Claus Ogerman RIP?

[Captain Bacardi]

I'm hearing from various sources that Claus Ogerman has passed but haven't found anything online yet, other than a Wikipedia entry. One source says if happened a couple of weeks ago. Anybody hear or know more about this?

Al Schmitt and Greg Mathieson mention it on their sites.

 

[Rudy]

Yes, I heard about it. June 17th was apparently the day he passed. I haven't seen it in many sources myself either. I was going to mention it on the A&M home page but didn't get a chance.

The Bill Evans estate posted:

Instagram photo by Bill Evans (Official) • Jun 17, 2016 at 10:14pm UTC »

Our pal @JH12"fanatic also blogged it on Tumblr:

BEHIND THE GROOVES: a music blog by Jeff Harris, Composer, arranger, conductor Claus Ogerman... »

I could email him to ask where he heard about it. He follows a lot of the music/entertainment news.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Sorry to hear. Been dreading this day. Claus was tremendous.

 

[TonyCurrie]

Ironically I've been playing a huge amount of Claus Ogerman music on the show recently. But I haven't seen any news of his death that I could describe as definitive. BBC Journalist rule: only report as fact something you have had confirmed by two independent sources.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

God bless the BBC and the rules of confirmation. So few people know of Claus (by pop music standards) that the usual sources don't apply. So little has been written about him recently that we don't know what city, county or even country to try to do a vital records search for. The Bill Evans estate appears to believe it's true. Next best move is probably to reach out to the artists he most recently worked with...Danilo Perez and Diana Krall...though even that is going back eight and seven years, respectively.

 

[Rudy]

Or even George Benson--they haven't worked together in a while but Benson is someone who probably has a lot of connections himself. I have a couple of connections I could check myself, but none of them I know have ever worked directly with Ogerman.

That's the thing with someone like Ogerman--he flew under the radar in terms of name recognition to the general public, but many have heard his arrangements over many decades.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Decided to dig some more. Apart from a "died 2016" added to the Wikipedia page for Claus Ogerman, there is nothing on the web. All of it seems to be on Twitter, and tracing it back, the first post saying "RIP Claus Ogerman" was from Grammy-Award winning producer Jason Miles (Jason Miles »).

Johannes Zetterberg, a Swedish musician, was next to tweet it. Someone asked where he'd heard it and he said Al Schmitt (engineer and producer,who'd worked with Claus) had posted it to Facebook.

Al's one of those guys who shares several dozen things to his Facebook every single day (mostly dog photos and politics), so it'll take me a while to get back to mid-June.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Okay. Found Al Schmitt's post:

"I'm sorry to say one of the great modern composers and arrangers passed away a short time ago. Claus Ogerman, I got to work with him on many albums and I will miss him very much. Check out Gate of Dreams, Cityscape, a couple of Diana Krall's albums. Check him out on the internet, he was very special."

There were 90 comments, many from name artists, but none with more information. One poster, whose name I don't recognize, said "You had told me he was very sick, Al."

The commenters are like a who's who of great music...Tommy LiPuma's daughter, Steve Porcaro, David Wolfert, Jai Winding (Kai's son), Nan Schwartz, Narada Michael Walden, Brenda Russell, Wendy Waldman, Larry Klein, Steve Lukather and Steve Tyrell....all of whom, despite widely varying styles in their own work, cite Claus as an influence and inspiration.

Anyway, it's pretty clear Al had been in touch with Claus, knew of his illness and was informed by family of Claus' passing.

We are unlikely to get more than this, which is sad, because it means Claus Ogerman is unlikely to get the recognition he is due. If anyone deserved a comprehensive obit/tribute in, say, The New York Times, it was Claus.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

A very sad passing. One of the great arrangers and conductors ever in pop and in jazz works.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Just roaming the internet this morning and found a wonderful piece on Claus' passing from last October. Marc Myers, who writes for the Wall Street Journal, was talking with Tommy LiPuma, mentioned that he'd heard Claus had been ill, and got the word that way. Turns out Claus passed on March 8 of last year...and Marc's piece outlines why it wasn't made public sooner, which, tragically, made it old news for some outlets that might have written tributes:

Claus Ogerman (1930-2016)

 

[Rudy]

From the article:

Ogerman's warm, delicate string orchestrations still sound like sheer, luxurious curtains blowing in a gentle breeze, and there remains a dramatic, autumnal quality about his orchestrations that slowly envelope singers and instrumentalists like a silver mist.​