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Gone — Babs Gonzales

Brian Case, Melody Maker, 9 February 1980

BABS GONZALES, who died of cancer on January 23, was one of those frantic Forties bebop hipsters who seem to broom but fractionally ahead of their slipstream. Had he cooled a shade, he could've made the square world's definition of hyperactive, and had he settled on any of his consecutively chased careers, squibs and wig-bubbles, he might have entered the jazz pantheon as something more than the Clown Prince of Bebop. But he wouldn't have been Babs Gonzales.

Total word count of piece: 470

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