Howard Bulson, R.I.P.

Seattle piano player Howard Bulson passed away on Monday after a short illness. For nearly 40 years Howard accompanied singers good and awful at a laundry list of defunct Seattle institutions. A while back Seattlest contributor Don Rauf interviewed Bulson for the site and had this to say today:

In some ways, it felt like Howard was being chased out of existence. Sorry Charlies closes and then Mirabeau hired him a few nights a week at Happy Hour. But then they cut back his hours over the months they were open and he was only playing one Monday happy hour a week. And then Mirabeau disappeared to make room for a sports bar!! I'm sure Howard picked up gigs here and there but nothing will compare to the old Sorry Charlie days. That was a unique scene and known by musicians even in New York. Joe McGinty who is a major piano player in NYC music (he runs the Losers Lounge) told me not to miss Howard at Sorry Charlies. I did go once and it really was a scene out of a David Lynch movie minus the threat that you might get gruesomely murdered. The night I saw Howard there were sailors, pregnant mothers, hipsters, aspiring American Idol types, octagenarians, centarians--a real hodgepodge of Seattle characters--all gathered to sing with Howard. And smoke, smoke, smoke. And drink from the well of cheap booze. And Howard was the affable axis upon which all the merry mayhem spun. Seattle will miss him. I will miss him.