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
- 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
- American Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster
- Rip Van Winkle
- Laments & Dances
- Dance Of A Child's Dreams '
- Banjo Manikin
- Fiddle Fever
- Waltz Of The Wind
- Home Grown
- The Street Giveth.. And The Street Taketh Away
- Albion Doo-Wah...
- Cat Mother
- Cat Mother Last Chance Dance
Videography
With Fiddle Fever- Sullivan Ballou Letter / Ashokan Farewell
- ''The Original Transatlantic Sessions - Transatlantic Sessions 1''
Compilations
With Stephen Foster, Thomas Hampson, Molly Mason, and David Alpher- Ashokan Farewell - Beautiful Dreamer: Songs Of Stephen Foster
- Songs; The Rose Of The Night; Eight Poems Of Emily Dickinson