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Their shows are always filled with their own spins on Yiddish songs, but "Paul Shapiro's Ribs & Brisket Revue" isn't used to an audience of experts like the one they encountered in Monroe last month.

During a performance at The Jewish Congregation of Concordia/Monroe Township May 21, a crowd of 300 from Monroe's active adult communities routinely picked out the Yiddish references in the band's songs before Paul Shapiro even got to explain them.

"You need to sit at kiosks outside our events to tell everyone what will happen," Shapiro told the crowd.

The New York-based group performed Jewish Jazz, Yiddish Swing, and various other kosher-style blues in a concert organized by The Monroe Township Inter-Community Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County. Shapiro played saxophone and clarinet, with Tony Lewis on the drums, Booker King on the bass, Brian Mitchell on the keyboard, and Cilla Owens as the lead singer.

All nine of Monroe's active adult communities were responsible for selling tickets and marketing the event, Audrey Napchen, the federation's director of women's philanthropy and active adult coordinator, said.

"I knew that these were old songs people would appreciate and enjoy. It's just great fun that never ends," Napchen said.

"[These events] give you a feeling of solidarity for the Jewish federation," Richie Diamond, co-chairman of the Inter-Community Council, said.

The band started off with "Di Grine Kuzine," Yiddish for "my little cousin," and Shapiro was immediately impressed that the audience knew the song.

"I go to New York and I say "Grine Kuzine," and people go 'huh?'" Shapiro said.

After "Abi Gezint" (Yiddish for "as long as your are healthy"), Shapiro's saxophone dominated "Bar-u-Mitzvah," a song without lyrics to the tune of "To Life" from "Fiddler on the Roof." Throughout the piece, Shapiro pointed the crowd to scream "hey" and "to life," creating a friendly competition between different sides of the room.

Moving on to "Mama Goes Where Papa Goes," a blues song performed in varying capacities during several different decades by Nancy Sinatra, Ida Cox, and singer/comedian Sophie Tucker, Shapiro explained that the band was able to translate Tucker's Yiddish version of the song from the 1920s because Owens knows German from her work as an opera singer.

The ensuing "Dunkin' Bagel" featured long instrumental solos weaved in with the colorful refrain "Dunkin' bagels, dunkin bagels... Splash! In the Coffee. Matzoh balls, matzoh balls o-rooty. Pickled herring, Gefilte fish. Gefilte fish o-flootey...."

In "Tzouris" (troubles in Yiddish), originally from former Yiddish radio fixtures Joe and Paul Barton, Paul transformed into "Pinchus" and lamented about his personal troubles to Owens, who always responded, "It could be worse." In the refrain, Paul sang, "Ay Tzouris, Ay Tzouris, I've got lots to spare. If Tzouris was a dollar, I'd be a millionaire."

Shapiro said that the next song, "Yes, My Darling Daughter," was made famous by Dinah Shore on the radio during the 1940s, but explained that his band learned through performances that the piece was originally a Ukrainian folk song.

"You keep digging and you find out it was written by Moses," Shapiro said.

The group ended with "Essen" (Yiddish for "to eat"), the title track on their latest album. During the chaotic song, Owens sang a long list of food rapidly in one breath, ending with Shapiro's addition of "and a gleizele tey" (a glass of tea). The piece even included a Reggae portion before going back to the frantic refrain.

"I enjoyed the smattering of the Yiddishkeit with the Klezmer and the Jazz," Dolores Diana Davidson, of Monroe, said.

"This was my soul music, I love it. This was what I grew up with," Ethel Cohen, of Monroe, added.

Philip Cantor, chair of the federation's Jewish Community Relations Council, spoke before the performance about how Monroe's active adults can continue to work together for the greater good of the local Jewish community. Cantor said he was asked to be "inspirational" in his words, but explained that the audience provided all the inspiration he needed. According to the federation's 2008 Jewish Community Study of Greater Middlesex County, Monroe Township is the most populous area of Jewish settlement in Middlesex County with about 40 percent of the region's Jewish households.

"This whole room should be reversed," Cantor said. "I should be sitting down, listening to all of you telling stories about how to be a mensch in the Jewish community."