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Thursday, May 9, 2013

And When I Die - Steve Katz

Steve Katz (born May 9, 1945) is a guitarist and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands The Blues Project and American Flyer. As a producer, his credits include the 1979 album Short Stories Tall Tales for the Irish band Horslips, and the Lou Reed albums Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Sally Can't Dance and the Elliott Murphy album Night Lights. He is married to Alison Palmer, a ceramic artist. Steve Katz's professional career started in the late fifties on a local Schenectady, New York television program called Teenage Barn. Accompanied by piano, he would sing such hits of the day as "Tammy" and "April Love". At 15, Katz studied guitar with Dave Van Ronk and Reverend Gary Davis. It was at this time that he met and befriended guitarist Stefan Grossman. They would sometimes act as road managers for Reverend Davis and, in so doing, met many of the great “rediscovered” blues men of an earlier era, such as Son House, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt. As a part of the Greenwich Village culture during this time, Katz, along with Grossman, Maria Muldaur, John Sebastian and David Grisman became interested in jug band music — the music of Cannon’s Jug Stompers and The Memphis Jug Band. They and other friends formed the Even Dozen Jug Band and recorded an album in 1964 for Elektra Records. Katz played washboard in the band. After a brief sabbatical in college, Katz, while teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, auditioned for the Danny Kalb Quartet as a two-week substitute for Artie Traum. Traum did not return to the group and when Al Kooper joined, the Blues Project was formed. They worked out of New York, and it was the mid-sixties, so the Blues Project experimented, dabbled in their own style and gave Katz an opportunity to showcase his own songs. The Blues Project recorded three albums while together in their first incarnation. "Steve’s Song", on the Projections album was the first original song that Katz had recorded. After two years as house band at the Cafe Au Go Go and Murray the K’s last “submarine race-watching” spectacular at the RKO 58th Street theater in New York, The Blues Project broke up, playing the Monterey Pop Festival as their last major engagement.  
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