Track Listing

1. Introduction to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swing Orchestra
2. The Bridgeroom Special - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swing Orchestra
3. Adler Shoes Commercial
4. Second Avenue Square Dance - Dave Tarras Orchestra
5. Oh Mama, I'm So in Love - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
6. WEVD Station ID - Solomon Dingol
7. Die Goldene Khasene - Abe Ellstein Orchestra
8. Manischewitz Matzo Commercial - The Barry Sisters and Jan Bart with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
9. Samson and Delilah - The Barry Sisters and Jan Bart with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
10. Bei Mir Bist du Schoen - The Andrews Sisters
11. Hebrew National Meats Commercial
12. Joe and Paul Commercial - Paul Kofsky and Sholom Secunda
13. Joe and Paul - Barton Brothers
14. WEVD Station ID
15. Levine Mit Zayn Flying Machine - Charles Cohan
16. WVFW Station ID - Frank Daniels
17. Parkway Cafeteria Commercial - Rubin Goldberg and Hannah Hollander
18. Dona Dona - Moishe Oysher and Sholom Secunda
19. Stanton Street Clothier's Theme Song - Moishe Oysher
20. WBBC Station ID - Brett Childs
21. Wo Bistdu Gewesen Vor Prohibition - Naftule Brandwein Orchestra
22. Milady Frozen Fruit Products Commercial - Pincus Sisters
23. Ajax Commercial - Seymour Rechtzeit
24. Surrey Mitn Fringe Afn Top, Oy S'iz a Sheyne Fremorgn - Seymour Rechtzeit
25. Introduction to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
26. Yidel Mitn Fiedel - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
27. WCNW Station ID
28. Turkish Yalle Ve Uve - Naftule Brandwein Orchestra
29. Gefilte Fish Commercial
30. Dayenu - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
31. Eastside Gluckstern's Restaruant Commercial - Pincus Sisters
32. Barbasol Commercial - Seymour Rechtzeit
33. Battle Hymn of the Republic - Seymour Rechtzeit
34. Sign-Off to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38301 in Music
• Released on: 2002-03-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
The dual assault of TV and rock & roll in the 1950s caused many casualties, among them swing music, radio, and a vital Yiddish-American culture. This wonderful project (and its companion 10-part National Public Radio documentary series) celebrates a time when those three institutions joined together to form a powerful force of their own. Producers Henry Sapoznik and Yair Reiner re-create Yiddish radio's golden age of the 1930s through the 1950s with a combination of klezmer music, "Yiddish swing," and commercial jingles culled from vintage 78s as well as radio transcriptions (once the property of longtime TV host Joe Franklin). It's a fascinating story of a time when Jewish culture thrived in its new home, but within is buried a different story: one of assimilation. The once-beloved traditional klezmer sounds of Eastern Europe (represented here in the work of Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein) were slowly replaced by "Yiddish swing," a mostly successful attempt to update traditional Jewish pop and folk songs in the fashionable swing style--or, as Sapoznik puts it, "playing downtown Jewish music in an uptown style." The need (or perhaps desire) for acceptance is revealed in both performer names (the Bagelman Girls became the Barry Sisters) and in "nonethnic" product spots for essentially "ethnic" products. Tellingly, it was the Midwestern Andrews Sisters' 1937 hit reading of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (originally from a Yiddish play) that set off an explosion of Yiddish and American cultural cross-pollination. It represented the peak of Yiddish cultural influence in America--and as it turned out, the beginning of that culture's demise. For most, Music from the Yiddish Radio Project will be an endearing and enlightening history lesson, but for many others, it will be a bittersweet nostalgic journey through a time that remains so vivid in memories, yet feels like 1,000 years ago. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

When klezmer met swing in the USA
This CD is truly a priceless time capsule, gleaned from what co-producer Henry Sapoznik calls "The King Tut's tomb of Yiddish music" -- a re-discovered "lost" collection of rare, one-of-a-kind recordings, made on-the-spot as the shows were broadcast from the 1930s and 40s. Out of that discovery came the 10-part "Yiddish Radio Project," which aired on National Public Radio in 2002. And from that series comes this CD.

The CD is much more than a trip down memory lane. It's an important slice of Jewish-America history. At a time when Yiddish-speaking immigrants and their American-born children were trying to fit into their new land's pop culture, old-world Klezmer met new-world Swing in an endearing, sometimes hilarious combination. Some of these songs, such as "Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn," became national hits and are still sung today. Others, such as a Swing version of "Dayenu" (a song from the Passover liturgy), never caught on in the gentile world, but will still bring a smile to any Jewish face.

On the technical end, the CD has been edited as if it were a one-hour radio program, complete with station identifications and some wacky commercials -- including one for a local cafeteria that served "meat, dairy, and some foods we can't mention" (i.e., not kosher.) If you don't understand Yiddish, the liner notes contain English translations and some excellent background history by Henry Supoznik. There's even a photo of the "Joe and Paul" store, which spent decades running its jingle and "going out of business" sales until, in the 1960s, they finally did. It was the end of an era -- or maybe not... with the recent revival of Swing music, these songs may yet be sung again.

Gets 5 Bagels -- but seriously...
...I expected this to be a compendium of the kind of stuff I heard as a little boy, but oh, it has so much more.

In addition to all of the standard Yiddish music which I (thought I) knew so well, there are moments here of amazing power and virtuosity!

This is not just bar mitzvah music! In its golden age, this music was treated as seriously and professionally as Duke Ellington treated Jazz, George Gershwin treated Swing, and Leonard Bernstein treated classical music. Unlike the other musical styles, this one was suddenly snuffed out after the holocaust, its echoes drowned out by the louder sounds that followed.

But it's still there, and parts are right in this treasury! You will be amazed at the excellence of this stuff, and amazed as I am that it still lies so obscure and unknown in the murky past.

Be prepared to have a whole new bunch of favorite performers.

(Oh, and some of the shlocky fun stuff is in there too. Hey, even the finest gefilte fish should have some horseradish on the side, right?)

Heaven
This swing and klezmer collection combines many forms of mastery, not least the kitschy commercials and jingles. Between numbers, listeners are enticed (in Yiddish, as they would have been on an hour-long Yiddish radio show) to buy everything from Adler's elevator shoes and Manischewitz Matzo to Joe and Paul's clothing and Ajax. Of course, many products and stores hawked here have long since bit the dust. But the music is timeless right down to a couple of Chasidic niguns--nonsensical words sung as prayer--one doubling here as a station identification. --"Ya ba ba, ya ba ba bye, WBVD."

My favorite piece is Dave Tarras' rendition of Second Avenue Square Dance, a piece of divine klezmer, braiding alto and soprano clarinets into musical silk. But Abe Ellsteins's Orchestra rendition of Die Goldene Khasene comes a close second. And one cannot but smile at the Barry and Andrews Sisters' jazzy but melodious harmonies.

Each of the 34 cuts on this disc offers a kind of elegance, whether peddling the most pedestrian products or gliding through a Naftule Brandwein serenade. Treat yourself to a small piece of heaven. Alyssa A. Lappen