[B. Goren.]

My dear friend Nitzan Kremer infored me that pianist Dick Katz passed away. Nitzan was informed by Helen Merill. Rest in peace Mr. katz. You have done enough and now you deserve the rest.

[Ted O'Reilly]

A fine talent... RIP, Dick.

[AllenLowe]

a truly great man - this is awful.

[JSngry]

There was always something interesting associated with his name. Hard to beat that.

RIP, & thanks.

[AllenLowe]

I am absolutely devastated by this - Dick and I were pretty close in the '80s, though only sporadically in touch the last 10 years or so - brilliant man, fine writer and critic, musically astute; he played my wedding in '82. A true gentleman of jazz, as Symphony Sid would have said, a witness to a lot of important music and musicians.

[Hot Ptah]

I have always enjoyed his playing on Benny Carter's "Further Definitions", among other albums.

[king ubu]

Sad news.

I absolutely love his albums with Helen Merrill - some of the best vocal jazz ever recorded, and I guess Katz had quite a hand in there.

And indeed he was a fine writer, I always enjoyed his liner notes (mostly on reissues where he wrote new notes).

[mikeweil]

A very sad loss of a consummate artist. R.I.P.

I will play his trio LP on Reservoir tomorrow.

[mikeweil]

king ubu, on Nov 10 2009, 10:47 PM, said:

I absolutely love his albums with Helen Merrill - some of the best vocal jazz ever recorded, and I guess Katz had quite a hand in there.

Me love 'em too - some of the first vocal jazz I ever bought!
Katz was co-founder and co-producer for Keepnews in the early days of Milestone.

This post has been edited by mikeweil: 11 November 2009 - 08:51 AM

[AllenLowe]

there's a great live LP with Roy Eldridge and Richie Kamuca -

[Peter Friedman]

Very sad news indeed. I have long enjoyed the piano playing of Dick Katz.
Three recording with Katz as leader are all very good.

Three Way Play - Reservoir (with Steve LaSpina and Ben Riley)
The Line Forms Here - Reservoir (with Benny Golson,Ryan Kisor,LaSpina,Riley)
Piano & Pen - Atlantic with Chuck Wayne or Jimmy Raney, Joe Benjamin, Connie Kay

Jazz Piano International - Atlantic (Katz plays 4 trio tracks with Ralph Pena & Connie Kay)

These last 2 have been reissued on CD on Collectables.
Piano & Pen with The John Lewis PIano
Jazz Piano International with Dave pell Octet-Love Story

[Teasing the Korean]

"Piano and Pen" is a nice album.

RIP.

[Don Brown]

I first heard Dick Katz when he was a member of Tony Scott's quartet along with Milt Hinton and Philly Joe Jones. He absolutely knocked me out on that Brunswick album and continued to do so on every other record he made, either as a leader or sideman. And damn, Katz was also a brilliant writer. I'll never forget the notes he wrote for a Thelonious Monk album.

[Stereojack]

A superb musician, and tragically underappreciated. I'll be spinning a few of his sides in the next few days.

[Van Basten II]

king ubu, on Nov 10 2009, 04:47 PM, said:

Sad news.

I absolutely love his albums with Helen Merrill - some of the best vocal jazz ever recorded, and I guess Katz had quite a hand in there.

And indeed he was a fine writer, I always enjoyed his liner notes (mostly on reissues where he wrote new notes).

+1

[B. Goren.]

http://blogs.wnyc.or...katz-1924-2009/

[brownie]

This is very sad news! A favorite underrated pianist for a very long time (going back to his days with Tony Scott!). Ironically one of his best album (on Beehive) was titled 'In High Profile'.

JazzWax had a highly readable interview with him last July!

[king ubu]

That's an interesting read, thanks for posting the link brownie!
He was on quite a few great albums and played with almost everyone it seems! Very wide range!

[sidewinder]

Always liked his recordings with JJJ and Kai Winding. Sad news - RIP.

[paul secor]

Some of my favorite Dick Katz playing is on Percy France's I Should Care (Endgame) recording.

Thanks for the music you gave us, Mr. Katz.

[AllenLowe]

I also have, from about the same time, a wonderful recording of Dick backing Dickey Wells -

[Guy]

Maybe I need to re-evaluate - my assessment was that he was a solid, competent, versatile guy you'd use in the studio if you didn't have access to a 1st-tier pianist - wouldn't knock your socks off, wouldn't mess things up.

Guy

[fasstrack]

Jimmy Raney told me years ago that Katz had a rehearsal band that he and Marshall Brown played in when I mentioned Marshall. I went to the West End in the 80s to hear a Monk tribute band that Katz led with Lee Konitz, my buddy (before I knew him) John Eckert, and Leroy Williams. I remember Katz saying at the end of the gig---and not looking very pleased---'let's play a couple of chorouses of "Nutty" and go home'. Maybe he was tired. It was a good band.

I'm sure Phil Schaap eulogized him. He was a frequent Bird Flight guest.

I didn't know Dick Katz myself, but I am sorry to see him go. Every time a good musician from his generation goes all the history of his playing life goes with him. And they are few left from those days.

This post has been edited by fasstrack: 11 November 2009 - 06:41 PM

[Van Basten II]

Guy, on Nov 11 2009, 04:45 PM, said:

Maybe I need to re-evaluate - my assessment was that he was a solid, competent, versatile guy you'd use in the studio if you didn't have access to a 1st-tier pianist - wouldn't knock your socks off, wouldn't mess things up.

Guy

He was one those subtle guys that you'd only notice when he was missing

[BruceH]

Sad news... RIP

[blind-blake]

Saw him not too long ago at a WNYC trubute to the jazz photographs of W. Eugene Smith. He played in a very interesting band with Teddy Charles, and was playing very well. So long, Mr. Katz. You'll be missed.

This post has been edited by blind-blake: 12 November 2009 - 02:10 PM

[AllenLowe]

he worked a lot at the West End in the late 1970s, with everybody from Dickey Wells to Earl Warren. One night Oliver Jackson was playing drums in the band and he said to Dick after a set:

"You know who you sound like?"
"Who?"
"Dick Katz."

Dick was very pleased.

[stevebop]

FYI:
Tom Reney will be tributing Dick tonight on his radio show,
Jazz a La Mode, on WFCR out of Amherst, Mass.
On the air from 8p-11p. Streaming at
www.wfcr.org

[JamesJazz]

Dick's comments about Oscar Pettiford in "Jazz Masters of the 40's" are really interesting. Made me feel like I knew what OP was about, at least a little bit.

[AllenLowe]

I've always thought Dick should have gotten co-authorship credit for that book; the Pettiford chapter is him, as is the Kenny Clarke, from what I recall.

other things of his to read are his articles in Jazz Panorama on Miles Davis/Walkin', and the Tatum sessions, his notes to the Teddy Wilson Smithsonian LP, and his notes to Too Marvelous for Words (Tatum) in the Smithsonian set.

Dick always complained about Martin Williams, who wasn't as musically technically savvy as Martin thought he was. But Williams did get Dick to do more writing than he would otherwise have done (I think he also notated a lot of the Smithsonian piano set).

This post has been edited by AllenLowe: 12 November 2009 - 06:03 PM