Feenjon Group

NYC Is A Churning Transient City. In The 1960's Israel Had Been Around Long Enough For Israelis To Find Themselves Part Of That Churn. Menachem Dworman An Israeli Ex-Pat Started A Folk Club Called The Feenjon Cafe And It's House Band The Feenjon Group. The Group Also Contained Jewish-American Musician Jerry Sappir As Well As Range Of Greek Turkish Russian And Arabic Music And Musicians. The Feenjon Group Recorded 4 Or 5 Albums The Only One Of Which That Is Still Easily Available Is Alternately Titled "Bellydancing At The Cafe Feenjon" And "An Evening At Cafe Feenjon" And Is Available Through Smithsonian Folkways And Believe It Or Not Through ITunes . Established By Israeli Menachem Dworman The Personnel Of This Band Included Jews Arabs Greeks Armenians And Anglo-European Americans - Quite A Collection Of Nationalities. Dworman Was Also Co-Owner Of Greenwich Village's Feenjon Cafe A Venue That Was Notable For Regularly Featuring Ethnic Music Of This Variety And As The Place Where Trailblazing Middle Eastern-Rock Fusion Band The Devil's Anvil Got Their Start. During An Interview With John Berberian Back In April He Fondly Recollected "I Used To Go Down - Not Only To Play At But Just To Have A Great Time With My Friends - To The Feenjon. It Was An Israeli Coffee House. It Had Music Every Night Of The Week Until Like Three Four In The Morning. We Used To Have Arabs Israelis Armenians Greeks - Every Nationality. They Were Jumping And Dancing And The Bands Would Be Playing All These Different Types Of Music. Talk About Brotherhood! I Wish We Had That Today. That One Club Had Everything." read less