HOW YIDDISHE CUP STARTED

TAKE ONE:

How did you start Yiddishe Cup?

I got a gig, which other musicians wanted in on.

I made $10 on the gig, and paid the other guys $60 each.  We played for the Russian immigrants’ club at the  Mayfield Road JCC. The Russians liked our waltzes.  Screw klezmer.  I hired two musicians who had played with the Kleveland Klezmorim, and a Swiss jazz bass player.

On our next gig, I lost money. I used a black jazz guitarist.  All his Dm chords came out like Dm7’s (jazz chords). His name was Jewish, though:
Larry Ross.

How did you get your first gig?

We played for free on John Carroll University’s Jewish hour.  The radio show’s host — a cantor, my cantor — couldn’t easily turn down a fellow congregant. Also, he often requested Jewish musicians stop by John Carroll to play on his show, and few did.  (John Carroll is a Jesuit school.  Does Yeshiva University have a Celtic hour?)

The Yiddishe Cup radio gig impressed our first paying client.

The rest is video . . .

TAKE TWO:

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