<\/p>\n
Jim Guttmann<\/a>, the bass player<\/strong><\/span> in the Klezmer Conservatory Band<\/a>, said his biggest thrill was playing nursing homes.\u00a0 Guttmann, who has toured the world, can pull that off.\u00a0 He said nursing home residents appreciated him the most.<\/p>\n Other jet-setting klezmers claim young Germans are the best audience.\u00a0 Or the Poles.\u00a0 Some of these young Europeans treat the visiting klezmer musicians very deferentially, like Old West buffs treat Indians at powwows:\u00a0 “Nice to see you made it through, dude.”<\/p>\n I don’t know about Europe, but I do know about the nursing home scene.\u00a0 If you don’t play “Tumbalalaika” and “Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn,” don’t bother showing up.\u00a0 Those tunes are classics.<\/p>\n Humor goes over too — usually.\u00a0 I did a comedy number at a nursing home, and an old man in a wheelchair interrupted, “Play music!\u00a0 Sit down!”<\/p>\n I was heckled,<\/strong><\/span> I was flustered, and I blurted out, “I’ll sit down when you stand up!”\u00a0 That quieted him — and everybody else.<\/p>\n When I’m in an audience, I often feel like bellowing “Talk!” at the performers.\u00a0 I don’t go for the laconic Miles Davis\/Bob Dylan model.<\/p>\n Performers: Make your banter interesting.\u00a0 Don’t just say, “The next tune is . . .”\u00a0 Tell the audience about your favorite candy bar — anything.\u00a0 Say more than the set list.<\/p>\n At Yiddishe Cup’s next nursing home gig, I’m going to read blogospheric Klezmer Guy prose while our keyboard player improvises behind me.\u00a0 One piece might be “Stop Talking and Play.”\u00a0 I’ll read two paragraphs, pause, and my keyboard player will lead the audience in a shout chorus of “Stop talking and play!”\u00a0 I’ll read a couple more paragraphs, and again the audience will shout the chorus.\u00a0 This will continue until we play “Tumbalalaika.” Jim Guttmann, the bass player in the Klezmer Conservatory Band, said his biggest thrill was playing nursing homes.\u00a0 Guttmann, who has toured the world, can pull that off.\u00a0 He said nursing home residents appreciated him the most. Other jet-setting klezmers claim young Germans are the best audience.\u00a0 Or the Poles.\u00a0 Some of these young Europeans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24530,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/24530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n—-<\/span>
\n1 of 2 posts for 2\/24\/10.\u00a0 Please see the post below too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"