Dick Borden - R.I.P.

[graypencil]

I'm really getting bummed here ..this is the second friend I've lost in just a week ..

RIP Dick

>>Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 11:29 AM
Subject: Remembering a Great Drummer and Friend

>>>The obituary of March 25 reads as follows....

'Richard Borden passed away February 26,2004. Born in Oak Park,Il.August 20 1935. Graduate of Oak Park High School in 1954. Studied at Roy Knapp School of Percussion. A top drummer through the 60,s and 70,s Richard performed with Barbra Streisand and Peggy Lee among others. There is no surviving family. He had many loyal friends.No services are planned. Arrangements by Creamation Society of Illinois.' ....Donations in Richards name to the Shriners Hospital of Illinois .......


This brief obituary and the absence of any service just does'nt seem enough so I would like to add a personal note here by adding a little more information about my old friend Richard..... In addition to the big celebrities Dick worked with many folks in diverse settings, among the Big Bands, Ralph Martiere, singer, Duke Hazlett. He toured with comedian Allan Sherman,was house drummer at the old Playboy Hotel in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. He played with Jazz Greats, Sir Roland Hanna, Jackie Byard and Lou Levy, and performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival.......Locally he worked a long time with the popular Chicago jazzband 'Ears' ...He was a regular at 'Andys' .....Dick Reynolds was on the list as well as many many others including yours truly.... I can remember going back forty years when Dick played with some of my early rehearsal bands and some of the wild gigs and bars we worked in...... I saw less and less of Richard as the years passed. For reasons of his own he went into a self imposed early retirement.He kept to himself pretty much and with the exception of a few friends nobody got to see much of him.. The two closests friends were Bob Ojeda and Don Knapp,who at the end of Dicks life were on hand to attend to the closure of his affairs.......Like so many artists Dick did,nt leave a whole lot of material posessions behind, what's left are memories and 'tools of the trade', in this instance I recieved both..I,m not a drummer but Bob and Don both agreed I should have Dicks drumset to be kept at my home where so many parties happen and so many drummers come often to play........Perhaps that could be the very best tribute of all Bob Centano

that goes for me as well ..phil kelly

[Mike Schwartz]

gp,

I saw the other thread, and didn't comment [but should have] so please accept my sympathy as you greive your 2 musical comrades, who by what you've said were good guys as well...

[hornplayer]

Phil, I didn't see the other thread, but I did know and play with Dick Borden at Andy's in Chicago in the 80's....
that's really sad news.

Play those heavenly ratamacues, Dickie........

[Arranger-Transcriber]

My condolences, Phil. It should give you a boost to know that, though his heart is stilled, Dick's drumset will beat on when you and your friends gather for parties, rehearsals, and jam sessions.

- Douglas Smink