On Friday, May 24, 2002 at 6:06:01 PM UTC-4, Nina Taborin wrote:

Why not buy one less CD this week and send the money to Barney Kessel
who has made such an invaluable contribution to jazz music yet can't
pay his medical bills?

-----------------------------

May 23, 2002

Attention All Media

Legendary jazz guitarist, Barney Kessel needs your help. He was
diagnosed
with terminal brain cancer in November 2001. He had surgery, Gamma
knife
radiation and therapy to rehabilitate him enough so he could come home
in
late January 2002. The radiation slowed the growth of the very
aggressive
non-operable tumor (anaplastic astrocytoma). Barney requires 24 hour
home
care and therapy. He is almost blind, but he is able to still talk a
little
on the phone and receives visitors and enjoys listening to music.
Barney
has no life insurance. He has not worked in over ten years due to a
massive
stroke. His Social Security covers his rent. His wife, Phyllis works
full
time and her entire salary goes towards Barney's care.

Please send all checks to:

MRS. PHYLLIS KESSEL
4445 North Ave.
San Diego, CA 92116-3940

Please note: ALL monies are going directly to the source who needs it
(not
like other charities), going directly to Barney and Phyllis,
thank-you!

Barney Kessel is a legend in the history of jazz, one of the most
original
voices ever to play the guitar. During a 1991 engagement at New York's venerable Village Vanguard, the New York Post wrote, he's "one of the
finest
guitarists in jazz" and the New York Times referred to him as "a
master of
guitar".

Critic Leonard Feather called him "as lyrical a guitarist as we have
in
jazz...a rhythmic natural who can outswing any man in the house."
Among
Andre Previn?s praises for him are that "he has a staggering amount of technique, a healthy respect for the traditional, a ceaseless
curiosity for
the experimental, and an admirable and lovely harmonic sense." Nat
Hentoff
says simply, he?s "one of the most extraordinarily consistent and
emotionally huge improvisers of our era."

Kessel, known for his brilliant harmonic improvisation, bluesy and hard-driving earthy style, is one of the swingingest players in jazz.
A
master at pulling every last bit of emotion from a beautiful ballad,
and at
the other extreme setting an audience on fire with an up-tempo jazz
standard, he also delighted audiences with his natural talent for
standup
comedy. A stroke in May of 1992 left him unable to play but he is
teaching
again.

A composer and arranger (the jazz classic Swedish Pastry is perhaps
his
best known tune), he was also a popular teacher giving seminars and
workshops all over the world. Kessel originated the idea of the guitar
being
used instead of a piano as the predominate voice of a jazz trio with
bass
and drums. His five history-making Poll Winners albums, with Shelly
Manne
on drums and Ray Brown on bass, set the tone for all the guitar
records that
came after them.

Kessel was also the first one to use the guitar to sound like a full
jazz
orchestra. His landmark 1955 recording with Julie London, Julie is Her
Name
and its memorable Cry Me a River is an early example of his ability
to make
arrangements which bring out full orchestral tonal colors with only a
string
bass and electric guitar. He was also the first in modern jazz to use
the
flute and oboe on his recordings. Author of the book,The Guitar, he
has made
three videos explaining improvisation in detail for Rumark Video.

Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on October l7, l923, Kessel has played
and
recorded with a long list of jazz greats including Lester Young,
Charlie
Parker, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Webster and Sonny Rollins. Charlie Christian heard of
him
and came to see him play in Oklahoma City, and to play with him, when
Kessel
was only l6.

From the early l940s Kessel played and recorded with the big bands of
Chico
Marx (1942-43), Artie Shaw (1944-45), Benny Goodman (1947, 1958) and
Charlie
Barnet (1945,1946 and 1947). He was one of the original members of
Oscar
Peterson's Trio in l952-53. A winner of all the major jazz polls
including
Downbeat, Metronome, Melody Maker and Playboy for several years, he
was the
most popular jazz guitarist of the 1950s and 1960s. He worked for
almost 40
years in Hollywood as an arranger and freelance musician for radio,
hundreds
of films and TV shows such as Steve Allen and Hollywood Palace, and
created
original music for many commercials including Der Wiener Schnitzel and
Rice
Krispies. He performed and recorded with such diverse talents as Fred Astaire, Lawrence Welk, the Beach Boys, Barbara Streisand, Liberace,
Elvis
Presley, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Gene
Autry,
Sonny and Cher and the Righteous Brothers. He was on many of Phil
Spector?s
pop records and also was an A&R man for Verve Records where he
produced
Ricky Nelson?s first big hit and produced the records Woody Herman
sang on.

He was featured in the l944 award-winning documentary filmJammin? the
Blues
with Lester Young and other jazz greats, and as a member of Norman
Granz?s
Jazz at the Philharmonic became well-known in Europe from the time of
the
JATP 1952 tour. Kessel was a musical ambassador for the State
Department
during the Carter Administration and he played in the White House for
both
Presidents Carter and Nixon.

Successful 199l tours included the United States, Canada, Portugal,
Sweden,
Italy, Germany, the British Isles and Japan. 199l also marked his
induction
into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame along with the late Chet Baker. In
early
1992 prior to his stroke he got rave reviews playing in Australia, New Zealand and all across the United States. On May 26, 1992, Kessel
suffered a
severe stroke which ended his playing career. His memory was not
affected
and he keeps active in the music field.

His recordings for Contemporary, Concord and many foreign labels, too numerous to mention, are collectors items today and an important part
of
jazz history. He even composed and arranged a jazz version of the
opera
Carmen (1958) and recorded it featuring Andr?Previn on piano. The
last
Kessel album to be recorded is the superb Red, Hot and Blues on Contemporary. He has Kenny Barron, Bobby Hutcherson, Rufus Reid and
Ben
Riley playing his own compositions, standards and jazz classics.

Kessel has been featured on television many times over the years,
including
the Johnny Carson show. In 1995, Vestapol Videos released a one hour
video
titled Barney Kessel Rare Performances,1962-1991 of TV performances, a British interview and his acceptance speech at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall
of
Fame. Additional film clips of him are included in the Legends of Jazz
Guitar I, II and III video series from Vestapol. New books of jazz photography in which he is included are Jazz Photographs of the
Masters by
Jacques Lowe, Artisan Books, New York, 1995 and a photo documentary by
Esther Bubley, text by Hank O?Neal, of a 1950s Norman Granz recording session, titled Charlie Parker Jam Sessions, published in France by
Hachette
Filipacchi, 1995. It includes hundreds of photographs of Kessel,
Chalie
Parker, Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster and other giants of jazz laughing, talking and playing.

In 1994 Kessel was flown to Turin, Italy for a huge tribute concert
and
since there have been various benefit concerts in England,Germany and
Los
Angeles honoring him. He was also a guest at Flip Phillips? 80th
birthday
jazz party in Florida in 1995. At the July 1995 memorial concert for
Concord
Records founder Carl Jefferson, Kessel walked out on stage (with a
cane) for
the first time since his stroke and took a bow. In May of 1996, Kessel
was
flown to his home state and given an honorary doctoral degree by the University of Oklahoma for his lifetime contribution to music. For a gentleman who had only had formal schooling through the ninth grade,
this
was a well-deserved and meaningful honor. At George Wein?s JVC Jazz
Festival
in New York City, June 1997, Kessel was given a tribute concert by
both the
up and coming and old guard of the guitar world. At this concert
Kessel
walked on stage and spoke to an audience for the first time since his
stroke. The September 1997 issue of Just Jazz Guitar magazine was
devoted
entirely to Kessel, a collector?s item today. In October, 1998, Kessel celebrated his 75th birthday to accolades from around the world.

The well-known European jazz critic Joachim Ernst Berendt has summed
up
Kessel beautifully as "the most rhythmically vital guitarist in modern
jazz."
Barney Kessel resides in San Diego, California with his wife, writer
Phyllis
Van Doren, senior editor of San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles magazine.

Fantasy Records just released a new CD of a live performance in 1960
by the
Barney Kessel Quartet called Barney Kessel's Swingin' Party

The well-known European jazz critic Joachim Berendt has summed up
Kessel
beautifully as "the most rhythmically vital guitarist in modern jazz".

Happy New Year! I knew Barney had had a stroke but had no idea about the brain cancer thing Thanks for passing it on Some very interesting stuff about his early career which I didn't know

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