{"id":5459,"date":"2014-02-11T21:43:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T05:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=5459"},"modified":"2014-02-11T21:46:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T05:46:12","slug":"passings-alice-babs-dick-berk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2014\/02\/passings-alice-babs-dick-berk\/","title":{"rendered":"Passings: Alice Babs, Dick Berk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[contextly_auto_sidebar id=&#8221;3NM20mGoxXkQHajU57Nqf2HhgTo7BxuX&#8221;]<br \/>\nAlice Babs, the Swedish singer whom Duke Ellington once called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153probably the most unique artist I know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d died today in her native Sweden. She was 90. Her breakthrough came in 1940 in the Swedish <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Alice-Babs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Alice-Babs.jpg\" alt=\"Alice Babs\" width=\"200\" height=\"201\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Alice-Babs.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Alice-Babs-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Alice-Babs-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>film <em>Swing it magistern<\/em> <em>(Swing It, Teacher!)<\/em> She went on to make her name in stage, motion picture and television work, singing in several genres and collaborating with violinist Svend Asmussen and other Scandinavian jazz artists. Her pure soprano voice and rhythmic ability brought her to Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention in the early 1960s. She appeared with his band frequently, recorded with it and sang in his second and third sacred concerts. In 1972 King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden departed from the tradition of appointing opera singers and honored Ms. Babs by naming her the Royal Court singer. <\/p>\n<p>Here, she is featured with clarinetist Russell Procope in Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second sacred concert<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9v-0P5bpg54?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Largely inactive in her later years, Ms. Babs had been under care for Alzheimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disease. <\/p>\n<p>Dick Berk, a drummer admired as a developer of young talent and as a colleague of dozens of major jazz artists, died last Saturday at the age of 74. Berk had been undergoing dialysis treatment for some time in Portland, Oregon, his home in recent years. In his late teens he was Billie Holiday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drummer, recording with her at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival. In 1960 he went from the Berklee<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Dick-Berk-at-Wilfs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Dick-Berk-at-Wilfs.jpg\" alt=\"Dick Berk at Wilf&#039;s\" width=\"200\" height=\"191\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5461\" \/><\/a> School of Music to New York City, where he played with Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, Monty Alexander and the Ted Curson-Bill Barron group, among others. His Los Angeles years in the late 1960s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s saw him working and recording with a range of musicians including Cal Tjader, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Blue Mitchell, Georgie Auld, Nat Adderley and Phineas Newborn, Jr. <\/p>\n<p>Berk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own band, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/One-Dick-Berk\/dp\/B000001UMW\/?_encoding=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\">Jazz Adoption Agency<\/a>, nurtured such young talents as baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola, tenor saxophonist Jay Collins and trombonists Andy Martin and Mike Fahn. During his two long residencies in Portland, he gigged and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000002X5I\/?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;s=music&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20\"target=\"_blank\">recorded with pianist Jessica Williams<\/a> and bassist Leroy Vinnegar and continued to encourage developing young players. As a sideline, he had acting roles in films, including <em>Idiot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Delight<\/em> with Jack Lemon, and in the television shows <em>Hogan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Heroes<\/em>, <em>It Takes a Thief<\/em> and <em>Emergency<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>From Berk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s L.A. period, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s listen to him with Nick Brignola\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quintet: Brignola, baritone; Bill Watrous, trombone; Dwight Dickerson, piano; John Heard, bass. The piece is Horace Silver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Quicksilver.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Berk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time throughout, the vigor of his solo and the strategic placement of his cymbal splashes give us an idea why so many superior players loved having him on the bandstand. <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uRVT22CUipY?list=PL3hkQbjJ58h6kmq2jpyxNKBcxzfMJQawG\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Dick Berk, RIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[contextly_auto_sidebar id=&#8221;3NM20mGoxXkQHajU57Nqf2HhgTo7BxuX&#8221;] Alice Babs, the Swedish singer whom Duke Ellington once called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153probably the most unique artist I know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d died today in her native Sweden. She was 90. Her breakthrough came in 1940 in the Swedish film Swing it magistern (Swing It, Teacher!) She went on to make her name in stage, motion picture and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5460,"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-5459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459","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=5459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}