[JPL] Steve Bagby RIP

Thu Jul 5 02:15:03 EDT 2007

Posted on Tue, Jul. 03, 2007
Jazz drummer and instructor
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER

Stephen G. Bagby, the longtime University of 
Miami drum-set instructor who performed and 
recorded with some of the biggest names in 
American jazz -- including Stan Getz, Wayne 
Shorter, Sonny Stitt and Chet Baker -- died of 
cancer on June 27 at a Fort Lauderdale hospice.

He was 66 and lived in Coral Gables.

Steve Rucker, his UM colleague for three decades, 
called Bagby 'the jazz drummer in town for many years. He was `the man.' ''

Bagby led the house band for WLRN's Flamingo Jazz 
Series at Hialeah Race Track in the 1980s, where 
he played with many jazz greats, said Ed Bell, 
who hosts the radio station's South Florida Arts Beat show.

He also once played with the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane.

''Steve was in Chicago and Coltrane was here with 
his quartet, but [drummer] Elvin Jones was 
absent, so Steve sat in and was very comfortable 
with it,'' said McKinley Olson, a Chicago writer 
and one of Bagby's longtime friends.

Bagby was born in St. Louis and grew up in the 
Chicago suburbs, discovering the drums at New 
Trier High School. He attended Duke University 
and Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music.

''He was a bohemian raised in the suburbs who 
wanted nothing more than to break away and 
experience life,'' said his son, Guy Logan, 35, a 
Los Angeles television producer. 'He was a `jazz 
monk.' He lived very modestly. . . . He was into 
Eastern religion and was drawn to the freedom of the music.''

Bagby was married briefly to vocalist Terry 
Desario, whose 1980 disco hit, Yes, I'm Ready, 
with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, reached No. 2 on the pop charts.

Ira Sullivan, the jazz multi-instrumentalist, 
recalled playing with Bagby when Bagby was a Chicago teenager.

They each moved to Miami in the 1960s, then 
toured nationally and internationally with the Red Rodney-Ira Sullivan Quintet.

Over two decades, they played at the Harrisburg, 
Pa., jazz festival, with Rufus Reed and Reuben Brown.

 From 1963-1971, Sullivan headlined at a 
long-gone Miami jazz venue called the Rancher 
Motel Lounge on Northeast 125th Street and Biscayne Boulevard.

Bagby joined the group in the mid-'60s, playing 
with well-known artists like guitarist Joe 
Diorio, pianist Eddie Stack and pianist Eddie Higgins.

They also had a four-year gig at Bubba's, a now-defunct Fort Lauderdale club.

Bagby ''was everything you could ask for in a 
drummer, and more,'' Sullivan said.

``He was so musical. He's beyond just keeping 
time. . . . Steve could swing, but he also created music.''

Drummer Marco Marcinko, who teaches at Penn State 
University and studied with Bagby at UM, called him ``a profound artist.''

He described Bagby as ``open-minded but quite 
mysterious. His creativity reflected this . . . 
Many in the jazz world considered Steve Bagby to 
be one of the modern jazz greats.''

Bagby's health problems began when he contracted 
hepatitis C as a young man living an intemperate 
musicians' lifestyle, said Olson. But he became 
''a clean-living guy,'' Olson said.

''Steve was not one to hang around nightclubs 
after that,'' which could explain why he never became a household name.

''Most musicians who are successful spend a lot 
of time in clubs networking,'' he said.

About a decade ago he underwent a successful 
liver transplant, but anti-rejection drugs 
weakened his immune system. Once a heavy smoker, 
he developed lung cancer that spread to his brain.

Drummer Charlie Headder is president of the Jazz 
Musicians Fellowship, which held the second of 
two benefits for Bagby in January.

He said it ran long into the night because 
``everybody wanted to play for Steve. He was a wonderful teacher.''

In addition to his son, Bagby is survived by 
brother Benjamin Bagby of Paris -- a 
singer/composer who cofounded the Medieval 
ensemble Sequentia -- and sisters Barbara 
Davenport of Seattle and Emily Bagby of Rogers, Arkansas.

His remains were cremated and a memorial service is planned.

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