Working with Bernstein, A Memoir by Jack Gottlieb Hal Leonard Publishing, 2010.  372 p. ISBN-10 1574671863.  $24.99 USD. Click here to purchase through Amazon.com

Excerpts from review on The Arts Fuse Boston by Caldwell Titcomb
...There has just appeared an important book entitled Working with Bernstein: A Memoir, which is crammed full of information unavailable anywhere else. It is written by Jack Gottlieb, who is a prolific composer himself. Gottlieb enrolled in a graduate course taught by Bernstein in 1954. Bernstein then hired him as an assistant to undertake all manner of tasks, extending from 1958 to 1970. After several years as music director of a temple in St. Louis, Gottlieb returned to New York and resumed his employment by Bernstein for the rest of the latter’s life, and since then has been the senior member on the staff of what is now called the Leonard Bernstein Office.

Gottlieb divides his book into two main parts. The first he calls “A Grab Bag of My Life With LB,” which contains “reminiscences, anecdotes, observations, testimonies, little known facts.” He keeps track of the frequent change of New York apartments along with the business staff (notably Helen Coates, Bernstein’s one-time piano teacher who became his secretary). “On the Road” describes Bernstein as “a notoriously reckless driver,” and provides an account of the awful time that everyone, including movie star Bette Davis, tried to cope with a Washington snowstorm at the time of the inaugural gala for President Kennedy.

Gottlieb was advised to keep a diary during foreign tours with the New York Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic, so he was able to supply detailed entries about the places visited in an “On Tour” section. “In the Workroom” is especially informative about recycling: “Bernstein was never one to let a good tune go to waste.” Gottlieb lists a host of musical ideas that began in one place and ended in another—something that nobody else could have supplied. Discussed too are Bernstein’s jottings in his orchestral scores, and his special commitment to Gustav Mahler.

 ...Part Two is devoted to Bernstein’s compositions—what Gottlieb calls “My Notes on LB’s Notes.” Gottlieb knows Bernstein’s oeuvre more intimately than anyone else alive. And this half of the book is a godsend since it pulls together conveniently in one place a host of Gottlieb’s writings scattered here and there among concert programs, record jackets, essays, and forewords to scores.

Gottlieb provides many musical examples as he proceeds through the compositions by genre: chamber music, choral works, dance and theater works, Jewish works, commentaries, overtures and entertainments, and songs.

Gottlieb’s publisher is to be commended for allowing a total of more than 75 photographs to appear in this tome. They add enormously to a text that substantially increases what we have heretofore known about one of the most remarkable titans in musical history.

Excerpt from A Midrashist to a Musical Giant, A Review by Michael Isaacson
While reading Working With Bernstein, Jack Gottlieb's fascinating and engrossing history of his professional relationship with Leonard Bernstein, I kept thinking of the writings of rabbinic midrashists...would our understanding of primary texts of the Bible, Prophets, and Writings be as rich without the analytic insights, explanations, and narrative appendices of Rashi, Rambam, or the Gaonim?

Leonard Bernstein's musical productivity was astounding, a shining model for us all, but would his achievements have been as sui generis without the often unattributed contributions of his devoted staff of assistants, secretaries, agents, business managers, researchers, annotators, lyricists, and orchestrators in the background?

Gottlieb served many of these support functions and was in the picture from the early days at Brandeis University through Bernstein's death (a most touching recounting). His allegiance was more than dedicated, it was a faithful bond that often surpassed the collegial, familial, and, yes, even midrashic. Today, Gottlieb serves perhaps an even greater function as the Bernstein family's ad hoc mayven on all things pertaining to the Maestro.

...This is not to say that all was idyllic. There is a smaller book within this authoritative recounting that might be subtitled Working For Bernstein. Who can blame Gottlieb for periodically venting bits of disappointment, frustration, annoyance, and aggravation at being Bernstein's scapegoat when things were not working smoothly? Interestingly, these therapeutic asides are often more revealing in bringing Bernstein's behind the scenes existential reality into vivid focus than the expected complimentary prose.

It is quite clear that Gottlieb knows and understands Bernstein and his music's multi-leveled textures better than most other biographers since he was (with a ten year hiatus) in the trenches with him throughout. His narrative style is at once academic, informal, chatty, analytically observant, and loving to his task.

Working With Bernstein, published by Amadeus Press, is a great read that has filled in many gaps in my understanding of Bernstein. I thoroughly recommend it to all.

Amazon.com Review by Philip Miller
...Often referred by others to as Bernstein's "assistant," [Gottlieb] was, as one learns in reading this book, a whole lot more, for this is a highly personal memoir of Gottlieb's decades-long professional and personal association with one of the giants of Classical Music in the last half of the 20th century.

...Gottlieb unabashedly goes into fascinating detail about the Maestro, his quirks and foibles, his colleagues, friends, etc. But it is hardly a "tell-all" pot-boiler, for there is nothing seamy, seedy, or sordid in his reportage. Referring to diaries Gottlieb kept at the time, one gets a portrait that is respectful and not fawning.

The photographs from Gottlieb's own personal archive are a fascinating record of the whirlwind that seemed to accompany Bernstein wherever he went or did.

...To his credit, Gottlieb pulls no punches and does not gloss over the controversies that frequently surrounded Bernstein. Rather, he provides especially important details that counter the sensationalist rubbish that all too often litter other biographies and detract from Bernstein's genius. 

From The Bernstein Machine Chugs On by Sedgwick Clark (musicalamerica.com)
Composer Jack Gottlieb was Bernstein’s assistant at the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1966. His new Working with Bernstein (Amadeus Press, 2010) has the immediate distinction of being the first book on Bernstein in the last 20 years not to be entitled with his full name. More importantly, it’s a witty, irreverent memoir that no Bernstein fan should miss. “Is this book biased?” he asks in his Introduction. “You bet it is! However, I fervently hope it is not hagiographic.” It’s not. “The man certainly was not a saint,” Gottlieb continues, “and I dearly want to be honest in my assessment. . . .” He appears to be, even if he has undoubtedly pulled some punches. He divides his book into two parts: (1) a “grab bag” of reminiscences, anecdotes, and observations of working with his boss and (2) his program notes about Bernstein’s music. Of many revelations, I discovered that my favorite Bernstein concert work, Chichester Psalms, consisted of largely recycled music written for an abandoned stage project in 1964, the year he took a sabbatical from the Phil to compose: a collaboration with Jerome Robbins and Comden and Green in an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth. Maybe I knew that factoid before, but Gottlieb details what music came from where. Recycling is a noble art dating at least back to Handel, Mozart, Beethoven et al., but to my mind it rarely had it so good.

Click here for list of errata.

Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood by Jack Gottlieb
Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York in association with The Library of Congress. c 2004, xxi, 306 p. : ill.; 30 cm. + 1 sound disc (digital; 4 3/4 in.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-276) and indexes. ISBN 0844411302

Lied und populare Kultur, Band 52-2007
by Heidy Zimmermann
Gottlieb brilliantly ploughs through an area which has been known as fertile for quite some time, but still has not been developed-- it may be that popular music specialists are often not well acquainted enough with traditional Jewish music . . . [the] book offers such an amplitude of substance and evidence that it displays an indispensable reference for further studies on popular music in the USA in the first half of the 20th century.

Stuart Isacoff, Sheet Music Magazine (Spring 2007).
"Wonderful . . . tackles the issue with great thoroughness and insight-- and it's filled with fascinating information."

Howard Pollack, American Music (Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall 2006). 
"Gottlieb is a superbly equipped tune detector, with a vast and probably unique knowledge . . . his comparisons, are, on the whole, intriguing and illuminating . . . .  No serious student of the music of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood can afford to bypass this landmark study."

Philip E. Miller, Musica Judaica (Vol. 28, 2005-6).
"Tremendous insight . . . the end result of extensive research . . . and a labor of intense love.  One can only stand in awe of Gottlieb's accomplishment and be grateful."

Judith Pinnolis (Jewish Music Web Center), January 1, 2006
Jack Gottlieb's mission is to set the record straight. He wishes to clearly demonstrate through musical examples and technical musical means, that in fact, Jewish music from Yiddish song to synagogue melos, influenced American popular culture. This book could be a coffee table book, but it's more. It could be the written record of years of Gottlieb's programmatic material, but it's more than that. Or, it could be the text of a course on Jewish influences on popular song, but it's not quite that. It can be used as a broad reference work, and also has many elements of that. The book defies a neat categorization in terms of style, format and content, but has elements of each: an extensive, fascinating browse book, a music record with technical references, and a reference book with listings of hundreds of musical composers, lyricists, and songs of Jewish origin. The book is also political: it attempts to dispel the canard that Jews merely took advantage or exploited African Americans, but rather shows that a true cultural exchange with mutual benefits and influences existed between the two minority groups.

Gottlieb claims, that from that time to this, Jewish music has been inextricably linked to American music and vice versa. But exactly how? That is what this book lays out, in copious musical examples with score, diagram and theoretical explanations. Now, not every single example was as compelling or convincing as the others. There were some musical connections that seemed somewhat thin, but the majority of the examples seem to demonstrate the various points he makes. Those who do not wish to sit and follow the details of each and every musical example, (although this writer did), may read through the text and listen to the accompanying CD and get the general effect of the musical argument. Indeed, many people may wish to read the book in order to know whether their favorite show tunes came from a Yiddish song or synagogue music! The book is not a history. It is arranged by organizing principles of language and various compositional methods or techniques for using Jewish musical elements, and as such, is somewhat disjointed or pointillistic at times. One jumps from example to example without much sense of the historical continuity. One reason for that may be that so many of the various ideas were happening concurrently.

Whether or not one agrees that each and every example of Jewish influence on a popular song is compelling, the evidence in total suggests that Gottlieb has won his thesis. Yes, many composers, especially Jewish ones, brought in elements of songs they knew or heard, consciously or unconsciously, onto the American scene through their popular songs written in Tin Pan Alley or for Broadway, and later for movie scores. For some reason, one would presume this isn't a big revelation on the face of it. Many composers of other ethnic minorities did the same thing. One could easily say that Italian, Irish, English or French immigrants brought with them music from their European backgrounds and used it in America when writing music. It seems logical that the Jews would do the same, and had their fair share of cultural contributions. And so they did. The difference is, as Gottlieb realizes, unfortunately, it is currently very popular among some, to deny Jewish artistic contributions as either very little, light weight, or non-existent. In regard to whether he proved that point that Jewish contributions were present, the evidence is overwhelming. In regard to whether these influences were substantial or significant in the total output of American popular song, is another question.

One could argue the reverse of Gottlieb's thesis. For example, if it's shown that Irving Berlin had even a few dozen songs influenced (or lifted) from Jewish sources, is that significant for a man who wrote over 800 songs? If Ira and George Gershwin had several pieces that were Jewishly influenced, they also had influences from African Americans. If a Arlen had songs reminiscent of Jewish song, he also wrote mainly in a mainstream idiom. This book proves important contributions, but percentages or numbers are not the issue. Gottlieb's point is that proving 'substantial' contribution is a matter of perspective. He shows that anyone who wants to understand the origins and early history of American musical theater or 20th century American popular song, now needs to be able to recognize these Jewish influences along with those of the other groups. They are all part of the whole and must be included. (not to mention that so many of the composers of early Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and movies themselves were Jews.) Gottlieb is not leading a cheer or pep rally, or merely stating "ain't-we-great-because-there-were-so-many-Jews-who-did-this". He's looking at this body of music not only from the sociological or historical point of view, but from the inside out-- from the linguistic and compositional views. He starts with the Yiddish language itself which Jews brought to America from Eastern Europe by the waves of mass migration at the turn of the 20th century. He shows how even the Jewish language greatly influenced, was part of, and forwarded the progress of song in America. Change to popular song in America started with the Yiddish language, and progressed from there through the genuis of some our greatest American songwriters and composers who had the Jewish musical "taam" (taste) and sound in their ear.

This book can also be used for sheer fun, a kind of aural "who dunnit" game and a wonderful puzzler. Gottlieb also is a self proclaimed punner, and the book is full of good humor, Yiddishkeit, and entertaining anecdotes. A lot of people, even those unfamiliar with Yiddish, will derive tremendous delight and "get a kick" going through the songs, hearing the various songs of origin, and hearing the CD where the examples clearly outline some of the more easily recognizable Yiddish or synagogue tunes turned into or transformed into a popular song. Another interesting sidelight were some of the ironic anecdotes. For example, everyone knows how tightly Irving Berlin guarded his copyright on his music-- yet he apparently didn't seem to mind lifting music from others, including Yiddish theater composer Goldfaden.

Besides his demonstrated prodigious musical memory and keen ear, Gottlieb's scholarship makes the book a handy reference work. Appendix A lists composer, authors, and perfomers alphbetically, with birth date, place, and death date and place. It gives Jewish and stage or changed American names. Appendix B lists, by time period, "Yinglish" (mixture of Yiddish and English) songs titles. Appendix C gives musical examples titles. This information on Jewish-American's song is not organized nearly this thoroughly in any other book, to my knowledge. The bibliography (p. 267-276) is extensive (and very worthwhile for students of American music or librarians). The CD tracks and texts are listed in the book, as well as an index. In addition to all this, the CD has fascinating clips of rare recordings by legends of the stage, radio and film.

This book is highly recommended for college, conservatory and university libraries and would also make a good gift for your friend who is a popular song or Broadway buff.

OTHER SELECTED REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly, July 2004
In his introduction to this meticulously researched study of Jewish-influenced theatrical and popular music from 1914 to 1964, scholar and composer Gottlieb observes, "For the first time since ancient history, when synagogue cantillation influenced church plain chant, Jews contributed significantly to the music of the mainstream." To support his case, he analyzes melodies written for synagogues and the Yiddish theater and finds them in tunes that may not "sound Jewish." He discusses innumerable composers and artists, familiar and obscure, observant and nonobservant, converts and even non-Jews. One chapter is devoted to Cole Porter, "who wrote a little-known ballad, 'Hot-House Rose' (1926), which tells the bitter tale of a Jewish sweatshop (or hothouse) girl." The melodic passages cited on almost every page will be of most value to the musically sophisticated. On the other hand, everyone will be able to appreciate the accompanying 70-minute CD, which includes a marvelous, very Yiddish recording by Judy Garland of Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, as well as Leonard Bernstein at his piano singing Marc Blitzstein's poignant A Zipper-fly. This is a loving, comprehensive and fascinating book.

St Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2004
"More truth, lies and consequences" by Judith Newmark
...a couple of exceptionally good new books have come out for the reader who can't get enough of the real thing [i.e., theater]..."Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish" ($40, State University of New York Press) explores complicated connections between traditional Jewish music, both folkloric and liturgical, and the popular tunes of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood. Author Jack Gottlieb, a composer himself, makes a persuasive case for a stronger influence than is widely acknowledged. Just to underline the point, the book comes with a CD full of rich, easy-to-grasp comparisons. It's a beautiful book, too, worthy of a chic coffee table; the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival would be smart to bring Gottlieb to town for the informative, entertaining program he doubtless could provide.

The New York Times, September 3, 2004
"Mazel Tov: 350 Years of Jews in America" by Jeremy Eichler
...Similarly, on Broadway and in Tin Pan Alley, Jews rose to prominence, with leading figures like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Al Jolson, Jerome Kern, Sophie Tucker and Oscar Hammerstein II, among many others. They built new fusions like "Show Boat" and later "Oklahoma!" that helped define the golden age of the Broadway musical. Others drew on the musical materials of their own ethnic and religious past to form the bricks and mortar of the burgeoning popular styles. A new book by Jack Gottlieb, "Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish," makes the connections explicit, with copious examples of cases where Yiddish songs and cantorial music were adapted, wittingly or unwittingly, by Jewish songwriters as they plied their craft in the mainstream. Sometimes the "accent" of the originals was preserved, oftentimes it was not.

Hadassah Magazine, October 2004
"Finding the Familiar Harmony" by Sanford Pinsker
Jack Gottlieb’s tome is best described by its subtitle. A student of Leonard Bernstein and past president of the American Society for Jewish Music, the author provides, for the first time, comprehensive music examples that document the Jewish influence on American popular songs. The result is a handsome coffee-table book that is as delightful as it is informative. Those who can read music will have a distinct advantage—the book is awash in musical notations. Fortunately, also included is a CD that features such gems as "The Rabbi’s Daughter" and "" along with familiar American tunes such as "Blue Skies" and "High Noon." Gottlieb not only shows how certain Jewish riffs were incorporated in Tin Pan Alley tunes, he also debunks the once popular notion that Jews stole black music and turned it into commercialized fare. Not true, Gottlieb insists, and he is as thorough—and persuasive—in this argument as he is with others.  This is a book that people will want to flip through and stay to read in large chunks. It’s that good and, I would add, that important. —

The Dayton Jewish Observer, December 2004
"Tipping the Scale’ by Candace R. Kwiatek
"Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood" by Jack Gottlieb is both a research treasure and a coffee table album all rolled into one! Accompanied by a CD of related Jewish and American tunes, this well-documented and engagingly-written book will interest Jewish history and music lovers alike.

Jewish Transcript, Washington D.C., December 2004
by Diana Brement
In "Funny, It Doesn’t Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood" (SUNY Press, in association with the Library of Congress, cloth, $40), former professor of Jewish music theory and composer Jack Gottlieb shows how Jewish songwriters transformed the popular music of the mid-20th century. Although this influence has often been discussed, Gottlieb illustrates the connection in great detail and with comprehensive musical examples.
Gottlieb begins with an interesting history lesson, tracing the similarities between Jewish and Christian liturgical music before launching into popular music. Every page of this coffee-table book has lines of music on it, plus lots of photos of composers, performers and sheet music covers. A companion CD includes previously unrecorded songs plus some rarities sung by Judy Garland, Billie Holiday and Leonard Bernstein.

Koleinu, publication of the American Conference of Cantors, November/December 2004
Honorary ACC member and composer JG recently published a book entitled "Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish." Published by Suny Press and accompanied by a CD with 70 minutes of great musical examples, it is full of wisdom, wit, practical information, clever musical twists and turns and will become a classic. It's a literary jewel and laypersons as well as seasoned cantors are guaranteed to love it and learn from it. The book can be purchased on-line at Amazon.com or other bookstores nationwide.

Nextbook website, 2004
In this entertaining illustrated history, Gottlieb explores a crucial question: What exactly constitutes "Jewish music"? From the rabbinical injunction against instrumental music to the influence of liturgical melodies on Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, and Harold Arlen (all sons of cantors), Gottlieb examines a myriad of disparate sources, cogently following the "chameleon-like appearances" of certain motives, rhythms, and themes. In a chapter devoted to Leonard Bernstein, Gottlieb patiently teases out the similarities between the opening notes of the High Holy Days and West Side Story—"proof positive for those who always suspected that the whistles alerting the gangs...are based on shofar calls.

Jewish Book World, Vol. 3, No. 3, Winter 2004
by James Loeffler
For anyone who has ever hummed a Gershwin tune and thought it sounded just a little bit Jewish, Jack Gottlieb has written the book for you. In this exhaustive and lively study of the Jewish background to American popular music, Gottlieb has doggedly pursued every single hint of Jewishness in Tin Pan Alley songs and Hollywood film scores between roughly the end of World War I and the 1960's appearance of Fiddler on the Roof. Out of this impressive musicological sleuthing comes a highly readable, fascinating account of a sometimes hidden, sometimes obvious chain of cultural influences, from traditional Jewish music to American Jewish composers to American popular song. Gottlieb writes not as an academic but as a composer and long-time specialist in Jewish music education, making the book accessible to all readers. The plethora of photographs, music examples and accompanying CD recording only add to the book’s captivating richness.