<\/p>\n
1. NOT THERE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Wolf Krakowski<\/a>, a singer from Massachusetts, used to skewer Jewish musicians on the Internet for performing in Germany.\u00a0 One of Wolf’s most memorable lines was “Nobody looks good in brown lipstick.” \u00a0(Meaning, don’t kiss German tush.)<\/p>\n One American klezmer — who played in Germany a couple times\u00a0— thought Wolf was stiff-necked. The musician wrote back to Wolf: “I’m a vegetarian and don’t wear leather.\u00a0 I am not evil. I don’t eat No sale.\u00a0 Wolf wrote, “Heaven forfend<\/strong><\/span> that any unpleasantness intrude upon your pursuit of the deutschmarks.”<\/p>\n Wolf dropped off the Jewish-Music Web forum<\/a> shortly after that.\u00a0 Nobody took his place.\u00a0 Impossible.<\/p>\n Few, if any, American klezmers are<\/span> <\/strong><\/span>as hard-line on Germany as Wolf.\u00a0 (Wolf was born in a Displaced Persons camp and has valid reasons for his position.)<\/p>\n The postwar generation in Germany is an appreciative, knowledgeable audience, according to many American klezmers. Just about every German town has a klezmer band.\u00a0 Nearly every American band wants to play there.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup would go to Germany.<\/p>\n Nobody has asked.<\/p>\n Got sort of asked.\u00a0 A festival in Fuerth, <\/strong><\/span>Germany, wrote me several emails about how they were looking forward to Yiddishe Cup’s appearance at the Fuerth Klezmer Festival. Then the committee switched leaders, or something, and I didn’t hear from the organizers for a long time.\u00a0 I emailed.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I phoned.\u00a0 I got a man on the line and said, “Do . . . \u00a0you . . . speak . . . English?”<\/p>\n He said, “I’ll give it a try.”\u00a0 Easy-breezy, with a British-tinged German accent.\u00a0 His only stilted\u00a0 line was his last one: “We will not be needing you.” \u00a0I heard that as “Ve vill not be needing you, Mr. Yiddishe Cup.” \u00a0Sounded like Kissinger or Colonel Klink. \u00a0 Kissinger.\u00a0 Kissinger was born in Fuerth.<\/p>\n Germany could use some Mickey Katz <\/a>parodies.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n 2. KISS ME, I’M BALKAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I want to introduce Yiddishe Cup in a foreign language.\u00a0 “Nuestro keyboardist es Alan Douglass …”\u00a0 That would be in Buenos Aires, say.<\/p>\n Der Rhythmus der Tradition.\u00a0 Der Beat der jungen Generation.\u00a0 Aus der Reihe KulturSpiegel.<\/em><\/p>\n That German is real.\u00a0 Yiddishe Cup is on a just-released Sony Germany compilation CD, Balkan Basics World Tour II<\/em>.<\/p>\n [The rhythm of tradition.\u00a0 The beat of the young generation.\u00a0 From the Culture Mirror series.]<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup doesn’t generally play <\/strong><\/span>Balkan music.\u00a0 No problem, the other bands on the CD do.\u00a0 Taraf de Haidouks, Boban Markovic, Balkan Beat Box.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup’s contribution is Mehkuteneste Mayne<\/em> (My Dear In-law) — straight-ahead klez.\u00a0 We’re right after Tsu Der Kretshme<\/em> (To the Tavern) by Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars.<\/a><\/p>\n London,<\/a> a founder of the Klezmatics,<\/a> is one of the top players in world music — and one of the coolest. \u00a0 He wears a Jim Brown yarmulke; shades; a billowy, flowery shirt; and yet somehow doesn’t look like a 51-year-old Jewish guy at a Woodstock party.<\/p>\n I’ve seen London a few times at KlezKamp<\/a>. He’s ingenious, making new music with pros and amateurs alike.\u00a0 He organizes multi-generational bands: teenagers pound drums, senior citizens skvitch <\/em>(screech) on violins, and assorted pros hold it all together.\u00a0 London directs this KlezKamp ensemble with his hairy, Cro-Klezmer Man mien.\u00a0 That’s side one of London.<\/p>\n Side two is Frank London as New York<\/strong><\/span> Jewish intellectual.\u00a0 In a Pittsburgh newspaper, he used semiotic<\/em> and qua<\/em> to discuss <\/a>an upcoming Klezmatics concert.<\/p>\n That wasn’t just postmodern.\u00a0 That was Post-Gazette<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n London calling . . .<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup, and others, is on Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH.<\/p>\n Yesterday Yiddishe Cup was an Ohio klezmer band.\u00a0 Today Yiddishe Cup is an Ohio klezmer band, but add irresistibly au courant<\/em>.\u00a0 Other tunes on the Balkan Basics<\/em> project are “Sex Bomb,” “Rod Serling’s Trip to Bulgaria” and “Are You Gypsified?”\u00a0 (By Globeal.Kryner, Mastika, and Taraf de Haiduks, respectively.)<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup wants this Balkan hubbub<\/strong><\/span> to last longer than 10 seconds.\u00a0 The Challah Fame in Cleveland is hastily organizing a one-day symposium, “Jewish Cultural Ventriloquism,” featuring these four lecturers:<\/p>\n Frank London, trumpet Bert Stratton, clarinet Walter Zev Feldman<\/a>, tsimbl<\/em> Steven Greenman<\/a>, violin 1. NOT THERE Wolf Krakowski, a singer from Massachusetts, used to skewer Jewish musicians on the Internet for performing in Germany.\u00a0 One of Wolf’s most memorable lines was “Nobody looks good in brown lipstick.” \u00a0(Meaning, don’t kiss German tush.) One American klezmer — who played in Germany a couple times\u00a0— thought Wolf was stiff-necked. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer","category-on-the-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988","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=988"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8819,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions\/8819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nmeat . . .”<\/p>\n
\n“The Visceral, Semiotic Link Between Klezmer Music and Yiddish”<\/p>\n
\n“Supple, Labile Ethnicity: Kiss Me, I’m Balkan (ne Klezmer, ne Jewish)”<\/p>\n
\n“Repurposing the Bagel Shmeer<\/em>: Klezmer as JIF (Jewish Instrumental Folk Music)”<\/p>\n
\n“How About Those Steelers?”
\n—-<\/span>
\nHear<\/a> clips from the CD Balkan Basics World Tour II<\/em>, direct from the Treffpunkt Musikshop.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"