RIP Chas Smith
Charles V. (Chas) Smith died on the morning of Oct. 16, of double pneumonia, 4 other infections (he had no spleen, physically or metaphorically), Hodgkin's lymphoma, or a stroke...take your pick. Like most adjunct faculty (he taught rock history at Cleveland State), he had no medical insurance.
Chas and I were fellow students at Cleveland State. He was studying composition, and we sang together in Dr. William Martin's collegium (Bill referred to him as "the Chasuble"). But his real allegiance was not to the Western concert music tradition, but to his succession of bands and his radio show...a wild but temporary creativity. So we basically lost contact. We were nominally "in the same community" but in radically different corners: I as a Gardnerian Wiccan, he as a SubGenius participant. Hearing of his illness 3 weeks ago was the first I heard about him in several years.
It's pretty clear from the Yahoo Brushwood list that Chas had friends. There's a tribute site up at http://www.chastribute.com/
Visiting Hours will be
Thursday, October 18th
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
BRICKMAN BROS. FUNERAL HOME
37433 Euclid Ave.
Willoughby, Ohio 44094
440-951-7800
Go to http://tinyurl.com/25zpeh for directions from your NE Ohio home
The Service, followed by the Funeral begins
Friday, October 19th
10:00 AM
Brickman Bros. Funeral Home
Comments
Posted by: Mell
Posted on: October 19, 2007 09:57 AM
I hoping to be able to program a piece of Chas' on a January recital. He wrote a multiple percussion solo for a contest that Don Miller held when he was CSU faculty. As the orchestra is on it's way to Vienna, I can't get the score just yet. Michele, his ex-wife, has asked me if we can try to bring back a piece he wrote for the two of us for my senior recital. I'm hoping she has the score somewhere. I believe I have the score to a percussion trio that we were unable to perform in Europe.
The one thing that always struck me was his meticulous art skills in creating his scores. It was one of the Crumb (George, not R.) influences on his work. I remember going to Morse Graphics to get all the different templates that he would use in my own feeble attempt to be a composer.