Downtown Seder: the last word on Pesach?

Ok, Pesach is over and we're eight days into the Omer. We have to move on, but if I don't put this up now I'll have to wait a whole 'nother year, and who knows if the world will still be here by then.

Michael Dorf, the powerhouse genius behind Oy!hoo, the NYC operation which has pretty much become synonymous with Cutting-Edge-Jewish-Music, posted a Virtual Seder on the cusp of Shabbat Hagadol. If your inbox overflows with viral videos - usually sent by parents, in-laws, cousins, and acquaintances with way too many names in their address books - then you've probably seen it - along with the second Jewish holiday video by that candy-coated singing stick of dynamite (and maybe the next crossover Jewperstar?) Michelle Citrin - but if you haven't, then you're in for a treat. Here are just a few of the celebrity Jews you'll get to see exposing a little of their ethnic under-skin.

(Left to right: Lewis Black, Jerry Stiller, Jill Sobule, Al Franken, Lou Reed)

Each and every clip is a delight. Especially the entertaining dissertation on maror by a very rabbinic looking Lewis Black.

Memo to Michael Dorf: Maybe Lorne Michaels couldn't get the Beatles on SNL, but if you start now, you might have a shot at getting Bobby Zimmerman for the Downtown Seder in...2010?

Dayeinu!

Ok, folks, we're in the home stretch and I've saved the best for last.  To get us in the mood for Mike Hammerman's extraordinary Dayeinu (see below), here are a couple of my favorite Dayeinu instrumentals:

We begin with the Farbrangen Fiddlers, whose second LP American Chai (1976) is a pre-klezmer masterpiece of Jewish Americana (sadly, unavailable on CD). The Fiddlers' first record had a very small pressing - thus their "Dayeinu Bluegrass" (cutting edge for the 1970s, trust me) has rarely been heard.  I taped it on cassette one Sunday evening off WEVD in New York, from Robert Cohen's wonderful Yedid Nefesh program.  Back in those early days Robert was the Vin Scelsa of Jewish radio. Apologies for the sound (there's a drop-out or two), but David Shneyer's guitar and Alan Oresky's fiddle make this Dayeinu sweeter than that first sip of Shevitz!

The next cut speaks for itself.  It's from an LP called Twistin' The Freilach by Lou Klayman and his orchestra: a priceless piece of Jewish pop-culture, in which - you guessed it - traditional simcha songs are played in the style of that 1960s dance sensation "The Twist"! 

Here's a Dayeinu For The Ages.  When I started collecting Jewish novelty songs - think Jewish Dr. Demento (he is Jewish, I know) - I would occasionally come across a track that was recorded in complete seriousness, but hit me funnier than many comedy songs.  Not like the stuff on NPR's Annoying Music Show, which is just annoying.  I mean great music, the kind that gets better with age.  (Sometime I'll let you hear my 10 worst Hava Nagilas and you'll see what I mean.) 

So, enjoy this Pesach treat, the late Cantor Michael Hammerman, tenor, beloved hazzan of Brookline's historic Congregation Kehilat Israel, from his album of Jewish songs called Bless This House.  I don't want to spoil the fun of discovering it for yourself.  I'll just mention, in the third verse, after he gives a krechtz (cry) on the words "try to do it" the track gets more and more bizarre by the second, straight through to the end.  This is one you'll want on your iPod. (Here are the lyrics.)

Had enough matzah yet?

We're halfway through Chag Ha-Pesach, and our over-consumption of white flour is beginning to have an effect on the internal organs.  (They do sell whole wheat matzah, which isn't bad, but we never seem to be able to stock enough of it to last through the week.)  So, to help get you through the next few days with a smile, here are a few 'Songs you never learned in shul' relating to - what else? - the Bread of Affliction: 

From the great Allan Sherman we have "Mammy's Litttle Baby Loves Matzoballs", the finale of 'Shticks and Stones' from his landmark first LP, 'My Son the Folksinger'. There is much more to say about Allan Sherman (and we shall) but in the meantime there are rewards aplenty for those who search out his TV appearances on YouTube.

There is also much that can be said about the legendary 1930s jazz hipster Slim Gaillard, whose Yiddish inflected novelty tunes can be heard on multiple CD compilations. Slim recorded several memorable paeans on his love for Jewish foods, among them, "Matzah Balls," which appears on the excellent Columbia CD of proto-Jewish pop, 'From Ave. A To The Great White Way', and thus can only be excerpted here.

As you can hear, Gaillard seems to enjoy eating his matzah balls with gefilte fish.  To each his own, I suppose, but that brings me to the deliciously named 1980s California group Gefilte Joe and the Fish. Gefilte Joe (who he actually is/was is a mystery to me) was not the first (nor the last) Jewish humorist to channel Mel Brook's Yiddish accented 2000 Year Old Man. As you can hear on "Matzoh Man," (from a curious and long-out-of-print Rhino Records six-pointed-star-shaped EP - on blue vinyl(!) - called 'Hanukkah Rocks') he 'sings' in a way that makes you wonder if it's a total put-on or whether he's just your average disco-loving Jewish grampa.