Brighton Beach football, Gene in second row right

From Morris & Lorraine Friedman:
There’s probably not much I can tell you about Gene that you do not already know. But when I think of Gene, I think of the summer of 1945. It was the summer that he, Blackie and I worked at Camp Kinderland. As you know Gene lived in the apartment house next to mine growing up in Brighton Beach . . . but prior to the summer of 1945, we socialized in different circles. I spent most of my time playing ball and later going to the pool room, while Gene was into music, partying and girls. While I spent hours doing schoolwork, it came very easily to Gene. I always knew he was smart. How we got to camp . . . Gene’s father and my father were furriers, his mother knew everybody, my mother was active in the local schule and that became the connection to camp. I was going to be drafted in September and I had no plans. My mom felt that I shouldn’t just be a beach bum for my last summer as a civilian and she convinced me to apply to be a counselor. She then used her persuasive powers on Masha, who worked on Gene, who said he would only go if Blackie also went . . . and that’s how we all ended up at camp. Little did we know then how that experience would change our lives. Gene and I both met our beloved spouses at camp and I got to know and appreciate him much better. I admired his wonderful sense of humor, high energy level, and many talents. I also liked the fact that we were both about the same size. Gene was a “trumbanik” and a leader. However, what I admired most was his free and creative energy. I will miss Gene very much. He reminds me of my youth. The spirit and enthusiasm he brought to everything will be fondly remembered.

From Jan Mills (Bianchi):
In 1974, when I joined the Socialist Worker’s Party, I needed a faculty sponsor. I knew Gene, having told Jemmy the summer before that my parents wouldn’t let me read at home, a wild lie that allowed me a wonderful summerof reading, music, and friendship at the Bluestein house, a pleasure which others managed to come by honestly. But now that I was about worldwide revolution, I knocked on Gene’s office door and asked him to sign on as”club sponsor.” He hesitated for perhaps ten seconds before he said, “What the hell,” and signed. I’m unaware of any consequences to him for sponsoring this short-lived group, or rather, me (I was never able to convince anyone else to join the party). I know my father lost his security clearance with the Department of Agriculture-perhaps something to do with fluoridation. And Professor Dmitriew was wildly upset when an FBI man came to her house. She was sure I was the one who cast suspicion on her loyalty. But I will always be grateful to Gene for allowing me my revolutionary turn. How odd that I was thinking about him the very day Ruth Kaufmann e-mailed me that he had died. I’m sure he touched countless lives, like mine, with his courage and encouragement.

From Paula Ethel Wolfson:
The first Bluestein I met was Joel, in 1976, at UC Santa Barbara. He was at the campus beach having a picnic with his family. It was a sunny, windy day. They were all very white. Gene was sitting there playing his banjo. I thought to myself, “What a happy family.” They even looked smart, except for the fact that they were all getting sunburned.While in college, Joel moved to Paris to study. I traveled to Paris and crashed at his place but never saw him because his family was in town. I finally met all of the Bluesteins during their many visits to D.C. There was always a parade of musicians about.I finally had a conversation with Gene on Father’s Day 2001. He was coping with multiple health problems and his voice was failing; however, he graciously allowed me to interview him about fatherhood for a book on . . . what else . . . Jewish fatherhood. Of course, Gene made it a point to tell me that he taught Jewish culture and identity to his children through music. He described fatherhood as “delicious” and “delightful.” Ellie was the “girl of his dreams,” and all the children were “angels.” He was so excited when Joel was born that he got lost driving home from the hospital. He talked for almost two hours. He used the F word several times, but it seemed to mean much more than what most people use it for. He said he hoped his legacy is in the music and that it lives on with his grandchildren. At that point, I thought that we had come to the end of the interview, but then Gene told me that scholars now doubt that the Exodus ever happened. He completed his interview by asking questions. Perhaps he is now teaching Moses to play banjo and to ask questions.

From Howard Watkins:
Your father is someone who made a difference in the thousands and thousands of lives he touched directly and indirectly. He and your mother have been role models for me for their committment to family, community, and social justice. The web page is a wonderful glimpse of how one person can makesuch a big difference in this world.

From Marci Williams:
Senior Vice President for International Relations, University of MassachusettsOne thing was very clear to me, being around your family then: there was lots of love, caring, respect, encouragement, and enablement…in addition to loyalty, fidelity, and trust. Your parents…by their very presence…persuaded those around them to hold these attributes as prime values. And though I often fell short of the mark they set, I have never stopped striving to get it right…or, at least, to get it “better.” I thank them for their living example of a committed and passionate life…and in your father’s case, its ending.

From Warren Argo:
I am filled with such mixed feeling to hear of Gene’s jump to the Great Beyond. On the one hand it is so damn sad to lose such a high-ranking general in the army for human greatness, we are so short handed at the top, you know, but on the other hand, even top-class heroes must eventually move on and leave us to make our way with whatever we have managed to learn under their gentle lashes. I guess the main thing is very selfish of me; I am delighted and honored to have known him so well and to have wound up being such fast friends with his boys. My heart and mind will be with you as you join with such a throng as is surely heading to you now to celebrate this mighty and memorable man. As Pete Seeger said of Uncle Dave, “May he liven up the heavenly band!”

From Joel Pickford:
For me Gene was first and foremost a great teacher. Though I never actually took a course from him at CSUF, I was enrolled in one of his living room seminars that lasted from the early 1960s, when I first met the Bluestein family, until about two weeks ago. Every visit to the Bluestein home meant being introduced to some new musical style, author or idea. In particular, I remember one visit during my high school years, when Evo and I were studying together at Ananda. I arrived one afternoon to find Gene tuning up a guitar, instead of the banjo I usually expected to hear him playing. Softly, he began to fingerpick some country blues. The infectious rhythm and twangy blue notes immediately caught my attention. When I asked him how I could learn to play such music myself, he replied “Its easy.” He demonstrated the roles of various fingers on the right hand and then explained how the tune he was playing could be broken down into its rhythmic and harmonic elements. Then he loaned me a Lightning Hopkins record called “Blues In My Bottle.” It may have been the first blues album I ever heard all the way through. I still play one of the songs I learned from that record and Lightning Hopkins is still among my very favorite blues artists. Another time during those Ananda years, I was over at the house telling Jemmy how excited I was by Charlie Parker’s music, after being introduced to it in Bruce Bronzan’s black music appreciation class.Jemmy nonchalantly commanded “Dad, do your Charlie Parker rap!” What followed was not only a brilliant thumbnail analysis of Parker’s role in the development of Jazz, but also some great stories about Gene’sadventures at New York clubs in the 1940s, where he heard Bird perform live several times. He had even seen Parker sharing the stage with Billie Holiday on one occasion. Around a decade later, I was performing electric blues with a band at a Unitarian Church wedding. I looked out in front of the stage to see Gene and Ellie among the couples dancing to a slow blues. “This is stupendous!” he called out to me as he caught my glance. I was somewhat embarrassed to think that he was hearing such a wobbly performance, but he and Ellie were obviously having such a good time that the anxiety just melted away and I started to have more fun myself. These are but a few of the many times I profited by being an unofficial student of Gene Bluestein. Though I will miss Gene, I don’t really feel he is gone. The sound of his banjo tuning up, the living room filled with instruments, records and a then-state-of-the-art stereo with reel-to-reel recorder, as well as the discussions, arguments between Gene and Earl Lyon, mini-lectures, jokes, stories, rehearsals, and the nearly constant parade of interesting and illustrious guests, not to mention the essays on Herder, Whitman, Poplore and the 5-string banjo, all of these will remain with me.

From Nancy Schimmel:
I’m glad I got to be part of the “chaotic joy” at Gene and Ellie’s one weekend when Bessie Jones was there. My mother (Malvina Reynolds) and I came down for a weekend performance at the college, which was beautifully set up, but the real show was at the Bluesteins: music, conversation, garden, food. I’ll never forget it.

From Annie Davidman Cody:
When I was a little girl and we would visit Genie and Ellie and the family, Genie was bigger than life to me. He was funny and he told great stories. He was a different kind of dad than I had ever seen. He was totally cool. I laughed when I was around him and I was in awe of his talent. I will always remember how my father, Blackie Davidman was so happy when he was with Genie. They were best buds and it showed. Blackie had a certain smirk on his face and ease in his heart when he was just hanging with Genie. When they looked into at each other’s eyes you knew they had many secrets and shared experiences. The love between the two of them ran deep. I am so grateful for Genie’s love. Genie will always hold a space in my heart along with Ellie and the rest of the family.