According to the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency via the Baltimore Jewish Times, this past Tuesday a non-profit
record label re-released "Bagels and Bongos," an album of traditional
Jewish songs played to a Latin beat.
"In 1959, when Irving
Fields was playing piano at the Sherry Biltmore Hotel in Boston, two couples
approached him with competing requests.
"'One couple
requested, 'I Love You Much Too Much,' a nice Jewish song," Fields
recalled, while the other couple insisted, 'We wanna rumba.'
"'So I blended them
and played this traditional Jewish song as a rumba, and the crowd loved it,'"
Fields said."
Two million copies of "Bagels
and Bongos" were sold in 1959 when it was released. The website of the record label, Reboot Stereophonic, features a videotaped interview of Irving Fields. It also has a picture of the album's original cover art, which is fantastic.
Well worth a look and listen.
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