RIP Gil Askey

[JimBagley]

http://www.austin360.com/news/news/local-obituaries/austin-native-gil-askey-worked-with-motown-legends/nfW4K/

[Soul Sister]

Sorry to hear this, I remember when his orchestra was backing the Supremes [[Jean, Mary, & Cindy) at the Apollo and my friend Bassist Bill Upchurch [[R.I.P.) was in the orchestra.

BILL UPCHURCH ~
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Thanks for the great shows, R.I.P. Gil.

S.S.
***

[1382hitsville]

RIP Gil,

Thanks for all he has given us.

Here is a link of him performing his trumpet, 2 years ago [[at around 23 minutes).

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/2268476139/Rockwiz-Mary-Wilson-and-Joe-Camilleri

[Roberta75]

Play your Beautifull instruments in heaven now Mr Askey and conduct Gods great choir in his heavenly mansion.

"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals"

Thank you Mr Askey now go ahaed and praise him inperson for you are now in his heavenly house forever.

Roberta

[supremester]

There was not a bigger supporter of Dana Ross and/or The Supremes than Gil. Much of what we love about them is due to Gil. He truly loved and cared about Miss Ross.

[jobeterob]

A big Motown loss; he lived a long life and got to do many exciting things.

[brother_love]

8045
R.I.P. Gil Askey [[1925 - 2014)

[Lulu]

8045
R.I.P. Gil Askey [[1925 - 2014)

Well doesn't this just stink?!? RIP Gil...what a gentleman and professional he was. As much as I love his work with The Supremes, I have to say his conducting the jazz bands on LSTB and Stolen Moments really stand out for me. I was too young to get technical on Billie Holiday's DECCA sides but Gil's reworking of some of those instrumentals really blew me away. In fact, I found the 1992 set to be so flawless you sometimes forgot that it was a "vocal" album!

[Jimi LaLumia]

a TRUE legend of Motown!..RIP..

[BigAl]

I'm saddened to read this. Askey knew his stuff, even though I never much cared for his premise that The Supremes should perform their hits "à la Vegas" in the live act. The other material in the act worked fine with that kind of arrangement but speeding-up and brassing-up the hits was a shame. Granted, it wasn't easy to get a Funk Brothers sound in concert using musicians other then the Funks themselves, but too many liberties were taken with those sacred songs.

Askey later produced Linda Clifford and used a much less "nightclubby" approach.

[jobeterob]

Immortalized in his work on Lady Sings the Blues, Stolen Moments, his work with the Supremes and Diana Ross and in those final Supremes moments of "Can you play it back there Gil, if your there?"

[milven]

Diana : "Where's my musicians and stuff..?"

"Someday We'll Be Together"

Diana: "Can you play it {up}... there, Gil..., if you're there?"

He is.

He will.
RIP
Thanks for the music

[smark21]

As I said in the other thread, I agree with Big Al on this.

[LadyLola]

There was not a bigger supporter of Dana Ross and/or The Supremes than Gil. Much of what we love about them is due to Gil. He truly loved and cared about Miss Ross.

He was one good guy. I bought that Supremes CD that has the live show at the Rooster tail and Diana makes some cute remarks about him. Oh, honey you might want to edit your post. "Diana" not "Dana". From what I've seen around this place there's a lot of picky princess' around.

[LadyLola]

Play your Beautifull instruments in heaven now Mr Askey and conduct Gods great choir in his heavenly mansion.

"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals"

Thank you Mr Askey now go ahaed and praise him inperson for you are now in his heavenly house forever.

Roberta

I'll second your lovley prayer with ....

Oh Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in all directions,
Endowed with great compassion,
Endowed with foreknowledge,
Endowed with divine eye,
Endowed with love,
Affording protection to sentient beings,
Please come forth through the power of your great compassion,
Please accept these offerings, both actually presented and mentally created.
Oh Compassionate Ones, you who possess
The wisdom of understanding,
The love of compassion,
The power of doing divine deeds,
And of protecting in incomprehensible measure,
Gil is passing from this world to the next,
He is taking a great leap,
The light of this world has faded for him,
He has entered solitude with their karmic forces,
He has gone into a vast silence,
He is borne away by the great ocean of birth and death ..…
Oh Compassionate Ones, protect Gil who is defenseless. Be to him like a mother and father.
Oh Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak, but aid them.
Let Gil not go into the miserable states of existence.

Forget not your ancient vows.

Peace my brothers and sister,

Lola

[captainjames]

RIP GIL.....................................and thank you.

[Roberta75]

I'll second your lovley prayer with ....

Oh Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in all directions,
Endowed with great compassion,
Endowed with foreknowledge,
Endowed with divine eye,
Endowed with love,
Affording protection to sentient beings,
Please come forth through the power of your great compassion,
Please accept these offerings, both actually presented and mentally created.
Oh Compassionate Ones, you who possess
The wisdom of understanding,
The love of compassion,
The power of doing divine deeds,
And of protecting in incomprehensible measure,
Gil is passing from this world to the next,
He is taking a great leap,
The light of this world has faded for him,
He has entered solitude with their karmic forces,
He has gone into a vast silence,
He is borne away by the great ocean of birth and death ..…
Oh Compassionate Ones, protect Gil who is defenseless. Be to him like a mother and father.
Oh Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak, but aid them.
Let Gil not go into the miserable states of existence.

Forget not your ancient vows.

Peace my brothers and sister,

Lola

Thats real beautifull ladylola. I believe all roads lead to God my dear and God love everyone.

Yours, with every good wish.

Roberta

[LadyLola]

Thats real beautifull ladylola. I believe all roads lead to God my dear and God love everyone.

Yours, with every good wish.

Roberta

Ahh! Thanks babe!

[Ryon6]

RIP Gil, thanks for the music and for your love of all things Motown!

[midnightman]

R.I.P. Definitely a great contributor to this great Motown sound...

[jaybs]

RIP Gil, a True Legend of Motown, Thanks for the music you brought us.

[smark21]

R.I.P. Definitely a great contributor to this great Motown sound...

But was Gil Askey truly an architect of the famous Motown Sound like HDH or the Funk Bros, etc? Or was he a talented jazz/big band guy whose job it was to take the Motown sound and make it palatable for middle aged white nightclub/Copa/Vegas audiences?

[LuvHangOva]

I discovered by accident that Gil produced Linda Clifford's "If They Could See Me Now"..a disco smash that also included the Jones Girls doing outstanding background vocals. [[well not really by"accident" since I've always been obsessive about paying attention to what info is on the cd or album label). It kicks butt and straddles the line between Broadway and R & B quite nicely.

[captainjames]

http://tributes.heraldsun.com.au/notice/35052004

[R. Mark Desjardins]

I remember reading that Gil Askey and Diana Ross shared a great laugh about the "Blue" CD that lay dormant in the Motown vaults for years, doing so well for them sales wise and and how they were surprised to get a sizeable royalty check after so long a period of time. Known to us Motown fans, and perhaps not as well known as he should be to the general public, by all accounts a wonderful gentleman as well as a gifted musical talent.

[Stone Diamond]

Here's a screen I did for my facebook page, to honour him.
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