Steve Katz (musician)
Steven Katz (born May 9, 1945)[1] is a guitarist, singer, and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock-pop-jazz group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands the Blues Project and American Flyer. As a producer, his credits include the 1979 album Short Stories Tall Tales for the Irish band Horslips, and the Lou Reed albums Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Sally Can't Dance and the Elliott Murphy album Night Lights.
For other people called Steve, Stephen or Steven Katz, see Stephen Katz (disambiguation).
Steve Katz
Steven Katz
May 9, 1945
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Musician, record producer, songwriter, author, record company executive
Guitar, harmonica, vocals
Record producer, label executive, author[edit]
In 1972 Steve met singer Lou Reed. After the commercial failure of Reed's album Berlin, Katz produced two albums: Sally Can't Dance and a live record Rock 'n' Roll Animal. After a number of productions during this period, including Night Lights by Elliott Murphy, Katz returned to playing music joining American Flyer with Eric Kaz, Craig Fuller of Pure Prairie League, and Doug Yule from the Velvet Underground. The first of their two albums was produced by George Martin.
In 1977, Katz became East Coast Director of A&R and later Vice President of Mercury Records. During the three years that he spent at Mercury he produced the Irish group Horslips and spent a good deal of time in Ireland producing three albums for the group. Horslips had originally been an acoustic band that sang their songs in Gaelic, and the band members made Katz aware of Irish traditional music. In 1987, Steve became managing director of Green Linnet Records, a leading record label of traditional Irish music in America. Katz stayed at Green Linnet for five years, during which time he married Alison Palmer, a ceramic artist. Together, they started a small business. He is a professional photographer.
Katz's memoir, Blood, Sweat, and My Rock 'n' Roll Years: Is Steve Katz a Rock Star? was published by Lyons Press in 2015.[2][3][4]
