Death
The death of Walter Page on December 20th, 1957 was very much a surprise, as the bassist had been playing gigs around New York City right up until his passing. It is reported that Page contracted pneumonia on his way to a recording session in the midst of a snowstorm. An obituary in Jet Magazine from January 9, 1958 under the “Died” column, reads:
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- “Walter Page, 57, one of the greatest jazz bass players, who helped Count Basie lead an invasion of Kansas City jazz to New York in 1935; of kidney ailment and pneumonia; at Bellevue Hospital in New York.”
It is speculated that Walter Page’s early death may be a factor contributing to his relative obscurity in the history of jazz, despite his major influence and stylistic contributions. In an interview published only a month before his death in The Jazz Review, Walter Page expressed how he never sought praise and that he just wanted to know that he was appreciated for his influence on music.
Read more about this topic: Walter Page
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“‘Tis no great valor to perish sword in hand, and bravado on lip; cased all in panoply complete. For even the alligator dies in his mail, and the swordfish never surrenders. To expire, mild-eyed, in one’s bed, transcends the death of Epaminondas.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Sad. Nothing more than sad. Let’s not call it a tragedy; a broken heart is never a tragedy. Only untimely death is a tragedy.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)