December 2009 M34 tributes 53 Mary Travers 1936-2009 Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Mary Travers was the tall, blonde singer with Peter, Paul and Mary, the 60s folk trio who introduced the protest songs of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to mainstream audiences the world over. Assembled by Albert Grossman, the manager who subsequently masterminded Dylan's early career, they appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Newport Folk Festival and took part in Civil Rights demonstrations. They broke up in 1970 after scoring a Transatlantic hit with the John Denver composition Leaving On A Freddy Bienstock 1928-2009 The music publisher Freddy Bienstock was an industry legend on both sides of the Atlantic. He was born in Switzerland and grew up in Vienna before emigrating to the US in 1939. His was the proverbial rise from stockroom to boardroom, starting as a plugger in the sheet music era at Chappell Music in 1943, and later became its largest stockholder after he bought the company from Polygram in 1984 (selling it to Time Warner four years later). Best known for picking many of the songs of Elvis Presley, Bienstock's association with Presley and his manager began in 1956 when he was at Hill & Range Music and suggested the King record the Jet Plane. Travers issued several solo albums and reunited with Peter Yarrow and Noel `Paul' Stookey in 1978 but stopped touring because of ill health two years ago. Robert Kirkby 1940-2009 The arranger, composer and multiinstrumentalist Robert Kirby created delicate, inspired, understated orchestrations for Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, two of the three albums recorded by the singersongwriter Nick Drake four decades ago. Both Drake, who died in 1974, and Kirby were almost forgotten, until REM and The Dream Academy began name-checking them. In 2000, Volkswagen used the haunting Pink Moon for a commercial in the US, and introduced this very English artist to a new generation of fans. Kirby was a keeper of Drake's flame and contributed to the raft of books and documentaries devoted to the friend he met at University. He was also associated with Vashti Bunyan, arranging both her 1970 debut and her 2005 come-back Otis Blackwell song Don't Be Cruel. Bienstock's inspired choices included All Shook Up and Return To Sender, both co-written by Blackwell, and several compositions by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, with whom he later formed the Hudson Bay Music Company. In 1966, Bienstock bought Belinda Music, Hill & Range's British affiliate, and turned it into Carlin Music, a company which won the Top Publisher Award from Music Week for 10 consecutive years. Louisa Mark album. In the 70s, he recorded with Ralph McTell, Elton John, Millie, Lynsey de Paul, Sandy Denny and The Strawbs, and joined that band for three years. Later, Kirby took the occasional break from a second career in market research to work with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Any Trouble. In the Noughties, he contributed arrangements to recordings by Paul Weller, Linda Thompson and the Magic Numbers, and conducting tribute concerts to Drake with his customary flair for detail. 1960-2009 The originator of the Lovers Rock reggae genre, Louisa Mark recorded her first single, a version the R&B song Caught You In A Lie, when she was only 15 and still attending school in London. Backed by Denis Bovell's Matumbi, and produced by the British-based sound system operator Lloyd `Coxsone' Blackford, who had spotted Mark at a talent show in Dalston, the single sold 50,000 copies. The diminutive singer with the plaintive voice also recorded sweet- US pianist; Roc Raida, DJ; Sam Carr, blues drummer; `Bootsie' Wilson, singer with The Silhouettes; Michael English, artist and musician; Mr. Magic, pioneering rap DJ; Freddy Robinson, blues musician; Sonny Bradshaw, Jamaican jazz pioneer; Albert Elms, light music composer; Vic Mizzy, composer; Liam Maher, Flowered Up singer; Alberto Testa, lyricist; Luther Dixon, Shirelles producer; Dee Anthony, manager; Mark Smith, session bass-player; Julian Hohn, opera director; Clinton Ford, singer and entertainer. Tributes Final.indd 53 Tim Kavanagh sounding covers of The Beatles' All My Loving and The Jacksons ballad Even Though You're Gone. In 1978, she was voted best female reggae vocalist by the readers of the magazine Black Echoes, beating Marcia Griffiths into second place. 7/12/09 15:16:30