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I had a beer with Andy Statman<\/a>, the acclaimed<\/strong><\/span> klezmer clarinetist, in Little Italy, Cleveland.\u00a0 He looked more Italian than the locals. \u00a0Statman, an Orthodox Jew, wore a Borsalino hat.<\/p>\n I knew the restaurant owner, Robert.\u00a0 He once took me to mobster Jack White’s house to see White’s wine cellar. \u00a0White was a little old man, and the last head of the Cleveland Mob.\u00a0 Real name: James Licavoli.<\/p>\n Cleveland loved its mobsters. . .<\/strong><\/span> a couple cool names: Shondor Birns, Mushy Wexler. They’re history.<\/p>\n Statman said you can only play your hometown once a year.\u00a0 He does one big show in New York per year.\u00a0 (He plays a lot of little shows, like every Monday night at a New York shul.)<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup’s big show is Cain Park<\/a>, Sunday June 28.\u00a0 Cain Park, that’s where all the great Cleveland tennis players used to hang out.\u00a0 Some still do.\u00a0 Next to the courts, there’s a WPA amphitheater that seats 2,400.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup will have a couple guests<\/strong><\/span> on the bill: Shawn Fink and Gerald Ross<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even though Shawn is a baby (30-something), he knows a bisl<\/em> (little) Yiddish.\u00a0 Shawn’s father, Phil, \u00a0has done a Jewish radio show<\/a> for more than 40 years.\u00a0 Shawn sings a dead-on version of\u00a0 “Joe and Paul,” a comedy tune about a Jewish radio station.<\/p>\n The second guest, Gerald Ross, is a well-known ukulele and Hawaiian lap steel guitar player from Ann Arbor, Mich.\u00a0 He’ll, no doubt, wear a Hawaiian shirt.\u00a0 In fact the whole band will wear Hawaiian shirts.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because we’re going to a Yiddish luau. And according to the Cleveland Scene<\/em>, “It doesn’t get more festive than Jews in Hawaiian shirts.”
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\nHear <\/a>Klezmer Guy interviewed on public radio today, 6\/24, at noon.\u00a0 Dee Perry’s\u00a0 “Around Noon” on WCPN-FM 90.3.<\/span><\/p>\n