Former Marshfield man's music has taken him around the world. He's coming back to the area

By the time he left Marshfield in 2005, Bruce Katz had already had an exemplary musical career, but moving to a small town just west of Woodstock, New York, opened a new chapter in his journey.

Katz will be back in the area this weekend, performing Friday and Saturday nights at The Fallout Shelter in Norwood, in what will be an extended recording session for a forthcoming live album. It will be the first live record the keyboardist has done in more than a decade and will include new music he’s written as well as some favorites from his lengthy career.  (The Fallout Shelter is a 100-person capacity, cabaret-style venue located at 61 Endicott St. in Norwood.  It is part of the Grass Roots Cultural and Performing Arts Center complex, and tickets are $30 for each night of the Katz recording sessions. Check grcpac.com for more information and the Fallout Shelter's complete music schedule.)

Plan your weekend: Looking for something new musically? Give some love to a local tribute band

Katz graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1977, and as his career unfolded, he would go back there as an associate professor for 15 years, up to 2010. A jazz guy initially, a stint with blues legend Big Mama Thornton expanded his musical menu.  New England fans may have first become aware of him when he held down the keyboard chair in Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, touring the world from 1986-90 performing such rowdy rockers as “Stop Twisting My Arm (I Already Love You!).”

Katz returned to school, earning a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in 1990, then joining Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters from 1992-97, appearing on six of the guitar titan’s albums.  After leaving the Earl band to pursue his solo career, Katz also toured and/or recorded with a long list of the blues, jazz and rock world’s greatest performers, including Delbert McClinton, Duke Robillard, John Hammond and Joe Louis Walker.

Move to New York opened doors

But the move to upstate New York opened even more doors.

“I moved out of Marshfield 18 years ago, and it turned out to be a cool move for me,” Katz said before his current tour began. “I had loved living in Marshfield, by the ocean, but my place up here was about 10 minutes away from Woodstock, and the first person I played with up here was (the late drummer from The Band) Levon Helm. I went to a lot of his Midnight Rambles (jam sessions) and met a lot of other musicians. That was how I met and first played with Gregg Allman, and that led to my joining his solo band for the next six years. It was also just such a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere – I travel a lot for my work, so I’m in cities all the time, and I like leaving all that behind when I’m off the road.”

Katz has focused more on his own band since Allman’s death, and has released a string of excellent albums, beginning with 2014’s “Homecoming.” In 2016 his “Out from the Center” album was cited as the Roots Music Blues Record of the Year. A trio album Katz did in 2020 with Walker, and Giles Robson, “Journey to the Heart of the Blues,” won a Blues Music Award that year. His all-instrumental “Solo Ride” album from 2019 earned a Blues Music Award nomination, and last year’s “Connections” album garnered plaudits all over the world. Most of Katz’ touring is still promoting that album, but the time was right for him to also make a concert album, in large part to enshrine the sound of his current trio.

“Connections’ was released at the end of April 2023, and we are still performing music from that album,” Katz noted. “But once I had the idea for a live album, I noticed that some people I knew, like John Nemeth and Diane Blue, had recorded live at The Fallout Shelter. I began asking around, since I hadn’t recorded anything live since 2008. Everything I heard was that the Fallout Shelter was a really cool scene, and also offered a top-notch video aspect to the recording.”

New music on planned setlist

“We’re planning to have a fun couple nights there, and I have some new tunes to break out,” Katz added. “We will also do some old favorites, and some things I have never done live on any previous record. Mainly I want to produce an album that gives people the experience of a live Bruce Katz Band show. And since I have a fairly new band, which has only been together a few years, it is a cool time to record them and let more people realize what we sound like in concert.”

Katz’ current trio includes guitarist Aaron Lieberman, and drummer Liviu Pop.  Music fans in the region will remember Lieberman from the alt-rock/jam band God Street Wine, and Hartford’s Pop has become one of New England’s most in-demand musicians since emigrating from Romania 35 years ago.

“I think God Street Wine was one of the first of what we call jambands in the 1990s, and I always loved their guitarwork,” said Katz. “They still have a lot of rabid fans on the East Coast, and they reunite about once a year for a few gigs. Liviu is someone I knew from his playing drums with Lucky Peterson, among others, and he’s really the favorite drummer everyone in blues likes to call. He has a terrific improvisational talent and adds a real spark to anything he plays on. These two guys interpret my music very well and understand that sort of cool blues and jazz style I like to play.”

Still open to playing in other bands

The way his career has evolved lately, Katz’ trio is now his main focus, although he might still be found guesting on numerous other artists’ records.

“Most of my time now is spent writing or touring with this band,” Katz explained. “In certain years, with Gregg’s band that was my main focus, and then I spent a couple years where Delbert’s band was taking up most of my time. Now, I’ll occasionally play with (guitarist) Arlen Roth and his group, but mostly this is it. I’ve played recently on a Lee Roy Parnell record and did a handful of gigs with him. But mostly the trio is where I’m putting most of my time and energy.”

Over the course of his long and illustrious career, Katz has seen the music scene shift, and the pandemic unfortunately left some venues in the dust, but he’s still able to play all over the world.

“After having to stay in the house for a year and a half, we were all anxious to get out and play,” Katz said of the lockdowns. “Some places, sadly, didn’t make it through that time, but now things look like you can stay reasonably busy. It is not like it was 40 years ago, when many clubs had six nights of music. A lot have cut back to three nights, so filling your Monday-Tuesday-Wednesdays on a tour is really hard. It is all the more reason to appreciate a venue like The Fallout Shelter.”

Live album will have a guest

Although many of Katz’ previous 13 albums have featured guests, this live one will focus more on his working trio, with one exception, his Boston-area friend Jesse Williams on bass Friday night.

"When I do B-3 organ, I usually do the bass lines on that,” Katz pointed out. “But Friday, our first night, I’ll be doing more piano, so I’ll bring in Jesse to play bass for that. I’ve known Jesse for years, and 20 years ago we were in Duke Robillard’s band together.”

As the music world becomes more fractured and more artists release their music a tune at a time, or via three- or four-song EPs, Katz remains a fan of the classic album format.

“I guess I’ll just be happy continuing to be a dinosaur,” he laughed. “I feel an album has a certain arc to it. I could do a single or an EP, but what is an EP except just a short album? I know we still sell CDs at our gigs, and this whole idea of a live album is the best way for me to bring that experience of a concert to our fans.”

Launching his own record label

Katz also has just launched his own Dancing Rooster label.

“The previous label I was on, the owner, Ben Elliott, died, and so I got the rights to my four previous albums,” Katz said. “Dancing Rooster is my own label, and I sort of inherited my old label’s distributor. I know more and more people stream music on Spotify or whatever, and mine will be available there too. But I think albums have a story to tell, and they will still be around.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Bruce Katz recording a new live album this weekend in Norwood