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Music Notes: 2005's Musical Roll Call of the Dead
By
David Amos
SAN
DIEGO—As I prepare for my annual column of people in music who have passed
away in 2005, I never cease to be amazed at the large number of people who have
left us. As complete as I try to make this list, omissions are always possible,
and when we list the “Locally from San Diego” people, keep in mind that
every city and country in the world has its own musical luminaries. The impact
of these losses is enormous.
Add to this the fact that last year we lost many important pianists and
conductors. I also try not to limit my lists to only the musicians of “my
music,” namely of the classical genre; this should be, and is list of all
contributors to the world of music. Take a close look at the listing called
“others.” You may be astonished at the variety of occupations that
contribute to the cause of music. Also, give a glance to categories that are not
particularly your favorites, and you may be surprised at the names you
recognize. No one is listed in order of any preference or ranking.
In a few weeks, I will write personal comments on the people in music
that are no longer with us, and that influenced my music making in one way or
another. I hope that you will find this interesting, and that it will shed some
insights into their personalities.
Here are the 2005 obituaries:
PIANISTS: Constance Keene, Lazar Berman, Ruth Laredo, Gyorgy Sandor.
CLASSICAL AND OPERA SINGERS: Sopranos Ghenna Dimitrova (Bulgaria), Helen
Phillips, and the great Birgit Nilsson. Mezzo-soprano Nell Rankin. Tenors James
King and Enrico di Guisseppe. Baritone Piero Cappuccilli.
CONDUCTORS: Sixten Ehrling, Marcello Viotti, Sergiu Comissiona, Gary
Bertini, Skitch Henderson, Samuel Krachmalnick, Hermann Michael, Vakhtang
Jordania, and Carlo Maria Giulini.
CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTALISTS: Violinists Robert Koff, Norbert Brainin,
Isidore Cohen, Robert Gerle. Guitarist Derek Bailey, harpist Sidonie Goosens,
oboist Jerome Roth, and legendary trumpeter William Vacchiano.
COMPOSERS: David Diamond, Donald Martino, Joel Hirschhorn, Nick Perito,
and Lyle Murphy.
IN DANCE, MODERN AND CLASSIC: Raisa Struchkova, Philip Horvitz, Ross
Stretton, Alfredo Corvino, Gordon Boelzner, David Nillo, Sara Levi-Tanai,
Fernando Bujones, Sybil Shearer, Malcovia Ruiz, and Judith Thomas Stark.
ON THE SAN DIEGO LOCAL SCENE: Music education pioneer Helen Dundee
Nelson, guitarist Antonio Valdivia, trombonist Joseph Yenetto, trumpeters Murray
Davidson and Howie Roberts, UCSD music educator John Silber, SDSU music educator
Robert Brown, pianist and teacher Pearl Brigham, pianist Shirley Allen, educator
and opera activist William Adams, baritone Anthony Ciotti, teacher and singer
Anna Mae Sleet, concert promoter Jim Pagni, music minister L. Robert Slusser,
organist and entertainer Danny Topaz, and songwriter-vocalist Brad Kirn.
IN JAZZ AND BLUES: Guitarists Bill de Arango, Billy Bauer, and Al Casey.
Drummers Ken Johnson, Stan Levey, and Larry Bunker. Pianists Francy Boland, and
Tom Talbert. Bassists Keter Betts, Al Mckibbon, and Jack Lesberg. Saxophonists
John Stubblefield, Lucky Thompson, and Steve Marcus. Trumpeters Benny Bailey and
Chris Griffin. Also Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund, scholar Walter Schaap,
British Blues legend Long-John Baldry, Band leader Charlie Hampton, disc jockey
Sam Fields, and vocalist Shirley Horn.
IN THE WORLD OF POP AND GOSPEL: Singers Noel Nicola, Jody Berry, John
Raitt, Edward Patten, George Scott, Danny Joe Brown, Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero
Jr., Lyn Collins, Bobby Short, Joe Carter, Theodor Uppman, Oscar Brown Jr.,
Ronald Winans, Jimmy Martin, Luther Vandross, Al Downing, Frances Langford,
Eugene Record, John Herald, Hildegarde, Ibrahim Ferrer, Little Milton, Chris
Whiteley, Ossie Davis, Clarence Brown, Emilinha Borba, Paul Pena, Gloria Lasso,
and Obie Benson.
Pop instrumentalists, organizers, songwriters and bandleaders: Guitarists
Link Wray, R.L. Burnside, Eric Griffiths, and Chris Le Doux. Songwriters Jimmy
Griffin, Joe Harnell, Emery Williams Jr., and Baker Knight. Bandleaders Martin
Denny, Jules Herman, Blue Barron, and Sterling Weed. Accordionists Myron Floren,
and Verne Meisnier. Drummer Spencer Dryden, fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements, jug
and washtub bassist Fritz Richmond, rock impresario Chet Helms, and pianist
Johnnie Johnson.
OTHERS: Music producers Steve Burch and Eddie Barclay, Mexican broadcast
pioneer Consuelo Velazquez, Christmas music specialist Harry Simeone, vocal
arranger Trude Rittmann, musicologist Stanley Sadie, professional whistler
Jeanette Schmid, classical music executive Roger G. Hall, British Prime Minister
Sir Edward Heath (he conducted many orchestras, including the Jerusalem
Symphony), Carnegie Hall vice-chairman Arthur Zankel, Broadway orchestrator
Michael Gibson, writer, teacher and composer Sally Speare Lutyens, adapter of
classical music for Broadway Robert Wright, punk rock promoter Ester Wong,
creator of the music synthesizer Robert Moog, leader of the Oratorio Society
Lyndon Woodside, opera librettist Arnold Weinstein, pipe organ restorer Noel
Mander, folk music impresario Harold Leventhal, Irish arts official Jerome
Hynes, English music publisher Brian Roylance, San Francisco street performer
Grimes Poznikov, famous Greenwich Village record shop owner Franz Jolowicz, and
Christmas revels organizer and baritone John Langstaff.
This leaves the few musicians that I knew personally and with whom I
worked; they made a significant difference in my life, and I will write about
them in more detail in a future column. They include broadcaster and educator
Karl Haas, SDSU retired band director Norman Rost, conductor Frederick Fennell,
local music educator Eugene Bockemuehl, cellist Howard Colf, and the renowned
British concertmaster Hugh Bean.