There has undeniably been an important interchange between African-Americans and Jews, and most certainly between Jewish songwriters and African-American master jazz musicians. The connection and the struggle between these two groups is fascinating and a truly complicated topic, and part of the deeply riveting story of music in the 20th century. MY STRANGE LULLABY is a double-concerto for voice and clarinet. The work is a cross between a jazz concert, a theater piece and a multimedia “mini-opera” that explores the music and story behind three songs which couple Jewish and African-American musicians:

Strange Fruit (Sorrow, Protest, Common Goals)

Billie Holiday and Abel Meeropol

Although Billie Holiday claimed to have contributed to the composition of Strange Fruit, it was a protest song written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high school teacher and communist who wound up adopting the Rosenberg’s children. Holiday first performed it at Café Society, the first integrated club in New York. 

Russian Lullaby (Created Families and Joined Communities)

Louis Armstrong and his adopted Jewish parents, The Karnovsky’s, and Irving Berlin

As a child, Louis Armstrong worked for the Karnovsky’s, hauling coal in the red light district of turn of the century New Orleans. Together, Armstrong recalls, they would sing Russian Lullaby. The Karnovsky’s welcomed him into their family, encouraged him musically, and helped him buy his first trumpet. Armstrong wore a Jewish star the rest of his life as a way of honoring them.

My Favorite Things (Assimilation and Musical Liberation)

Richard Rodgers and John Coltrane

Richard Rodgers was an assimilated Jew who grew up in Harlem when there was a sizeable Jewish community there. Just a year after the Broadway premiere of this cheerful child-like song, John Coltrane recorded it and used the song as a springboard for a new modernist composition. He created a jazz classic, a radical transformation of the original song.

All three of these songs incite exploration of this notion of the exchange between African-American and Jewish musicians. This double concerto for Soprano (Jazz and Classical) and Clarinet (Classical, Jazz and Klezmer) will be a multimedia work drawing from newspaper articles, autobiographies, radio broadcasts, film and other visual and audio source materials. Each movement will morph from song into fantasia based on musical and historical themes, weaving these two seemingly disparate cultures.