The Art of Living: Spider Saloff

I often speak about the importance of getting out of our heads and into our bodies. From experience, I know when I'm trying to make important decisions or move forward on something that's difficult for me, I make better progress when I focus on how I feel versus what I think. My mind can spin in crazy, vicious circles for eternity but my body speaks the immediate, visceral truth.

I thought it would be interesting to ask people whose life's work or creative pastimes require them to be very in tune with their bodies, to share their process and personal stories on this topic.

Spider Saloff is an internationally celebrated jazz singer and she also teaches at the Bloom School of Jazz which is where I took her brilliant Master Class in Vocal Phrasing and Improvisation. Spider actually facilitated one of the peak experiences in my life so far: I got to sing two jazz tunes accompanied by a great band at the famed Green Mill jazz club in Chicago. I saw her recently and knew she'd be the perfect person for this interview. In a beautifully candid way, she shares personal and practical wisdom we can all learn from.


Why is this practice of getting out of our heads and into our bodies so important?

It has to do with the “big picture” concept. Our entire way of living our lives has to do with a balance of body, mind and spirit. When one of these is out of balance, we are open to disorder, unrest and even illness.

What are some of the ways it helps you in your day to day life?

I have recently been through some extremely stressful situations in my life. The big one being the sudden death of my husband. Carrying on with my life and creativity has been incredibly powerful and important in recovering from the experience. A major help to me was the daily practice of being present. By this I mean a real understanding of knowing where I am right in the moment - not being in the past or in an artificial future that I am just making up. When I can get myself to be present it almost immediately removes fear in just about any situation. And from this comes the capacity to be in a balanced state.

What are some of the ways it helps you in your work or creative practice?

As a creative artist I need to be self motivated in order to carry on with my work. This of course can be difficult at times. You don’t always wake up and say, “Hey, I think I’ll write a song today!” Most of the time you just want to put stuff off. But this, too, comes from fear. And that comes from not being present. The part of you that is in the past is saying, “Oh, what if I just can’t do it? I couldn’t do it yesterday. How will I be able to do it now?” And the part of you that is making up the false future is saying, “Oh, what if I do it and it isn’t good? People will think I'm a failure. I'm better off just being safe and not doing anything.”

Yeah. You can see how well that works! So if you can get present you can be with, “What if I just write a couple of thoughts down. And if it isn’t good, it doesn’t matter. I am here and I am safe.”

Has this practice affected other areas of your life that surprised you?

Yes. Even in mundane chores that seem overwhelming. Like cleaning out a closet that has not been touched since dinosaurs walked the earth. (They may even be living in there.) If I can just get myself to stop the conversation about how hard it is and take out one thing. All of sudden I can get into the actual joy of it and the release of throwing stuff out and making my life easier. Then when it's over I feel great and can’t believe all the fuss I was making over it. What a bunch of nonsense goes on in our heads!

What are the signs to look out for in your body to know when something moves you? How do you check in with your body when making decisions?

This, I suppose, is what one calls a gut reaction. When a situation calls for it, most of us will hear that little bell go off. It's getting used to knowing what the bell sounds and feels like that fine tunes the process.

Any other wisdom you'd like to share with us?

I think as an artist and a human being one of the most important things to remember is to never get caught up in comparing yourself or your success to ANYONE ELSE. We are all on our own path and we don’t have the energy to waste on such devouring thoughts. Always focus on what is working and what is making you feel good. That is the art of living.

Spider Saloff is a critically acclaimed singer and actress. Her syndicated radio series Words and Music has been heard world wide. She performs concerts with full orchestras as well as in intimate jazz venues. Her most well known work is her Gershwin concert in which Saloff worked directly with the Gershwin family. The show received rave reviews, toured nationally and was featured in St. Petersburg, Russia. Saloff has 7 CD’s to her credit and is the winner of 5 MAC Awards presented by The Manhattan Association of Cabarets. Her newest project is a one woman musical, Entertaining Guests which Saloff wrote the book as well as the music. The play is slated for a Chicago debut in 2010. Check out her website at http://www.SpiderJazz.com

Save the Deli

Not too long ago I discovered an article on the Atlantic Food Channel called Why I Want To Save The Deli. It was written by journalist and deli expert, David Sax, who was coming out with a new book called Save the Deli. The article spoke to me in a language I completely understood; it triggered something in me - a call to action - and strong sense memories from my own past, so I called his publicist right away for an advance copy of the book.

Save the Deli chronicles David's travels throughout the United States as well as Canada and Europe in search of authentic delicatessen. He documents the histories, the characters, the food and how it's made in glorious, mouth-watering detail. He also discovers where it's still thrives, where it's in decline, and where to go for particular dishes. It's part history, part travelogue and the Food and Yiddish Appendix in the back is worth the price alone.

What I love about the book is that it's written with such enthusiasm and heart! He captures the very essence of deli culture - the intoxicating smells, the one of a kind flavors, the tumult, the noise, the wise-cracking waitresses - which is a huge part of the Jewish experience that I knew and loved growing up. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that as deli culture dies, a piece of my own history dies along with it. I want to save the deli too!

A little background: I grew up in Chicago with a grandfather from Kiev, Russia, who would take me to the original Ashkenaz Deli and Romanian Deli, both in Roger's Park. I would hand-pick my own new pickle from a giant barrel (a ritual inconceivable today in a culture dependent on sanitizer gel) and stand in line and order a hand-sliced corned beef sandwich from the countermen who knew my grandparents by name. My father used to take me to the old Berwyn Fisheries on Sunday where they smoked everything in-house and we'd take home fresh rye, bagels, smoked chubs (whitefish), sable and sturgeon. I will never forget the smell in that place - it was like breathing ice, smoke, fat and fish all in one breath. Pure heaven. So, I'm a die-hard deli lover if there ever was one.

And I have to say it breaks my heart that most children today haven't been indoctrinated into this world of deli foods and smoked fish. How can you thrive on a diet of chicken fingers? I mean really? And what kind of person do you become when you're exposed to such a narrow spectrum of foods and homogenous eating experiences? (I'll save this topic for another post)

Anyway, I had the chance to interview David last week while he was on his book tour. He'd just gotten back from a morning visit to the White House! While there, he discovered that feet away from our President's inner sanctum, in the office of special adviser, David Axelrod, are three photographs from Manny's Delicatessen here in Chicago including a shot of a knish and pastrami sandwich and one of the legendary counterman, Gino. They were sandwiched (pardon the pun) next to photos of Mr. Axelrod with various world leaders! Is that a hoot or what? It's amazing what deli can do.

I feel like deli is a part of my personal history and I am nostalgic about it but bottom line; I'd be devastated if I couldn't get a bowl of matzo ball soup or a great corned beef sandwich with chopped liver on a whim. To me, that would be a huge loss. So how do you save the deli? This is where our interview begins:

RFR: How do you hook a whole new generation on to deli food?

DAVID SAX: I don't see it being any different from Southern Barbecue or something like that. If you told people ten years ago there'd be this rash of new Southern hipster barbecue joints they'd say, "Whaddya crazy? Barbecue?" The difficult thing is, a lot of delis open up and say, "It's going to be like old New York, it's going to be like delis used to be", and there's only so much you can do with a nostalgic bent and I think when you do that you don't necessarily capture that younger generation. You're selling it to the older generation.

I think for the places that are going to save the deli, they're going to be the ones who bring it into the new and they're not going to do it with wasabi meatballs or sliders, they're simply going to do it by being true to themselves and by raising the level of quality; going back to the way that things were prepared, without pandering to that same sense of lost history. They don't need photos of old New York or Maxwell Street on the wall, but they do need to cure their own stuff and stop bringing stuff in from outside. People from our generation who love food, they respect that more than anything. That's the best hope we have right now. And there are only a few places around the country that are doing it that way. I think we'll see more of it in the coming years, I hope to; because delis have tried to branch out and franchise and it took away from their soul and detracted from the original locations. They also tried to open it up to other types of food which drained away the authenticity of it and hurt the traditional foods. You can't claim to make matzo balls and deep dish pizza really well, you've got to pick one or the other.


RFR: So who's doing great quality, artisanal deli in the States?

DAVID SAX: The most interesting one I saw is Kenny & Zuke's out of Portland, Oregon. It's two guys, one was a food blogger, the other one owned a restaurant. One said to the other, "Hey, there's no good pastrami in Portland, whaddya say we make a good pastrami and sell it at the farmers' market and see if it sells." So they did and it sold out in ten minutes. The next week they came back with twice the amount of pastrami and they sold out in twenty minutes. They were smoking it in a barbecue smoker and curing it in barrels. Then they started to do a Deli Brunch at his restaurant and it got so big they decided to do it full time.

They opened up their deli two years ago and it's doing incredibly well. They bake their own bread and bagels every morning in house, they smoke their own pastrami in a smoker with oak that they split with an axe in the basement and even though Kenny is from New York, they don't call themselves a New York-style deli. They're a Jewish delicatessen.

RFR: Have you ever felt as passionately about anything as you do deli? What's next for you?

DAVID SAX: This started out when I was at university, so this has been a passion project for me for a number of years. I knew I was getting into journalism and I always knew I was going to write this book. And what's next is certainly undecided but it's most likely not going to be about Jewish food because I just feel this one really came from the heart and I don't want to do anything just for the sake of, you know, "...now we can capture Jews 18 to 35 who like bagels." I'm not a food writer and I'm not a food critic and there are a lot of people who are and I think what interested me about this wasn't, "Oh this is a better sandwich and this is the best sandwich," it was the culture and the evolution of it and the business and the people that are within it. Maybe it will be something else Jewish, maybe it will be something else entirely. As of now, who knows?

JOIN ME AT THE SAVE THE DELI EVENT
Manny's Delicatessen, Chicago's most famous Jewish Deli, will be hosting a reading with David Sax this Thursday, October 29th at 6pm. Manny's is located at 1141 South Jefferson in Chicago. I will be there so please join me!

Here's the link to David's Blog: http://www.savethedeli.com/