Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass When did we lose Edward 'Doc' Goldberg?
- Thread starter Jaymond
- Start date
I studied with him around '73-74. I was a double bass major at Manhattan School of Music at the time, so he found it amusing that I wanted to study with him as well. As time went on, I used to do bass transcriptions for him in exchange for lessons. I wrote out (among others) What Is Hip, as well Joni Mitchell's "Car On a Hill" (from Court and Spark), as an exercise in reading odd meters. I remember he has an early 50's P bass, strung up with old flats of some kind. He loved how dead the low E was. Nice guy. Big on reading. He had stacks of charts and transcriptions. He would sign a bunch of them each week. BTW, at the time, he went by the name of "Ed Lord". Edward was his first name. I don't know where "Lord" came from. One day I asked him if he had ever heard of a bass player named "Doc Goldberg". He said he didn't know him. I had no idea that they were the same person. No idea what THAT was about!
I studied both upright and electric 70’s and early 80’s. We would often hangout and eat Eskimo pies. He kept a sawed off shotgun in his closet…he dealt/bought and sold in some really fine basses! On occasion, I’d be setting up for a lesson and catch a glimpse of an attractive stewardess type flitting into a room down the hall.
I had a sixties EB3 and traded it for a Fifties Precision…a female student had small hands. Doc fixed us up…instrumentally!
He sold me a early Sixties P bass later and finally a ‘63 Jazz which I still own. He had a number of old Precisions and one was serial 0008. Years later I read that Bass was owned by Jack Bruce…funny I went from the EB3 to playing a bass he actually owned. Last bass I recall Doc using was a 60’s stack knob Jazz
Always had that early model B15.
I never met or ran into him but Doug Stegmeyer had the lesson right after me, for a while.
Another coincidence, my wife grew up in the building next door to Doc’s 105 55th.
He loved Chuck Rainey! Had great stories…Streisand’s first recording session. Showing Jackie Gleason how to look like he was playing the upright for the movie.
My life was greatly enriched knowing him…learning more than just playing bass.
I hadn’t touched bass for a while when he left me a message wondering if I was ok. We talked briefly. A few years later, his son, John, called and informed me Doc had died…pneumonia? Saw my name and a few others in red ink in his calendar/phone book and thought we meant something to Ed. What an honor to have been in that group!
I had a sixties EB3 and traded it for a Fifties Precision…a female student had small hands. Doc fixed us up…instrumentally!
He sold me a early Sixties P bass later and finally a ‘63 Jazz which I still own. He had a number of old Precisions and one was serial 0008. Years later I read that Bass was owned by Jack Bruce…funny I went from the EB3 to playing a bass he actually owned. Last bass I recall Doc using was a 60’s stack knob Jazz
Always had that early model B15.
I never met or ran into him but Doug Stegmeyer had the lesson right after me, for a while.
Another coincidence, my wife grew up in the building next door to Doc’s 105 55th.
He loved Chuck Rainey! Had great stories…Streisand’s first recording session. Showing Jackie Gleason how to look like he was playing the upright for the movie.
My life was greatly enriched knowing him…learning more than just playing bass.
I hadn’t touched bass for a while when he left me a message wondering if I was ok. We talked briefly. A few years later, his son, John, called and informed me Doc had died…pneumonia? Saw my name and a few others in red ink in his calendar/phone book and thought we meant something to Ed. What an honor to have been in that group!
