While we were in Hawaii, we learned of another death in our extended family. Our niece, my brother's daughter, had a stepson who died unexpectedly on January 1. Such a tragedy. He was a well known musician, in our area, so it made the newspaper here. Just sharing.
Luis Gonzales: Jazz player was Roosevelt star
By Paul de Barros
Seattle Times
When Luis Gonzales was 7 years old, his grandmother came to Seattle from New Mexico for a three-week visit.
"When we went to the airport to pick her up," recalled Luis' father, Julin, "Luis made up his mind he was going to learn to swim before she left. That was a Wednesday. By Saturday, he was swimming. That's the way he always was. When he put his mind to something, he just did it."
Mr. Gonzales died suddenly, on New Year's Day, of a perforated bleeding ulcer. An alumnus of the award-winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Band and a professional jazz bassist, he was 23 years old.
For the past three years, Mr. Gonzales had been playing on the Queen of the West, a Columbia River cruise ship. He was found dead in the bathroom of his stateroom. He apparently did not know he was sick, nor did anyone else. He had just applied to the New School, in New York.
"I have a film from Thanksgiving," said his mother, Charlotte Selness, of Seattle. "He didn't look sick. He looked happy, healthy and content." No drugs or alcohol were found in Mr. Gonzales' system.
Born Nov. 23, 1979, in Seattle, Luis started playing violin at Sand Point Elementary School in fourth grade and switched to bass at Eckstein Middle School. At Roosevelt, he played in jazz band from 1995-97, under the direction of Scott Brown, touring Mexico and Europe.
"Luis spoke fluent Spanish," recalled Brown. "When we went to Mazatlan, he was always talking to the little kids on the street. He was a very good player. He learned to swing on that European trip."
On Monday, more than 100 former high-school jazz-band players from Roosevelt and Garfield gathered at the Porta Greek Tavern in Seattle for a lively jam session, in Mr. Gonzales' honor. Mr. Gonzales' half-brother, Ryan Cross, played bass. Other classmates on the stand included trumpeter Jumaane Smith, drummer Phil Parisot and guitarist Andy Coe.
According to Cross, after high school, Mr. Gonzales went into a "downward spiral" of alcohol and drugs and did not play music. After a serious car accident, in 1999, however, he moved in with Cross in Los Angeles. Mr. Gonzales began studying with bassist John Clayton, Cross' teacher at the University of Southern California.
"From then on, he just went to the sky," said Cross.
Three of his four surviving half-siblings are working musicians: bassists Cross and Philip Wright and violinist Kenneth Wright. His half-sister is Victoria.