The list of guests/participants included Alan Alda, David Amram, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, Susan Werner, Patricia Connolly and Tom Paxton. After two opening songs by David Amram and Beyond the Pale, Alan Alda spoke in glowing terms of his lifelong friendship with Theodore Bikel, telling the audience that the evening would be a “great and happy celebration for a great and happy man.”
Highlights of the three hour tribute include Broadway icon Judy Kaye’s soulful version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and “Puff the Magic Dragon” sung by two thirds of Peter, Paul & Mary. Emotional strings were tugged when Noel Paul Stookey introduced the song by explaining that Mary’s battle with cancer prevented her from being there, but she was making wondrous progress. More than 2,000 voices joined as one to sing the chorus to the American folk classic.
Guest of honor Theodore Bikel modestly told attendees that he only added his “voice to the voices” over the past six decades and added an international flavor to the music menu, as he performed with Bosnian born accordionist Merima Kljuco and pianist Tamara Brooks. Lifetime Achievement Grammy award winner Tom Paxton, accompanied by Eric Weissberg, mesmerized concert goers with his rendition of “Ramblin’ Boy.” Arlo Guthrie joined the Klezmatics, Tom Paxton, Eric Weissberg and bassist John Miller for an uplifting version of the folk traditional “St.James Infirmary.”
—Howard B. Leibowitz
American music owes its bountiful riches to a blend of diverse writers and performers who contributed to the folk music genre. Theodore Bikel has blazed a number of trails during his remarkable life, but somehow managed to walk down a new path, as he celebrated his 85th birthday in the hallowed catacombs of New York’s Carnegie Hall. True to form, Bikel arranged for all the proceeds of this historical evening to go to the Juvenile Law Center, only adding to the aura that surrounds this patron of the global arts.