Jewface
Where popular music is concerned, most immigrant populations begin by looking back toward their homelands before developing styles that reflect their own take on the slow, arduous process of assimilation. Eastern European Jewish musicians had especially rich traditions to draw upon, although in the old country, professional players were often treated like social pariahs. But this began to change in the New World; many vaudeville and big band tunes evolved from klezmer tunes and owe as much to long-agoshtetlweddings as Tin Pan Alley. The cover says it all: "Jewface" is a wry reference to "blackface," yet another form of ethnic minstrelsy that is presently regarded as unspeakably un-PC. Recorded as early as 1905 and rescued from fragile wax cylinders and 78-rpm recordings, the tunes collected here are chock-full of Yiddish-inflected dialect pieces (comedian Jackie Mason is a modern descendant). They are often crudely, raucously funny, if one can get past the now-repugnant stereotypes. These ditties, which must have cheered up thousands of lonely newcomers, are heard in understandably antique yet remarkably clear sound. All are well worth the price of admission but Irving Kaufman's "My Yiddisha Mammy," which probably inspired Al Jolson, and "Becky Is Back in the Ballet," recorded by Fanny Brice in 1922, are both falling-on-the-floor, boffo numbers--in more ways than one!--Christina Roden