four albums were created in the seventies and eighties of the last century. The first, “Kum aher du filosof”, was financed by André Heller . As a result, the two musicians even made it into the charts with their special, exotic sound, which is inextricably linked to Vienna. From 1986 onwards, Bartz and Misak stopped giving live concerts due to political and social circumstances, and "the duo's preferred repertoire of Jewish songs seemed increasingly exhausted." As the musicians tell in an interview with Leporello , they were still interested in the question "whether and how Jewish folk music could be translated into the context of modern musical trends".

"Well, in 1992, actually almost in the process of dissolving, the duo wanted to invite some protagonists of the New York jazz and avant-garde scene to this style wedding." So the two went to New York and worked with experts in their field - with Don Byron , Arnold Dreyblatt , Mark Feldman , Guy Klucevsek , Ruth Rubin , Elliott Sharp and Andy Statman . The result was the last CD together, A haymish groove , which spans a wide range from klezmer to free jazz , from solo singing to children's choir to the use of prepared instruments, a “journey to the foundations of your own self”. The CD, with the cover design by Clegg & Guttmann , was published in a small edition, was quickly sold out and long sought.

There are very few sources about the end of the collaboration and Misak's further life. A footnote in an anthology indicates that he played in the Vienna Jewish Cabaret Company . In 1993 he played the role of jeweler Mordecai Wulkan in Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama Schindler's List . Misak then moved to London and later to New York, where he still lives with his family today.

In 2016 a new edition of a haymish Groove was published , limited to 750 pieces , with historical photographs by Christine de Grancy that were taken at the Vienna Schiffschul . The publisher is the Schallter label , which has been active since the early 1980s and was revived in 2014 by Walter Gröbchen . To finance the project, musicians and labels chose a very personal form of crowdfunding , in which unpublished photographs, out-of-print and autographed records or a walk through New York with Albert Misak were offered in return . This walk takes you to Misak's favorite spots on the Lower East Side , including a visit to the Eldridge Street Synagogue , the Tenement Museum and Katz's Delikatessen restaurant .

In 2015, Albert Misak and Edek Bartz donated their collections of photos, flyers, press articles and posters to the Vienna Library in the City Hall. In 2016 they presented the re-release of their album together in the Jewish Museum Vienna , in the Vienna Library and in the media.

Discography

  • Kum aher du filosof , 1975, LP, Mandragora INT 160.126
  • Mojschele majn frajnd , 1980, LP
  • Di Schejnsten Lider fun Jiddn , 1985, CD, EMI Austria
  • A Shtetl is Amerike , 1986, CD, Warner, A
  • A haymish groove , 1992, CD, extra plate
  • A haymish groove , 2016, double LP, (Re-Release), monkey music / Schallter

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Mießgang: Edek Bartz and Albert Misak: Jidl mitn Fidel , Ö1 Diagonal - Radio for Contemporaries , May 7, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Roman Tschiedl: "Patiently un Thimann": a haymisch groove , interview with Bartz and Albert Misak, Ö1 Leporello, April 21, 2016
  3. ↑ Albert Hosp : At home is where it grooves. Geduldig & Thimann on vinyl , Ö1 playrooms , April 12, 2016
  4. ↑ Monkey: GEDULDIG UN THIMANN - "a haymish groove" , accessed on May 7, 2016.
  5. ^ Dagmar CG Lorenz (ed.): Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria: An Anthology , University of Nebraska Press 1999, p. 311
  6. ↑ James Klarke: Steven Spielberg: The Pocket Essential Guide , 2004, p. 108
  7. ↑ Klaus Nüchtern : "We were just the party Hakoah" , Falter 16/2016
  8. ↑ We make it: Crowdfunding for Geduldig and Thimann , accessed on May 7, 2016.
  9. ^ Edek Bartz in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  10. ^ Ari Davidow: A haymish groove , review on klezmershack.com, February 19, 1997
personal data
SURNAME Misak, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thimann, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian musician, radio and television technician
DATE OF BIRTH 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna