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RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Kong76 Jan 30 2010 04:19 AM

NYT: Jane Jarvis, who brought a jazz sensibility to unlikely places as an organist for the New York Mets and a programmer for Muzak, died on Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home in Englewood, N.J. She was 94. Her death was confirmed by her son, Brian. She had lived at the actors’ home since shortly after being forced out of her Upper East Side apartment, the result of an adjacent building’s destruction in a crane collapse in 2008. Ms. Jarvis’s career was bracketed by jazz, which she considered her first love: she formed a jazz band in her native Indiana as a teenager, and she worked steadily as a jazz pianist, mostly in New York, from her mid-60s into her 90s. But for more than two decades she was best known as a ballpark organist. After eight years playing for the Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee, she was a fixture at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 1979, performing a repertory that mixed jazz staples like Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple” with more conventional fare like “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “Meet the Mets.”

Kong76 Jan 30 2010 04:38 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Nice article from May 2008: [url]http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2008/04/28/2008-04-28_jane_jarvis_recalls_the_happy_times_and_.html

seawolf17 Jan 30 2010 05:35 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Ah, nuts. I wanted to get her autograph into my collection, but I couldn't find her. Thanks for the memories, Jane.

metirish Jan 30 2010 05:40 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Rest In Peace

G-Fafif Jan 30 2010 05:47 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Thank you, Ms. Jarvis.

themetfairy Jan 30 2010 06:22 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

RIP to a true Met legend. I feel like yet another link to my childhood has vanished.

Edgy DC Jan 30 2010 07:08 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Play me out, Benny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_KEgIlLLyg

metsguyinmichigan Jan 30 2010 07:22 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

A giant! I know they won't wear a patch or anything. but I sure hope the Mets have a moment of silence or some other commemoration of Ms. Jarvis' years of service to the team.

G-Fafif Jan 30 2010 07:25 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="metsguyinmichigan":3h35i9x1]A giant! I know they won't wear a patch or anything. but I sure hope the Mets have a moment of silence or some other commemoration of Ms. Jarvis' years of service to the team.[/quote:3h35i9x1] Better yet, a moment of organ.

bmfc1 Jan 30 2010 08:08 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

How about "Jane Jarvis Day"? They must have tapes of her classics (unless the Wilpons left them at Shea or sold them to the highest bidder). One game, instead of the usual music, play nothing but recordings of Jane's music.

TheOldMole Jan 30 2010 08:25 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

I vote for a Jane Jarvis day. And in memory of Jane, let's get rid of canned music and bring back an organist.

MFS62 Jan 30 2010 08:25 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

RIP, Jane. Later

Frayed Knot Jan 30 2010 08:32 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

I could personally do with 162 games without the standard canned noise, but one would be nice.

HahnSolo Jan 30 2010 08:46 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="TheOldMole":2o4al704]I vote for a Jane Jarvis day. And in memory of Jane, let's get rid of canned music and bring back an organist.[/quote:2o4al704] For one day at least in her honor.

metsguyinmichigan Jan 30 2010 08:54 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

That old Thomas organ would be a neat thing to have in the Mets Hall of Fame museum!

batmagadanleadoff Jan 30 2010 09:40 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="metsguyinmichigan":7dmvlcvt]That old Thomas organ would be a neat thing to have in the Mets Hall of Fame museum![/quote:7dmvlcvt] Some memorabilia collector has Jane's Shea Stadium organ. Uni watch interviewed the collector last year.

Benjamin Grimm Jan 31 2010 08:01 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

*Thanks to Edgy DC for the suggestion.

Kong76 Jan 31 2010 09:39 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Must have been a twi-night doubleheader, she's got the five o'clock shadow thing going in that shot. (sorry, Jane ... you know I love you)

Edgy DC Jan 31 2010 10:22 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Nah, that's great work, Ted Turner coloring and all.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jan 31 2010 11:31 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Nice one, Grimmy.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jan 31 2010 11:35 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Love the silouette. Not as awesome as the WIFEY icon on Anna Benson's card but then again nothing is.

G-Fafif Jan 31 2010 12:38 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Great card! And great remembrance from Marty Noble here. I'm sure when the Mets get around to issuing an official release expressing their condolences, it will be nice, too.

metirish Jan 31 2010 02:26 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="G-Fafif"]Great card! And great remembrance from Marty Noble here. I'm sure when the Mets get around to issuing an official release expressing their condolences, it will be nice, too.

The Mets are waiting to hear what their doctors have to say about Jarvis.

sily joke...sorry

G-Fafif Jan 31 2010 04:44 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Mark Herrmann in Newsday does a fine job: Mets organist Jane Jarvis remembered as creative soul Jane Jarvis' story always was a remarkable, lyrical one. She was orphaned at 13 when both of her parents were killed by a train. She was a classically trained musician who was revered by her peers in jazz. She became a music industry executive at a time when women almost never reached that height. But nothing in her life struck a chord with the public more than her sprightly renditions of "Meet the Mets" and "Let's Go Mets" (the latter was her own composition) on the Thomas organ at Shea Stadium. Jarvis, whose death Monday at age 94 was announced Saturday, will remain a mainstay in the hearts of New Yorkers. "I can remember, note for note, the way she played 'Meet the Mets,' " Ron Swoboda, one of the 1969 Miracle Mets, said yesterday. "She had some pretty good jazz chops, but she never overplayed the organ at Shea. What made it special was that you knew it was Jane Jarvis playing that music.'' Swoboda has become a jazz buff since moving to New Orleans. "This is a sad day,'' he said. Longtime Mets fans will never forget the light touch with which she played such tunes as "Felix the Cat" for second baseman Felix Millan and the jazz hit "Scrapple From the Apple" during a manager's argument with umpires. Her blend of innocence, humor and understated sophistication, on top of a baseline of respected musical ability, made Jarvis as big a name as many players from 1964 to 1979. In a 2008 interview with Newsday, she reflected on her era at Shea and said, "It was too wonderful for words." At the time, Jarvis' health was not good, but her spirits were soaring. She had just been allowed back into her East 50th Street apartment after having been displaced for a week by damage from a crane collapse. She said then: "You are talking to one of the happiest people who ever lived . . . Everything I have ever wanted in this life fits in a one-room apartment." As Howie Rose, a childhood Mets fan turned Mets broadcaster said not too long ago: "She had a different lilt to everything she played, including 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' There were certain things unique to that ballpark, and she was one of them." Her belongings included an upright piano, which she played every day. Jarvis spent her final months at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., where her son Brian was with her when she died. Jarvis also is survived by daughter Jeanne Garcia of Florida. "She was the star out there," said Ann Ruckert, a Manhattan-based musician and teacher and longtime close friend of Jarvis. "A few of us would go to the nursing home and have jam sessions with her." Jarvis was a child prodigy with a terrific memory for songs. As a child, she played any tune anyone requested at a department store in Milwaukee. She took refuge in music after her parents were killed. (Jane didn't realize until she saw the obituaries that her father was American Indian, Ruckert said.) She studied at several conservatories, had her own TV show and was offered a gig playing for Braves games. She moved to New York in the early 1960s and took a job with the Muzak recording company. "She started as a receptionist and wound up as senior vice president in charge of all production," Ruckert said. "She kept all the jazz musicians working." They would come to hear her play at Zinno and other clubs in Greenwich Village. She cherished their friendship, and that of Mets fans. "Her whole life," Ruckert said, "was too wonderful for words."

Ashie62 Jan 31 2010 06:06 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

As a kid the organ at Shea was part of a real world class experience. Thank you Jane Today's claptrack? I guess teams get paid to play it or is it to generate excitement?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jan 31 2010 06:22 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

The Hat Dance was the best.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jan 31 2010 06:25 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

The team does do prerecorded organ during weekend day games, no? Using Jarvis' recordings of "MTM" and "Hat Dance" would be a really, REALLY easy tribute to execute.

Edgy DC Feb 01 2010 02:19 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Projecting Jane: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/ ... r-of-shea/

G-Fafif Feb 01 2010 02:52 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Even with a crane collapsing around her, Jane sure maintained her sense of self. A friend at the Times let on several years ago, pre-accident, that there are famous people who work closely with the paper on their obituary well in advance of their demise (pending the unforeseen, since no one knows when demise is destined) to make sure posterity portrays them just so. Jane Jarvis, he confided (after I met her), was one of those people.

themetfairy Feb 01 2010 03:00 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

I remember taking a tour of the NY Times when I was in high school, and being very impressed by the obituaries-in-waiting. It's nice to know that Jane was similarly impressed by the concept.

Edgy DC Feb 01 2010 09:36 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="The Wall Street Journal"]It’s both difficult and easy to ignore the music played at major-league ballparks. Difficult because the music is generally ear-splitting, but easy because it’s resolutely forgettable. There was a time when most ballparks featured a virtuoso providing organ music. Jane Jarvis, the original Shea Stadium organist and one of the best-loved ballpark musicians ever, was one such figure, and she remained beloved of Mets fans even after leaving the team in 1979. She passed away last Monday, at the age of 94. “She outlived Shea,” Greg Prince writes at Faith and Fear in Flushing. “She outlived the organ as the prime source of pregame and between-innings entertainment. She lived a very long time and accomplished a great deal as a musician and music executive. For those of us enchanted by the Melody Queen of Shea Stadium, she’s always going to be synonymous with some of the best days of our lives.”

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 02 2010 11:15 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

Ms. J's superlative "MTM" available right here in WAV form.

batmagadanleadoff Feb 02 2010 11:57 AM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]Ms. J's superlative "MTM" available right here in WAV form.

Hey Leiter: What are you? The Christopher Columbus - Leif Erickson - Captain Spaulding of the internet? Thanks for that link. I listened to Jane's MTM and for a few seconds there, I was transported back to the Shea of my youth. Really. I'm not just typing this. Without consciously trying, I flashed back (flashbacked?) to a warm summer day at Shea, complete with that famous scoreboard with the big Mets logo top and center. No shingles though, I was already seated.

seawolf17 Feb 02 2010 02:10 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

HOLY MOLEY. I love that. I need a reason to hear that every day.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 02 2010 03:50 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

I want this as my morning alarm. (Once I find cheap, good speakers for the iMachine, I'm good there.) Still looking for "Hat Dance," "Felix the Cat," and other stuff.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 02 2010 09:00 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

She has a couple CDs on iTunes! Sadly, while there is "Baltimore Oriole" but no "Meet the Mets."

metsguyinmichigan Feb 02 2010 09:12 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[url]http://www.insystem.com/bb/sounds.htm Oh, check this out! All kinds of audio Mets glories, with old WHN Mets bumpers, ads, and -- they say -- Mexican Hat Dance in the background of one of them!

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 02 2010 09:50 PM Re: RIP Jane Jarvis -- 94

[quote="metsguyinmichigan"][url]http://www.insystem.com/bb/sounds.htm Oh, check this out! All kinds of audio Mets glories, with old WHN Mets bumpers, ads, and -- they say -- Mexican Hat Dance in the background of one of them!

I don't want to say that was awesome but I just bought a '72 Chrysler.