Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz too. So maybe he’s really Klezmer Landlord.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.


 
 

A SHORT KLEZMER BIOGRAPHY

by Bert Stratton

The book Dave Tarras: The King of Klezmer is 37 pages. Big pages: 8 ½” X 14″. Tarras played clarinet in the Catskills and brought his wife to the “mountains.” He owned a house in Brooklyn. He wore a suit a lot. He was very talented. Here are two representative sentences from the book: 1) “’I admired my grandfather and loved to spend some time in the mountains [with him],’ said Marc Tarras, grandson and doctor.”  2) “Dave was a very funny guy and had a great sense of humor.”

tarras bio book

Naftule Brandwein — another great klezmer clarinetist — drank heavily, hung around mobsters, and supposedly almost electrocuted himself with a lightbulb-festooned suit. I think a bio of Brandwein would be longer than 37 pages.

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Check out the Schmotown Revue next Wednesday (7-9 p.m, June 3) at Gigi’s on Fairmount, Cleveland Heights. Outdoors if the weather is good; indoors if raining. Soul music and klezmer.

Alan Douglass (L), Bert Stratton and Tamar Gray

Alan Douglass (L), Bert Stratton and Tamar Gray

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6 comments

1 Ted { 05.27.15 at 10:43 am }

Nice guys don’t write history, or something like that? I heard Ty Cobb has an interesting biography.

2 Bill Jones { 05.27.15 at 11:15 am }

Was it self-published by family? Seems like you alone could write far more about Tarras and that would be his musical side along. Great to be reminded of Tarras. Thanks, Bert.

3 Ken Goldberg { 05.27.15 at 11:36 am }

Oh Master of the Sentence Chop….

4 Mark Schilling { 05.27.15 at 3:17 pm }

Your autobio — this blog — will undoubtedly be the longest of any Klezmer musician in history. Or am I missing something?

5 Dave Rowe { 06.03.15 at 6:24 am }

Here’s hoping the Schmotown gig goes (went) well – wonder how feasible a Klezmer “Man of Constant Sorrow”
would be

6 Bert Stratton { 06.03.15 at 8:39 am }

To Dave Rowe:

We’ve done a parody of that tune called “A Man of Constant Blessings.” No joke.

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