Shloimke (Sam) Beckerman

Shloimke Beckerman (, c. 1884–1974) also known as Samuel Beckerman, was a klezmer clarinetist and bandleader in New York City in the early twentieth century; he was a contemporary of Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein. He was the father of Sid Beckerman, also a klezmer bandleader.

Biography Early life Beckerman was born around May 14 or 15, 1884 in Chudniv, Russian Empire, although on some documents he gave the year as 1886. He was descended from a klezmer family which had a presence in numerous cities in Poland and Ukraine including Chudniv, Proskuriv, Rozhyshche, Rovno, Klevan, Brody, Zamość, and Berdychiv. The musician family originated with his grandfather Solomon (Shloyme) Beckerman, a self-taught violinist and multi-instrumentalist who had led his own klezmer ensemble in Chudniv. (Chudniv was also home to a competing klezmer ensemble led by the famous violinist Alter Chudnover.)

He married his wife Sophia Messer while still in Europe and they had their first four children (Minnie, Tillie, Bessie, and Isidor) before emigrating. Members of his immediate family emigrated to New York City between 1909 and 1920, including his father Boruch and his five siblings, saxophonist Arye [Harry], Moshe, Elka (Ferman), Freitka (Grynszpan), and trumpeter Motl [Max], while many other members of the extended family relocated to take up orchestra posts in various European capitals. In the 1910 census, he listed his occupation as "Musician, Theatre". He also recorded a small number of klezmer and Slavic music records together with his longtime collaborator Harry Raderman, a trombone player better known for playing Jazz music.

With the passing of the Immigration Act of 1924 which greatly restricted Jewish immigration from Europe, and then the onset of the Great Depression by 1930, the market for Yiddish and klezmer recordings in the United States saw a steep decline, which essentially ended the recording career of many of the popular bandleaders of the 1910s and 1920s. It does not seem that Shloimke made any more commercial recordings after the mid-1920s. He continued to play gigs well into the 1950s, when he retired to California.

Shloimke Beckerman died in Los Angeles on May 12, 1974.

Legacy Joel Rubin notes that Beckerman is less well remembered than his contemporaries Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein because he spent much more of his career playing mainstream American music and only recorded a handful of klezmer pieces. Klezmer researcher Hankus Netsky describes Shloimke as playing clarinet with a "heavily ornamented and rhythmically propulsive style", while Rubin and Wollock describe him as being known for his "lebedike finger (lively fingers) and his ability to continually ornament the melodic line, injecting incredible variety and subtlety into his playing."

His son Sidney Beckerman was a well known klezmer clarinet player in his own right; he taught many members of the klezmer revival at KlezKamp and died in 2007. His nephew Sammy Beckerman was also a klezmer pianist and accordionist who is best known today for having been a longtime accompanist of Dave Tarras. There has been discussion of issuing it in some form because he made so few klezmer recordings.

Selected recordings Yismehu/Hot azoy (as soloist with Abe Schwartz orchestra, Columbia Phonograph Company, 1923–24) T'kies "Shofer blosen"/A Galitziane tentzil (as soloist with Abe Schwartz orchestra, Columbia Phonograph Company, 1924) A Europaische Kamaryska/A Europaische Kolomyka (as Raderman's and Beckerman's Orchestra featuring Alex Fiedel, Emerson Records) Langsam und Lustig/Sis Freilech Bei Yidden (as Raderman's and Beckerman's Orchestra, Emerson Records)