No one recognized the manic possibilities of klezmer more than clarinetist Mickey Katz, whose 1945-1947 tenure with Spike Jones spawned a comedy band that launched such funny travesties as the Yiddish cowpoke ditty "Haim Afen Range" or the Jewish-Hawaiian "Mechaye War Chant." Katz used humor to expand the musical boundaries of klezmer, thrusting it into the laps of World War II mainstream America at a time when Yiddish was identified as a victim's language and most Jewish music looked backward in time because the post-Holocaust present was intolerable. Playing Katz's songs demands prodigious chops, hence the attraction of Katz to molecule-splitting clarinetist Don Byron, who demonstrates nerve presenting Katz the monologist as the equal of Katz the composer. In sum, convoluted, kaleidoscopic silliness topped with Byron's usual dazzling self.
Plays the Music of Mickey Katz
Don Byron
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Plays the Music of Mickey Katz Review
by Bob Tarte
Track Listing
| Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don Byron | 04:09 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 2 | Don Byron | 02:36 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 3 | Don Byron | 02:51 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 4 | Don Byron | 02:25 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 5 | Don Byron | 03:04 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 6 | Don Byron | 02:10 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 7 | Don Byron | 02:29 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 8 | Don Byron | 03:16 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 9 | Don Byron | 03:06 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 10 | Don Byron | 04:50 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 11 | Don Byron | 02:14 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 12 |
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Don Byron | 03:10 | SpotifyAmazon | ||
| 13 | Don Byron | 01:51 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 14 | Don Byron | 02:52 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 15 |
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Don Byron | 02:23 | SpotifyAmazon | ||
| 16 | Don Byron | 07:13 | SpotifyAmazon | |||
| 17 | Don Byron | 02:25 | SpotifyAmazon |
