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VOL.22, NO.7
Cranking up an unusual act
JULY 2010
I N S I D E …
PHOTO © ALYONA VOGELMAN
By Mary C. Stachyra Lola, a petite blonde wearing a big, round-rimmed straw hat, smiles broadly. Master Bob, her companion with a snowy white beard and black top hat, stands next to her, ready to crank out an accompaniment to Lola’s rendition of “Mack the Knife” using an antique wooden street organ. Yes, Bob is an organ grinder. Lola rings a silver bell, throws her arms open wide and announces with gusto: “Hear ye, hear ye! Ladies and gentlemen: we’re going to make some music!” As she sings, Master Bob turns the metal stick protruding from the large, royal-blue, rectangular device. The instrument emanates quick, bubbly notes to accompany Lola’s throaty vocals. Such mechanical organs are a musical novelty nowadays —rarely found in modern Europe, much less the greater D.C. area. But a hundred years ago, performers in cities like Berlin, London and New York would bring their tiny music machines or giant “barrel organs” to the streets, often accompanied by a small monkey or another animal trained to do tricks (and collect coins from passersby). There was also a European tradition of traveling troupes of entertainers who would visit rural towns, singing bawdy tales of love, heartbreak, drama and death. Lola and Bob follow in those traditions, albeit locally, traveling around to area festivals, libraries and retirement communities to perform German folk songs accompanied by the crank organ. Nowadays, with the exception of a few octogenarians, people who attend their performances have never seen a show like this. “The first thing they want to know is, ‘where’s the monkey’?” said Lola. They do have one, although it’s a stuffed animal. Several years ago, Lola found him through Freecycle, a network that salvages reusable goods. Named Panchito, he’s always perched on top of their “music machine” — which also has a name: Scharmanka (Russian for crank organ). Panchito was the finishing touch for Lola and Bob’s act, which they pieced together in honor of her mother, once an organ grinder herself.
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ARTS & STYLE
Jazz musicians Christiana Drapkin and Bob Walker turn into their alter egos, Organ Grinder Lola and Master Bob, for their unique performances of old folk songs and traditional ballads. The vocation derived from Drapkin’s mother, who was an organ grinder in Germany.
Elizabeth Ashley pinch hits in Shaw play at Shakespeare Theatre and has a home run; plus, amusing plays to stretch your grandkids’ imaginations page 32
A dynamic duo Lola’s real name is Christiana Drapkin. Though she now resides in Rockville, Md., she grew up in Baden-Baden, Germany. As a young woman, Drapkin moved to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship. She studied theatre arts at Tulane University in New Orleans. After three years there, she relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y., where she spent the next couple of decades raising her children and pursuing her musical ambitions as a jazz vocalist. Drapkin, now 51, has released five CDs of her jazz singing, accompanied by various musicians on guitar, piano, drums and other instruments.
In one, she sets Shakespeare’s poetry to jazz arrangements by John Dankworth, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington and others. She sings jazz several times a week at area restaurants, cafes and country clubs, as well as senior centers. At a jazz performance in 2006, she met Bob Walker, a Rockville native who had moved back home to care for his aging mother after spending a number of years as a university professor in Pennsylvania and Ohio. As their relationship developed, Walker became a hit with Drapkin’s own mother See ORGAN GRINDER, page 30
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