BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Keyboardist Larry Knechtel diesKeyboardist Larry Knechtel dies
Grammy award-winning keyboardist Larry Knechtel, who performed with the likes of Elvis Presley and the Dixie Chicks, has died at the age of 69.
Knechtel died in a US hospital after suffering an apparent heart attack.
His death was confirmed by a spokesman for Valley Hills Funeral Home in Yakima, Washington.
"Larry's resume is a history lesson in great American music all unto itself," country music band Dixie Chicks wrote on their website.
Knechtel was born in Bell, California, and went on to perform live and record with artists including Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Randy Newman, Hank Williams Jr and Elvis Costello.
Dixie Chicks tour
He won a Grammy award for his arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.
He also played keyboard on the Dixie Chicks' Grammy award-winning album Take The Long Way and performed on the Hammond organ on the tour of the same name.
Blues singer and guitarist player Wayman Chapman, a friend and fellow performer, said Knechtel had appeared to be in good health following a recent holiday to Italy.
"He told me in 2003 that he needed to think about retiring, but since then he'd been going like gangbusters," Chapman said.
Knechtel's family are planning a private memorial gathering for family and close friends, but the date and the location are yet to be announced.
August 24, 2009
Keyboardist Larry Knechtel dies | BBC NEWS | Entertainment
Brett-Livingstone Strong's Rare Portrait Of Michael Jackson May Be Up For Sale (PHOTOS)
Brett-Livingstone Strong's Rare Portrait Of Michael Jackson May Be Up For Sale (PHOTOS)Read More: Brett Livingstone Strong, Brett Livingstone-Strong, Brett-Livingstone Strong, Dancy-Power Automotive, John Gentilly, Marty Abrams, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson Art, Michael Jackson Dead, Michael Jackson Harlem, Michael Jackson News, Michael Jackson Painting, Michael Jackson Portrait, Michael Jackson The Book, Slidepoll, Slideshow, The Book Painting, New York NewsThe cashing in on the death of Michael Jackson simply won't quit.
Just weeks after news broke of the upcoming auction of an Andy Warhol portrait of Jackson in East Hampton comes news of a possible sale of an even rarer depiction of the singer.
The New York Times reports that the owners of the famous Brett-Livingstone Strong portrait of Jackson, believed to be the only portrait for which he actually posed for, are trying to sell it while the market is hot.
According to the Times:
The portrait depicts Mr. Jackson dressed in red velvet holding a journal of thoughts and sketches. "We called it, 'The Book,'" Mr. Strong said. 'What are you going to put in 'The Book' today, Michael?'" The backdrop is Neverland, with an image of Tinkerbell. The painting has touches of Vermeer, as that was one of Mr. Jackson's favorite painters, Mr. Strong said.
The 40-inch by 50-inch painting was last sold for $2.1 million in 1990, and was later acquired by toy inventors Marty Abrams and John Gentilly.
The portrait is currently on display in the showroom of the Dancy-Power Automotive Group, a luxury car dealership in Harlem.
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In Michael Jackson Painting, He Wore Red Velvet - City Room Blog - NYTimes.comIn Michael Jackson Painting, He Wore Red Velvet
By Jennifer 8. Lee“The Book,” painted in 1990 by Brett-Livingstone Strong.
The owners of a long-hidden painting of Michael Jackson, reputed to be the only portrait he ever posed for, say they are trying to sell it amid the renewed interest after his death. The painting, last sold in 1990 for $2.1 million, was brought out of storage at New Jersey warehouse recently and put on display in a Harlem car showroom.
The 50-by-40-inch painting, called “The Book,” was done in 1990 by an Australian artist, Brett-Livingstone Strong, who was a close friend of Mr. Jackson and shared his taste for slightly fantastical style of life and dress.
The portrait depicts Mr. Jackson dressed in red velvet holding a journal of thoughts and sketches. “We called it, ‘The Book,’” Mr. Strong said. ‘What are you going to put in ‘The Book’ today, Michael?’” The backdrop is Neverland, with an image of Tinkerbell. The painting has touches of Vermeer, as that was one of Mr. Jackson’s favorite painters, Mr. Strong said.
The painting is owned by two toy inventors, Marty Abrams and John Gentilly, who received the painting in 1992 from a Japanese businessman who had bought it to make good on a debt he owed the inventors.
“If someone came with a legitimate offer, I’d probably sell it,” said Mr. Abrams, who lives in Great Neck. He tried selling it when he first took possession of it in 1992, but couldn’t find any good offers.
“I couldn’t get anyone at that time interested in the painting,” said Mr. Abrams. “I put it in storage for 17 years, and it has been there for 17 years.”
They never displayed it in their own homes. “It’s so expensive that the insurance was too expensive,” Mr. Abrams said. “I have prints for $600. I might have a sketch for $1,000. But to put a $2 million painting in the middle of all that would be a little bit overwhelming.”
They were inspired to bring the painting out of storage after Mr. Jackson’s death in June, in part because Mr. Abrams saw a news story about a sketch portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol that was being put up for auction.
Mr. Strong and Mr. Jackson formed an art business partnership, the Jackson-Strong Alliance, around 1989 and 1990 to display their art work, which included this portrait. The two were brainstorming how to raise money for charity when Mr. Strong mentioned that a Japanese businessman, Hiromichi Saeki, had offered millions of dollars for a portrait of Mr. Jackson.
Mr. Jackson said he would sit for it if the buyer agreed to pay a world record — ultimately $2.1 million, then reported as the highest amount ever paid for a living person. “Sometime later he told me he would have made $5 million for it,” Mr. Strong said. The businessman later went bankrupt and gave the painting to Mr. Abrams.
Mr. Strong still has a number of drawings done by Mr. Jackson as part of the partnership. “These drawings are really interesting. Some of the are really fantastic. They have been in a drawer for 17 years.” He is hoping to hold an exhibit of the art.
A limited, autographed set of lithographs was created based on “The Book.” Around 375 of them were numbered and some have made their way onto eBay and Craigslist.
The owners have received calls from as far away as Dubai after Mr. Jackson’s death from people who knew they owned the painting. “Up to this point we’ve been very skittish,” Mr. Abrams said. They have reached out to Phillips De Pury auction house to get an assessment. “I am not an art expert. I don’t understand the art market,” he said. “We have no idea what it’s worth. Is it worth $1 million? Is it worth $10 million?”
Currently, the painting is being displayed at the Dancy-Power Automotive at Lenox Avenue and West 129th in Harlem, chosen in part because it is owned by a friend of Mr. Abrams and also because it is near the Apollo Theater, where the Jackson 5 won an amateur night competition in 1967.
It hasn’t drawn huge crowds, Mr. Abrams said, in part because “we don’t put a big sign in the window, ‘Michael Jackson Painting Here.’”