Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation: Home

The Sway Machinery, good friends of the Idelsohn Society, recently performed at the Festival of the Desert in Essakane, Mali, quite possibly the most unique and difficult festival to get to on Earth. They were the first performers representing any aspect of Jewish culture to play at the festival in its ten year history. Their journey and performance will be the subject of an upcoming documentary- but you can get a sneak peak below. Here's The Sway Machinery, jamming with the Super 11 band in Mali.

Stan Daniels, a writer and producer from the Mary Tyler Moore Show and 8 time Emmy winner, was born to Jewish parents in Toronto and brought up around vaudeville. Here hs is in front of the camera, reciting Old Man River in perfect Yiddish to get the crowd pepped up before the show (some time around 1975). Listening to the audience howl makes you realize just how canned the canned laughter really is.

The Idelsohn Society was named after the composer of the Jewish classic, Hava Nagila. We have been collecting scores of versions of the song. One of our team spoke at the Miami Beach Senior Center this weekend and we were blown away by the sterling valor of this rendition. Gets the blood pumping.

Untitled from rog on Vimeo.