Yiddishkeit at its Most Eclectic

Last night Old First Concerts launched its seasonal December programming with a performance by the San Francisco Yiddish Combo (SFYC). The group is co-led by cellist Rebecca Roudman and her husband, guitarist Jason Eckl. Eckl, in turn, led the rhythm section, who other members were Alex Farrell on electric bass guitar and Josh Mellinger providing percussion on cajon. SFYC is more than just a quartet; and the performances at Old First Presbyterian Church were interleaved with videos of larger ensembles. However, only the quartet occupied the church’s altar.

I remember Roudman as a regular performer in the Concerts at the Cadillac series at the Cadillac Hotel in the Tenderloin. Indeed, she pitched in with Katherine Looper, manager of the concert series, to prepare a fundraising event in November of 2015. Her performances in that series included not only her eclectic Dirty Cello group (again with Eckl) but also classical music recitals with pianist Noel Benkman. Last night provided my first experience of her encounter with Yiddishkeit.

What is important is that, regardless of repertoire, Roudman is a dynamite cellist. Her performing style is unabashedly physical, and there seems to be no upper bound to the amount of energy she can put into any selection. She also added some vocal work to a few of the pre-recorded selections. However, the real fun comes from watching the ways in which she deploys her technical skills, regardless of what music she happens to be playing.

However, while she could make a compelling case to listening to just about anything she played, the eclectic breadth of last night’s program tended to deflate what could have been a highly spirited evening. Eckl’s introductions covered considerable ground, so much so that it was difficult to keep up with the appeal of any individual piece on the program. Indeed, in the overall context of Yiddishkeit, at least one selection was painfully misplaced. Ivan Larinov’s “Kalinka” may be the most recognizable “Russian tune;” but it is so energetically familiar that it may well have been sung by Cossacks laying waste to a Jewish shtetl in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand the inclusion of the Ladino song “Viejos” was an engaging reminder of just how far back into the past Jewish music extended.

Thus, while the overall progression of the evening tended to be a bit awkward and one might have wished for more music and less of Eckl’s background material, there was more than enough to enjoy when the musicians started to play, either on the Old First altar or in the prerecorded selections.