Close To Home - a new album from Ari Erev

"Close to Home tells the story of family members, close friends and familiar places to whom we relate and feel deep emotions towards" says Ari Erev of his fourth, recently released album.

His latest recording combines jazz with strong Latin influences and occasional classical hints, creating a soundtrack for a musical exploration on the subject of home. The music communicates a range of emotions including optimism, hope, melancholy and nostalgia. I am very familiar with the place that Erev calls home and from the opening notes of the first track I can almost see the Mediterranean sunset, taste the coffee in my favourite Tel-Aviv cafe and imagine myself walking the streets of that city.

An impressive group of musicians have been assembled for this album. Yuval Cohen plays soprano sax, Assaf Hakimi double bass, Gaspar Betoncelj drums and Gilad Dobrecky percussion. Flautist Hadar Noiberg guests on two tracks. They are a very tight ensemble as demonstrated on the opening track, Israeli Story. It features a musical conversation between Erev's super cool piano and Noiberg's flute, setting the tone for the rest of the album. One of eight original compositions, it builds slowly from an understated opening, culminating in some delightful exchanges between the musicians towards the climax. 

My other favourites include Afar, which Erev wrote for his daughter, Tal and Po (Hebrew for here). Afar is a mellow piece led by the composer with some impressive sax from Cohen and flute from Noiberg. Po, the final track sees Erev again joined by Cohen and by Assaf Hakimi on bass guitar rather than his usual double bass.

In addition to the original compositions there are five works by other writers. I often wonder how musicians choose non-original material for their albums and recently had the chance to ask Ari about his choices for Closer To Home. He began with a short answer "I like them a lot" before explaining that there is no specific reason for their inclusion. As part of his normal repertoire building he will play a song, experiment with different approaches and arrangements and if it works he will include it in performances or recordings. He said that Debora Gurgel's Para Sempre was included almost by chance. He recalled discovering the piece a few years ago, printing the charts and then forgetting about them until coming across them again a few weeks before recording Close To Home. He played the piece again and felt "an immediate click" hence its inclusion. Whatever the reasons for their inclusion, these tracks complement the original works and help carry the story being told by this album.

In addition to his having released four superb albums, Ari Erev is also a great and very engaging live artist. The first time I saw him play he performed several works of Bill Evans, who he lists as an important influence on him. That influence can be seen in Close To Home but he also has his own warm and engaging style, exemplified on each one of its tracks.  I hope to enjoy a live performance of this new work somewhere closer to Ari's home before too much longer. 

 You can hear clips from and buy Closer To Home here.

Delhi's New Gramophone House - Albela, Bhagwan and the Delights of Classic Bollywood Vinyl

Old Delhi's New Gramophone House, a treasure trove of vinyl recordings of all genres, opened in 1947. Bhagwan Dass Rajpal opened the original store in Lahore in 1930 but moved his family and the business to India during Partition. The store can be difficult to find. It is located on the first floor of a building on the main road of the extremely busy Chandni Chowk and there are no obvious signs of its presence from the street. Visitors must pass through a different shop on the ground floor, then scale a steep set of steps that sit below a low ceiling (watch your head) before reaching their destination. But it's worth persevering as once there the vinyl fan enters paradise - a small room packed with thousands of recordings stacked on shelves and in cabinets. 

I make a pilgrimage to the shop every time I am in Delhi with the objective of adding to my small but growing collection of vintage Bollywood soundtracks from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Regular readers will know of my love of jazz but thanks to a former work colleague I have been smitten by classic Hindi film songs. Playing them on youtube is no longer enough - I want to handle the vinyl recordings and have them in my collection.

Of course Bollywood churns out hundreds of contemporary musical productions but I do not enjoy these so much and prefer contemporary Indian dramas. In recent years Indian cinema has dealt with many social issues in films including Dangal, Dhobi Ghat and Aligarh as well as producing delightful romances like Lunch Box and suspense stories such as Aandhanhun. But you really can't beat those vintage movies and I've grown to love the films of Raj Kapoor, Johnny Walker, Madhubala, Nargis, Guru Dutt, Nadira and Bollywood's best dancer, Helen. They tell a story, tackle issues and have memorable songs performed by the classic playback singers - Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Geeta Dutt and of course sisters Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar.

More recently I came across a film called Albela. Released in 1951 it was directed by Bhagwan Dada who also starred in the film together with Geeta Bali. It tells the story of Pyarelal the son of a poor Bombay family who needs to accumulate money to help marry off his sister, Vimla. Not only does he fail to raise the required amount but he also loses his job. The resultant quarrel with his family leads him to leave home vowing not to return until he is rich and famous. He goes on to pursue a successful career in the theatre and eventually decides to return home only to find things are not as he believed them to be. You'll need to watch the film to find out how it ends! Albela was the third highest grossing Indian movie of 1951 and its soundtrack by C. Ramchandra continues to be acclaimed today. Ramchandra performed most of the songs himself (under the name of Chitalkar), dueting with Lata Mangeshkar on several tracks and with the superstar Mohammed Rafi on one song. The film also made use of westernised style cabaret dance and choruses as well as using bongo drums, oboes, clarinets, trumpets and saxophones, little used in Indian film during that period but which still influence cinema today.

Director and leading man, Bhagwan Dada was born in Sindhudhurg, Maharashtra in 1913. The son of a textile worker, he originally worked as a labourer but had a strong ambition to work in cinema. He eventually obtained work in silent films, making his debut in a movie entitled Criminal. He went on to learn film making, co-directing his first film in 1938 and from then until 1949 he made a number of popular low budget movies. As well as producing Hindi movies, he made at least one Tamil film, Vana Mohini, in 1941. This film was significant for including an elephant as one of the leading characters! A year later he worked with prolific film actress Lalita Pawar. There is a story that he was required to slap her in one scene and that hitting her too hard he injured her eye leaving permanent damage.

In 1947 he set up his own Jagriti Studios and four years later produced his all time classic Albela. Shola Jo Badhke, the best known song from the move is still popular today and Albela is often performed by students as a high school musical. He went on to produce a few more hits in the 1950's but then his success dried up and he was forced to sell his home and cars and take on bit parts in other people's films. He was eventually reduced to living in a chawl, a one room home in a tenement block originally built to house textile workers. Bhagwan died of a heart attack in 2002. A biopic of his life, entitled Ekk Albela, was released in 2016. The original vinyl soundtrack of his masterpiece can still be found and I returned from my most recent Delhi trip with a copy - purchased at the New Gramophone House of course!

New Gramophone House , Shop No 9, opposite Moti Cinema, Main Road, Chandni Chowk, Delhi. It is also possible to browse and purchase items online here.

You might also like Mystery In Mumbai's Camera House

See pictures from India here.

Ari Erev - Jazz In Givatayim

I always try to get to at least one jazz gig when travelling. My recent time in Israel coincided with an appearance by one of my favourite jazz pianists - Ari Erev who played a brilliant set at the Givatayim Theatre, just a short taxi ride from central Tel-Aviv.

I first heard Ari play in 2005 at the prestigious Felicia Blumenthal Centre in Tel-Aviv. It was a memorable night as he performed a tribute to Bill Evans who he lists as a major influence. It was also memorable because I had what I can only describe as a very Tel-Avivian experience of ending up in an ice cream parlour at midnight with an octogenarian couple who had sat beside me in the concert, chatted to me in the interval and then invited me to accompany them to a cafe afterwards.

Just before the gig - Ari Erev

Back to Givatayim. The gig took place in the basement of this very modern venue giving the evening a more intimate feel.  Ari was accompanied by Eli Magen on bass, Lenny Sendersky on sax and clarinet, and Gasper Bertoncelj on drums. Together they worked their way through a dozen pieces, mostly taken from his most recent album - Flow, opening with the title track which as well as being a great jazz piece shows hints of classical influence some of which is also clear in the opening bars of Continuance, the second number also taken from the album. Both Flow and Continuance have a slight melancholy feel about them. We were also treated to some Latin influenced pieces. Treasures in Havana and Latin Currents particularly demonstrated this, the first alluding to a family trip to Cuba. 

The quartet also played a few non-Erev compositions including the well-received, exuberant uptempo number Doce de Coco, penned by Brazilian-Jewish composer Jacob do Bandolim. Kenny Barron's Voyage was given a very long very cool workout. So cool in fact that we could easily have been sitting in a New York jazz club listening to it. Dave Brubeck's In Your Own Sweet Way was a perfect vehicle for Ari's piano lead, as indeed it was for his hero Bill Evans. If you are reading Ari, I think you should record Voyage on your next album!

July Again is a tribute to Udi Kazmirski, former bassist with the group who first played with Erev on a July day and who sadly died in July 2012, thus the title. Despite the sad story, for me it is an optimistic piece emphasising memory, light and recovery. Israeli jazz musicians often include a folk song or a nostalgic song from the country's past as part of their repertoire. Ari chose Gan Ha-shikmim (The Sycamore Garden), written by Yohanan Zarai. It was clearly a good choice as some of the audience sang along for a few bars.

My favourite track, Jump Into The Water came near the end. It is a great jazz number, urgent and uptempo. Held together and directed by Ari at the piano, each musician was showcased and I particularly liked the conversation between piano and sax on this one. For an encore we were given a version of Gershwin's But Not For Me which just happens to be my favourite Gershwin song, sending me home happy. Israel has many great jazz musicians, probably more than any other country of similar size. Ari is one of the best and it would be great to see him play in the UK at some point.

You can hear some of Ari's music on his website where you can also keep up to date with his performance schedule. Flow is a great album and you can buy it here in both CD and MP3 format.

His next planned performance is on June 21st in Ashdod. In the meantime you can have a sneak preview below...

Cecile Mclorin Salvant - perfection at Cadogan Hall

I first came across Cecile McLorin Salvant a couple of months ago when I heard a track from her new album, For One To Love, being played on Jazzfm. Soon afterwards I purchased that album, her third, and the  the previous one, Woman Child. Both recordings are excellent, showcasing her vocal range, versatility across a range of styles and respect for jazz history. Delighted to discover that she was to perform at this month's London Jazz Festival,  I went to her concert at the Cadogan Hall last night and came away completely hooked.

Supremely confident at just 26 years, she led a sell out audience through gems from the great American song book, compositions of her own and re-imaginations of some of the all time classics of vocal jazz. Throughout she demonstrated her creativity and improvisational skills which also stretch to song writing and producing the artwork for her new album. Tres elegant in silver shoes and silk, she sang in French as well as English partly in acknowledgement of Friday night's terror attacks in Paris and partly because she is as comfortable in both languages. Her parents are both French speakers from Guadeloupe and Haiti and Cecile studied both law and music in France. Opening with a French song from the 1930's she also included the Monique Andree Serf song La Mal de Vivre in her programme, describing it as a song about the blues and adversity but which ends in optimism.

Cecile has been compared to some of the all time greats and her reading of Gershwin's Let's Face the Music and Dance and It Ain't Necessarily So as well as the three Cole Porter songs she gave us demonstrate why. Great phrasing by the way on It Ain't Necessarily So - "Fo' he made his home in that fishe's ab-do-men". Oh yes. She sang with the clarity and inventiveness of Ella - every word being audible and whilst closing my eyes during Porter's So In Love I found myself in 1950's Carnegie Hall listening to Sarah Vaughan's rich tones. These are some of the best songs ever written but they require sensitive handling and respect. She gave them both - demonstrated superbly on Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's When In Rome - the ultimate in sophistication and understatement giving it a straight  reading. 

Serious stuff but Cecile McLorin Salvant also understands humour. There was off mic banter with pianist Aaron Diehl throughout the performance and she teased the audience mercilessly throughout the double entendre filled Bessie Smith number You've Got To Give Me Some - accompanied solely by piano. Cole Porter's less well known Gentlemen Don't Like Love raised a few laughs too. Not to mention that thing she does with the voice "falling" at the end of some lines. 

Throughout the concert, our heroine was supported by a world class trio led by Diehl and accompanied by bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Lawrence Leathers. Diehl also arranged several of the songs. And his arrangements were something else too. I loved the live recreation of the Bacharach and David song Wives and Lovers featured on the new album with its urgent opening and piano punctuation adding impact to the "warning" of the lyrics. Also outstanding was Diehl's arrangement of the Judy Garland classic The Trolley Song - so strong that you really can feel the trolley clanging, bell dinging, motor chugging, buzzer buzzing and all the rest of it. It was her recording of this song that made me realise that Garland is another of her vocal influences, especially in the last line ".…and it was grand just to stand with his hand holding mine, to the end of the line…" where I am sure that she purposely pays tribute to dear Judy. Listen to it here to see if you agree.

Other treats included Somehow I Never Could Believe, the aria from the Kurt Weill/ Langston Hughes opera Street Scene, written in 1946 but rarely performed, her own composition Monday and another excellently re-arranged classic, Something's Coming from West Side Story. She received a standing ovation and wasn't going to get away without coming back at least once. She stunned the audience by singing another blues number unaccompanied and without mic and then left with a bow and a backwards wave 

Already the winner of a sack full of awards, Cecile McLorin Salvant is surely a megastar in the making - watch out Dianne and Dee Dee! The concert of the year for me, and I've been to some big ones. More please.

Stacey Kent at Ronnie Scott's

Tonight, Stacey Kent and her four piece band delighted Ronnie Scott's with a selection of songs by Jobim, Valle and from the Great American song book. Outside it was a cold and grey Soho September night, but inside we were transported to the cool breeze of a Brazilian evening, and with just a little imagination we could have been in Rio, Sao Paulo or Bahia.

As well as celebrating the music of some of the greatest composers of all time, we celebrated the birthday of Jim Tomlinson, Stacey's husband, who demonstrated some less well known skills in addition to his magnificent saxophone and flute playing. But more of that later. The evening opened with two laid back songs - Marcos Valle's Double Rainbow and then another ballad, both of which served as a reminder of Stacey Kent's velvety, slightly understated but exquisite voice. Now, I enjoy improvisation as much as the next jazz fan, but hearing these great songs sung straight, supported by really tight band is very refreshing. 

After the mid tempo start, things speeded up a little with a nice work through of Jobim's So Danco Samba and then, from the great American songbook, Alan Brandt and Bob Haymes' That's All, written in 1952 and still fresh. In the same vein, we also had Rogers and Hammerstein's Happy Talk from South Pacific, with Stacey accompanying herself on guitar. Over the last few years we have seen albums in French and Portuguese from Ms. Kent as well as a number of more contemporary songs - all great but she really really shines on the standards which is where most of us first discovered her. Great news then that in November she will be releasing Tenderly, a new album of jazz standards. Can't wait.

The remainder of the first set included a couple more Jobim songs - a very cute version of One Note Samba, again featuring our heroine on guitar and an absolutely cracking version of The Waters of March sung in Portuguese. The latter was presented as a duet between her and husband Jim, who she revealed was once the lead chorister at Hexham Abbey and who surprised us with his very OK Portuguese vocal as well as a great contribution on flute. A nice touch and evidence of the very real musical partnership between this couple, with him having produced all of her albums as well as playing on them.

The link with Valle is more than just admiration for a great songwriter on Kent's part. She explained that together with her husband, she had worked with the great Brazilian on a number of projects, performed with him in Brazil and of course, recorded an album together a couple of years ago to celebrate his 50 years in the music business. This is a woman who the all time greats want to work with. The legendary Brazilian guitarist, Roberto Menescal plays on the new album and Booker Prize winning author, Kazuo Ishiguro co-wrote two songs for her with Tomlinson - The Ice Hotel and Changing Lights both of which she performed tonight.

Tomlinson featured largely in the second set with a magnificent reading of Bacharach and David's Alfie, written (he confessed) in the year of his birth - 1966 - and a tribute to the recently deceased Cilla Black. This was purely an instrumental reading but he made that saxophone sing every one of those famous words. Together with One Note Samba and  Waters of March this was truly the highlight of the evening for me. We returned to the Brazilian theme for the remainder of the second set - Valle's So Nice (a real classic with Bebel's version a favourite of mine) and another Jobim hit - Meditation, both given great readings. We were also treated to Valle's Cricket's Sing For Annemarie ( a lot of huggin' and a lot of kissin' and…) before one more Valle song - This Happy Madness for an encore. 

Surely one of the world's best jazz vocalists, Ms. Kent was ably supported by a most accomplished quartet. Jim Tomlinson's contribution s already noted but  Graham Harvey shone on piano (I'd like to hear more from him) whilst Jeremy Brown on bass and Josh Morrison on drums were also excellent. Great solo on Cricket's Sing for Annemarie by the way Josh and another great evening at Ronnie Scott's that was over all too soon. And one other good thing - it's the first gig I've been to in some time where I was able to enjoy the music without some nuisance talking throughout the performance. Perhaps there is hope after all.

Avishai Cohen's New York Division at the Barbican

Avishai Cohen and his New York Division played the Barbican last night. They took us on a musical journey that included stops at several of his albums - from the very first to his most recent, displaying influences from be-bop and classical music and ending with a series of songs in English, Hebrew and Spanish. 

Over the years I have been to many of his concerts and every time there is something new and different. He has given us jazz quartets, jazz with strings, experimented with songs in a variety of languages and now we have the New York Division which adds three more world class musicians to his most accomplished trio. For slightly more than two hours last night our Avishai was accompanied on stage by Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar,  Steve Davis on trombone and Diego Urcola on trumpet, the line up being completed by trio members Nitai Hershkovits on piano and Daniel Dor on drums.

Entering the stage in darkness to cheers and applause it was straight into the music with songs from the current album From Darkness, including Ballad for an Unborn and Amethyst (and I think Signature as well?), a good long workout of Shuffle from the Colors album of 2000 and an even earlier piece from his very first album - Bass Suite #2 from Adama, released in 1998. I especially enjoyed this reference back to his early solo days which he played to open the second set, accompanied only by messers Davis and Urcola in a short but engaging interplay between the three instruments. Throughout the evening, there were clear references to classical music as well as middle eastern and other influences and for me there are echoes of both early music and the streets of Jewish Spain before the expulsion in 1492.

The second set/ lengthy encore (for which thanks!) included a vocal version of the old Nat King Cole classic Nature Boy (revived in the 1970's by George Benson-  also a classic). Singing in English, it was an emotional reading of a mystical song and one which Cohen has yet to record. He teased the audience by saying he would - which was responded to with a cry of "do it". I hope he does.  This was followed by my favourite track from his Aurora album - Alon Basela, sang in Hebrew and inspired by his father. The title means an oak tree in a rock and the lyrics are about staying firm through adversity. I like the tense, urgent feel of the song and the way his voice becomes an additional instrument in the performing of it. I loved the physicality of his performance of this song, with much drumming of fingers on the bass, providing his own percussion. 

No Avishai Cohen concert is complete without at least one song in Spanish and or Ladino and we were treated to a salsa influenced piece with euphoric Latin influenced piano playing from Hershkovits and the sharpest trumpet playing from Diego Urcola. Urcola's playing was for me one of the highlights of the evening - I've already been on Amazon looking for his albums! Still in a Latin theme, we then had a solo from Cohen as he performed the Argentinian song, Alfionsina Y El Mar before the ensemble rejoined him for a lengthy and riotous reading of Gershon Beat from the At Home album, which I still think is one of his best. Each of the musicians were showcased in this final number including Cohen displaying little known percussion talents using drums ticks on his metal music stand to accompany drummer Daniel Dor. Dor stood out with a magnificent solo that left the audience cheering and him exhausted! 

British audiences love Avishai Cohen and received several standing ovations, calls from the auditorium for favourites to be played and murmurs of recognition of most of the numbers and he can play an audience in a small intimate like Ronnie Scotts or a large auditorium such as the Barbican to equal effect. He is currently working on fusing jazz and classical music more closely and will premiere this work in Sweden in September with his trio performing with the Malmo Symphony Orchestra. Let's hope he brings this show to London soon, oh and Avishai - don't forget about recording Nature Boy too!

The Joy of Vinyl

I bought my first vinyl record when I was 11. It was Cilla Black's Something Tells Me Something's Gonna Happen Tonight. I am not ashamed. If I tell the truth I probably bought it because my mam liked  it. I went on to buy many more records over the years, initially seven inch singles and a few albums which we referred to as LPs (long players) and eventually, in the 1980's, hundreds of 12 inch singles. My taste was influenced by my brother who had a huge collection of soul music records. I especially liked the Motown recordings of the 1960's and 1970's - feeing very sophisticated when I bought The Supremes' Automatically Sunshine when I was 12 - as well as almost anything that came out on Stax or Atlantic. In my later teens and throughout my twenties (and now), I loved the genre that came to be known as jazz funk.

I was brought up in a very small northern town but was fortunate enough to have access to a great record shop one hour's bus ride away in Middlesbrough - Alan Fearnley records. This was a treasure trove for me. I would visit every Saturday to browse through the racks of records including very sophisticated looking and sounding imported items form the States. Alan Fearnley stood behind the counter for many years stroking his beard and recommending some cracking tracks to me. Too many to list, but a few stick out in my memory. Phyllis Hyman's You Know How To Love Me, Bonnie Pointer's Free Me From My Freedom (on red vinyl - coloured vinyl became fashionable during the disco era), Bernard Wright's Bread Sandwiches, The Heath Brother's For The Public and Gary Bartz' Music. I was able to take these home to my bedroom and escape from the claustrophobia of growing up in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Inevitably I became a nerd, buying special cardboard covers for the seven inch singles, special arranging my records in alphabetical order by artist (I ended up working in a library) and drawing up imaginary playlists for the edgiest dance club that never existed. Some of this must also have been my brother's influence. He ran a mobile disco and would occasionally let me accompany him on gigs and even play some of the records from time to time.

Clearly the important thing about vinyl records is the music and the hissing sound as the stylus hits the plastic, but for me, records are a bit like books. There is a physicality about them. They are good to handle. Albums especially come in nice packaging with lots of information about the singers, musicians, sleeve artist and during the late 1980's and 1990's some even included details on who did the hair and make-up for the cover photo. Even better, some  of them even included a lyric sheet so you could very discretely sing along with your favourites in the privacy of your own bedroom. Imported records were even better. Many of the US label designs were different to the UK versions with much brighter colours and eye catching graphics. You also needed a special adapter to place in the centre of US imports to be able to play them.

Over time my tastes developed and I began to expand my interest to include more jazz influenced records. I acquired several of the magnificent Ella Fitzgerald song book series - double albums of her recordings of the works of Harold Arlen, Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. I also discovered Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Richie Cole and Herbie Hancock. During my student years in Newcastle I had very little spare money but invested quite a lot of it in the legendary Callers music shop on Northumberland Street. Callers was home to rack after rack of the most wonderful collection of soul, dance and jazz funk recordings and it was here that I discovered Mile Davis's Porgy and Bess album, Japanese musician Hiroshi Fukumura and some re-issued recordings of Della Reese. Callers was terrific but like Fearnley's is sadly also gone. 

Good things often come to an end and during the 1990's the popularity of vinyl began to wane. I knew the rot had really set in back in the early 1990's when I wanted to buy a jazz compilation - Jazz on a Summer's Day from the now departed and much missed HMV store at Oxford Circus. I was affronted when told it was only available on a CD or a cassette. No vinyl. It was the beginning of the end and over time I reluctantly moved to the CD format. 

In 2001 I moved to the far east and gave away or sold many of my belongings, including my turntable (but not my records!). A change of plan meant I came back to the UK sooner than expected but somehow I never got around to replacing the turntable and my records stayed in boxes and on shelves, undisturbed for more than a decade, although I never once considered disposing of them in any way.  I became a committed CD purchaser and re-purchased many of the vinyl albums I had in CD format. Over the last decade vinyl has seen a bit of a revival and at least here in London its not so rare to see mainly young people carrying vinyl purchases on the tube presumably on their way back to their bedrooms in the same way I did. At first I was a little sniffy about this. Having had a peep at what was on offer in the music shops, the vinyl selections seemed to be extremely random and often much of what was available was second hand with all the attendant risks of being scratched or otherwise damaged. 

That might have been the end of it, but last month, as a complete surprise I was given a turntable and since then I have been more or less glued to it, rediscovering many of my old favourites, annoying friends and relations by constantly asking them if they "remember this" including on at least one occasion calling a friend and holding my telephone to the speakers to ask him if he remembered a particular track. That track by the way was The Facts of Life by one Daniel Madden. He only made one album and this was the killer track. I had forgotten all about it but recognised the superb intro in the first three notes.

I might have settled for playing records from my existing collection for the rest of my life, goodness knows there are plenty of them. Most of my favourite music stores have now gone. The big HMV at Oxford Circus went a couple of years ago and Red Records in Brixton has gone. But Ray's Jazz in the wonderful new Foyles book shop has a small but interesting collection of jazz recordings on vinyl that I have been looking at for some time. Although much more expensive than  they used to be - between 17 and 25 quid, there are some very interesting recordings there…And I've given in. Last week I bought two re-issued jazz albums Blue Serge by Serge Cheloff and Dizzy Gillespie's Dizzy On The French Riviera. I also picked up a 12 inch single of Georgie Fame's Samba from the late 1980's via Amazon.  I never thought I'd be buying vinyl again. All three of my recent purchases have great sleeves, the albums have detailed sleeve notes and the music is well, just great. The hiss of stylus on plastic returns. The joy of vinyl.

Bei Mir Bistu Scheyn - a Yiddish musical classic

Before the Second World War there were as many as 13 million Yiddish speakers. About 5 million of these were murdered during the Holocaust and following emigration to and assimilation in the USA, the strong preference for Hebrew in Israel and cultural suppression in the former Soviet Union, use of the language continued to decline. More recently, this trend has begun to reverse, primarily due to its use by many Orthodox Jews and to a lesser extent through revived interest in other Jewish communities with classes being available in several major cities. 

Many English speakers will have used yiddish words in their day to day speech, possible without knowing their origin. Schmuck, schlep, nosh, nudge, schmooze all having found their word into daily use. As well as surviving as a spoken language, Yiddish also lives on through music, in particular with Klezmer festivals around the world, celebrating the music and language of the pre- war world. One of the best known songs from the Yiddish cannon is Bei mir bistu scheyn, or To me (or more literally, by me) you are beautiful. 

Written in 1932 for a Yiddish musical comedy, I wish I could, with lyrics by Jacob Jacobs (Born Yakov Yakubovitsch in Hungary in 1904) and music by Sholom Secunda (born in the Russian empire in 1894), the lyrics are a paean to the charms of the singer's beloved who is described as lovely, charming, the only one in the world and more precious than money! It has become one of the most enduring songs of its time with at least 100 known recorded versions. The musical itself was less successful, closing after just one season, perhaps reflecting the original Yiddish version of the show's title which translated to You could live but they won't let you.

That might have been the end of it, if, at least according to legend, one Jennie Grossinger, owner of a hotel in the Catskills had not taught the song to Johnnie and George, two African American performers who had worked at her Grossingers Catskill Resort Hotel. Grossingers was one of many well-knwon hotels in this part of New York State that catered almost exclusively to Jewish guests taking summer and other holiday vacations, providing kosher food, organised activities and entertainment at a time when many hotels in the USA were off limits to Jews. A little later, in 1937, lyricist, songwriter and musician Sammy Cahn heard Johnnie and George perform the song at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, got his boss to purchase the rights to it and with partner Saul Chaplin re-wrote the song with English lyrics, adding a swing rhythm. Secunda is said to have sold the rights for just $30 which he shared with Jacobs.

The rest as they say is history. Cahn persuaded the Andrews Sisters to record the re-worked song in November 1937. It became a worldwide hit and earned them a gold record. Since then it has continued to be a recording favourite with some very big names having put their stamp on it, including Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, June Christy, Glenn Miller, Eydie Gorme and more recently Joss Stone and Bette Midler on her 1914 album, Its The Girls. I love Ella's version (which you can listen to here), with that silky voice and great arrangement and of course the Andrews Sisters version is a classic and widely known. However, my favourite is that of the Barry Sisters, Minnie and Clara, born in the United States to Jewish immigrant parents and popular from the 1940's until the 1970's. Click on the link at the top of this post to hear it. There has also been a Swedish version and a number of Russian songs were put to the musical score in the old Soviet Union whilst it has also been featured in films, TV shows and used as the sound track for various advertisements. I especially like the Shasta root beer advert - It's root beer Mr. Sheyn...

Over the years the song grossed several million dollars in royalties making Secunda and Jacobs' $30 look like a bad deal. However, in 1961, copyright expired and ownership reverted to the songwriters, allowing them to secure proper recompense. Secunda was an interesting character having fled Russia's pogroms, traveled in steerage to the United States and been held briefly at Ellis Island before becoming a noted child chazan. He later studied music and worked in several capacities, included conducting, in New Yorks' Yiddish theatre world, continuing to write songs but never producing work of such popularity as Bei mir bistu scheyn . 

You might also like Romania Romania, a Yiddish musical memory of a disappeared world or Dorel Livianu, a Jewish Romanian musical interlude

Late night pizza - Aaron Goldberg at the London Jazz Festival

The Aaron Goldberg Trio played Soho's Pizza Express late last night as part of the London Jazz Festival. Not only was it an excellent set, it was also free, although as Mr Goldberg pointed out you still had to pay for the pizza!

This extremely tight trio played for just over an hour, taking us through several tracks from the new album - The Now- as well as a couple of older numbers from earlier recordings. The set opened with Trocando Em Miudos, a Chico Buarque composition. The Portuguese is difficult to translate but the story behind the song is one of a separation, a divided home and leaving with only regret. A downbeat start in terms of subject matter but an excellent introduction to the evening musically speaking.

This was followed by a very playful version of Charlie Parker's Perhaps which not only showcased Goldberg's undoubted skills but also those of rising bass star Joe Sanders. Sanders previously played bass for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and has played with Ravi Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter amongst others. Totally engaged with his instrument including "singing" to it off mic, we were treated to some unexpected vocal work from him too. Mr G also referred to him as his fashion advisor and tonight he was resplendent in a blue v-necked elbow padded sweater, white shirt, tie and wool peaked cap. Nice.

Other tracks from the new album included The Wind in the Night and YoYo. The Wind in the Night is a laid back ballad and Goldberg's own composition. Nice brush work from drummer and long time collaborator Eric Harland on this one. Harland is another stellar player and has worked with Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard amongst others. I especially liked YoYo which is based on a Haitian folk song about a generous meat vendor who gives extra meat to his customers! It featured a latin/ oriental flavoured piano and a cheeky conversation between bass and drums. Those latin/ oriental flavours brought to mind other favourite jazz pianists of mine - the wonderful Omer Klein and Omri Mor as well as a hint of Maurice El Medioni! Just great and the audience loved it. Incidentally this was a much younger crowd than the regular Pizza Express/ Ronnie Scott's turnout - in part because of the free entry as Soho jazz venues ain't cheap - but good to see and hope for the future!

One of my favourites from the earlier Worlds album, Lambada de Serpente (featured in the clip above) got a good long workout later in the set, its slow start building and building into an optimistic latin influenced piece of happiness with all three musicians shining. Continuing the latin kick, we were treated to a thumping version of Manha de Carnaval (also known as Black Orpheus), the much recorded Luiz Bonfa/ Antonio Maria penned classic and one of the best received pieces of the evening. Background Music from the new album is a musical sprint played at breakneck speed with some great work on bass and if you closed your eyes you could have been in a smokey 1960's New York jazz club listening to Bill Evans and his team.

It was all over too soon but the trio were persuaded back to the stage for a nice long version of Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely from the Home album with some interesting cutting short of sentences in the main melody. And that was it - out into the cold cold Soho November night. Another great evening at Pizza Express Jazz - and the music was for free!

Oh, and I bought the new album. It's very good.

Soul to Soul with Carmen Lundy at Pizza Express

Earlier tonight, Carmen Lundy was magnificent in the first of four performances over two nights at Soho's Pizza Express. Taking the stage to a very warm welcome she opened proceedings with the uptempo Kindred Spirits, a story of making it despite being born on the wrong side of the tracks. Her own composition and the opening track of her new album, it set the tone for the evening with the audience captured from the beginning.

Her voice ranges from the velvety to the harsh. She can sing slow, she can sing uptempo. But best of all, Carmen Lundy can swing and sing real jazz. This was best displayed on the title track of her superb new album - Soul to Soul. Impossibly cool and atmospheric it could have been 3 in the morning rather than 8.30 in the evening. And with jazz funk legend Patrice Rushen playing the piano accompaniment(!) it couldn't possibly have been cooler. In a similar vein, Daybreak is another classy jazz number that swings and sees her voice soar upwards in a happy romantic mood.

Carmen Lundy is a real performer who gets into the mood of each song. She spoke of the courage it had taken to write (and sing) When Will They Learn, a plea to stay away from drugs and a memorial to the many great musicians and friends she has lost over the years to this scourge. It would have been possible to hear a pin drop during the song and her feeling and emotion reminded me of the similarly themed (although totally different sounding) Esther Phillips song - Home is Where the Hatred Is.

Much of the music on this new album has a message, a story. Ms. Lundy wrote Grace together with the South African artist, Simphiwe Dana who she met whilst performing in that part of the world before working together in the States and producing this story of overcoming prejudice, breaking down barriers and "stepping into the light". Grace is confident, uplifting and hopeful and once again, we had great piano from Patrice Rushen  whilst Jamieson Ross on drums and percussion and Darryl Hall on bass were outstanding throughout.  

I am a sucker for a great bossa nova number and Everything I Need is just that with its insistent Brazilian rhythm, laid back vocal and again, ultra cool feel. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da… 

One long set of a little more than an hour flashed by and it was time to go but not before an encore and a story from one of the audience about how Carmen deliberately sang off-key in the early days of Camden's Jazz Cafe to get the attention of a non-jazz audience who were annoyingly chatting through her first two numbers. Well there was no need for such tactics tonight and she left the stage to a second standing ovation. It is hard to understand why she is relatively overlooked despite having a voice that matches the likes of Diane Reeves,  Dee Dee Bridgewater and other stellar contemporary female jazz vocalists. Her distinctive style combines a contemporary feel with references to some of the all time greats including another Carmen - the  late, great Carmen McRae and the also underrated Nancy Wilson. 

She told us tonight that she is very proud of her new album and feels that it is her best work so far. She has written or co-written 11 of the 13 tracks in addition to playing several instruments, doing the string arrangements and co-producing the album. She is right, its a classic. If you haven't got the album get it, and if there are any tickets left for the Saturday night shows (and there probably aren't), get one. Tonight was one of Pizza Express Jazz's finest hours.

Elaine Delmar - Jazz Royalty at JW3

The fabulous Elaine Delmar took the stage to applause last night at JW3, gave a big smile and treated the full house to two excellent sets of jazz standards taking us on a tour of some of the best songs ever written.

Supremely elegant in black layered gown and diamond jewellery and ably supported by the Brian Dee quartet the first set included Jobim's No More Blues, Gershwin's There's A Boat That's Leaving Soon and I Love's You Porgy, and rousing, swinging versions of Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin and It's Alright With Me. Ms. Delmar's voice is perfectly suited to these classics - ranging from silk to velvet and if necessary gravel, reminding me more than a little bit of the late Carmen Mcrae and a touch of Sarah Vaughan especially on those lovely deep velvety notes. Now that's praise. And that wasn't all. She gave us a haunting version of Michel Legrand's Windmills of Your Mind, Paul Williams' I Won't Last a Day (made famous by the Carpenters) and Honeysuckle Rose from the pen of Fats Waller. The latter song has a story attached to it. Elaine performed it on stage in the 1970's in the London version of stage show Bubbling Brown Sugar and not only that, Miquel Brown one of the other stars of that show was in the audience. Some of us remember her as a disco artist in the 1980's!

The second set was equally impressive with a great bossa nova version of Porter's Begin the Beguine, Rogers and Hart's Little Girl Blue and Who Knows Where or When before Edith Piaf's Hymn d'amour. The jazz audience at JW3 is informed and discerning, but Elaine Delmar had them in the palm of her hand, even managing a little audience participation to Fats Waller's Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter with the crowd more than happy to sing along. If that was a risk so was doing Summer Time. Not because she can't sing it beautifully but because it's perhaps a little overdone. However, performing it to only the accompaniment of Simon Thorpe on bass was a stroke of genius. It was a tense, intimate performance. Just great. Thorpe shone on Summer Time whilst quartet leader Brian Dee on piano and Jim Mullen on guitar were both excellent, providing some very cool support to Elaine and giving us some cracking' solos particularly on the more bossa nova influenced numbers. Some of remember Mr. Mullen from playing with the Average White Band in the 1970's and later in the jazz-funk outfit Morrissey-Mullen. Those were the days.

The show finished with a good workout of another Porter song - Let's Do It and that closed another great evening of jazz at JW3. As well as giving a great vocal performance, Ms. Delmar came out between sets to talk to the audience and to sign CD's…including mine! She was also very engaging on stage, knowledgable about the songs and the songwriters and sharing a few memories from days gone by, including performing nearby in the 1950's at a place called the El Toro club. If any readers have memories of the El Toro please share them in the comments box. A quick google reveals that Barbara Windsor performed there in the late 50's. Cor blimey. And by the way, another google shows that Elaine Delmar is in her early 70's (I hope she doesn't mind my saying so if she ever reads this). She looks a whole lot younger than that and sounds better than ever.

Elaine Delmar - they don't make them like her anymore. Thanks JW3.

Yvette Johansson - live at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club

My current travels in Australia brought me to Melbourne just in time to catch Yvette Johansson's appearance at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club. And what a treat that turned out to be! Supremely elegant in a wrap over top and long black skirt, she took am enthusiastic audience through two sets of well loved jazz standards and some of her own compositions.

I had not been familiar with her work before the concert but she won me over with her opening number, a velvety reading of - Give Me The Simple Life, made famous by Ella Fitzgerald and written by Rube Bloom. She went on to give us Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), an uptempo version of Love Me Or Leave Me, made famous by Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole's Let There Be Love. On the latter number she displayed her talent for improvisation, adding some humorous words of her own…Let there be oysters (and other crustaceans!) under the sea…

These were great song choices and everyone loves standards but Yvette put her own stamp on them. Nowhere was this better demonstrated than in Bill Loughborough's Better Than Anything where she added several verses of her own…better than pizza on Lygon…better than brunch on Brunswick…better than sun dried tomatoes - giving the song a real Melbourne stamp. Effortlessly at ease with her standing room only audience who had turned out on a cold Good Friday evening, she chatted about falling in love, her preference for cold weather and this week's eclipse leading us into a cool version of Moonglow. Her own compositions were equally engaging. I especially liked Half A Dozen Daffodils and Sophia Loren whilst Alaska, her plea for love in a cold climate, was also well received. Clearly influenced by Ella, Billie and the other greats, there is also a touch of Stacey Kent about our Yvette with her rich, velvety and very clear delivery. 

Ms. Johansson was ably supported by talented trio - drummer Gideon Markus, pianist Joe Ruberto and bass player (and club owner) Michael Tortoni. Ruberto was particularly outstanding and injected some nice Latin touches into some of the numbers. The evening was rounded off with Bobby Hebb's Sunny (the second time I have heard this performed live in recent weeks) and she left us wanting more. A great evening at a great little club. Yvette performs regularly at Bennetts so Melbourne jazz fans really have no excuse not to catch her! 

El Manisero (the peanut vendor) - a Cuban classic

El Manisero, or the Peanut Vendor will be familiar to many people of my age who were taken to the cinema as a child. It was used as the jingle to advertise, well, peanuts before the film began. It was one of a number of adverts that included Kia-ora orange juice and Frankie's hamburgers (the biggest burger under the bun). It was usually followed by those terribly old fashioned adverts for the local taxi company, the undertakers (!) and my home town's only Indian restaurant.

There are more than 160 known recordings of the song which originates from Cuba and is based on the cry of a street seller. Hugely popular over several decades, El Manisero was the first million selling 78rpm recording of Cuban music and also sold over one million copies of sheet music. Both words and music were written by Moises Simon, the Havana born son of a Basque musician. He started early in the music industry, becoming both organist and choirmaster at his church at the age of nine. At 15 he undertook more technical studies, later becoming a concert pianist and director of musical theatre. Establishing a band, playing piano himself and recruiting several leading Cuban musicians, he toured Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America during the 1920's. He formed his own jazz band in 1924 and played in the roof garden of Havana's Plaza Hotel. Simons played piano and Julio Cueva was hired to play trumpet whilst the drummer, Enrique Santiesteban also covered vocals. In the 1930's he lived and worked in France, returning to Cuba in 1942 and then moving to Spain  where he died in 1945 aged just 55.

First recorded by Rita Montaner at the end of the 1920's and you can hear her perform the song by clicking on the panel at the top of this post. The lyrics are based on the Cuban street vendor calling style known as pregon with a son rhythm, incorrectly identified on the record label as a rhumba-foxtrot(!), rhumba becoming a general label for Cuban music during the 1930's. Although officially credited to Simons, there are stories that identify one Gonzalo G. de Mello of Havana as the lyricist , although these are generally discounted.

The 160 plus recordings of the song include two versions by iconic jazz musician and band leader Stan Kenton, first in 1947 with his band and later as a piano solo. El Manisero has featured in several films including Duck Soup in 1933 where Groucho Marx whistled the tune. Cary Grant sang it in Only Angels Have Wings in 1935 and Judy Garland sang a catch from the song in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born.

As well as bringing back childhood memories of going to the cinema, listening to El Manisero transports listeners to Havana in the 1920's with its bars, clubs and wonderful music and the heyday of the Afrocubanismo cultural movement. You can find many versions of the song on CD, vinyl or on-line but listen to the very cool Anita O'Day giving it her take in the panel below. And if you want to sing along you can find the English lyrics here.

Dorel Livianu - a Jewish Romanian musical interlude

Youtube has to be one of the best things about the internet, giving free access to film and sound recordings from all over the world, both current and historical, and enabling serendipitous discovery of cultural treasures. From time to time I like to trawl youtube using random search terms and when looking recently for some information on Romanian Jewish music I chanced upon several recordings by the singer Dorel Livianu.

I have written about Jewish music from Romania before, but Livianu was new to me. Born in Bucharest in 1907 he was something of a child prodigy playing the part of the little trumpet boy in Verdi's Aida at just 7 years of age. He went on to study with Massini at the Bucharest Music Conservatory before being snapped up by Columbia Records and His Master's Voice (HMV). There is a rich archive of his many recordings - the Dorel Livianu Virtual Museum of Audio Recordings also accessible on youtube by searching under his name. I particularly like this recording of Ce face asta sear tu? (What are you doing tonight?), a romantic, tango influenced song recorded in the 1930's in Romanian (you can here it by clicking on the embedded file above). The interplay of the violins with the other instruments and Livianu's phrasing take the listener back to a more elegant time, but one which was drawing to a terrible close.

Although enjoying success in the 1930's with a number of recordings, he was restricted to performing at Bucharest's Jewish Theatre Barasheum  (later the Jewish State Theatre) during the war years when Jewish artists were debarred from other theatres. Things deteriorated further for Livianu when he was deported to a camp in Transnistria for a period of eight months and where he survived due to his fame. Transnistria is a little known part of Europe but one to where more than 130,000 Romanian Jews were deported during the Second World War. The vast majority were either murdered or died due to the appalling conditions whilst the same fate befell man thousands of the Ukrainian Jews who lived there.

Livianu appears to have been more fortunate than many as his wife, Mella Silberstein who he married in 1939 also survived and together they had a child, David Bogdan, born in 1955. After the war, he spent time in both Israel and the United States, but his heart appears to have remained in Romania, hence the creation of the vocal archive which includes recordings in both Yiddish and Romanian. His repertoire was wide and included pop and folk music, tango, foxtrot and romanta - a Romanian genre sung in a poetic or sentimental mood, often to piano and guitar. Another Romanian singer, Marin Teodersecu, known as Zavaidoc, made this form popular between the First and Second World War.

Livianu also recorded a version of the famous yiddish song Romania Romania. This is one of the most widely known yiddish popular songs of the period. You can read more about the song and its history here, as well as hearing some other versions of it. He guested on several top US radio shows, eventually settling there in 1967. The man Colombia Records labelled the golden voice of Romania died in 1997, aged 89.

You might also like Romania Romania - Jewish Bucharest or Books, jazz and a touch of the Dada's 

Incognito live at Ronnie Scotts

Incognito had the audience on its feet at Ronnie Scott's last night, treating us to a selection of their biggest hits, some new songs and a musical tribute to George Duke who died this week. It's 34 years since the first Incognito recording was made and yet their sound remains fresh and appealing to both long standing fans as well as to a younger audience.

This is a big band, with bass guitar, keyboards, a trio of horns, drums, percussion and no less than four vocalists. Band leader and founder, Bluey has been constant throughout the years but Incognito has always been a band that musicians come in and out of and perhaps this has ensured the continued freshness. One of the leading exponents of what is sometimes known as "Brit-funk", Mauritian born Bluey was originally a member of another band from that genre - Light of the World but told the story of how he was displaced by another, younger guitar player which led to him forming his own band, Incognito.

The set began with Expresso Maduereira, an excellent and lengthy instrumental work out of a track originally recorded by Banda Black Rio but a regular track in the Incognito repertoire. This was followed by a number of more recent tracks before the real business of the night began with a fantastic rendition of Parisienne Girl - the band's first recording from 1979 and the track that first brought them to my attention. I have this track on 12 inch vinyl. It is still as sophisticated today as it was in 1979 and is at the jazzier end of Incognito's oeuvre. Their biggest hits - the Stevie Wonder number Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing brought the audience to their feet whilst their version of another Wonder song As kept them there. And of course, Always There which served as the finale brought the house down, with terrific vocals from Vanessa Haynes so memorably performed by Jocelyn Brown on Incognito's recording of this Ronnie Laws track back in 1990.

Ms. Haynes had also impressed earlier with her lead vocal on Ain't It Time You Went Home, described by Bluey as his version of a New York disco track from the 1970's - and this one had them dancing too. Whilst on the subject of vocalists, Natalie Williams, current darling of Ronnie Scott's was also on terrific form and new band member, Katie Leone took the stage to lead on one number and managed to win over the audience with a very big voice from a very petite frame! Lots more to look forward to from her. And it wasn't just the vocalists that shone. Francesco Mendolia and Joao Caetano played a stunning duet and the horns trio of Sidney Gauld, Jamie Anderson and Alistair White were also outstanding. Loved the footwork too boys!

All good stuff but the highlight for me was George Duke's Brazilian Love Affair which sounded exactly like the original - really - with that tinkling percussive intro, hard bass and keyboards and soaring vocals taking my right back to 1980 when I first heard the original which included Flora Purim and Milton Nascimento on vocals. Duke, such a loss. A great evening that sent me home thinking I must buy a turntable so I can get my vinyl out again!

Romania Romania - a yiddish musical memory of a disappeared world

"Oh Romania, Romania! Where can you find another place, a land as sweet, as nice, as beautiful? Living there was a pleasure, whatever your heart desired was within reach: mamaliga, pastrami, carnatzl sausage, and a glass of wine..."

Fond memories of a Romanian emigre? Well something like that. These are the opening lines of Aaron Lebedeff's celebrated yiddish paean to that land - his song "Romania Romania". Lebedeff wrote the words and the music and first recorded the song for the Vocalion record label in 1925. Born in Homel, White Russia in 1873 he had several years experience touring with Yiddish theatre companies before being pressed into the Tsarist army in the First World War and sent to Harbin, Manchuria in 1916 where he put on several shows for his colleagues. By 1920 he had made his way to America where he became a star of the American Yiddish theatre, with many successful productions well into the 1930's. He died in 1960.

Back to our song. Most people of a certain age can name at least one Yiddish song - even if they only know it in English. My Yiddishe Momme and Bei Mir Bist du Sheyn have been recorded by many of artists and often in English. But ask someone a little more familiar with this genre and chances are they will mention Lebedeff's Romania Romania. The song harks back to what was once considered to be the golden era of Romanian Jewry, the years between the first and second world wars. During this time the Yiddish theatre thrived, Jewish culture blossomed and despite continuing discrimination there was a degree of prosperity and progress for Romania's Jews.

Our song describes the simple pleasures of a less sophisticated, more rural Jewish world. The lyrics describe Romania as a land where everyone is drinking wine, eating delicacies and dancing. It is also described as an amorous land where "he who kisses his own wife is one who is crazy.." and where the cook may be dressed in rags but she is still pretty, makes great puddings and is quite partial to a kiss! Some of those delicacies are still on offer in Romania and indeed in Israel and old style Jewish restaurants today. These include mamalige - a porridge of yellow corn flour, karnatzl - a spicy beef sausage and patlazhele - an aubergine (or egg plant if you are not British!) salad. The song also mentions two cheeses - kashtaval which can refer to a specific cheese made from sheep milk as well as being a more generic term for yellow cheeses, whilst I am told (but can't find confirmation) that brinze is a kind of cottage cheese. The spellings may be unfamiliar to readers from Romania but please remember these are transliterations from the Yiddish which may have differed from the Romanian word or spelling! This is quite a list and I can almost imagine one of today's many trendy TV food shows "discovering" this style of cookery. Just reading the lyrics makes me feel hungry.


In Memoires des Juifs de Roumanie (Memories of the Jews of Romania), the authors describe Romania Romania as a popular folk song sung by Romanian Jews who emigrated to Israel and felt nostalgic for the old country. The song was a means of passing on that nostalgia to their children and grandchildren who couldn't share the memories and who would could not speak Romanian. The song paints a rosy picture of their life in Romania and its popularity may have been partly due to the struggle many Romanians had when they initially arrived in Israel - at a time when the country was absorbing hundreds of thousands of refugees from Europe and from North Africa and was faced with existential threat. Rina Frank's excellent novel "Every home needs a balcony" is an excellent description of this period - and a great story too.

There were once 800,000 Jews in Romania. Half of these were murdered in the Holocaust and most of the rest made aliyah to Israel after the war or through the communist years when Ceausescu allowed them to leave on condition that the Israelis paid him for each one. The Yiddish language came close to extinction at the end of Second World War - most of its speakers having been murdered and the re-established state of Israel having chosen Hebrew, Arabic and English as the national languages. The language lived on in the USA where a number of Yiddish radio stations attracted sizeable audiences and in the homes of the remnant of eastern european Jewry. Today it is undergoing something of a revival and is used by large numbers of Haredi Jews day to day whilst there are a plethora of Klezmer groups preserving the language through music.

And to prove the enduring attraction of Yiddish song and Romania Romania in particular, the song featured in the recent musical Paper Dolls where it was sung by a group of Filipino drag queens at a party for an elderly Orthodox Jew. No kidding. One of my favourite versions of the song is Yafa Yarkoni's which you can find here where you can also read about today's Yiddish theatre in Bucharest.

And finally, the Barry Sisters version...

You might also like Dorel Livianu - a Jewish Romanian musical interlude

Avishai Cohen - with strings!

"This is the project". That's what Avishai Cohen said last night at the Barbican at the end of two truly stunning sets of old, new and re-worked songs in the company of his regular trio partners, pianist Nitai Hershkovits and 20 years old drummer Ofri Nehemiah with five outstanding musicians - cellist Yael Shapir, violinist Cordelia Hagmann, viola players Amit Landau and Noam Heimovitz-Weinschel and oboist Yoram Lachish. Ms. Shapir also joined Cohen on some of the vocals. Very nice. "The project" was Avishai's reference to his latest musical development, incorporating stringed instruments into his musical repertoire.

The gig began with "Overture" an original Avishai Cohen composition that he said he had worked on for a very long time and which had a distinctly classical feel to it. The audience which included many regular Cohen concert goers seemed a little surprised at first at this approach but very quickly warmed up as he worked through a couple of Hebrew songs - his version of what he described as an old fashioned innocent love song and then Natan Alterman's slightly psychotically worded poem Nigun Atiq, which pledges undying love and devotion but also includes threats of death and destruction stemming from jealousy!  

Cohen's Ladino repertoire was well represented with Alfonsina, Morenika, Puncha Puncha and Yo Menamori all well received. There was a reference to Cohen's jazz roots with Thad Jones "A Child Is Born" which was completely beautiful with our man's playing, a terrific solo from Lachish, and the strength of feeling from the strings bringing at least one listener to the brink of tears. And those strings were frighteningly effective during a new arrangement of the old favourite "Shalom Aleichem" - the strength of Cordelia Hagmann's violin playing being the revelation of the evening for me. This piece showcased each of the musicians with Hershkowitz's oriental flavoured piano and Nehemiah's drumming also getting huge cheers from the totally involved crowd.

Three times the audience brought them back, with a cheeky solo of "La Cukaracha" from Cohen, "Seven Seas" from the whole ensemble and "Remembering" from the trio. And they really could have played all night if the audience had their way. This is indeed "The Project". The addition of strings, the new arrangements and the obvious joy of those musicians at joining our hero made for a very special night.

Now, when are we going to get an album of this? Avishai Cohen, you are a genius and we are priveliged.