A Return to "Belz Mein Shtetele Belz"

[Charles H.]

Among the many delights (including all the photos on the gate fold album cover) of 1968's "The Beat of the Brass," is "Belz Mein Shtetele Belz (My Home Town)."

Recently, I became aware of Herb Alpert's second recording of the tune, with the first 'Belz' eliminated from the title. It's a longer version, arranged and conducted by Marvin Hamlisch and featuring Alicia Svigals on klezmer violin. It's Herb's contribution to "The Jewish Songbook," a compilation CD released by Shout! Factory in 2008.

Although I prefer the Tijuana Brass treatment, this one has its own merits and I wonder about the reaction of other fans who've heard it to this re-visit by Herb after 40 years.

Charles

 

[Harry]

I actually like the redone version, maybe not as much as the old TjB version, but it's a good re-visit to the tune. No offense to Ms. Svigals, but I could leave her opening and closing solo out. In fact, I did just such an edit. The violin solo opens the track and plays for over a minute and fifteen seconds, then the real "record" starts. At around the 4:45 mark into the track, the violin solo returns to close out the nearly 5 1/2 mnute track.

Simply by starting after the solo and fading out before the end solo, the track is reduced to a very standard length of 3:34 and for me, becomes much more listenable on a regular basis. If it was ever edited for radio, I'm sure this would have been the edit. I really like the harmony trumpets in the major-key bridge.

Harry