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Jewish jazz musicians


Dmitry

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A friend asked me to help with a lecture/presentation on the Jewish jazz musicians at his temple.

My short list looks something like this -

Benny Goodman

Artie Shaw

Zoot Sims

Stan Getz

Paul Desmond

Buddy Rich [?]

Terry Gibbs

John Zorn [oy vey] :rolleyes:

Feel free to throw other names in. The more the merrier.

Also, which Jewish melodies/folk songs that received the jazz treatment would you play for a large group of 70 y.o.+ people while they're gumming lox with cream cheese on byalys?

["Jewish Melodies In Jazz Time" is the obvious choice]

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A friend asked me to help with a lecture/presentation on the Jewish jazz musicians at his temple.

My short list looks something like this -

Benny Goodman

Artie Shaw

Zoot Sims

Stan Getz

Paul Desmond

Buddy Rich [?]

Terry Gibbs

John Zorn [oy vey] :rolleyes:

Feel free to throw other names in. The more the merrier.

Also, which Jewish melodies/folk songs that received the jazz treatment would you play for a large group of 70 y.o.+ people while they're gumming lox with cream cheese on byalys?

["Jewish Melodies In Jazz Time" is the obvious choice]

Buddy Rich was jewish, yes.

Dave Samuels too.

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also:

Paul Whiteman

Harry James

Ziggy Elman

Mel Torme

Herbie Mann

Herb Alpert

and don't forget great composers who provided a starting point for jazz improvisation:

Irv­ing Berlin

Jerome Kern

George and Ira Gershwin

Oscar Hammerstein

Richard Rogers

Lorenz Hart

Alan Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg

Edited by jazzshrink
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Not Zoot!

Steve Lacy

Tiny Kahn

Warne Marsh (on one side -- the same for Desmond)

Mel Lewis

Art Hodes

Sonny Berman

Teddy Charles

Shelly Manne

Mel Torme

Ziggy Elman

Victor Feldman

George Handy

Dick Hyman

Chuck Israels

David Izenson

Chubby Jackson

Max Kaminsky

Dick Katz

Lou Levy

Abe Most

Sam Most

Andre Previn

Red Rodney

Frank Socolow

Cy Touff

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Besides Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff, many independent jazz (or other type of music) record producers were of Jewish descent:

Bob Weinstock

Don Schlitten

Lester Koenig

Herman Lubinsky

Max & Sol Weiss

Moses Ash

Milt Gabler ?

Herb Abramson

Their importance for the jazz scene can hardly be underestimated.

Edited by mikeweil
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Besides Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff, many independent jazz (or other type of music) record producers were of Jewish descent:

Bob Weinstock

Don Schlitten

Lester Koenig

Herman Lubinsky

Max & Sol Weiss

Moses Ash

Milt Gabler ?

Herb Abramson

Their importance for the jazz scene can hardly be underestimated.

Add to that list:

Orrin Keepnews

Leonard Feather

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Good one, Larry!

I was at the third and last Miles Davis conference in St. Louis in May 1997. Keepnews was on the panel (also Dan Morgenstern, A.B. Spellman, Jackie Mac, Billy Higgins, Randy Weston, Richard Davis and Sonny Fortune). At some point, Orrin said he was Jewish. This took A.B. Spellman by surprise, and he said that it had never occurred to him that Keepnews was a Jewish name.

Bertrand.

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Neither Dave Brubeck nor Paul Desmond was Jewish, although Paul Desmond apparently thought he was. Desmond's real name was Paul Breitenfeld but I guess that was simply a German name. I can't recall where I read it (it may have been in Ted Gioia's book on west coast jazz) but it's been established that Desmond was not Jewish.

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