Remembering Jason Noble.
“On Saturday, August 4, 2012, Jason Noble left this world behind. Even though he had been battling cancer for three years, his passing is still a heartbreaking shock to everyone who knows and loves him” (Corey Rusk, Touch and Go Records).
I didn’t know Jason Noble personally, but I have a lot of friends in town who did. For many, he was a hero. This past week, the LEO Weekly remembered Noble in articles devoted to his legacy of kindness, generosity, and (of course) musical accomplishments.
“Jason Noble became known to music fans outside Louisville in 1994, when his band Rodan released an album, Rusty, through Chicago’s legendary underground label Touch and Go Records,” writes Peter Berkowitz in the article “Carry him forward.” When I lived in Chicago, my friend Paul gave me a Rachel’s cd, Noble’s project inspired by “modern classical and chamber music…which he led with pianist Rachel Grimes and violinist Christian Frederickson.” His music was beautiful and different than anything I had ever heard before… It became the soundtrack for a part of my life. When he passed, I started listening to Rachel’s music again, and it still has the same mesmerizing effect.
In his article “Remembering Jason Noble: Superhero,” Greg King writes, “His impact on my life stretched well beyond high school, as our early dreams of writing music and “making stuff” was realized in ways I couldn’t have predicted.”
The LEO received over 30 pages of tributes to Noble (too many to print but all are being sent to his widow, Kristen). In one quote from “Remembering Jason Noble: In their own words,” Shawn Severs says, “What most inspires me about Jason is not the fact that he was in some of the most legendary and influential bands in Louisville history. (Playing in bands doesn’t make you great, even if the bands are.) No, the way he inspired me was the supremely honorable manner in which he faced his illness and lived, despite it. He met the disease head on with grace, poise, bravery, humor, strength, kindness and positivity — a feat I think most of us would do well to pull off on our best days. It is in this way that Jason beat cancer, not the other way around.”
On August 4th, my sweet friend Laura remembered the first time she saw Rachel’s. ”I will never forget the magic… I was in my mid-teens, completely mesmerized by a sensory experience I’d never imagined could be woven in to live music. The beauty and texture of the music certainly mirrors the character of it’s co-creator, Jason Noble, who left us in body this morning.
Click here for a link to one of Laura’s (and my) favorite Rachel’s tunes, Water From the Same Source.
A gathering honoring Jason Noble will be held Sept. 2, from 1-4 p.m., at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne St.
