Hi Friends ...
I didn't see anything posted here at the forum (apologies if I missed it; I've been gone the past two weeks), so I though I would just mention and share the loss of a great musician, Marvin Hamlisch, who died last week at age 68.
I think when a musician enters the ranks of 'pop icon', as Hamlisch had, many forget what a talented and prolific musician he was. He excelled in every conceivable aspect of the music profession ... child prodigy (accepted to Julliard before he was 7!), performer, composer, arranger, and conductor. Hamlisch was one of only two people (Richard Rodgers was the other) to win the 'EGOT' (the Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony awards) AND a Pulitzer Prize (co-recipient for drama in 1976 for "A Chorus Line").
Marvin Hamlisch wrote everything from cute-zy pop tunes to high-profile film scores (including a national revival in ragtime when he used Scott Joplin rags in his score for "The Sting") and was currently conductor for over half-dozen orchestras throughout the country. But it was in the musical theater that he'll long be remembered for his contributions, especially to the genre-breaking "A Chorus Line". If "42nd Street" is the quintessential, feel-good story of making it in a Broadway show, "A Chorus Line" was a brutally realistic view of the process ... with a terrific, emotional score by Hamlisch to match. He was working on the score for the new Jerry Lewis-directed musical of "The Nutty Professor" and also the film score for a Liberace bio-flick at the time of his death.
His music and love of music will be missed.
RIP, MH
Frank
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