WE’LL PLAY WHATEVER WE WANT!

 
The mayor’s assistant told us not to play any klezmer music — “nothing ethnic,” she said. Just American.

No klezmer? Why did the Orange Village (Ohio) mayor hire Yiddishe Cup for their city’s summer concert series?

This was 11 years ago. All forgiven now. By the way, Yiddishe Cup plays at the Cleveland Heights Rec Pavilion this Friday (July 18, 2025), 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. And well play whatever we want! (Part of the Coventry PEACE Pops event.)

At the Orange Village concert, our contract rider stipulated a fruit platter, bottled water and colas. A good gig, food-wise. But what were we going to play?

I said to the mayor’s assistant, “You don’t want to alienate anybody with ethnic music?”

“Exactly,” she said. “That’s the mayor’s thought.”

“How much non-ethnic music do you want?”

“All or mostly.”

“Can you give me a percentage?”

“Ninety percent American music,” she said.

Yiddishe Cup played “Dock of the Bay,” Motown, Beatles, “Hang on Sloopy” and “Old Time Rock And Roll.” A Chinese woman liked “My Girl” so much we played it twice.

I told the crowd that Yiddishe Cup started out as a deli — as opposed to a band — on Kinsman Road, then moved to Cedar Center, and ultimately wound up on the far East Side. I kept up that quirky patter throughout because “My Girl,” the second time through, wasn’t doing it for me. An Orange councilman asked where Yiddishe Cup had been at Cedar Center. I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. I should have said, “Between Abbey’s and Solomon’s.”

We snuck in “Miserlou,”a Greek tune. We did a Macedonian tune. We did an Israeli tune!

Think ethnic.