Another good man down...

[fasstrack]

I got word last night that my friend of 40 years, drummer Wade Barnes, died suddenly in his sleep at 57. I physically shook for a minute. He had been very thin and I think was diabetic-still a total shock. I just saw him this week. We talked at the bar at Fat Cat in the wee hours. He was being real caring b/c about some things I've been going through, and we just talked period.

We played in one of our first jazz groups when we were 18 at Kingsborough Community College (Tom Browne was on trumpet) and in the early '80s in Marshal Brown's ensemble (Marshal was a rightfully famous jazz teacher of Newport Youth Band fame who taught me to play rhythm guitar among other things). Wade's group played the St. Peter's tribute to Randy Weston that I lost my job going to, and Randy watched on a video screen in the musician's room, beaming. Wade had family, too. He was just a good guy.

This is just senseless and I swear I don't get life at all sometimes. It's been a rough decade. Dan Converse, guitar; Chuck Clark, saxophone and great writing talent, Sam Furnace, saxophone, Ted Trimble, bass. We were all friends, but I knew Wade first.

We have to appreciate our gifts, our time here---and use them well. Thanks for listening.

Edited March 4, 2012 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

Sorry to hear about your friend. I'm 56, trying to get into good enough shape to start getting back into shape, and I hear news like this all the time. No guarantees, ever...

Can you confirm to me (or deny, if need be) that Tom Browne at one point had some Lee Morgan/Freddie Hubbard-ish energy? I swear I heard that when his first Arista side hit. Underneath all the production, I swore I heard that other "thing" Was I wrong?

Again, condolences on your loss.

[fasstrack]

Sorry to hear about your friend. I'm 56, trying to get into good enough shape to start getting back into shape, and I hear news like this all the time. No guarantees, ever...

Can you confirm to me (or deny, if need be) that Tom Browne at one point had some Lee Morgan/Freddie Hubbard-ish energy? I swear I heard that when his first Arista side hit. Underneath all the production, I swore I heard that other "thing" Was I wrong?

Again, condolences on your loss.

Thanks. Tom was a good player. Maybe he could've been great. Got into flying planes. He had some hits in the early '80s. I didn't really know him except for one time in that kid band. But Wade is a real loss. But I went out and listened to the singers at Smalls today, didn't play, just communed. Very therapeutic. Also made a rare foray into church, a Methodist church with a jazz saxophonist who is my friend as pastor. It helped, too.

[alocispepraluger102]

the sudden loss of a dear friend or loved one is one of life's mysteries to which there is no answer.

the tears and heartaches will most surely be replaced by more urgent ones.

may fond memories sustain and comfort you, my friend.

yesterday was a not dissimilar day for myself.

"this day began with a funeral for a spirit too much alive to now be stone....

a block away and minutes later, i gazed upon the majesty and beauty of a quarter hour old baby boy, and wondered on his future.

as i struggle with my onrushing mortality, somewhere between those endpoints, i ponder mysteries i cannot begin to deal with or understand."

Edited March 5, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[AfricaBrass]

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I lost a dear friend last year and miss him a lot.

[Hardbopjazz]

Joel, sorry to hear about your friends passing.

[jazzbo]

My condolences Joel. Those sudden departures are so hard. Not that it's really any easier when you have time to prepare, to say goodbye, but that sudden loss hurts deeply, quickly. Think of all the great things you shared with him, and keep thinking about them. Hang in there Joel.

[Brad]

Joel,

Really sorry to hear about a good friend. Can't put it better than others have. My best to his family and you.

Brad

[mikeweil]

My condolences - it's alway very sad to hear about the loss of friends.

You knew Sam Furnace? I saw him play in Cologne with Mongo Santamaria's band in the early 1980's - very good sax player. Didn't know he had passed ...

[fasstrack]

Thank you all. It was heavy indeed and I'll never lose the image of Wade's gaunt face (he had a great, smiling face, though emaciated with his body from illness) facing me at the bar as we shot the shit that last time last week. I didn't realize how much he meant to me---growing up as jazz players all this time---until he was gone.

But I chilled at Smalls. Didn't play, just listened, and the power of music and communion washed over me and basically healed my pain. As we all know it can do that.

And in a purely selfish way, losing someone so close in age just like that made me determined to get my own shit together and do what I want to and some good on this planet while I still have time. It'll run out for all of us when it will and only the ledger book of deeds will be left for perusal of those we leave behind.

Edited March 5, 2012 by fasstrack

[Big Beat Steve]

Very sorry to hear about your loss.

Keep looking forward anyway.

On a totally unrelated note (i.e. the following is really not a matter of respect towards of the just deceased - Marshall Brown has been gone for close to 30 years, it seems), though, this remark of yours had ME shake for a second:

...and in the early '80s in Marshal Brown's ensemble (Marshal was a rightfully famous jazz teacher of Newport Youth Band fame who taught me to play rhythm guitar among other things).

No doubt Marshall Brown has rightfully earned credentials in various fields but please try not to mention his "fame" in connection with the "Newport Youth Band" (I assume you are referring to the INTERNATIONAL Newport Youth Band of 1958, not to the Farmingdale band) - that is, unless you want to incur the ire of many, many European jazz musicians and scribes who witnessed that band project in connection with the Newport festival (those who still are around anyway). I won't quote from reports about that Stateside trip of European jazz musicians (all of whom had been looking forward to that event though they by no means were still "young"sters anymore) published throughout Europe but by all accounts most of the musicans really were bitterly disappointed by the condescending treatment and straitjacketing they received during that trip, mainly due to Marshall Brown's attitude which might probably best be described as "patronizing". In short, an opportunity was missed and many feelings were hurt.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[fasstrack]

Very sorry to hear about your loss.

Keep looking forward anyway.

On a totally unrelated note (i.e. the following is really not a matter of respect towards of the just deceased - Marshall Brown has been gone for close to 30 years, it seems), though, this remark of yours had ME shake for a second:

...and in the early '80s in Marshal Brown's ensemble (Marshal was a rightfully famous jazz teacher of Newport Youth Band fame who taught me to play rhythm guitar among other things).

No doubt Marshall Brown has rightfully earned credentials in various fields but please try not to mention his "fame" in connection with the "Newport Youth Band" (I assume you are referring to the INTERNATIONAL Newport Youth Band of 1958, not to the Farmingdale band) - that is, unless you want to incur the ire of many, many European jazz musicians and scribes who witnessed that band project in connection with the Newport festival (those who still are around anyway). I won't quote from reports about that Stateside trip of European jazz musicians (all of whom had been looking forward to that event though they by no means were still "young"sters anymore) published throughout Europe but by all accounts most of the musicans really were bitterly disappointed by the condescending treatment and straitjacketing they received during that trip, mainly due to Marshall Brown's attitude which might probably best be described as "patronizing". In short, an opportunity was missed and many feelings were hurt.

I never knew if it was Marshall or Marshal, Steve. I guess the former. Never had to spell it.

I'm not sure what happened on that trip, not being there. All I know is, yes Marshall was pushy and egotistical. But he also took me as a 'scholarship student', a fact he announced to visitors, and I gloated internally as he did. At the time I was playing guitar duets in guys' apartments. They were good players. A few, like the late like Tim Breen and Sam Brown, were among the best. But I had no ensemble skills or experience, and that's what I (we all) got at Marshall's Wednesday sessions. Guys like me and Wade played Marshall's book with regulars like Hod O Brien and Gene Allen. I remember Beaver Harris coming by to play. After a couple of horn players showed up Marshall would say 'we got enough' and we'd start. He taped everything, and that was the basis of his after-session critiques. He had phenomenal ears as a critic and everyone in that joint got the Marshall treatment, Hod and Gene included. So it was worth him rubbing you the wrong way once in a while with his brazenness. It was a great experience I was lucky to have, and definitely 'real-world'. I was ready to be a pro after that.

[Big Beat Steve]

I'm not sure what happened on that trip, not being there. All I know is, yes Marshall was pushy and egotistical.

I wouldn't want to derail your thread unduly, Joel, and obviously I wasn't there either so suffice it to say that what I remember from those various jazz mag reports on the Newport festival and the entire "Youth band" tour really was fairly shocking to read. Swedish sax man Bernt Rosengren wrote an article where he bitterly complained about the way the musicians were treated like kindergarten kids, how several musicians had plans of immediately returning home after ONE week of that U.S. stay (and only stayed on board after Willis Conover intervened) and how Gerry Mulligan was so smitten by the band that he not only wrote a chart for the band but also volunteered to come along to the Youth Band's projected appearance at the Brussels World Fair to appear with them there, only to be turned down because Marshall Brown "found him too poor a musician to be part of that project".

Nuff said? Guess so. Other reports published at the time more or less went into the same direcion.

No doubt he was a teacher in the right place and for the right purpose to further your musciianship at the time you were in his class, and by all means do hold him in high esteem for what you have learnt from him - but, please, don't do it for that 1958 Newport band project.

[fasstrack]

I'm not sure what happened on that trip, not being there. All I know is, yes Marshall was pushy and egotistical.

I wouldn't want to derail your thread unduly, Joel, and obviously I wasn't there either so suffice it to say that what I remember from those various jazz mag reports on the Newport festival and the entire "Youth band" tour really was fairly shocking to read. Swedish sax man Bernt Rosengren wrote an article where he bitterly complained about the way the musicians were treated like kindergarten kids, how several musicians had plans of immediately returning home after ONE week of that U.S. stay (and only stayed on board after Willis Conover intervened) and how Gerry Mulligan was so smitten by the band that he not only wrote a chart for the band but also volunteered to come along to the Youth Band's projected appearance at the Brussels World Fair to appear with them there, only to be turned down because Marshall Brown "found him too poor a musician to be part of that project".

Nuff said? Guess so. Other reports published at the time more or less went into the same direcion.

No doubt he was a teacher in the right place and for the right purpose to further your musciianship at the time you were in his class, and by all means do hold him in high esteem for what you have learnt from him - but, please, don't do it for that 1958 Newport band project.

Well, Marshall was a pain in the ass. Misogynistic, too, as I remember. One of his jokes was 'I've always been married. Just not to the same woman'. But I stand by what I said. It was great knowing him, nasty mouth and all. Hell, my mother could put him to shame!

[fasstrack]

(This was double-posted in the Jewish-black thread b/c it's germane to both IMO. If it annoys anyone I'll take one down. No biggie).

OK: Wade's funeral (cracks knuckles)... I arrived at Unity Funeral Home on Frederick Douglass Blvd. today at 3 or so. Signed the book and went to look for Wade's family. Paid my respects and reintroduced myself to Wade's mom---after 37 years---and sat down. They are warm, lovely people, and before I split I met them all. I could see they've all had great, full lives. The only drag for me was the open coffin and 'nuff said. People were filing in and conversations started.Bertha Hope was there when I arrived, and sitting at a little Previa keyboard at the front left corner by a makeshift bandstand that also had a drum set.

Barry Harris showed up soon after and I was sure glad he made it. We hugged and said hello. I told him 'Tardo (Hammer) is playing his ass off' 'Always did'. 'Where's your guitar?' 'I came from Midtown, man'. Soon cats I didn't know (except for Richie Clemmons, piano)-alto, keyboard, and drums- played as more people filed in. Jazz fans would know Harold Mabern, Stanley Banks, and George Braith.

More 'workaday' cats filed in, too: Dwayne Clemmons, trumpet; Josh Benko, alto. Kathy Farmer sat at the keyboard and played My Romance beautifully. She was asked to stop and happily complied, since it was time to play recordings of Wade's groups.

At little after 6 the preacher got up to start the official service. After his opening remarks, followed by Wade's niece' the floor was opened to those who would speak. Barry 'spoke' by striding slowly to the keyboard, introducing a 'dirge' he originally wrote for Walter Davis Jr., then playing and singing his own lyric about life, mortality, and what we do with our lives and gifts in-between---movingly. He got up, and walking as he talked remarked that Eubie Blake once 'said he wasn't done when he reached 100 years old. I plan to live at least that long'. The speech concluded---to applause---the moment he reached his pew to sit. Phil Schaap spoke about having known Wade since Wade was a teen, his transition from 'out' music to more traditional, and a bit about the 'Brooklyn beboppers'-to whom he said Wade belonged. Whatever-but Phil kept it short and sincere. I dug it. The next speaker made a sly comment on a silly typo on the program everyone was snickering over anyway: 'Selection: Take 5-Charlie Parker. (Brubeck's recording had been played earlier-introduced by our friendly preacher, sans correction) and it's beyond me why this was chosen or what Take 5 meant to Wade, but it's always wonderful to hear Paul Desmond, so what the hell! The speaker got a hearty laugh for pointing out that he 'never heard Bird play Take 5, but Bird loved Paul Desmond' Very cagey!

It was time to go but I left full, revivified, and thrilled that every seat was filled to honor a guy I feared would be forgotten, and I had actually misjudged everyone by having no idea was this loved. I should have known. It's all in the life you live.

Edited March 11, 2012 by fasstrack

[fasstrack]

My condolences - it's alway very sad to hear about the loss of friends.

You knew Sam Furnace? I saw him play in Cologne with Mongo Santamaria's band in the early 1980's - very good sax player. Didn't know he had passed ...

Sam and I went to the Local 802 program---a special 2-day-a-week BA through the musician's union. He also preceded me in Jaki Byard's Apollo Stompers. I was interested in getting the band and I told him 'I don't care about the bread'. Chuckle. then 'That's good, 'cause no bread's involved'. He also played bari on a sax quartet arrangement of mine on A Child is Born. He was a great guy too, whose best friend was another unsung saxophonist, Jimmy Cozier. I went to a Mongo rehearsal with Sam, now that you mention it. Somewhere in Crown Heights. Mongo was cool and seemed down-to-earth.

Sam was given the same outpouring of love at his passing as Wade. He was only 49, but he played and laughed right to the end.