SV: African-American musicians and Yiddish

[Ingemar Johansson <hebanon...>]

Somewhere I've read that singer and drummer Leo Watson sometimes excelled
in Yiddish too. Unfortunately I can't find the reference now and I know of
no records proving this (could be some in "The Spirits of Rhythm"
collection, though), but it sounds plausible as he moved around in the
circles of Slim Gaillard ("the jive-idiom" of these artists would be worth
a close study, I think).

Ingemar

----------
> Från: robert wiener <wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com>
> Till: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Ämne: African-American musicians and Yiddish
> Datum:  den 5 mars 1999 01:55
> 
> 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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