Maybe I'm the only one who had missed the info, but here's what happened to me two days ago:
I was searching for the origin (meaning the
odù-Ifá) of the
pataki (legend) where Orunmila and Changó traded talents, so Changó gave Orunmila the
tablero de Ifá and the gift of divining, receiving the batá drums and the gift of dancing in exchange. This story is essential to the lore of Añá (the orisha of the drum), because it founds the inclusion of Ifá in, and its association with, the consecration of the batá. At least mythologically, because in his PhD-dissertation, omó-Añá, babalawo and scholar Michael Marcuzzi pointed out the evidence that it represented just a clever move in the creole powerplay, for the Añá drummers as well as for the babalawos, to seek this alliance.
Anyway, after spending several hours of searching in my 500+ books, articles and internet sources in vain, I decided to ask Michael Marcuzzi in Toronto. From the old times in the batadrums newsgroup to private correspondence, he always had the ultimate response to my questions. After having dispatched the e-mail, I surfed the internet for Marcuzzi, just for fun. Well, the fun was only transient; the web was full of death announcements and obituaries for what I thought was only another person with the same name, until I finally had to face the unbelievable fact that Michael, our Michael Marcuzzi, had passed away more than one year ago! He had died of blood cancer (leukaemia) at the age of 46.
Strange enough, my first reaction was something like anger. I was angry because, although I am connected with the international music- and ethnology scene through internet forums and personal correspondence, a really important information like this one just doesn't get around; but I was also angry because this brilliant mind was taken away from us by that damned illness. I admired Michael; he was the living proof that it was possible to combine in one person the professions of a university professor, a publishing scholar, a trumpet player and arranger, and a percussionist, with Ifá priesthood and batá drumming - plus being a father and husband to his family. And he did not die of a sudden heart attack, like from overstressing himself; it was that mean desease, once again.
As for his knowledge and understanding of Ifá, his intellect and his ability to place religious issues in the proper, down-to-earth perspective, I virtually idolized Michael. And whenever I didn't know in which
odù something was born, he was the one to turn to, because he always knew, like a human enciclopedia. And, what is also important: he had no problem admitting what he did
not know, although it rarely happened.
Ibae 'bayentonú Michael Marcuzzi!
Thomas
http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/s ... DA/deathsahttp://www.legacy.com/obituaries/windso ... =160168582http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2012/10/04/p ... -educator/http://familiesfirst.frontrunnerpro.com ... etails.phpand, on page 19 of the following journal, an obituary co-authored by Amanda (Villepastour):
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ethnomusic ... nl47-1.pdf