By cleoharvey (160.79.83.208) on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 04:06 pm: |
Does anyone know that the great Gil Askey is doing these days. He was a tremendous arranger/musician/conductor at Motown. I remember that he was always the conductor for Diana Ross and The Supremes and kept everything running smoothly with their act.
By dvdmike (12.84.106.160) on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 04:32 pm: |
He retired, moved to Melbourne, Australia and got married.
By cleoharvey (160.79.83.208) on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 05:17 pm: |
DVDMike
Thanks a lot. It is a great loss to the States that he is in Australia. He did wonderful orchestrations and arrangements. I always loved what he did with the Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart.
By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 05:19 pm: |
Michael:
Gil also did many arrangements for Jackie Wilson including the Top 5 smash "Baby Workout" from 1963.
Kevin Goins - KevGo
By Eli (151.197.39.250) on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 04:02 am: |
Gil taught me a lot and in fact hired me to play with Diana, but PiR was taking off and I stayed in Philly.
I played on tons of the stuff that he did for Curtom in Chicago and enjoyed working with him. He was quite the character especially when he got riled up or had a nip or two and started to stutter while he counted off the music after it was tossed into the air!!
I absolutely adore Gil Askey.
By cleoharvey (160.79.83.208) on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 10:28 am: |
Eli:
I enjoyed how tight he could make an orchestra no matter what city he was in. I saw him many times (mostly with The Supremes) with a traveling rhythm section and pickup orchestra. Sometimes the "pickups" were not the highest caliber (strings were usually the worst) but he would have them sounding great by opening night. I believe he was heavily responsible for bridging the gap between pop-Vegas sound with the R&B of the day to give Motown a sound that would appeal to all races and age groups. He and people like Maurice King are geniuses.
I am glad I started this thread to give Mr. Askey his props. Also Mr. Eli, the idea of you and Mr. Askey jamming in the same room with other wonderful musicians makes me salivate. LOL!!! All the best to you my friend.
Michael