Farewell to Herb Geller and Yusef Lateef but not to Horace Silver

Just caught up with the sad news that altoist Herb Geller died on December 19 and multi reedman Yusef Lateef died on December 23.

Herb Geller was one of my favourite alto players ever since I heard his version of Bess You is my Woman Now with Clifford Brown and others on an Emarcy Jam Session back in the 1950s. Another favourite was Hollywood Portraits in which he paints musical pictures of stars such as Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Lana Turner and others. Geller, who was 85, died in Hamburg. Sadly missed.

Obituary (includes lovely clip of Herb playing If I Were a Bell.).

Yusef Lateef was a more enigmatic player often striding an experimental path that incorporated eastern rhythms and modes - particularly on oboe. His pedigree is illustrious including time spent with Cannonball, Dizzy and innumerable sessions under his own name.

A reported influence on John Coltrane there were also traces of Lateef in some of Roland Kirk's work.

He was 93.

Obituary.

Lance.

As Mark Twain may or may not have famously said, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.".

And so it was with Horace Silver last week. Jazzwise posted the obituary and we believed it. It was later found to be incorrect and withdrawn.

According to one source, upon hearing the 'sad' news Terry Gibbs phoned up the Silver household to offer his condolences only to find the phone being answered by Horace Silver himself!

"Hey man you're supposed to be dead!"

"I ain't dead, I'm watching a DVD of Monk."

Thank you Simon Spillett for that gem.