Michael Garrick and Gordon Beck RIP

[Guest]

Sad to report the death of Michael Garrick yesterday. He was 78.
There's more about this on the London Jazz blogspot.

[burning dog]

Sad to report the death of Michael Garrick yesterday. He was 78.
There's more about this on the London Jazz blogspot.

RIP

Very sad, and Gordon Beck died last week I just found out.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gordon-beck-pianist-renowned-for-his-work-with-tubby-hayes-6260293.html

[Norfolk Born]

Sad to report the death of Michael Garrick yesterday. He was 78.
There's more about this on the London Jazz blogspot.

Sad indeed. I saw the Quintet at the Nuffield Theatre in the University of Southampton in the mid-1960s. The highlight of the evening, for me at any rate, was 'Black Marigolds'.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was at the JLU sesh in the RFH this afternoon. Julian Joseph announced that Mike's Big Band was to do one of the sessions at the Maida Vale Studios sometime in December. Obviously he hadn't heard.

This is very sad news and a huge loss. I'd known Mike quite well, and sensed he was losing strength. For all his eccentricities, he was a very important figure - much has been written on these boards about his contributions to the homegrown scene in the '60s; my favourite period was the early '70s, the Argo recording period, and I felt it was a very brave move when he went off to Berkeley in 1975, clearly sensing he still had much to learn. From 1985 on the big bands covered a huge range of stylistic territory, including covering early and neglected Ellington covers, and seems to have been the activity the provided him with the greatest enjoyment, though I feel it was his pianistic skills, including unaccompanied soloist, where he shone best. He helped in a big way introduce many new names, and his contributions to jazz education in this country were invaluable.

RIP Mike

[charles t]

Coincidentally, was recently (re)viewing Gordon Beck on this Laserdisc, after a ten year (viewing) hiatus.

Gordon, he of that pencil-thin mustache...possibly explained by lieu of his regular gig: that of a (civil?) engineer.

Also Michael Garrick's Jazz Praises in St. Paul's is, for me, a sacred classic.

[IMG][/IMG]

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... both Michael Garrick and Gordon Beck were very great contributors to jazz on these islands and abroad ....

with permission i will alter the thread title to reflect both artists ...

[burning dog]

... both Michael Garrick and Gordon Beck were very great contributors to jazz on these islands and abroad ....

with permission i will alter the thread title to reflect both artists ...

Thanks Calum, I didn't want to start a second RIP column and get like other parts of the forum This is the best way I think, if the other agree.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks Calum, I didn't want to start a second RIP column and get like other parts of the forum This is the best way I think, if the other agree.

Seconded - and thanks Calum. I only met Gordon Beck once, and found him to be friendly and very relaxed. If anything he became marginalised in the Britjazz scene, becoming part of the jazz brain drain and spending much time abroad and becoming very much associated idiomwise with the Gary Burton area of American jazz in the 70s. I don't have that many of his recordings; I think my favourite is his duet with Allan Holdsworth from 1981, "Things We See", though the one posted by Charles T is a real corker.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

He (Gordon Beck) also played with the great Tubby Hayes and Art Of Life have issued Commonwealth Blues from Tubby’s 1965 quartet...

‘There wasn’t really a saxophone player to touch him. But he was difficult to work with. The way he would stop the band on stage and say, ‘What’s the matter? Can’t you get this effing tune off the floor?’ He had a go at me a couple of times but you learn. That’s the thing that you want to come out it. It’s like any profession. It’s been an up and down sort of thing. But on balance, I ain’t done too bad.’

Indeed. Sad to see him go (don't forget the great Qrt with Phil Woods) and also Mike Garrick. Eras are truly ending.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Eras are truly ending.[/B]BN.

This is the thing. It has become an enormous privilege to have talked to and even got to know some of those musicians, and say such things as, "When you first started out, did you ever dream that one day you would be working with the likes of Elvin Jones?" Thank heavens the country is buzzing with talented committed young jazzers - yet talk to many of them and they quickly refer back to those recordings we grew up with in the 60s and 70s - Tubbs, Surman, John Taylor and co. While attending what one can, one wonders how they too will fare.

(Must be the autumn getting to me!)

[burning dog]

These boots are made for walking miles(tones)??

[Serial_Apologist]

For those who haven't noticed, Mike's trumpet playing son Gabriel is to lead the MG Big Band in a performance of Mike's "Peter Pan Suite". For anyone wishing to get to this, the performance is at the Maida Vale Studio 3 at 7.30 pm on Monday, 19th December, for broadcast on JLU on Xmas Day at 11 pm.

Http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnmw

(Scroll down to bottom of page)

For those who appreciated Mike's penchant for wordplay, the resultant performance will presumably be a Garrickature...

[Alyn_Shipton]

The Michael Garrick Jazz Library is being repeated on 17 Dec at midnight as a tribute. He was largely responsible for getting me into jazz - and I have amessage from him left just before he went into hospital on my answering machine asking me to give him a call... I never had the chance to call him back.

[charles t]

There is a particular seller on e-bay who currently has a hornswaggle of Gordon Beck stuff - reasonable:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/art-of-life-records/m.html?hash=item562b037c95&item=370088836245&pt=Music_CDs&_trksid=p4340.l2562