{"id":1343,"date":"2008-05-19T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-19T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2008-05-19T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-19T08:05:00","slug":"bob_florence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2008\/05\/bob_florence\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Florence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Florence was best known for his big band arranging, as his Grammy award,&nbsp;thirteen Grammy nominations and two Emmys attest. He died last Thursday at home in Thousand Oaks, California, five days short of his 76th birthday. Florence was also a superb pianist and favorite<br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"DISPLAY: inline\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px 20px\" height=\"91\" alt=\"Florence.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/Florence.jpg\" width=\"119\" \/><\/span>accompanist of singers. In recent years, in a pan-generational surprise, he hit it off with the adventurous young trumpeter Ingrid Jensen. Florence and Jensen discovered an affinity in a jazz festival after-hours session and, after that, played whenever they could manage to get together. Unfortunately, they seem not to have recorded. <\/p>\n<p>Of the many albums Florence made with his Limited Edition big band, I find myself going back most often to the one called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSerendipity-18-Bob-Florence%2Fdp%2FB00000I4ZS%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1211170013%26sr%3D8-3&amp;tag=rifftidougram-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Serendipity<\/em><\/a>. His empathy and supportiveness as an accompanist are evident in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFlight-Fancy-Sue-Raney-Florence%2Fdp%2FB000008C2N%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1211171291%26sr%3D8-25&amp;tag=rifftidougram-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Flight of Fancy<\/em><\/a>, a CD of Alan and Marilyn Bergman songs that he shared with the singer Sue Raney. As a solo pianist, Florence offered a sensitive touch and an arranger&#8217;s sense of harmony and placement of chords. His CD <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB000QMUDJK%3Fie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1211171693%26sr%3D1-2&amp;tag=rifftidougram-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Another Side<\/em><\/a> is evidence. Florence was natural, easy-going and inspirational as a music educator. He went out of his way to help school children learn what jazz is made of. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allaboutjazz.com\/php\/news.php?id=18531\" target=\"_blank\"><em>All About Jazz<\/em><\/a> web site, has an excellent, uncredited, appreciation of Florence. There is an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.venturacountystar.com\/news\/2008\/may\/17\/bob-florence-jazz-composer-big-band-leader-dies\/\" target=\"_blank\">extensive obituary<\/a> in his hometown paper, <em>The Ventura County Star<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Florence was best known for his big band arranging, as his Grammy award,&nbsp;thirteen Grammy nominations and two Emmys attest. He died last Thursday at home in Thousand Oaks, California, five days short of his 76th birthday. Florence was also a superb pianist and favorite accompanist of singers. In recent years, in a pan-generational surprise, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}