Dick Buckley has died

[Chuck Nessa]

Reported by Neil Tesser here.

[Free For All]

Very sorry to hear this. I enjoyed him on the radio for many, many years. A big loss.

[Larry Kart]

I owe a lot to him.

[Sundog]

Other than my father, probably most responsible for widening my jazz horizons. RIP Dick.

[Chuck Nessa]

All Chicago jazz fans do. On top of everything, he was a very nice man.

[ghost of miles]

I heard him only a few times in his last years of broadcasting via the Internet, but it was enough to give me more than a glimmer of why he's mattered so much for so long to Chicago-area jazz fans. I think it was Larry who once posted something very insightful about him here, to the effect of "you could tell he always liked whatever he was playing, and that made a difference in how the music came across." (LK, pardon the poor paraphrase.) I'm thankful for that example & standard of integrity, and also for the positive role he played in the listening lives of Chicago-area jazz folk here whom I respect very much.

[Jay]

Awful. A legend and a big musical inspiration.

[Chuck Nessa]

He was proud of introducing Ornette to the Chicago radio audience, but his heart was with the swingers.

[Lazaro Vega]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-100722-wbez-dick-buckley-dead,0,332569.column

[Guest Bill Barton]

Another role-model for me in terms of doing radio, along with the late Harry Abraham. Living where I did in the Northeast and now in the Pacific Northwest I had very few direct experiences with his dulcet tones and impeccable taste in music, but the few times I did hear him I was blown away. R.I.P. to a great broadcaster.

[johnlitweiler]

What? Did Dick Buckley ever actually play an Ornette Coleman record over the air? When? Did he apologize?

I certainly remember the months of struggle and red tape we (and Alex Schlippenbach) went through to get the Globe Unity Orchestra to play at the Chicago Jazz Festival in (I think) 1987, the drunken m.c. that night, the audience members who booed (George Lewis wrote about this in his Globe Unity anniversary liner notes), and the viciousness of Buckley's NPR attack on the band and the festival, for booking them. I lost a lot of my former respect for Buckley that night.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes, "calcification" set in later in his life but at one time he made a point to me of his championing of OC.

He did a bunch of good.

I did not know about the Globe Unity situation - I was enjoying the performance and later drinking with the band.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Chuck Nessa