Local Benefits for LOCAL MUSICIAN (next: Thurs Feb. 28)

pitu

So here's this guy...musician, 41 years old, no insurance, sudden very dire medical situation. He's a friend of a friend.
My friends are putting on a few gigs to raise money for his care.
Benefits for Andrew D’Angelo:
+ Friday at the Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, near Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com
FEATURING: • Matt Wilson group • • Whoopie Pie - Mike Pride, Jamie Saft, Bill McHenry • • Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant with Chess Smith and Mary Halvorson • • Jim Black Chris Speed Oscar Noriega Trevor Dunn play D'Angelo •

+ Feb. 28 at Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn,
(718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com

Yesterday there was a piece in the NYT about the music community trying to find a way out of no way, and taking care of their own when disaster strikes. Andrew is our local guy.

NYT wrote: Jazz World Confronting Health Care Concerns
By NATE CHINEN
Published: February 21, 2008

Not quite a month ago the alto saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo had a major seizure while driving his elderly landlady to a store in Brooklyn. “I was convulsing all over the place,” he later wrote on his blog, “grabbing onto the steering wheel violently, biting my tongue and basically acting crazy.”

Fortunately, the driver behind him recognized what was happening, and after quite a bit more drama — in the ambulance, Mr. D’Angelo apparently tore through the straps of his gurney and tried to strangle an emergency medical technician — he underwent testing that revealed a large tumor on his brain.

Within days he was scheduled for surgery and had started writing about the experience at andrewdangelo.com. He was clear about the fact that he had no health insurance.

The health of jazz, as a topic of conversation, has long inspired a lot of hand wringing among sympathetic parties. When the focus turns toward the health of jazz musicians, the discussion assumes a different, less abstract character: solicitous and supportive. Most people who play jazz for a living are accustomed to self-reliance. When that system fails, they lean on one another.

read the rest of the article: Jazz World Confronting Health Care Concerns

come out tonight or next week - a good show for a good cause

Nate Chenin wrote: The Jazz Foundation does considerably more than steer musicians toward services. Its mission also involves protecting musicians from eviction, malnutrition and other misfortunes.

“We get 60 cases a week like this, each having its own urgency and desperation,” Wendy Oxenhorn, the executive director, said. Referring to Mr. Irwin, she added, “I’ve never seen an outpouring of so much for one musician.”

If that’s true, Mr. D’Angelo runs a close second. “I knew that I was loved,” he said this week, “and I knew that this musical community was close. But I had no idea the compassion ran this deep, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

Mr. D’Angelo is a key figure in Brooklyn’s underground jazz scene, and part of a peer group that includes the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, the drummer Jim Black and the saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed. He has a strong new album, “Skadra Degis,” on Mr. Speed’s label, Skirl, with Mr. Black and the bassist Trevor Dunn. Its release party had long been scheduled to take place Friday at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

The gig is still on, but now it will be one of more than a dozen benefits for Mr. D’Angelo, spread across the United States and Europe. Mr. Black, Mr. Speed and Mr. Dunn will perform, as will the multireedist Oscar Noriega and the drummer Matt Wilson, two more of Mr. D’Angelo’s close compatriots. A separate benefit is scheduled for next Thursday at Barbès, also in Park Slope.

Mr. D’Angelo has received financial support from both the Jazz Foundation and the MusiCares Foundation, a program of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His operation was a success in the sense that most of the tumor was removed, with no adverse effects. But further analysis revealed that he has an especially serious form of brain cancer.

“The doctor said that without treatment, I will live for five years,” he wrote last Friday, after receiving the news. “Seems dismal and I’m unwilling to accept it.” He is likely to begin radiation treatment shortly, having ruled out further surgery.

longtimesloper

Wow-hubby and I just watched Sicko last night too. Very worthy cause and wonderful of all of you to do this-will check it out.

BTW-ripping through the gurney and trying to strangle an EMT scares me-my oldest child just started work as an EMT last week.

pitu

btw, his blog is amazing
http://andrewdangelo.com/blog.php

I don't think he was successful at strangling the EMT...yikes...

longtimesloper

pitu wrote: btw, his blog is amazing
http://andrewdangelo.com/blog.php

I don't think he was successful at strangling the EMT...yikes...

Well, thank goodness for that! Now that can be a new worry for me that one of the patients will try to kill my kid in the ambulance-LOL

evilbert

excessive use of the word "local".

Made me think of these two...

caseopele

Yes, I can see how using the word local 3 times would be considered excessive. :?

raw

Are we all going to fit in Barbes? I love that place, but it's small.