Browse by Label: REBOOT STEREOPHONIC

Artist:	FIELDS, IRVING
Title:	Bagels and Bongos
Label:	REBOOT STEREOPHONIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RSR 001CD

"Irving Fields, the man known as 'Fabulous Fingers,' is a living legend of cross-cultural cocktail music whose career spans Tin Pan Alley, jazz, classical, and the Latin crazes of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Fields is best known for his ingenious and trailblazing hybrids of Jewish and Latin music, the gem being Bagels And Bongos, a 1959 cult classic manifesto for American Jews with mambo on the brain. The story of Bagels And Bongos is a musical listening excursion of immigrant hustlers with bongos on the brain, a story of music fiends tuned into ethnic radio and finding Spanish and Yiddish fading into each other, a story of the classic American criss-cross culture swap. Bagels and Bongos follows a simple formula. Take the most recognizable Jewish melodies and match them to their tempo-appropriate Latin rhythm."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Jewface
Label:	REBOOT STEREOPHONIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RSR 006CD

"What did the dawn of American pop music sound like? The answer can be found through the new RebBoot Stereophonic release, Jewface, lost Jewish minstrel songs that took vaudeville stages by storm at the turn of the 20th century but that have become written out of history. Composed by legendary tunesmiths like Irving Berlin and Gus Kahn, many of the songs made use of authentically Jewish musical motifs fusing them with every Jewish stereotype under the sun. What may have sounded mournful, exotic, and 'Oriental' to non-Jewish audiences resonated in a unique way for new Jewish immigrants, thrilled at this cultural jujitsu: From 'Under the Matzos Tree' to 'I'm a Yiddish Cowboy,' and 'Cohen Owes Me 97 Dollars,' exploring the Jewface recordings reveals one of the dirty little secrets of American culture: some of the very first hit records were fiendishly catchy Jewish musical creations, created by Jews, for Jews. All of these songs have been hunted down and re-mastered from cylinder recordings to create one of the most remarkable and perhaps offensive albums ever."

Artist:	KATZ, FRED
Title:	Folk Songs For Far Out Folk
Label:	REBOOT STEREOPHONIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RSR 007CD

"Much like Gershon Kingsley, Katz has had one of the more extraordinary, if off-beat careers, in contemporary music. Katz made his biggest mark by bringing the cello into the forefront of the jazz repertoire, most notably as a member of the ever-experimental ensemble, the Chico Hamilton Quintet. The most admired, if under-discussed, Katz album though is probably this one, Folk Songs for Far Out Folk, which he said was dedicated to the idea that all jazz is born from 'the roots of people.' The roots he explores here are folk songs -- American, Hebrew & African. The Hebrew ones no doubt speak to Katz's own roots as the son of a Kabbalist and Hebraic scholar. On 'Baal Shem Tov' and 'Rav's Nigun' Katz is joined by Paul Horn on sax and legendary L.A. jazzman Buddy Collette on flute. The tracks are from 1958 and sound prophetic, in their way pre-Knitting Factory, avant tackle of jazz and Jewish tradition alike."

Artist:	BARRY SISTERS, THE
Title:	Our Way
Label:	REBOOT STEREOPHONIC
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RSR 008CD

"The 1973 release by the internationally beloved Yiddish female duo. 'We take a tune that's sweet and low, and rock it solid and make it gold.' And rock it solid they did, on Our Way, The Barry Sisters' eleventh, and last, full-length studio recording. Throughout their career, they consistently drew from the wells of Yiddish and English popular song, everything from 'Without A Song' and 'Cry Me A River' to 'Hava Nagila' and 'Chiribim Chiribom.' If adapting Jewish music to the rhythms and contours of the American pop landscape can be considered one of the dominant aesthetics of early 20th century popular music, then The Barry Sisters ought to be considered crucial bi-cultural pioneers, part of the same treasured artistic genealogy that usually starts and stops with the Tin Pan Alley likes of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Harold Arlen. They didn't turn America Jewish, they made Jewish sound more American. On Our Way, The Barry Sisters choose the elegant tradition of popular song itself. They took on the '20s pop chestnut 'Tea For Two,' used Yiddish to return the vanilla Perry Como smash 'It's Impossible' to its Mexican bolero roots, raided Hollywood for 'Love Story' (imagine Ryan O'Neal crooning in Yiddish at the bedside of a dying Kelly McGraw), raided Broadway for 'Cabaret' and 'Alice Blue Gown,' and turned out what just might be -- second only to the one Cuban audio priestess La Lupe did just three years earlier -- the most liberating version ever of the Sinatra staple, 'My Way.'"

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