Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday August 15, 2023: Remembering Tony Bennett

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/61550.html

Theme: Remembering Tony Bennett (1926-2023).

Tony Bennett (photo: Mark Seliger)

Tony Bennett, the great jazz and pop singer, died on July 21, less than two weeks before his 97th birthday. All the songs on this show were part of Bennett’s repertoire.

Tony Bennett- Let’s Begin

The Beat of My Heart (Columbia)

Peggy Lee- I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I’m a Woman: Expanded Edition (Capitol)

Willie Nelson- Let’s Face the Music and Dance

Let’s the Face the Music and Dance (Legacy)

Diana Krall- East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)

When I Look in Your Eyes (Verve)

Tony Bennett & Bonnie Raitt- I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues

Playin’ with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues (RPM/Columbia)

Tony Bennett & The Count Basie Orchestra- Anything Goes

Count Basie Swings/Tony Bennett Sings (Roulette)

Mariane Faithfull- Boulevard of Broken Dreams

20th Century Blues (RCA)

David Clayton-Thomas- When I Fall in Love

Combo (Antionette)

Tony Bennett- Just One of Those Things

Love for Sale (Columbia/Interscope)

Susie Arioli Swing Band featuring Jordan Officer- Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven (Justin Time)

Jackie Washington, Ken Whiteley & Mose Scarlett- A Little Street Where Old Friends Meet

Where Old Friends Meet (Pyramid)

Holly Cole- Whatever Lola Wants

Montreal (Universal)

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga- Love for Sale

Love for Sale (Columbia/Interscope)

Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse- Body and Soul

Duets II (Columbia)

Missy Burgess- Smile

Play Me Sweet (Missy Burgess)

Chaim Tannenbaum- It’s Only a Paper Moon

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Sophie Milman- I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby

Sophie Milman (Linus)

Dave Van Ronk- As Time Goes By

Sweet & Lowdown (Justin Time)

Tony Bennett- Play It Again, Sam

I’ve Gotta Be Me (Columbia)

Tony Bennett- Blues in the Night

Playin’ with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues (RPM/Columbia)

Catherine Russell- I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart

Bring It Back (Jazz Village)

Steve Howell, Dan Sumner & Jason Weinheimer- Do Nothing ‘til You Hear From Me

Long Ago (Out of the Past)

Tony Bennett & K.D. Lang- Keep the Faith Baby

Playin’ with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues (RPM/Columbia)

Tony Bennett & The Count Basie Orchestra- Are You Having Any Fun

Strike Up the Band (Roulette)

Next week: Remembering Robbie Robertson (1943-2023). 

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday November 22, 2022: Songs for Holocaust Education Month

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/58421.html

Theme: Songs for Holocaust Education Month.

November is Holocaust Education Month and in these times of rising antisemitism and other forms of racism and hatred, it’s important for us to pause and remember the lessons of the Holocaust when Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered 6 million Jews – about two-thirds of the Jews who lived in Europe.

John McCutcheon- Second Hand

Leap! (Appalsongs)

Janis Ian- Tattoo

Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection (Rude Girl)

Tom Paxton- Train for Auschwitz

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Rod MacDonald- Auschwitz

The Man on the Ledge (Shanachie)

Meghan Hone- No Art

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Waiting at the end of an alley

Thieves of Dreams (Six Degrees)

Lee Oskar- Never Forget

Never Forget (Dreams We Share Productions)

Art of Time Ensemble featuring Sarah Harmer- Dance Me to the End of Love

Songs of Leonard Cohen Live (Art of Time Recordings)

Chuck Brodsky- Warsaw in May

Them and Us (Chuck Brodsky)

Aviva Chernick & Payadora Tango Ensemble- Silent Tears

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Lenka Lichtenberg & Payadora Tango Ensemble- A Victim of Mengele

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Olga Mieleszczuk & Payadora Tango Ensemble- Vi Ahin Zol Ikh Geyn/Buried Underground

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Brendan Nolan- Kissing the Wall

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Dave Curley- Mr. Sugihara’s Eyes

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Tim Grimm- Anne in Amsterdam

The Turning Point (Cavalier)

Psoy Korolenko- Babi Yar

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II (Six Degrees)

Sophie Milman- Tulchin

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II (Six Degrees)

Frank London & Cantor Sveta Kundish- Minutn fun bitokhn

Ghetto Songs (Felmay)

Adrienne Cooper & Zalmen Mlotek- Yid du partizaner (Jew, Partisan)

Ghetto Tango (Traditional Crossroads)

Michael Alpert, Lauren Brody, Adrienne Cooper, Irena Klepfiz, Henry Sapoznik, Jeff Shandler, Lorin Sklamberg, Josh Walensky, & Alan Zemel- Zog nit keyn mol (Never Say)

Partisans of Vilna (Flying Fish)

Next week: Remembering Jack Hardy.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II

Various Artists

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II

Six Degrees www.sixdegreesrecords.com

(A version of this review was published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.)

During the Second World War, ethnomusicologists at the Kiev Cabinet for Jewish Culture set out to preserve the new Yiddish songs documenting the experiences of Jews fighting the Nazis in the Red Army, as well as those working on the home fronts, and songs reporting on such atrocities as the massacre at Babi Yar. Following Stalin’s post-war anti-Semitic purge, these songs were thought lost. However, the lyrics of many of the songs were rediscovered in the 1990s in unmarked boxes found in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. Yiddish Glory:The Lost Songs of World War II is an extraordinary album – featuring five singers and a group of superb instrumentalists – recorded in Toronto that documents some of those songs.

Among these fascinating songs are “Shpatsir in Vald (A Walk in the Forest),” sung by Sophie Milman, in which a young woman and a young soldier about to go off to fight Hitler’s army say their farewells; “A Shturemvint (A Storm Wind),” sung by Psoy Korolenko, a lyric that promises to keep fighting until fascism and Hitler are defeated; and “Babi Yar,” also sung by Korolenko, based on witness accounts of the 1941 massacre of more than 33,000 Jews.

An extensive booklet includes an essay about the project, notes on all of the songs and the lyrics in Yiddish with English translations. Yiddish Glory is certainly one of the most powerful albums of Jewish music released in recent years.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif