BROOKLYN, NY; OCTOBER 5, 2016—In the late 1960s/early ’70s I took a course on New York City Street Songs with Oscar Brand and Theodore Bikel at the New School for Social Research (as the full name was known then). Learning to think of jump rope songs as “folk music” changed the way I thought of “folk music” forever. And you can’t think of Oscar without recalling all the bawdy songs, many of which he recorded and which he periodically performed in concert. When our son was a poli sci major at GWU I gave him a copy of Oscar’s album of election songs that went back to the Revolutionary War era, a distillation of his book on the subject and the years of free Presidents’ Day concerts he gave at the Great Hall of Cooper Union.
Oscar passed away at 96 last Friday.
The range of Oscar’s musical knowledge was astonishing—he also wrote two Broadway musicals—but so was his gentle soul and gentlemanly way. He would roam an audience when it wasn’t his show and come over to say hello to anyone he recognized, never waiting for others to come to him, partly, no doubt, canvassing for guests for his weekly WNYC radio show, which ran continuously for 70 years with the same host. Continuously until the week before he died.
I still have my notes from that six-session class. Not to mention wonderful memories of many short conversations, performances, and radio shows. Oscar, may you and Theo be singing in the sky by and by…
For more complete obits, see: The Observer, The New York Times and WNYC, the latter with links to further resources at the station.
nightmayer 