[Dixielandjazz] Another George Buck obituary--The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML and Musicians and Jazzfans list

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Here’s a George Buck obituary from The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA.  It has
essentially same material except some quotes from John Pult, New Orleans
jazz advocate.  It talks about the George Buck Foundation and Buck’s
provision for the business/music to continue after his death.  We’ll  be
interested to see how that turns out. George will be missed.

 

Another personal note:  George’s previous wife had been employed in the
music recording business.  She was Jewish.  She wanted a New Orleans style
funeral ( my recollection is that this occurred when he was still living in
Atlanta.)  George arranged for New Orleans style music to be played at the
funeral and it was recorded on LP.  George priced it very economically so
that it likely was a big seller.  My LPs are in boxes still from our
down-sizing  move about 1 ½ years ago, but I believe that it is still in my
possession. So, it will be of interest to see what kind of a “send off”
George and his family have planned.  As they say on the radio, “Stay tuned!”

 

I’ve heard from several of you who have had personal encounters with George
Buck.  The universal opinion was that he was a genuinely nice man who was
universally liked.

 

Norman

 

Friday Edition

December 13, 2013

Updated continually


theadvocate.com


News



Jazz enthusiast, producer George Buck dies at 84 


BY JAY MAZZA

Special to the Advocate

December 13, 2013

George H. Buck Jr., an unabashed devotee of traditional New Orleans jazz and
a music and radio entrepreneur, died Wednesday at his home in New Orleans.
He was 84.

Buck was best known in New Orleans as the co-owner of the Palm Court Jazz
Cafe on Decatur Street, which is run by Nina Buck, his wife of nearly 30
years. But behind that lively scene stands a veritable kingdom of jazz
recordings and old radio archives that Buck presided over with a
connoisseur’s touch.

Buck moved to New Orleans in the 1980s and purchased the building that
houses the Palm Court, a former French Market warehouse, to house his vast
inventory of records and to function as the headquarters for his many record
labels. The complex also includes a recording studio, besides the jazz club
and Creole restaurant on the ground floor.

Through the auspices of the George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation, Buck
operated nine record labels, selling traditional music to fans around the
world through his mail-order business. The labels included Jazzology,
focusing on traditional Chicago-style jazz, and G.H.B. Records, dedicated to
New Orleans traditional jazz.

“If you were a jazz fan, you were his friend,” said Jon Pult, a longtime
friend who also worked as a writer, editor and producer for the foundation.
“He followed one true religion, which was traditional jazz, even though he
hated that term. He called it ‘authentic.’ ”

Buck, a native of New Jersey, began his career as a traditional-music
preservationist in 1949 in New York City. He produced his first recordings
of his favorite musician, the cornet player Wild Bill Davison, accompanied
by Tony Parenti and the New Orleanians. But his career in the music business
had begun two years earlier with “Jazzology,” a radio program.

He saw the potential for success in radio and began acquiring radio
stations. From his headquarters in Atlanta he controlled a stable of
stations in mid-sized American cities, eventually including WTIX in New
Orleans.

	

His heart, however, remained committed to recording and preserving the
traditional sounds of American music.

“What I loved about George was that he had a childlike devotion to the
music; it was new and shiny every time he heard it. That devotion became
kind of an evangelical fervor,” Pult said.

Using the profits from his radio stations, Buck began acquiring older, often
floundering, labels. These included American, which was founded in New
Orleans by William Russell during the 1940s traditional-jazz revival and
memorialized the work of founding jazzmen like Bunk Johnson and George
Lewis.

Through his dogged efforts to preserve the music of the early 20th century,
Buck created what is arguably the largest collection of recordings of music
from the 1920s to the current day. He produced more than 1,000 albums. “I
don’t think people really understand how much stuff he put out,” Pult said.

Perhaps his greatest gift to fans of traditional American music was his
decision to transfer the assets of his businesses to his foundation. By
doing so more than 20 years ago, he ensured that the music would live on
after his death. According to an obituary on his website, Buck organized his
foundation to “insure that the catalog of music he assembled would remain in
print eternally.”

Besides his wife, Nina, Buck is survived by a son, Bo, and four
stepchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.