Kerikeri's ex-Hollywood music legend dies
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Bay Chronicle
Musical legend Russ Garcia died peacefully at his Kerikeri home on Sunday.
The 95-year-old musician, composer and arranger was once described as the most famous guy you've never heard of.
Mr Garcia was born in California and went on to pursue a musical career for more than 85 years. Some of the names he worked with in films and music include Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Elizabeth Taylor and Clint Eastwood.
He moved to Kerikeri with his wife Gina in the 1970s, after being told by some New Zealand musicians he met in Fiji that he should visit.
In an interview with the Sunday Star-Times in April, he said: "I'd done everything in Hollywood – films, television, radio, recording. I had worked with everybody."
Earlier this year Mr Garcia took to the road with a 10-piece band, two award-winning singers from New York – Shaynee Rainbolt and Terese Genecco – and New Zealand singer Tim Beveridge.
The tour, with shows billed as An Evening with Russ Garcia, was to celebrate his jazz and movie compositions and continue telling stories about his past.
"I've got hundreds of stories and some of them are true," he told appreciative audiences.
A favourite story was his revelation that Ella Fitzgerald was shy and battled stage fright but that once she got on stage with the microphone in her hand, she "sang like an angel".
Mr Garcia conducted the Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch symphony orchestras and was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to music.
He spent many years working with theatre and dance groups in Kerikeri and was especially encouraging of young people's musical aspirations.
A celebration of Russ Garcia's life will be held in the events hall at the Turner Centre in Kerikeri on November 27 at 1.30pm.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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