The first thing you’re going to ask is, “How come I don’t know about this guy, Fred Katz???” Personnel on this 1958 breakthrough album include Buddy Collette on flute, Billy Bean on guitar, Don Fagerquist on trumpet, Bob Enevoldsen on trombone, Jack Constanzo and Larry Bunker on percussion, Oscar-winning composer John Williams on piano. So how come you didn’t know about this incredible history-making album until now???
The obvious answer is, Fred Katz didn’t want you to know until now. Fred Katz is, like myself, a rather outspoken visitor from another dimension. He is nominally viewed as a Jewish Mystic, and is a high-school dropout anthropology professor at Cal State Fullerton, and an accomplished artist and musician at the very crux of creation, the edge of the event-horizon of jazz — he invented the jazz cello … but there’s more to the story than that … much, much more.Fred Katz was a respected member of the world-famous Chico Hamilton jazz quintet, wrote numerous film and television scores, accompanied Harpo Marx on piano, and taught anthropology . His most famous work has been recently re-issued as a landmark in jazz history: 1958’s Folk Songs for Far Out Folk. It’s a blend of jazz and folk, a tough gig to start with. Jazz afficianados will howl at the folksy qualities, and the folk-singers will yelp at the jazziness and free-form of it all. There’s even some “wrong” notes in there! Of course, if you’re into Ferde Grofe, Igor Stravinski, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Charles Lloyd, you’ll already have the well-worn album in your collection.
Near Katz’s studio is a small a Zen garden. Katz is basically a Hassidic Buddha; within his library you will discover a number of studies of the Torah and elements of high mysticism which he continues to investigate along with the essence of Buddhist principles.
He got into folk music back in the 1940s, about the same time I did; he was a member of the communist party. I studied with Pete Seeger, Grant Rogers and Ronnie Gilbert and personally never once heard a communist speech out of any of them; but human rights was an issue that was uppermost in their hearts. Party meetings attracted people by throwing hootnannies, folk-song parties, and Fred was an enthusiastic singer and player, although his primary instruments were cello and piano.
He was barely passable as a jazz pianist, but one night he was unable to get to the piano, and got himself stranded downstage with the cello. He began to improvise on the cello and that’s how cello jazz was born.
Katz attracted a lot of attention as a member of Chico Hamilton’s band; he was offered a recording deal with Brigitte Bardot, and he declined in favor of the folk music disk, which was issued, briefly, and was, predictably, a box-office failure, but Fred didn’t give a damn for commercial success. He made the record he wanted to make.
His course at Cal State connected the Shaman’s bag of skills with stage magic, ceremonial magic, religion and comparative ethnic musical influences, at which he excelled. He still works on piano preludes inspired by Jewish mystical writings.
And if you enjoyed World War II, you probably enjoyed Little Shop of Horrors. If you saw the film, you listened to this Fred Katz soundtrack:
Apart from a very few recordings, little remains of his contributions to jazz, art and sociology, yet they were major. Let’s hope that history is kinder than contemporaries.
Here’s one more piece from the mind of Fred Katz — a very unusual exploration on the cello, at which he is an unequivocal (look it up, there is no texting equivalent) master; from then on, you’re encouraged to find more. The album was forgotten for over 50 years, but is currently available as a re-issued on CD.
gorby