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Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019)
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Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) |
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Subject: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young 1928-2019 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Feb 19 - 01:05 PM A message on Facebook this morning from his daughter, Philomène Grandin, announced that Izzy died on February 4, 2019. He had lived in Sweden for many years. From Wikipedia: In 1957, at 110 MacDougal Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, he opened the Folklore Center, a store for books and records and everything related to folk music. It became a focal point for the American folk music scene of the time, a place where one could find such limited circulation publications as Caravan and Gardyloo, both edited and published by Lee Hoffman. From 1959 to 1969, Young wrote a column entitled "Fret and Frails" for the folk music journal Sing Out.[2] He served on the "editorial advisory board" for the magazine until his departure for Sweden a few years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izzy_Young |
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Subject: RE: Izzy Young Folklore Center From: FreddyHeadey Date: 05 Feb 19 - 02:03 PM a fifty minute documentary "Talking Folklore Center" 1989 https://youtu.be/If3WGtI5v9s |
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Subject: RE: 2019 Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young 1928-2019 From: GUEST,open mike Date: 05 Feb 19 - 02:10 PM Sorry to hear of his passing....thank you for all you have done for folk music....for many years in many countries! |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young 1928-2019 From: GUEST,Felipa Date: 05 Feb 19 - 04:53 PM brings back old memories, but I don't think I've heard the Issy Young's name or thought about him for years (I have mentioned "Sing Out" magazine in conversation very recently, however). I wonder was Izzy also active in Swedish folk music circles. R.I.P., Izzy. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young 1928-2019 From: Felipa Date: 05 Feb 19 - 06:13 PM ah, I see Izzy had a Folklore Centrum in Stockholm, which only closed in Dec 2018. He moved to Sweden after falling in love with Swedish fiddle music. New York Times obituary |
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Subject: RE: Izzy Young Folklore Center From: GUEST Date: 05 Feb 19 - 09:54 PM Izzy died in Sweden yesterday.RIP |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Elmore Date: 05 Feb 19 - 10:12 PM SOB scolded The Beers Family for playing the White House. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: EBarnacle Date: 05 Feb 19 - 11:18 PM I remember Izzy as always welcoming and always there at the center until suddenly he left. I bought a lot of stuff I couldn't find elsewhere from him. Jim Lucas spoke with several of us about him during the Mystic Sea Music Festival last Summer. Based on what Jim said, Izzy was still fairly healthy at that point. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Feb 19 - 11:21 PM His daughter posted the announcement on Izzy's Facebook page, and there have been lots of other remembrances and photos posted there: Israel Goodman Young Facebook account |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Thomas Stern Date: 06 Feb 19 - 12:36 AM RIP I visited the Folklore Center many times in the 1960's and 70's - at the MacDougal St. location and when it moved to 6th ? Avenue. A wonderful source of books/magazines/records. The Center hosted the release party for the Alan Lomax Southern Folk Heritage Series (7 LP set, stereo recordings) - still have the autographed box. Also found the first Pat & Victoria Garvey album there. He sponsored in store concerts by many performers, including many "rediscovered" blues men. For a short while he published a magazine listing folk performances in the area. IIRC this later became a section in Sing Out. The TALKING FOLKLORE CENTER documentary (free on youtube) is also available as a DVD, and Scarecrow Press has published The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel "Izzy" Young (2012) condolences to family and friends. Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: open mike Date: 06 Feb 19 - 02:54 AM http://www.izzyyoung.se/?fbclid=IwAR0tm3aEvh18Adl0GcOf9rtxA0XZe6NtD2JblBLovpGyBul3o4Yzej7nHU0 |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Big Al Whittle Date: 06 Feb 19 - 04:57 AM A legend! Obviously the legend that attracted so many of us to folk music. An artistic movement in the face of the threat of a nuclear holocaust. With all the urbane wit and talent that New York could assemble. I'm afraid, this is what brought me to folk music - rather than a desire to preserve traditional song and dance. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: John MacKenzie Date: 06 Feb 19 - 05:13 AM I didn't know much about the man, until one day I received a 'Friend' request from him on Facebook. After I looked into his background, I realised it was an honour to have him be a friend, and so it remained, Sad that he has passed, but he left the world a richer place for his having been part of it, and more than that, none of us can ask. RIP Issy. |
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Subject: Re: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Stringsinger Date: 06 Feb 19 - 01:43 PM Usta' hang out at the Folklore Center on MacDougal in the Village. It was a fine place for folk music. Lots of books and good concerts. He encouraged Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, and many others in folk. He was feisty and spoke his mind. I found his dialogues in Sing Out! with Irwin Silber highly entertaining. I miss the old Sing Out1 |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: Waddon Pete Date: 07 Feb 19 - 07:26 AM If you don't know about Izzy Goodman Young, then the web page that Open Mike has linked to will tell you enough to whet your appetite. I wish I had had the chance to meet him. RIP Peter |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: GUEST,Bengt Erik Eriksson Date: 07 Feb 19 - 10:15 PM Izzy Young is dead. Some years ago I wrote a review about an interesting book about him. I recommend the book and share my review here. (I´m Swedish, so please pardon my English). The Conscience of the Folk Revival. The Writings of Israel "Izzy" Young. Ed. Scott Barretta . American Folk Music and Musicians, No. 18. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Plymouth, UK, 2013. In recent years several very good books have been published on folk music, folk musicians and the time when the US folk music revival took place. In several of them Israel "Izzy" Young is apostrophized as the key person for folk music - North American and other - he was for many years in the United States. The more fun, when sociologist, author, researcher etc. Scott Barretta now has compiled Young's own essays, diary entries, and more on folklore in a broad perspective. The book The Conscience of the Folk Revival is both a book for those who were there and for all who are interested in this era of the history of folk music, in particular the period late 1950s - to the early 1970s in the US. For those readers who do not share this interest in detail nearly forty pages of preface and introduction serves as an excellent summary. Most of the book is based on the columns Frets and Fails, as Young wrote in the folk music magazine Sing Out!1959 to1969. A common mantra is his "I like folk music". How then did Young experience folk music and folk musicians? Well, Young was liberating liberal in many respects. A dividing line between purists and liberals on this issue, is of course if you can be a folk musician, if not born and living in the sticks. Young writes in 1959: "The city folksinger does not necessarily have to live in the fields to play a guitar, or break his back breaking rocks to sing a work song. His natural surroundings are the books and recordings available today. Cecil Sharp did not discover ballads in the Southern Appalachians - he showed us what was available. His genius lay in his perception and taste and selection. Alan Lomax did not discover Negro work songs. His genius made ??them available to all of us and has made ??them part of everyone's heritage through his carefully edited books and recordings." And "This [the folk groups could consist of 'immigrants'] in no way, however, strikes me as unusual. Immigrant groups in their desire to assimilate and take for themselves some of the American values ??always apply themselves more diligently to the customs and traditions a native take for granted." Israel "Izzy" Young was born in 1928 in New York and came into contact with "folklore", to use the term that Young himself chose for his Folklore Center, primarily through concerts and own participation in folk dance activities - which the latter for him was the first that was "bigger than the Bronx." Young writes: "A lot of people think that I'm a folksinger of some sort, but I'm actually a Morris Dancer. Before that, I used to square dance all the time: in fact if square dancing became popular the way that folk singing did, I would be the Tom Paley of the square dance world." And in 1957, he took the plunge and opened his Folklore Center at 110 MacDougal Street in NYC 's Village. His place has been called Musician's Central Station and a Switchboard for Population Activities. A real performance by a person who describes himself as "outside of every group" - or a possible role perhaps just because of that. In the mid1950s, there was in New York, a time when one at concerts could listen to folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, Ed McCurdy, Cisco Houston, Pete Seeger, Tom Paley, Jean Richie, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Reverend Gary Davis et al. There once was a time (1940s) when, according to Young, the folk music world consisted of about 150 songs. And well into the late 1950s, he assesses that an experienced folk-fan probably knew about 90 percent of the songs in the albums that were released between 1945 and 1950. Knowledge that is not possible to have today with the now much larger production. Folklore Center's opening took place at a time when the New Lost City Ramblers was formed (1958), folk music was becoming widely popular by the Kingston Trio's hit that same year with Tom Dooley, and the publication (1959) by Sam Charters of The Country Blues, which many believe was the prelude to "the blues revival”. The same year the Newport Folk Festival also started. We can in the book follow the life around folk music in a Village, where during the years in succession there were beatniks, flamenco artists, folk musicians - all subject to rise, commercialization and downfall. In addition to information about the folk world (Young himself called it gossip; I did not know, for example, that Alan Lomax's dog was named Blue, or that Reverend Gary Davis frailed old time tunes on banjo) the book also contains columns for some criticism of and comments on the world that can be seen beyond the previously quite simple and transparent folk life. For me, experiencing the North American folk music from a Swedish perspective from about 1958, it's fun and interesting to get a glimpse of what really happened these years, and getting to see one after another of many popular singers and musicians figuratively and literally set the scene: NLCR , the Fugs , Even Dozen Jug Band , Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, Lou Killen, Jody Stecher, Mississippi John Hurt, Holy Modal Rounders, Mance Lipscomb, Dock Boggs, and many others. One of the issues often written about in the book, is the issue of copyright. Where did the dear old Anon. disappear? And what are the consequences for the whole folk music world when suddenly song after song is lifted from a general, for everybody available domain, to become artist´s and record company´s property. Songs they mold in fixed forms, songs which initially exhibited a rich variation in text and melody. Other topics include Bob Dylan's development, the emergence of folk rock, and what folk music essentially is. One almost own theme is Alan Lomax's work. There is no doubt about the positive significance Young believes that Lomax had. But like many other writers, he also highlights the dark side of John and Alan Lomax's work. How did they really treat Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and copyright issues? How blues music was handled in the United States generally, Young writes, 1959-1960, "American Blues are being recognized in England and Europe while they are not encouraged enough here - especially by Folk Music Journals and Magazines." How then did the enthusiast Izzy Young, who simply liked folk music, succeed? In an interview with him from 1969, his mood is not quite so enthusiastic and excited anymore. From being a music that was judged by people and made the musician feel that he was part of something, Young finds that those who decide what the new music is, are in the US Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola. The music is no longer a part of everything, "It´s part of the business scheme". In1973 Young leaves the United States and moves to Sweden, my home country which as well, for shorter or longer periods, has hosted among others Sam and Ann Charters, Tom Paley and this books editor Scott Barretta. Interviewed in 2008 Young says that "The original focus I had on folk music has not changed as far as my life is concerned. The second modern part seems to be a thousand times large, commercially, than the first form, but so what, I can still do as I want to, even if I am more limited today than I was before I moved to Sweden 35 years ago." The Conscience of the Folk Revival is in many ways both an entertaining and informative book, which also raises many questions we folk music-/folklore interested too seldom discuss. Along with other authors' books like Sean Wilentz' Bob Dylan in America, Dave Van Ronk´s ( coauthor Elijah Wald ) Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street, Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta, Marybeth Hamilton's In Search of the Blues, Alan Lomax´s The Land where the Blues Began, Tony Russel´s Blacks, Whites and Blues and Country Music Originals. The Legends and the Lost, Eric Lott's Love and Theft. Blackface minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Ray Allen's Gone to the Country. The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival, Lynn Abbott´s and Doug Seroff´s Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz, we are given a picture of folk music, folk music research and the US during different eras. A picture too seldom compared to how development in other countries has been. Hopefully, the current book will stimulate more research, discussion and publication on folk music in our various countries. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: open mike Date: 07 Feb 19 - 10:44 PM I saw that Tom Paley's grandson is named Izzy...and his parents had Izzy Young in mind when they named him. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: Israel 'Izzy' Goodman Young (1928-2019) From: GUEST,paperback^ Date: 07 Feb 19 - 11:59 PM MEET IZZY YOUNG – THE MAN WHO FIRST PROMOTED BOB DYLAN Izzy Young is still hosting concerts at his unique Folklore Center in the same way that he has done for 60 years. The only thing that has changed is the country the center is located in. Within an hour of the announcement that Bob Dylan had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first TV news crew arrived at Izzy Young’s Folklore Centrum. For the rest of that October afternoon, the small one-room store on a quiet street in Stockholm’s Södermalm district was a hive of media activity. Izzy Young is widely acknowledged as the person who discovered Dylan. And he was clearly the closest the Swedish media was going to get to the man himself. That evening, Young’s broad New York accent was heard on Swedish TV and radio news shows saying how he knew all along that his old friend Dylan was a genius. And the history books show that Young really did know that Dylan was special before most others had clocked it. Young organized Dylan’s first proper concert in 1961 at the Carnegie Chapter Hall. “I was the first one to say ‘let’s have some concerts,’” Young enthuses. “People said, ‘you’re crazy!’ But I knew that this was the best guy I had ever heard.” Young is 88 years old and still going strong doing what he has always done, which is promoting musicians through concerts at his Folklore Centrum. “I am still a fun-loving Jewish boy who grew up in the Bronx and never changed or tried to,” he says. Concerts are held at the center about once a week and they are always very special evenings. The music covers everything from traditional Swedish folk music to American folk, blues and country and at times, genres as diverse as jazz and space rock can be heard. None of the musicians are household names. They are young and old, but they are usually incredibly talented and among the best in their fields. And they all love to play at Izzy Young’s. Brian Kramer, an American blues musician who performs several times a week at various venues across Stockholm says, “Playing at Izzy’s gives you as a musician a direct link to a rich time and history of folk music and blues. He has been doing this the exact same way, intimate and all acoustic, since the 1960s. They are small concerts but have a huge vibe and presence. And Izzy makes you feel like you are a part of that history and lineage because he is right there in the room for every event. That’s something you don’t get anywhere else.” The setup, which has never really changed, ironically resembles the hipster house concert phenomenon that started to make waves across the world a couple of years ago. This is, after all, more or less Young’s front room. He is here every day and has been forever. As he often says, “I am the luckiest person alive. I get to hear great music at my own place all the time.” The musicians sit level with the audience, performing in front of Young’s great folklore library. “There is no other collection like it,” he says. Spectators at the front often have to dodge swinging guitar necks. For the busiest concerts, audience members are squeezed in so much that some have to sit on the floor, practically under the musicians. Sometimes, however, there are less than 10 people in the room, including the performers and Young. But usually there are around 20 to 30. All of this is exactly as it always has been. And when it’s a slow night, Young often reminds young musicians that people who went on to become big names made their debut at his center playing for tiny audiences. In its first New York incarnation, Young’s Folklore Center was, as Dylan writes in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles in which he spends several pages talking about Young, “the citadel of American folk music.” Located in the heart of Greenwich Village, Young’s center became the de facto headquarters of the 1960s folk revival, which was the springboard for the careers of Dylan, Joan Baez and many others. Other notable figures that performed concerts early in their careers at Young’s include Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith and Tim Buckley (father of Jeff). A live album by Buckley recorded at the Folklore Center in 1967 was released a few years ago. Young claims to have made the recording himself. “I switched the tape recorder on and off,” he says laughing – but saw no money from the release. In 1973, Young moved to Sweden and renamed his center the Folklore Centrum. Young claims that he moved to Sweden because he fell in love with Swedish folk music after meeting a couple of Swedish fiddle players in America. The right-wing political climate of America in the early 70s also played a part in Young’s move, as did thoughts of having a child with his French girlfriend in a country that was family friendly. “There was no baby in New York and no baby in France, but we sure had a baby in Sweden,” Young bellows. As well as his work with folk music, Young has been politically active, leading “3,000 beatniks” in a freedom of speech protest in New York, helping Cambodian refugees from the Vietnam War and later on in Sweden working with the Jews for Peace movement, meeting Yasser Arafat in the process. He has written reams of beat-flavored poetry and was good friends with Allen Ginsberg, who often visited Young in Sweden. Ginsberg’s poem “Father Death Blues” hangs on the Folklore Centrum’s wall, with extra verses hand-written especially for Young. Less frequent these days, Young’s public poetry readings of his own and others' work are wonderful occasions. Young also supported Swedish folk music by producing a monthly newsletter for 40 years, listing concerts, festivals, dances and courses taking place across the country. And he has written numerous essays and articles over the years for various publications, many of which can be found in his book, The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel “Izzy” Young. Although less busy now, Young still leads a very active life. At 88, he is in good physical shape, although unsurprisingly, he does have some memory issues. But he still travels across town from his apartment to the Folklore Centrum every day and opens it for business. The Centrum is open Monday to Friday. Young sells second-hand CDs and books there, although by day it mostly serves as a sort of clubhouse for Young’s friends and fans. And Young has numerous fans across the world and many close friends nearby who visit him daily and in small ways help him keep the Folklore Centrum going. For most of his life, like the majority of working musicians he has promoted, Young has struggled to make money. He has, however, been a prodigious chronicler of the folk scene and over the years kept numerous notebooks, scrapbooks, pictures and recordings, which were recently purchased by the US Library of Congress. And while he hasn’t met Dylan for many years, Young did have some indirect financial help from him recently. Dylan wrote two songs for Young in the 1960s that a private collector bought recently. One is called “Talking Folklore Center.” These cash injections have provided Young with enough money to keep doing what he loves, enabling fans of music worldwide the chance to come to Stockholm and visit one of the world's most historic and special music venues. The place where, in essence, the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for Literature started his career. Text: Danny Chapman Israel “Izzy” Goodman Young Age: 88 Born: New York, to Polish immigrants Lives: Stockholm Family: Two children, Thilo Egenberger and Philomène Grandin (a Swedish actress most famous for hosting children’s TV show Philofix) and three grandchildren, Paloma, Tim-Yasha and Helene. Career: Baker, square dancer, impresario, folklorist, poet, essayist, radio DJ, Folklore Center proprietor from 1957 to present. Scandinavian Traveler |
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