Great day on Eldridge Street–klezmer musicians (Eldridge Street Project)I wrote a post few weeks ago about a project organized by one of my favorite Jewish musicians, Yale Strom called Great Day on Eldridge Street. Yale gathered together every serious klezmer musician he could find and took their picture in front of the historic Eldridge Street shul, which is undergoing a major renovation. All of this is meant to reclaim the Lower East Side as a cradle of Jewish life and culture in New York.
This photo was meant to mirror a historic photograph of Harlem jazz musicians taken in the late 1950s.
I hadn’t seen the resulting Eldridge Street image till I found it at Teruah, which also links to a cool Flickr collection of photos of the festivities. Let no one say that Jews don’t know to have fun (no one actually HAS said that, since it’s clear to anyone who’s seen a klezmer concert that we do).
Nextbook has a podcast though I haven’t yet listened to it.
On a related matter, I’ve created a Facebook group for Jewish traditional music. If you’re on Facebook please consider joining.
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The music in front of the synagogue was great, as was the march itself. It was an occasion of great joy to all except to some frustrated police officers who — failing to keep the marchers and media on the sidewalk — turned on their sirens now and again. The synagogue singing, led by a impossibly vigorous, youthful Bikel, seems not to be in the photos. The playing in the park devolved into chaos, as groups competed for TV time.