The Jewish Telegraph

24 JEWISH TELEGRAPH Friday January 22, 2010
CONTACT MIKE COHEN
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Grant helped to
send Mike to
USA on the trail
of jazz legends
T
BY SIMON YAFFE
HE cool,
uplifting world of
jazz has inspired
and attracted
many Jewish
musicians.
From Artie Shaw to Pete
Sokolow to Stan Levey, Jews
have made important forays
into jazz.
“In its early years, jazz
attracted ethnic minorities in
America, such as Jews, blacks,
Italians and the Irish — it never
attracted WASPS,” Mike
Gerber, author of Jazz Jews, told
the Jewish Telegraph.
In the book, Mike
concentrates on the performers
and writers and explores the
role of Jews in breaking the
colour bar in American jazz.
He also debates whether there
is such a thing as Jewish jazz.
Freelance journalist Mike, of
Walthamstow, east London,
decided to write the book after
being approached to submit an
article on Jewish jazz for the
Jewish Socialist magazine.
Mike recalled: “I knew that a
company called Five Leaves had
published a book called Rock ‘n’
Roll Jews.
“I wanted to delve more into
Jews and jazz, so I approached
them and asked if they fancied
doing a follow-up.”
He subsequently received a
grant from the Jewish Music
Institute at London’s School of
African and Oriental Studies in
2002 and went to America to
search out the legendary
Jewish stars of jazz.
Mike’s interest in jazz began
at a young age.
He remembered: “My dad had
a 78 rpm record of George
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue —
you had to turn it over to hear
the rest of the song.
“This was in the 1960s and I
was a big fan of The Beatles,
The Rolling Stones, The Kinks
and The Animals.
“But Gershwin’s sound was
like nothing I had heard before
— it was quasi-classical in a
GERSHWIN FAN: Mike Gerber
way, just totally different.”
Mike recalls watching a
performance by the American
jazz drummer and bandleader
Buddy Rich at a Royal Variety
Performance in the 1970s.
He continued: “It was one of
the best performances I have
ever watched.
“I also went to see Sonny
Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Muddy
Waters and Dizzy Gillespie
when they were in London.
Born and brought up in
Kilburn, north London, he was
barmitzvah in 1966, just after
the World Cup.
And his barmitzvah at the
local synagogue was the second
one there.
“It had been burned down,
probably by neo-Nazis, and then
restored,” Mike explained.
The 56-year-old did not get
into journalism until he was in
his 30s.
He said: “I had a string of
dead-end, low-paid jobs, such as
working in a textile factory and
in a warehouse.
“There came a point where it
became so boring and I was just
not getting any job satisfaction
at all.
Mike decided to do a degree
in history with Spanish at
BRUSQUE:
Jazz legend
Artie Shaw
Middlesex Polytechnic and then
applied to do a post-graduate
course in journalism from the
London College of Printing.
“It was a tough course to get
on to and tough to do,” he
continued.
Mike spent time writing for a
range of periodicals, including
the National Union of
Railwaymen’s magazine,
London magazine City Limits,
The Guardian, The Financial
Times and The Observer.
He also wrote music features
for Channel 4’s website and
various folk and roots’
magazines.
“It was all part of my music
development,” Mike observed.
His venture into jazz started
in 2002.
The lifelong Tottenham
Hotspur fan used to frequent
the legendary Ronnie Scott’s
jazz club in London,
He phoned Jim Godbold,
editor of the club’s magazine
and told him he wanted talk
about Jews in jazz.
“That conversation lasted
half-a-minute, he just was not
interested,” Mike recalled.
Amazingly, however, a friend
later phoned Mike who told him
that Godbold had written an
editorial on Jews and jazz and
had even alluded to their phone
call.
Mike said: “I was not
annoyed, I actually mention
the story in the preface to my
book.”
His research for the book and
subsequent trip to America led
to him tracking down the
renowned jazz clarinettist,
composer and bandleader Artie
Shaw, who he went to see at his
home in Thousand Oaks,
California.
Shaw, born Arthur Jacob
Arshawsky, died in 2004, and the
interview he gave to Mike for
the book was one of his last.
Mike said: “He was quite
brusque and prickly, but highly
intelligent.
“I knew he was not
sympathetic to what I was
writing, he said it did not make
a difference to him when he was
hiring people for his band what
religion or ethnicity they were.
“He was actually opposed to
the premise of my book, but we
spoke and it remains my
proudest interview.”
Mike also interviewed Pete
Sokolow, Barbara Carroll,
Terry Gibbs and Stan Levey
among others.
He found that many Jews in
jazz were inspired by the
Talmudic songs and prayers
they heard recited by the
chazanim in synagogues when
they were young.
He said: “I am still
researching the subject in my
spare time.
“My passion for it has just
grown and grown.”
■ Jazz Jews is published by Five Leaves,
priced £24.99.
mcohen@jewishtelegraph.com
Tel: 0161 741 2637
MAD ABOUT AWARD: From left, January Jones, Mad Men creator Matthew
Weiner, Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks and Vincent Kartheiser
celebrate their Golden Globe award
‘Jew Hunter’ waltzes
away with a Globe
AUSTRIAN actor Christoph Waltz
picked up yet another award on Sunday
night for his portrayal as Hans Landa,
the Jew Hunter, in Quentin Tarantino’s
hit flick Inglourious Basterds.
Waltz won best supporting actor at
the prestigious Golden Globes, held on
Sunday in Los Angeles. He has already
won more than 15 awards for the role
set during the Second World War.
The Hangover, directed and produced
by Todd Phillips and Daniel Goldberg,
won best film (musical or comedy).
Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner,
won best series (drama), while Julianna
Margulies picked up best actress
(drama) for her role as Alicia Florrick in
the legal drama The Good Wife.
It will be screened on Channel 4 from
Monday (10pm).
James Cameron’s epic Avatar swept
the board, at the expense of Inglourious
Basterds and Quentin Tarantino.
Daniel Day-Lewis (Nine), Joseph
Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer)
and Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man)
lost out to Robert Downey Jr in the
best actor (musical or comedy)
category.
Anna Paquin missed out on a best
actress award for her role in The
Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler.
Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children
by smuggling them out of the Warsaw
Ghetto.
Composer Marvin Hamlisch music for
The Informant was beaten to best
original score by Michael Giacchino for
Up.
Entourage’s Jeremy Piven and The
Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick also missed out
on awards.
WINNER: Christoph Waltz
PREPARE TO BE HUNGOVER: The Hangover won the award for best motion
picture, comedy or musical. Pictured, from left, Ed Helms Justin Bartha, director
Todd Phillips, Heather Graham, Bradley Cooper and Mike Tyson