I just found out that one of our Drummer Cafe members, Stuart "Stu" Nevitt, co-founder, composer, and drummer/percussionist of the eclectic band Shadowfax, has died at the age of 56. Stu died earlier this month, March 15th at his home in Rio Rancho, NM, of complications from type 1 diabetes and heart disease. Stu was also a member of my Drum Ring International back in the mid-90's along with the likes of Dom Famularo, Carmine Appice, John Favicchia, Peter Erskine and others.
Shadowfax, which Nevitt originally organized with Chuck Greenberg, G.E. Stinson, and Phil Maggini in an Illinois farmhouse in 1972, won a Grammy in 1988 for its album “Folksongs for a Nuclear Village," and was nominated for another one in 1992 for “Esperanto" after the band reformed with Armen Chakmakian, Ray Yslas, and Andy Abad. Due to the untimely passing of Greenberg, the group stopped recording and touring in 1995. Nevitt continued to perform and record, most recently producing and releasing his first solo project, “The Marion Kind," which is stylistically similar to Shadowfax while expanding on the groundbreaking sound of the group which featured the pioneering work of Greenberg's lyricon, the first woodwind synthesizer. | |  |
It was this unique sound that caught the attention of Windham Hill Records founder William Ackerman, who signed
Shadowfax as the first band to record on his label, releasing the eponymously titled album in 1982. Subsequent tours found them headlining such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Red Rocks, and The Montreux Jazz Festival.
The band often chafed at the New Age label ascribed to it, preferring the term world beat, attesting to the difficulty reviewers often had describing their music. The Times' late jazz expert Leonard Feather once described the multidisciplinary sound as “American, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European, incorporating classical, rock, folk and (minimally) jazz, variously acoustic and electric...easier to listen to than describe."
The band's unusual name were selected by Greenberg and Maggini while leafing through "Lord of the Rings" and finding Gandalf the wizard's horse.
The band went on to record ten albums and released two greatest-hits packages, most recently “Pure Shadowfax" on Sony/BMG in 2006. A book entitled “A Pause in the Rain" chronicling the band's history was published by Joy Greenberg in 2006. Nevitt is survived by his companion of many years, Marion Unterburger.
A memorial service is being planned in San Clemente. Further information may be obtained at
www.stunevitt.com.
You left us too soon. Rest in peace my friend ... and thank you for all the wonderful music.
