Music from the Yiddish Radio Project [SOUNDTRACK]

Various Artists (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 12, 2002)
• Original Release Date: May 30, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B000060P7J
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,603 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #47 in	Music > Folk > Klezmer
  #81 in	Music > Folk > Jewish & Yiddish Music

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Liquid Chicken Soup, July 23, 2002

By	Beseder18 (United States) - See all my reviews

I am Scotch/Irish and love Klezmer music, and I have a dear adopted "mom" I love also. She was feeling a little stressed one day, and I put the new CD on. The far-away look in her eyes, the way she started dancing a little as she sat in her chair, the joy in her face as she laughed and listened and translated the Yiddish into English for me and laughed some more--listening to that album together really was "liquid chicken soup"-- both for her and for me. Like she said to me, "There's nothing on TV to watch that isn't filthy, and people don't sing today-- they scream and you can't understand them-- but this! This is music!"

I agree completely! :)

It was also a great pleasure to hear Klezmer favorites that are performed by our local "The Best Little Klezmer Band in Texas" in the "originals".. to hear the continuity l'dor v'dor. :)

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When klezmer met swing in the USA, May 10, 2002

By	Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets 5 Bagels -- but seriously..., May 2, 2002

By	mattgb1 "mattgb1" (New York City) - See all my reviews

...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?)