This article appeared in the Oct. 29, 2010 Jewish Advocate.

 

“You and Broadway” showcases timeless performance and unforgotten era

By Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

 

A lot of heart and soul was left behind when the Brookline Community Center for the Arts was forced to close its doors in 2005. In the wake of insurmountable rental and landlord disputes, Executive Director Dan Marshall did what he could to set up BCCA’s myriad dance classes, class offerings, events, and rehearsals elsewhere. But he couldn’t merely reassign one series called “You & Broadway” – it was simply too close to his own heart.

“One night around 10:45 p.m., shortly after we opened the BCCA in March of 2003,” recalled Marshall, “A senior jazz cat, drummer/entertainer and true Tzadik named Leon Alperin showed up, full of surprise and hope at the possibility that he could once more have a regular show/gig, like his past gig at the 1200 Beacon, a club that has been gone for years,” he said. Alperin was no doubt walking back down Green Street after services at his congregation, Young Israel of Brookline. “Leon told me that he would tell his friend and colleague Paul Jordan (Sneider), and they would be back in a few days,” said Marshall. They were. “A few days later, an amazing, multi-faceted Renaissance man and performer known to all as Paul Jordan showed up even later at night,” he said. “I gave him a tour of the building, and while standing at our ballroom, he laid out a vision for an amazing show for seniors and members of all ages.”

Two months later, the BCCA opened its doors every other Thursday night from 9:15 to 11:30 p.m. for a boisterous, enthusiastic show with a full band featuring Richard DeMone on keyboards, Steve Dacey on harmonica, Mike Devlin on guitar, Alperin on drums and Jordan on vocals, and a crowd of regulars decked out in their finest and ready to dance up a storm to the songs of the 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. Nearly all were post-80 years of age, many former stage performers.

“The show, one of the only regular night-time entertainment events for seniors in our region, had a steady attendance of 25 to 50 community members and at least ten senior entertainers each time,” said Marshall. “Some traveled as much as two hours each way to attend and/or perform, helping to keep the dream of music and happy times alive.”

Flash forward seven years: after moves to Sunday afternoons, and then post-BCCA, to senior homes, community rooms, the Brookline Ballet School, and even the Brookline Bank in Coolidge Corner, the group landed a regular gig at the Sussman House at 50 Pleasant St. in Brookline, where Dacey is a resident. “With this added stability, we re-grouped, stabilized, and gained momentum, transitioning from the ‘Classics Open Mic’ to ‘Classics Open Mic: You & Broadway!’ to ‘The Paul Jordan Happytime Show: You & Broadway’,” said Marshall.

The show enjoyed regular coverage and broadcasting by Brookline Access TV, which recognized its unique appeal. When BATV relocated to Brookline High School’s Unified Arts Building in March, Studio Manager Lawrence Hollie offered its new facility on any Sunday that BATV staff members could volunteer. Marshall hopes the show will continue alternating between BATV and the Sussman House.

Last Sunday, drumbeats, keyboard riffs and ebullient vocals emanated for the fourth time from the taping studio at the Tappan Street site. Bill Hamill of Cambridge, who had graced the Hotel Lenox in its halcyon days, sang in distinctive contratenor. “I was a singer and a dancer, and I’m still a dancer,” said 90-years-young Doris Babbin of Waltham, adorned in black sequins. Babbin was a member of a Brighton choral group that performed at nursing homes, but stays far from one herself, on Sunday belting out “Every Day of My Life” and dancing and twirling way down to the floor with Marshall.

Performers need not be among the “taking a station break for Preparation H” set joked about by Jordan’s son Howie, who MC’d and sang himself. Robert Levine, a young tzitzit and kepah-wearing former Advocate adman who learned of the show from Alperin, read several poems from his self-published book. And Craig Sugarman sang a couple of tunes from his own, later era, Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and the Lennon-McCartney penned “From a Window,” which he said was recorded by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Howie Jordan said that most of the performers are Jewish. “In scheduling the show dates, we observe the Jewish holidays, when many of us could not attend,” he said.

“It is like a friends-and-family-show to entertain, and as my father Paul always says, to make people happy,” said Howie Jordan. “Dan Marshall kindly allowed them to take the music out of the bars to a friendly, more family-type place.”

Selections were uniformly uplifting, in keeping with the “Happy Times” theme. L.B. Gratun, a Jewish singer who operates the Avenue of the Arts Film Fest, sang “I Love Being Here with You.” Other vocalists included Sharon Kaufman of Brookline, who sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone”; Ed Lavery of Pembroke; Margie Merritt of Abington; and even Marshall himself, who sang a mean “New York, New York,” made all the more endearing with his lilting Israeli accent.

But the spine of the show was the Happy Times band, which both accompanied the singers and performed on its own. Jordan, who nearly won a 1950 race for Mass. state Senator, owned bicycle and clothing shops in Boston and claims to have spearheaded the drive to print expiration date on foodstuffs through his campaign on Jerry Williams’ old radio show, sang several selections in both English and Yiddish, while his wife Louise, a Dorchester native who is the band’s publicist, rounded out their musical family by singing “Forever and Ever” and “The Band Played On.”

Pianist and singer/songwriter Richard DeMone of Malden, who owned the Kendall Café and the Pilgrim House in Provincetown, played a mean electric keyboard. “He can play any tune at any key, with sheet music or not,” raved Marshall. Bassist Mike Devlin of Newton, who played with the G Clefs for ten years and performs at area blues jams, said that he met Sugarman, who told him about the band, while using the computer room at the Newton Free Library. Dacey maneuvered the harmonica with vigor as the band whipped out numbers that included “Deep Purple.” No, not Smoke on the Water, but the 1930s composition by Mitchell Parish and Peter De Rose, its poetically timeless lyrics echoing the hopeful, romantic natures of the assembled:

“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls/And the stars begin to flicker in the sky/Through the mist of a memory you wander back to me/Breathing my name with a sigh/In the still of the night once again I hold you tight/Though you're gone, your love lives on when moonlight beams/And as long as my heart will beat, lover we'll always meet/Here in my deep purple dreams.”

 

And of course, their repeated standard, “Happy Days are Here Again” showed the quartet at their most high-spirited.

But Green Day’s Tre Cool and the White Stripes’ Meg White have nothing on the mighty Alperin, who pounded the skins with ferocity and quite frankly, should be doing the late-night circuit. This octogenarian kept a vital drumbeat going throughout, taking time for at least two lengthy, polished solos. One, lasting 15 minutes, was a “drums ‘n space jam” reminiscent of Grateful Dead concerts. But unlike the Dead, these cats are grateful to be alive, and show it in their every musical note and rhythmic move.

“It has been Jordan, Alperin, and DeMone, throughout our seven years, who have served as the backbone of this event, with me as the producer and soundman, and shortly after the inception, one of the entertainers,” said Marshall. “This unique show, by seniors, for seniors, is enjoyed by all, from kids, to college students, to professional and armature performers, and seniors of all backgrounds,” he said.

Paul Jordan grew up in Dorchester and Brookline, the youngest brother of six, with one sister, according to his son. Paul’s father, who reportedly had a great voice in the synagogue, was a tailor from Russia who never spoke English. “Everyone in the house spoke Yiddish,” said the younger Jordan. “Long before Karaoke, there were piano bars,” he explained, adding that his father studied opera under Norena Greco. “My father is still able, at age 88, to sing,” he said, recalling Jordan working a full time job, coming home for supper, then hitting the local nightclubs singing with pianists such as Tony Parker and Dottie Dean at 1280 Beacon St., and the Lenox. “He was featured in the 70s on WBZ-TV’s “Evening Magazine” as a top singer,” said Howie Jordan. “In his prime, few big-name opera singers were in his class,” he said. “He had the talent, but never got his big break.”

Marshall cited other artists who have joined in, such as local poet, former BCCA Board member and trombone player Tom Robenoff, and blind bass player Glenn Grimes, as well as visiting piano virtuosos, opera stars, an a cappella chorus, and dedicated volunteers such as children’s teacher Erica Sigal, and audio technician and philanthropist Barry D. Brown. “Our show has always featured a diversity of Jewish personalities, entertainment, and audience members, who perform Russian and Yiddish nostalgic tunes to Chassidic hymns, and clearly demonstrate the Chassidic and multi-ethnic adage that music, song, dance, and rejoicing are food for our souls,” said Marshall.

“I work closely with Brookline residents by helping them learn how to make their own shows,” said BATV’s Hollie. “But in this case, I don't think any of them are aware of how much their ideas have inspired me.”

“This event has been a multi-faceted blessing for me,” said Marshall. “From gaining a caring extended family and grandparents, to regaining my singing voice, which was formerly greatly hindered by vocal chord polyps, to working with BATV on a show featuring peformers well past the age of 65, and in the case of ‘You & Broadway,’ well past the 80s and into the 90s!”

And their message? Well, at least one observer attests to its success. “It has just been a joy working with this community,” said Hollie.