Folk Songs for Far Out Folk

Much like Gershon Kingsley, Fred Katz has had one of the more extraordinary, if offbeat, careers in contemporary music. A vet of Army bands and Hollywood orchestras, plus sessions with Lena Horne and Carmen McRae, Katz made his biggest mark by bringing the cello to the forefront of the jazz repertoire. He did this best as a member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet, the ever-experimental ensemble that dropped Zen, a Pacific jazz gem of Katz compositions. Of course, he also did all the arranging for Harpo Marx's Harpo in Hi-Fi LP, Ken Nordine's classic Word Jazz project, the original score to Little Shop of Horrors, and the ever-popular Sidney Poitier Reads Plato record. He did an A&R stint at Decca before settling into a longtime academic gig as a must-take music professor. The most admired (if under-discussed) Katz album is probably this one, which is dedicated to the idea that all jazz is born from "the roots of people." The roots explored here are folk songs--American, Hebrew, and African. "Baal Shem Tov" and "Rav's Nigun" feature guest appearances by Paul Horn on sax and legendary LA jazzman Buddy Collette on flute. The tracks, from 1959, sound prophetic--an avant tackle of jazz and Jewish tradition.