2014-10-21

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2014-10-21 03:31 pm
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RIP Tim Hauser

The obituaries are here:
LA Times

The Guardian

He founded the Manhattan Transfer in both its iterations. I have loved their music since I was 13.

Their album Vocalese is one of my favorites. One day, while working in Germany, I came back from lunch and found the cassette of Vocalese in my in-box. I asked my colleagues who had left it (there were five desks in the office), and no one had seen anyone near my desk. I asked in every other office if anyone had lost it, and no one had. I consider it a gift from the gods (or whatever). I went home and listened and melted into the lush music.

I saw them live three times, and there was never a bad performance. Their music is tremendous, but it was his vision and, in the early days, his arrangements that made them what they are.