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Lenny Bruce occupies a curious place in 20th century Jewish culture. The man who more or less invented stand-up comedy, who took borscht belt humor out of its cozy Catskills confines and into the swankiest urban nightclubs, is celebrated today as a modern-day hero, though in reality, his day to day life was anything but heroic. Was it his drug addiction that brought him down, or was it the puritanical culture of late 1950s America that sealed his fate?
From the archives (WAY back in 1991!) Jeff sings an Israeli folk tune inspired by the biblical Song of Songs, featuring a blistering harmonica solo by the world's greatest jazz harp player. The outdoor summer concert was a benefit for a terrific Jewish camp known by the acronym "Osrui".
From the archives, a 1995 performance at The Chicago Temple of Jeff's melody for this traditional prayer of thanksgiving. Recorded (also with Howard) on Jeff's CD "In This Place."
ARE (Alternatives in Religious Education) commissioned Jeff to compose these songs to aquaint religious school students with some basic Jewish ritual objects and practices. Jeff wrote the tunes; he and Susan Nanus collaborated on the lyrics.
Here's one of my Bob Dylan parodies that didn't make it onto my Live in Concert CD (cdbaby.com/jeff) which has four other Dylan parodies - plus the first ever cover version of Bob's "Talkin Hava Nagila".
This is my favorite of all the Bob Dylan parodies I've done. I'm posting the clip in honor of author David Kaufman and his wonderful new book, "Jewhooing the Sixties." It discusses Dylan in depth, along with three other 60s icons, Lenny Bruce, Barbara Streisand and Sandy Koufax.
Back in Nashville they called you "Dan the Music Man." You were a college student, singing and teaching at Congregation Micah. That's where we met, when Kol B'seder came to do a concert (January 26, 1991, as I recall.)
In January of 2002 I played an incredible gig with some amazing musicians, featuring accordion wizard Evan Harlan and clarinet goddess Ilene Stahl. It was the first and last time we played together, but oh my gosh, what a time it was.
Decades ago, when I was cantor of Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston, IL, Debbie Friedman came to sing at my shul one Friday night. It was Shabbat Shirah, January 29, 1988. Debbie had concerts in the area on Saturday and Sunday, and somehow I had learned that she was free on Friday. (It was just Debbie - those were the days before "the band.") So I called her a couple of weeks before and invited her to sing with me on the bima—very simple, low-key and haimish. She accepted.
If there is any justice in the world, Basya Schechter’s new CD, Songs of Wonder, will be nominated and win a Grammy—it’s that good. After a decade on the road with Pharoah’s Daughter, her Mid-east-Klezmer-Euro-pop-fusion jam-band, Basya has found her true voice in (of all things) eighty year-old Yiddish poems about life and longing by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Every Friday afternoon, a thousand or more lovers of cantorial artistry make a point to scroll through Facebook to watch a master cantor sing prayers and tell stories about the generation of cantors who taught and influenced him. Cantor Jacob Ben Zion Mendelson, 76, known to the Jewish world as “Jackie” is not just a cantor. He is a cantor’s cantor. In Yiddish, a chazzn. (Try saying that in one syllable, and you will begin to understand.)