Rest in peace Cornelius
Joe Van Ryn
E.B.
when I read this, but then I remembered all the great music, the smiles he had,
and the very funny interview he did with Walter and Donald on the 2vn Video.
Thank you Cornelius for the great music, smiles, and memories. My condolances
to your family, and the Steely Dan family.
Eric
members.aol.com/theseawall/seawall.html
members.aol.com/steelydanfan1968/danstuff.html
(remove "post" in address above to e-mail)
"The unbending tree branch is easily broken."
John D. Misrahi
Joe Van Ryn wrote in message ...So sad
Steve2000indeja
>when I read this, but then I remembered all the great music, the smiles he
>had,
>and the very funny interview he did with Walter and Donald on the 2vn Video.
>Thank you Cornelius for the great music, smiles, and memories. My
>condolances
>to your family, and the Steely Dan family.
>
>
>
>Eric
I was stunned when I heard this news driving home tonight - just a few minutes
ago on ABC radio network news. I just got in and immediately checked the
computer. Hoops has spread the word via a quick Dandom Digest. Apparently
there's also something up on the official website at steelydan.com .
Hoops provided a link to one of the first newspaper articles to carry the news,
from the tiny Union Democrat newspaper, published in the small town of Sonora,
CA-near my even tinier hometown.
The music teacher at nearby Columbia College (i _think_ i was a student there
many years ago) was a friend of Cornelius and had sponsored his local
appearances in Tuolumne County for the last 20 years, including some scheduled
for this weekend.
Here's a link to the article courtesy Hoops/Dandom Digest:
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=13252
--------
Just this past week another steelyfan who I hadn't spoken with in a while
caught up with me and we had a nice Dan chat, among other things.
One of the things we briefly mentioned -and has been commented on here before-
is that Cornelius had always been first mentioned in articles as 'formerly with
the Doobie Brothers,' the first major act he worked with.
My friend and I discussed that other than the occasional all-star all Doobie
reunion, Cornelius was really only in the post Skunk Baxter, Mike McDonald-led
version of that band which formed after the 'Minute By Minute' version of the
group splintered in 1979.
Circa 1979-83, CB added his soulful jazzy sax to the most soulful version of
the DBs, playing on their hit album "One Step Closer" and their final peak era
album, 1984's live "Farewell Tour."
I did see him in a great DB reunion concert in 1991 or so, a benefit for their
percussionist Bobby LaKind. All the main Doobies from all versions of the band
played that night.
Cornelius had been an official member of the Steely Dan Orchestra for every
tour since the reunion in 1993 and before that had been in Don Fagen's New York
Rock and Soul Review...the pre-cursor to Steely Dan getting back together.
My friend and I were wondering when the music press was finally going to get
with it and list Cornelius's credits as: a longtime member of Steely Dan,
Cornelius Bumpus also played with groups such as the Doobie Brothers...
How tragic this small issue of 'credits' we were discussing last Friday seems
so trivial in light of Cornelius's untimely, far too early passing. The radio
said he was 58, the article in my hometown paper said he was 52.
I was fortunate to hear CB's soulful, musical playing many times - in the
Doobies officially and at their reunion, and on every Steely Dan tour except
the last one. I enjoyed all his playing on those high profile gigs.
But some of my favorite memories of Cornelius playing are from my-and his-
California club days .
Our dance band played one of the big commercial clubs on Cannery Row in
Monterey at 3-4 months each year from the late 70s through the mid 80s.
Next store was a smaller blues club with No Dance Floor- and plenty of the
area's best blues and jazz players in there on weekends, playing whatever the
hell they wanted to play.
Cornelius was a regular there, either with his own informal group - when he
wasn't on some major tour...or sitting in with the band of the night, if they
were good. He was a fine musician and he played every chance he could. I used
to often spend bandbreaks out on the deck of the big dance club...listening to
Cornelius's great jazzy sax singing up through the night air, solong/jamming as
long as he cared to on those one-off club dates...
-----
I didn't catch the Steely Dan concert at Concord this year, but I heard and
read reports of CB getting a special award from the Guys. So glad they did it
on this last tour for him.
I first head the term the 'big man' on sax when Bruce Springsteen used to refer
to Clarence Clemmons that way in his 70s introductions of his band in concert.
Though that title will always be Clarence's, I always thought of Cornelius
Bumpus as another big man on saxophone in many ways. Clarence is a hardcore
R+B/rock sax guy. CB could play that stuff in his sleep - and so much more.
I never met Cornelius, though I probably could have in the clubs. I have to
agree with what everyone has always said about his low key vibe. Besides being
a great player, he was always smiling, unassuming - seemed to be just glad to
be playing for you.
Thanks for all the great horn, Cornelius. You are already missed.
Steve
DrDiamond
Same here. I haven't checked the SD.com site in quite a while. What
a day to visit...
Damn glad I made it to the Gorge last August.
damn
Doc
Per-Gunnar Eriksson
timr
"Steve2000indeja " <sslag...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
news:20040204012544...@mb-m23.aol.com...
Nice tribute Steve..welcome words.
timr
Nat and Al Enquirer
--
Respectfully,
"John D. Misrahi" <lmou...@sprint.ca> wrote in message news:970Ub.1232$Ps4....@newscontent-01.sprint.ca...
us...@foobar.com.invalid
"Joe Van Ryn" <joev...@comcast.net> wrote:
It's interesting that all stories about Cornelius cite the Doobie Bros
as his first big gig.
I am almost certain, however, that he first came to prominence in Janis
Joplin's Cozmik Blues Band, under the dreadfully sixties moniker
Cornelius Flowers. Certainly that a Cornelius Flowers played sax in
Joplin's band is documented (for example see here http://www.raindesert.com/rd_cd_menu/joplin_janis/joplin_janis.html and scroll down to Amsterdam 4-11-69). But is he Bumpus?
I played in the band in a Janis Joplin themed theatrical production,
Love Janis, in which Sam Andrew, Joplin's longtime guitarist, was the
musical director. He provided pictures of Janis in action, which we
hung on the dressing room walls. One of these featured her bari sax
player, captioned as Cornelius Flowers, and it sure looked like Bumpus
to me; he was a pretty distinctive looking dude after all! But I have
been unable to find any reference that confirms that Flowers was Bumpus.
Can anyone confirm or deny this?
--------------
For the record, I am not the Hoops of the Dandom Digest, but a different
Hoops altogether.
Steve2000indeja
I seem to recall a sax player from the late 60s named "Snooky Flowers," mainly
cause he played in the loose band(s) that backed blues guitarist Mike
Bloomfield when Bloomfield was still playing great after the Electric Flag
broke up.
To be fair, the band(s) generally backed vocalist Nick Gravenites too-but folks
came to hear Mike.
After the psychelic fad cooled down (the Grateful Dead aside) the Bay Area
became a bluesy, funky place. Several of the ex-Butterfield Blues Band and
Electric Flag members settled here as did the R+B flavored Boz Skaggs after he
left bluesman cum spacecowboy Steve Miller's tranplanted band once they move
here. Homegrown funk/R+B groups with horn sections like Cold Blood and Tower
of Power got together and caused quite a regional stir.
I was a good place and time to be a sax or horn player.
These later groups flirted with the bigs, but none really became big stars
-except Boz and a reinvented Steve Miller in the 70s. The one act which was
all set to go big in the late 60s was Janis Joplin and her Cosmic Blues Band.
Janis had come to the City and hooked up with Big Brother just as the psychelic
explosion hit, circa 1967..a first wave band along with the Dead and the
Airplane.. and they got a big foot in the door because of Janis. BB were a
pretty horrid band, imo, and never would have gone anywhere 1. If spaced out
psychelic music had been such a sucessful fad and 2. If they hadn't lucked into
hooking up with the white blues mama of all-time, Janis Joplin.
It was only a matter of time before Janis took went solo and when she did, she
(or her management, also maybe a musical director) lined up a new, larger band
which could do what Big Brother fell woefully short of: real musicians who
could play to Janis's strenghts as a rock and soul singer.
Snooky Flowers got the call to be in the horn section of Janis's Kozmic Blues
Band.
A quick check of Allmusic.com reveals Snookey Flowers real first name to be
Cornelius, but I think it's just a weird coincidence. I don't think he's our
Cornelius Bumpus. The credits don't match up.
Snookey Flowers seems to have been hot in the late 60s, perhaps peaking in the
short lived Kosmic Blues Band, which folded when Joplin OD'd in 1970 or 71.
There are were some other projects with him afterward,. but he was on a roll in
the late 60s.
Cornelius Bumpus's many solid gold credits are from a later time. He did play
with Moby Grape, one of the orginal first wave SF bands...but he played in a
late 70s reformation, not the 60s...legend.
Seems like CB spent the 70s paying the necessary dues, making the connections
and getting hooked up. His career and credits take off in the late 70s...a few
years after Snooky began falling off the radar.
If there was one instance of the same credit appearing on either of their
discographies it would help support the idea that they might have been the same
guy instead of -ironically- 2 guys who played sax for Bay Area/Santa Cruz bands
both with the first name 'Cornelius."
Cornelius Bumpus's distiguished career rates him a full artist write up on the
Allmusic site. Snookey just gets the sideman type listing: no bio, just
credits.
And finally, Cornelius Bumpus was primarily a tenor sax guy. Snooky is
generally listed as a baritone sax player in his credits.
Steve
ddr
Apres-taping at Sony Studios
----------------------------------
WE LINGERED, DISORIENTED, uncertain, following the Steely Dan taping at Sony
Studios. In a daze we filed out of the warm recording studio into subzero
Manhattan like refugees seeking asylum under the influence of the throbbing
noise and dim lights of the notorious Le Bar Bat.
Once inside, we gathered around one big table for the evening's post-mortem.
Major dudes told tall tales, Tampa Q bought drinks and food for everyone,
while Pete and Shari hustled to make us all comfortable, fetching waitstaff,
water, drinks. From the open cavern of the bandstand and dance floor one
flight below, a live band covered soul tunes.
We ordered a little of this and a lot of that, but only about half of us
were "all there." We had just experienced a performance of a lifetime. It
was a tough act to follow.
From every possible direction, stimuli were lobbed- sometimes with intent,
other times with the unself-consciousness only New Yorkers possess. When I
walked to the bar to get change, the bartendress's unbelievably round and
rigid silicone breasts dominated my line of sight. I almost got me eye put
out by the left one, I swear.
In the ancient Ladies' Room a beat woman of color swabbed the floors and
replaced the towels, expressing no opinions about the detritus she tiredly
wiped off the stalls of the lavatory, hoping only for a tip.
Standing in the aisle next to my table, a lithe young woman was sporting a
"dress" made up of two red panels-one draped over her backside, flowing to
the floor, the other barely covering her front, from her breasts down-that
were laced together with six-inch gaps on each side of her otherwise naked
body. Much to the delight of her male admirers, she demonstrated the hidden
charms of her evening gown, pulling it up here, tugging it down there,
waving it like a matador's cape.
Well, Toto, I thought, We're certainly not in Seattle anymore...
All right, so Le Bar Bat was not my scene-at least not that night. I was
spent from the eargasmic experience of hearing Steely Dan live in a small
studio. I didn't want to waste that afterglow taking in these particular New
York stories. As soon as I could make my excuses I said goodnight, and under
a sense of complete immortality, walked to the nearest subway. I didn't even
know if I was at the right station to catch a train south to Chelsea, or
whether I'd end up going north to Harlem. I was somewhere on the Lower West
Side, right around the Theater District, and my sense of direction had long
been scuttled by my inability to see the sky in the gloomy heavy weather.
It was freezing, dark, 1:30 am. And I didn't care.
As I neared the bottom of the stairs, I was surprised at the large number of
people standing on the platform at this hour of the morning. I also couldn't
help but notice immediately that I was the only Caucasian riding the subway
in the wee hours. There was one other woman. I felt the instant fear of
being in the minority in a strange place where I knew no one. Some New York
horror stories tried to push through the screen of my consciousness.
Then I looked carefully at everyone else standing around me. Some were
wearing Da-Glo safety vests, others carrying lunchpails. Practically all of
them were on their way home from or to work. I felt ashamed of the knee-jerk
paranoia that lurks somewhere deep inside me, where all my fears huddle
semi-dormant. I stared at my feet for a while.
The congregation had created a sort of white noise composed of the hum of
breathing, the rustling of clothes and newspapers,
the scuff of soles on gum-splattered concrete.
But something else was now crowding my awareness, diverting my focus away
from the facts of my subterranean reality. I felt it before I heard it, the
way you feel adrenaline right before you hear and see the flashing lights
and sirens in your rear-view mirror.
Only this was no alarm: it was far more compelling. It was inviting,
captivating, serene, exciting. This entity stopped me in my tracks as I
stood perfectly still, giving it all my attention; I even stopped breathing
so I could make it out.
I could hear it in the distance: a lone tenor saxophone playing jazz in
those wee hours between midnight and dawn, its melodic phrasing amplified by
the natural acoustics of the underground, as balmy as an island breeze, and
just as welcome, beneath the frozen tundra of Manhattan.
Then I noticed something even more splendid than that: everyone else on the
platform had stopped moving, stopped breathing, just as I had, in order to
focus on the elegant notes floating up to all our ears like prayers on their
way to heaven.
I thought, "Only in New York could I live a moment like this," where fine,
anonymous musicians play in the subways for free, just for the love of the
music.
Finally, one last incredible thing occurred to me: By virtue of his gift for
music, that tenor-man had complete power over everyone standing on those
platforms at 1:30 in that dark freezing New York moment. Long ago the
playwright wrote, "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast/To soften
rocks, or bend a knotted oak." These words never rang more true than on that
savage winter night.
I was just a few blocks east and one or two flights underground from Sony
Studios, where I'd just heard two great saxophone players-Cornelius Bumpus
and Chris Potter-play live that night. The sax man in the subway did not
pale by comparison. He had his life charted in his chops and we could only
listen reverently, hungry for the beauty he created with his horn.
In some post-Sony Studios interview with Donald Fagen, he mentioned that
Cornelius Bumpus still likes to play in the subways late at night. It could
have been him I heard that night, but it doesn't really matter. Whether it
was Cornelius or some tenor man I'd never hear of again, the subway sonata
couldn't have been any more sacred.
love and kisses
diane
--
All is Well,
practice Kindness,
Heaven is Nigh.
---Jack Kerouac
VISIONS OF GERARD
bob
wrote:
>28 February 2000, New York
>Apres-taping at Sony Studios
>----------------------------------
>WE LINGERED, DISORIENTED, uncertain, following the Steely Dan taping at Sony
>Studios. In a daze ...
<snippage>
...it doesn't really matter. Whether it
>was Cornelius or some tenor man I'd never hear of again, the subway sonata
>couldn't have been any more sacred.
>
>love and kisses
>diane
This exact posting was the first thing that came to my mind when I
fist heard the news.
miss you
The Charmer Under Me
JAMES DELLOCONO
"Joe Van Ryn" <joev...@comcast.net> wrote in message news:vTWTb.214865$xy6.1111032@attbi_s02...So sad