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Title: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 22:07 David Gavin Lund (October 1940 – May2010) RIP David Lund who was the musical director 1967 Cambridge Footlights revue, Supernatural Gas (http://www.peteatkin.com/sngcast.htm), produced by Clive James, has died recently (http://www.camdennewjournal.com/david-lund-%E2%80%93-teacher-writer-and-all-jazz) of the Parkinson’s Disease with which he was diagnosed in 1985. There is a nice tribute to his many talents here (http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/camden/hamhigh/news/story.aspx?brand=NorthLondon24&category=Newshamhigh&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshamhigh&itemid=WeED1) Quote:
Kevin Cryan |
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Title: Re: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by Pete Atkin on 22.06.10 at 14:34 The very first time I came across Davd Lund he was playing jazz piano. I have a feeling it was at some Cambridge University Jazz Club auditions that were taking in place in the music room at my college, St John's, which is why I probably happened to be there. The pianists everyone was trying to sound like were Bill Evans or McCoy Tyner or Herbie Hancock, but David was playing in a perhaps unfashionably strongly rhythmic, melodic style much more reminiscent of Erroll Garner, and his sheer joyful exuberance - not to say technical competence - blew everyone away, as we used to say in those days. He joined the Footlights (I can remember him performing a sketch at a club Smoker - can this be right? - where the only words he said, over and over, were "Ooooh, yes", in such a way that the phrase carred a completely different meaning each time), and he went on to lead the band in my first big Footlights show in 1967 ("Supernatural Gas"). Whatever the stereotype of a jazz musician is, David wasn't it: smiling, bespectacled, diffident, head held at a bird-like angle as he listened in conversation, all masking the enthusiasm and the passion - for English and for jazz - which I am certain made him such a great teacher at University College School, Hampstead. UCS had - still has, presumably - a superb purpose-built theatre space, an ideal size and shape for jazz, and David started organising gigs for the lucky pupils and their parents from the early 1970s. I played several concerts there in the vinyl years at his behest (he had an irresistible behest). It still surprises me how often someone gets in touch, online or at a gig, and says that it was at one of those UCS concerts that they first came across our stuff. Parkinson's is a particularly cruel affliction for a musician, but I have friends whose children have since gone to UCS and who vouch for the affection in which he continued to be held, even after he had been forced to cease working day-to-day. Not many of us will be lucky enough to leave that kind of a legacy. |
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Title: Re: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by Kevin Cryan on 22.06.10 at 21:18 The only recording legacy he appears to have left is this album he made with legendary bassist Brian Brocklehurst (http://www.jazzservices.org.uk/Directory/tabid/72/Default.aspx?ContactTypeID=3&ID=549): It seems to be still available from lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/the-badger/717488?productTrackingContext=browse_page/staff_picks/center_bottom/2). Kevin Cryan |
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Title: Re: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by Simon Reap on 24.06.10 at 10:15 Ah, such fond memories. David was a thorough and enthusiastic English teacher (I had him to O-level) with a wry sense of humour, and the occasional devilish streak. In our O-level year, he got our class to write on a favourite author - I chose PG Wodehouse, and wrote a poster entitled "The writer and the written" (pompous, I know, but I was only young!). Some of the posters, including mine, were put up on his classroom wall and left there. The next year, he gave the same task to that year's class (he was a man of habit, devastated when his carefully crafted year plans were burnt in a later school fire). One of the pupils bizarrely decided to copy my work, almost verbatim, using the same title. I don't think David took him to task explicitly - it was just that when he put that year's posters on the wall, the only one he left up from the previous year was mine, just a yard away from the new one. It was David who gave me the chance to be a sound engineer at school. The New Theatre had opened in 1972, the year before I joined the senior school, with David running it (as he continued to do for many years - it has now been renamed the Lund Theatre). I quickly joined the existing "sound and light" team, composed mostly of 6th-formers and a couple of "new bugs" like me. Within a year or two the senior people had all finished school, so the work fell on our much more junior group. David encouraged us to take on the challenge, which meant that I, for example, had sole responsibility for the sound system for most concerts, plays, talks and so on in the theatre for several years, including many performances by Pete. David's help and guidance was superb, making what would have been an overwhelming task seem to be manageable and fun. We had a wonderful view of his jazz roots one year when there was a sponsored 24-hour playing of a single tune (I think it was Land of Hope and Glory), with various groups and individuals taking an hour each. David spent his hour on the piano in the main school hall, and I don't think he played the tune the same way twice in that hour. As for his recorded output, he did get at least one album recorded at the theatre - Denny Wright, Danny Moss, Len Skeats, Brian Dee and Martin Drew made "Jazz at the New Theatre" (Jaycee records, JC003). He also appeared, as the David Lund Trio (with Robin Jones and Pete Chapman), on "here i go again" by Shellie (Alcazar records, CZAR246), available from netsounds music (http://www.netsoundsmusic.com/nsds/1/Alcazar/3/1/1785/0/1/0.html). |
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Title: Re: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by Kevin Cryan on 05.08.10 at 16:20 According to the current issue of [bgcolor=Black]jazz[/bgcolor][bgcolor=White]uk[/bgcolor], there will be a celebration of David's life in November at the UCS Theatre which was renamed the Lund in his honour. Kevin Cryan |
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Title: Re: David Lund (Oct. 1940 – May. 2010) RIP. Post by phil_smith on 12.08.10 at 06:02 Nice that this vital little magazine indirectly gets a plug, albeit as a result of personal loss. |
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