Bobby Rosengarden dies

[brownie]

From The New York Times today.

BOBBY ROSENGARDEN, 82, 'DICK CAVETT SHOW' BANDLEADER, DIES

By COREY KILGANNON

Published: March 2, 2007

Bobby Rosengarden, a jazz drummer who worked with musicians from Igor Stravinsky to Jimi Hendrix but became best known for making musical wisecracks as the bandleader on “The Dick Cavett Show,” died Tuesday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 82.

The cause was kidney failure, said his wife, Sharon Rosengarden.

A veteran of television network orchestras, talk-show bands and recording sessions, Mr. Rosengarden played bongos for Harry Belafonte, banged a metal triangle on the Ben E. King hit record “Stand By Me” and cupped his hands to blow the eerie hooting hyena sound on the theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” during a recording session for a radio-ready version of the song. He played conga on “She Cried” by Jay and the Americans, the water gong for the pianist Dick Hyman and finger cymbals on an Arlo Guthrie recording. He was also adept at the saw, spoons and the washboard.

But he was most at home driving a big band with a drum set. He played on “The Steve Allen Show,” “The Ernie Kovacs Show,” “Sing Along With Mitch” and in the early years of Johnny Carson’s version of “The Tonight Show.”

“Musically, he was a man for all seasons, just a consummate musician who could, and did, play with everybody,” said David Barnhizer, who was a director of “The Dick Cavett Show” when Mr. Rosengarden led the band.

On the Cavett show, he would accompany a seemingly endless of entertainers and banter with Mr. Cavett, and he became known for signaling “walk on” themes for each guest. When a guest who was a sex therapist was introduced, the band played “I Can’t Get Started”; the artist Salvador Dali was greeted with “Hello, Dolly.”

Robert Marshall Rosengarden was born April 23, 1924, in Elgin, Ill., and started learning percussion at the age of 4. He won a scholarship to study music at the University of Michigan. After playing drums in Army bands in World War II, Mr. Rosengarden moved to New York City during a golden age for studio and jazz musicians. He developed contacts playing in nightclubs, and by the early 1950s, his versatility and sight-reading skills made him a frequent choice for jazz and pop recording sessions and for television network staff orchestras.

He played with groups led by Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Skitch Henderson, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and Benny Goodman. In 1965, he played a Stravinsky piece with the Columbia Jazz Band, a recording group, with Stravinsky conducting. He backed up singers including Billie Holliday, Carmen McRae, Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Rosengarden is survived by his sons, Mark and Neil, and four grandsons.

Several years ago, Mr. Rosengarden watched himself on a typical Cavett show, from July 7, 1969. Mr. Cavett coaxed his guest Jimi Hendrix into playing a song, backed by Mr. Rosengarden and the show’s bassist, George Duvivier. Mr. Rosengarden commented that his drumming on the song showed how he had managed to mesh with so many different musical styles.

“I just stayed out of the way, baby,” he said. “Stayed out of the way.”

[GA Russell]

RIP. I remember him from the Cavett Show, which I used to watch every night when I was in college, but I didn't know that he had such experience with so many other greats.

[brownie]

Bobby Rosengarden had only one session as a leader. A delightful trio date that came out on Chiroscuro: 'The Trio' with Hank Jones and Milt Hinton. In the end, the album was not released under his name.

[AllenLowe]

hippest band on TV - one day there was a member of the Jimmy Carter administration on, and they were discussing the controversy over the proposed Anti-Ballistic Missle System that Carter had proposed. The Carter guy said, in the interview with Cavett, that they had received a lot of mail in support of the system - at the commercial break the band played "I'm Gonna Sit RIght Down and Write Myself a Letter (and make Believe it Came from You)" -

[mikeweil]

Oh - another veteran of the music going to heaven. RIP.

[Lazaro Vega]

Around 1983 Rosengarden played at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp with the Blue Lake Monster, our faculty big band. Warm and easy going guy who could really swing. RIP.

[Teasing the Korean]

No mention of Phil Kraus?!? What gives?