Al Kooper (1995)
“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...
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...
“It isn’t every day a 54-year-old quadriplegic records a record….” There are comeback stories. And then there’s Curtis Mayfield’s comeback story. In mid-August, 1990, he was about to perform at an outdoor concert...
“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 / Blues / R&B / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published July 22, 2015 · Last modified July 23, 2015
In memoriam: Mighty Sam McClain (1943-2015) “I came from eating out of garbage cans. So if I died tomorrow, I did good.” Mighty Sam McClain wrote a song summing up his old friends’...
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...
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / Pop / R&B / Rock / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published May 28, 2015 · Last modified May 29, 2015
“A guy comes out of the gumbo, he likes to walk on concrete awhile.” October 14, 1980 Lippman House, Harvard University, Cambridge When B.B. King came to Harvard University, it was...
Blog / Blog Posts / Blues / R&B / The Katz Tapes
by Larry Katz · Published May 19, 2015 · Last modified May 28, 2015
“Lo and behold, Al Green came out with ‘I’m So Tired of Being Alone’….Those songs I was supposed to sing….I just knew that it would have been a successful thing for me.” ...
“I’ve come to accept that ‘Stand By Me’ is my secret key to survival…” In early 1987 Ben E. King – who died April 30 at 76 – was enjoying an entirely unexpected return...
“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...