Soul(o) Cello - Fred Katz

The Toy That Never Was

Soul(o) Cello
Fred Katz And His Music
Cello And Orchestra - Modern Jazz Arrangements

Cover Photo by Roy Pinney
Decca DL 9202
1958

Personnel on tracks 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 ,12: Fred Katz, cello; Paul Horn, flute and clarinet; Ann Mason Stockton, harp; John Pisano, guitar; Harold Gaylor, bass; (John) Calvin Jackson, piano. Percussion is played by a prominent jazz drummer and group leader.

Tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11: Fred Katz, cello; Paul Horn, Buddy Collette, altos; Harry Klee, Bill Green, flutes; John Paisano, guitar; Harold Gaylor, bass; (John) Calvin Jackson, piano. Percussion is played by the same prominent jazz drummer and group leader.

From the back cover: The clearest indication of the mood – in the fullest connotation of that word – that Fred Katz intends to communicate in this album can be found in one of this favorite quotations. The author is classical composer Ernst Tech, who writes: "Beware of Pedantry! Neither art nor nature knows an unqualified 'It must' or "It must not."... First comes creation, then comes theory, trying to describe and to explain."

Fred Katz, then, refuses to limit himself to any musical or any other imperatives that he des not feel to be true for himself. "In my personal life." says Katz, "I am open to any and all philosophies, from Judaism to Buddhism. I am a non-conformist in the best possible meaning of that term. I have been moved to great heights of emotion by a Beethoven... by a folk singer.. by a great jazz musician... by the nonsense of a child... by the wisdom of a Schweitzer. All is life. And what life – and sometimes the negation of life – means, I like to express in my music as a composer, as a player, and even as an arranger."

This inner-directed, unusually multi-oriented musician was born in Brooklyn, February 25, 1919. He studied cello and piano at the Third Street Music Settlement under a scholarship, and his cello teacher, incidentally, had been pupil of Pablo Casals. Katz played at Town Hall at 13. He continued concert work and composing; conducted at the White House in 1941; was musical director of 7th Army Headquarters overseas; had his ballet, Lysistrara performed in New York in 1945; and the Heidelberg Symphony devoted a concert entirely to his compositions. After the war, among other activities, he was piano accompanist for Vic Damone, Mindy Carson, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Jana Mason and others. He then became a member – on cello – of the Chico Hamilton quintet. In recent years, he has also scored for films, taught and has been commissioned by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky to write a jazz work to be performed by the latter in concert. He has also contributed several original to the Chico Hamilton book. Fred recently signed with Decca as west coast supervisor of the label's jazz recordings and as an artist.

In jazz, a principal contribution of Katz has been, as Leonard Feather notes, "to put the cello to full use both in arco and pizzicato solos." Oscar Pettiford had already indicated the considerable jazz potential of plucked (pizzicato) cello, but with Oscar, the instrument has remained secondary to his primary instrument, the bass. Katz has been the first musician to utilize all of the cello in jazz as his chief instrument in that idiom.

Katz believes that the potential of the cello in jazz "depends upon the ability of cellists to wail and also on the writing done for it. I remember years ago the flute was considered a 'novelty' but the players themselves made it a definite part of jazz. The cello has much beauty in tis should, and if jazz will not accept it, this speaks very badly for the development of jazz. It seems to me quite ridiculous to object to an instrument's inclusion in jazz just because 'it hasn't been done.' Any instrument in the world that has been invented – or ever will be invented – has an inalienable right to make music in any or all forms. Music of all kinds, including jazz, in order to grow must seek now ways to expand.

As for his own position, Katz says "I would like to correct an impression about me that apparently is gaining some acceptance among jazz musicians and critics. That impression is that I am not basically a jazz musician. It might interest those who say this that before I joined the Chico Hamilton Quintet, I had played and still can play pretty funky piano. As a matter of fact, I made my living as a pianist. I had given up the cello, because I did not want to bury myself in either a symphony or worse yet, the pit of a theater. When they say my music isn't jazz, my answer is, 'what composition are they talking about?' At the moment in my development as a musician and as a person, I'm not concerned with conforming to anybody's concept of what they would like to hear. With all that is in men, I'm trying to write music in the universal sense. If sometimes a 'jazz' phrase make sense in a composition, I'll write it."

Country Garden is a 'tongue-in-cheek' arrangement by Calvin Jackson. Satori, explains Katz, "is a Buddhist term meaning a moment of truth. It was written, but the way, in one morning without the usual problems that plague a composer – why? The 'moment of truth,' incidentally, in Satori is played by the cello and clarinet near the end of the composition. The musical phrase that made sense to me that morning was a 'funky thing.'; Next time it may be silence – why?"

Andante is by Luther Henderson. "the release is all improvisation, also the end cadenza. A lovely work, very grateful to the cello." Circus was arranged by John Pisano, Chico Hamilotn's guitarist, and it's a particularly well-integrated, playful, lyrical experience. Wayfaring Stranger, a familiar folk song, has been arranged by Fred Katz. The tune has rarely, it seems to me, sounded as poignant as in this version by Katz' deeply singing cello. Time After Time was arranged by Bassist Hal Gaylor; and again, the emotional strength that the very texture of the cello conveys, deepens the impact of the song.

The Vidiot is a Fred Katz original as arranged by Calvin Jackson. The Lament Of The Oracles is described by Katz as concerning "an organization – The Oracles – of disgruntle acts and intellectuals' who didn't think anything was good except their version of 'anything'." The Toy That Never Was "is a story of a child who doesn't believe in Santa Claus because he never gets presents at Christmas. The fast middle part represents a nightmare where-in all the imaginary toys come to life – not pleasantly, but ironically. Sad but true, not only of children." It is preceded by Sonny Burke's flowing arrangement of I'm Glad There Is You.

Intermezzo is a melody that many inveterate admires of Ingrid Bergeman, this reporter among them, recall from her picture with "'Leslie Howard years ago. "I've always loved the melody," say Fred, "and I played it here more or less straight, because I felt it that way in the studio that moment." The arrangement is by Hal Gaylor, Chico Hamilton's bassist. Come With Me, originally titled Le Petit Swing, was composed and arranged by Bill Marx. "It's 'jazz,' says Fred, "Louis the XIV would have liked if he had liked jazz."

In an impressive analysis of a Fred Katz collection in Down Beat, Don Gold wrote: "It is simple... to quickly categorize and either accept or dismiss Katz' ability... What is important to me, and what should be important to all musicians, is that Katz has something to say and a background that enables him to say it intelligently." The point, as Gold underlined, is that Katz' music should not be listened to with a compulsion to first fit intent a neat category. It should be listened to initially on its own terms. "First comes creation," said Toch, "then comes theory, trying to describe and explain."  The labels, in short, came after the work not before. – Nat Hentoff, co-editor The Jazz Makers (Rinehart)

Country Gardens
Satori
Andante
Circus
Wayfaring Stranger
Time After Time
The Vidiot
Lament Of The Oracles
I'm Glad There Is You
The Toy The Never Was
Intermezzo
Come With Me