\n I met<\/strong> <\/span>Yury, a Russian, only four days after he landed in Cleveland.\u00a0 I met him at a park bench, 1990.\u00a0 I sold him my 1978 Buick Regal for $500, and I suggested he change his name from Yury<\/em> to Yuri.<\/em>\u00a0 Yury<\/em> would be a hindrance to his assimilation, I said.\u00a0 Yuri —<\/em> as in “Yuri Gagarin” — worked better, at least for me.<\/p>\n
Yury is now an engineer and lives in Beachwood.\u00a0 Still with the y<\/em>, 25 years later.<\/p>\n Yury lived in a subsidized apartment two blocks from my house. I helped him light the burners on his stove and lent him an old TV.\u00a0 When he got the Buick Regal, I told him to check it out with the Russian mechanic down on Mayfield Road.\u00a0 Yury said, \u201cI do not trust Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong><\/span> Misha used to hit his wife and daughter, and admit it.\u00a0 Misha would say, \u201cHere the police listen to the children. In Russian, the parents.”<\/p>\n Misha moved to Boston to drive a cab.<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong><\/span> Yiddishe Cup played a few Russian weddings, but not lately.\u00a0 I miss the food.\u00a0 Russian immigrant musicians cornered the Russian wedding market.\u00a0 Immigrant musicians know what the crowd wants and it’s not us.\u00a0 Yiddishe Cup’s Russian skill-set is\u00a0 \u201c7-40,\u201d \u201cHava Nagila,” and some waltzes like \u201cErshter Waltz\u201d and \u201cTumbalalaika.”\u00a0\u00a0 Also, anything from Fiddler on the Roof\u00a0 <\/em>is a winner.<\/p>\n What if my grandparents hadn\u2019t left Russia?<\/p>\n 4.
\nYiddishe Cup<\/strong> <\/span>had a Russian drummer, Misha from Tashkent. \u00a0He was \u201cthe stinger man\u201d because he put a stinger (a klezmer ending) on every tune. Which was annoying.\u00a0 I went to Misha\u2019s mother\u2019s funeral — the smallest funeral of all time. There were maybe 10 people at the funeral home.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine what that woman lived through, what with the Nazis and Communists.\u00a0 Misha was a pro drummer. That\u2019s all he did in the Soviet Union.\u00a0 Shelly Manne came through Tashkent in the 1950s and left a lot of drumsticks behind, which everybody prized.\u00a0 (Might have been Buddy Rich.\u00a0 I’m not sure now.)<\/p>\n
\nMoishe,<\/strong><\/span> the owner of Davis Caterers, said food at Russian gigs is “out of control.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cThe Russians eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once. Fish and cold cuts. Then soup. Then blintzes. Then prime and salmon and desserts. Plus vodka.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nYiddishe Cup had a second Russian drummer, Vladimir, who forgot his sticks and used dowel rods fashioned from a windowshade. That was his only gig with us.<\/p>\n
![\"russians\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/russians.jpg\")
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