• 44 Friday, March 22, 1 985 , THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS N. "Herb's Hemish Deal" . bruce m. weiss AUTO RUST REPAIRS Jewelers 26325 Twelve Mile Rd. S outheast corner Northwestern Arc & Gas Welding Behind Gabe's Fruits In The Mayfair Shops Free Estimates at Your Home or Office Free Pick up and Delivery Vinyl tops, rotted floors — Same Location Since 1972 - Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30 Thurs. 10-8:30 SHOP 493-0212 HOME 356-3677 353-1424 - — MUSIC Fiddling Continued from Page 104 JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS FRI., MAR. 22 THRU SAT., MAR. 23 ALL MATERNITY CLOTHES 30% OFF TODDLER BOYS & GIRLS DRESS CLOTHES 40% OFF Mon.-Sat. 10-5 Benyas- Kaufman Thurs. 10-8 APPLEGATE SQUARE Northwestern & Inkster • Southfield 352-9799 • All Sales Fi la' • No Charges Joe Greenbaum and Larry Bassin tune up for a performance. A /f0 The Haggadah was read. The goodbyes were said. Cup after cup, The coffee was Brim.® , C al 111.111. Fill your cup to the rim With the richness of Brim.® .111. GENERAL FOOOB .1985 General Foods Corporation Not bad for a couple of musi- cians whose only publicity, up until recently, was through word-of-mouth — and whose "business cards" were once paper plates or napkins on which their names and phone numbers were scribbled in pencil:- "Yiddish has been part of my life since I was a kid," says Bassin, taking a break from a recent rehearsal session • at Greenbaum's home. "My grandparents, my aunt, my mother spoke Yiddish. And I've always heard Yiddish music. I can remember my grandparents coming over to our house on Sunday after- noons and, once we ate, we'd start to sing and we'd spend hours singing. I'd play the guitar, too, although playing is not the big thing for me — the main thing for me is sing- ing." Bassin and Greenbaum feel that, musically, they comple- ment each other. Greenbaum, born in Poland and the grandson of a Klezmer musi- cian, does not sing, but has had a classical training as a vio- linist since the age of 6, and has played in the Flint, Kalamazoo, Saginaw and Bay City symphony orchestras. Bassin, on the other hand, has had little formal music train- ing and does not read music. "It's just natural, there in my heart," he says. "Joe's a perfectionist and he drives me crazy sometimes. Practice is painful and sometimes we'll go over a song four-five times. But that's fine. It's a new discipline for me; I've never had that discipline." "I don't think of it as just some kind of leisure time ac- tivity that's fun to do," adds Greenbaum, who came to the United States when he was 13, and is employed as an automo- tive engineer at Ford , Motor Co. "I think of it like a second job — a professional endeavor. It's not something that you just kinda go out and mess around with." They say they've managed to develop their act mostly through a trial-and-error method — seeing what works for them and for their audi- ences, and what doesn't. Dur- ing most performances, each has a solo number, and they usually do at least one Russian number and maybe an Irving Berlin medley, along with the Yiddish music. Sometimes, Greenbaum might even throw in a popular bluegrass piece, The Devil's Dream. The two met at a Sholem Aleichem Institute function four years ago. At the time, Bassin was beginning to per- form as a solo act for local groups such as B'nai B'rith and Hadassah. Last fall, after eventually discovering their shared commitment to Kleimer music and the Yid- dish theater, the two decided to get together. Their first booking was a night to remember. "We went to play for a Masonic lodge in Ferndale," Bassin explains. "It was sup- posed to be a Jewish Mason lodge although, at the time, I .