Re: African-American musicians and Yiddish

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Perhaps that very performance is the one recently released on CD.

Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Kurland <ganeydn (at) crocker(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Thursday, March 04, 1999 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: African-American musicians and Yiddish


>Paul Robeson recorded a number of Yiddish songs as well as songs in
many
>other languages, though I don't know if he spoke Yiddish.
>
>Paul Robeson Jr. tells the story of how, during a visit to the Soviet
Union
>during Stalin's purge of Jewish writers his father asked to see his
friend,
>the Yiddish poet Itsik Feffer.  Feffer was brought to Robeson's hotel
room,
>and indicating that the room was bugged, told in sign language that
he had
>been in prison and expected to be killed, and that his family was
also in
>danger if it became known that he told what was happening.
>
>Although Robeson never made any public statement, at a concert in
Moscow
>that night he sang Zog Nit Keynmol, the Yiddish anthem of the
partisans of
>the Vilna Ghetto.
>
>Zayt gezunt (be healthy),
>
>Yosl (Joe) Kurland
>The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>Colrain, MA 01340
>voice/fax: 413-624-3204
>http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn
>
>>Willie the Lion Smith actually boasted some Jewish ancestry.  And
Slim
>>Gaillard recorded a song about Jewish food titled, I think, "Dunkin'
>>Bagels (in the Coffee)."  Somewhere, there's a film short of his
combo
>>performing that and tossing bagels into a coffeepot.
>>
>>Owen
>>
>>robert wiener wrote:
>>>
>>> I have heard from a reliable source that several African-American
>>> musicians (other than Cab Calloway) who grew up in neighborhoods
where
>>> Yiddish was often spoken spoke some Yiddish themselves.  I supoose
>>> that this shouldn't be too surprising -- remember our thread on
Jimmy
>>> Cagney speaking Yiddish in movies?  He mentioned Willie the Lion
>>> Smith, Dinah Washington, and Slim Gaillard.  Does anyone know of
>>> recordings of these (or other) African-American musicians that
reflect
>>> this cross-cultural phenomenon?
>>>
>>> Bob
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>----------------------
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>