Jews on Vinyl Revue, Review

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Roger Bennett, co-curator of Jews on Viny, co-founder of Idelsohn Society

Part of the reason we formed the Idelsohn Society For Musical Preservation was to change the legacy of the performers we meet. Over the past five years we have uncovered a lost world of Jewish music replete with performers whose careers have been in danger of being written out of history. Our efforts have been focused on recording their stories, documenting their career arcs, and in many cases, giving them the opportunity to take the stage again, so a young audience can rock out to their sound and appreciate their legacy. Thanks to Connie Wolf and the board and staff at CJM, we were able to do this in fine style at the Jews on Vinyl Revue—and in perhaps the highlight of our work so far, Idelsohn co-founder David Katznelson was able to present Irving "Fabulous Fingers" Fields with a proclamation from Mayor Gavin Newsom, declaring that it was officially Irving Fields Day throughout the city. For this reason alone, the Idelsohn Society backs Newsom for governor.

 Audience members took a trip down memory lane with the featured performers through slides of them in the heyday of their craft. Pictured are the Burton sisters, the group to which surprise guest Lynn Burton belonged.


Irving Fields, in his element once again on stage at the CJM.
Johnny Yune pulled out all the stops with his finely-honed shtick and song sharing catskills-style tales from his conversion, and ending with sonorous selections from his landmark album "Ose Shalom".

Comments

Anonymous said…
this event rocked. respect to you for putting it on. Idelsohn society forever.
May 27, 2009 at 6:27 AM
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