By director Edward Sloman
With a new original score by Paul Shapiro
In early 2004 the Museum of Jewish Heritage commissioned Paul Shapiro to create a brand new original score, to be performed live on stage with the 1925 silent film Jewish boxing classic “His People”.

Musicians:

From Museum of Jewish Heritage brochure:

Wednesday, June 23 at 7:00 pm
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust presents:

His People (Director: Edward Sloman - 1925, 91 min, 16mm)
World Premiere score written by Paul Shapiro. Performed live by an all-star ensemble. Restored 16mm print courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University .

For the first installment of the Museum's two-part SILENT FILM/LIVE MUSIC series, multi-talented saxophonist/composer Paul Shapiro world premieres an original score for a newly restored 16mm print of the silent Jewish boxing classic His People.

Edward Sloman's His People tells the Lower East Side story of David and Rose Cominsky and their two sons, Morris, who is studying to be a lawyer, and Sammy, who is secretly becoming a boxer. Sloman's compelling vision of the painful depths and joyous heights of immigrant life endow the film with an exuberant vitality.

Paul Shapiro was a founding member of The Brooklyn Funk Essentials & a longtime member of The Microscopic Septet. His acclaimed 2003 Tzadik Records release, Midnight Minyan, was described as "a bubbling brew of soulful Jewish traditional music re-imagined by someone who grew up playing tenor while listening to Blue Note records..."

From the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University:

In New York 's Lower East Side ghetto, David and Rose Cominsky have two sons: Morris, who is studying to be a lawyer, and Sammy, who is secretly becoming a prizefighter under the name "Battling Rooney." Sammy supports and loves his family; Morris is ashamed of them, moves uptown, and claims to be an orphan. When Sammy hears of Morris' betrayal, he drags him back to the ghetto where the family is happily reunited. From the painful depths to the joyous heights, this one has it all: the "man of learning" who has not made it in America , the long-suffering mother, the prodigal son, and the child of generous spirit, who, of course, marries the Irish girl next door.

In Paul's own words:

What a rich opportunity! To write new music for a film created almost eighty years ago, in the very same neighborhood that I live in, with quasi-recognizable street scenes to boot.

When Aaron Greenwald from the Museum of Jewish Heritage called and asked me to write for a silent film I knew this would be a very challenging, exciting and rewarding opportunity.

Aaron sent me the synopses of about ten films and I zeroed in on two. After viewing them both I knew I had my movie. I chose “His People” filmed in 1925 in the Lower Eastside . It's a very entertaining film with a lot of ‘assimilation pathos' and plenty of humor as well.

I have written music that I would not characterize as ‘period specific'. But I can say that it definitely sounds ‘pre-1955'. The tonalities are informed by Jewish music from antiquity to the post-klezmer ‘Yiddish Swing' of the 1940's and 50's. There will be jazz sonorities and improvisation woven into that fabric. The instruments we'll be using were all available in the era the film was made in.

I have written music that I feel will be both rhythmically exciting and harmonically rich. Besides myself on sax, clarinet and flute, I have five super talented instrumentalists in my ensemble. They include my long-time associate Steven Bernstein trumpet, Tomas Ulrich on cello, Brian Mitchell on piano, David Hofstra on string bass and Tony Lewis on drums.

We will be playing along with the film, so we don't have the advantage of ‘locking to picture' as they did once sound was able to be synchronized with film. I have taken this into consideration with opportunities for the music to flex if necessary. This will be part of the challenge and the fun of performing it ‘live-to-picture'!

Paul Shapiro