Gerald M. Shapiro was born in Philadelphia in 1942 and attended public schools there. He received the Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from the Eastman School of Music in 1964 and continued with graduate work at Mills College, where he received an M.A. in 1967, the University of California at Davis, and the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique in Paris, France; where he studied under a Fulbright grant. His principal teachers of composition during this period were Darius Milhaud, Mort Subotnick, Karlheinze Stockhausen, and Nadia Boulanger. In 1967 he accepted a position at Brown University where he remains currently as professor of Music and Acting Chair. Recent works have included PHOENIX and PRAYER FOR THE GREAT FAMILY written for the British vocal ensemble, Electric Phoenix; MOUNT HOPE IN AUTUMN premiered by the R.I. Philharmonic Orchestra, PIANO TRIO #1 commissioned by the N.E.A. for the Yuval Trio from Israel, IN TIMES SHADOW for the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, STRING QUARTET #2 for the Mondriaan Quartet of Holland, DANCE SUITE #3 for the Verdehr Trio, FOUR LOVE SONGS for the Wesleyan University Chorus, TRIO FOR SAXOPHONES AND PIANO for the Trio Saxiana of Paris, and FROM THE LOG OF THE ALICE, commissioned by the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra for a premiere in December of 2006. Performances of these and older works have been included on programs in the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the New York Summer Festival at Lincoln Center, the Grand Teton Festival in Wyoming, the Montanea Festival in Leukerbad, Switzerland, the Adolph Sax and Saxophones en Fete festivals in Paris, France, and the De Stem Festival in Amsterdam, Holland. Other performances have taken place at Brown University, Wesleyan University, Rice University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, the Fresno Philharmonic, and the Monday Evening Concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum. His music is published by Editions Billaudot in Paris, and available on the Naxos and Neuma Record labels.
Bio: Scott Murphy is a professor of music theory at the University of Kansas, where he has taught undergraduate- and graduate-level music theory for twenty years. He has received both the Emerging Scholar Award and the Outstanding Multi-Author Collection Award from the Society for Music Theory, both for publications on the music of Brahms. Beyond Brahms, the subjects of his publications range from melodic expectation in the music of Penderecki to stretto in the music of J.S. Bach and Clara Schumann, and particularly include music for mainstream films and television programs of the past half century, about which he has written many essays for journals and books.
From Boulanger to Stockhausen (Eastman Studies in Music)
Bio: Matthew Ferrandino is currently a part-time lecturer at Ottawa University (in Ottawa, KS) where he teaches courses in music theory and popular music. Matthew holds a PhD in music theory from the University of Kansas where he completed his dissertation A Narratology of Music Video in 2021. His research focuses on the analysis of popular music and has been published in Music Theory Online, SMT-V, and Intégral.
Bio: Elizabeth Newton is a writer, editor, and musicologist whose research focuses on the intellectual history of poetry, song, recordings, and writing about music. She holds degrees in musicology from Indiana University and the CUNY Graduate Center. Visit her website at musicalwork.info.
Sam Cross, James Madison University professor emeritus and longtime ISB member, died on July 4, 2018. He was 78 years old. Sam was born inHouston, Texas on August 10, 1939. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a bachelor of applied music degree and master's degree in music literature. He continued his graduate studies at Indiana University. His primary teachers were Mary Bresler, Murray Grodner, Gary Karr and Eugene Levinson. Sam was previously principal double bass with the Austin Symphony, and was active as a soloist and orchestral bassist in Virginia and the Washington DC area. He joined the faculty of the JMU School of Music in 1969, where he taught a range of classes and became a sought-after teacher, publishing a number of articles on bass pedagogy. Sam retired in 2013 as one of JMU's longest tenured professors. He is survived by his niece, Eva Kloostra.
Murray "Doc" Solomon died on April 5, 2018 from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 91 years old. Doc was a "musician's musician," with a career spanning over six decades. He played bass in studio orchestras for early films, radio and television, as well as major symphonies. He subsequently performed for 26 years in pit orchestras for some of the most famous Broadway musicals of all time. He toured the Far East on a Presidential Cultural Exchange Concert Tour in the late 1950s, and was a music educator for 28 years. But Doc will perhaps be best remembered by the international double bass community as a pioneering composer of music for our instrument. His solo and ensemble works, both arrangements and original compositions, have been performed around the world. Doc's publications for younger bassists and the classroom remain evergreen at bass camps and festivals. ISB member Jan Jacobs remembers his friend and mentor: "I first met Doc at an international bass convention. I already knew his name, having conducted his John Denver Meets the String Orchestra series at the Patchogue-Medford High School. He coached me for free, and even flew with me and my bass to a performance in Michigan. I am so glad to have known such a friendly and talented man!" Doc is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Mary Solomon, daughter and son in-law Allison and Mike Glassburn, and grandchildren Michael, Erica and Diana Solomon, and Joshua Glassburn.
Buell Neidlinger, whose long and remarkable career as a bassist, cellist and educator encompassed virtually every musical genre and pursuit, died at home of a heart attack on March 16t, 2018. He was 82 years old. A musical prodigy, he took up the cello at age 7 and the bass at age 13, studying with Walter Page. Buell attended Yale University, but left after a year to pursue a career in jazz. Perhaps best known for his collaboration with pianist Cecil Taylor, he also recorded with saxophonists Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp and Marty Krystall, and trombonist Roswell Rudd. You can hear Buell on Tony Bennett's 1962 hit "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," just one example of his work as principal bass in the Warner Brothers studio orchestra for nearly 30 years. He also explored contemporary classical music with John Cage and Gunther Schuller, receiving a Rockefeller performance grant in 1965. He left New York City for Boston in 1967, where he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf and became a founding instructor in the jazz department that Gunther Schuller founded at the New England Conservatory. Four years later he was offered a position at California Institute of the Arts and relocated to Los Angeles. There, Buell became principal bass of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was a busy session musician. He retired from studio and performance work in 2000 and movedwith his wife of 36 years, Margaret Storer, to Whidbey Island near Seattle. Buell is also survived by his daughter Miranda Neidlinger and son Mike Neidlinger.
Victor Bailey died on November 11, 2016 after a long and brave battle with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which also claimed the life of his father. He was 56 years old. Victor was born in Philadelphia on March 27, 1960, and raised in a musical family. His father Morris Bailey, Jr. was a musician and composer, and his uncle, Donald "Duck" Bailey, was a jazz drummer who appeared on a number of Blue Note recordings. As a child Victor also played the drums, but switched to bass guitar after the bassist in his neighborhood band walked out of practice. He and the bass clicked, and Victor entered the Berklee College of Music, where he eventually joined the faculty, at age 18. Victor will best be remembered as the bassist for Weather Report from 1982 to 1986. As Christian McBride recalled on National Public Radio, Bailey had his work cut out for him replacing Jaco Pastorius, but "Not only did he fill those big shoes, he carved those shoes out to fit his own feet. Victor said, 'Hey, I'm here. This is my gig now, and you are going to love me.'" And the audiences did. Victor launched his successful solo career in 1988 and performed with a wide range of artists, including Sting, Madonna and Lady Gaga.
Melbourne Robert "Bob" Cranshaw died on November 2, 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was 83 years old. He was best known for his decades-long association with Sonny Rollins, and appeared on dozens of other popular recordings, including Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder and Grant Green's Idle Moments. He toured with Ella Fitzgerald and performed with such diverse artists as Bing Crosby, Paul Simon, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Rod Stewart and Peggy Lee. Cranshaw was the bass player for Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980 and The David Frost Show from 1969 to 1972, and served as musical director and bassist for Dick Cavett's talk show in the early 1980s. Cranshaw was also the session bassist to songwriter and composer Joe Raposo and played on all songs and cues recorded by the Children's Television Workshop during Raposo's tenure. He performed in pit orchestras for numerous Broadway shows, and performed on hundreds of television shows and film and television scores. He appears in The Blue Note Story, a 90-minute documentary of the jazz label. Cranshaw was a founding member of MJT + 3 (Modern Jazz Two) that included Frank Strozier on alto saxophone, Harold Mabern on piano, Willie Thomas on trumpet, and Walter Perkins on drums. His appearance with Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine's Blue Flames in 1964 was recorded for Prestige Records. Cranshaw also played live shows for tap dancer Maurice Hines. Since the 1990s he worked for the musicians union in New York City as an advocate for the rights of jazz musicians. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Bobbi Curtis Cranshaw, three children from his first marriage, two stepchildren and several grandchildren. 2ff7e9595c
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