Clifford S. Tinder

Born in La Paz, Bolivia, grew up in Roslyn, NY and resided in Sea Cliff, NY. Survived by daughter Camille Tinder, granddaughter Sage, wife Patti Tinder, father Cecil K. Tinder and sister Cecily Schurhammer. Cliff’s publishing career started early when he was a jazz writer for the Indiana Daily Student newspaper at Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington. Given a large budget to book concerts at IU, he booked and wrote about musicians such as Weather Report, Chick Corea and Roshan Rolan Kirk who played his last concert at a concert Cliff booked. Cliff was then asked to write Roshan’s obituary for the New York Times. He brought Dexter Gordon, a famous jazz saxophonist back from Europe after 16 years. Dexter agreed to return if Cliff could book Dexter for a week of concerts at the Village Vanguard. Bold as Cliff was as a 19 year old, he called Max Gordon, the owner of the Vanguard and asked if he would book Dexter at the Vanguard for a week, Max was shocked that Cliff could pull this off and said, “are you kidding? I’ll book him for a year.” In his writing career as a music critic Cliff interviewed jazz musicians such as Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Johnny Copeland, Fred Hersch, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and many more. After graduating IU he came back to New York and became a music critic published in Rolling Stone, Musician Magazine, Downbeat and Listen Magazine. Then he worked at Stagebill as Managing Editor and was later hired at Playbill where he eventually became the Senior Vice President. Cliff worked to expand Playbill’s classical venues in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. Cliff was an accomplished jazz musician in his own right and played the saxophone in a 75 piece symphonic band called the North Winds Symphonic Band. He also enjoyed playing jazz with his wife Patti, who is an accomplished pianist. More than his accomplishments he was a loving person who could always talk to anyone and make them feel respected, loved and important. He catapulted many careers both in the music and publishing world. Cliff was an avid fly fisherman and a fantastic cook. A loving man of many talents, he was loved by all who had the good fortune to meet him. Please consider a donation in Cliff’s name to the National Endowment for the Arts.