I grew up just south of San Francisco, and being a teenager in the 1960s was amazing. I played guitar and bass in a number of bands, headlining at Marty Balin's Matrix, opening for Muddy Waters, Moby Grape, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead (Bobby was a neighbor of mine), Quicksilver Messenger Service and others at Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland, and for a few other well-known acts at Avalon Ballroom and elsewhere. Often, when I was a member of the audience at a performance by Chuck Berry or Steve Miller or others, I would chat with a young harmonica player from the East Bay area, Norton Buffalo. He achieved far more success playing music than I, mainly because he had an amazing amount of talent and dedication.

We've continued to trade CDs of our bands over the decades, and I saw him every year when he performed with the Christmas Jug Band (and occasionally with his own band and with Steve Miller or Roy Rogers). After he returned home from a nationwide tour this August, he checked into his local hospital with pneumonia Sept. 1st. On Sept. 2nd, it was discovered that his illness was caused by a stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of the lower right lobe. The next day, he found out that it had spread to his brain. He sought out many traditional and nontraditional cures. He lost his battle yesterday.

He was in a few films, and helped score a couple. He did a cameo appearance in the rock movie, "The Rose" starring Bette Midler, where he was a member of the band (on harmonica and trombone) and spoke a line or two. He had another cameo in Michael Cimino's 1979 film "Heaven's Gate". He also co-wrote the music for the films "Stacy's Knights" and "Eddie Macon's Run" with guitarist Mike Hinton.

G'bye, Norton... I miss you already...

Sorry for you loss, Cliff.

Thank you, Terry, for that great clip.

I did not know him but those clips show that he was a good musician, R.I.P.

Donnie

Here's another clip...

I'm a real news junkie.., and today, finally, I heard on ABC radio News of his passing last week..

Quoting kdh1949:

Quote:
Does Vic Mizzy (composer of "Green Acres" and "The Addams Family" themes) count as one of the three (he died Oct. 17 at 93) or is that too long ago?  If you can count him, that makes the three:  Vic Mizzy, Norton Buffalo and Shel Dorf.

While I heard of his passing, I did not know him personally... I'm worried for my famous friends.