A Yiddishe Mame of 1925, a minor hit by Tin Pan Alley songwriter
Jack Yellen (who also wrote "Happy Days Are Here Again"), is but one part of this lovely tapestry of Jewish music, which ranges from
Prokofiev's Ouverture sur des thèmes juifs, Op. 34, to a delightful Pot Pourri des Rabbis that quotes a succession of Jewish liturgical melodies. The
Sirba Octet is a Parisian group of classical players who specialize in music of the Roma (Gypsies) as well as Jewish music and they have constructed a program that hangs together in evoking various venues of the old Yiddish-speaking world, from concert hall to café to stage, without tying itself to any one of them. Indeed, the ensemble -- string quartet (violin-viola-cello-contrabass), clarinet, piano, and an utterly delightful cimbalom that shows up at unexpected moments -- doesn't exactly replicate any traditional group but is flexible to hint at klezmer, the Broadway stage, or the 92nd Street Y by turns, and the juxtapositions (try track 8, A Yiddishe Mame combined with a waltz called Les Flots de Danube) make sense even when diverse. The classical (and presumably partly non-Jewish) background of the musicians does not impede their ability to push the rhythms into an infectious momentum zone, and the growing reaction of the audience (the live recording is superbly done) in the later stages of the program is palpable, especially in Evenou Shalom Aleiche, track 9. By the final Bei Mir Bist Du Scheyn, with a charmingly accented vocal (at least in the English lyrics) from
Isabelle Georges, the group is bringing the house down -- and you'll be tapping your foot irresistibly as well.