Re: Mickey Katz?

[bill parker <renew...>]

  Mel,  I dont normally send you this stuff,  but I thought this was
vaguely interesting.  A sign of the times?




>>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/


Dr Bill Parker
Editor, SOLAR PROGRESS
The ANZSES Quarterly Journal
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