When the newly blind guitarist Jeff Golub stumbled and
fell onto New York City subway tracks where he was clipped and dragged by a
train in 2012, New Yorkers came to his aid. When word spread throughout the New
York City music community last month that Golub was on his death bed, New
Yorkers bought concert tickets to the January 21 all-star benefit concert put
together by Marquee Concerts and Smooth Jazz New York in order to raise money
for Golub’s family. Although Golub succumbed to complications from a rare
degenerative brain disease on New Year’s Day turning next week’s event at B.B.
King’s Blues Club & Grill in Times Square into a memorial show, New Yorkers
scooped up the remaining tickets to make sure the concert that will feature
performances by more than two dozen luminaries sold-out to provide maximum
assistance to Golub’s family.
At the
time of the subway scare, which was chronicled extensively in the New York
media, Golub dismissed the incident that he was lucky to escape with only minor
scrapes and bruises as “stupid blind guy stuff.” However, losing his vision the
year before due to collapsed optic nerves turned out to be a harbinger of a far
more serious problem for the Akron, Ohio-born musician who has called New York
City home since the 1970s. Golub began struggling with his balance and speech
during a 2013 national concert tour in support of his final album, the
playfully titled “Train Keeps A Rolling,” that adversely impacted his ability
to perform. It got to the point that management had to pull Golub off the road.
The guitarist’s motor skills continued to deteriorate, but it wasn’t until last
November that he was finally diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
(PSP), an incurable and aggressive brain disease.
Known
for playing with soulful intensity and a bluesy touch, Golub’s diverse resume
boasts longtime stints as a sideman to Rod Stewart, Billy Squier, Peter Wolf
and Tina Turner as well as a 20-year solo recording career as a chart-topping
contemporary jazz artist thus the lineup for the memorial benefit concert will
present a multi-genre lineup of Grammy winners, nominees and hit-makers. Slated
to take the stage are (in alphabetical order) Mindi Abair, Rick Braun, Randy
Brecker, Henry Butler, Christopher Cross, Mark Egan, Richard Elliot, Bill
Evans, Steve Ferrone, Euge Groove, Dave Koz, Chuck Loeb, Chieli Minucci,
Philippe Saisse, Kirk Whalum and over a dozen more musicians.
Last
Thursday (January 8), Whalum presided over Golub’s funeral held at the New York
Society for Ethical Culture where a throng of artists and the city’s busiest
session players gathered to pay tribute to the late guitarist, his wife Audrey
Stafford Golub, and sons Matthew (14) and Chris (12). Among the many performers
filling the ceremony with heartfelt song were John Waite, Marc Cohn, Whalum and
Cross.
Although
tickets to the memorial concert are gone, those who wish to contribute to
Golub’s family can by sending a check made out to Jeff Golub Medical Expenses
and mailed to:
Judy
Miller
PO Box
115
Boxford,
MA 01921
For more
information about the memorial concert produced by Marquee Concerts, please
visit http://marqueeconcerts.com/events/jazz and for additional information
about Golub, go to http://jeffgolub.com
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