By Eileen Wingard in San Diego
A smiling Todd Salovey, director of the Lipinsky Jewish Arts Festival for its nearly four decade existence, introduced the celebrated klezmer violinist, band leader, ethnographer, film maker and author, Yale Strom, who was joined by Irving Flores, keyboards, Joe McNalley, contrabass, Tripp Sprague, saxes and flute, and Duncan Moore, percussion–Hot Pstromi’s make up for the evening.
They opened the program at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego with two selections Strom discovered during his extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Eastern Europe, a Roma tune from Moldavia and a klezmer melody from the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine.
The Roma tune began with the violin and bass playing collegno on the strings (striking with the wood of their bows), imitating the sound of the cembalo, often used in Roma and Klezmer ensembles of that region. After the slow introduction, it picked up tempo and the other instruments took turns elaborating on the tune.
The klezmer melody was also first rendered by the violin and later improvised on by the other instruments. Particularly impressive was the ad libing of pianist Irving Flores, one of the most accomplished jazz pianists in our region.
Following Hot Pstromi’s introductory selections, the three San Diego-based jazz singers began what was dubbed “And The Angels Swing: From Berlin to Bacharach.” As Yale Strom modestly stated, “This is what you came for.”
The three jazz divas were introduced by JFest’s producing director, soon to be JFest’s co-director, Becca Myers.
They were Whitney Shay, Mara Kaye and Elizabeth Schwartz, who curated the program.
Each sang a selection from every one of the American Songbook’s Jewish songwriters featured in the program, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Bert Bachrach.
First was Whitney Shay, who has gained international recognition as a singer of blues, soul and R &B . She is the winner of four San Diego Music Awards, including ‘Best Artist of the Year’ in 2019 and has three highly praised record albums. Shay opened with a show-stopping, highly-charged, sassy rendition of Irving Berlin’s 1920s hit, “After You Get What You Want (You Don’t Want It).”
Mara Kaye, a celebrated Brooklyn-raised jazz and blues vocalist, now based in Southern California, has performed throughout the US and Russia and is soon to return to Brooklyn for a cameo performance portraying Barbra Streisand.
Her rendition of Harold Arlen’s “Stormy Weather,” brought out all the tearful pathos in this blues icon as she crooned, “since my man and I ain’t together, it’s been rainin’ all the time.”
Elizabeth Schwartz, the featured vocalist with Hot Pstromi, has performed throughout the world, singing primarily in Yiddish. Her sultry contralto has gained international praise from her in-person appearances and her seven recordings. She sang Gershwin’s famous syncopated gem, “I’ve Got Rhythm,” with sparkly fervor, matching the sparkles on her black pants.
Other highlights were when Whitney Shay and Mara Kaye paired up to sing Arlen’s “Get Happy,” and all three vocalists concluded the program with an Andrews Sisters’ rendition of Shalom Secunda’s “Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn.” The English words were written by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin.
With an introduction by Yale Strom on violin and improvisations by all the instrumentalists between the verses, this served as the rousing conclusion to the two-hour extravaganza.
The main Jewish song writers on the program were Irving Berlin (1888-1989), born Isadore Israel Beilin in Siberia, son of a cantor; George Gershwin (1898-1937) and his brother, Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), born Jacob and Israel Gershowitz to immigrant parents in New York City; Harold Arlen (1905-1986), born Hyman Arluck in New York, son of a cantor; and Bert Bacharach (1928-2023), born in Kansas City to Jewish parents and grew up in Queens, NY.
The other composer, represented by only one song, the concluding number, Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn, was Ukrainian-born Shalom Secunda (1894-1974).
This was the final musical program of the 2026 JFest. One more program of the festival will be the staged reading of Budapest, Budapest, a play written by Ali Viterbi and Toby Singer, to be presented at the New Village Arts in Carlsbad on July 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.