Biography
Max Kaminsky earned a reputation as a dependable Dixieland stylist whose presence enriched numerous Eddie Condon sessions throughout the 1940s and 1950s. His career began in Boston before he gained experience as a 1920s Chicago musician alongside Bud Freeman, Frank Teschemacher, and Condon himself. After relocating to New York in 1929, he spent a brief period with Red Nichols before settling into commercial-orchestra work, though he still managed to record with Condon, Benny Carter in 1933, and Mezz Mezzrow from 1933 to 1934. Recognition arrived through his tenure with Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra in 1936, which featured radio broadcasts by an early edition of the Clambake Seven. Short engagements with Artie Shaw followed in 1938 and again with the 1942 Shaw ensemble, interrupted by a return to Dorsey and a more congenial stretch in Bud Freeman’s free-spirited Summa Cum Laude Orchestra from 1939 to 1940. After time with Tony Pastor between 1940 and 1941, Kaminsky entered military service, performing with Shaw’s Navy Band across the Pacific. He emerged as a standout at Condon’s celebrated Town Hall concerts of 1944–1945 and launched his own recording career on Commodore the same year. Thereafter he moved between Condon-led groups and his own ensembles, authored the memoir Jazz Band: My Life in Jazz, maintained an openness to newer idioms—including a jam with Charlie Parker—without modifying his direct approach, and accompanied Jack Teagarden on a 1959 tour of the Far East. For decades he remained a regular at Jimmy Ryan’s, and at the close of a ten-year semi-retirement he stood among the final surviving members of the Condon circle. As a leader he recorded for Commodore, MGM, Victor in 1954, Jazztone, Winchester, United Artists, Chiaroscuro in 1977, and Fat Cat Jazz.
Albums
