Remembering my Father on this Memorial Day.
He gave his life so that all of us may be free. My Dad was there at the Battle of the Bulge where he got shot. He carried the bullet inside his hip all his life; a life of family joy but a life of constant physical pain. We love you Dad. You are always in our thoughts.
Ed Shaughnessy, left, performing with Buddy Rich in 1978.
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: May 26, 2013
ED SHAUGHNESSY, ‘TONIGHT’ DRUMMER, DEAD AT 84
The New York Times reports:
Ed Shaughnessy, whose deft drumming anchored the “Tonight Show” orchestra for 29 years, died on Friday at his home in Calabasas, Calif. He was 84.
The cause was a heart attack, said his son Dan.
Mr. Shaughnessy was a well-traveled and highly regarded jazz drummer when he was offered the “Tonight” job in 1963, shortly after Johnny Carson had taken over as the show’s host. He had performed or recorded with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday and numerous others. He had also worked for four years as a staff musician at CBS Television, and, remembering the tedium of that studio job, he was not sure he wanted another.
He agreed to take the “Tonight” gig for two weeks and see how he liked it. “When I got up there,” he recalled in a 2004 interview for the Percussive Arts Society, “and Doc Severinsen was the lead trumpet player, Clark Terry was sitting next to me in the jazz trumpet chair, and there were all these great players, I said, ‘My God, this is not your ordinary studio situation.’ ”
Mr. Shaughnessy took the job and never left. He remained when Mr. Severinsen replaced Skitch Henderson as the bandleader in 1967 and when “The Tonight Show” moved from New York City to Burbank, Calif., in 1972. When Jay Leno became the host in 1992 and brought in his own band, Mr. Severinsen kept his ensemble together for concert appearances, with Mr. Shaughnessy still in the drum chair.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/arts/music/ed-shaughnessy-tonight-drummer-dead-at-84.html
As Orchestras in America are busy hiring their 30-something foreign conductors (obviously experienced older American conductors are not worth the trouble of considering) and musicians and management are having their usual fights about contracts, i.e. money, even forcing orchestras to cancel all or part of their seasons, there is a quiet (at least on this side of the Pond) but serious scandal that just won’t go away in the UK. There have been countless allegations of abuse of students by their professors in some of the most elite music schools.
As report in the UK’s The Independent on May 12, “a former Yehudi Menuhin School pupil describes serious abusive and inappropriate behavior. Sacha Barlow, who is now assistant principal violist at the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in the US, studied at the Surrey-based institution until 1989. She says she “endured” her time there and it left emotional scars. Speaking from America, Ms Barlow said: ‘There was a lot of inappropriate behaviour that a number of teachers engaged in. A couple of them should not have been allowed anywhere near children.’ ”
The newspaper goes on and states, “Last week, the cellist Michal Kaznowski revealed that his former cello tutor Maurice Gendron controlled students through sadistic teaching methods over a 10-year period to 1977. A Surrey police investigation began earlier last week following allegations that the now deceased founding music director and Belgian pianist Marcel Gazelle assaulted girls in the school’s bedrooms.”
In a separate investigation, reports of sexual abuse at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester resulted in a second arrest on Friday. Duncan McTier, 58, a professor at the esteem Royal Academy of Music, was arrested on suspicion of indecently assaulting a 21-year-old student at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music in 1994. To date, 39 teachers past and present at the Manchester schools are now under investigation and police have appealed for victims or witnesses to continue to come forward.
Of course there are plenty of denials of the alleged charges. Richard Hillier, headmaster at the Yehudi Menuhin School, said: “I am not aware of any concerns expressed by pupils or staff in the mid-1980s.”
Some come to the defense of these predators and remark what was “accepted” 25 years ago years ago is now considered criminal. Something is just not right with that type of thinking: groping, fondling, denigrating, and sadistic teaching methods were all proper behavior for a teacher at these schools in the 1980s? Sexual and physical abuse was and is illegal and immoral during ANY time period! Instructors using their positions as leverage for committing these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Let’s hope more victims come forward and that this investigation puts those who took part in this horrific behavior are punished and moreover, are NEVER allowed to go near children for the rest of their loves.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fresh-abuse-claims-hit-top-music-school-8612402.html
Here We Go Again: “tasteless and not legitamate”
Nazi-themed Wagner opera cancelled in Germany after audience treated for shock!
A Nazi-themed production of the Wagner opera Tannhauser, which featured scenes of gas chambers and the execution of a family, has been cancelled after audience members had to receive medical treatment for shock.
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein, a leading German opera house that performs in Düsseldorf, said it could not justify artistic work with such an “extreme impact”.
The opera house said it had asked director Burkhard Kosminski to tone down scenes but he had refused. From Thursday onwards, the opera will be performed solely as a piece of music, without the staging, the opera house said.
At the opening of the Düsseldorf performance, performers could be seen inside glass chambers, falling to the floor as white fog flowed. The performance showed a family having their heads shaved and then being shot.
My question is: when the cast was rehearsing this, didn’t even one think that this was a bit over the top or was everyone just “following orders.”
Kosminski wouldn’t “tone it down” because of artistic reasons; really artistic? Rape, suicide, gas chambers; this is art? Maybe he needs a little history lesson about the 6 million. Maybe he just forgot!
I fault the management of the Deutsche Oper, the music director, the “artistic” director, and the cast for their insensitivity and their incredible stupidity for mounting such an obscene production.
19th Century “eye-candy”
From a recent online review of a candidate’s orchestra concert/audition-
“From his physical presence to his conducting style to the little flourish he makes with his bows, (he) personifies elegance. (My friend) advised me to mention the “eye-candy” factor. Yes, he’s got film-star good looks and stage presence.”
Don’t be surprised to see in the near future: To apply for this vacancy, you must have the following: A photo of your beautiful self that says “eye-candy!”- foreign sounding name helpful.
That’s about it: CV, press reviews, recommendations, references, CDs, years of experience all are optional.
Are we coming to that? A beauty contest for conductors? And you wonder why Orchestras in this country are struggling. Maybe conductors should start tossing little hankies like Liszt did.
Barry Araújo Kolman 