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    Our physical "Yiddish Silver Screen" CD comes in a beautiful six-panel illustrated gate-fold case, with cover art by Anya Ulinich and disc design by Lisa M. Kelsey. The eminently legible twenty-page booklet fits smoothly into notched tube insert, complete with detailed descriptions as well as full lyrics for all vocal tracks including original Yiddish plus both transliteration and complete English translations. Booklet and artwork layouts by Yiddish publications expert Yankl Salant, graphic designer for "Yiddish Silver Screen" (aka "zilberner kino" / זילבערנער קינאָ ). Illustrations include band photos as well as archival frame stills from numerous Yiddish cinematic works.

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about

Yiddish was prominently featured in the 1936 Soviet musical comedy feature Tsirk (Circus) as sung by internationally-beloved stage performer Solomon “Shloyme” Mikhoels—until Mikhoels’ musical section went missing a few years after his death. His cameo in the film’s culminating multi-lingual lullaby scene was cut out a few years after Stalin secretly ordered Mikhoels killed off by a 1948 “accident” in Minsk. (Shloyme’s for- mal funeral procession was attended by tens of thousands in Moscow, ostensibly includ- ing a violinist who climbed atop a Moscow building to evoke GOSET Yiddish Theater’s original “fiddler on the roof” character perched on a 1920’s set by Marc Chagall.) By late 1952—months after many of Mikhoels’ colleagues from GOSET and the USSR’s Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee had been executed by firing squad in a notorious anti-Semitic purge—circulating screen prints of the perennial favorite Tsirk kept the polyglot song in its usual place, but simply skipped the Yiddish verse, excising footage where Shloyme’s familiar voice and image had been. His appearance (sitting next to androgynously-styled GOSET actress Lyolya Romm) pictured Mikhoels playing a role parallel to all the singers in this scene, crooning to a bi-racial baby who is lovingly passed around the big-top bleacher seats. So millions continued to see the little boy cradled by representatives of diverse USSR nationalities, each serenading the sleepy child in their own idiom: Russian, Ukrainian, two lines each of Georgian and Turkic languages, and even a little English. The censored Yiddish lines below were redacted on and off from theatrical and later also from televised showings. But certain avid fans never forgot, even reminding their chil- dren and grandchildren of Mikhoels’ absent part. The Slavic and the Yiddish lyrics carry the same message: “100 paths, 100 roads, all open to you.” Our adaptation finishes after the Yiddish portion below (omitting further Russian lines, such as a comical final verse with rhyming elephants and bears). In tribute to Mikhoels’ legacy, Yelena Shmulenson vocalizes a full spectrum of languages here, including the restored mame-loshn. The song’s lauded Soviet Jewish composer Isaac Dunayevsky, who often worked with director Grigory Alexandrov, had studied at conservatory in Kharkiv with Joseph Akhron, among others. He considered the music for Tsirk to be among his best work.

lyrics

Yiddish Lyric section (starts ca. 3:02 in audio)

Nakht iz itst fun rand biz rand
Kind, konst ruik shlofn
Hundert vegn do in land
Ale far dir ofn.

TRANSLATION:
Night is here from border to border.
Child, you can sleep in peace.
A hundred roads, here in this land,
All open to you.

credits

from Yiddish Silver Screen, released December 8, 2023
music by Isaac Dunayesky, lyrics by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach (Russian Tsirk version), arranged by Shoko Nagai

Vocals: Yelena Shmulenson
Trumpet: Pam Fleming
Piano: Shoko Nagai
Double Bass: Dave Hofstra

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Isle of Klezbos New York, New York

NYC-based ISLE of KLEZBOS approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. The soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women’s klezmer sextet has toured from Vienna to Vancouver since 1998. Repertoire ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies,Yiddish swing & retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking song, re-grooved standards, & genre-defying originals. ... more

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