Jimmy Borges, Hawaii’s gentleman of jazz, died Monday at age 80, having faced his recurring cancer with the same gutsy attitude that propelled him from hardscrabble Kalihi to the glittering stages of Las Vegas.
His velvety voice and charisma sustained him through 60 years on stage, but what struck listeners most is how the jazz singer spoke to them through song.
“It’s not just making sounds,” Borges explained during an interview in January. “Many, many singers nowadays think it’s about making beautiful sounds. But it’s like chewing gum. The taste is there, then the taste is gone. When I sing a song that tells a good story, they’ll remember it 30 years from now.”
Borges beat back liver cancer a few years ago only to have it resurface in his lungs. He embraced the time he had left rather than further medical intervention that was likely to be futile.
The singer left on a high note, having won four awards at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards on Saturday for his swan-song album, “Jimmy Borges”: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, but his wife, Vicki Bergeron Borges, and daughter, Steffanie Borges-Juergenson, represented him.
“We are so very grateful for the love and support we have received from our friends, our community and from Jimmy’s fans in Hawaii and throughout the world during these final months of his life,” his wife said in a statement Tuesday. “His decision to live his way until the very end was exactly the right thing for Jimmy and both a gift and a lesson for the rest of us.”
Jimmy Borges died at home in Honolulu two days before his 81st birthday. His family will hold a small, private Catholic Mass, as he requested.
Published in the Honolulu-Star Advertiser on June 1, 2016
His velvety voice and charisma sustained him through 60 years on stage, but what struck listeners most is how the jazz singer spoke to them through song.
“It’s not just making sounds,” Borges explained during an interview in January. “Many, many singers nowadays think it’s about making beautiful sounds. But it’s like chewing gum. The taste is there, then the taste is gone. When I sing a song that tells a good story, they’ll remember it 30 years from now.”
Borges beat back liver cancer a few years ago only to have it resurface in his lungs. He embraced the time he had left rather than further medical intervention that was likely to be futile.
The singer left on a high note, having won four awards at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards on Saturday for his swan-song album, “Jimmy Borges”: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, but his wife, Vicki Bergeron Borges, and daughter, Steffanie Borges-Juergenson, represented him.
“We are so very grateful for the love and support we have received from our friends, our community and from Jimmy’s fans in Hawaii and throughout the world during these final months of his life,” his wife said in a statement Tuesday. “His decision to live his way until the very end was exactly the right thing for Jimmy and both a gift and a lesson for the rest of us.”
Jimmy Borges died at home in Honolulu two days before his 81st birthday. His family will hold a small, private Catholic Mass, as he requested.
Published in the Honolulu-Star Advertiser on June 1, 2016
Jimmy Borges, Hawaii’s gentleman of jazz, died Monday at age 80, having faced his recurring cancer with the same gutsy attitude that propelled him from hardscrabble Kalihi to the glittering stages of Las Vegas.
His velvety voice and charisma sustained him through 60 years on stage, but what struck listeners most is how the jazz singer spoke to them through song.
“It’s not just making sounds,” Borges explained during an interview in January. “Many, many singers nowadays think it’s about making beautiful sounds. But it’s like chewing gum. The taste is there, then the taste is gone. When I sing a song that tells a good story, they’ll remember it 30 years from now.”
Borges beat back liver cancer a few years ago only to have it resurface in his lungs. He embraced the time he had left rather than further medical intervention that was likely to be futile.
The singer left on a high note, having won four awards at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards on Saturday for his swan-song album, “Jimmy Borges”: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, but his wife, Vicki Bergeron Borges, and daughter, Steffanie Borges-Juergenson, represented him.
“We are so very grateful for the love and support we have received from our friends, our community and from Jimmy’s fans in Hawaii and throughout the world during these final months of his life,” his wife said in a statement Tuesday. “His decision to live his way until the very end was exactly the right thing for Jimmy and both a gift and a lesson for the rest of us.”
Jimmy Borges died at home in Honolulu two days before his 81st birthday. His family will hold a small, private Catholic Mass, as he requested.
Published in the Honolulu-Star Advertiser on June 1, 2016
His velvety voice and charisma sustained him through 60 years on stage, but what struck listeners most is how the jazz singer spoke to them through song.
“It’s not just making sounds,” Borges explained during an interview in January. “Many, many singers nowadays think it’s about making beautiful sounds. But it’s like chewing gum. The taste is there, then the taste is gone. When I sing a song that tells a good story, they’ll remember it 30 years from now.”
Borges beat back liver cancer a few years ago only to have it resurface in his lungs. He embraced the time he had left rather than further medical intervention that was likely to be futile.
The singer left on a high note, having won four awards at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards on Saturday for his swan-song album, “Jimmy Borges”: Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, but his wife, Vicki Bergeron Borges, and daughter, Steffanie Borges-Juergenson, represented him.
“We are so very grateful for the love and support we have received from our friends, our community and from Jimmy’s fans in Hawaii and throughout the world during these final months of his life,” his wife said in a statement Tuesday. “His decision to live his way until the very end was exactly the right thing for Jimmy and both a gift and a lesson for the rest of us.”
Jimmy Borges died at home in Honolulu two days before his 81st birthday. His family will hold a small, private Catholic Mass, as he requested.
Published in the Honolulu-Star Advertiser on June 1, 2016
