Bobby Blume (January 30, 1956 - February 4, 1984)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Bobby Blume was a Singer/Songwriter and Broadway Accompanist. He had a B.Mus. in Composition (minor in Piano) at Manhattan School of Music. (P: courtesy estate of Bobby Blume)

Bobby Blume was raised in Mamaroneck, New York. He achieved an Artist Certificate in flute, piano and composition from Westchester Conservatory of Music and graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. He taught at Cooper Music Studios in Croton-on-Hudson, New York as well as privately. Blume was music director and/or rehearsal pianist in over 100 community theater and semi-professional productions, and was the house pianist at The Comic Strip Nightclub in New York. He orchestrated two musicals and was pianist and musical director for various club acts. He was also an accomplished piano tuner and technician. Blume was a finalist nine times in the American Song Festival Songwriting and Lyric Competition, and received five Honorable Mentions in the Music City Song Festival. He would often accompany Broadway singers in exchange for their participation in his recordings, which he recorded in his Chelsea apartment.

Bobby Blume died of AIDS in New York on February 4, 1984, five days before his 28th birthday. He was one of the first to succumb to the disease then known as Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). --Joseph Dalton


AIDS Quilt



Source: www.artistswithaids.org/artforms/music/catalogue/blume.html

Further Readings:

Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality by Patrick Moore
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press (January 14, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080707957X
ISBN-13: 978-0807079577
Amazon: Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality

The radical sexuality of gay American men in the 1970s is often seen as a shameful period of excess that led to the AIDS crisis. Beyond Shame claims that when the gay community divorced itself from this allegedly tainted legacy, the tragic result was an intergenerational disconnect because the original participants were unable to pass on a sense of pride and identity to younger generations. Indeed, one reason for the current rise in HIV, Moore argues, is precisely due to this destructive occurrence, which increased the willingness of younger gay men to engage in unsafe sex.

Lifting the'veil of AIDS,' Moore recasts the gay male sexual culture of the 1970s as both groundbreaking and creative-provocatively comparing extreme sex to art. He presents a powerful yet nuanced snapshot of a maligned, forgotten era. Moore rescues gay America's past, present, and future from a disturbing spiral of destruction and AIDS-related shame, illustrating why it's critical for the gay community to reclaim the decade.

More LGBT History at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Gay Classics