Re: Mickey Katz?

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

Ari writes:
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.

Yes, I like that: "...in a lot of ways marking the end of musical
assimilation into the American mainstream." For what it's worth, may
I take this opportunity to repeat, in a slightly revised form, some
comments I made about where Mickey Katz fits in in the history of
klezmer music? (This was back in September --- that whole thing about
"cartoon music" klezmer. Because I think Katz really was the originator
of this style. I think the "wild and wacky" style of the band The
Klezmorim -- which has, in turn, been influential on other bands of
the "klezmer revival" was largely derived -- consciously or 
unconsciously -- from Mickey Katz.

The fact is that Mickey Katz's stuff was a total spoof. I loved Mickey
Katz at the time, and still do, but basing your idea of klezmer on
Mickey Katz is exactly parallel to basing your idea of Jazz on Spike
Jones. Mickey Katz truly was the Spike Jones of Jewish music. Totally
nuts.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Mickey Katz used to do take-offs on actual popular "hit-parade" music of the
time. Thus, "The Call of the Wild Goose" became "The Geshray of the Vilde
Katchke." The music was transposed into Jewish modes, and the words were
similarly subverted, with lots of Yiddish thrown in. The music was a kind
of insane form of klezmer. It was strictly an "in" joke, of a kind absolutely
typical of Yiddish humor. Harvey Kurtzman was doing the same thing, at the
same time, with words and pictures: Mad Comics and the first several issues
of Mad Magazine. On television, in a slightly more subtle way, the great
Jewish comedy team of Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris were also
doing it (with the indispensable help of Imogene Coca and later, Nanette
Fabret). 

Mickey Katz's humor was making fun of Jewish life, but it was also making
chopped liver of the "respectable," non-Jewish life of 50s America. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Only in the days of Mickey
Katz, people got the joke. Personally, I love sendups and lampoons. But
it becomes another issue when the sendup is believed to be the real thing
and actually replaces it. 

_____________________________________________

Needless to say, they were all technically superb musicians. The only
word I disagree with in Ari's comment is the word "nostalgic." There was
at that time a lot of nostalgia in Jewish music -- Mayn Yidishe Mama,
Mayn Shtetele Belz, and on and on. But Mickey Katz was too busy making
fun of Jewish music -- and American popular music -- to be nostalgic
about anything, IMHO.

Itzik-Leyb