I met Jay Ungar when I was 17 in Greenwich Village. I left The Big Core (The Apple having long since been eaten) at the end of 76. and I didnt see Jay again for almost 30 years. We ran into each other at Lake Champlain when I was there for the festival and Jay was performing with his lovely partner Molly Mason. We were down at the fiddle booth checking out the instruments and started playing tunes together. I can tell you that I sound like a real good fiddler with Jay and Molly backing me up! This from Frank Beachams post; Jay Ungar is 68 years old today. A folk musician and composer, Ungar was born in the Bronx, the son of immigrant Jewish parents from Eastern Europe. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s. In the late 1960s, he became a member of Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys and, later, the Putnam String County Band. Although he has often played with David Bromberg, he is probably best known for Ashokan Farewell (1982), originally composed as a lament, which was used as the theme tune to the Ken Burns documentary, The Civil War (1990). Many of his other compositions are familiar to contra dancers, notably The Wizards Walk. In 1991, Ungar married fellow musician Molly Mason, whom he had first met during the 1970s, and they continue to perform together, with their band, Swingology, and occasionally Jays daughter Ruth Ungar (her mother is Lyn Hardy) and her band,The Mammals. Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, Ruth Ungar and Michael Merenda also perform together as the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band. In 1992, Ungar and Mason provided the soundtrack to the acclaimed documentary film Brothers Keeper. This music has been released on a CD entitled Waltzing with You (1998).
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 14:50:49 +0000
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