Pete Rushevsky's Post-modern Tsymbalism.

There can be too much of a good thing, you know. Witness Pete Rushevsky's collection of tsimbls - small cimbaloms of east Europe, located in his rather tiny flat on Manhatten's upper west side. Magyar cimbaloms, Ukrainian and Belorussian tsymbalys, Romanian tambal mic, if it's stringed and you hammer it, and it fits in a Volkswagen, Pete has somehow acquired it and learned to play it. Had Pete chosen to become a doctor, he would probably have discovered a cure for cancer by now, but noooo... he had to learn to play cimbalom. Mankind's loss, klezmer musics' gain. A typical New York story. Pete was a mild mannered banjo player and hospital administrator before discovering the the tsimbl. Subsequently he developed into one of the most thorough researchers of early traditional Jewish music, focusing on the role of the Jewish hammered dulcimer, known as tsimbl, and its many permutations in east Europe. Now he is Executive Director of New York's Center for Traditional Music and Dance, formerly the Balkan Arts Center, which was highly influential in feeding my appetite for eastern European traditional music when I was a teenager. Pete's CD with fiddler Elie Rosenblatt "Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music for Hammered Dulcimer & Violin" is my absolute favorite CD of traditional small ensemble old style Klezmer music, bar none. That CD beats everybody else's for sheer listenability.
Pete's place is essentially a shrine to the Romanian-American Jewish tsimbalist Joseph Moskowitz. From Pete's page on Moskowitz: "Famous for his cymbalom playing, he was born in Romania in 1879. He learned the play cymbalom from his father. He came to Boston, in the US, in 1908 to play a gig. After touring for five years, he opened up a restaurant on New York's Lower East Side. In 1943 he moved to Washington, DC, where he played at Michel's French Restaurant, on Vermont Ave., near Dupont Circle. He died on June 27, 1954, at George Washington University Hospital of a heart ailment." (Order the Moskowitz reissue CD... )Above, from Pete's collection, is an old cimbalom, possibly a Jewish tsimbl from Galicia, of the type used until very recently around Rzeszów, Poland.A greek santouri tuned in the Hungarian manner. This instrument used to be Pete's main axe.Above, a contemporary Belorussian style tsymbaly made by Jozef Jankowski in New York State. Jankowski is the last maker who produces tsimbls in the traditional manner in the west Galician tuning.Seen above is the runt of the litter, a Romanian tsambal mic produced by the Hora instrument factory in Reghin, Mures county, Romania. This is the same tsambal that I have in my living room in Budapest. Like many of the instruments coming out of the Hora factory, they are absolute crap when they come out of the shop. You basically have to rebuild them, but considering the price you couldn't buy the wood and tuning pegs for that low a price outside of Romania, and it already comes assembled. It isn't as bad their cobza, which is usually a cheap bit of crap beyond hope of rescue (although, typically, sometimes one escapes the Hora factory in playable condition.). You have to restring this tsambal mic with playable strings, replace the bass strings entirely, make extra bridge inserts to adjust for tuning. Just like the Romanian Dacia car, it works after you completely rebuild it. And then you get a cheap, tinny sounding little wanking instrument that is suitable for learning the basics, since it would cost you another 1000 Euros to get a similar instrument with slightly better quality. On the other hand, you can wrap it in a blanket, toss it on a plane as check-in luggage, and even the most retarded airlines can't do much damage to it if you have to tour with it. Needless to say, I love mine. [Note: Pete's tsambal was rebuilt by R. L. Reid, aka Ruvi Tsimbler... whose notes in the comments reminded me that I should mention that after all the work he did on Pete's tsambal, the end result is a fine and fully playable instrument, as opposed to the stringed can of soup that comes out of the Hora Factory]
Pete lives near a great Mexican restaurant, Taqueria y Fonda La Mexicana, at 103 on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan that specializes in food from the state of Puebla. Mexicans are the fastest rowing ethnic group in the New York area, and unlike the attitudes voiced against Mexican immigrants in the western part of the US, in New York everybody seems to want more Mexicans. But then, New York doesn't vote Republican anymore. The Mexicanos work hard, they are friendly, they usually know English, and their cuisine - the real stuff from Puebla, for example - was relatively unknown in New York until recently. Many work as kitchen staff in New York's finest restaurants - you won't get to eat fine French cuisine in NY if there are no Poblanos in the kitchen. On their own time, it's home style food... this is an acre or so of pork in green mole sauce, black beans, rice and tortillas for ten bucks. (Red mole sauce chicken in the rear...) Damnnnn...