Jay Geils (2005)
Jay Geils made his mark playing blues and his fortune playing rock and roll. But his first love was jazz. Jay—who died on April 11, 2017 at age 71—made that clear when I...
Jazz
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / Jazz / Pop / Rock / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published April 28, 2017 · Last modified March 14, 2019
Jay Geils made his mark playing blues and his fortune playing rock and roll. But his first love was jazz. Jay—who died on April 11, 2017 at age 71—made that clear when I...
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / Folk / Jazz / Pop / Rock / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published November 20, 2015
“I was pretty much robbed all my life….” The big bucks versions of “The Cutting Edge 1965-1966,” the latest entry in the Bob Dylan bootleg series (note: not actual bootlegs), includes a 20-track disc...
“One of my first public appearances was at a talent contest. I sang and played Fats Waller’s ‘fododo-de-yacka-saki want some seafood mama.’ I could just see the teacher saying, “This boy is going straight...
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / Jazz / Pop / R&B / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published August 5, 2015 · Last modified June 30, 2017
“I don’t think I’m difficult. Not at all.” The prospect of interviewing Nina Simone was thrilling. And slightly terrifying.
Blog / Blog Posts / Jazz / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published July 7, 2015 · Last modified July 10, 2015
“I’m interested in bringing instant enlightenment.” I met Ornette Coleman for dinner on a late fall evening in a fashionable restaurant in downtown Boston. He was in town...
“No one has to push me to be complex.” If there has been a musical menage à trois more sublime and more successful than that of composer Burt Bacharach, lyricist Hal...
Blog / Blues / Jazz / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published February 23, 2015 · Last modified May 15, 2015
“See, I’ve always had this identity crisis, whether or not I was a jazz or blues musician.” For decades Boston blues fans could sleep...
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / Country / Folk / Jazz / Pop / Rock / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published February 8, 2015
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it...
Blog / Jazz / More / Pop / R&B
by Larry Katz · Published December 22, 2014 · Last modified December 27, 2014
“Liberating the slaves is not popular.” It’s a mystery: What killed Oscar Brown Jr.’s career? Rule out drugs, booze, out of control ego or any...
Blog / Jazz / R&B / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published May 13, 2014 · Last modified May 28, 2014
“What I consider ‘me’ is a funky blues player.” From Dupree’s home in Ft. Worth, by phone August, 1995 Hang on and get ready for a super-funky-blues/soul ride thanks to some truly amazing video....