[Dixielandjazz] Sad news of one of our local greats!

Jazzadvocate (Ron Gable) jazzadvocate at kbcom.net
Wed Mar 17 18:09:44 PST 2004


A copy of an e-mail sent to me by a friend:



Pete Fallico has released the news of Hank Marr's death (3/16) on his website:

http://doodlinlounge.com/news.html

I received a phone call from one of my band mates early yesterday afternoon with the very sad news.

It is a huge loss to the world wide B3 community and the Columbus jazz community.

In addition to being a fine B3 and piano player, Hank was also a very giving teacher.

I had the privilege of studying with him for about 2 years during my grad school days. My studies were mostly on piano, but I dug out some of my old notes yesterday and saw a lesson or two we had done on B3 with registrations,  bass lines, etc.. to get me thinking about these things back when.

He also was very helpful to me in the day when female jazz musicians were fairly rare in our local scene freely giving recommendations, "biz pep talks"  etc.. Just an all around great fellow.

He had a great sense of humor both on stage and off. Many times he would do quotes (both jazz and many classical quotes) with a subtle smirk and just bring the house down.

He ran a jam session for years with tenor sax great Rusty Bryant ("Night Train"). If you didn't happen to sign up, he would still call you up to the stage. He was always encouraging to young jazz players.

Here are some sources for his recent recordings: http://www.hankmarr.com/recordings.asp

One of my favorite recent recordings of his is a reading of Jimmy McGriff's "City Lights" with the Tom Carroll trio, who he played with for years here in town. It is a very exciting version of the tune and is available here: http://www.cojazz.com/sales.htm

There are also 3 books in the Jamey Abersold series featuring Hank.

Volume 49: "Sugar"
Volume 59:  "Invitation"
Volume 65:  "Four and More"

www.aebersold.com

Linda Dachtyl


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