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Lil Rev concert showcases Jewish links to 'roots and blues'

By Leon Cohen
of The Chronicle staff

February 12th, 2009

According to legend, the great African American blues musician Robert Johnson (1911-1938) met the Devil at a crossroads and sold his soul for the ability to play blues.

But what if a Jewish musician had been there with Johnson, mused Marc Revenson, better known as Milwaukee-based instrumentalist-singer-composer Lil Rev. “He wouldn’t sell his soul; but he would want to learn the hot licks,” he said.

In fact, there has been a long and intricate interplay between Jews and Blacks and blues and jazz that has long fascinated Revenson. “I’m interested in the potpourris that come out of the melting pot,” he said. “There’s so much influence and great stories.”

Revenson will be sharing some of his findings in a concert he will give Sunday, Feb. 22, 2 p.m., called “Jews-n-Blues: A Celebration of the Jewish Contribution to American Roots & Blues.”

Though the concert takes place at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, 2909 W. Mequon Rd., it is being sponsored by Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, which is making use of Beth El’s facilities while construction is taking place at Emanu-El’s Brown Deer Rd. building.

Revenson said this project is an outgrowth of his long-standing interest in the Jewish contribution to American popular music. He has done programs on the Jews of Tin Pan Alley, for example.

While “a lot” of the concert “will revolve around blues themes,” it also will include “some country flavor and folk-type things and a lot of original music that I’ve composed,” he said.

It also will include items that may surprise many listeners who are not close students of the music and the people who created it.

For example, he will do a version of “Hound Dog,” a song most often associated with Elvis Presley, who recorded it in 1956; but it was actually composed by two Jewish guys, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and originally recorded by black blues singer Willie Mae “Big Moma” Thornton in 1952.

He also will perform music by Tin Pan Alley masters like Harold Arlen (“Stormy Weather,” the signature tune of black singer Lena Horne); and “one or two” by George Gershwin, including “Summertime.”

Gershwin particularly was “a master at borrowing jazz and blues motifs and combining them in his music,” said Revenson. And even though “Summertime” has been recorded thousands of times, “it embodies his work better than anything. I like songs with a minor flavor” that “in a subtle way tip their hats to Jewish roots.”

Though “Jew-n-Blues” is “essentially a one-man show,” Revenson said Milwaukee blues harmonica player Steve Cohen and perhaps some other local musicians will join him at different times.

Revenson, a Milwaukee native, has been both a camper and counselor at camps run by the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC; and he taught at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School for five years.

He majored in education and minored in music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has taught there. He plays six instruments, including guitar, ukulele and harmonica.

His recordings have included “I Can’t Keep the Past Behind Me,” which was featured in the Feb. 11, 2005, Chronicle; and he is planning on releasing a recording of ukulele music this May.

Admission to the “Jews-n-Blues” concert is $10. For more information, call Emanu-El, 414-228-7545.