Results for "Fred Katz"

Fred Katz

Fred Katz (born February 25, 1919) is an American composer, songwriter, conductor, cellist, and professor. Katz was classically trained at the cello and piano and began his career in a number of classical and swing orchestras. In the early 1950s, Katz accompanied singers such as Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and Frankie Laine. From 1955 through 1958, he was a member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. He also recorded several solo albums for Pacific Jazz, Warner Bros., and Decca Records. At Decca, he also served as A&R director. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Katz scored a number of films for Roger Corman, including A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors

2020 and Me

By SKIP HELLER

As I type this, it is December 8, 2020, the fortieth anniversary of John Lennon's murder. I was then a newly-minted barband guitarist, fifteen years old and thinking how the world —via the election of Ronald Reagan —and music had just suffered the worst season that could ever be. 2020 has been an ongoing ...

Drummers as Bandleaders: An Alternative Top Ten Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Drummers have been key members of every band which has changed the course of jazz history, from Max Roach with Charlie Parker to Elvin Jones with John Coltrane and onwards. Yet drummers have been the leaders of a surprisingly small proportion of landmark bands themselves. Chick Webb in the 1920s was the first of the few. ...

Rez Abbasi: A Throw Of Dice

By DAN MCCLENAGHAN

Rez Abbasi has written a score for a 1929 movie—not an everyday jazz endeavor, but that is what the guitarist/composer does with his thirteenth recording. This after-the-fact soundtrack composing, though rare, is not unprecedented. In 2015 guitarist Aram Bajakian wrote and self produced a recording--an unofficial soundtrack--to the 1969 Soviet film The Color Of Pomegranates, an ...

Poetry and Jazz: A Chronology

By DUNCAN HEINING

My intention here is to offer a detailed but inevitably incomplete chronology of poetry and jazz. The focus is solely on the combination of the two art forms in performance, not on poetry about jazz or jazz musicians or poetry inspired by jazz but not performed to music. My definition of 'poetry' is fairly broad and ...

Ballake Sissoko / Vincent Segal: Chamber Music

By CHRIS MAY

Until quite recently, the kora was a curiosity which generally required the bracketed explanation (a 16 or 21 string West African harp) when referred to in print. Today, with “world music" part of the cultural mainstream, the instrument is almost commonplace. More so, in jazz anyway, than the cello (a four string viol pitched above a ...

John Williams' Jazz

By DAN BILAWSKY

The idea for this edition of Old, New, Borrowed and Blue isn't new. The seeds were actually sown with an experience I had a few years back. About four years ago, I was writing for a different jazz publication and I received a package of recordings in the mail. This parcel contained the usual mixture of ...

Gato Barbieri: In Search of the Mystery

By LYN HORTON

Argentinean reed man Gato Barbieri began his career in the 1960s, looking to establish a voice that separated him from his native musical language. Having recorded twice in bands led by his mentor, trumpeter Don Cherry, in Paris and with Italian pianist Giorgio Gaslini's large ensemble in Milan prior to this recording, Barbieri decided to go ...

Chico Hamilton: Now and Then

By JOEL ROBERTS

Chico Hamilton Twelve Tones of Love Joyous Shout 2009 The Original Chico Hamilton Quintet Complete Studio Recordings Fresh Sound 2009 It would be a huge understatement simply to say that ...