[Dixielandjazz] Billy Maxted was Dixielandjazz digest, Vol 1 #308 - 26 msgs

[Will Connelly]

Dear Pat - I posted the following on September 30th last year, just 
after Billy Maxted died:


The regrettably incomplete and inaccurate obituary below appeared on
jazz legend Billy Maxted in the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel this
morning.

Notably omitted were Billy's heroic wartime service as a carrier-based
Navy fighter pilot in the Pacific and his years with Bill Thomas's
Bourbon Street Jazz Band in South Florida; what was possibly his last
public performance at the memorial service for fellow Bourbon Streeter
bassist Ray Brown; and the caring friendship and attention given to him
by Bourbon Street cornetist Hal Donovan through the years of his fading
memory. Billy also played occasionally with Billy Butterfield and with
Andy Bartha, and all-too-rarely got local gigs in which he could
reassemble his own swinging Manhattan Jazz Band.

Billy Maxted will be remembered by those who worked for him as a
grouchy, demanding perfectionist - but he will be forever memorialized
by the legacy of the great - and still played -  charts he wrote for
Goodman, Bob Crosby and other leaders.

Contrary to the story, Satin Doll was not Billy's composition - that
honor belongs to Billy Strayhorn and lyricist Johnny Mercer. But his
Manhattan Jazz Band recording was a chart topper and remains, for many,
the perfect rendition of the tune.  And he was born in 1917, not 1961.

Here's the story:

                       William Maxted, 84, worked with jazz greats

By Rafael A. Olmeda
Staff Writer

September 30, 2001

Alzheimer's disease stole much from William Maxted. It stole his ability
to recognize his children. It stole his ability to recognize his
grandchildren. But there were two things Alzheimer's could never steal,
two things Mr. Maxted remembered until the day he died.

He always remembered his wife, Inez.

And he always remembered his music.

Mr. Maxted, a Big Band era jazz musician who wrote for Benny Goodman and
played with Glenn Miller, died Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale Health
and Rehabilitation Center. He was 84.

At his widow's Fort Lauderdale home Saturday, Mr. Maxted's family
recalled him fondly as a dedicated composer who could write music for a
dozen
instruments.

While he loved his children, he lacked the patience to teach them how to
play the piano, said his daughter, Linda Gagliardo.

Born in Racine, Wis., in 1961, Mr. Maxted lived in Long Island, N.Y. for
much of his life until he moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1961. His most
widely-known composition was Satin Doll, made famous in 1969 by Reg
Owens.

While living in New York, Mr. Maxted was a fixture at a Greenwich
Village club called Nick's, his daughter said.

It was there he met notable celebrities such as Jackie Gleason. On the
cover of a 1963 album called The Big Swingers, Mr. Maxted is pictured
sitting
behind an upright piano on a golf course, watching Jack Nicklaus taking
a swing.

"He wouldn't have the patience to do anything but sit at the piano and
write," said Inez Maxted. "He'd play something and write it down. Then
he'd play
again and write it down. He'd write for every instrument in the
orchestra.
Sometimes six instruments, sometimes 10, sometimes 12."

In the last few years of his life, Mr. Maxted suffered from Alzheimer's,
emphysema and heart problems.

As his condition deteriorated, he occasionally forgot family members and
close friends.

The last person to make him smile was his son-in-law, Ron Gagliardo, who
read Mr. Maxted's scrapbook to him. "I was reading about his life," Ron
said.

"I read how Benny Goodman asked him to play and he said no."

Mr. Maxted remembered that and smiled, the Gagliardos recalled.

Shortly before that, daughters Linda and Grace brought smiles to his
face by dancing to Satin Doll.

In the weeks before he died, family members would play tapes of his
music on a White Westinghouse portable tape player. Plugging the
earphones in,
Linda Gagliardo would ask, "Who is that?"

"That's a damn good band," Mr. Maxted replied, moving his hands and feet
in time with the music.

"He always knew my mother and he always knew his music," his daughter
said.

Maxted is also survived by two sons.