Chuck Nessa Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Tom Evered posted this on Face Book this morning: Very sad news from New York. Two of my greatest friends, Bruce Lundvall and Bob Belden are in critical conditions in hospitals. Bruce has been battling Parkinsons for a few years. Recently he acquired a lung infection which has ravaged him and is making breathing almost impossible. At this moment his family is at his side at the hospital in New Jersey. He is struggling to stay with us. On Sunday musician/composer/raconteur Bob Belden suffered a massive heart attack at his apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. By the time the medics arrived he had been without a pulse for almost 15 minutes. I visited him last night at Lenox Hill hospital, where I ran into Tim Hagans and his wife. Bob is on life support...breathing apparatus, etc. and is non-responsive. His sister and brother in law have flown up from South Carolina. I had no discussion with the family or the doctors so I can't speak for them or Bob's condition...but it looks very grim. These are dark days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HutchFan Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 So sorry to hear this news... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 My thoughts go out to both Bruce and Bob. We'd all be much poorer if not for their service to music and the musicians we celebrate on this board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgcim Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Man, Bob Belden is only 58. Very sad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Damn. Belden is a terrific guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 This is horrible news! Bob is such a great guy. I've had several long E-mail communications with him and he shared some of his space project surround music pieces with me. 58 is way too young. Bruce has been having trouble for quite a while and I was expecting news like this some day. But Bob... just wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeway Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 A sad turn of events. Those names bring back a lot of memories from the old board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunky Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Very sad news. Two stalwarts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Belden? Oh man, 58 is so young, All my thoughts and prayers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Sad news. Bob has been like a friend, and I'm just a year older. Bruce I don't know, but so sorry to hear of this. My best wishes to their families and friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Bob was a college friend and an inspiration of sorts, the first guy to really taunt "the program" and have success anyway...the one guy who turned me and a few others into hardcore BN collectors, the one ""name" guy amongst the "cool kids" who heard my own "free" inclinations and GOT it (had to earn it, though...), we were the only two people in Denton who came there with Sam Rivers records, I think .....we reconnected through the BNBB and have chatted back and forth ever since, the last time just last week...this is upsetting. Bob came to the school at 16, I think, and really couldn't play all that much. But he had attitude out the ass, more nerve than that, and more work ethic than that. The guy seemed to be playing something somewhere with somebody literally 24/7/365. Sure seemed that way. I remember one time...he walked into the cafeteria with his horn out of the case and a copy of Tetragon under his arm and wanted to know if anybody had a reed...geez, those were the days, nothing to do but play, nothing. Smart motherfucker, he was, smart. Cynical as hell too, but once he dug you and figured you were not bullshitting about music, he would not be your enemy, ever. We played together in an "experimental" big band, kind of an "Anti-Lab Band" and one day he came up to me and said, "man, I used to think you were the jivest cat here...now I realize you're just the weirdest"...gave me a deadpan look and then I said "fuck you, Belden" and then we both started laughing...this is how respect sometimes manifests itself. He was the kind of guy who would walk up to you and say with another one of those deadpan looks, "I was sitting in English class today and wrote out this George Coleman solo, wanna see it?" and you'd be, like fuck you, Belden, but with nothing but love, right? "Praying for a miracle" is not usually my style, but for this cat...this is upsetting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin V Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Horrible news. I'm hoping for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardbopjazz Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Sad news. My prayers are with the families. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 I'll never forget the way Belden, almost certainly without consciously intending to do so, put down so definitively one of jazz's more pompous pontificators while we and a few others were eating lunch at an Upper West Side sandwich shop that Mr. Pomposity got up and walked out in mid-sentence, leaving his half-eaten sandwich behind. Bob, bless him, didn't blink an eye, just kept on talking about what he'd been talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 I'll never forget the way Belden, almost certainly without consciously intending to do so, put down so definitively one of jazz's more pompous pontificators while we and a few others were eating lunch at an Upper West Side sandwich shop that Mr. Pomposity got up and walked out in mid-sentence, leaving his half-eaten sandwich behind. Bob, bless him, didn't blink an eye, just kept on talking about what he'd been talking about. The key word there is "almost". I remember a talk we had about the Animation/Reanimation band, and Bob said something to the effect that Americans don't particularly like learning new vocabulary, never mind new languages, something like that. Point was just that as far as "jazz" and "America" went, he wasn't even going to hold out any hope for his music, nor did he have to, thanks to internet/digital/etc. The Miles From India thing, that was as much a socio-technology statement as it was a musical one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l p Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) some screenshots of bob belden playing in woody herman's band 1979 nice, france. he is best seen in the photos in the top row, the 3 shots on the left. edit: looks like he posted this concert on his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Bobbelden/search?query=allintitle%3A+woody Edited May 20, 2015 by l p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted May 19, 2015 Report Share Posted May 19, 2015 Belden's Turandot CD is incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 (edited) some screenshots of bob belden playing in woody herman's band 1979 nice, france. he is best seen in the photos in the top row, the 3 shots on the left. I think I saw that Woody Herman Band and had not realised that Bob Belden was in the lineup. My wishes for him and hoping for the best. What tragic news. Edited May 20, 2015 by sidewinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted May 20, 2015 Report Share Posted May 20, 2015 Just terrible ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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