# Bassist and cellist Buell Neidlinger dies at 82: Strikingly versatile musician played with Cecil Taylor and Steve Lacy: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/03/23/bassist-and-cellist-buell-neidlinger-dies-at-82-strikingly-versatile-musician-played-with-cecil-taylor-and-steve-lacy-video/
- Published: 2018-03-23T10:42:44+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Buell Neidlinger, a bassist, cellist and educator who worked within a wide spectrum
of jazz styles, from Dixieland to the avant-garde, died suddenly on Friday afternoon
at his home on Whidbey Island, Wash. He was two weeks past his 82nd birthday.**

His death was confirmed by his wife, Margaret Storer. The cause was a heart attack.

Neidlinger was best known for his early collaboration with pianist Cecil Taylor;
they appeared together on six albums made between 1956 and 1961. He also recorded
frequently with saxophonists Steve Lacy and Archie Shepp and trombonist Roswell 
Rudd; played in a trio with pianist Herbie Nichols; was the accompanying bassist
on Tony Bennett’s hit 1962 recording of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”; and 
collaborated prolifically with saxophonist Marty Krystall over a period of nearly
50 years.

He was extraordinarily prolific outside of the jazz world as well. Neidlinger worked
in classical orchestras and was for nearly three decades the principal bassist in
the Warner Brothers studio orchestra. His long list of pop credits included Steve
Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, Chuck Berry, Frank Sinatra, the Moody Blues, Roy Orbison
and Barbra Streisand.

Buell Neidlinger was born in New York City on March 2, 1936, and his family moved
to Westport, Conn., when he was 2. He was a child prodigy on the cello, beginning
to play the instrument at the age of 7. At 13, urged by a teacher to strengthen 
his hands by studying the upright bass, Basie veteran Walter Page became his bass
teacher.

Admitted to Yale University to study classical music, Neidlinger stayed for one 
year. During that time he began playing jazz, joining the Dixieland band Eli’s Chosen
Six along with trombonist and classmate Rudd. He briefly returned to Westport until
trumpeter Max Kaminsky suggested he become a working musician in New York. Neidlinger
moved there in 1955, and found work subbing for his mentor Page in the house band
at Eddie Condon’s in Greenwich Village and playing with trombonist Conrad Janis’
band. That same year, Neidlinger met Lacy at a Yale alumni event in New York, and
Lacy in turn introduced him to Taylor.[⌊Cecil Taylor and Buell Neidlinger's "New York City R&B"⌉](https://i0.wp.com/cdn2.jazztimes.com/2018/03/BuellCecil.jpg?ssl=1)

**Cecil Taylor and Buell Neidlinger’s “New York City R&B”**

In 1956, Neidlinger made his first two recordings: _Jazz at Columbus Ave._, a session
by Dixieland trumpeter Johnny Windhurst, and Taylor’s debut, _Jazz Advance_. He 
appeared on Lacy’s 1958 debut, _Soprano Sax_, and worked and recorded regularly 
with both Taylor and Lacy over the next several years before including them on his
own debut record, _New York City R&B_, in 1961. He also worked in bands led by pianist
Nichols and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre, and began working as a session bassist—through
which he recorded with Bennett—and delved into contemporary classical music with
John Cage and Gunther Schuller, receiving a Rockefeller performance grant in 1965.

Disillusioned with New York, Neidlinger left the city in 1967. He moved first to
Boston, where he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf and 
became a founding instructor in the jazz department that Schuller had founded at
the New England Conservatory. Four years later he was offered a position at California
Institute of the Arts, thus relocating to Los Angeles. While living in L.A., he 
became the principal bassist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; took the same
position in the Warner Brothers Orchestra in 1973 (his first film credit was that
year’s _Soylent Green_); and continued doing session work. Among his hundreds of
sessions, he performed on hit records including Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,”
the Eagles’ “Desperado” and “Hotel California” and the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”
He also performed on jazz vocal sessions by Diane Schuur, Carmen Lundy and the Manhattan
Transfer, and worked in the late 1980s with both pianist Les McCann and alto saxophonist
Anthony Braxton.[⌊Anthony Braxton and Buell Neidlinger's "2By2: Duets"⌉](https://i0.wp.com/cdn2.jazztimes.com/2018/03/BraxtonBuell.jpg?ssl=1)

**Anthony Braxton and Buell Neidlinger’s “2By2: Duets”**

Neidlinger met Krystall shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles, and the two began
a fruitful collaboration that would last for the rest of the bassist’s life. They
made 16 recordings together and cofounded a label, K2B2 Records, in 1979.

Neidlinger retired from studio and performance work in 2000 and moved with his wife
to Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound outside of Seattle. Returning to his first instrument,
the cello, he lived out his days playing the instrument either at home or at a local
coffee shop, as well as on occasional records on the K2B2 label. His final album—
_The Happenings_, a trio date on which Neidlinger, Krystall and guitarist Howard
Alden performed the compositions of Herbie Nichols—was issued in December.

Neidlinger is survived by Margaret Storer, his wife of 36 years; a daughter, Miranda
Neidlinger; and a son, Mike Neidlinger.

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