Bob Borgestede memorial concert set for Friday, January 15

Friends and musical colleagues of Bob Borgestede are planning a memorial concert to honor the late guitarist on Friday, January 15 at the Rialto Ballroom in the Grand Center district of St. Louis.

The show will start at 7:00 p.m., and will include music from faculty members and alumni of SIUE, UMSL and Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) - all schools where Borgestede either studied or taught - as well as the Funky Butt Brass Band and Arvell and Company. Light appetizers will be provided and there will be a cash bar.

Tickets are $15, or $10 for students, and all proceeds will benefit the Bob Borgstede Memorial Scholarship for full-time SWIC students majoring in music education, music performance or music technology. Borgestede died in May, 2007 of acute pancreatis caused by a gallstone blocking a pancreatic duct.

To purchase tickets or make a donation, call the SWIC Foundation at 866-942-SWIC (7942), ext. 5215 or go to www.swic.edu/foundation. For more information, you can contact SWIC assistant professor of music Adam Hucke via email at adam.hucke@swic.edu.

Memorial fund to benefit Bob Borgstede family

Terry Perkins' latest Gateway Grooves column is up over at AllAboutJazz.com, and in addition to his take on recent and upcoming jazz events in St. Louis, there's also a nice tribute to the late guitarist Bob Borgstede, who Perkins worked with on a number of projects.

While you definitely should, as the saying goes, read the whole thing, there's one part that I'd like to quote directly so as to call just a bit more attention to it:

"Bob is survived by his wife Sarah and his two-year-old son, Bobby. Memorial donations may be given to the Bobby Borgstede Special Funds, Regions Bank, 210 East Washington St., Belleville, IL 62220."

Also, copies of Borgstede's CD Narrative Threads are still available for sale from CD Baby and via digital download from iTunes and Napster , with proceeds going to his family.

Family schedules Borgstede memorial for Wednesday, May 9

From the comments to this earlier post on guitarist Bob Borgstede:

"We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and affection for our son. Thanks for all the kind words.

He died of acute pancreatis that was caused by a gallstone blocking a pancreatic duct. This led to severe inflammation and eventually infection of his pancreas. An operation to remove the infected portion of his pancreas stirred up enough infection in his body that he went into total septic shock which he was unable to overcome. He spent 5 weeks in the ICUs at St. Elizabeth's in Belleville and Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis. We can't say enough about the efforts of both medical teams.

A memorial service will be held at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville on Wednesday, May 9 at 7:00pm.

Bob and Debbie Borgstede (Bob's parents)"

UPDATE - 5/5/07, 10:00 p.m.: A commenter points out (and Bob Bennett from Jazz St. Louis also emailed to say) that Sarah Borgstede has updated her husband's Web site with a note about his passing and memorial service.

Regarding the latter, there's one factual bit to add to the note from Bob Borgstede's parents, and that is that the location for the memorial service will be the gymnasium at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville.

Read Sarah Borgstede's complete message here.

UPDATE - 5/7/07, 3:10 p.m.: The Belleville News-Democrat's obituary for Bob Borgstede is now online here.

Guitarist Bob Borgstede passes away

Just received an email from Bob Bennett, director of operations for Jazz St. Louis, with this sad news:

"Wanted to let you know that we lost a dear friend today. Guitarist Bob Borgstede passed earlier today. Bob was a wonderful guitarist, but more than that, a wonderful human being who will be missed greatly by all of us."

Borgstede had been scheduled to perform Thursday night at Jazz at the Bistro with the Saint Louis Jazz Orchestra; Bennett's note goes on to say that the band decided to go ahead and play the gig, dedicating it to Borgstede's memory.

Bob Borgstede grew up in the St. Charles area and attended Fort Zumwalt High School, where he received the Louis Armstrong Award from the music department. He went on to study music and earn his degree from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He taught at Southwestern Illinois College, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a number of summer jazz camps, and did freelance jazz guitar work with various groups around town. Borgstede released one solo CD, Narrative Threads, in 2004, and received a Young Jazz Composers Award from the ASCAP Foundation in 2005. In addition to playing jazz, he also gigged regularly with the St. Louis funk/R&B party band Arvell & Co.

So far, there's no information available about the circumstances of Borgstede's passing. As for his age, the news release announcing his ASCAP award in January 2005 listed his age then as 25, which would mean he was either 27 or 28 at the time of his death.

According to the bio on his Web site, Borgstede lived in Belleville, and was married with one son. (Some quick online research also indicates that other relatives still live in the St. Charles/St. Peters area.) Our condolences and sympathies go out to his family, friends, colleagues and students. StLJN will have further information about funeral or memorial services as it becomes available.

UPDATE - 5/4/07, 6:35 p.m.: Jazz St. Louis' Bob Bennett replied to an email query with this additional information:

"(Borgstede) had been in the hospital for about a month, and underwent surgery Wednesday morning. While he made it through surgery, his body began to fail Thursday morning."

Bennett also said he anticipates having more information regarding funeral arrangements within a day or two. Also, I've been checking STLtoday for a story or obituary, but as of this writing there's been nothing. Borgstede's own Web site has not been updated, either.

Looking at the referrer logs from today, I can see that StLJN has had dozens of visits from people seeking more information about Bob Borgstede. As soon as there's something more to pass along, I'll do my best to get another update or a new post online ASAP.

(Edited after posting to fix a formatting problem.)