George Mraz (1944-2021)

One summer in the 1980s at the Stanford Coffee House, I served beer late every afternoon to the bassist George Mraz (1944-2021), who was teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. I knew and loved his playing, most of all on the John Abercrombie Quartet albums he did with Richie Beirach and Peter Donald. He was worried about his career that summer because he had tendinitis in his wrist and was supposed to not be playing at all. Around twenty years later, I heard him with Joe Lovano in Basel (with Hank Jones and Victor Lewis) and was glad to see that he no longer had to play with a wrist brace. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 21 September 2021)

 

John Abercrombie (top); Richie Beirach, George Mraz, Peter Donald