Mike Gerber

Just to update forum members on my Jazz Jews radio show: you can now hear it anytime via internet station UK Jazz Radio's Listen Again service at: http://www.ukjazzradio.com/ListenAgain.html My debut show, first broadcast on 2nd November, is still up there but I'm about to record the 2nd show which will get its first airing towards the end of next week. Any members that do check out the show, please let me know what you think via the email link on my UK Jazz Radio presenter's page at http://www.ukjazzradio.com/MikeGerber.html BTW, any members in London on 28th November may well be interested in the Jazzsongs and Jews event that I'll be presenting, with musical accompaniment by jazz singer/pianist Clare Shaw - details at http://www.spiroark.org/events/713/jazzsongs-and-jews/

I'm Mike Gerber, the London-based author of the book Jazz Jews, as a result of which I've been asked to host a regular Jazz Jews show on the internet station UK Jazz Radio. As I'm already part of this Organissimo forum debate, I thought other members might be interested in this development. UK Jazz Radio is one year old this month and already has some 500,000 listeners worldwide. Listeners access the shows via the UK Jazz Radio website at www.jazzradio.com, or on a wifi internet radio. My Jazz Jews show will feature: Jewish-jazz fusions of every kind; rootsy Jewish music such as klezmer; Israeli jazz; and there will also be a focus on Jewish Great American Songbook composers. I will also play tracks by some of the many Jewish musicians who have contributed to jazz. I also plan to do interviews, gigs and documentary specials. My debut show was broadcast at 10.00pm on Tuesday 26th October, UK time, but it will be repeated on various days and at various times, as will further editions of the show. Just check out the UK Jazz Radio schedules, remember these are in UK time, so if you want to catch my show outside the UK you'll probably have to make a time zone adjustment The show will be monthly initially. There is information about me on my book website at www.jazzjews.com. And I will have my own presenter's page on the UK Jazz Radio website at www.ukjazzradio.com.

Ah yes, confirmation. I've just flicked through Susan J Miller's memoir, Never Let Me Down. She writes: "The musicians who came to our house fascinated me ... Allen Eager, Tiny Kahn, George Handy, Stan Getz, Johnny Mandel, Georgie Auld - these names resonate in my heart like the Yiddish that I heard so often then"

I hope Allen Eager was Jewish, as I've mentioned him as such in my book.

Does that mean Jeff Lorber's Jewish too? New guy here. Was gonna mention Steve Lacy and the Brecker Brothers, but see they're already mentioned. One small bit of Jewish geography--both they and jazz fusion guy Jeff Lorber went to same high school in suburban Philly...

That's not what Doug Ramsey's authoritative Desmond biography "Take Five" says. Desmond did for a while believe that was Jewish on his father's side of his family, but he was wrong. The Brubeck Quartet IIRC did have to play without Desmond on a tour that took them to Saudi Arabia because it was thought that Desmond was Jewish, but Desmond's father, Emil Breitenfeld was of German ancestry. Here's what a Washington Post article says about Desmond's ethnicity: "Desmond was born in San Francisco in 1924 and was known, until he changed his name at 21, as Paul Breitenfeld. He was often assumed to be Jewish, but neither Ramsey nor, apparently, Desmond himself could find a conclusive answer" Whatever the truth about his lineage, if Desmond believed he was Jewish for most of his life, then In a sense, he was - because if you even mistakenly believe you are Jewish, it probably affects your sensibility and outlook on the world; for example, in terms of one's reflexive reaction to instances of antisemitism, or perhaps in feeling a member of an out-group.

Lennie is in fact a landsman, Larry. I interviewed him by phone while researching my book. It was Herb Geller - another jazz Jew - who suggested I include something about Niehaus

Harry James definitely wasn't Jewish, though loads of people think so. Ditto Paul Whiteman and Brubeck, though Brubeck recorded the album The Gates of Justice, Brubeck's musical attempt to forge a common bond between the American Jewish and black communities. A true mensch. Two major jazz figures I interviewed for my book, Jazz Jews, Artie Shaw and Stanley Crouch, both swore to me that Bill Evans (the pianist, not the saxophonist) was Jewish. He wasn't. I recently set up a website linked to the book - http://jazzjews.com