{"id":23919,"date":"2015-10-21T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=23919"},"modified":"2015-10-29T14:53:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T18:53:50","slug":"the-coolest-guy-in-yiddishe-cup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/21\/the-coolest-guy-in-yiddishe-cup-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE COOLEST GUY
IN YIDDISHE CUP"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I’ve had<\/strong><\/span> musicians quit Yiddishe Cup. I’ve fired guys from Yiddishe Cup. I’ve never had anybody retire from Yiddishe Cup — until now. Don Friedman, Yiddishe Cup’s drummer, hung it up after 17 years. Thanks for everything, Don!\u00a0 You showed up on time, were easy to get along with, and played well. What more could a bandleader ask for?<\/p>\n

Here’s Don turning in his bass drum heads. (Followed by a\u00a0Don-is-god post from 2\/27\/13.)<\/p>\n

\"DON<\/a>

Don Friedman turns in his gear 10\/8\/15.<\/p><\/div>\n

————–<\/p>\n

Yiddishe Cup\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> drummer, Don Friedman, also goes by the name Donny Mann (as in \u201cShelly Manne\u201d and \u201cHerbie Mann\u201d — fellow yids).<\/p>\n

“Donny Mann,” the name, started back in pre-history — the 1970s.\u00a0 \u201cJan Paderewski gave me the name when we were playing five nights a week at the Blue Fox Restaurant in 1974,” Don said. “Talk about wiseguys. \u00a0It was all Mafia guys at the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJan Paderewski?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.<\/strong><\/span> His parents were musicians. They played a lot in Little Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jan Paderewski\u2019s great, great uncle was the<\/em> Jan Paderewski, the Polish pianist and statesman.\u00a0 Jan Paderewski of Cleveland<\/em> was a stand-up comedian, restaurant owner and pianist. He played light classical and standards.<\/p>\n

\"\"

“Donny Mann” 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Donny Mann<\/strong><\/span> attended Berklee in 1961 — when Berklee was just one building with a couple hundred students. Donny dropped out. That was the idea: drop out and play gigs. (Still is.)<\/p>\n

Donny Mann’s first pro gig was at age 16 in his hometown, Erie, Pennsylvania. Don played with the Stardusters\u00a0 (piano, accordion, alto, and drums) every Saturday night at the American Legion Hall.\u00a0 Tunes like \u201cPoinciana\u201d and “Moonlight in Vermont.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard \u2018The House of Blue Lights\u2019 in the late 1950s,\u201d Don said. \u201cThat drove me nuts. I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don worked<\/strong><\/span> in a hat store in Erie — \u201cMy first encounter with retail,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Don eventually worked in a men’s clothing store in Cleveland.\u00a0 And he listened to jazz — Gene Krupa through Tony Williams. \u00a0\u201cI shied away from rock and roll.\u00a0 It was primitive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t crazy about New York,\u201d Don said.\u00a0 \u201cCleveland was the big-time, being from Erie. In the 1950s and 1960s, Cleveland was the big-time — look out, Jimmy Brown!\u00a0 In Erie, I rooted for the Browns, not the Steelers.”<\/p>\n

Don worked at Rogers Drums in Cleveland, beginning in 1965.\u00a0 He sold drums and musical-accessory chazerai<\/em> to mom-and-pop music stores, and he gigged at night.\u00a0 \u201cEvery other word I said was hip<\/em>. ‘I\u2019m hip, man.’\u00a0 I used that too much.\u00a0 I try not to say it nowadays, but it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Don hung<\/strong><\/span> out at the Theatrical Restaurant. “I was never in the section where you ordered the expensive steaks,” Don said.\u00a0 “I sat at the bar.”\u00a0 He sat behind the featured drummer, behind the bandstand — the best place to watch the drummers’ hands and feet. He saw Cozy Cole, Papa Jo Jones (“He wore white socks”) and Louie Bellson.<\/p>\n

“Bob McKee, the house drummer, played a blue onyx Rogers. All the drummers loved that set. It had Swiv-O-Matic hardware. The Japanese copied it. Bobby still has the set in his basement. He’s in his eighties now.<\/p>\n

“Philly Joe Jones was at the Theatrical, too.\u00a0 He was more modern than Papa Jo. Buddy Rich was there. Gino was there too.\u00a0 Gino was a bit past his prime —\u00a0 past his fame.”<\/p>\n

“Gino who?” <\/span><\/strong>I said.<\/p>\n

“Gene Krupa. Everybody called him Gino.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0. . .Ladies and<\/span> gentlemen, please put your hands together and welcome the coolest guy in Yiddishe Cup, the one and only Donny Mann!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had musicians quit Yiddishe Cup. I’ve fired guys from Yiddishe Cup. I’ve never had anybody retire from Yiddishe Cup — until now. Don Friedman, Yiddishe Cup’s drummer, hung it up after 17 years. Thanks for everything, Don!\u00a0 You showed up on time, were easy to get along with, and played well. What more could […]<\/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-23919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23919","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=23919"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23953,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23919\/revisions\/23953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}