CHARLEY RAPPAPORT - 2003 - BDAA CO-FOUNDER      When Charley Rappaport sat down with Steve Wolownik to put together the first BDAA membership list, Charley had no trouble coming up with names.  Not only did he add names of musicians he'd played with over the years, but legendary names from the heyday of the balalaika in America … the 1930s.  Ever since memories of his grandfather inspired his love of the balalaika, Charley Rappaport has sought out those who have played and loved the music.      Whether their paths crossed musically, or Charley happened to be in town with a phone number in his pocket, Charley sat down with the "old-timers" and listened to their stories.  The Hollywood of Grisha Titov with a a balalaika-crazed Charlie Chaplin; Sasha Polinoff's tales of New York cabarets; Sidney Bukoff's memories of his family's orchestra:  all were recorded by Charley.  At his home, Charley still has reams of unedited interview tapes, many of which were painstakingly reworked into articles for the early BDAA newsletters.  More than anyone, Charley has been the one who's preserved the history of the balalaika in America with his oral histories of the first players and the friendships he's developed with them.      Charley's balalaika wanderlust also took him abroad, to Europe and Russia where he met with the top balalaika and domra players, always reporting his adventures in his BDAA Newsletter column, "Picks, Strings and Things."  Those whom Charley interviewed were ready to share their memories and knowledge with someone they to respected:  as early as the 1960's, Charley Rappaport earned a reputation as a master of the domra (before that the mandolin), with a truly expressive, individual style.      Charley Rappaport grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he first heard Martin Kalisky play the mandolin.  "I'm really self-taught," says Charley, 'although I did read the books on mandolin technique and music theory.  Bit it was Martin Kalisky who influenced me the most."  It was in New York that Charley first came into contact with the Russian cabaret scene.  He was playing alto domra with Alexander Kutin's Balalaika Symphonic Orchestra in the 1960's, and frequently went to the Two Guitars restaurant to relax with orchestra members after concerts.  As he listened to Sasha Polinoff, Kostya Poliansky, and Mike Geryak create a Russian evening, Charley says, "I know what I really wanted to do."  Charley formed his own Tzigane Folk Orchestra, and took them to Gerde's Folk City to audition at Monday open mike night.  The act was so popular that Gerde's wanted to sign up the five young musicians to play every night for tow weeks.  But because some members of the group were college students, they couldn't commit to playing every night.      But Charley was fired up and ready to play.  Realizing that Sasha Polinoff was on tour, he thought the Two Guitars might need some Russian music, and called the restaurant,  "We played our first real gig at the Two Guitars on Thanksgiving eve."  Charley was later hired to play regularly at the restaurant in a Russian floorshow, joined later by Sasha Polinoff with whom he played until the restaurant closed in 1970.      The closing of the Two Guitars opened another door, Charley moved to Silverton, Colorado with friends Marvin and Diana Paloff, and opened his own Russian restaurant.  "I'd always had a fantasy of having a Russian restaurant where I could play music and be my own boss.  We had discovered Silverton on a vacation to the Grand Canyon.  We never made it to the Grand Canyon, but fell in love with Silverton, played at the hotel there, and spent all year trying to figure out how to get back there."  So they packed up, bought an old house in Silverton, and spent six months doing a lot of hammering and sleeping on the floor.  The result was Zhivago's Restaurant.  Charley had always loved his grandmother's Russian cooking (I know what she did; I just don't know how she did it!"), and spent a lot of time studying cookbooks and observing what went on in the kitchen at the Two Guitars.  "But after three years in Silverton," he says, "I found myself mopping floors more than playing music.  I moved on, bur Marvin and Diana stayed, and Zhivago's Restaurant is still there."      The 1970's earned Charley the reputation as America's "Johnny Appleseed of the balalaika." After bringing Russian folk music to Silverton, Charley moved to Houston, co-founded the Houston Balalaika Society, and in 1977 moved to Atlanta, where he later co-founded the Atlanta Balalaika Society.      When Charley moved to Atlanta, the city was becoming a real convention boomtown.  The Peachtree Plaza Hotel had hired some musicians (Greg Harbar's Gypsies), and when Greg left, there was a ready-made void.  "I walked into the hotel manager's office on an airplane layover in Atlanta, " Charley says, "and walked out with a contract."  The resulting engagement was probably the longest running "permanent gig" of any balalaika group in the U.S.  The Great American Gypsy Band (Charley on domra, Eddy Svetlovsky on guitar and vocals, and Steve Wolownik, followed by Greg Carageorge, on contrabass) played six nights a week for thirteen years.      After the Great American Gypsy Band's engagement ended, Charley stayed on another three years at the Peachtree, playing with Guitarist, Frank Hamilton, and later with Sasha Lisnichuk.  In 1993, Charley and Sasha played a Russian fantasy show in Atlantic City called "Caviar: A Russian Delicacy."  The two, known as "Yasha and Sasha", provided an instrumental interlude to the Russian revue that consisted of a cast of twenty-two performers from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet UnIon.