Jeff Golub

Jeff Golub (born April 15, 1955 in Copley , Ohio , † January 1, 2015 in New York City , New York ) was an American smooth jazz guitarist who also appeared in blues and rock. From 1988 to 1995 he was active for a period of around eight years in Rod Stewart's band , where he was involved in four albums and took part in five world tours. He also released twelve solo albums and three albums with the instrumental ensemble Avenue Blue from 1988 to 2013 .

life and career

Jeff Golub performing live in 2007

Born in 1955 in Copley, a western suburb of Akrons in the US state of Ohio, Jeff Golub began his career as a guitarist at a young age and made his first appearance in 1967 at the age of twelve, before professionalising his playing in the following decade. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and played in James Montgomery's band during this time . After moving to New York City in 1980, Golub joined the band of rock musician Billy Squier , who achieved his first major successes and chart placements from that time. At Squier's side he was involved in seven albums and took part in three world tours. The now 33-year-old guitarist finally released his debut album entitled Unspoken Words on the GAIA Records label in 1988 . In the same year he joined the band of one of the most successful artists of the time, the band Rod Stewarts , with whom he subsequently worked on four albums ( Vagabond Heart , Unplugged ... and Seated , Lead Vocalist, until his departure in 1995) and A Spanner in the Works ) and has participated in five world tours. Just one year before his departure, he published with Avenue Blue the eponymous album Avenue Blue on Mesa / Bluemoon Recordings and Atlantic Records . Two years later the instrumental ensemble's second album, Naked City , followed, followed by Nightlife in 1997. In the same year he and his band released his Christmas album Six String Santa , which he re-recorded ten years later.

In 1999, after three Avenue Blue albums, the solo album Out of the Blue came out, Golub's fifth album in a row on the Mesa / Bluemoon Recordings label , into which he incorporated funky Latino rhythms, soulful melodies and dramatic arrangements. A year later it came to the first collaboration with the record label GRP Records , where he released the album Dangerous Curves . The album was recorded within a week in early 2000 at Cherokee Studios and LAFX in North Hollywood and is heavily influenced by soul . In the studio album Do It Again , released in 2002 , on which he mainly covered songs from the 1960s and 1970s that had a strong influence on him, the mixture between classical jazz and R&B is made clear. With the album Soul Sessions released in 2003 , Golub's fusion of jazz, R&B and pop embodied an even harder, rougher and more earthy smooth jazz than in all of his previous albums. Temptation was released through Narada Productions in 2005 ; the album is also shaped by Golub's greatest influences Wes Montgomery and modern jazz . In 2007 he published his seventh solo album Grand Central on Narada ; again two years later a new mixture of blues and jazz followed with the album Blues for You .

In 2010 he was a member of Dave Koz & The Kozmos , who performed as a house band with Emeril Lagasse on The Emeril Lagasse Show . In June 2011, when his ninth album The Three Kings was released by independent label E1 Music , it was announced that Jeff Golub was blind due to a collapse of his optic nerve. Henry Butler, who was blind from birth, appeared next to him on the album . On September 3, 2012 Golub, fell at this time with his guide dog, the Labrador Luke, was traveling in the subway station 66th Street - Lincoln Center on the tracks and was slightly injured in the Weill Cornell Medical Center of NewYork- Presbyterian Hospitals . In the 2013 released album Train Keeps A Rolling , he dealt with this incident, among other things, in which he was only rescued by passers-by shortly before the underground train pulled in. On the cover of the album, which he brought out mainly with the British organist Brian Auger , Golub can be seen with his guitar and his guide dog Luke between train tracks.

In the years after his blindness, Golub ran into financial bottlenecks due to the high costs of therapies, drugs, etc., which is why, among other things, an online auction in favor of Golub was started, which brought in over 50,000 US dollars . After the disease was already well advanced, he no longer appeared as an artist in 2014. One of his last appearances was at the Smooth Jazz Festival in Augsburg in mid-September 2013.

Jeff Golub died on New Year's Day 2015 at his home in Manhattan, New York, of complications from progressive supranuclear palsy , a rare neurodegenerative disease he was diagnosed with in November 2014, at the age of 59. He left behind his wife Audrey Stafford and their sons Christopher and Matthew.

Solo albums and albums with Avenue Blue

• 1988: Unspoken Words
• 1994: Avenue Blue
• 1996: Naked City
• 1997: Nightlife
• 1997: Six String Santa
• 1999: Out of the Blue
• 2000: Dangerous Curves
• 2002: Do It Again
• 2003: Soul Sessions
• 2005: Temptation
• 2007: Six String Santa
• 2007: Grand Central
• 2009: Blues for You
• 2011: The Three Kings
• 2013: Train Keeps A Rolling
• 2015: The Vault

Web links

Commons : Jeff Golub  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Jeff Golub in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official website of Jeff Golub (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Good Samaritans save blind jazz guitarist after he falls onto upper West Side subway tracks , accessed on January 2, 2015
2. ↑ Help 4 Jeff Golub ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed January 2, 2015 
3. ↑ Jeff Golub Diagnosed With Rare Brain Disease , accessed January 2, 2015
4. ↑ Peter Keepnews: Jeff Golub, a Guitarist at Home in Several Genres, Dies at 59. Obituary in The New York Times, January 10, 2015 (accessed January 12, 2015).