thumb|Joseph Moskowitz playing the cimbalom (c.1920s)

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 among the most well-known American cimbalom players of his time, and had a wide repertoire which included not only Jewish music but also Romanian, classical, and ragtime music. He is thought to have composed over 100 cimbalom pieces which drew upon various musical influences. His restaurant Moskowitz & Lupowitz, on Second Avenue also became a popular destination and celebrity hangout in the 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Early life

Moskowitz was born in Galați, Romania, in July 1879. His father Moses Moskowitz (nicknamed Moshe Tsimbler) was a klezmer musician and cimbalom player who was Joseph's first teacher. Joseph learned the cimbalom as well as the violin from his father.

As a youth, Joseph toured Hungary, Romania, Galicia, and Istanbul, and played on river boats on the Danube. He apparently toured and performed with Broder singer troupes as well. That tour apparently did a lot to develop what would become his style and repertoire, which came to include not only Jewish and Romanian music but also international cosmopolitan repertoire and contemporary American music. He became a Naturalized citizen of the United States in March 1915. His recordings from that era were all made with piano accompaniment, usually by Max Yussim, who he occasionally performed in concert with as well.

He soon relocated to Houston Street and opened Little Rumania. The restaurant became quite popular, especially among Romanian Jews and young writers, and was soon expanded into the adjoining cellar to make room for the growing clientele. He said that earlier in the evening, Moskowitz circulated among the guests while a singer and pianist performed Yiddish and American numbers. Then, when the place was full, Moskowitz got on stage and performed various European folk numbers (Romanian, Hungarian, Russian, French) as well as some light classical music by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. It was only much later in the night that he would play dance tunes which were danced by a group of Jewish men.

In the 1920s Moskowitz regularly performed on the radio in the New York area, on stations such as WGBS, WEAF, and the WJZ network. These were often solo performances, but also often included accompaniment by his longtime pianist Max Yussim. The music he played on the radio often consisted of classical works or his own arrangements of Russian, Romanian and Jewish folk music. He also came to the attention of Samuel Roxy Rothafel and became an occasional featured artist of his popular "Roxy and the Gang" series. Moskowitz appeared on stage regularly in this era as well, including at Carnegie Hall and New York's Town Hall. Joseph remarried in March 1924 to his second wife Rose.

Although he recorded occasionally in the early 1920s, his next major phase of recording seems to have been in 1927-8, when he recorded a few more solo records and around 10 klezmer and Romanian pieces with Alexander Olshanetsky's orchestra on Brunswick Records, featuring Shloimke Beckerman on clarinet. He is thought to have made an uncredited appearance playing his cimbalom in two restaurant scenes in Joseph Seiden's 1939 Yiddish language talkie (The Living Orphan). Moskowitz finally left New York in around 1940. He had a dispute with Lupowitz and decide to sell his share in the restaurant. Louis Anzelowitz, who had been a butcher in the restaurant, bought Joseph's shares and eventually became the sole owner, operating it until 1966.

thumb|Joseph Moskowitz and musicians in Washington, D.C., circa 1950

After leaving New York, Moskowitz lived in Akron, Ohio starting in around 1940, playing concerts at the Jewish Center there and in the Romany Restaurant. He also continued to compose new music while in Akron, sometimes under the name Joseph Moss. By 1943, he left Akron and relocated to Washington, D.C. (Selections from that album, along with many of his earlier recordings, were reissued by Rounder Records in 1996 on the cd The Art Of The Cymbalom: The Music Of Joseph Moskowitz 1916–1953)

He died of heart problems at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 1954; he was 76 years old. He was buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Adelphi, Maryland. The Klezmatics and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. Moskowitz's original tracks also appeared on a number of reissue compilations over the years, including Classic Ragtime (RCA Victor/BMG, 1998), Klezmer Pioneers: European and American Recordings, 1905-1952 (Rounder Records, 1993), From Avenue A to the Great White Way (Columbia Records, 2002), Klezmer Music: Early Yiddish Instrumental Music: 1908-1927 (Arhoolie Records, 1997), as well as an entire reissue CD dedicated to his recordings: The Art of the Cymbalum (Rounder Records, 1996).

References

  • Joseph Moskowitz recordings in the Library of Congress collection
  • Remembering Joseph Moskowitz on KlezmerShack
  • 29 Joseph Moskowitz recordings in the Mayrent Collection at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • 1940 menu from The Moskowitz & Lupowitz Restaurant in New York Public Library digital collection