klezmer power without power

[Bert Stratton <yiddcup...>]

from Cleveland . . .

YIDDISHE CUP KLEZMER BAND PLAYS THROUGH POWER BLACK-OUT

Klezmer Power without Power

by Bert Stratton


Klezmer "like it was a hundred years ago."  said Bert Stratton, Yiddishe
Cup Klezmer Band leader, to the audience at Wiley Middle School, University
Heights, Ohio.  "The only thing working right now is this band and the stop
signs," Stratton said Thursday night.

A crowd of 100 people showed up for klezmer unplugged  -- "mishugenners,"
(crazy people) Stratton jokingly called them.  He said, "Don't you people
listen to the radio.  It said don't go out tonight!"

One person said there was nothing on TV, and another commented the price
was right -- free.

Stratton had previously told phone callers the show was canceled, but he
instructed the band to show up anyway.  "We'll show up and look
professional when it's canceled," he told his fellow musicians.

The band milled around the outdoor bandstand.  One elderly couple showed up
an hour early with longue chairs.  The school's groundskeeper told the band
to go home.  He said, "This black-out better last a while, because my new
girlfriend lives on the sixth floor of an elevator building, and I invited
her to spend the night at my house."

University Heights community coordinator, Walter Stinson, showed up with a
sign.  "Cancelled" maybe?

No. "Concert Sponsored by University Heights."  Stinson said, "Does
McDonald's have golden arches?  The show is on."  With all the trimmings --
meaning free Klondike ice cream bars, courtesy the city.

Stratton announced the band would end early, at 8:30 p.m.  "So you can get
out of here in the light," he told the crowd.

Yiddishe Cup's singer, Irwin Weinberger, said to Stratton, "We have to do a
lot of instrumentals, because nobody is going to hear me sing."  A trombone
can play pretty loud, but the human voice has its limits.

Weinberger owned a battery-operated amplifier.  "But I forgot it at Menorah
Park last night," he said.  "And it's probably locked up somewhere."

Just then Shawn Fink, an Orthodox wedding singer and employee of Menorah
Park Home for the Elderly, showed up and volunteered to get the amp.

The band played a lot of instrumentals. The keyboard player played an
upright string bass.  The guitarist played acoustically.

When Fink returned up with the vocal amp, the band teamed up with him to do
a couple Shlomo Carlebach yeshiva songs.  After that, it was the usual
Yiddishe Cup repertoire: Yiddish vocals, comedy and klezmer.

Afterward, as the band was packing up, the community coordinator said to
Stratton, "Good show as always, but you cut it a little short." 

Stratton said, "There are no street lights, no traffic lights.  Do these
people want to go home in the pitch black?"  The community coordinator agreed.

In 30 minutes it was candlelighting time -- also known as flashlight time.
  

http://wwww.yiddishecup.com
  




   








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