Celebrity Deathwatch: George T. Simon, Music Critic, 88

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/15/us.obit.simon.ap/index.html

Grammy-winning music critic Simon dead at 88

February 15, 2001
Web posted at: 1:14 PM EST (1814 GMT)


NEW YORK (AP) -- Author and musician George T. Simon, who played drums with
the Glenn Miller Band and wrote acclaimed books and liner notes on the swing
era, has died. He was 88.

Simon died Tuesday at New York University Medical Center. The cause of death
was pneumonia following a battle with Parkinson's disease, according to a
friend, archivist Grayson Dantzic.

In 1937, while working as a writer for Metronome magazine, he sat in with
the fledgling Glenn Miller Band and played the drums as the band recorded
its first half-dozen songs.

But he opted to stay in writing, and became Metronome's editor in chief in
1939. He held the job for the 16 years, championing artists from Frank
Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Peggy Lee.

His music career also included writing lyrics for Duke Ellington and Alec
Wilder -- sometimes under the pseudonym Buck Pincus.

As a writer, he worked for the New York Post and the now-defunct New York
Herald-Tribune. Eventually, Simon wrote several books on the swing era: "The
Sinatra Report" in 1965, "The Big Bands" in 1968, and "Glenn Miller and His
Orchestra" in 1974.

"Simon tells it like it all was," Sinatra wrote in a book jacket blurb.

In 1977, Simon won a Grammy Award for best album liner notes -- his
contribution to the collection "Bing Crosby: A Legendary Performer." Simon
was hand-picked by Crosby to write the liner notes.

Simon's late brother Richard was the co-founder of the publishing house
Simon & Schuster, and one of his nieces is singer-songwriter Carly Simon.

Simon was born in 1912, the son of a milliner. At Harvard University, he
organized his own band before graduating in 1934 and taking a job at
Metronome, a national music publication.

During World War II, he played with Miller's Army Air Forces Band and
recorded "V-Discs" for soldiers and sailors overseas, persuading top musical
acts to volunteer their time.

He also served for a time as executive director of the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, and
was on the advisory board for the New York Jazz Festival.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Beverly Jean Simon; a daughter; son;
and three grandchildren.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This mailing list is brought to you by Slick.ORG at http://www.slick.org
to remove yourself from the list, send e-mail to majordomo@slick.org
and include the words "unsubscribe deathwatch" in the message (not in the
subject).  For web-based help, go to:

http://www.slick.org/cgi-bin/majordomo

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *