Kammen Brothers

J. & J. Kammen Music Company, commonly known as the Kammen Brothers, was a sheet music publishing company operated in Brooklyn, New York by Jack and Joseph Kammen from the 1920s to the 1970s.[1] The company published Jewish music (including Klezmer and Yiddish theatre music) as well as non-Jewish music. They owned the rights to some well-known songs such as Bei Mir Bistu Shein. Their Klezmer Fake books were by far the most popular of their time, offering arranged interpretations of Jewish wedding repertoire for non-specialist musicians.[2][3][4]

This article is about the music publishing company operated by Joseph and Jack Kammen. For the American illustrator, see Jack Kamen.

History

Jack and Joseph Kammen

Jack and Joseph Kammen were twin brothers, born Yakov and Yosef Kamenetzky in Białystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire (today located in Poland) on October 11, 1888.[5][6][7] They emigrated to the United States as children in 1894 or 1895 along with their parents Max and Hindas; the family became naturalized U. S. citizens in 1905.[8][9][10] Their father worked as a musician in the United States; both Jack and Joseph as well as their younger brother Herman (Hyman) took it up as a career too.[9] Jack made his entry into the world of Jewish music arranging at age 16 when he started producing work for Theodore Lohr Co. in 1904; he then became arranger for the popular Yiddish-language parody songwriter David Meyerowitz.[11][12] In 1910 Jack, Jacob and their brother Herman changed their names from Kamenetzky to Kammen.[13][14]

Cover of Menshlichkeit is teierer fon gelt score, S. Schenker, 1919

The brothers recorded at least one disc for Emerson Records' Jewish series in around 1920, which consisted of them playing a piano duet of Russian and Jewish music.

Jack Kammen died in New York in March 1969.[15] It is unclear when Joseph died.

J. & J. Kammen Music Company

The earliest Jewish music publishing house in the United States was Katzenelenbogen and Rabinowitz at the turn of the twentieth century, followed by a large number of other companies, including Theodore Lohr, Albert Teres, and the Hebrew Publishing Company.[1] By the 1920s, two new companies came to dominate the market: Henry Lefkowitch's Metro Music and J. & J. Kammen.[1] The Kammen brothers seem to have launched their music company in around 1919: J. & J. Kammen, based in Brooklyn, New York. They soon began to publish arrangements of popular Jewish, Eastern European and cosmopolitan music. Their Dance Folio volumes quickly became the most popular lead sheets for Jewish wedding music in the United States.[3][16][2][17][4] They continued to produce new volumes of the series for decades, with at least fifteen folios printed in separate editions for different instruments (violin and mandolin, piano, cornet, B flat clarinet, etc.).

The Great Depression hit the company hard, as it did many businesses; J. & J. Kammen declared bankruptcy in 1932.[18] However, the company recovered and became even more successful by the end of the decade; the popularity of Bei Mir Bistu Shein, which the Kammens had bought the rights to for $30 and sold to a subsidiary of Warner Bros., caused a boom in adaptations of Jewish music for popular audiences, and a huge increase in sales for the company.[19][20][21]

During the 1930s and 1940s the Kammens filed a number of lawsuits to protect their songs from infringement; one suit against T. B. Harms in 1935 claimed the popular song Isle of Capri was derivative of a Nellie Casman song they owned called Yossel, Yossel.[22][23] A 1940 suit against Edward B. Marks and RCA claimed that the popular song Bublichki was an infringement of their 1929 song Beigelach, koift beigelach; it was eventually settled.[24][25] And a 1948 suit claimed that Nature Boy infringed the copyright of their song "Be Still my Heart", which had been written by Herman Yablokoff.[26][27]

After the death of the brothers, J. & J. Kammen seems to have ceased publication by the 1970s.[1] However, their score collections continued to be reprinted and to circulate in photocopied versions, becoming an important source of tunes for the revival of Klezmer music in the 1970s and onwards.[28][29]

Selected publications
  • Kammen international dance folio no. 1: big collection of carefully selected international songs and dances good for all occasions. (1924)[30]
  • Jewish theatre songs: a collection of recognized songs successes by the foremost Jewish writers. (1925)[31]
  • Kammen's Jewish selection. No. 2, A medley overture containing the most popular Jewish song successes in the world (1926, arranged by Louis Katzman[32])
  • J. & J. Kammen's Jewish Dance Folio no. 5: a collection of up-to-date frailachs (1928, arranged by Jack Stillman)[33]
  • Kammen international: dance and concert folio no. 9: a collection of famous international songs, dances, medleys, selections and overture (1934, arranged by Jack Kammen and William Scher)[34][35]
  • Kammen Selection no. 14: a medley overture (arranged by Dave Kaplan)
  • The Kammen folio of famous Jewish theater songs: a collection of popular song hits of yesterday (1940s)
  • 25 favorite Jewish songs: a collection of favorite old time hits tunes. (1953, arranged by Joseph Kammen and Ben Jaffe)[36]

References
  1. Heskes, Irene (1994). Passport to Jewish music : its history, traditions, and culture. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 197. ISBN 9780313280351.
  2. Rubin, Joel (2020). New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Rochester, NY: Rochester University. p. 324. ISBN 9781580465984.
  3. Strom, Yale (2002). The book of klezmer : the history, the music, the folklore (1st ed.). Chicago, Ill.: A Cappella. p. 150. ISBN 9781613740637.
  4. Sapoznik, Henry (1999). Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world. New York: Schirmer Books. p. 125. ISBN 9780028645742.
  5. "Joseph Kammen. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942". Ancestry. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  6. "Jack Kammen Military • United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918". FamilySearch. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  7. "Jack Kammen in the U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942". Ancestry. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  8. "Max Kamenetzky in the New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943". Ancestry. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  9. "Joseph Kamenetzky. Census • United States Census, 1910". FamilySearch. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  10. "KAMENETZKY, MAX › Page 1". Fold3. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  11. Heskes, Irene; Marwick, Lawrence (1992). Yiddish American popular songs, 1895 to 1950: a catalog based on the Lawrence Marwick roster of copyright entries. Library of Congress : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs. p. 26. hdl:2027/inu.30000025865019. ISBN 978-0-8444-0745-6.
  12. Heskes, Irene (1994). Passport to Jewish music : its history, traditions, and culture. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 199. ISBN 9780313280351.
  13. Laws of the State of New York: Passed at the Session of the Legislature. New York: New York State Legislature. 1911. p. 223.
  14. Laws of the State of New York. New York: New York (State). Legislative Bill Drafting Commission. 1911. p. 2782.
  15. "Jack Kammen Death • United States Social Security Death Index". FamilySearch. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  16. Alexander, Phil (2021). Sounding Jewish in Berlin : klezmer music and the contemporary city. New York, NY. p. 288. ISBN 9780190064440.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. Heskes, Irene; Marwick, Lawrence (1992). Yiddish American popular songs, 1895 to 1950: a catalog based on the Lawrence Marwick roster of copyright entries. Library of Congress : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs. p. xxxiv. hdl:2027/inu.30000025865019. ISBN 978-0-8444-0745-6.
  18. "JACK KAMEN AND JOSEPH KAMMEN TRADING AS J. & J. KAMMEN, BANKRUPT". Times Union. Brookyn, New York. 11 August 1932. p. 11.
  19. Hughes, Alice (9 March 1938). "A Woman's New York". Buffalo Courier-Express. Buffalo, N. Y. p. 8.
  20. "Twin Pan Alley has 5 More like 'Bei Mir'". Daily News. New York. 2 March 1938. p. 15.
  21. Sapoznik, Henry (3 September 1999). "Please Let Me Explain...How a Tune From A Failed Yiddish Show Became A Crossover Pop Music Sensation". The Forward. New York, N.Y. p. 11.
  22. Green, Abel (1 January 1935). "WORDS AND MUSIC IN 1935". Variety. p. 189.
  23. "YIDDISH MUSIC HOUSE CALLS 'CAPRI' A STEAL". Variety. 3 April 1935. p. 47.
  24. "KAMMENS CLAIM LIFT BY MARKS, RCA, ET AL". Variety. 17 July 1940. p. 33.
  25. "'Vendor's Song' Suit Ends". Variety. 25 September 1940. p. 48.
  26. "RKA Plans to Use 'Nature Boy' in Film Despite Suit Vs. Pub". Variety. 9 June 1948. p. 39.
  27. "Court Nixes 'Nature' Stay". Billboard. 21 April 1951. p. 17.
  28. Rubin, Joel (2020). New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Rochester, NY: Rochester University. p. 205. ISBN 9781580465984.
  29. Strom, Yale (2002). The book of klezmer : the history, the music, the folklore (1st ed.). Chicago, Ill.: A Cappella. p. 217. ISBN 9781613740637.
  30. Kammen international dance folio no. 1 : big collection of carefully selected international songs and dances good for all occasions. OCLC 640541696. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via WorldCat.
  31. Jewish theatre songs : a collection of recognized songs successes by the foremost Jewish writers. OCLC 234178650. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via WorldCat.
  32. Katzman, Michael M. (2014). "Louis Katzman: his musical life and times". ARSC Journal. 45 (2): 183.
  33. The Kammen Jewish dance folio no. 5 : an up-to-date collection of popular frailachs (Jewish dances). OCLC 366866504. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via WorldCat.
  34. Rubin, Joel (2020). New York klezmer in the early twentieth century : the music of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Rochester, NY: Rochester University. p. 387. ISBN 9781580465984.
  35. Kammen international dance and concert folio : new folio no. 9 : a collection of famous international songs, dances, medleys, selections and overture--. OCLC 37787108. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via WorldCat.
  36. 25 favorite Jewish songs : Kammen folio of famous Jewish songs, a collection of favorite old time hit tunes, arr. for voice and piano by Jack Kammen and Ben Jaffe. OCLC 794290924. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via WorldCat.
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