Early life

Leibowitz was born in Iași, Romania in June 1883 or 1884.^[1] Little is known about his family background, whether he was from a klezmer family, or what his musical training was. In September 1905 he emigrated to the United States along with his wife Sarah.^[2][3][4] He had 3 children: Isadore (born c.1908), Molly (c.1911) and Albert (born 1920).^[2]

Music career

It isn't clear what Leibowitz did for the first decade he was in the United States, although in the 1910 census he did list his occupation as musician.^[5] It was in June 1916, possibly because World War I made local musicians more valuable to record companies, that he was first recruited to record a test pressing for the Victor Recording Company.^[6] He then followed it with a disc released on Columbia Records of himself playing violin accompanied by cimbalom, a highly traditional pairing in Eastern Europe, but one which was only rarely recorded in American Jewish music.^[6][7][8] Those recordings were made with the cimbalom player "Silver", who may be Jacob Silber (1882-1952), who otherwise played percussion in Leibowitz's and other klezmer orchestras, as well as the xylophone in later years.^[9]

Max Leibowitz klezmer orchestra circa 1921

He was a contemporary of other Romanian-born klezmer bandleaders and recording artists in the New York City area that included Abe Schwartz, Joseph Moskowitz, Abe Katzman, and Milu Lemisch (in Philadelphia).^[10] He is listed as composer of some Yiddish songs recorded in the early twentieth century, such as Der yold is mich mekone ("The fool envies me.")^[11] and Es iz shoin farfallen.^[12] Irene Heskes, compiler of Yiddish popular music listings, lists Leibowitz as part of a large cohort of "Jewish bandsmen" such as Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, Harry Kandel and others who "fashioned unique qualities for the Jewish dance tunes in America" during that era.^[13] There was often tough competition between these bandleaders; in 1923 Leibowitz sued Naftule Brandwein for allegedly plagiarizing a klezmer tune he had already copyrighted.^[14] The case ended up being dismissed because Leibowitz had still been a Romanian citizen when he had copyrighted the work, which gave him less protection than an American citizen would have had.^[15][16] After that lawsuit, the two men must have reconciled, because they continued to work together. In 1926 Leibowitz and his son Isidore opened a short-lived Romanian restaurant in Newark, New Jersey, and soon recruited Brandwein as a regular guest.^[17]

Leibowitz died in the Bronx in 1942 at age 57.^[18] He was buried in the Baron Hirsch Cemetery in Staten Island.^[19]