New Center for Arts & Culture presents MIXIN’ IT UP
| Hours: | 4:00pm |
| Ages: | Teens, Adults |
| Cost: | $ see below |
| Category: | Music & Concerts |
For nearly a century, Jewish and African American music have been deeply intertwined. This groundbreaking collaborative event brings together the Klezmer Conservatory Band, led by Hankus Netsky, and vocalist/guitarist C. Calloway Brooks, grandson of swing icon Cab Calloway, to probe the depths of the klezmer/swing connection.
Cab Calloway, the legendary 'Hi De Ho' man, was an energetic showman, gifted singer, talented actor and led one of the greatest bands of the Swing Era. Guaranteed to appeal to audience members of all ages and backgrounds, the program will include Cab Calloway's own special blend of Yiddish/cantorial 'jive,' along with klezmer/swing classics and special surprises.
'Mixin’ it Up' is a celebration of a unique American hybrid: the blending of eastern European Jewish and African American musics, or, to put it more succinctly, an excursion into the world of Yiddish swing. By the 1930s, the Yiddish stage itself was rocking to the new rhythm, reaching an apex in 1938 with 'Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn,' which became the top song of that year and the biggest song hit the country had ever known.
It was precisely such an atmosphere that set the stage for Cab Calloway to make his own foray into Jewish swing. Spurred on by his manager, Irving Mills, Calloway found ingenious ways to infuse his act with retooled Yiddish folksongs, hilarious parodies of Jolsonesque black-face performance, and mock cantorial melismas that incorporated his own unique brand of pigeon Hebrew, morphing into jazz-jive jargon at the drop of a white Panama hat.
'Ot Azay,' 'Neyn Neyn (No, No),' and 'Abi Gezint (If You've Got Your
Health),' are just a few of the chestnuts that will grace our stage in a unique collaboration between the current keeper of the Calloway flame, C. Calloway Brooks and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the world’s leading klezmer and Yiddish repertory ensemble. With music and conversation, Brooks and Netsky will guide the audience through the compelling history of the tantalizing musical mixture that brought the sensibilities of two distinct cultures together to forge a new and uniquely American style of music.
| COST | ↑ top |
$25 General, $18 Students, Seniors & JCC Members
| WEBSITE | ↑ top |
| LOCATION | ↑ top |
Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachu, Boston, MA, 02115 map
Phone: 617-931-2000
| TIPS | ↑ top |
- Book at www.ticketmaster.com for your tickets now!
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