MARCH 11 • 2021 | 37

writing words to it and asked 
for a meeting.
“We have since toured 
the country, the United 
Kingdom and Israel,” Bass 
said. “Last year, we put out 
his second album, Little 
Victories, which got to No. 
1 on the Amazon hip-hop 
charts. He can feel the music 
and read my lips; that’s how 
we get it done.”
Bass is married to an 
attorney, Danielle (née 
Klavons), whom he met in 
Hebrew school at Temple 
Emanu-El. They are rais-

ing a 3-year-old daughter, 
Layla, who could represent 
the third generation of Bass 
musicians.
“I’m teaching her music, 
and she loves the piano and 
drums,” said Bass, who has 
been active with JFamily 
Detroit and The Well. “We 
got a little microphone for 
her, and she’s always in 
my studio. She’s having 
fun, but she respects the 
instruments. I have a lot of 
guitars, and she knows to be 
gentle with them. It’s pretty 
fascinating.” 

A Reunion of Bass Buddies

Two Michigan friends of Bass — one from Hebrew 
school and one from middle school — built their own 
musical careers in other states but were able to partici-
pate in the Jakey B. LP during visits back home.
Will Feinberg, a fellow 
student of Bass at Temple 
Emanu-El now working in 
New Orleans, played key-
boards for the song “Real 
Smooth Like.” Ian Ludlow 
(Lefkowitz) did arranging 
and editing for the album. 
Feinberg, the son of pia-
nist Henry Feinberg, grew 
up in Huntington Woods, 
has appeared in the New 
Orleans Jazz Fest among 
diverse engagements and 
teaches private students. 
His band Tansy released 
its first album, Full Bloom, in 2020.
“Jake’s album has a really nice groove,” said Feinberg, 
who performed professionally in China while also work-
ing for the Institute for the International Education of 
Students as he initially contemplated a career in interna-
tional relations.
Ian Ludlow, who works in California, got to know Bass 
at Norup Middle School while living in Oak Park and pre-
paring for his bar mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom. 
He also did some remote fiddling for the recording. 
“I like the free feeling of the album,” Ludlow said. “It’s 
not the same over and over.” 
Ludlow, who also studied at Columbia College 
Chicago, has toured as a producer and DJ artist in the 
electronic and pop styles. He regularly has worked with 
Chance the Rapper. 

— Suzanne Chessler

FRYE’S HOME MOVIES,
CNN CHANGES, SAMMY 
DAVIS’ DAUGHTER
I previously wrote about the 
Feb. 25 premiere of a reboot 
of the hit ’80s series Punky 
Brewster. The co-star of 
Punky, Soleil Moon Frye, 44, 
is also the star and director of 
an intriguing new documen-
tary, titled Kid 90. It premieres 
on Hulu March 12. Back in the 
1990s, Frye massed hundreds 
of hours of footage of her 
famous contemporaries with 
her video camera. 
 The videos provide a focus 
for Frye and a group of about 
a dozen actors (all about 
her age) to talk about many 
subjects, such as sex, aging, 
drugs, the special problems 
of young women in showbiz 
and the price of early fame 
(eight persons in the videos 
later committed suicide). 
Interviewees include David 
Arquette, 49, and Stephen 
Dorff, 47.
March is the last month in 
which Wolf Blitzer, 74, will 
hold the title of “lead politi-
cal anchor” of CNN. Starting 
April 1, Jake Tapper, 51, will 
assume that title. Also, on 
April 1, Blitzer’s daily CNN pro-
gram, The Situation Room, will 
be reduced from two hours 
to one. The Lead with Jake
Tapper will expand to two 
hours. Meanwhile, Tapper has 
already begun to share his 
Sunday program, The State of
the Union, with correspondent 
Dana Bash, 49. They host on 
alternate weeks. 
All three have strong 
Jewish backgrounds. Blitzer 
is the son of Auschwitz sur-
vivors and became fluent in 
Hebrew while working for 
the Jerusalem Post. Tapper 
is a Jewish day school grad. 

Bash’s mother has a masters’ 
degree in Jewish studies. 
Dana was formerly married 
to Jeremy Bash, the son of a 
Conservative rabbi, and CNN 
correspondent John King, 59, 
who converted to Judaism 
before marrying Bash.
A few weeks ago, I came 
across a press release from 
last October saying a biopic 
about Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-
1990) was in the works and 
would be based on a 2014 
memoir, Sammy Davis Jr.: A 
Personal Journey with My 
Father, by Tracey Davis. 
I recently got a library copy 
of the book, a lavish pro-
duction with great photos. 
Tracey writes about some of 
her family’s Jewish ties, and 
she includes the full text of a 
moving statement that a rabbi 
made as he presided over 
the 1960 interracial wedding 
of her father to Swedish-born 
actress May Britt, now 86 
(both converted to Judaism 
before the wedding).
Tracey said her mother 
always celebrated Shabbos 
on Friday night, but, sadly, 
her father was rarely there 
because he was “always” 
working, which led to her par-
ents’ divorce in 1968. 
Last week, I looked up 
Tracey and was shocked to 
learn she died Nov. 20, at age 
59, following an unspecified 
“short illness.” 
She is survived by her four 
children, three brothers and 
her mother. 

CELEBRITY JEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

EDWARD KIMMER VIA WIKIPEDIA

Wolf Blitzer 
in 2017

