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Ann Braithwaite (781) 259-9600 [email protected]

RENOWNED SAXOPHONIST PAUL SHAPIRO SALUTES 1940s “YIDDISH SWING” ON THIRD CD ESSEN * Released on John Zorn’s Tzadik Label June 24th * Jewish jazz. Yiddish R&B. To the uninitiated, these may seem like oxymorons. But those lucky enough to catch Paul Shapiro’s Ribs and Brisket Revue know that in fact, Jews and jazz have been getting along famously since the 1940s, and there’s a songbook of hits to prove it. For his third album as a leader, the saxophonist unveils the uproarious Essen -- that’s Yiddish for “eat!” – and it’s a soup-to-nuts feast of bump ‘n’ grind blues and Borscht Belt humor, with songs made semi-famous by Peggy Lee, Cab Calloway, Slim ‘n’ Slam, and the Barton Brothers. Seriously, it’s a gut buster. They should package it with alka-seltzer. Surrounded by the ace players who made up his albums Midnight Minyan and It’s In the Twilight—including Brian Mitchell on keys, Booker King on bass, and drummer Tony Lewis – Shapiro turns from the lofty reverence of those Jewish-themed recordings to the low-down hilarity of Essen. Guiding this foray into the Hebraic underbelly are two unbelievable singers. Cilla Owens tackles Sophie Tucker’s “Mama Goes Where Papa Goes” (1923) and Mildred Bailey’s “A Bee Gezindt” (1940) with equal aplomb; and Babi Floyd, a manic presence in the tradition of both black and Jewish comedians, whose take on “Utt-Da-Zay” (1939) out-Cabs Calloway’s rendition by several orders of magnitude. For the first time on record, Shapiro picks up the clarinet – See, I told you he was Jewish! – leading his versatile band through the Catskills comedy routine “Essen,” the red-hot Slim Gaillard romp “Matzoh Balls,” (1939) and the klezmer-blues “My Little Cousin,” also known as “Di Grine Kusine” in Yiddish-theater days. So what is this Afro-Semitic mish-mash? The biggest Yiddish swing hit, “Bei Mir Bist Du Shayn,” popularized by the Andrews Sisters in 1937, kicked off a wave of Jewish-tinged jazz in the ‘40s. A weekly radio program, “Yiddish Melodies in Swing,” in addition to delivering exactly what the title promised, introduced the world to the singing Barry Sisters. A number of these Yiddish numbers became part of the repertoire of African-American singers such as Billy Eckstine and Eartha Kitt. It was the zenith of a musical interplay between Jews and blacks that stretches from George Gershwin to Sammy Davis Jr. to Paul Shapiro himself. - over 248 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 • Telephone (781) 259-9600 • Fax (781) 259-9606 • Email: [email protected]

Paul Shapiro “Essen”

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The New York-based saxophonist who co-founded Brooklyn Funk Essentials and had a chair in the Microscopic Sextet made his name backing pop, soul, and dance artists from Queen Latifah to Nuyorican Soul. His brawny tenor invokes the body language of R&B pioneers such as King Curtis and Fathead Newman, while keeping harmonically courant with post-bop sensibilities. It was with the encouragement of composer and saxophonist John Zorn that Shapiro partook in his Radical Jewish Culture series, producing two albums that the New Yorker said “[display] all the turbulent beauty and tradition-bucking funk that his growing coterie of fans now expects.” Of It’s In the Twilight, dubbed “a scorcher” by The Village Voice, the New York Times enthused, “Shapiro transforms the ritual of a Friday night Shabbat service into a rollicking downtown jam.” Which leads quite naturally to Essen, which is at its heart an evening of Shapiro’s Ribs and Brisket Revue put to tape. The long-running evening in the swag-curtained basement of the Cornelia St. Café was conceived as a salute to the heyday of Jewish-tinged 1940s jazz. Ribs and Brisket (think “R” and “B,” Jewish style) zeroed in on the Jewish love of humor and food from the beginning. After each show, mavens such as Will Freidlander and Ratso Sloman would tell Shapiro about some obscure bit of Semitic swing. Such was the case with the title track, based on a comedy routine by Billy Hodes. Satirizing – but only just barely – the groaning dining tables found at the Catskills resorts, the song in Shapiro’s hands is also a buffet of rhythms and styles ranging from klezmer to funk to reggae. For all the belly laughs, there’s no joke about Essen. Shapiro’s ambitious arranging, and the white-hot playing of the band (which includes guest blowers Steven Bernstein and Frank London on trumpet and Doug Wieselman on clarinet) make the album much more than a compendium of vintage covers. Where his previous works paid homage to Jewish sacred music, Essen completes the triptych with a very Jewish acknowledgment of this world’s appetites, from food to leisure to sex to, well, food. Noted Jews React to Essen: Larry “Ratso” Sloman, author of On the Road with Bob Dylan and other counter-cultural tomes, says: “Essen is aural chicken soup for the universal soul. Paul Shapiro has assembled an amazing band that pays tribute to two divergent diasporas – of blacks and Jews – and the cultures meet seamlessly around the table sharing some brisket and washing it down with a bissel 2 cents plain. Rush out and get this CD now! But first, can you pass me the lox?" Ben Sidran, jazz and rock keysman and critic, says: "Finally, a CD you can sink your teeth into! In the notes, Paul writes that Jewish food was the gateway for Americans to discover Yiddish culture during the 20th century and it’s still true: the music on this CD is as rich, tasty and satisfying as your first bite of my bubbie’s brisket. I highly recommend it, maybe with a little shpritz on the side." So pull up a chair and dig in! #

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