Two great concerts of Yiddish music from the Jazz Age in North Carolina in December! What, are we crazy?

This year everybody is marveling at the bizarre convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, giving us the last Thanksgivvukah for 70,000 years or so (anyway, a long time). But who is thinking about how dreary it's going to be when, Hanukkah over, Jews will have nothing to listen to but "Jingle Bell Rock" for weeks -- and no latkes to console themselves with.

I have a solution! My world music ensemble Mappamundi is giving two concerts of Jewish music from the 1920s and 1930s, music popular and beloved in the kleynkunst venues and Yiddish cabarets and theaters of Warsaw Poland, but now almost forgotten. We will project subtitles on the wall so nobody has to miss out on the jokes.

Info and tickets in advance from CabaretWarsaw.com.

The first, sort of a warm-up, is an hour long and just four of us, at the Carolina Meadows Auditorium on Thursday December 19 at 7:30 pm. The big show (we hope) is at the Carrboro ArtsCenter Saturday December 21, also at 7:30, a 90 minute show featuring me (Jane Peppler) on vocals, violin and concertina; Roger Lynn Spears and Aviva Enoch on piano (not at the same time); Ken Bloom on guitar, clarinet, and domro; Jim Baird on bass and guitar; Beth Holmgren on the sultry alto torch songs (she will present a few in Polish by Jewish composers of the time) and Randy Kloko, baritone, all the way up from Orlando Florida! He sang with me on the two cds of this music I released this year. Have a listen:

Here is our poster, created by Roger Lynn Spears:



Please tell your friends and come if you can. See you there!