I received this email this morning from Fred Atkins daughter, Julie Atkins:

Dear Bill,

Just to let you know that my Dad, Fred Atkin died suddenly on Friday evening. He had serious medical conditions but was smiling to the very end.
He always enjoyed your emails and I have seen a lot of them.
Many thanks,
Julie Atkin
I believe you can send condolences to Fred's family at his email address for a limited amount of time. mail to: fredatkin@tiscali.co.uk
Fred was one of the greatest arrangers of big band music and player of big band music on his Technics KN6500. He has been playing for over 60 years. I know you will all miss Fred. I have been forwarding his music out to my musicians email list now for over 10 years. He also played great classical music.
I bet Fred has a lot of those Angels singing the choruses of his tunes now. RIP Fred. We shall miss you and your music for a long time to come. You were a good man and a joy to all of us.
Bebop Bill Forrest

Bill sorry to hear the news. May he R.I.P

Is Fred the man who submitted a few songs to the arranger jam that Cass organized last year? If it's the same Fred I remember he had a lot enthusiasm for the on line arranger jam.

What a shame...most of us are at the age when friends start dying...lost a great pal last month...makes living each day as best we can all the more valuable.

Sorry about your buddy, Bill.

Ian

Could you post maybe your favorite up somewhere so we can all appreciate him for what must have been a major part of his life, Bebop?

Stephen, I don't know the answer to your question.
I will follow Diki's suggestion and try to find the time today or tomorrow to go through some of Fred's, arrangements he recorded on his keyboard and put one up on boxnet. I will then advise the url address in this thread. I should have thought of that. Thanks Diki.
Yes, Ian I am loosing many friends at this time and age. I Just hit 78 on Saturday. I guess it goes with the turf
Best to all,
Bebop

54 this coming Saturday myself, Bebop. Where did the time go?

I'll tell you one thing. If I had thought I was going to live this long (I had my doubts as a young 'un!), I might have got myself a REAL job long ago!

I just hope when I peg out, they all get together and have the best jam in history...

Belated birthday wishes to you, my friend... I'll count myself lucky beyond measure to get to your mark.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 03-02-2010).]

HI ALL,
This is the last song that Fred Atkin arranged and recorded back in September before he got to sick to do anymore. It was a Harry James song name of Crazy Rhythm. He did a lot of Harry James for me as he and I had both been trumpet players in big bands in another life.
I put it up on boxnet. You can stream it or download it. Here is the url: http://www.box.net/shared/gfn0ay21v5

Non Boxnet members use this link.
I have all the arrangements that Fred did over the years in MP3, so if you didn't get them through my musician mailing list, I can email you any you might want, if he did it. They are all big band styles although he did several classical pieces too that are amazing to me to have been done on his Technics KN6500 keyboard.
Enjoy the music.
Bebop Bill



[This message has been edited by BEBOP (edited 03-02-2010).]

That link asks the visitors to log in, Bebop. Does something need to be changed so the content is simply on the page for us to stream?

Diki (the Disappointed)

I changed the link in my post above and now you can play the song without logging in.
sorry,
Bebop

Thnx BeBop ... Fred was a very talented man ...
t.

Great example of Big Band. Fred was certainly talented and it's pretty obvious he came from an era when musicians could actually play. No 'three chord rule' here.

chas

Yep, great playing. I must admit though, I can see why the bigband fans chose the Technics, but it's all about the style. The sounds are somewhat Casio-like, IMO.

Hopefully, Fred has an angelic REAL bigband to play with for the rest of eternity. Not sure I wouldn't think I'd been sent to the OTHER place, faced with an eternity listening to those Technics sounds

Thanks Bill for that arrangement of Fred's.
That is MY kind of music...and always will be, having been brought up in that era.
Fred was a very talented man in his own field and fortunately we have his work saved for posterity.
BTW Bill, congrats on your reaching 78 and may you have many more.
1932 was a special year for both of us

------------------
Eddie from Rotherham
http://www.music2myears.plus.com

Smiley face or not, ...
Beautiful sounds are in the EAR of the beholder, Diki ...if listening to my technics sounds is all that is bad about "the OTHER place", then maybe "the OTHER place" isn't so bad after all ...
JMHO,
t.


[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 03-03-2010).]

Did you ever play or listen to any of Technics top KN's live Diki?
And if yes, did you take note of the brilliant OS, composer, panelmemories etc?

Cheers
GJ

I apologize for my part in bringing this thread down a different path ...
Out of respect to Fred and BeBop, if this discussion is to continue I think a new thread should be started ...
BTW ... with the demise of technics AKBs, the discussion is moot anyway ...

Apologies, BeBop,
t.

Dear Bill,

I have received some wonderful emails since you have informed your group of friends that Dad died. The only problem is that I am unable to reply to all of them and wondered if you would be kind enough to send my thanks to everyone.

It was Dad's funeral today and my older son Alexander played a Bach piece on his cello in the church which was lovely.

Again many thanks,

Julie c/o fredatkin@tiscali.co.uk