If Cab Calloway could sing "Ot Azoy" and African-American clarinetist Don Byron can join the klezmer revival, perhaps a multi-racial group playing 1940s Yiddish swing can help heal a 10-year-old rift in Springfield.

That is certainly the hope of the sponsors of a concert to be held on Sunday, April 22, at Temple Beth Ahm. The second annual Marilyn Berger Horn Celebration concert will present the Ribs & Brisket Revue, offering "'40s swing with a distinctly Yiddish accent."

The concert is being advertised as "a multicultural presentation that combines Yiddish folk with African-American R&B."

Organizers are reaching out to the African-American community, and specifically the Antioch Baptist Church, with which it has not had relations in 10 years after a series of racially charged disputes that began in 1995 (see sidebar). The church's Rev. Clarence Alston has agreed to participate and promote the concert within his congregation, although he declined to be interviewed.

"He was a little shocked. Nobody from our community had walked into his church or spoken to him in years," said David Glass, a Beth Ahm member who, along with Rabbi Mark Mallach, approached Alston with the idea of a healing concert. "We just said it was about time. Somebody has to reach out first."

Added Glass: "We've got to get a dialogue going. And we've got to get to a point of not just tolerance but acceptance."

Temple Beth Ahm has been doing a lot of reaching out this year. For gays and lesbians, it has invited speakers on topics of interest to the gay community and planned coffee houses and speed-dating with their needs in mind. For interfaith couples and families, there is an ongoing multi-synagogue project of speakers and workshops. A Russian-Jewish immigrants' club has sponsored educational programs and a concert by immigrant musicians.

When Glass offered to help put together the concert honoring the memory of lifelong member Marilyn Berger Horn, Mallach saw an opportunity to reach out to Antioch as well.

The rabbi suggested to Glass that he select performers accordingly.

Led by tenor saxophonist Paul Shapiro, Ribs & Brisket focuses on 1940s swing with Yiddish influences, from Cab Calloway to Slim Gaillord. The group, with both Jewish and African-American musicians, emerged from Shapiro's decision to look more carefully at Jewish music and its contribution to jazz in the early decades of the 20th century.

"The deeper I dug, the more I found," said Shapiro, whose projects also include the band Midnight Minyan, and its eponymous CD, which reinterprets familiar prayer melodies into what he calls "reverential" jazz compositions. "I've always loved the '30s jump jazz – Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. And there's Cab Calloway using "Ot Azoy" and a fake cantorial thing," Shapiro said.

(In fact, according to Hankus Netsky, musician, composer, Jewish music scholar, and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Calloway picked up tunes like "Ot Azoy" – Yiddish for "That's the way!" – from his Jewish associates specifically for entertaining largely Jewish audiences in the Catskills, and ultimately made the music his own.)

In late 2003, Shapiro formed the Ribs & Brisket Revue. They have been playing at Cornelia Street Café in New York and other venues since. The group is expecting its first release later this year, on John Zorn's Tzadik label.

"I have always played with whomever I play with – I play with the best people," Shapiro said. "To us, it's great music, and not so much Yiddish this or jazz that."

The Temple Beth Ahm event marks the group's New Jersey premiere, although Shapiro and Midnight Minyan have performed in the Garden State before. (In addition to the Beth Ahm performance, Ribs & Brisket Revue will appear at Cornelia Street Café May 3, June 7, and July 5.)

Shapiro said he was entirely unaware of the backdrop to the Beth Ahm invitation, but embraced the role his band might play in the Springfield community.

"When you see people of different races or nationalities playing music together, and how well it works, that reminds people of the great unifier in the whole human race and of what we share," he said.

That spirit seemed to enchant Alston as well when he met with Glass and Mallach.

"It was a beautiful meeting," said Glass. "He was smiling. We were smiling. We all were happy."

While Glass said he hopes to engender a sense of "trust" between the communities, Mallach has a larger vision in mind. For him, it's just a beginning.

"Rev. Alston seems open to discussing further possibilities for next year," said Mallach. I'm hopeful we might even work out a pulpit exchange, but I don't know yet."

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Concert information

The second annual Marilyn Berger Horn Celebration concert will present the Ribs & Brisket Revue, Sunday, April 22, at Temple Beth Ahm, Springfield. Tickets for the concert cost $18 in advance, $20 at the door, $9 for children under 18 accompanied by adults. For more information, contact David Glass or 973-258-0970; for tickets call the synagogue office at 973-376-0539.

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