Jay Ungar


Jay Ungar is an American folk musician and composer.

Life and career

Ungar was born in the Bronx, New York City. He frequented Greenwich Village music venues during his formative period in the 1960s. In the late 1960s, he became a member of Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys and later, the Putnam String County Band. Although he performs with David Bromberg, he is probably best known for "Ashokan Farewell", composed as a lament, and used as the theme tune to the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War. Many of his other compositions are familiar as contradance tunes, notably "The Wizard's Walk".
In 1991, Ungar married fellow musician Molly Mason. They met during the 1970s. They continue to perform as a duo, with their band, Swingology, and as the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band with Jay's daughter and son-in-law, Ruth Ungar and Michael J. Merenda Jr.
In 1992, Ungar and Mason provided the soundtrack to the acclaimed documentary film Brother's Keeper, released as an album entitled Waltzing with You. In 2006, the duo headlined the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle.

Discography

With Lynn Hardy
  • Jay & Lyn: Songs, Ballads & Fiddle Tunes
  • Catskill Mountain Goose Chase
With Molly Mason
  • Brother's Keeper
  • Live At Gettysburg College
  • The Lovers' Waltz
  • The Catskill Collection
  • Harvest Home
  • A Song Of Home '
  • Relax Your Mind '
  • The Pleasures Of Winter
  • A Fiddler's Holiday
  • The Quiet Room
With Stephen Foster, Thomas Hampson, Molly Mason, and David Alpher
  • American Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster
With Molly Mason and Anjelica Huston
  • Rip Van Winkle
With The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, Turtle Island String Quartet, and Sally Rogers
  • Laments & Dances
With David Levine and Molly Mason
  • Dance Of A Child's Dreams '
With Howie Bursen, Molly Mason, and Bob Pasquarello
  • Banjo Manikin
With Fiddle Fever
With Putnam String County Band
  • Home Grown
With Cat Mother and The All News Boys
  • The Street Giveth.. And The Street Taketh Away
  • Albion Doo-Wah...
  • Cat Mother
  • Cat Mother Last Chance Dance
With Ocean'
  • Ocean''

Videography

With Fiddle Fever
With The Transatlantic House Band

Compilations

With Stephen Foster, Thomas Hampson, Molly Mason, and David Alpher
  • Ashokan Farewell - Beautiful Dreamer: Songs Of Stephen Foster
With Stephen Foster, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Aaron Copland, Thomas Hampson, David Alpher, Molly Mason, Deborah Voigt, Brian Zeger, and Barbara Hendricks
With Aly Bain and others
  • The Original Transatlantic Sessions, Volume 1
  • The Original Transatlantic Sessions, Volume 2
  • ''The Original Transatlantic Sessions, Volume 3''