DRINKING WITH THE STARS

I had a beer with Andy Statman, the acclaimed klezmer clarinetist, in Little Italy, Cleveland.  He looked more Italian than the locals.  Statman, an Orthodox Jew, wore a Borsalino hat.

I knew the restaurant owner, Robert.  He once took me to mobster Jack White’s house to see White’s wine cellar.  White was a little old man, and the last head of the Cleveland Mob.  Real name: James Licavoli.

Cleveland loved its mobsters. . . a couple cool names: Shondor Birns, Mushy Wexler. They’re history.

Statman said you can only play your hometown once a year.  He does one big show in New York per year.  (He plays a lot of little shows, like every Monday night at a New York shul.)

Yiddishe Cup’s big show is Cain Park, Sunday June 28.  Cain Park, that’s where all the great Cleveland tennis players used to hang out.  Some still do.  Next to the courts, there’s a WPA amphitheater that seats 2,400.

Yiddishe Cup will have a couple guests on the bill: Shawn Fink and Gerald Ross.

Even though Shawn is a baby (30-something), he knows a bisl (little) Yiddish.  Shawn’s father, Phil,  has done a Jewish radio show for more than 40 years.  Shawn sings a dead-on version of  “Joe and Paul,” a comedy tune about a Jewish radio station.

The second guest, Gerald Ross, is a well-known ukulele and Hawaiian lap steel guitar player from Ann Arbor, Mich.  He’ll, no doubt, wear a Hawaiian shirt.  In fact the whole band will wear Hawaiian shirts.  Why?  Because we’re going to a Yiddish luau. And according to the Cleveland Scene, “It doesn’t get more festive than Jews in Hawaiian shirts.”
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Hear Klezmer Guy interviewed on public radio today, 6/24, at noon.  Dee Perry’s  “Around Noon” on WCPN-FM 90.3.

Read in today’s Cleveland Scene about Yiddish Cup’s new CD, Klezmer Guy.  By Anastasia Pantsios.

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