Jon Kalish

Fred Katz wrote for film in Hollywood, accompanied Harpo Marx on piano and taught college anthropology, all as a high-school dropout. But that was after he played with the Chico Hamilton quintet — and brought the cello into modern jazz.

Lionel Ziprin is running out of time to make good on his promise to share his grandfather's traditional Jewish music with the world. Rabbi Nuftali Zvi Margolies Abulafia was recored by famed ethnomusicologist Harry Smith in the 1950s.