{"id":33622,"date":"2025-10-08T08:40:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=33622"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:32:47","slug":"a-and-b-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/08\/a-and-b-bands\/","title":{"rendered":"“A” AND “B” BANDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nYears ago I sent out two versions of Yiddishe Cup on a single night. We did business! But often the effort wasn’t worth the logistical contortions: Yiddishe Cup undergoing mitosis. Very messy.<\/p>\n

I named the bands the “A” Band and the “B” Band; I should have called them the red unit and the blue unit. There would have been fewer bruised egos among the musicians. I was fortunate; I always got in the “A” Band.<\/p>\n

I didn’t start the A\/B band ploy until I was about 15 years into the band biz and had a full stable of subs who knew the Yiddishe Cup Method — whatever that is.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The “B” Band<\/p><\/div>\n

Heads-up, bandleaders, don’t play the A\/B game unless you’re very experienced and totally upfront with the clients. If you lie, you might encounter what the New York boys call a “screamer gig.” That’s when the mom screams, “I didn’t hire this band! Where’s your bandleader?”<\/p>\n

Here’s what I said on the phone when booking the “B” band: “Bert Stratton won’t be there. Nobody will notice the difference.”<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Yiddishe Cup plays 7:15 Tues. (Oct. 14) for Simchat Torah at Park Synagogue, 27500 Shaker Blvd., Pepper Pipes, Ohio. Free.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Years ago I sent out two versions of Yiddishe Cup on a single night. We did business! But often the effort wasn’t worth the logistical contortions: Yiddishe Cup undergoing mitosis. Very messy. I named the bands the “A” Band and the “B” Band; I should have called them the red unit and the blue […]<\/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-33622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33622"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33657,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33622\/revisions\/33657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}