Mandy Patinkin / Mamaloshen

Mandy Patinkin's face backgrounded by an American flag has been beaming at me from the Tower Records ad displays on Broadway (East Village) with the English language title Mamaloshen (mother tongue) displayed underneath his estatic bearded punim (face). Patinkin, has brought Yiddish Folk Songs (some of which originated in the Yiddish theater) to Broadway, or is it perhaps the other way around?

The album is a lush, highly orchestrated compilation of Yiddish standards, "Shetele Belz," "Rabbe Elimeylekh," "Yome Yome," sung as if they were on a Broadway stage. The album is also a lush compilation of American standards written by Jews such as "Take Me Out to The Ball Game," "White Christmas" and "Song of the Titanic," rendered perhaps for the first and only time in Yiddish. Irving (a.k.a. Izzy) Berlin's Yiddish roots are being explored here from the inside out in a way which seems devoid of irony.

Patinkin's translations, mentoring, and research were helped by Henry Sapoznik and associated others from the Yiddish musicological scene. Liner notes are both intriguing and non-pompous in describing Patinkin's interest in exploring and rendering this material.

Reviewed by Elissa Sampson, 5/17/98

Songs

1. Belz (Alexander Olshanetsky and Jacob Jacobs) 3:19
2. Hey, Tsigelekh (Mordechai Gebirtig 3:07
3. Rabbi Elimeylekh (Moshe Nadir) 3:34
4. Raisins and Almonds (Abraham Goldfaden, Henry Lefkowitch, Stanley Lionel) 2:51
5. Papirosn (Herman Yablokoff) 5:51
6. Ten Kopeks (trad.) / Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman / The Hokey Pokey (Charles Mack, Taftt Baker, Roland La Prise) 2:19
7. Maria (Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) 2:30
8. Yome, Yome (trad.) 1:06
9. Paper Is White (trad.) 2:36
10. Song of the Titanic (Joshua Rayzner) 4:32
11. Motl the Operator (Chaim Towber and H. Solomonson) 3:16
12. Under Your White Stars (Abraham Sutzkever and Abraham Brudno) 2:21
13. American Tune (Paul Simon) 4:17
14. Take Me out to the Ball Game (Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer) / God Bless America (Irving Berlin) 2:08
15. Der Alter Tzigayner (Abraham Ellstein and Jacob Jacobs) / White Christmas (Irving Berlin) 3:57
16. Oyfn Pripetshik (Mark M. Warshawsky) 3:59