funlover

Seeing the topic about oldest actor brought me to thinking who is the oldest musicia? Not necessarily still performing. I can think of Edmundo Ros who, if not yet 100, is close to it.

Santonix

According to IMDb, he will be 98 in December. Fantastic, cheers Edmundo!

Steve Crook

Keith Richards looks like he's about 912

Steve

dremble wedge

Delta bluesman David 'Honeyboy' Edwards has just finished a British tour, he's 93 later this month.

Chuck Berry is still going strong at 81. He's playing Hackney Empire next month.

nandywell

Well, considering Glenn Miller's body was never found, he might be worthy contender to sweep your accolade.

I make him 104 but he has of course long since retired from playing, on the grounds of ill health I believe.

billy bentley

There used to be an old RCA Records joke that went something like - The good news is that Elvis has just had his umpteenth No.1 hit, the bad news is Glenn Miller's plane has just landed and he wants his royalties !

Freddie Freeloader

Interesting topic...

I'd like to share with you one of my current favourite performances.

Vladimir Horowitz, still poetic and profound at 83 years old !



....and if you think that was a tad on the youthfull side, then check out Eubie Blake at Carnegie Hall, one month short of his 98th birthday !!!




Yesterday I posted, on the Sob-inducing Song thread, one of The Four Last Songs, composed by Richard Strauss in the last year of his life. The subject matter (libretto by Hermann Hesse) is death and Strauss was obviously in an advantaged position to reflect those mortal considerations in his music.

YouTube - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: Beim Schlafengehen

YouTube - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: "Im Abendrot" (with translation)



And on that happy note.....n'night.

Fred x

Freddie Freeloader

......aged 84, I should have mentioned.

funlover

I thought he WAS.

wadsy

George Shearing is still going strong at 89!

ShirlGirl

Thanks for posting all those, Freddy. Eubie Blake and Horowitz are wonderful for their age (wonderful at any age, for that matter) and they both are so fortunate they not only still have all their marbles, but appear to be completely arthritis-free!

I prefer Kirsten Flagstad's historic recording of Beim Schlafengehen - world premiere performance - have you heard it?
I don't know how to post YouTube into the forum so here's the link....

Flagstad-LPO-Furtwangler


Although I'm not a great fan of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, I remember watching her Master Class series on TV many years ago - I think it was around 1977. It was entrancing and she was an excellent coach. I'd love to watch it all again, also to know how those students progressed. I've often wondered about that, but I didn't remember their names so haven't been able to search.

Btw I went to a concert at the Sydney Opera House last Saturday night - the SSO under Charles Dutoit - Strauss's Alpine Symphony. Great work, I loved it.

bhowells

Lena Horne still with us not sure if still peforming. Pete Seeger is 89 and is still peforming and recording. Cleo Laine and Johnnie Dankworth Cleo is eighty one this year Dankworth must be about the same age.

Chris Barber nearing eighty so is Acker Bilk.

Gazza

Belgian jazz legend Toots Thielemans is still going strong at 86 - there's plenty of him on youtube, but here's a clip of him with Peggy Lee in younger times:

Toots and Peggy

philly

Mitch Miller who had a hit with "Yellow rose of texas" is 97 , Patty Andrews the last surviving Andrews sister is 90

EllyMack

He's not the oldest musician around, but at 84, Eric Delaney is a drummer to be reckoned with. I'd never heard of him (shame on me), but he appeared with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (the UK lot, led by Ray McVay) at the venue my bloke was working at, and I'd gone along there looking forward to meeting Tommy Whittle, among others. But I was also introduced to Eric before the show.

He's a gentleman and a true enthusiast off stage, and a showman on stage and off. He's also the most awesome drummer I've ever seen. This is the guy who plays a rock solo on orchestral timps and makes it look easy, takes three encores and still has the energy and the humility to join the crew in the bar afterwards. And he still looks this good.

Sadly, these old boys of jazz are, literally, a dying breed.