The scene is early 1950s New York: Many European Jews were living on the Lower East Side, spending most of their time raising families, creating businesses and dancing to Latin music.
Wait, what?
That’s right; Jews were some of the earliest supporters of the Latin music craze that swept the country in the late ’40s and ’50s. And to celebrate this mix of cultures, the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, an organization dedicated to unearthing lost American Jewish pop music, will reissue “Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos,” a 1961 album that reinterprets classic Yiddish pieces through Latin dance music.
The re-mastered “Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos” turns such tunes as Herman Yablokoff’s “Papirossen” into an up-tempo mambo, and the bar/bat mitzvah favorite “Hava Nagila” into a groovy cha-cha.
The album was recorded by Grammy-award-winning Latin and jazz legend Ray Barretto, “Giant of the Keyboards” Charlie Palmieri and trumpeters Clark Terry and Doc Cheatum, among others. For “Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos,” these renowned musicians played under the band name Juan Calle and his Latin Lantzmen.
The August 11 re-release of the album will be followed by a free concert at Lincoln Center on August 23, where the Arturo O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Sextet, along with other jazz and Latin musicians, will play “Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos” in its entirety.
Bring your dancing shoes and mambo moves.
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Wonderful article. Grew up in New York from 1927 to 1969 when my family and I went on aliya to Israel. My brother was a musician who played weddings and bar mitzvahs all during the late forties, fifties and sixties. The latino music was a must at every Jewish event that fetured music. Pedro Harris was a disc jockey in the New York area who played only latino music while Ray Block played Cha Cha occasionally on the Make Believe Ballroom. Every teen ager in the New York area listened to these two disc jockeys religiously. If possible please advise where one can purchase the CD......I will keep it as a surprise to be presented to my wife on her birthday. Can't wait to hear the beat. David l. Israel (author) The Day the Thunderbird Cried www.thunderbirdcried.com 1200 Miramar ave. apt. 1001 Medford, Oregon 97504
PS We are both in our eighties.....don't make us wait too long!!!!/
You can buy this album here: www.idelsohnsociety.com
can you tell us more about the concert? who are idelsohn society? this sounds wonderful -- but deserves more than a blurb.
Where/How can I get the free tickets for the concert on 8/23 at Lincoln center ? Where can I buy the CD for "Mazel Tov, Mis amigos"?