PASSINGS

Born in 1943 and raised in the Bronx, Traum played in Greenwich Village with his brother, Happy Traum.

The brothers would play together on and off for decades.

Traum also recorded a series of solo albums and produced or recorded with some of the biggest names in folk, rock and jazz, from Bela Fleck to Pete Seeger, according to his website.

Traum began recording jazz albums in the '90s.

Happy Traum said his brother's musical sensibility, though grounded in the folk tradition, encompassed styles from jug band to contemporary jazz.

"He had a big scope to his music. It wasn't one thing. He had a bit of chameleon in him," Happy Traum said Monday.

Traum recorded dozens of albums in his long career and played shows around the world.

He performed publicly until May, when melanoma in his eye spread, Happy Traum said.

The Traum brothers were managed by Bob Dylan's late manger, Albert Grossman. Like Dylan and Grossman, the Traums moved to Woodstock. The brothers stayed and became stalwarts of the Hudson Valley arts colony's music scene.

Hildy Beyeler

Owner of major art collection

Hildy Beyeler, 86, who joined her husband Ernst Beyeler in building one of Switzerland's biggest art collections, died Friday at her home in Riehen, near Basel, Switzerland, after a long illness, according to Catherine Schott, a spokeswoman for the internationally renowned Beyeler Foundation museum.

She married Ernst Beyeler in 1948 and became a constant companion in her husband's art business.

The Beyelers were art dealers who would decorate their home with paintings that they didn't want to sell.

Artists represented in their collection of about 200 works include Max Ernst, Francis Bacon, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso.

They were involved in founding Art Basel in the 1970s. The exposition has since become the largest international contemporary art fair.

The Beyelers opened a public museum, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Basel in 1997.



-- From Times Staff and Wire Reports