Max Yankowitz

He was born Meir Yankowitz in Bacău, Romania on March 23 or 24, 1875.{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz. Migration • New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPKB-N6TL?cid=fs_copy |website=FamilySearch |access-date=5 March 2023}}{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in Canada, Border Crossings from U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2242595?mark=e6f5f8b1a8b465fa773dbe3d075d75888644095f505bddce7da91fdc7ac400a2 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}}{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2242408?mark=e2f1c3864f38bc391384a7b13cc61504f1fc910eb91796828c52126450c8fa6f |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}} His parents were named Bernard and Hannah.{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2264121?mark=e27ead25380915b9c2b649d3bc3d3a41e283f59319b7b08d25dc555ac53d9f72 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=6 March 2023}} Little is known about Yankowitz's early life or musical background.{{cite book |last1=Horowitz |first1=Joshua |editor1-last=Simonett |editor1-first=Helena |title=The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More! |date=2012 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252094323 |pages=184–5 |chapter=9. The Klezmer Accordion: An Outsider among Outsiders}} He emigrated to the New York area via Hamburg in June 1900. His first decade in New York is not well documented, but by the time of the 1910 census he gave his occupation as a wedding musician.{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in the 1910 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2245106?mark=4172e6ca37d75bfe9b5e2c1a07d8688795f1a420f5c7509a77a34ffd7fbf0288 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}}

He made his first known recordings with Columbia Records in New York in April 1913.{{cite book |last1=Sapoznik |first1=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=1999 |publisher=Schirmer Books |location=New York |isbn=002864574X |page=67}} This set of 8 accordion recordings included Yiddish theatre music, Klezmer dances and Romanian music, and were made with the accompaniment of a cimbalom player named Goldberg.{{cite book |last1=Spottswood |first1=Richard K. |title=Ethnic music on records : a discography of ethnic recordings produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 |date=1990 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=9780252017216 |pages=1546–7}} He applied for U.S. citizenship in 1918.

A decade later, in the summer of 1924, he entered the studios at Emerson Records and made another set of four recordings with piano accompaniment of klezmer violinist Abe Schwartz. In the mid-1920s he listed his occupation as a Restaurant Keeper. Although this side of his life is poorly documented, it is not surprising, as other Romanian-born klezmer musicians in New York including Joseph Moskowitz and Max Leibowitz also ran restaurants during this time.

He seems to have made his final set of four recordings, another set of Romanian-Jewish accordion solos with cimbalom accompaniment, for the Victor Recording Company in February 1929.{{cite journal |editor1-last=Johnson |editor1-first=Axel B. |title=Foreign Records. |journal=The Phonograph Monthly Review |date=June 1929 |volume=III |issue=9 |page=323 |url=https://archive.org/details/PMR_3_9/page/n33/mode/2up?q=%22Max+Yankowitz%22 |publisher=The Phonograph Publishing Co. |location=Boston, MA. |language=en}}

File:Max Yankowitz Rimastic Doina disc label.png

According to Klezmer researcher Joshua Horowitz, Yankowitz seems to have remained active as an accordionist until around 1937. Yankowitz died of a blood clot in the Bronx on April 26, 1945.{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2242565?mark=7c17324eb23b723951a363602005b35ca980b2eab96d26067888ac1cfcff9b15 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}} He was 70 years old. He was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in Queens in the section of the First Bucecer Independent Benevolent Association, a Landsmanshaft for immigrants from Buczacz.{{cite web |title=Locator - Montefiore Springfield Cemetery - Queens, NY |url=http://montefiorecemetery.org/search/ |website=montefiorecemetery.org |access-date=5 March 2023}}

Max's wife was named Gisela (née Lazarowitz) and was born in Romania in around 1878; they seem to have been married around the time they emigrated in 1900.{{cite web |title=Gezela Yankowitz in New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2247762?mark=9d734a20eba2d72f4b51a3a849a7a721f7a0ee474344f37a75530e2d210c6080 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}} Their children were Daniel (born in Romania or possibly New York {{circa}} 1900), Bessie (born in New York circa 1903), and Benjamin (born 1906).{{cite web |title=Daniel Yankowitz in U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2245293?mark=cdc39dcab5b8b2b59514439200749254f58c16d3aa68b2a15f2aefb4c619a26f |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}}{{cite web |title=Max Yankowitz in New York, U.S., State Census, 1915 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2245219?mark=7ab0261ab698c007934d8a15f164848f14554e453f5840cb5a0e7aa65282c3bd |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}} Daniel, who changed his family name to Yates, became a violinist and later relocated to Florida in the 1940s.{{cite news |title=Mr. Mrs. Yankow Fete Relative |work=The Daily Record |date=26 June 1944 |location=Long Branch, N. J. |page=4 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=1920 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/2245263?mark=ecfcfe4749904a9ab7229942e1036816c3c5604ee95bca3fac97b23e5a553403 |website=Ancestry.com |access-date=5 March 2023}} Max's brother Morris also emigrated and worked as a factory worker in New York.

Beginning in the 1970s in the United States, there was renewed interest in old Jewish instrumental music which had fallen out of fashion for several decades—the Klezmer revival. Yankowitz's accordion recordings received new attention and appeared on a number of reissue albums, including Yikhes: klezmer Recordings from 1911-1939 (1995, Trikont).{{cite web |title=Various - Yikhes (Lineage / Stammbaum) - Early Klezmer Recordings 1911-1939 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1164867-Various-Yikhes-Lineage-Stammbaum-Early-Klezmer-Recordings-1911-1939 |website=Discogs |date=1995 |access-date=5 March 2023 |language=en}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Broughton |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Ellingham |editor2-first=Mark |title=World music : the rough guide, Volume 2. |date=1999 |publisher=Rough Guides; Distributed by the Penguin Group |location=London |isbn=978-1-85828-635-8 |page=590 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/worldmusicroughg0000unse/page/590/mode/2up?q=%22Max+Yankowitz%22 |chapter=Klezmer}}

In particular, accordionists focused on his unusual technique which was partly due to the type of accordion he played and partly due to his idiosyncratic, rustic playing style.{{cite book |last1=Stan |first1=Peter |editor1-last=Strom |editor1-first=Yale |title=Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer |date=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=31 |chapter=3. Accordion}} Because recordings of the Klezmer cimbalom from that era are also quite rare, the accompaniment on his tracks has also attracted attention.{{cite book |last1=Gifford |first1=Paul M. |title=The hammered dulcimer : a history |date=2001 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=9781461672906 |page=132}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://rsa.fau.edu/artist/605 Max Yankowitz recordings] in the Florida Atlantic University Judaica collection
• [https://djsa.dartmouth.edu/albums/7371 M. Yenkovitz recordings] in the Dartmouth College Jewish Sound Archive
• [https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/digital?filter%5Bfacets%5D%5Bnames_facet~Yenkovitz%2C+Max%5D=yes Max Yankowitz recordings] in the Mayrent Collection at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
• [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/211268/Yenkovitz_Max Max Yenkovitz listing] in the Discography of American Historical Recordings

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yankowitz, Max}}

Category:1875 births

Category:1945 deaths

Category:Jewish American entertainers

Category:Jewish Romanian musicians

Category:Romanian accordionists

Category:American accordionists

Category:Victor Records artists

Category:Columbia Records artists

Category:Emerson Records artists

Category:People from Bacău