Two to Tango

“This will be an unusual thing,”
explained Hajdu by telephone from Miami, where he and Oberlin were
attending the Miami Book Fair, “partly a literary reading from this new
book, which we’ll cap off with about 20 minutes of music that connects
to the pieces in the book. And I have a former colleague named David Yaffe,
who teaches in the Syracuse University English department, and he
graciously offered to write the introduction to the book; we’ll do a
bit of talking together at the event. Karen will get to sing in her
hometown and I will get to be her accompanist.”

Words and music: Singer Karen Oberlin (above) and author David Hajdu team
for a book-signing at Barnes & Noble. 

Oberlin’s roots go deep in the Salt
City, having attended Ed Smith Elementary, Levy Middle School and then
Nottingham High School. Her father, John Oberbrunner, was a flautist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and her mother Carol Oberbrunner is an assistant professor of philosophy at Geneva’s Hobart-William Smith Colleges. 

She started her musical theater career
quite early, and eventually moved to New York City where she develops
her own jazz cabaret shows. “I create these shows around a theme, an
idea, a composer, a lyricist,” she explains. “I sing songs from the
Great American Songbook, and some songs that I think should be part of
the Great American Songbook.” Her favorite love song of all time, she
notes, is “My One and Only Love,” and she will be singing it Friday at
Barnes & Noble. 

Hajdu (pronounced “Hay-Dew”) spent three
years teaching in the magazine and arts journalism programs at Syracuse
University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and now
teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He also
is the music critic for The New Republic. 

The pair look forward to returning to
Syracuse this week, and also at Christmastime, when the Oberbrunners
host an annual Dec. 26 party at their Westminster Avenue home. “This
party is a coming together of the music and arts communities in
Syracuse, and I’ve been exposed to it and to members of the university
community for years,” Hajdu says.  “I
could see it was a robust and dedicated community, and when the
opportunity came for me to teach up there, I took it. It’s Karen’s
hometown, we had a newborn; everything came together.”

Likewise, when the opportunity to promote Heroes & Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics and Culture (Da
Capo Press, New York City; 352 pages; $17.95/softcover) in Syracuse
came up, the pair jumped at it. “It’s important for me to return to
Syracuse whenever I have a flimsy reason to,” Oberlin says. “I
specifically asked to be able to promote the book there because I am
from Syracuse, David taught at Syracuse, and we have a lot of friends
and family there, who are important to us, and we care about the
community.”

Added Hajdu: “This is the one we’re most looking forward to.”

The book-signing takes place Friday at 7
p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 3454 Erie Blvd. E., DeWitt. For more
information, call 449-2948.