Popular pianist dies in Texas freeze

Popular pianist dies in Texas freeze

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norman lebrecht

February 23, 2021

From Austin 360:

Gene Taylor, a renowned blues and boogie-woogie pianist in Los Angeles in the 1970s and ’80s who moved to Austin in the 1990s to play with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, died Saturday at home in North Austin. He was 68.

Taylor’s housemate, filmmaker Monty McMillan, said Sunday that he found Taylor’s body in bed Saturday morning. The house had been without heat for five days as a result of statewide power outages related to the recent winter storm.

“I don’t really know exactly what happened.” McMillan said. “I don’t know if he had some underlying health condition, but I know the cold didn’t help.

“We both stayed in our own beds trying to stay warm. I came out of it OK, and he obviously didn’t.”

Gene Taylor was highly popular in Belgium and Sweden.

Comments

  • Rogerio says:

    I wonder if another state can sue Texas for being an embarrassment.
    Nahh. States can’t sue other states.

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    What an absolutely dreadful story. Something like that happened in a big freeze and power outages in England in 1979. I distinctly remember this as a friend wrote about having to stay in bed for days.

  • ML Eddy says:

    Sad commentary for this cities elder check.

  • BruceB says:

    How terrible.

  • Greg Bottini says:

    There’s a very strong movement in Texas that is pro-secession.
    Opinions, please: should Texas be allowed to leave the United States and form their own country, or not? (BTW, I’m not even sure it would be Constitutionally allowable.)
    I’m interested in what the SlippeDisc peanut gallery might have to say on the subject.

    • Sharon says:

      Yeah, it IS constitutionally allowable in that there is nothing in the US constitution against it. The succession of the South during the U.S Civil War was technically constitutional

    • deb says:

      It was decided back when Texas became a state (December 29, 1845), that the could separate and be on their own.

  • It was a ghastly FU by all levels of the infrastructure.

    They warned us of blackouts up to an hour long. Instead power went out and stayed out for more than two days.

    I was burning a giant pan of candles to stay warm. I’m sure many people could not get by with that little.

  • Sharon says:

    I’m sure that commissions set up to study the issue will issue voluminous reports. However, I have read that its roots lie in the way the Texas power grid was set up in the 1930s, apparently in such a way to evade federal regulations of those times.

    What a pity that something like this could happen in this day and age. Even children died. It reminds me of hurricane Katrina that happened around 15 years ago. In spite of at least 5 days warning over 1300 people still drowned. Some lesser developed countries, like Cuba of which I am generally no fan, do a far better job of handling climate disasters.

  • Patrick says:

    Actually, succession was decided with the Civil War. Hopefully we won’t go there again. But who would want Abbot as president. He does enough damage as so call governor.

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