Jews and Jazz

Of all the genres of music perhaps Jazz has the most intriguing history as far as Jews are concerned. You might expect that given its origins, it was an Afro-American 'thing'. Well there's some nice trivia ahead, including Benny Goodman, Satchmo, Gershwin, and Cab Calloway. 

Introduction

From the start, we also need to mention Klezmer (sometimes called Yiddish music).

Klezmer is defined as “is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe”. Played in the early days by professional musicians at weddings or other events, it has its origins in liturgical music, although I would guess that Klezmorim, those who played Klezmer, were rather looked down on by the Jewish Clergy.

When Jews came to America musicians from the Heim they found this thing called Jazz, which had its origins in Afro-American music – certainly some way from the shtetl – and its influence on Jewish music, and Jews influence on Jazz are plain to see – and the result has been to the advantage of everyone.

Enough already. Onto the Trivia

Gershwin

In "Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” they explain that the intro to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” is actually a Klezmer clarinet, and many sources explain that the soulful bit (glissando) with its weepy sound at the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue is Klezmer, representing Jewish yearning. No doubt this was because it was written in 1924 when the Yiddish influences were still strong.

Sadly this is tosh.

Henry Sapoznik, somewhat of an expert on all things Klezmer points out in “Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World” that the American-born Gershwin, although the son of Russian Jews, had little knowledge of traditional Jewish music and actually wrote a straightforward 17-note scale with each note delineated and no ‘slide at the opening of Rhapsody in Blue

During rehearsals the solo artist Ross Gorman was mucking around with a few notes, and enlivened the work by ‘schmearing’ the notes into a jazzy little glissando Gershwin liked it and kept it in. Ross Gorman was a virtuoso, but he certainly was not Jewish.

Indeed when one considers that one of Gershwin’s hits was “Swanee”, one might have said that the inspiration for his music came from the Deep South, rather than Eastern Europe – with one exception - Mark Steyne in “Broadway Babies Say Goodnight” mentions that S Wonderful" is lifted from "Noah's Teive", a song in Abraham Goldfaden's Second Avenue Yiddisher operetta Akeidas Izchok (1908): instead of "'S Wonderful, 's marvellous", they sang "Kum zu mir in Teive arein" (Come to me in the ark).

Benny Goodman

There was a real paradox with Goodman. His music was wonderful and inspirational. However as is the case with many geniuses there was a darker side to his character. Gary Giddins essay on Goodman in the anthology “Reading Jazz” mentioned a galaxy of jazzmen, gathered together for a tribute in Goodman’s honor, who also carped about his “legendary cheapness, absentmindedness, mandarin discipline, rudeness to musicians, and various eccentricities.”

 

Goodman apparently did something to insult, offend or bewilder nearly everyone who ever worked for him.

Yet we can forgive him everything. As well as giving us some wonderful memories, in an era where discrimination and racism were rife, he stood out against the tide.

 

He brought Afro-American players into his orchestra, something unheard of in those days; Teddy Wilson and the great Lionel Hampton were part of his band – a musician called Mel Powell is quoted in “Living with Jazz” by Dan Morganstern that Goodman was “one of the very, very few white people I’ve known who had not a single fiber (sic) of racism in him. He was absolutely, authentically color-blind….One of the real giveaways to his outlook was that he could be as rude to a black man as to a white man. He did not get patronizing or suddenly gentle. Not at all. And I always found that admirable.”

 

Various stories abound, of which my favourite is that when someone asked him why he "played with that nigger" (referring to Teddy Wilson), Goodman replied, "I'll knock you out if you use that word around me again".

There were various influences on Goodman’s music; jazz from the Deep South was certainly one, and classical music another, and many writers have argued that popular Jewish music played its part.

Certainly one of his biggest hits had a Yiddish origin

The song, originally titled "Der Shtiler Bulgar", (a Yiddish klezmer tune) was adapted by trumpeter Ziggy Elman, who recorded it under the name, Frahlich in Swing, in 1938

Lyrics were later added by Johnny Mercer and it was retitled "And the Angels Sing." With vocals by Martha Tilton and trumpet solo by Ziggy Elman, it became a number one hit for the year 1939 for Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

 

There is no way he would not have known its origin

Well, the shark has pretty teeth dear,

Now for some trivia, that is only Jewish second removed, but it’s such a good story it needs retelling.

At the end of the Louis Armstrong version of Mack the Knife it mentions;

Suky Tawdry, Jenny Diver
Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Well, the line forms on the right girls
Now that Macky's back in town!

The original versional of mack The Knife goes like this

Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver
Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh the line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mack is back in town

So who is Lotte Lenya, and why does she appear in the song, and where is the Jewish connection?

Lotte Lenya was an well-known Austrian singer who appeared on Broadway after World War 2 many times. To most people, though she is best known for playing Rosa Kleb in the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love" who tries to kill 007 by kicking him with her shoe/knife.

Lotte was married to Kurt Weill, who wrote “The Threepenny Opera” of which Mack the Knife was one of the songs.

Apparently, Lotte Lenya was appearing in the Blitzstein version of "Threepenny Opera" in New York in the 1950s when Louis Armstrong recorded "Mack the Knife". She was in the studio for the Armstrong session and Satchmo gave her a shout out as he sang the song, "Look out for Miss Lotte Lenya". When Bobby Darin recorded the song, he kept the line in.

There are photos of Lotte with Satchmo at the recording session, and they certainly sang Mack the Knife together so it must be true.

The Jewish connection? Kurt Weill, who wrote the Threepenny Opera was Jewish, having left Austra in 1933. He died at the tragically early age of 50, but even then his music has been influential to many other artists so that even now it is still being performed – and of course there is Mack the Knife, a jazz standard.

As you know of course Satchmo wore a Magen Dovid, loved Matzoh, and was a Judaophile.

Calloway and Galliard
Ron Rubin  told me the story that Scat — vocal solo composed of nonsense syllables - was born when had arisen when Louis Armstrong dropped sheet music  when making a recording, and rather than interrupt things, began singing nonsense words. Armstrong made a claim to this, but also reputedly told fellow bandleader Cab Calloway that scat came from the rapid fire “Jews rocking” in the Afro-American/Jewish neighbourhood that he grew up in.

Take your pick. I prefer the former.

Calloway also used scat, especially with his hit, “Minnie the Moocher”

There was a strange mix between Jewish and Black music in the thirties.

In no way was there a complete breakdown in the barriers, and there were constantly tension between the two ethnic groups, especially in Harlem,  but there were some interesting alliances, with performers such as Jolson, Cantor, and Brice singing black music.

There is also the example of performers such as John Macklin and George McLean at the Yacht Club in the Catskills singing a song in Yiddish – a song called Bir Mist Du Sheyn from a musical called “I Would If I Could” (Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht (I Would If I Could), which opened and closed in one season. This later became a classic when sung by the Andrews Sisters

Quite why Afro-Americans should be singing a song in Yiddish is beyond me, except that the patrons enjoyed it –and of course the two ethnic groups did identify with each other

The main Afro-American performers to use Yiddishism in their music were Cab Callloway and Slim Galliard. They would invent words for their type of music, and so using Yiddish seemed a logical thing to do. Galliard in particular would use yiddishism in his ‘hep’ jazz. . He claimed to have been a driver for the Jewish “Purple Gang” who were a known bunch of Jewish Hoodlums in Detroit

“The Song is Not the Same: Jews and American Popular Music” gives some examples of the Yiddish crossover

1. There was a Yiddish lament about the fate of tailors “Ot azoy neyt a shnayder/Ot azoy neyt a gut!” (“This is how the tailor stitches/This is how he sews so well!”) In Calloway’s update, the lyrics become:
Utt-da-zay sings the tailor
As he fashions pretty clothes
Utt-da-zay sings the tailor
As he sews and sews and sews

Calloway turned the lyrics around Azoy becomes Utt-da-Zay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_Vk6CXfrY


 2. Gaillard recorded a version of “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen.”

By mir, bist du spaghetti
By me, bist du beef stew
By mir, bist du pork chops
With plenty gravy.

I could say “gefilte fish,”
But I’ll take some orange stew
Give me some ice cream pie
With plentiful good
Baked potato pie.

3. Gallliard also mentions other delicacies - This is not the only reference to Jewish food: as Gaillard sings:

Well, matzoh balls, gefilte fish
Best ol’ dish I ever, ever had
Now matzoh balls and gefilte fish
Makes you order up an extra dish
Matzoh balls, gefilte fish
Really, really, really very fine,
Now you put a little horseradish on it and make it very mellow
Because it really knocks you right on out.

4. Calloway’s song, “Everybody Eats when They Come to My House,” features couplets rhyming foods and names:

Have a knish, Nishe
Have a bagel, Fagel
Have an hors d’oeuvrey, Irvy

These artists clearly enjoyed the sound of Yiddish, incorporating it into the jazz genre at large – what is also clear is that Jewish performers such as Jolson and Afro-Americans such as Calloway clearly knew each other, and performed with each other. What fun it must have been.

and of course - Dunkin' Bagels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntUNRiC5-z0
 

Modern Times

In recent times Jews have retained the same links with Jazz that they had in the thirties. Musicians such as Ronnie Scott, Buddy Rich, Stan Getz, Kenny G and Bill Joel kept the flag flying.

Klezmer has had a remarkable revival in recent years with groups such as the Klezmatics who include a ‘fusion’ of Jazz and Klezmer in their act, and Klezmer clarinettists such as David Krakauer who play what might be described as ‘modern’ jazz

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These books are available from Amazon:

Kosher Foxtrot
Jews and the Sea
The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia