Re: African-American musicians and Yiddish/Jewish m.

[Ingemar Johansson <hebanon...>]

Thanks Robert,

In an earlier mail I mentioned "Mishuganah Mambo", which I suspected could
have some Yiddish overtones. However, since then I've come across a CD with
that number on it and must state that wherever the title comes from,
there's just plain English in it. In the liner notes to this CD - which I
just acquired some days ago ("Laughing in Rhythm" - Verve)  - it's however
stated that "Fascinated with the music of all kinds of speech, Slim heard
many foreign languages in New York and Los Angeles and made up his own
approximations, which sounded like them but weren't". So. perhaps the
question still remains: did Slim Gaillard actually speak Yiddish? 

This is not to say that Slim didn't have some knowledge of Yiddish. But
certainly he mixed his findings. We have Jack Kerouac's testimony from "On
the road", too: 

"Slim sits down at the piano and hits two notes, two C's, then two more,
then one, then two, and suddenly the big burly bass-player wakes up from a
reverie and realizes Slim is playing 'C-Jam Blues' and he slugs in his big
forefinger on the string and the big
booming beat begins and everybody starts rocking and Slim looks just as sad
as ever, and they blow jazz for half an hour, and then Slim goes mad and
grabs the bongos and plays tremendous rapid Cubana beats and yells crazy
things in Spanish, in Arabic, in Peruvian dialect, in Egyptian, in every
language he knows, and he knows innumerable languages".

This is, more or less, perfectly mirrored in "Opera in Vout (Grove Juice
Symphony)", issued on the CD mentioned above (according to the liner notes
Slim's only existing live recording).

With the help of a friend I hope to be able to furnish some information on
"Dunkin' Bagel" here tomorrow, or so.

As Slim's and Leo's musical comrade Harry "The Hipster" once sang:

Alright, dancin' in the lights tonight.

Ingemar

----------
> From: Robert Cohen <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
> Tol: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Subject: Re:  African-American musicians and Yiddish/Jewish m.
> Date:  March 11 1999 03:42
> 
> Slim Gaillard also recorded a delightful and charming jump blues number 
> called "Matzo Balls" (on SLIM AND SLAM [Stewart], a Swedish label, 
> apparently, recorded in NYC on 10/11/39), w/ lyrics:  "Matzo balls, 
> gefilte fish/best ol' dish I ever, ever had/Matzo balls and gefilte 
> fish/(it) makes you order up an extra dish/Now you put a little horse 
> radish on it (on the side) and make it very mellow/because it really 
> knocks you {right on out?}."  A gevalt!--obviously performed with, well, 
> relish.  My (I think very knowledgeable) source advises that he indeed 
> recorded a song w/ the title, as she remembered or knows it, "Dunkin' 
> Bagel--Splat in the Coffee," but neither she nor I have any access to 
> that record...Leo Watson recorded Ot Azoi (or, as there spelled, Utt Da 
> Zay) (..."sings the tailor...") in the phrase of Yiddish and almost all 
> English--as did Cab Calloway, whose recording, I (not very 
> knowledgeably) assume, is the more well known.  Watson's is on LEO 
> WATSON;  THE SCAT MAN, 1937-1946, on Swingtime; recorded NYC, 8/22/39, 
> w/ the song evidently attributed (!) to Buck Ram--I assume the same guy 
> who wrote, I think, and/or produced many Platters songs in the 50s--and 
> Irving Mills.  Hope this is of interest to those ... for whom it's of 
> interest.
> 
> 
> >From: "Ingemar Johansson" <hebanon (at) swipnet(dot)se>
> >Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> >To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> >Subject: SV: African-American musicians and Yiddish
> >Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 12:23:39 +0100
> >
> >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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