Category: people

“Paramount among them is Gerald Busby, composer, pianist, author of one of the great modern dance scores (Paul Taylor’s Runes), H.I.V. survivor, and also, at one time, as he confides openly, a crack addict. In his tiny studio apartment, complete with piano, at the hotel … on a good morning you can still find him holding forth on art, life, music, Robert Altman, Virgil Thomson, the crack epidemic, and the many uses of hotel (and human) adversity.”

“He created striking museums and university buildings in India and abroad — including one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his alma mater — as well as housing for a country with an ever-growing population.”

“In addition to being fiercely proud of his self-taught status, he had an iconoclastic streak, and had a busy sideline delivering jeremiads in which he railed against either his listeners’ approach to music making or the musical world in general.”

“Schuller began his career in the 1940s as a horn player with the Cincinnati Symphony and Metropolitan Opera, but his love of jazz led him to also become involved in New York’s bebop scene. He played on trumpeter Miles Davis’ seminal “Birth of the Cool” 1949-50 recording session.”

Harold Battiste “was instrumental in developing New Orleans music icon Mac Rebennack’s famous Dr. John persona, producing his celebrated first album, 1968’s ‘Gris Gris,’ a spooky, psychedelic-tinged stew of voodoo New Orleans R&B recorded in L.A. Battiste and Dr. John reportedly cut the album quickly using leftover studio time from a Sonny and Cher session.”

“‘You can’t be admitted to the ranks of writers of importance unless you have sales,’ he said. Mr. Salter had to settle for an admiring readership on college campuses and critical acclaim, even if the praise came with a touch of sympathy.”

“At a time when everything is a branding opportunity, and toasts live on for posterity in social media, few people want to be memorialized “um”-ing, “you know”-ing” and “remember that time we got drunk”-ing their way into ignominy. And yet: Nobody wants to admit he Botoxed his son’s bar mitzvah toast with some punch lines from an “Everybody Loves Raymond” writer. A result is a little-known under-the-table economy.”

“[He was] a sharp judge of talent who saw more than a shy gag-writer in Woody Allen and believed that the manic improvisations of Robin Williams would crack up audiences … To his clients – who also included Billy Crystal, David Letterman, Lenny Bruce and the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, an American pantheon of hilarity – he was a father-confessor, real estate agent, psychiatrist, marriage counselor and financial guru.”

“Having embarked on a mission to turn waste into beauty, Chand used broken crockery, iron foundry clinker, electric plug moulds, fluorescent tubes, bicycle frames, bottles, glass bangles, shells, cooking pots and smashed up bathroom fittings to create his wonderland” – the Rock Garden of Chandigarh.

The spokeswoman for Gustavo Dudamel said via mail that the cancellations were due to “intense lower back spasms which have not been alleviated by prescribed medical treatment. His doctors have now ordered him to temporarily cease all work, get immediate further treatment, and rest.”