{"id":20563,"date":"2014-07-30T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=20563"},"modified":"2014-07-30T08:19:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:19:55","slug":"dont-play-any-klezmer-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/30\/dont-play-any-klezmer-music\/","title":{"rendered":"DON\u2019T PLAY ANY KLEZMER MUSIC!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The mayor’s<\/strong><\/span> assistant told us not to play any klezmer music — “nothing ethnic,” she said.\u00a0 Just American.<\/p>\n

No klezmer?\u00a0 Why did the mayor hire Yiddishe Cup for the city’s summer concert series?<\/p>\n

Our contract rider stipulated a fruit platter, bottled water and diet colas. A good gig, food-wise. But what were we going to play?<\/p>\n

I said,<\/strong><\/span> “You don\u2019t want to alienate anybody with ethnic music?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d she said. \u201cThat’s the mayor\u2019s thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

“How much non-ethnic music do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll or mostly.”<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you give me a percentage?\u201d<\/p>\n

“Ninety percent<\/strong><\/span> American music,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yiddishe Cup played \u201cDock of the Bay,\u201d some Motown, Beatles, \u201cHang on Sloopy\u201d and \u201cOld Time Rock And Roll.\u201d A Chinese woman liked \u201cMy Girl\u201d so much we played it twice.<\/p>\n

\"no<\/a><\/p>\n

I told the crowd Yiddishe Cup started out as a deli on Kinsman Road, then moved to Cedar Center, and ultimately wound up on the far East Side. I\u00a0 kept up that quirky patter throughout because \u201cMy Girl,\u201d the second time through, wasn\u2019t doing it for me.\u00a0 A city councilman asked where Yiddishe Cup had been at Cedar Center. I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. I should have said, \u201cBetween Abbey\u2019s and Solomon\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 Or maybe “We were in back of Harvey’s Backroom.”<\/p>\n

We snuck in “Miserlou” — a Greek tune.\u00a0 We did a Macedonian tune.\u00a0 We did an Israeli tune (!)\u00a0 And for some reason, “Hawaii Five-0.”<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

SIDE B<\/big><\/span><\/p>\n

1 IN 25<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I<\/strong> <\/span>went to the solidarity-with-Israel rally in Cleveland last week, I figured I would know 1-in-10 people. I knew 1-in-30, at most.<\/p>\n

There were 2,800 people. That was a letdown — not the 2,800, but I didn’t know more of them. I knew many of the cantors, rabbis and Federation speakers but I didn\u2019t know many of the rank-and-file yehudim<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I knew one person in this photo.
\u00a0 (Cleveland, 7\/22\/14)<\/p><\/div>\n

Shouldn’t I — after 25 years with Yiddishe Cup — be more plugged in than 1-in-30?<\/p>\n

There were<\/strong><\/span> Christian groups from far off places (Aurora, Westlake), so maybe I’m more like 1-in-25 (with lantsmen). <\/em><\/p>\n

Give me 1-in-25.<\/p>\n

—
\nYiddishe Cup plays 7 p.m. Thurs., Aug. 7,<\/strong> at John Carroll University as part of the City of University Heights (Ohio) Summer Concert Series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Alice<\/a>

Alice Stratton and Daniel Ducoff at the 2012 Univ. Hts. summer concert. (Photo by Jim Olexa)<\/p><\/div>\n

The concert is on the lawn in front of the Grasselli Library on the quad. Park in the college lot across from Pizzazz restaurant and bring a blanket or chair. If raining, the concert is in the Dolan Science Center. Free. (We always deliver a top-notch kosher-for-Pesach klezmer\u00a0 show for University Heights.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Guest vocalist Shawn Fink will sing “Joe and Paul’s,” a 1940s comedy classic, and the band will do its original “Warrensville and Cedar Road,” about TJ Maxx, Bob Evans and Target.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mayor’s assistant told us not to play any klezmer music — “nothing ethnic,” she said.\u00a0 Just American. No klezmer?\u00a0 Why did the mayor hire Yiddishe Cup for the city’s summer concert series? Our contract rider stipulated a fruit platter, bottled water and diet colas. A good gig, food-wise. But what were we going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563","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=20563"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20901,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563\/revisions\/20901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}