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All Music Guide:
David Tarras was born in Russia at the end of the 19th century and in his youth absorbed the laws of both Judaism and klezmer clarinet playing. Extolled for the second, he was reviled for the first, and suffered from the growing waves of anti-semitism that swept across Eastern Europe at the dawn of the 20th century. Although Tarras enjoyed a considerable reputation as a clarinetist, he could not abide the pressures of Russian life, and in 1921 he emigrated to America. Arriving at Ellis Island, NY, his baggage was fumigated and his clarinet ruined, but his will to play music survived. Tarras managed to become one of the best respected klezmer musicians in America, widely known for graceful, soaring music with its powerful evocation of shtetl life. But Tarras not only played with traditional ensembles, he also played for the theater, in big bands, and for radio commercials.
Wikipedia:
Dave Tarras (1897 – February 13, 1989) was possibly the most famous 20th century klezmer musician. He is known for his long career and his very skilled clarinet playing.
Biography
Tarras, born Dovid Tarraschuk in Ternivka, (a village in Teplytskyi Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine), 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's army in 1915, but his talents as a musician kept him out of the trenches. In 1921 he emigrated to New York City, 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, Polish, and Russian tunes. His ability to play different styles was further masked by the use of pseudonyms on records for the Columbia company.[1]
His reliability and skill saw him play for many years after that other famous klezmer clarinetist, Naftule Brandwein, 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.
Tarras died in 1989 in Oceanside, Nassau County, New York and left a daughter, Broune, and a son, Seymour, and seven grandchildren.
He is the subject of a recent biography by Yale Strom entitled Dave Tarras - The King of Klezmer.[2]
