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Abi Gezunt Medley: Isle of Klezbos at Joe's Pub

649 views · Published 16 October 2018 · 8:35 · Indexed 14 October 2026

Channel: Eve Sicular · 2018 · Music

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Isle of Klezbos performs 6/7/2016, full sextet playing Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in NYC. The all-gal group swings "Abi Gezunt" including scat vocals by Melissa Fogarty. With piano doyna intro by Shoko Nagai & instrumental klezmer prelude ("An Alter Nigun" adapted from Emil Gorovets), leading into the tune made famous by Yiddish performance icon Molly Picon, here graced by horn section & bass solos too. 

Performed live onstage for the band's 18th annual "KlezBiGay Pride" show -- a lucky number, L'chaim! Featuring 
Debra Kreisberg: clarinet & alto sax 
Pam Fleming: trumpet
Melissa Fogarty: vocals 
Shoko Nagai: piano 
Saskia Lane: double bass
Eve Sicular: drums & bandleader. 
Arrangement by Isle of Klezbos & Metropolitan Klezmer. 

Video editing: Rich Brotman. House audio & video: Jon Shriver. "Abi Gezunt" [So Long as You're Healthy] lyrics by Yiddish legend of stage/screen Molly Picon; music by Abe Ellstein. This song was a tour de force as Picon performed it in the 1938 Yiddish classic film "Mamele" -- more on that below -- and she later started each program of her Maxwell House Radio hour with this tune as well.

Our 2016 celebration featured Isle of Klezbos as the house band for Queer Trivia Quiz night co-presented by NYPL's Library of the Performing Arts, Artistic Producer: Evan Leslie.

In Molly's hit movie performance of this tune, she accompanies herself wth kitchen choreography, and adds an extra verse about "hayntike yinglekh" [boys today] whose behavior is "vi a hint afn gas" [like a dog in the street] as sung by Molly at the ironing board in a special shot; those lyrics also include metaphors about love & tuberculosis. But we're just sticking to the basics onstage here, so long as you're healthy -- leaving aside the TB /romance plague!

For full lyrics in translation /transliteration & original Yiddish, check out our album versions with full booklets, including "Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" as well as "Mosaic Persuasion" (featuring Metropolitan Klezmer with Isle of Klezbos cameo). This medley also appears with several of the bandmates heard here on Metropolitan Klezmer's live CD "Mazel Means Good Luck."

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