Max Leibowitz () (born c.1884 in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, died 1942,

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) was an American

klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...

violinist, composer and bandleader in

primarily in the 1910s and 1920s.

Biography

Early life

Leibowitz was born in

in June 1883 or 1884. Little is known about his family background, whether he was from a klezmer family, or what his musical training was. In September 1905 he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

along with his wife Sarah. He had 3 children: Isadore (born c.1908), Molly (c.1911) and Albert (born 1920).

Music career

It isn't clear what Leibowitz did for the first decade he was in the United States, although in the

1910 census The 1910 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau on April 15, 1910, determined the resident population of the United States to be 92,228,496, an increase of 21 percent over the 76,212,168 persons enumerated during the 1900 census. ...

he did list his occupation as musician. It was in June 1916, possibly because

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

made local musicians more valuable to record companies, that he was first recruited to record a test pressing for the

Victor Recording Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

. He then followed it with a disc released on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

of himself playing violin accompanied by

cimbalom The cimbalom, cimbal (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by József Schunda, V. ...

, a highly traditional pairing in Eastern Europe, but one which was only rarely recorded in American Jewish music. Those recordings were made with the cimbalom player "Silver", who may be Jacob Silber (1882-1952), who otherwise played percussion in Leibowitz's and other klezmer orchestras, as well as the

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

in later years. He was a contemporary of other Romanian-born klezmer bandleaders and recording artists in the

area that included

Abe Schwartz Abe Schwartz (Yiddish: אבּ שװארץ or אייב שווארץ) (1881 near Bucharest, Romania – 1963 in Bronx, New York City) was an American klezmer violinist, composer, Yiddish theater and ethnic recordings bandleader from the 1910s to t ...

Joseph Moskowitz Joseph Moskowitz (, 1879 – June 1954) was an American cimbalom player, composer, restaurant owner and recording artist in New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. A descendant of a family of klezmer musicians, he was amo ...

, Abe Katzman, and Milu Lemisch (in Philadelphia). He is listed as composer of some Yiddish songs recorded in the early twentieth century, such as ''Der yold is mich mekone'' ("The fool envies me.") and ''Es iz shoin farfallen''. Irene Heskes, compiler of Yiddish popular music listings, lists Leibowitz as part of a large cohort of "Jewish bandsmen" such as

Naftule Brandwein Naftule Brandwein, or Naftuli Brandwine, (, 1884–1963) was an Austrian-born Jewish American Klezmer musician, clarinetist, bandleader and recording artist active from the 1910s to the 1940s. Along with Dave Tarras, he is considered to be am ...

Dave Tarras Dave Tarras (c. 1895 – February 13, 1989) was a Russian Empire, Ukrainian-born American klezmer clarinetist and bandleader, who was instrumental in the Klezmer revival. Biography Early life Tarras was born David Tarasiuk in Teplyk, Ukraine and ...

Harry Kandel Harry Kandel (c. 1885–1943) was an American clarinetist and klezmer bandleader of the early twentieth century. His recording career with the Victor Recording Company lasted from 1916 to 1927, during which he released dozens of Jewish music r ...

and others who "fashioned unique qualities for the Jewish dance tunes in America" during that era. There was often tough competition between these bandleaders; in 1923 Leibowitz sued Naftule Brandwein for allegedly plagiarizing a klezmer tune he had already copyrighted. The case ended up being dismissed because Leibowitz had still been a Romanian citizen when he had copyrighted the work, which gave him less protection than an American citizen would have had. After that lawsuit, the two men must have reconciled, because they continued to work together. In 1926 Leibowitz and his son Isidore opened a short-lived Romanian restaurant in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

, and soon recruited Brandwein as a regular guest. Leibowitz died in the

in 1942 at age 57. He was buried in the

Baron Hirsch Cemetery Baron Hirsch Cemetery is a large Jewish cemetery in the neighborhood of Graniteville, on Staten Island, in New York City, and named for Baron Maurice de Hirsch. History Baron Hirsch was established in 1899. In January 1960, the cemetery drew ...

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

Selected recordings

* Yiddischer tanz/Yiddisch chusidel (1916) * Tanzt, Tanzt, Yiddelach/Beim Rebeh's Sideh (1917) * Orientalishe Melodien (1919) * Der Galitzianer Chosid/Yiddisher Bulgar (1920) * Russian Sher Quadril/Mazel Tov (1920)

External links

Handwritten scores
of klezmer music by Max Leibowitz in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Yiddish American Popular Sheet Music collection

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leibowitz, Max Klezmer musicians American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian emigrants to the United States Musicians from Iași American violinists Composers from New York City American bandleaders Burials at Baron Hirsch Cemetery People from Iași 1884 births 1942 deaths