January 15, 1978- December 16, 2024
Remembrance by Alexis Cole
Today is Danny’s birthday, of course, I had to have intuited that he was a fellow Aquarius. The love that has poured out from the community since his passing is tremendous. It turns out I wasn’t his only friend! We started working together about 10 years ago on a few shows after his album with Cyrille Aimée came out. Danny’s always been really great about creating opportunities and surrounding himself with great musicians. My favorite time we sang together was at the Jerome Kern celebration at Carnegie Hall. We got selected to present the finale - Yesterdays. I went to Danny’s house and we co-wrote an arrangement together. It’s not a very efficient way to arrange, which is probably why it doesn’t happen too often, but there we were, Danny’s creative juices flowing, and me at the piano trying to decipher them! Danny had great ideas and I tried my best to capture them and add my own. By the time the night was done we had something really excellent on our hands. Worthy of the finale. Danny also came up with some schtick we could do together, which kind of stretched me, as I’m not a pre planned schtick kind of jazz singer, but I recognized where Danny’s genius lay, and tried my best to flow with.
One time before our rehearsal for a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers show we were doing, Danny and I rode bikes by his house and had dinner outside. It was really nice taking some social time together, it’s not common to do that in my experience.
Danny had an excellent work ethic and pushed his career into a very good place in a short time. As a big sister - a few years older and another decade under my belt as a singer, I really enjoyed watching him grow, and the better and better opportunities he found himself in.
I’m so sad that Danny is gone, but I know he is one person who really Lived his life. He had a life of Love and beautiful friends and a close family, doing what he was passionate about. It’s wonderful that his book on Laurel and Hardy got released just before his death, and sad that he and the Royal Bopsters worked so hard to get ready to sing together and didn’t get to. Life interrupted.
I’m sad for all the notes he won’t get to sing and play and the things he won’t get to do or see, but I know he lived an incredible life in his time. But there’s no getting around the devastating loss that he is to his loving wife Erin and his parents and brother and his family. For so many of his friends and colleagues too, the world is less bright and less full of laughter. Always a friend, and never jaded or putting anyone down, he lifted us all up and made our world lighter and kinder.
Here’s a link to his obituary to read more about his life. https://www.themorrisonfuneralhome.com/obituaries/daniel-bacher
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