Biff Rose: Fundraiser for New Orleans Jazz Funeral

Jesse Gallagher is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

"I wish I was at a New Orleans funeral every day ~

So I could sing and dance and be happy in that way"

- - - Biff Rose

Thank You for the outpouring of love & beautiful stories about Biff.

Biff grew an amazing community of friends from decades of traveling & performing, and later, from years curating his facebook "coffee klatsch" as he called it.

It is to these incredibly supportive Biff Rose Fans, Friends & Family that we humbly ask for your financial support to help with a number of costs associated with Biff leaving the body.

Donors of $50 + are gifted a download of "Biff Rose Complete" including all 30 albums!

Your Donation also becomes an invitation to attend Biff Rose's "Celebration of Life" in New Orleans on the weekend of October 13th–15th, 2023. This marks what would be Biff's 86th birthday & we will be celebrating all weekend at some of his favorite spots around the city ~

If you are unable to attend, Donors will receive videos of the weekend, even live streamed when possible...

Biff's cremated ashes will be placed in a tomb alongside many notable musicians at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, established in 1789, (oldest extant cemetery in the city.) Festivities will include a jazz funeral procession, and a memorial service by Father Toni Rigoli, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, now the oldest surviving church in New Orleans.

More details and a schedule/guide will be provided as we approach the date.

Biff's family and friends are asking for help with expenses, not just for the memorial services & celebration festivities, but for the preservation of Biff's massive archive of music, artwork, photographs, writings & memorabilia.

This page will be updated with a more detailed itemization of expenses, but in the meantime, here's some general information about projected costs:

St. Louis Cemetery #1 - Interment and Plaque
Memorial Service with Father Tony Rigoli at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
New Orleans Jazz Funeral Procession and Musicians Pay
The Immediate Storage and Preservation of Archival Trunks of Biff's Artwork, Photographs, Writings, Unreleased Recordings, and Cherished Personal Belongings
Preservation of the original Roast Beef Session Tape Reels (Biff’s 7th album from 1978)
Production Costs of Future Biff Rose releases, including new Music, Comedy & Spoken Word Albums, a Book of Collected Cartoons & Writings and the Restoration / Preservation of Multiple Recordings by Mythological Records

With your financial contribution, we also invite you to send a video or audio clip with stories you'd like to share for others at the memorial gathering. A multimedia station will be set up to play on a loop, these tributes sent around the world from those that are unable to attend.

Biff Rose touched the heart of so many people all over the world. He brought us joy, laughter, and stirring musicality. As a provocateur, he inspired profound philosophical and spiritual inquiry. The guiding star of his life was love. Please help us celebrate & preserve Biff’s legacy.

Paul “Biff” Rose (1937–2023) OBITUARY

American comedian / singer-songwriter passed away at the age of 85 at his home in Madison, Wisconsin on Tuesday July 25th, 2023.

Born in New Orleans, Rose's popularity in the Greenwich Village folk scene prompted a 1964 NY Times profile on the young singer. Biff moved to Hollywood in 1966 where he found a job working as a comedy sketch writer with George Carlin on the John Davidson show. In 1968 Rose released his first album The Thorn in Mrs. Rose's Side, containing his best known composition, Fill Your Heart, co-written with Paul Williams and famously covered by both David Bowie on his album Hunky Dory and Tiny Tim on the B-side of his hit single Tip Toe Thru The Tulips. Rose made 10 appearances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show from 1968 to 1970, bringing his cherubic wit and wondrous piano playing to millions of viewers. He also performed on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, American Bandstand, and Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark. Biff emceed the Atlantic City Pop Festival of 1969 and the Atlanta Pop Festival of 1970.

Rose spent the better part of the 70's performing in every small town in America, driving his piano equipped red Volkswagon bus further off the beaten paths of the music industry and deeper into uninhibited improvisations & poetic free expression. Biff's 1978 album "Roast Beef" was produced by Monkee Mike Nesmith and all 14 songs were recorded in one continuous take.

The 80's found Rose living above a jazz club in San Francisco, before moving abroad to Germany, and teaching an English slang course to university students in Göttingen. Returning to live in New Orleans, Biff rooted back into the local culture. His album Bone Again (1996) paints a picture of his colorful surroundings, where face painting tourists in the streets became one of his main artistic expressions for the next 25 years.

In 2009 Biff began regular trips to Cambridge Massachusetts and started Mythological Records with Apollo Sunshine singer Jesse Gallagher. The two recorded & released numerous albums including The Thorn 2 (2010) and in 2017, Biff & Jesse toured the United States, performing in clubs from NY to Los Angeles to celebrate Rose's 80th birthday. Mythological Records continues to release new and unreleased archived Biff Rose material. There are over 30 albums spanning his entire career available to download on www.biffrose.bandcamp.com

Later in his life, Biff curated an "infamous" Facebook page that he operated like a tabloid newspaper, reflecting on the times with daily satirical writings and cartoons that would rouse up his readers and consistently get him into trouble with the censors. Fans knew where his heart was, and trusted some of his more far-out humor would be laughed at in the future.

Biff is survived by 4 children, Terry, Andy, Eben & Quicksilver Rose & partner Jennifer Pendur.

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