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By Recorded Sound Archives, September 2, 2010 3:45 pm

Several of the Vogue Picture records in the Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries capitalize on America’s love affair with Latin rhythms during the 1930s , 40s and 50s.

During the Prohibition Era (1920-1933), Havana, Cuba was a popular tourist destination for Americans seeking fun and excitement. One of the pleasures they discovered there was the rhumba. Popularized by performers such as Spanish-Cuban bandleader Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz, Latin ballroom dances and rhythms became a common staple of American entertainment for decades.

Riding this wave of popularity Sav-way produced several Latin-themed recordings and a series of recorded rhumba ballroom dance lessons. By today’s standards the music seems somewhat watered down and mild.  Nevertheless, these recordings give us a true representation of Americanized Latin music as it actually was during the mid-20^th century.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, August 25, 2010 1:05 pm

During the High Holy Days Jews around the world congregate to experience a sense of spiritual community.  It is a time of family gatherings and happy times juxtaposed with introspection and solemn prayer.

In choosing the music for this year’s JSA High Holy Days Music Mix we wanted to highlight the voices of cantors who have devoted themselves to perfecting their art. The High Holy Days has inspired some of the most beautiful and compelling Jewish sacred music ever recorded. On this album we feature such legendary cantors as Leib Glantz, Leibele Waldman, Gershon Sirota and Moishe Oysher. We also highlight the interpretations of some of today’s finest cantors.

In addition, we also wanted to share the more upbeat, happy tunes that appeal to children learning about Jewish traditions and the meaning of the holidays. Some of my fondest memories are of helping my mother prepare for the big holiday dinner and learning about the special foods that meant a “happy new year!’

This special mix of songs has been excerpted from albums which can be heard any time on our website. The mix includes light-hearted, yet meaningful, songs for children.  It also includes some of the most beautiful cantorial music ever written. Enjoy!

Click here to hear all 18 songs or to listen to your favorites.

These songs are for your listening pleasure only.  They may not be copied, reproduced or sold.

Excerpts of selections from these albums were used to create the JSA High Holidays Music Mix 5771.

Click on any title to hear the entire album.

(1) Ye Shall Rejoice On Your Festivals by Shimon & Ilana Gewirtz

(2) Simeni Ka Hotam by Cantor Ehud Spielman

(3) Misha Alexandrovich by Cantor Misha Alexandrovich

(4) Concerts & Recitals #3 by Cantor Zvee Aroni

(5)  Our Prayers in Song by Cantor Henry Butensky

(6) Prayers of My People by Cantor Louis Danto

(7) Chants Folkloriques Israeliens by Cantor Michel Heymann

(8)  Hallel & Three Festivals by Cantor Leib Glantz

(9) High Holy Days in a Conservative Synagogue by Cantor Moshe Schwimmer

(10) Holidays around the Year by Chaim Parchi

(11) Kinder Songs – Holiday Songs for the Entire Family by Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray

(12) S’iz Yontev Kinder! Lomir Zingen by Cindy Paley

(13) Teshuva: Liturgical Explorations for the Days of Awe by Ramon Tasat

(14) Chassidic Melodies by Cantor Leibele Waldman

(15) Cantorial Chants & Jewish Songs by Cantor Seymour Schwartzman

(16) European Recordings (1906-1907) Vol. 2 by Cantor Gershon Sirota

(17) The Power, The Glory, The Soul of Moishe Oysher by Moishe Oysher

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By Recorded Sound Archives, August 18, 2010 3:52 pm

The Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries has been sorting, organizing, washing and digitizing tens of thousands of vintage 78 rpm recordings since we received a large donation of the discs from the estate of Cleveland collector, Jack Saul.

Hundreds of boxes containing vintage 78 rpm recordings remain stacked in the hallways while others are being opened by volunteers. The black shellac discs are piled high on work tables for volunteers to sort.

Opening the first box containing Vogue Picture Records caused a commotion that I could hear all the way in my office down the hall. Volunteers had discovered over 20 recordings that were stunningly beautiful. This was the first time any of us had ever seen such lovely artwork embedded within an entire record. “It’s like finding an unexpected treasure,” one of our volunteers told me.

The Recorded Sound Archives has now inventoried 62 different pictures on 32 two-sided 78 rpm discs. The pictures, together with the songs embedded within them, provide a glimpse into the post WWII American pop scene. The recordings feature the big band sounds popular at the time, swing sounds for teenagers, hillbilly/country songs, children’s songs and stories, and reflecting a growing interest in South American culture, Rhumba dance lessons and music with a Latin beat.

Despite Sav-Way’s inability to attract big-name recording talent, these beautiful discs are appealing to collectors who value them as standouts among the drab black shellac records of their day and because the limited number of different titles (74) make them more valuable as a complete set.

Discover this collection of  Vogue Records.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, August 5, 2010 1:40 pm

Who said Yiddish Musical Comedy is dead?

Now you can revisit the glory days of the Lower East Side and hear the songs as they were actually sung.

The recordings in this special JSA collection were produced on 78 rpm recordings between 1901 and 1922, at the height of Yiddish Theater’s popularity.

Four stars of Yiddish Musical Comedy are highlighted: Gus Goldstein, Clara Gold, Anna Hoffman and Jacob Jacobs.

Gus Goldstein, an American Yiddish actor of the early 20th century made many recordings for Columbia Records.  This JSA collection features 37 of his solo songs.

He also made recordings with Clara Gold that focused on immigrant issues and Yiddish humor, and featuring Litvak, Galitzianer and Italian dialects. Clara Gold played character roles in the Yiddish Theater and was known for her comedic performances. She partnered with Gus Goldstein from 1916 to 1926. Forty-four of the songs they recorded together are in this collection.

Gus Goldstein also partnered with Anna Hoffman, a well-known comedic singer of her day. This collection includes 7 of their songs. It also features 25 songs that she recorded solo.

Jacob Jacobs was known for adding timely dialogue to his Yiddish comedy acts and translating English songs into Yiddish. This collection includes 12 of his songs recorded between 1909 and 1922. An interesting historical note is that in 1932 he collaborated with composer Sholom Secunda on a Yiddish musical comedy, “I Would If I Could.”  Although the show was not a great success it did produce a song that would later become the #1 hit, Bei Mir Bist du Shon.

If you understand Yiddish, remember Yiddish Theater, or just want a nostalgic journey, you won’t be disappointed. Click here to listen to any of the 14 digitized albums in the collection.

Or select one of these favorites tunes: America, Ich Lieb Dich; Ich bin a boarder by mein vieb;  Yente Telebende.

These albums are not available for sale or reproduction but can be heard in their entirety on the JSA website.

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By RSA Guest Blogger, July 22, 2010 1:51 pm

Listen for yourself. Click to hear Rocky Zweig singing “Boris” from his Legacy album (Aderet Music Corp.)

Hear it. The first five seconds. A keyboard…drums…it sounds like rock. These are the familiar sounds of a song that is going to tell a story. It sounds like the introduction to the Bon Jovi song, “Livin on a Prayer.”  Then Rocky Zweig begins to sing.

His story is about a boy named Boris. Boris is upset because he is persecuted for being Jewish. The story ends with Boris dying. In “Livin on a Prayer,” the pseudo couple, Tommy and Gina, live on little money and try to make their relationship work.

In the lyrics of “Boris,” it says “…you must strive now, to keep your religion alive within your heart…” This part is not just about religion. It goes deeper. It also means fighting for respect and staying true to oneself is vital. Just because other people don’t like you, you should not let them break you. In life, there will always be people who try to bring you down. Instead of allowing it, become empowered to rise above it.

As the story of “Boris” progresses, it becomes clear that he is viewed as an outcast. The persecution was so much that he planned on killing himself and others on a plane. Instead, Boris was killed and his life became a mere memory.

In “Livin on a Prayer,” the words work so well together.  Tommy has been laid off and Gina gives all of her earnings to him. Of the little money they do have, they must have faith that times will get better.

In the lyrics of “Livin on a Prayer,” it says “…we’ve got to hold on to what we’ve got. Cause it doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not…” What I get from this is no matter what hardship we face, it is possible to break the cycle. As long as someone believes in you, anything can happen. In this song, Tommy and Gina have each other and they push through the odds.

Although these are two different stories, they have similar musicality and both songs use rock instrumentation. Both songs are stories of hardship. I think the reason I find stories of hardship so fascinating is because people are fascinating. Every person is different and unique. Songs like these that explore hardship are real.

While “Boris” is technically Jewish music, I think it would appeal to anyone. It sounds current and isn’t just for Jewish people to enjoy. On the album, “Legacy,” Rocky Zweig sings 10 songs, all of which sound like popular rock music and ballads of today. His voice has a tone that works well for rock. This album makes singing about religion cool and it makes Jewish music more relevant for today’s world.

It might seem unusual that there is such similarity between the songs “Boris” and “Livin on a Prayer.” Hardship, however, is a theme found at the heart of many songs and is fuel for creativity. A hard life lived with passion is more valuable than an easy life lived with indifference.

Submitted by Jackie Rosansky

RSA Guest Blogger, Jackie Rosansky is a summer volunteer intern at the Judaica Sound Archives. This blog contains her original thoughts and opinions about the musicians and music she is researching. She is 24 years old, and is majoring in journalism with a minor in photography at FAU.

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By Alethea Perez, July 19, 2010 8:36 pm

Historic sound snapshot from our past.

Visually stunning picture records, historic radio transcriptions such as President Roosevelt’s speech to the U.S. Congress following Pearl Harbor, and hundreds of original recordings by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso are among the treasures being inventoried at the new Recorded Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University Libraries.

These relics of the recording industry are among an estimated 50,000 vintage records that were recently donated to FAU Libraries and used to create its “Vintage 78s Collection.” The records, along with extensive holdings of Jazz recordings and Judaic music, inspired FAU libraries to recently establish the Recorded Sound Archives with more than 150,000 phonograph records and other sound recordings.

“This makes us one of the top 20 libraries in the nation for sound recordings,” said Dr. William Miller, dean of Libraries at FAU. “People know….that we are a library interested in rare and historic recordings.”

Unpacking the recent donation of tens of thousands of recordings from the estate of Cleveland collector Jack Saul has been daunting, but with the help of staff and volunteers, the materials are being digitized and eventually will be available on FAU Libraries’ website.

The Recorded Sound Archives has three major collections:

(1) Vintage 78s Collection: Early disc recordings were dubbed 78s, referring to their playing speed of 78 revolutions per minute, and were produced between 1901 and the mid-1950s. Music, speeches, radio transcriptions and even movie soundtracks were produced on 78 rpm records.

(2) Jazz Collection:  The Recorded Sound Archives is creating an inventory of the more than 20,000 jazz recordings donated by Dr. Henry Ivey in 2006 and later transferred to the library from FAU’s Department of Music. Volunteers are currently entering information about the recordings into a database so that musicians and others will be able to easily search for what they want.

(3) Judaica Sound Archives:  The Judaica Sound Archives (JSA), created in 2005, established FAU Libraries as an international leader in the collection and digitization of early phonograph recordings. It now boasts a collection of more than 15,000 non-duplicated recordings. Its website offers listeners over 11,000 songs in English, Hebrew and Yiddish.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, March 22, 2010 2:38 pm

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On this night  we celebrate the gift of freedom with special foods, stories and song. On this we night we have a seder!

To help make your Passover even more festive, the JSA has compiled this special mix of holiday songs. This year’s Passover Music Mix includes familiar traditional songs and also many children’s tunes that educate as well as entertain.

Click here to hear all 19 songs or to listen to your favorites.

These songs were selected from albums on the JSA website.  They are for your listening pleasure only.  They may not be copied, reproduced or sold.

All of the songs in this music mix can be heard on the JSA website all year long. Selections from the following albums were used to create this 2010 Passover Music Mix.

Around the Table – A User-friendly Haggadah by Gadi Elon

Chag Sameach/Happy Holiday by Judy Caplan Ginsburgh.

Celebrate with Cindy by Cindy Paley.

Haggadah Songs by Chaim Parchi.

Menorah’s Little Seder by Gladys Gewirtz.

Mostly Matzah by Fran Avni.

Mother Goose Rhymes for Passover can be found in the KTAV record label collection.

The Passover Collection by Safam.

Passover Seder Service by Cantor Samuel Malavsky and the Family Choir.

Passover Sing-a-long can be found in the Children’s Village record label collection.

A Singing Seder by Cindy Paley.

Seder by Cantor Moshe Koussevitzky.

Canciones de Pesah/Passover Songs by Gaston Bogomolni can be found in the JSA participating performers collection.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, March 15, 2010 3:28 pm

Between March 6 and 11, 2010 the Boca Raton campus of FAU became a celebration of Jewish music and culture. It was the FAU Library’s second Kultur Festival. Events ran the gamut from klezmer concerts to cultural diversity forums. Two of these events highlighted the work of the Judaica Sound Archives.

The Man Who Spoke to God

Tues., March 9 : Dr. Jerry Glantz

The voice of the legendary Cantor Leib Glantz was one of the first to be heard on the JSA website. The importance of his compositions, the beauty of his voice and his unique ability to create an other-worldly spiritual experience for his listeners propelled him to prominence during the first half of the 20th century, also known as “The Golden Age of Hazzanut.”  We are exceptionally grateful to Dr. Jerry Glantz for allowing the JSA to showcase his fathers bountiful talents.

Dr. Glantz discussed his book, The Man Who Spoke to God,  a biographical loving tribute to his father, explained his father’s innovations in the field, and shared his father’s voice with the audience through recorded pieces. Especially dramatic was Cantor Glatntz’s rendition of Shema Yisrael. Dr. Glantz told the audience that because his father believed in improvisation the Shema was a new creation each time he sang it.

All of the recordings by this great cantor are available on the JSA website.

Yiddish Zingfest

Wed., March 10 : Phyllis Berk

There’s just something about Yiddishkeit that can fill you with a mixture of longing for days gone by, nostalgia, and concern about the future of Yiddish culture. When Jews immigrated to the USA from Eastern Europe, Yiddish was the language that they shared with each other. It was the language they spoke, read, wrote and sung. It was the language that expressed their struggles and their triumphs.

The JSA is committed to collecting recordings that express the Yiddish culture through music and humor. It is only through phonograph recordings that future generations will be able to hear for themselves what Yiddish sounded like in the early 1900s.

JSA Participating Performer, Phyllis Berk did an amazing job of bringing back the “old days” in this performance. Singing songs from her CD (Coming of Age)  like Shpilzhe Mir a Lidele, Unter Beymer, Grine Kuzine and Mein Shtetele Belz, she not only entertained her large audience, she led them down memory lane and roused them to sing along as well.

There are currently 167 Yiddish song albums on the JSA website that you can listen to at any time.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, March 3, 2010 2:27 pm

In the early half of the 20^th century, Yiddish speaking audiences often connected with their roots and culture by listening to Yiddish radio programs produced in the USA. In 2004 the Judaica Sound Archives received a gift of 70 recordings of radio broadcasts produced in 1949 from the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

These broadcasts were recorded on 16-inch discs. Special equipment is needed to play such large recordings. Unfortunately, the JSA did not have the right equipment.  So the recordings sat in storage.

Over time, the JSA was given about 30 more 16-inch recordings, including 14 produced by Vistas of Israel.

As our collection of 16-inch records grew so did the pressure to find a turntable that could handle them. “I suddenly remembered that my employer had given me a large turntable in the 1970’s” said JSA Sound Archivist, Ben Roth-Aroni. Digging through items that had been in storage for over 30 years, Ben was able to eventually unearth the turntable.

But, when he put the first 16-inch disc on the turntable he realized that the tone arm bumped into the record. The tone arm needed to be raised so that the needle was above the record. Working with spare parts, he was able to solve the problem by raising the tone arm base.

Tone arm base before elevation

Tone arm base after Ben elevated it.

Some of these 16-inch recordings are quite unique.  For example, “some of them have grooves which spiral from the inside toward the outside instead of the conventional outside toward the inside. Also some have a “vertical cut.” That means that the needle rides up and down over the grooves instead of the usual “lateral cut” where the needle moves from left to right.” Ben said.

I asked Ben if a special needle was required to play these recordings. “Sometimes we need a special needle but often a 78-rpm stylus will work fine as long as we have a specially wired cartridge that works for the lateral cut discs.”

The JSA currently has over 400 Vistas of Israel radio broadcasts.  These programs were produced by the state of Israel from the 1950s through the 1970s. Fourteen of the broadcasts in the JSA collection were produced on 16-inch discs. We are currently involved in an extensive digitization project so that all of these Vistas of Israel broadcasts can be heard on the JSA website. With the addition of our newly revamped turntable these broadcasts can be included in this exciting digitization project.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, February 8, 2010 11:31 am

Chuck Samberg and Gloria Magida (on right) visit the JSA to donate recordings to Nathan Tinanoff and Maxine Schackman (holding record album).

Valentine’s Day is certainly not a Jewish holiday.  But who says Jews can’t celebrate love?

The Yiddish word, beshert, can refer to any kind of fortuitous good match, such as finding the perfect job or the perfect house, but usually it refers to a perfect romantic match. Beshert brings people together no matter what obstacles might stand in the way.  “If it is meant to be, it will be.”

Chuck and Gloria connected romantically back in the early 1960s, after her first husband passed away.  They dated, they married.  But the time was not right for these two to live happily ever after. After five years they divorced and lost contact with each other.

But when two people share a destiny they will find a way to reconnect with each other, even after many years. Chuck’s father was a pioneer in Jewish comedy back in the 1930s. Known professionally as Benny Bell, he was a celebrity in Jewish circles.

When Gloria’s third husband passed away a few years ago she became interested in reconnecting with friends from her past. She especially wanted to reconnect with Chuck. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to find him.

Many times she sat at her computer and typed the name “Charles Samberg” into the Google bar only to be disappointed by the lack of results.  Then one day she typed in the name “Chuck Samberg.”  This time she got a link to FAU’s Judaica Sound Archives.

Her curiosity aroused, she decided to follow the link which led to one of the happiest surprises of her life!  What she found on the JSA website was 19 comedy albums by Benny Bell.  As she listened it brought back many memories of her childhood. And then she went to the Benny Bell biography page. And there, at the bottom of the page was a way to reconnect with her past. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

She sent a note. Now the two are reunited and enjoying every moment of it, looking back at the past with nostalgia, looking towards the future with joyful thoughts. “We’re very happy!” Gloria to me.

For more information about Benny Bell click here.