Artie Traum

Singer/songwriter and acoustic folk-jazz guitarist Artie Traum settled in Woodstock, New York, as his home base. Bronx-born, he entered the folk scene alongside brother Happy during the early 1960s around New York, studying guitar under jazz players. The siblings launched the folk-rock outfit the Children of Paradise in the mid-1960s; once Happy exited, the remaining lineup adopted the name Bear and cut an album for Verve Forecast. Traum relocated to Woodstock in 1967, where he took on roles as a record producer and film-score composer while issuing collaborative albums with his brother and with the Woodstock Mountain Revue. Following the 1986 solo acoustic guitar release Cayenne, he shifted toward jazz-inflected sounds and enlisted electric jazz and fusion players such as guitarist David Torn and bassist Tony Levin for the 1993 new age-tinged Letters from Joubée. The View from Here (1996) and Meetings with Remarkable Friends (1999) sustained his broad folk-jazz style through an array of prominent guests including Steve Swallow, David Sancious, John Sebastian, Adrian Belew, Béla Fleck, David Grisman, and members of the Band. The Last Romantic (2001) trimmed the supporting cast, whereas South of Lafayette (2002) steered Traum back toward singer/songwriter territory without abandoning his acoustic jazz inclinations. Thief of Time, issued in 2007, again presented him in acoustic singer/songwriter guise. Artie Traum succumbed to liver cancer in July 2008 at age 65.