Music From The Yiddish Radio Project
The dual assault of TV and rock & roll in the 1950s caused many  casualties, among them swing music, radio, and a vital Yiddish-American culture.  This wonderful project (and its companion 10-part National Public Radio  documentary series) celebrates a time when those three institutions joined  together to form a powerful force of their own. Producers Henry Sapoznik and  Yair Reiner re-create Yiddish radio's golden age of the 1930s through the 1950s  with a combination of klezmer music, "Yiddish swing," and commercial jingles  culled from vintage 78s as well as radio transcriptions (once the property of  longtime TV host Joe Franklin). It's a fascinating story of a time when Jewish  culture thrived in its new home, but within is buried a different story: one of  assimilation. The once-beloved traditional klezmer sounds of Eastern Europe  (represented here in the work ofDave TarrasandNaftule Brandwein) were  slowly replaced by "Yiddish swing," a mostly successful attempt to update  traditional Jewish pop and folk songs in the fashionable swing style--or, as  Sapoznik puts it, "playing downtown Jewish music in an uptown style." The need  (or perhaps desire) for acceptance is revealed in both performer names (the  Bagelman Girls became theBarry Sisters) and in  "nonethnic" product spots for essentially "ethnic" products. Tellingly, it was  the MidwesternAndrews  Sisters' 1937 hit reading of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (originally from a  Yiddish play) that set off an explosion of Yiddish and American cultural  cross-pollination. It represented the peak of Yiddish cultural influence in  America--and as it turned out, the beginning of that culture's demise. For most,Music from the Yiddish Radio Projectwill be an endearing and  enlightening history lesson, but for many others, it will be a bittersweet  nostalgic journey through a time that remains so vivid in memories, yet feels  like 1,000 years ago.--Marc Greilsamer