Maynard's Trombonist Purcell passes

wvtrumpet

Randy passed away a few hours ago, Sat. May 16th at 11:18 PM. He was ill for quite a while, and though we prayed for a recovery, he had lost his will to live. Go to You Tube and watch him play Don't Let the Sun Come Down on Me with Maynard! Unfortunately he died at the relatively young age of 63 years. The sun came down on him - but at least we can still see him and hear him play.

---Leslie Purcell Upchurch (his sister)
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Trptbenge · Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 6:46 am Post subject:

Sad news indeed! I saw him with Maynards band and he was one heck of a trombone player. A fine trombone player from a city (Pittsburgh) that has produced some fine players over the years. I had read some time ago that he was sick and was hoping that he would recover.

Godspeed Randy!

Mike
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Conn6B

Randy Purcell was my favorite trombonist.

His lyric tone on MF's "The Way We Were" and other songs in the 1970's was incredibly beautiful.

Just yesterday I was watching him in the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghDdsTmt7_0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2F74%2E125%2E113%2E132%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3AZY91nEZajFYJ%3Astickandballguy%2Ecom%2Fblog%2F2009%2F03%2F31%2Fmaynard%2Dferguson%2Dbig%2Dband%2Ddont%2Dl&feature=player_embedded

Randy had the "cave man" hair and beard back then.
First trumpet (Stan Mark?) had a caucasian afro back then.
Maynard was wearing leisure suits back then.
And I weighed 135 pounds soaking wet back then.

- Morris

Trptbenge · Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 7:11 am Post subject:

What a tone! He always seemed so relaxed when he played. The lead trumpet was Stan Mark. To his right is Lynn Nicholson and to his left it looks like Lin Bivano. Both of those guys were great high note players. I don't know who the two other trumpet players were.

"The Way We were", was a great example of Randy's playing.

Mike
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BeboppinFool · Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 7:30 am Post subject:

I remember he did an arrangement from A Star Is Born, whatever Barbra Streisand's famous tune from that movie was (was it Evergreen?), and they played that when I heard them in the mid-70's in Jessup, GA. He sounded great and stole the show, at least for that tune.

RIP brother.
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BenH · Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 8:40 am Post subject:

Very sad. 'Don't Let the Sun go Down on Me' was the first MF tune I heard, and I loved Randy's playing.
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michael manthey · Heavyweight Member Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 1116

Yes it is very sad we've lost him, but at least he's not suffering any more. Sincere condolences to his family.

The trumpets in that YouTube clip of Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me are, left to right, Bob Summers - Lynn Nicholson - Stan Mark - Don Hahn - Ernie Garside.
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bilboinsa · Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 9:02 pm Post subject:

Such great musicians leaving us to play the gig upstairs! I remember "taping" the PBS broadcast of "The Mark of Jazz" featuring MF and that song--"Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me". I recorded it on an old cassette player on a 60-minute GE cassette tape. I played that tape for my best friend and I who painted a house that summer. Wow........
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PH · Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 5:34 am Post subject:

Randy will be missed. I also loved those charts and his playing with Maynard.

BTW, Randy's son Shawn is a great jazz guitarist that all of you will be hearing about.
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jazz_trpt · Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:51 am Post subject:

swingshift · Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 7:00 am Post subject: heres a link to his obit...

pennsylvania
Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:29 am Post subject: randy purcell passed away

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great trombone player randy purcell passed away....
best know for his work with maynard ("the way we were") but was also a great guy...his son used to play guitar with the airmen of note...great loss to the music world...
Brian
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09139/971137-122.stm
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swingshift · Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 7:03 am Post subject:

he re-recorded "the way we were" with the dave stevens big band in erie,pa on our album "sound storm". not only was he fun to work with as an artist but a huge character...
one gig, we opened for a bigger group at a festival..there was a hospitality tent for the main act, but not for us...randy goes in and starts eating their food....a guard goes and gets him and makes him leave...begrudgingly...then, as soon as the guard turned away...randy was back in the tent eating the food!
great guy...he'll really be missed...
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"beneath my goodie twoshoes lie some very dark socks..." lisa Simpson
Carol 5000 ylt-slt
bach 229 c with MC 2 pipe
yamaha 631 flug
jin bao rotary piccolo trumpet
wedge 5BC 25 and 5DC 25 with heavyweight Barrel ML shank