Fred Katz was one of the first cello players to play jazz, something very advanced for their time, in the mid 1950s. He was born as Frederick Katz on February 25th, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. His family was very related to music, so he soon started studying cello and piano. After playing in the Army and backing some lead singers, he was part of the original Chico Hamilton Group in 1955. After that, he released some album credited to his name, but slowed his musical output as he also had other commitments. He became an anthropology teacher and a music teacher. He composed several soundtracks.
Fred Katz passed away on September 7th, 2013 in Santa Monica, California. It's a pity that we´ve lost 3 of the members of the original Chico Hamilton Quintet in a few weeks (Fred Katz, Jim Hall and also Chico Hamilton). But we still have their music.
CHICO HAMILTON GROUP
This was the original Chico Hamilton Quintet, formed in 1955:
This was the second Chico Hamilton Quintet still in 1955, now with Carson Smith on bass:
This was the Chico Hamilton Quintet around July 1989, featuring most of their original members:
   BANDS AND SELECTED RECORDINGS:
   SOME SESSIONS:
CHICO HAMILTON GROUP #1 |
1955 |
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Chico Hamilton † drums | Jim Hall † guitar | Jim Aton bass | Buddy Collette † flute | Fred Katz † cello |
This was the second Chico Hamilton Quintet still in 1955, now with Carson Smith on bass:
CHICO HAMILTON GROUP #2 |
1955 |
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Chico Hamilton † drums | Jim Hall † guitar | Carson Smith bass | Buddy Collette † flute | Fred Katz † cello |
This was the Chico Hamilton Quintet around July 1989, featuring most of their original members:
CHICO HAMILTON GROUP #? |
1989 |
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Chico Hamilton † drums | John Pisano guitar | Carson Smith bass | Buddy Collette † flute | Fred Katz † cello |
   BANDS AND SELECTED RECORDINGS:
BAND / ARTIST | . | RECORDINGS | ||||||||
Vic Damone Group |   |  
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Chico Hamilton Group |   | 14 RECORDINGS:
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Lena Horne Group |   |  
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Fred Katz Group |   | 4 RECORDINGS:
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Frankie Laine Band |   |  
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Ken Nordine Group |   | 2 RECORDINGS:
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   SOME SESSIONS:
BAND / ARTIST | . | RECORDINGS | ||||||||
Dorothy Ashby Group |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Bob Dylan Band |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Noel Harrison Band |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Pat Healy Group |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Deno Kannes |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Harpo Marx Band |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Carmen McRae Group |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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Sidney Poitier Band |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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VVAA |   | 1 RECORDINGS:
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RELATED WEBSITE LINKS: 1
Official site(s) - tell them you saw the link here:
RELATED MUSICIANS:
Fred Katz mostly worked with these musicians: (name + number of credits)
Chico Hamilton (16)
Paul Horn (12)
John Pisano (12)
Carson Smith (11)
Buddy Collette (9)
Jim Hall (6)
Bob Enevoldsen (4)
Harry Klee (4)
Pete Candoli (3)
Don Fagerquist (3)
Page created by Miguel Terol on: 17/December/2013 - Last modified on: 17/December/2013. If you want to contribute with info, please write to: molympus1@gmail.com
Please, note than you can check the indexes (musicians, bands, obituaries) at the top of this page.