Lee Katzman's way around a high note got him jobs in many big bands and at least 75 recording dates since 1947, yet that is not why every other jazz musician is jealous of him. The real reason is his surname, easily interpreted as a combination of two short words that in their slang form represent as much as 50 percent of the total vocabulary of musicians in this genre, "cats" and "man." "Kid" would have been more appropriate than "man" when this artist began working in Chicago nightclubs, only 13 according to legend, with the 18-year-old model signed on to the '40s big bands of Sam Donahue, Gene Krupa, Claude Thornhill, and Jimmy Dorsey. During the subsequent decade the trumpeter really put his chops to work, with a three-year stretch in the progressive jazz orchestra of Stan Kenton. By the time the decade had wound to a close, Katzman had also worked with both Les Brown and Terry Gibbs, once again in varied big-band concepts.

Katzman was a heavy bebopper despite the strong swing background. His love for Dizzy Gillespie is especially noticeable when combined with the Charlie Parker obsessions of alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt on a Verve title. World Pacific's attractive catalog presents the trumpeter in a session organized by Pepper Adams entitled Critics' Choice -- truly speaking of the cats, man, the combination of soaring trumpet and the gurgling, hiccuping Adams baritone sax is enough to have inspired a well-known jazz critic to stay at home and miss his wife's art opening. The title explains everything on the 1992 Lee Katzman Meets Supersax: once again the subject is Charlie Parker, and the discussion is in more detail than a topographical map. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi