Arts & Entertainment

Music To Stir The Soul

CD of Jewish tunes reflects eclectic musical heritage.

George Robinson

When the family moved to Fairfax Avenue,
the heart of Jewish L.A., Rutberg started
hanging out at Norty's Music, a legendary
t looks ridiculously easy. You pull
record store. Eventually, the kid was such a
together a dozen or so of your favor-
fixture that Norty offered him a job.
ite recordings, put them on a CD and
"The guy who was working there already,
release them to an adoring public. But it
who trained me, was Steve Berri, who went
took Simon Rutberg a dozen years to bring
on to write 'Secret Agent Man [with P.F.
to fruition a lifelong dream, a compilation
Sloan] and songs for Jan and Dean',' Rutberg
album that showcases his favorite Jewish and said. "The guy before him was Jerry Leiber.
Yiddish classics, sung by an unlikely group of The store was only a block from Fairfax
pop, rock and classical artists.
High, and among the kids who would come
Happily for Rutberg, the album, Jewish
in and hang around were Phil Spector and a
Soul: The Heart and Soul of Jewish Music, is
young guy called Herbie Alpert."
now complete
The store's stock,
"You can hear
and ready for
Rutberg recalls, was
the Jewishness
the public.
"half Yiddish, half
CONNU PRANCIS
in every song
Despite a
everything else."
nirtf .1 ON ES
[on the CD],"
jOHNNY
lifetime in the
Rutberg had one
:FART
ETT
says
Simon
JACKIF
music business,
foot
in R&B and the
BETTY MAD/GAN
Rutberg, "but
. JAY&7JiE AMfERlC ANS
it wasn't easy .
other in Jewish music.
NFIANYA. OAST
you can hear
Rutberg's
He became a very
EDDIE FISHER
JA PEIERCE
the
artist's
background
close friend of the leg-
ANDY WILL/ A MS
YA EPA 1 -AR KONT
individual style,
is as uncon-
endary Jackie Wilson
too."
ventional as
and of Billy Johnson,
his new CD.
one of the original
He was born in Russia, lived in Belgium as a
Moonglows. Ironically, it was the African-
child and came to the U.S. with his parents
American Johnson, raised in the Jewish
when he was "6 or 7',' he recalled. When he
section of Cleveland and a fluent Yiddish
was 10, his family moved to Los Angeles, and speaker, who turned Rutberg on to Mickey
he's been there ever since.
Katz, who became a close friend, too.
"Los Angeles was a very different music
Norty's was in a neighborhood "where you
scene he said. "I lived in a working-class,
heard more Yiddish spoken than English:'
ethnically mixed neighborhood, and the kids
Rutberg said. `And a lot of people in the
were listening to rhythm and blues, not rock 'n entertainment industry, mostly Jewish,
roll. I grew up listening to the Clovers and the would come in. They all had wonderful sto-
Chantels, but I went to them from Kay Starr ries. [American Yiddish theater actor] Leo
and Doris Day. My parents listened to classical
Fuchs would tell me about Poland. Leonard
music at home so I can appreciate anything." Nimoy used to hang out.
In the meantime, he and his brother
"I thought, `This is the place for me; I'm
would walk to shul Saturday mornings, and
gonna be a big macherr Rutberg said with a
Simon sang with the junior choir — so his
rueful laugh. "I figured someday I'd take over
musical background was quite eclectic.
the whole thing. Instead I ended up with the

Special to the Jewish News

I

JEWISH SOUL

ews

Nate Bloom

._

l c

Special to the Jewish News

New Flicks

Opening Friday, Jan. 7, is Country
41, Strong, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, 38,
wilm as Kelly Canter, a country music legend
) just out of rehab. A rising young singer-
songwriter (Garrett
Hedlund) gets close
(11111)
to her, and the pair
embark on a career
resurrection tour
helmed by her hus-
band-manager (Tim
McGraw).
Paltrow really
Gwyneth
sings in the film and
Paltrow

CI

36

January 6 • 2011

learned to play the guitar for the role.
Robert Downey Jr., who struggled with
drug addiction for decades, advised
Paltrow on the special problems of
celebrity addicts.
Opening the same
day is Casino Jack,
a biopic on the life
of lobbyist Jack
Abramoff, now 53,
who was the center
of a massive public
corruption scandal
that
culminated in his
Jack Abramoff
conviction, in 2005,
of bribing public officials and defraud-
ing American Indian groups seeking
approval to open casinos. Abramoff, an

Yiddish." He opened his own store, Hatikvah
Music, a successor to Norty's that specialized
exclusively in Jewish music. It was a bad bet.
As the neighborhood changed over years,
the walk-in business dwindled. Eventually,
Rutberg closed down the brick-and-mortar
version of Hatikvah, and now it exists only
on the Internet. As Hatikvah Music, Rutberg
has been responsible for the re-release of
some gems, particularly a Barton Brothers
CD and albums by the Barry Sisters and
Theodore Bikers output on Elektra Records.
But Jewish Soul is a cherished project.
"The album came about in a very strange
way,' he explained. "When I first started lis-
tening to Jewish music, it seemed hokey to
me. I didn't understand it then. I knew noth-
ing about Jewish music when I started hear-
ing a singer named Mimi Sloan. The voice
impressed me. I never forgot that:'
(In fact, one of Rutberg's previous projects
was a reissue of a Sloan set.)
"Then Jackie [Wilson] released an album
that was a tribute to Al Jolson in 1961," he
continues. "He had five hits on the charts;
why would he do a Jolson album? Because
Jolson was one of his idols. I started saving up
Jewish songs by artists I liked, a lot of them
non-Jews or singers who were identified with
a different musical tradition. If I ever could
make an album, this is what I would do."
Getting rights to a baker's dozen of record-
ings was a chore that dragged on for years.
"I held out for one artist for a year-and-a-
half, another for three years',' Rutberg said.
"I did the album for myself. You can hear the
Jewishness in every song, but you can hear
the artist's individual style, too. Every once
in a while a song I liked wouldn't make it
because it didn't flow into the others. And I
wanted it to be good music so that you can
appreciate it even if you're not Jewish."
The result is a dazzling blend that draws

Orthodox Jew, was released from jail
last month.
Kevin Spacey plays Abramoff, and
Barry Pepper plays Michael Scanlon,
his business partner. Jon Lovitz,
52, has a supporting role as a mob-
connected associate who masterminds
one of the many corrupt schemes that
involved Abramoff.

Shameless TV

The Showtime series Shameless pre-
mieres 10 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9.
Based on a British TV series, the
American version is set in Chicago.
William H. Macy stars as Frank
Gallagher, the alcoholic single father
of six children ranging in age from tod-

R&B/soul singer Jackie Wilson with Simon

Rutberg in the early '60s. According to the

CD liner notes, Wilson, who spoke Yiddish,

"professed to being Jewish."

Simon Rutberg in the early days of
Hatikvah Music

on Rutberg's encyclopedic knowledge of '50s
and '60s pop and includes such unlikely per-
formers as Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis, Andy
Williams and Simon's beloved Jackie Wilson.
It's worth the price of the set just to hear
Eartha Kitt singing "Rumania, Rumania:'
There are a couple of surprising Jewish
ringers, too, perhaps none more unexpected
than Jay and the Americans.
"Jay Black grew up in an Orthodox home
Rutberg notes. "He sang as a kid in Moshe
Koussevitzky's backing choir. Who knew?" I 1

Jewish Soul: The Heart and Soul of
Jewish Music is available at select
Judaica stores, on Amazon.com or
directly from Hatikvah Music (www.
hatikvahmusic.com). E-mail
klezkorner@aol.com or call
(323) 655-7083.

dler to young adult.
Frank spends most
days drunk, and the
kids fend for them-
selves. The oldest
child, Fiona (Emmy
Rossum, 24) holds
things together with
Emmy
the help of whatever
Rossum
pocket money her
siblings can pitch in.
I watched a sneak peek of the first
episode, and it was very strong TV. Still,
parents should know there are explicit
sex scenes in some episodes. Rossum
(Phantom of the Opera, The Day After)
was a lot more grown up and forceful in
this role than I have ever seen her.