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I am the Sol Hiccup<\/strong><\/span> — maybe — of klezmer shows in Cleveland.\u00a0 I am a volunteer on a Workmen’s Circle committee that has brought in Kapelye,<\/a> Pharaoh’s Daughter,<\/a> Theodore Bikel<\/a>, Chava Alberstein<\/a>, the Klezmatics<\/a>, the Klezmer Conservatory Band<\/a>, Shtreiml<\/a>, Beyond the Pale<\/a>, Susan Hoffman Watts<\/a> and many more.<\/p>\n It’s not my money; it’s the Workmen’s Circle’s concert endowment earnings.<\/p>\n Many committee members don’t know much about Jewish music, so my opinion carries weight. Sometimes my picks work, sometimes not.<\/p>\n Anything experimental, feh<\/em>.\u00a0 Too much kvitching<\/em> (squeaking) on the clarinet, feh<\/em>.\u00a0 Hebrew songs — no thanks, it’s a Yiddish<\/em> concert.<\/em> Obscure Yiddish songs — no thanks.<\/p>\n Last year the committee<\/strong><\/span> brought in Yiddishe Cup (from a distance of\u00a0 7,920 feet).\u00a0 The band played mainstream klezmer and did Mickey Katz–style Yinglish comedy.<\/p>\n A committee member said the band didn’t play enough klezmer instrumentals.\u00a0 He said, “That’s what the Russians wanted to hear. They came to hear klezmer music, not\u00a0 . . .” He paused.\u00a0 “Ech, you were OK.”\u00a0 Not a bad review, considering this critic\u00a0 — a 94-year-old Yiddishist — often favored “horrible,” “not Jewish enough,” and “jazz – why jazz?”<\/p>\n Giora Feidman<\/a>, the renowned Israeli clarinetist, played all instrumentals one year.\u00a0 That was nisht gut<\/em> (no good).\u00a0 No vocals.<\/p>\n Where was the road to a good program? “Call Zalmen in New York,” according to one veteran committee member.\u00a0 Call Zalmen Mlotek<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zalman is not <\/strong><\/span>94 years old, even though his name is.\u00a0 Zalman is a baby-boomer pianist, theater director, and macher <\/em>in the klezmer world.\u00a0 He knows just about every quality Yiddish performer.<\/p>\n Zalman’s job, from the concert committee’s standpoint, was to forestall repertoire malfunctions.\u00a0 The committee, which included several lawyers, stipulated performers should deliver “at least 70 percent Yiddish content.”\u00a0 No more all-instrumental shows or predominately Hebrew and English song fests.<\/p>\n For instance, the headliner in 2007 had counted “Di Grine Kusine” (The Greenhorn Cousin) 100 percent Yiddish content, even though his group’s version was mostly instrumental jazz solos. When I told him he hadn’t fulfilled his Yiddish quota, he said, “Why are you telling me this the minute I walk off stage!”<\/p>\n He had a point. <\/strong><\/span>I should have waited.\u00a0 But his pianist had taken more solos, on the clock, than his Yiddish vocalist.<\/p>\n I was only doing my job.\u00a0 And I was in trouble. I was coming off a bad year; I had recommended an “experimental” act the year before. \u00a0I was losing my Sol Hiccup credibility.<\/p>\n We brought in a Canadian band, Beyond the Pale.\u00a0 They covered the bases, mixing klezmer instrumentals and Yiddish songs. I was redeemed for a while.<\/p>\n Then a long-time committee member quit.\u00a0 She said there wasn’t enough Yiddish, and hadn’t been enough mama-loshn<\/em> (Yiddish\/mother tongue) for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Azoy geyt es.<\/em> (So it goes.) <\/p>\n A majority of the<\/strong><\/span> Yiddish-speaking audience was in the cemetery along with the committee’s top pick, Bruce Alder<\/a>, a terrific Yiddish song-and-dance man who had died in 2008.\u00a0 Our concert ushers — World War II Jewish War Vets — were also with Bruce.<\/p>\n I played a party for Jewish war vets. They were Vietnam guys, <\/em>looking just like World War II vets, except breathing. The vets liked “Old Time Rock and Roll.” \u00a0I couldn’t see them ushering a klezmer concert.<\/p>\n This summer’s Yiddish concert is Sunday, featuring “New Voices of the Yiddish Stage,” an ad hoc musical variety show from Folksbiene — Zalmen Mlotek’s theater in New York.\u00a0 The musicians are in their twenties and thirties.\u00a0 Clarinetist Michael Winograd <\/a>alone is worth the price of admission.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Aside to the\u00a0 “New Voices”\u00a0 performers: Jazz is a four-letter word west of the Hudson.<\/p>\n