Most of my friends know that I have been in love with jazz guitarist Jeff Golub for 20 years, and that he sadly passed away on January 1. I was blessed to travel to New York this week and attend a memorial benefit concert for his family. The advertised featured lineup of all-star artists listed Mindi Abair, Rick Braun, Randy Brecker, Henry Butler, Lionel Cordew, Christopher Cross, Mark Egan, Richard Elliot, Bill Evans, Chuck Loeb, Philippe Saisse, Kirk Whalum, Kenny White, and Dave Koz. Listed “additional musicians” were Mitch Foreman, Conrad Korsch, Lionel Cordew, Roger Squitero, Shawn Pelton, Josh Dion, Tony Beard, Steve Barbuto, Sammy Merendino, and Tony Garnier.
When I found out about the concert after it was announced last month, I immediately looked into the possibility of attending. Keith did not feel that he could afford to take the time off of work in the middle of a January week, but with his blessing, I found an airfare/hotel deal for myself and booked the trip. While standing in the line outside of the club in 35 degrees for an hour and a half to get a great seat (since I had a “general admission” ticket), I made friends with and joined a group of three NY guys who are in the music business. We began by sharing our interest in SCUBA diving, but this hook-up greatly advanced the quality of my seat once we got inside!
In addition to the promoted artists, there were other musicians that must have signed up last minute. I am looking through my dark and blurry indoor pictures to help me remember. Chieli Minucci, Michael Lington, Don Harris and other members of Jeff’s original band Avenue Blue, and several other local (New York) musicians that my new friends knew, and even Jeff’s neurologist sang – passably, but it was moving. There were other musicians I have not listed because I did not know who they were. Unlike a normal concert, there was not a ton of introductions of the musicians – it was all about Jeff.
They did a video slideshow including still and video clips of Jeff performing while they played audio of him performing Cold Duck Time. A few words were spoken, but mostly music. The music lasted for about 3½ hours. Jeff’s two sons, aged 13 and 11, left after a couple of hours – it was tough. Toward the end, Jeff’s widow Audrey proclaimed her love and grief and joy in a loud voice from her un-mic’d seat to a hushed crowd following a speaking part where we were hearing about progressive supranuclear palsy, the disease which finally claimed his life. Radio personality Pat Prescott moderated the evening. It was truly amazing.
On January 2, Rolling Stone included the following Jeff quote in their announcement of his death, which sums up why I have been in love with him all of these years:
“To me, there’s only two kinds of music: the kind that’s from the heart and the kind that’s not. Regardless of the style or genre, music is either real or it’s not real. I like any kind of music that’s from the heart, and that’s the kind that I try to make.”
Loading comments...