Re: Mickey Katz?

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>B"H Kiryas Arba
>
>Does anyone have information - biography, discography, copyright
>information -
>on this guy? Who did he usually play with? Who did his arrangements?

I have reviews of the relatively recent (1995) re-release of 
some of his more klezmer-ish material on my pages, as well as
a review of the Don Byron tribute to Katz--just search for 
"Mickey Katz"
   http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/

BUT there is someone who has a pretty reasonable discography online:
   http://www.bayscenes.com/ind/spidra/katzdisco.html

That doesn't answer the question about arrangements or with
whom he usually played. The liner notes for "Simcha Time"
(the above-mentioned 1995 re-release, repackaging of "Music
for Weddings, Brises, and Bar Mitzvahs") notes that he worked
with relatively well-known jazz musicians such as Ziggy Elman.
The impression is that he did much/all of his own arranging, or
did so with the musicians on the record.

It's also worth noting that Katz came in a specific context--
he could do all of those parodies and spoofs because there was
an audience that knew the Yiddish, and that was sufficiently
assimilated and successful in American culture that his form
of music was both nostalgic, and brought a smile. Great borsht
belt entertainment, and in a lot of ways, marking the end of
musical assimilation into the American mainstream. My generation,
which grew up in the fifties and sixties, if we knew a language
and/or culture other than "American", learned Hebrew and Zionist
folk songs. Now, thanks to the overflow of the melting pot, we
have Yiddish and Hebrew and Judesmo and more. I'm waiting for
the Mickey Katz of our age who manages to pull it all together
and sound as funny.

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
http://www.ivritype.com/