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Nobody thinks Yiddishe Cup plays American music.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We do.<\/p>\n We should change our name to America’s Cup because we play James Brown, Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Motown, swing and Latin. \u00a0If we didn’t play that stuff, we wouldn’t work. [Watch video<\/a> clip.]<\/p>\n The working musician’s world is very schizo.\u00a0 In one set we might play “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Cecilia,” “In the Mood,”, a neo-Hasidic pop medley, an Israeli medley and klezmer.<\/p>\n Klezmer, historically, is Eastern European Jewish<\/strong><\/span> instrumental wedding music.\u00a0 But “klezmer” now means “Jewish music.” \u00a0\u00a0So “klezmer band” means “Jewish band.”\u00a0 “Klezmer” means you have a clarinet and\/or violin as a lead instrument.\u00a0 It means somebody in your group sings some Yiddish too.<\/p>\n Klezmer \u2014 <\/em>the actual word \u2014 <\/em>means musician <\/em>in Yiddish.<\/p>\n Stop. \u00a0This is not an Elderhostel lecture. \u00a0For more on klezmer, check out Henry Sapoznik’s Klezmer!<\/em><\/a> and Yale Strom’s The Book of Klezmer<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n There are five or six books on klezmer, total.\u00a0 We’re not talking about Shakespeare.\u00a0 You can become a faux klezmer authority in about 40 hours.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup sometimes does a whole gi<\/strong><\/span>g<\/span><\/strong> without playing one klez tune. We did a rocker’s fortieth birthday and didn’t play any Jewish music.\u00a0 The drummer from The James Gang was there, so we played “Funk 49” for the drummer and the birthday boy.\u00a0 Nothing but rock, except the birthday boy wanted a couple Armenian songs for his mother.\u00a0 That’s why he had hired us.<\/p>\n What does Yiddishe Cup have to do with Armenian? <\/strong><\/span>Maybe the clarinet sound.<\/p>\n At weddings we’ve also played Norwegian fiddle tunes, the Japanese ditty “Red Dragonfly,” and Guarani Indian music from Paraguay.<\/p>\n Country too. \u00a0A bartender once gave me a request<\/strong><\/span> \u2014 in writing \u2014 for “My Dixie Wrecked.”<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup’s keyboard player, Alan Douglass, will <\/span>frequently complain: “Why don’t we play something we know!”<\/p>\n Because that wouldn’t be fun. \u00a0Nobody notices if we screw up at a party, so why not mix it up?\u00a0 Now at a concert \u2014 where people are seated, staring at you, and paying \u2014 we try to play tunes we know.<\/p>\n