Leslie Abramson – Arranger/Copyist

Don Arnone – Guitar

Billy Bauer – Guitar

Irving Berger – Trumpet

Basil J. Bradbury – Piano

Ruth Buffington – Violin

Joseph R. Caruso – Piano

Isidore Cohen – Violin

Joseph W. Coutret – Pipe Organ

Dan D’Andrea – Guitar

Alberto Franco – Bass

Frank J. Gagliardi – Alto Sax

Michael Gibson – Trombone/Orchestrator

Joseph Harnell – Piano/Conductor

Samuel M. Kane – Piano

Richard Kay – Cello

Robert J. Keenan – Drums

Manny Kurtz – Saxophone

Herbert B. Marks – Piano

Jay W. Marshall – Bagpipes

William C. McCahill – Guitar

Al McKibbon – Bass

Jose Melis – Piano

Ervin Moser – Arranger/Copyist

Bernard R. Oppenheim – Piano

Clifford Paterno – Guitar

Semyon Ronkin – Violin

John Stubblefield – Saxophone

George Syrianoudis – Piano

Eli “Lucky” Thompson – Saxophone

Johnnie Williams – Saxophone

John H. Winter – Violin

Daniel Wolfsie – Trumpet/Conductor

Don Arnone

Don Arnone, 84, a guitarist and a member of Local 802 since 1948, died on June 16.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mr. Arnone was given his first guitar by his father at the age of 13. Mostly self-taught, Mr. Arnone’s two biggest influences were the late guitar geniuses, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. He began his professional career in the 1940’s while he served his country in the U.S. Army, where his music was known to entertain his fellow soldiers.

Upon returning home, Mr. Arnone played with the Tune Toppers Quartet then made his way to New York City. Due to the generosity of his dear friend Al Caiola, who recommended him for sessions when he was unavailable, Mr. Arnone’s career as a respected recording artist began.

He primarily focused on studio and television work, where he appeared as a regular on the Mitch Miller Show and a variety of other popular shows, such as Arthur Godfrey, Fred Waring, Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar and others.

Many of Mr. Arnone’s recordings were done with great artists such as Al Caiola, Tony Mottola, Bucky Pizzarelli, Al Casamente, Barry Galbrath, Gene Bertoncini, Vinnie Bell, Howard Collins, Artie Ryerson, Alan Hanlon and Tal Farlow.

He can also be heard accompanying Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Dinah Shore, Percy Faith and Julie Andrews.

In addition, Mr. Arnone recorded and arranged many popular television jingles. After his studio career, he contributed to several movie soundtracks including “Broadway Danny Rose,” “The Godfather,” “Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Where the Boys Are,” “Wise Guys,” “Lenny” and “The Year without Santa Claus.”

He is survived by his wife Eleanor, daughters Lynn, Leslie and Elise, grandchildren Gregory and Leslie, and sister Angie Palmieri.

Back to top

Billy Bauer

Billy Bauer, 89, a guitarist and a Local 802 member since 1936, died on June 17.

Mr. Bauer worked with Lennie Tristano, Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker. He developed much of his solo technique while playing with Tristano’s group, which he joined in 1946. Before that, he had played mostly rhythm parts.

Mr. Bauer recorded both with the band and with individual members, such as saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. He founded a publishing company, William H. Bauer Inc., to publish compositions by himself, Tristano, Konitz and Marsh.

He went on to work with Goodman and Parker, and recorded one album as band leader: “Plectrist,” in 1956.

As the jazz recording industry began to fade, Mr. Bauer switched to teaching, opening the Billy Bauer Guitar School in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., on Long Island, in 1970. He continued with his students until shortly before his death.

Born in the Bronx, Mr. Bauer first played banjo and ukulele before changing to guitar in his teens.

He wrote an autobiography in 1997, entitled “Sideman.”

He is survived by his daughter Pamela and son Bill.

Back to top

Isidore Cohen

Isidore Cohen, 82, a violinist and a member of 802 since 1946, died on June 23.

Mr. Cohen was a member of the Juilliard String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio. Mr. Cohen’s death was announced by Frank Salomon, an administrator of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the summer program in Marlboro, Vt., where Mr. Cohen taught for nearly 40 years.

A genial, energetic musician whose interests ranged from Haydn to Elliott Carter, Mr. Cohen can be heard on dozens of classic recordings by the Beaux Arts Trio, including the complete Haydn and Beethoven Piano Trios and works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ives and Shostakovich.

As the ensemble’s violinist, he held a pivotal position, physically as well as musically. Early in Mr. Cohen’s tenure with the group, the players decided that for acoustical reasons, the cellist — then Bernard Greenhouse — should face the audience directly. That meant that Mr. Greenhouse could not make eye contact with Menahem Pressler, the group’s pianist. In what became a Beaux Arts visual quirk, Mr. Pressler regularly glanced over his shoulder at Mr. Cohen who, because he had eye contact with both of the other players, became a relay between them.

Mr. Cohen was born in Brooklyn. He began studying the violin at six and continued his studies at Music and Art High School in Manhattan, from which he graduated in 1940. At the time, however, he had not decided to seek a musical career, and enrolled at Brooklyn College as a pre-med student. His studies were interrupted in 1943, when he joined the United States Army and fought in Europe. During his three years in the service, Mr. Cohen performed in the Army’s symphony orchestra and in jazz bands.

When he returned to the United States, Mr. Cohen became a student of Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School, and began a career as a freelance violinist. Starting in the early 1950’s, he was concertmaster of the resident orchestras at the festivals directed by the cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, in Prades, France, and in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was later the concertmaster of several New York ensembles, including the Little Orchestra Society and, for several of its early seasons, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra.

At the Casals festivals, Mr. Cohen met the violinist Alexander Schneider, who invited him to join the Schneider String Quartet as second violinist, in 1952. Among the Schneider Quartet’s accomplishments was a traversal, both in concert and on recordings, of the complete Haydn quartets. In 1958, Mr. Cohen joined the Juilliard String Quartet, also as second violinist. He performed with the group for a decade.

When the Beaux Arts Trio’s original violinist, Daniel Guilet, retired in 1968, Mr. Pressler and Mr. Greenhouse invited Mr. Cohen to take his place.

By the mid-1970’s, the Beaux Arts had become the world’s most prominent piano trio and was touring and recording plentifully. Mr. Cohen remained a member until his retirement in 1992.

During his years in the Juilliard and Beaux Arts groups, Mr. Cohen also taught, and was at various times a member of the faculties at the Aspen Festival, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Juilliard School, Princeton University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the Manhattan School of Music. His most long-standing association, though, was with Marlboro, where he began teaching in 1966. He regularly toured as part of Musicians from Marlboro, a flexible ensemble that included both faculty and student performers.

He is survived by his daughter Erica and son Allen.

This obituary from the New York Times.

Back to top

Michael Gibson

Michael Gibson, 60, a trombonist and orchestrator and a Local 802 member since 1970, died on July 15.

Mr. Gibson was born and raised in Wilmington, Del. He graduated from Harvard University and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied trombone.

He worked as a studio musician in New York, including work on a James Brown project. One of his first big breaks was orchestrating the musical “Grease” in 1972. He also worked on the best-selling soundtrack album for the 1978 film version.

Mr. Gibson worked for more than 20 years on productions with scores by the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, including “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993) and several revivals of “Cabaret.”

Some of his other credits as an orchestrator include “The Boy From Oz,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “A Grand Night for Singing,” “Chu Chem,” “Mail,” “My One and Only,” “Onward Victoria,” “My Favorite Year,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Anything Goes,” “Roza,” “The Rink,” “Woman of the Year,” “Pal Joey,” “Over Here!” “The Wild Party,” various Off Broadway productions, and even a Vegas show featuring Chaka Khan.

Mr. Gibson was nominated for two Tony Awards for best orchestration, for “Steel Pier” (1997) and the 1998 revival of “Cabaret.” He won a Drama Desk Award for “My One and Only.”

In addition to working with a number of dancers, among them Ann Reinking and Chita Rivera, Mr. Gibson worked on films. He was musical arranger and conductor for “Roseland” (1977) and orchestrated “Still of the Night” (1982).

“All Shook Up,” which he co-orchestrated with Stephen Oremus, was his last Broadway venture. He had also been working with Danny Troob on the upcoming Chita Rivera show “The Dancer’s Life,” and had begun scoring a symphonic evening of songs by Kander and Ebb.

He is survived by his wife Ellen, son Andrew, mother Margaret, father Alfred, sisters Mary Matterer and Kathleen Dougherty, brother David, cousins Clyde Garver and Mary Ann Landgraff, and seven nieces and nephews. See also “Reminiscences,” page 15.

Due to space limitations, Allegro was only able to run one page of obituaries this issue. In the next issue, look for obituaries for Chris Griffin, Charlie Harmon, Joe Pagan, Murray David Schnee, Tom Talbert, Daniel Traisci and Manuel Zegler.

Back to top