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DEATHS
REMEMBER
THIS MONTH
December
1st
1959:
Avery Parrish (41)
American
jazz pianist; he started in the Bama State Collegians, at the Alabama
State Teachers College an ensemble led by Erskine Hawkins. He stayed
with Erskine until 1941 and recorded with him extensively. He wrote
the music to "After Hours", which became a jazz standard.
He moved to California, but was involved in a bar fight in 1942 which
left him paralyzed at age 24, and unable to play music for the rest
of his life. In 1979 he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
(unknown causes). b.
January 24th 1917.
1969:
Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (32) American
blues guitarist, singer-songwriter, born in Grenada, Mississippi. He
learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters
and Little Walter. After moving to Chicago at the age of nineteen, he
was signed by Cobra Records and became well known as a bluesman after
his first record, "All Your Love" in 1957. He was known for
his distinctive tremolo guitar playing,
vocals and songwriting ability which have inspired and influenced many
blues musicians ever since. In The Blues Brothers, Jake Blues dedicates
the band's performance of "Sweet Home Chicago" to the "late,
great Magic Sam". In
1982, Sam was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. (died
suddenly
of a heart attack)
b. February 14th 1937
1986:
Lee Dorsey (61)
US pop/R&B singer during the 1960s. From 1965 to 1969 he had seven
songs in the Hot 100, the most successful of which was "Working
In The Coal Mine" in 1966. In 1970 he and Allen Toussaint collaborated
on an album entitled "Yes We Can". He
appeared on an album with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, which
led to more recordings on his own with ABC Records in the late 1970s.
In 1980, he opened for English punk band The Clash on their U.S. tour.
(emphysema) b.
December 24th 1924.
1989: Billy Lyall (35) Scottish keyboard
player and vocalist with Pilot and an early member of the Bay City Rollers.
Born in in Edinburgh, Scotland, he also contributed to The Alan Parsons
Project with fellow Pilot members. In addition, he released a solo album,
titled Solo Casting in 1976.(died of an AIDS-related
illness) b. March 26th 1953
1993: Ray
Gillen (34)
American singer, best known for his work with Badlands, in addition
to his work with Black Sabbath in the mid-1980s.
Born in New York, he started singing while in High School and played
the New Jersey club circuit with various bands, most notably Vendetta
and Harlette. In 1985 he joined Bobby Rondinelli's band, before his
stint with Black Sabbath. He next played and recorded with Phenomena,
"II Dream Runner" in 1987 and with Blue Murder on their demo
"It's Too Late" in 1988, after which he joined John Sykes',
Badlands, recording 3 albums. Just before his death Ray went to New
York City and formed the band Sun Red Sun with old friends, releasing
a self-titled album. He also worked with George Lynch on his 1993
"Flesh and Blood" album
(sadly died from an AIDS related disease in a New York Hospital)
b. May 12th 1959.
1997: Stéphane Grappelli (89) French
self taught jazz violinist; he and Django Reinhardt founded the Quintet
of the Hot Club of France during 1933-39 producing a sensational series
of recordings & performances. He has appeared on hundreds of recordings
including sessions with Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Claude Bolling,
Jean-Luc Ponty, Stuff Smith, L. Subramaniam, Gary Burton, Paul Simon,
David Grisman, Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, Bucky Pizzarelli,
Joe Pass, Yo Yo Ma, Toots Thielmans and Mark O'Connor. He also collaborated
extensively with the British guitarist Diz Disley, recording 13 record
albums with him and his trio, and with now renowned British guitarist
Martin Taylor. In the 1980s he gave several concerts with the young
British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. His music is played very quietly,
on Pink Floyd's album "Wish You Were Here", he was not credited,
according to Roger Waters, in order to avoid "a bit of an insult".
He is an inductee of the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame and received the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 (died
after undergoing a hernia operation) b.
January 26th 1908.
1999: (or Nov 30) Don "Sugarcane"
Harris (61) American Blues, jazz, rock violinist and guitarist
born and raised in Pasadena, California; he was given the nickname "Sugarcane"
by LA bandleader Johnny Otis. He started an act called Don and Dewey
in the mid 1950s. In the 1960s he played exclusively the electric violin,
as a sideman with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Frank Zappa,
most recognized for his appearances on the Mothers of Invention albums
Hot Rats, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, and Weasels Ripped My Flesh. His lead
vocal and blues violin solo on a cover of Little Richard's "Directly
From My Heart to You" on Weasels, and his extended solo on the
lengthy "Little House I Used To Live In" on Weeny are considered
highlights of those albums. The 70's sees him fronting the Pure Food
and Drug Act (pulmonary disease)
b. June 19th 1938.
2007: Zayda Peña Arjona (28)
Mexican lead singer; she headed a band known as Zayda y los Culpables
Zayda and the Guilty Ones. One of her songs was Tiro
de Gracia, a reference to an execution-style gunshot.
(she was shot in the back by a gunman at Mónaco Motel in Matamoros,
Tamaulipas. This was not fatal, but the following day several assailants
entered the hospital and shot her death. She was not involved with drugs
on any level) b. 1981
2008: Mikel Laboa (74)
Spanish Basque singer and songwriter. His music could be defined
as a happy combination of tradition, poetry and experimentalism. He
was a founder of the legendary Ez Dok Amairu cultural group.
After over 40 years devoted to music, he has influenced many of the
younger generations and recorded 15 albums between 1964 to 2005 (?)
b. June 15th 1934
2009: Ramses Shaffy (76) Dutch popular
singer, chansonnier (singing songs from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance)
and actor; born in Paris, after dropping out of high school in 1952
he attended the Amsterdam school of theatre arts. In 1955, he made his
stage debut with the Nederlandse Comedie and in 1964, he founded the
theatre group Shaffy Chantant. Ramses became popular as a singer in
the 1960s, his noted songs include Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk
en bewonder/Sing, fight, cry, pray, laugh, work and admire; We zullen
doorgaan/We will go on; Pastorale/Sammy; and Laat me/Leave me be. He
also frequently collaborated with Dutch singer Liesbeth List. By the
early 80's he had returned to the stage, he played Don Quixote in the
musical De man van La Mancha (The man from La Mancha) in 1993. Pieter
Fleury made a documentary about him in 2002, titled Ramses, which won
a Golden Calf, the award of the Netherlands Film Festival. (esophageal
cancer) b. August 29th 1933.
2009: Donald Washington Sr (79)
American jazz tenor saxophonist, born in West Philadelphia and
raised in Southwest Philadelphia and graduated from Murrell Dobbins
Career and Technical Education High School in 1948. He starting to play
the saxophone as an elder statesman on Philadelphia's jazz scene in
the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. As a leader, Donald founded the Marlboro
Men, a group that toured Haiti, Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. He also
performed with Donald Byrd, Jerry Butler, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis,
Jr., B.B. King, Diana Ross, Neil Sedaka and Horace Silver. When not
on the road, he would jam regularly in Saturday Nights at Natalie's
Lounge in West Philadelphia (lung cancer)
b. ??.??.1930.
December
2
1950:
Dinu Lipatti
(33)
Romanian
pianist, born in Bucharest his playing was hailed as having reached
the highest degree of integrity and pianistic technique, which he employed
in the quest for musical perfection. Dinu
is particularly noted for his interpretations of Chopin, Mozart and
Bach, but he also made recordings of Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso,
Liszt, Enescu, the Schumann Piano Concerto, and the Grieg Piano Concerto.
His recording of Chopin's Waltzes has remained in print since its release
and has long been a favorite of many classical music-lovers.
(sadly
his career was cut short by his death from Hodgkin's disease)
b. April 1st 1917
1971: Ernest
'Punch' Miller (77)
American
dixieland trumpeter, born in Raceland, Louisiana. Punch was
well known and based in New Orleans from 1919 to 1927 before he moved
Chicago. In Chicago he worked with various bands including those of
Jelly Roll Morton and Tiny Parham, and appeared on a number of recordings.
His
lifestyle and the decline New Orleans jazz led to his return to mostly
doing festivals. This changed with the rising importance of the Preservation
Hall Jazz Band and he returned to national attention. He returned to
New Orleans, playing at Preservation Hall and leading a band under his
own name, in addition to playing with other groups. He toured Japan
in 1963 Japan with George Lewis. He was the subject of the 1971 television
documentary "Til the Butcher Cuts him down". (?)
b.
June 10th 1894.
1986:
Desi Arnaz/Ricky Ricardo (69) Cuban
singer, guitarist, percussionist, actor, comedian and television producer;
he led own Latin American band and known to many as Ricky Ricardo with
Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy". In 1939, he starred on Broadway
in the successful musical including Too Many Girls. He then went to
Hollywood to appear in the 1940 movie version at RKO, which starred
actress, comedian, and his future wife Lucille Ball. At the time, he
also played guitar for Xavier Cugat (lung cancer)
b. March 2nd 1917.
1990: Aaron Copland (90) American composer;
he studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In his early works
he experimented with jazz rhythms and then with an abstract style influenced
by Neoclassicism. He came to be unofficially regarded as the U.S.'s
national composer. He is best known for his three ballets based on American
folk material: Billy the Kid in 1938), Rodeo in 1942, and Appalachian
Spring in 1944, for which he recieved the Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote
film scores, orchestral works, and operas. He won an Oscar for his 1949
music to The Heiress and was nominated for Of Mice and Men in 1939,
Our Town in 1940 and 1943's
The
North Star. In his later years Aaron refined his treatment of Americana,
making his references less overt, and he produced a number of works
using the experimental technique of serialism. He continued to lecture
and to conduct through the mid-1980s (Alzheimer's
disease and respiratory failure) b. November
14th 1900.
1997: Michael Hedges (43)
US solo guitarist; covering
a wide range of musical styles
he was one of the most innovative and acclaimed solo guitarists of his
era, self-described "violent acoustic" he rose to success
on the strength of a unique performing style that utilized harmonics
and picking to create the impression of multiple guitars playing simultaneously.
He was discovered in the early eighties by William Ackerman who heard
him performing in a Palo Alto cafe and signed him to a recording contract.
His record Oracle posthumously won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best New
Age Album (a car accident along State Route 128 near Boonville about
100 miles northwest of San Francisco) b.
December 31st 1953.
1998: Robert Sherwood "Bob" Haggart
(84) American
Dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger. He becamer
a founder-member of the Bob Crosby Band in 1935, arranging and part-composing
several of the band's big successes including "What's New?",
"South Rampart Street Parade", "My Inspiration",
and "Big Noise From Winnetka"
As a studio musician and arranger he worked with the likes of Billie
Holiday, Louis Armstrong's and Ella Fitzgerald. He also worked and co-led
with Yank Lawson The world's greatest Jazz Band as well as leading his
own band (?) b. March 13th 1914
1982: David Blue (41)
US folk singer; an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk music
scene in New York, perhaps best known for writing the song "Outlaw
Man" for the Eagles, on their 1973 Desperado album. Blue's original
version of "Outlaw Man" was the lead track of his own "Nice
Baby And The Angel" album. In 1975 he joined Dylan's Rolling Thunder
Revue and he appeared in Renaldo and Clara, the 1978 movie that was
filmed during that tour. He acted in other films including, The American
Friend, The Ordeal Of Patty Hearst and Human Highway by Neil Young.
(heart attack) b. February 18th 1941.
2001:
Valerie Jones (45) US singer,
part of The Jones Girls, a female R&B trio of sisters from Detroit,
Michigan.Their biggest hit was "You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody
Else". They were also backup singers for Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass
and Aretha Franklin and sang with Diana Ross and Le Pamplemousse during
the late-1970s. (?) b.
?
2006:
Dave Mount (59) UK drummer and founder
member of the 1970's glam-rock group Mud. They first appeared on the
Basil Brush show on BBC TV and were signed to Mickie Most's RAK label.
They had an immediate
Top 20 hit with "Crazy". At
the peak of their career they enjoyed three British number one singles
with "Tiger Feet", which sold over 500,000 copies in the UK
alone, a million sales globally; "Lonely This Christmas",
an affectionate Elvis Presley spoof which has now become an annual fixture
on British radio and television at Christmas time and "Oh Boy".
Mud disbanded at the end of the Seventies, after which he worked with
Gray in an oldies act, Les Gray's Mud.
He also appeared on an episode of Never Mind The
Buzzcocks on BBC Two in November 2005, and featured in the "spot
the pop star of the past" identity parade segment. The
last performance by the four original members was on 3 March 1990, when
they met and played Dave's wedding(he took
his own life)
b. March 3rd 1947.
2008: Odetta Holmes (77)
African-American singer, guitarist, songwriter, human rights
activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement".
She performed American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important
figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she
was influential musically and ideologically to many of the key figures
of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and
Janis Joplin. In 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. anointed her "The
Queen of American folk music". In 1976, she performed in the U.S.
Bicentennial opera "Be Glad Then America" by John LaMontaigne,
as the Muse for America. Many time Grammy Award nominee, on Sept 29,
1999, President Bill Clinton presented her with the National Endowment
for the Arts' National Medal of Arts. In 2004, she was honored at the
Kennedy Center with the "Visionary Award", and in 2005, the
Library of Congress honored her with its "Living Legend Award".
(heart
disease)
b. December 31st 1930.
2009:
Aaron Schroeder (83) American songwriter, born in Brooklyn,
New York; his first success, At a Sidewalk Penny Arcade one of the songs
to introduce Rosemary Clooney as a solo recording artist, was followed
by an incredible 1500 songs. He wrote seventeen songs for Elvis Presley
including five that reached number one.. A Big Hunk o' Love, Good Luck
Charm, I Got Stung, Stuck on You, It's Now or Never. Other song recordings
to his credit, including major records by dozens of artists such as
Roy Orbison, Duane Eddy, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Perry Como
and Pat Boone. Aaron made a cameo appearance in the 1957 Warner Bros
rock and roll movie Jamboree as a songwriter.
He
was also the founder and president of Musicor Records (1960-1965), and
discovered, managed, produced and directed the career of Gene Pitney.
He also worked on productions with with Blood, Sweat and Tears, and
Hal David and Burt Bacharach among others (Alzheimer's
disease) b. September 7th 1926.
2009:
Eric Woolfson (64)Scottish
singer, songwriter and lyricist, born in Glasgow
he started composing music in his early teens. He moved to London in
1963, stopping off in Manchester to do a short stint as pianist with
Hermans Hermits. Finally reachiing London he found work as a session
pianist, before record producer Andrew Oldham, signed him up as a songwriter.
Eric wrote songs for artists such as Marianne Faithfull, Frank Ifield,
Joe Dassin, The Tremeloes, Marmalade, Dave Berry, and Peter Noone. His
songs were recorded by over 100 artists both in Europe and USA. During
the '60s he worked with two then-unknown writers, Andrew Lloyd Webber
and Tim Rice. In the early '70s, Eric went into management, his first
two signings were Carl Douglas and engineer/record producer Alan Parsons
and in 1975 Eric and Alan joined forces to found the studio progressive
rock group, The Alan Parson Project. From 1976 with their debut album
Tales of Mystery and Imagination to 1987, they collaborated on the conception
and lyrics for all ten albums by The Alan Parsons Project, which have
achieved world-wide sales in excess of 40 million. Eric had been swaying
more and more towards stage musicals, his first musical premiered in
Vienna in 1990: Freudiana, about Sigmund Freud. The success led to his
second musical in 1995, "Gaudi" about Spanish architect Antonio
Gaudi, which ran for over five years. Other musicals include "Gambler"
and "Edgar Allan Poe". His last musical "Dancing with
Shadows" based on the anti-war play Forest Fire by the Korean playwright
Cham Bum-Suk and with a book by Ariel Dorfman premiered in July 2007
in Korea (cancer)
b. March 18th 1945.
December
3
1955:
Charles Edward "Cow Cow" Davenport (61)
American boogie woogie piano player, also played the organ and sang.
His career began in the 1920s when he joined Banhoof's Traveling Carnival,
a medicine show. His first fame came as accompanist to blues musicians
Dora Carr and Ivy Smith. He also performed with Tampa Red. He recorded
for many record labels, and was a talent scout and artist for Vocalion
Records. He suffered a stroke in the early 1930s and lost movement in
his hands. He was washing dishes when he was found by the jazz pianist
Art Hodes in 1938. Hodes assisted in his rehabilitation and helped him
find new recording contracts. He is a member of the Alabama Music Hall
of Fame, where Cripple Clarence Lofton called him a major influence
(hardening of the arteries) b. April 26th 1894.
1972:
Bill Johnson (100) US jazz musician
considered the father of the "slap" style of string bass playing.
He started "slapping" the strings of his bass, (a more vigorous
technique than the classical pizzicato), after he accidentally broke
his bow on the road with his band in northern Louisiana in the early
1910s. Other New Orleans string bass players picked up this style, and
spread it across the country with the spread of New Orleans Jazz. He
was founder and manager of the first jazz band to leave New Orleans
and tour widely in the 1910s, The Original Creole Orchestra. He also
played with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Bill Johnson's Louisiana
Jug Band, and made many fine recordings in Chicago (died in New Braunfels,
Texas) b.August 10th 1872.
1973: Emile Christian (78) American
jazz trombonist from New Orleans; he also played cornet and string bass,
he played both cornet and trombone with the Papa Jack Laine bands. He
went to Chicago, Illinois in late 1917 to play trombone with the Bert
Kelly Jass Band. In 1918 he went to New York City to play with the Original
Dixieland Jass Band; he toured England with the O.D.J.B., contributed
his tune "Satanic Blues" to their repertory, and made his
first recordings with this band. Other songs he wrote include "Meet
Me At the Green Goose", and "Mardi Gras Parade". After
a brief time in the Original Memphis Five, he returned to Europe where
he played with various jazz bands in Berlin, Paris, and other European
cities into the mid 1930s. He played in both Black and White bands in
Europe and India before returning to the US after the outbreak of World
War II. He moved back to New Orleans in the 1950s where he played with
the bands of Leon Prima, Santo Pecora, and Sharkey Bonano and his own
band. In 1957 he toured with the Louis Prima Band. He continued playing
in New Orleans into 1969, in his later years mostly playing string bass
(?) b. April 20th
1895.
1998: Pierre Hétu (62) Canadian
conductor and pianist, born in Montreal, Quebec. He studied
in Paris.. piano with Marcel Ciampi and conducting with Edouard Lindenberg,
then in 1961, following studies with Sergiu Celibidache, he won the
Concours International des Jeunes Chefs d'Orchestre in Besançon.
He subsequently studied under Charles Münch, Jean Martinon, and
Hans Swarowsky. Pierre made his Canadian debut in 1963, conducting the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and was appointed the orchestras
Assistant Conductor under Zubin Mehta from 1963-1968. He was Music Director
of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in Michigan from 1968-1972, Associate
Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1970-1973, and both
Artistic Director from 1973-1979 and Principal Guest Conductor 1979-1980
of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (?)
b. April 22nd 1936.
1999: Scatman John/John Paul Larkin (57)
American singer born in El Monte, California; stuttering jazz musician
who created a unique fusion of scat singing and house music, best known
for his debut 1994 single "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)",
a song he intended to inspire children who stuttered to overcome adversity,
it sold over 6 million copies, making him a world star at the age of
52. He followed this with 10 more singles and 4 albums. His second album
Everybody Jam! took off in Japan, he was so popular there that Japanese
toy stores sold dolls of his likeness and he appeared on phone cards
and Coca Cola cans. The Japanese version of Everybody Jam! included
a total of five bonus tracks, including the hit singles there "Su
Su Su Super Ki Re i" and "Pripri Scat", which were commissioned
by Japanese companies for commercials for cosmetics and pudding respectively.
(lung cancer) b. March 13th 1942.
2000: Hoyt Curtin (78) US composer
and music producer, the main musical director for the Hanna-Barbera
animation studio from its beginnings with The Ruff & Reddy Show
in 1957 until his retirement in 1986. He composed many of the Hanna-Barbera
cartoon theme songs, including The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons,
Jonny Quest, Superfriends, Josie and the Pussycats, and The New Scooby-Doo
Movies. He also wrote the controversial score for the science-fiction
film Mesa of Lost Women and composed the music for the Sandy Frank cartoon
Battle of the Planets, his last project, released in 2000 (died in L.A)
b. September 9th 1922.
2001: Grady Martin (72) US guitarist;
a noted session musician who played guitar on several hit songs including
"Honky Tonk Man" by Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins hit songs
El Paso and Don't Worry, and Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman. He played
guitar on the records of country artist Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams,
Bing Crosby, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Floyd Cramer, Patsy
Cline, Brenda Lee, Ray Price, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and
many others. He learnt the piano, guitar and fiddle, at 15 years old
he joined the band of Nashville musician Big Jeff Bess and spent the
next two years touring. In 1946 he worked with the Bailes Brothers performing
on the Grand Ole Opry. As well as his extensive session career, in 1951
he formed a country-jazz band, Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five,
backing acts like Bing Crosby and Burl Ives after which he formed Grady
Martin and his Winging Strings and from 1979 to 1994 he became lead
guitarist for Willie Nelson's touring band. He was the 83rd inductee
into the the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (heart failure)
b.
January 17th 1929.
2006: Logan Whitehurst (29)
US drummer, also keyboards, guitar, accordion, concertina, piano,
and provided his own backup vocals through multitracking. He began his
career as the drummer for the band Little Tin Frog from 1995 until 2000,
although he is best known as a founding member of Californian indie
rock band The Velvet Teen and as a solo artist performing under the
name Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club He was also an accomplished
graphic designer, creating numerous album covers for bands such as his
sister's Tsunami Bomb, in addition to Dynamite Boy, Little Tin Frog,
The Velvet Teen, 20 Minute Loop, Go Time, Shut Up Donny, Santiago, and
labels such as Fearless Records, Restitution Records, Silent Records
and Entertainment, and Double Helix Records (cancerous brain tumor)
b. November 15th 1977.
2009: Torrie Zito (76) American
pianist, music arranger, composer and conductor. Torrie is widely known
for his hugely popular work with John Lennon on the classic album Imagine,
as string arranger. But Torrie has worked with many recording artists
of note, including Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, Perry Como, Billy Eckstine,
Herbie Mann, Steve Lawrence, Edie Gorme, Nana Mouskouri,Bobby Short,
Marvin Hamlish, Roberto Carlos, Sinead O'Conner, Tony Bennett, Frank
Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Bobby Darin, Morgana King, Johnny Mathis,
Clay Aiken, Liza Minnelli, Morgana King, O.C. Smith, Quincy Jones, and
Carly Simon (emphysema)
b. October 12th 1933.
December
4
1935: Johan Halvorsen
(71)
Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. He
was an accomplished violinist from a very early age and became a prominent
figure in Norwegian musical life. As well as much theatre work, he conducted
performances of over 30 operas and wrote the incidental music for more
than 30 plays. Following his retirement from the theatre he finally
had time to concentrate on the composition of his three great symphonies
and two well-known Norwegian rhapsodies (?) b.
15 March 15th 1864
1976:
Tommy Bolin (25) American-born
guitarist; born in Sioux City, Iowa, he moved to Boulder, Colorado,
in his late teens, where he played in a band called American Standard
before joining Ethereal Zephyr, later called Ethereal Zephyr. In 1972
at the age of 20, Tommy formed the fusion jazz-rock-blues band Energy.
At this time he also played on Billy Cobham's Spectrum album. 1973 found
him in the James Gang recording two records with this band: Bang! in
1973 and Miami in 1974. He went on to do session work for numerous rock
bands and also with a number of jazz artists. He featured on Alphonse
Mouzon's (of Weather Report) album Mind Transplant and toured with Carmine
Appice and The Good Rats. In 1975 he embarked on his solo career debuting
with 'Teaser'. Also in 1975 he was contacted to replace Ritchie Blackmore
in Deep Purple. The Deep Purple world tour that followed in 1975 and
1976 allowed Tommy to showcase one song per night from Teaser. In 1976
he began to record Private Eyes, his second solo record. This album
was supposed to be a double album. Much more of his music was released
after his death including 11 live albums. His final show, just hours
before his death, he opened for Jeff Beck (alcohol
and drugs overdose)
b. August 1st 1951.
1976:
Benjamin Britton (62) UK composer, conductor, violist and
pianist; he showed musical gifts early in life, and began composing
prolifically as a child. With his arrival on the international music
scene, many felt that English music gained its greatest genius since
Purcell. One of his best known works is The Young Person's Guide to
the Orchestra, composed to accompany Instruments of the Orchestra, an
educational film produced by the British government, narrated and conducted
by Malcolm Sargent. (heart failure) b.
22 November 1913.
1993:
Frank Zappa (52) American composer, electric guitarist, record
producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years,
he wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète
works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed
album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he
released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. One
of the most accomplished composers of the rock era, with terrific musical
knowledge and an outrageous sense of humor (prostate
cancer)
b. December 21st 1940.
2002: Bernie
Dwyer (62) UK drummer, founder
member of Freddie & the Dreamers; although the band were grouped
as a part of the Merseybeat sound phenomenon that The Beatles exploded
around the world in the wake of Beatlemania, they came from Manchester,
and were the first such non-Liverpool, non-Brian Epstein-managed band
to break through in the UK. Their most famous hits were "If You
Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody", "I'm Telling You Now",
"You Were Made For Me", and "I Understand" (lung
cancer) b. September 11th 1940.
2004: Elena
Souliotis (61)
Greece operatic soprano initially hailed as "the next Callas",
her best known role is Abigaille in Verdi's opera Nabucco. Although
her opera recordings were best sellers and she quickly achieved a busy
career, unwisely, she took on certain demanding roles too early, and
damaged her voice by denying it the time it needed to develop and strengthen
by natural stages. After an absence
from the stage that lasted several years, she began a second career
in comprimario roles beginning in 1979, mostly in Russian operas (died
of heart failure in Florence, Italy) b. May
28th 1943
2005: Gloria
Lasso/Rosa María Coscolin (83) Spanish-born
singer, long based in France. She
found fame and success in the 1950s and 1960s, with songs such as Amour,
Castagnettes et Tango, Etranger au Paradis (a French version of Stranger
in Paradise), Buenas Noches Mi Amor, and Bon Voyage (heart attack) b.
November 25th 1922
2007:
Pimp C/Chad Butler (33) American
rap artist, co-founder of the "Dirty South" style rap group
UGK, and also co-owner of Trill Entertainment along with bandmate "Bun
B". Born in Port Arthur, TX, his father played trumpet professionally
with Solomon Burke, Chad studied classical music while in high school,
and received a Division I rating on a tenor solo at a University Interscholastic
League choir competition. He developed an interest in hip-hop when a
friend of his gave him a Run-DMC album, after which he and his best
friend Bernard "Bun B" Freeman, formed the rap group Underground
Kingz aka UGK. Their 3rd album, Ridin' Dirty, reached No.2 on the Billboard
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. January 2002 Chad was sentenced to
eight years in prison after violating probation by ignoring the community
service sentence he had received from an earlier aggravated gun assault
charge. He was released in 2005 and his 1st solo album "Pimpalation"
appeared in the summer of 2006. Bun B dedicated the final UGK album,
UGK 4 Life, to Pimp C's memory. (Los Angeles County
Coroner's office state he died from an accidental overdose of Promethazine
/Codeine "syrup" mixed with a pre-existing medical condition,
sleep apnea, which causes a person to stop breathing during sleep)
b. December 29th 1973
2008: Richard Van Allan CBE (73)
UK operatic bass singer; he
sang varied repertoire at Covent Garden, English National Opera, and
numerous important houses worldwide. With his distinctive profile and
memorable stage presence, he made a powerful impression in many roles,
from Wagner, Verdi, Mozart, to Gilbert & Sullivan. He was appointed
a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001, and his
last performance was as Folz in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival (lung cancer) b.
May 28th 1935
2009: Mary Virginia Curtis Verna (88) American
operatic soprano, born in Salem, US, Mary is particularly associated
with the Italian repertory and famed
in the 50s and 60s for stepping into the roles of ailing, or otherwise
indisposed divas, often on only a few hours notice. She made her
stage debut at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, as Desdemona, in 1949. She
sang widely in Italy, as Maria Curtis Verna, and made guest appearances
at the Vienna State Opera and the Munich State Opera. She made her American
debut in Philadelphia, in 1952, and the same year at the San Francisco
Opera, as Aida. She made her debut at the New York City Opera, as Donna
Anna, in 1954, and at the Metropolitan Opera, as Leonora in Il trovatore,
in 1957. She can be heard in a few Cetra recordings; Don Giovanni, opposite
Giuseppe Taddei, Italo Tajo, Cesare Valletti, Un ballo in maschera,
opposite Ferruccio Tagliavini and Giuseppe Valdengo, Aida, opposite
Franco Corelli, Miriam Pirazzini, Giangiacomo Guelfi ()
b. May 9th 1921.
2009: William 'Liam' Clancy (74)
Irish singer, born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Clancy
began singing with his brothers at fund-raising events for the Cherry
Lane Theatre and the Guthrie benefits. He and his brothers relocated
to New York in 1956, where a record breaking 16 minute long performance
on The Ed Sullivan Show launched the group into stardom. The quartet
recorded numerous albums for Columbia Records and enjoyed great success
during the '60s folk revival. In
these days, Liam was a close friend of Bob Dylan when they both were
going out with two sisters in New York, also he performed live for President
John F. Kennedy and
played guitar in addition to singing and recorded several solo albums.
In 1975 he was booked to play a festival in Cleveland, Ohio, where Tommy
Makem was also playing. The two played a set together and formed Makem
and Clancy, performing in numerous concerts and recording several albums
as a duo, until 1988. Now back in Ireland, Liam re-joined the Clancy
Brothers in 1996, which then included his brothers, Paddy, Bobby, and
O'Connell, to record the album, "Older But No Wiser" and embark
on a farewell tour. He continued to touring with his son, Donal, and
O'Connell, as Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy. In 2006 Irish Television
profiled Liam Clancy in a two hour documentary called "The Legend
of Liam Clancy." In February 2007 the documentary won the award
for best series at the Irish Film & Television Academy awards in
Dublin (died
from complications of lung disease) b.
September 2nd 1935.
December
5
1791: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (35)
Austrian composer; one of the heavyweights of classical music, generally
placed in the top rank of composers along with Beethoven and Bach. Many
consider Mozart to be the greatest composer of all time. His more than
600 compositions include works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic,
concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music, and he is among
the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
(died of a mysterious fever)
b. January 27th 1756.
1953: Jorge Alberto
Negrete Moreno (42)Mexican
singer, actor; considered one of the most popular Mexican singers and
actors of all time. He started his career singing
operatic parts on the radio in 1931 in Mexico City. In 1936 he signed
with NBC for a television program with Cuban and Mexican musicians.
He returned to Mexico in 1937 to act in the film "La Madrina Del
Diablo" ("The Devil's Godmother") after which in 1938
he starred in "La Valentina" with Elisa Christy and then in
"Juntos Pero No Revueltos" ("Together But Not Mixed").
After
working in Havana and Hollywood he was called to act in "¡Ay
Jalisco, No Te Rajes!" ("Hey Jalisco, Don't Back Down!")
which made him an international Latin star and helped formulate the
charro film genre (hepatitis) b.
November 30th 1911.
1963: Karl Amadeus Hartmann (58) German
composer, some have lauded him as the greatest German symphonist of
the 20th century, although he is now largely overlooked, particularly
in English-speaking countries. He voluntarily withdrew completely from
musical life in Germany during the Nazi era, and refused to allow his
works to be played there. An early symphonic poem, Miserae first performed
in Prague, 1935, was condemned by the Nazi regime; but his work continued
to be performed, and his fame grew, abroad. Beginning in November 1945,
the concerts reintroduced the German public to 20th-century repertoire
which had been banned since 1933 under National Socialist aesthetic
policy. Karl provided a platform for the music of the young composers
who came to the fore in the late 1940s and early 1950s, helping to establish
such figures as Hans Werner Henze, Luigi Nono, Luigi Dallapiccola, Carl
Orff, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Bernd Alois Zimmermann
and many others. Hartmann also involved sculptors and artists such as
Jean Cocteau, Le Corbusier, and Joan Miró in exhibitions at Musica
Viva (stomach cancer) b.
August 2nd 1905.
1977: Rahsaan Roland Kirk/Ronald Theodore Kirk
(42) American jazz saxaphonist, composer and multi-instrumentalist
who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments, born in
Columbus, Ohio, but felt compelled by a dream to transpose two letters
in his first name to make Roland. He became blind at an early age as
a result of poor medical treatment. In 1970, after hearing it in a dream,
he added "Rahsaan" to his name. Preferring to lead his own
bands, he rarely performed as a sideman, although he did record with
arranger Quincy Jones and drummer Roy Haynes and had notable stints
with bassist Charles Mingus. One of his best-known recorded performances
is the lead flute and solo on Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova", a
1964 hit song repopularized in the Austin Powers films (died
from a second stroke) b. December 5th 1977.
1987: Fat
Larry James (38)
American
drummer and vocalist of Fat Larry's Band; the band's biggest hits were
"Act Like You Know", which later appeared on the soundtrack
for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and "Zoom", which hit number
two in the UK singles chart. They had two other major hits in the UK:
"Center City" with lead vocals by Grant and "Boogie Town".
His opening drum break from "Down On The Avenue", has been
sampled by many hip-hop artists, including NWA, Ice T, Jungle Brothers,
and Run-DMC. (heart attack)
b. August 2nd 1949
1987: Molly
O'Day/LaVerne Williamson (64)
American
C&W, gospel
singer, banjo; pioneering vocalist whose soulful, gut-wrenching performances
helped redefine the role of the female country solo artist, whose C&W
career was relatively brief, but her lasting influence has proven massive.
Staring out in 1939 when she was hired to perform in a radio band: Ervin
Staggs and His Radio Ramblers at WCHS, Charleston, West Virginia.She
also joined the Radio Ramblers as a vocalist under the pseudonym Mountain
Fern and worked with a banjoist called Murphy McClees and changed her
name to Dixie Lee. She signed recording contract with Columbia Records
and Molly O'Day and her band The Cumberland Mountain Folks made their
first recordings on December 16th 1946 (cancer)
b. July
9th 1923.
1989: John Pritchard CBE (68) English
conductor, known for his interpretations of Mozart operas and his support
of contemporary music. He joined the music staff of Glyndebourne Festival
Opera in '47 as chorus master in '49. He remained associated with Glyndebourne
for most of his career, as conductor, music counsellor and musical director.
As well as this he appeared worldwide from the Far East to both American
contenants to Europe with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Opera
Covent Garden,Vienna Symphony Orchestra,
Vienna State Opera, BBC Symphony
Orchestra, Cologne Opera, the Théâtre de la Monnaie, and
the San Francisco Opera to mention a few. John was appointed CBE in
1962 and knighted in 1983. The prestigious Shakespeare prize in Hamburg,
was awarded him in 1975 (?) b.
February 5th 1921.
1993:
Doug Hopkins (32) American lead guitarist; he co-founded
the Gin Blossoms, a popular modern rock band of the early 1990s. His
writing credits included the hits "Hey Jealousy," "Found
Out About You," "Hold Me Down," and "Lost Horizons."
but he had to quit the band due to his depression and drinking. He started
another band, The Chimeras, with brothers Lawrence & Mark Zubia.
His role in the band came to an abrupt end during a show one night,
he quit. It would be the last band he ever played with in public as
a member, he was too tormented with bad depression. (committed suicide,
self-inflicted bullet wounds) b.
April 11th 1961.
2007: Karlheinz Stockhausen (79) German
composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important
composers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Another
critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century
music". He is known for his ground-breaking work in electronic
music, aleatory in serial composition, and musical. Some
of his notable compositions include the series of nineteen Klavierstücke
(Piano Pieces), Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments, the electronic /musique-concrète
Gesang der Jünglinge, Gruppen for three orchestras, the percussion
solo Zyklus, Kontakte, the cantata Momente, the live-electronic Mikrophonie
I, Hymnen, Stimmung for six vocalists, Aus den sieben Tagen, Mantra
for two pianos and electronics, Tierkreis, Inori for soloists and orchestra,
and the gigantic opera cycle Licht (heart failure)
b. August 22th
1928.
2008: Anca Parghel (51)
Romanian singer, composer, arranger, teacher, band leader and conductor.
She had a four octaves voice range and sang in different styles and
genres of music including jazz, pop, classical, latin, French music,
Italian music & Romanian folklore. She has recorded and performed
with many great artists including Billy Hart, Archie Shepp, Claudio
Roditi, John Engels, Larry Corriel, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, Philippe
Catherine, Eric Legnini, Peter Herbolzheimer, Peter Hertmans, Aldo Romano,
Marc Levine, Gustavo Bergali, Claudio Roditi, Pierre van Dormael, John
Ruocco, John Dankworth, played all the top jazz festivals and countless
gigs in famous jazz clubs in Germany, USA, Holland, Belgium, Austria,
Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Romania (?)
b. September 16, 1957
2008:
Rúnar Júlíusson (63) Icelandic bassist
with Thor's Hammer; formed in Keflavik in 1963, they soon became popular
in Iceland and by the mid-1960s they were recording in London on Parlophone
Records, including the legendary EP Umbarumbamba, now a valuable collector's
item. From these sessions also came the singles "Once" and
"If You Knew". They recorded their single entitled "Stay"
in the United States on Columbia Records, which was produced by John
Simon, (cardiac arrest) b. April 13th 1945
2008:
Dominic Mallary (24) American
vocalist for Massachusetts hardcore outfit Last Lights, the band had
just signed a recording contract two days before this fatal night. (brain
anyeurism. He felt ill 2 hours after finishing a show at Boston Universitys
BU Central late night campus venue, he died soon after in Boston Medical
Center) b.???
2009: Dr. Ragtime/Jack Rose (38) American
guitarist, best known for his solo acoustic guitar work. He was also
a founding member of the noise/drone band Pelt. It wasn't until the
early 2000's he took up his solo career, releasing his debut album Red
Horse, White Mule in 2002, this was followed by around a dozen more
albums many of them in limited pressings. He
was inspired and influenced by
pre-1942 Cajun, country, blues, jazz music and composers like Terry
Riley and La Monte Young. (heart attack) b. February
16th 1971.
December
6
1949: Lead Belly/Huddie
William Ledbetter (64)
US
folk,sometimes blues musician, notable for his clear, forceful singing
and his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar. Pre-dating blues, he
was an early example of a folksinger whose background had brought him
into direct contact with the oral tradition by which folk music was
handed down. Around 1912, he met the young street musician Blind Lemon
Jefferson, five years his junior, and the two teamed up to play around
the Dallas area for several years. It was during this period, he switched
from the six-string to the 12-string guitar. He was a profound influence
on folk performers of the 1940s such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and
later Odetta and Dylan. He recorded extensively & worked with Woody
Guthrie in the group the Headline Singers. He left a huge legacy with
his songs, including "Old Cotton Fields at Home" Goodnight,
Irene, The Midnight Special, and Rock Island
Line just to mention a few (Lou Gehrig's disease)
b. January 20th 1888.
1958:
Danny Alvin (55) American
jazz drummer; in a lengthy career he's played drums and recorded with
many traditional jazz groups, he played with Sophie Tucker at the New
York club Reisenweber's in 1919, then moved to Chicago in the early
1920s. He played in both cities over the course of his career, playing
with Sidney Bechet, George Brunis, Buck Clayton, Wild Bill Davison,
Wingy Manone, Joe Marsala, Art Hodes, Mezz Mezzrow, and George Zack.
As a leader he recorded sparsely;; his best-known issue was his 1958
album recorded for Stepheny Records. Also he is the father of guitarist
Teddy Walters (?)
b. November 29th 1902.
1983: Lucienne Boyer/Èmilienne-Henriette
Boyer (80) French female singer, born in the Montparnasse
Quarter of Paris. In 1927, she sang at a concert by the great star Félix
Mayol where she was seen by the American impresario Lee Shubert who
immediately offered her a contract to come to Broadway. She spent nine
months in New York City, returning to perform there and to South America
numerous times throughout the 1930s. By 1933 she had made a large number
of recordings for Columbia Records of France including her signature
song, " Parlez-moi d'amour", the song won the first-ever Grand
Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy. Following the Allied Forces
liberation of France, her cabaret career flourished and for another
thirty years, she maintained a loyal following. At the age of 73, she
sang with her daughter at the famous Paris Olympia and appeared on several
French television shows (?) b.
August 18th
1903.
1988:
Roy Orbison (52) Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter,
guitarist and a pioneer of rock and roll whose recording career spanned
more than four decades. His many hits included "Ooby Dooby",
"Only the Lonely", "In Dreams", "Oh, Pretty
Woman", "Crying", "Running Scared" and "You
Got It". He was known for his smooth tenor voice, which could jump
three octaves with little trouble. He was rarely seen on stage without
his trademark black sunglasses. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1988, he, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom
Petty and Bob Dylan formed the super group Traveling Wilburys who recorded
two albums, but sadly Roy had died before the 2nd album and in 1989,
he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. (heart
attack) b. April 23rd 1936. read
more
1990:
Pavlos Sidiropoulos (42) Greek singer,
songwriter, composer; born in Athens, Pavlos formed the band Damon
and Phidias with his friend
Pantelis Delleyannidis in 1970. Soon after the two musicians joined
the
influential Greek musician Dionysis Savvopoulos and his group Bourboulia,
recording the
album Damis The Tough with
them. It
was through this group that Sidiropoulos first experimented with combining
Greek and Rock music. He next collaborated
with the Greek composer Yannis Markopoulos: he sang in his compositions
Oropedio, Thessalikos Kiklos and "Electric
Theseus". Then in 1976, he founded the band Spiridoula
recording the album "Flou", considered by many the most important
album in Greek rock music. He had the leading role in the film O
Asymvivastos, directed by Andreas Thomopoulos, he sang all of
the songs of the soundtrack. At the same time, he starred in another
movie by Thomopoulos, Aldevaran. Sidiropoulos also made
one appearance on TV in a series called Oikogeneia Zarnti.
In 1980, Pavlos joined the band Oi Aprosarmostoi, where
he remained until his death. In
the summer of 1990, his right hand started getting paralyzed, as a result
of his long term drug use that he was trying to overcome for many years.
He continued his live performances but the deterioration of his health
had serious psychological implications. Despite his early death, he
remains one of the most popular rock musicians in Greece (died
from heart attack, caused by heroin overdose) b. August 27th
1948
2002: David "Billy" Knight (55)
US percussionist, brother of Gladys Knight (heart attack)b.??
2005: Danny Williams (63)
South African singer; he spent most of his life in the UK, where he
made a few moderately successful singles, mainly popular ballads, before
hsving a No.1 hit with his cover version of "Moon River" in
1961. It led to his appearance in a film about a rock group, directed
by Michael Winner, called Play it Cool which starred Billy Fury. "White
On White" became popular abroad and was his only U.S. Top Ten hit,
charting in 1964. He continued to record for HMV until 1967 while working
the nightclub circuit. (cancer)
b. January 7th 1942.
2006: Darren
"Wiz" Brown (44)
UK lead-singer and guitarist of English indie punk band Mega City
Four in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the group were noted for their
hard-working ethics and extensive touring. Later he worked with bands
Serpico and Ipanema. He was known for his thought provoking lyrics (blood
clot on the brain)
b. January
19th
1962.
December 7
1960:
Clara Haskil (65)
Jewish Swiss classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical
and early romantic repertoire. her playing was marked by a purity of
tone and phrasing that may have come from her skill as a violinist.
Transparency and sensitive inspiration were other hallmarks of her style.
She played as a soloist under the baton of such conductors as Stokowski,
Karajan, Beecham, Solti, Barbirolli, Boult, Jochum, Sawallisch, Kempe,
Szell, Celibidache, Klemperer, Rosbaud, Monteux, Cluytens, Paray, Markevitch,
Giulini, Ansermet, Münch, Kubelík, Fricsay and Inghelbrecht,
among many others (died from injuries received
through a fall in a Brussels train station)
b. January
7th 1895.
1962:
Kirsten Flagstad (67) Norwegian
opera singer, one of the greatest Wagnerian dramatic, sopranos of the
20th century. A restrained and expressive stage performer, she was admired
internationally for her voice's sheer tonal beauty, power, stamina,
security and consistency of line and tone (bone
marrow cancer) b. July 12th
1895.
1977: Peter Carl Goldmark (71)
Hungarian-born, American engineer who, during his time with Columbia
Records, was instrumental in developing the long-playing (LP) microgroove
33-1/3 rpm vinyl phonograph discs which defined home audio for two generations,
Peter's vinyl long playing records remained the standard in the music
industry until the CD replaced the LP in the late 1980s. In addition
to his work on the LP record, and many other researches, Peter developed
a technology for color television, using a rapidly rotating color wheel
that alternated transmission in red, green and blue, transmitting on
343 lines. The color wheel system continued to be used for scientific
research for several more decades, including the color lunar surface
TV cameras during all the 1970s NASA Apollo moon landings.On November
22nd 1977, President Jimmy Carter presented Goldmark with the National
Medal of Science "For contributions to the development of the communication
sciences for education, entertainment, culture and human service"
(car crash) b.
December 2nd 1906.
1980: Darby Crash/Bobby Pyn/Jan Paul Beahm
(22) US punk-rock singer, co-founder of the exteme punk band
The Germs, who for a while dominated the L.A. punk scene. They started
out as "Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens" and can be
seen in the 1981 film The Decline of Western Civilization. He and The
Germs are also the subject of the 2007 biopic film "What We Do
Is Secret" which stars Shane West as Darby Crash (overdosed
on heroin in a suicide pact with close friend Casey Cola, who ended
up surviving) b.
September 26th 1958.
1987: Richard "Ricky" Taylor (47)
US baritone vocalist; founder member of The Manhattans back in 1962.
Their first single was "For The First Time", released in 1964
by Carnival Records, In 1969the
group received the award "Most Promising Group" by NATRA.
After a few chart hits they enjoyed their first No.1 hit on both sides
of the Atlantic in 1976 with "Kiss and Say Goodbye" (after
a long illness)
b. 1940
1990: Dee Clark/Delectus Clark (57)
US singer born in Blytheville, Arkansas, and moved to Chicago in
1941. He first recorded in 1952 as a member of the Hambone Kids, scoring
an R&B hit with the song "Hambone." In 1953, he joined
the Goldentones, who later became the Kool Gents then The Delegates.
In 1957 Dee went solo, his biggest hit was "Raindrops," this
was followed by "Don't Walk Away From Me," "I'm Going
Back to School" "Crossfire Time" and
"Just Keep It Up". In
1975 he had another hit "Ride a Wild Horse" which also made
the UK Singles Chart.
After
which Dee mostly performed on the oldies circuit. In 1987 he suffered
a stroke which left him partially paralyzed and with a mild speech impediment,
but he continued to perform until his death (heart
attack) b. November 7th 1938.
1998:
John Addison (78)
British composer born in Chobham, Surrey, and trained at Wellington
College, Berkshire and at the age of sixteen entered the Royal College
of Music. He is best known for his film scores. He won an Academy Award
for the music to the 1963 film, Tom Jones, BAFTA Award for A Bridge
Too Far and Grammy Award in the Best Original Score from a Motion Picture
or Television Show category for Tom Jones. He also composed the music
for A Taste of Honey, Torn Curtain, Smashing Time, Sleuth, Swashbuckler
and the television series Centennial. He also composed the theme music
for the television series Murder, She Wrote, for which he won an Emmy.
(?)
b. March 16th 1920.
1999:
Kenny Baker (78) UK trumpet,
cornet, flugelhorn, vocals, bandleader, arranger, composer; as
a teenager before the war, he met and began performing with the already
well-known jazz musician George Chisholm. He
went on to play
with the likes of Manley's Orchestra, Jack Parnell, Ted Heath Band,
as well as leading his own band who often performed on the first regular
jazz show on British radio, the BBC Light Programme series 'Let's Settle
For Music'. He was one of a handful of British jazz stars of the traditional
and Swing era who seemed to offer genuinely international jazz credentials
and was presented with the best trumpet player title for the third time
at the BT British jazz awards in 1999. He was also awarded the MBE in
the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999 (died after
suffering from a viral infection for more than three weeks)
b.
March 1st 1921
2004: Jerry Scoggins (93) American
singer; he sang and played guitar on the Dallas radio in the early 30's,
in 1936 he formed his own group, the Cass County Kids. Ten years later,
country music and cowboy legend Gene Autry changed their name to the
Cass County Boys when he hired them to work on his Melody Ranch radio
program. In 1962 he sing the theme song for a new sitcom called The
Beverly Hillbillies with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs playing guitar
and banjo. He came out of retirement to sing the theme to the 1993 film
version of the series. (natural causes)
b. September
13th 1911.
2006: Jay McShann (90)
American blues and swing pianist, bandleader, and singer; in
Kansas City, Missouri in 1936, he set up his own big band, which featured
Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Ben Webster and Walter Brown, their
most popular recording was "Confessin' the Blues." In
1945, Jimmy Witherspoon started
recording with him and fronting McShann's band, they had a hit in 1949
with "Ain't Nobody's Business." He continued to perform well
into his 80's. Crime-fiction writer Elmore Leonard featured Jay McShann
as a character in his 2005 novel, The Hot Kid (died
at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City) b.
January 12th 1916.
2008: Dennis Yost (65) American
lead singer with
of the 1960s group the Classics IV; The Classics IV moved to Atlanta,
Georgia in 1967 and were discovered by Bill Lowery who produced their
first national hit in 1968 with "Spooky", it made No.3
on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and No.46 in the UK. They
changed the band name to Classics IV Featuring Dennis Yost and enjoyed
two Top 10 hits, "Stormy" and "Traces" and a Top
Twenty hit, "Everyday With You Girl" in 1969. They changed
their name again, to Dennis Yost and the Classics IV, and had one last
hit, "What Am I Crying For?" in 1972 (respiratory
failure, he had been in nursing homes since suffering a brain injury
sustained in a 2005 fall) b.1943
December
8
1967:
John Mills Sr. (78) American
singer; member of the Mills Brothers, a jazz and pop vocal quartet of
the 20th century producing more than 2,000 recordings that sold more
than 50 million copies and garnered at least three dozen gold records,
including songs like "Chinatown, My Chinatown", "Baby
Won't You Please Come Home", "Miss Otis Regrets", "Your
Nobody Till Somebody Loves You", "Sweet Georgia Brown",
"My Gal Sal", "Tennessee Waltz" and so many more.
They recorded with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank
Munn, The Boswell Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, Al Jolson, Connee
Boswell, Fran Frey, Tommy Dorsey, Sy Oliver & His Orchestra, Sonny
Burke & His Orchestra, Milton DeLugg & His Orchestra and Count
Basie's Orchestra. It
all began when John Mills Sr owned a barber shop and formed a barbershop
quartet, called the "Four Kings of Harmony", his sons formed
The Miller Brothers in 1928, John Sr. joined them in 1934. They
were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998, also in 1998
the Recording Academy recognized the Mills family's contributions to
popular music with a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. (?)
b. February 11th 1889
1975: Gary Thain (27) New Zealand rock
bassist; as part of the rock trio The New Nadir, with drummer Peter
Dawkins, he travelled from New Zealand to London. He
then joined the Keef Hartley Band and in 1971 they toured with Uriah
Heep, who asked him to join them, replacing Mark Clarke in February
1972. He played on four studio albums: Demons & Wizards, The Magician's
Birthday , Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld as well as the live album Uriah
Heep Live. He stayed in Uriah Heep until February 1975. (died
of respiratory failure due to a heroin overdose)
b.
May 15th 1948.
1980: John Lennon (40)
English rock musician, singer, writer, songwriter, artist, actor
and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding
members of The Beatles. Lennon along with Paul McCartney formed one
of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and
"wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history".
In his solo career, he wrote and recorded many songs such as "Give
Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". He also revealed his rebellious
nature and wit on television, in films such as A Hard Day's Night, in
books such as In His Own Write, and in press conferences and interviews.
(shot five times by 25 year old Mark Chapman outside
the Dakota building, New York, U.S. where John and his wife Yoko lived)
b.
October 9th 1940.
1982: Marty Robbins/Martin David Robinson (57)
American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. One of the most
popular and successful American country and western singers of his era,
his songs were often eclectic, touching notably on an array of world
music. For most of his nearly four decade career, he was rarely far
from the music charts with hits such as "El Paso" and the
Grammy Award winning "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife". He was
named "Artist of the Decade" (1960-69) by the Academy of Country
Music, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and was
given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998 for his song "El Paso".
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975
and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Blvd.
He was also a NASCAR race car driver (due to surgical
complications) b. September 26th 1925.
1984: Razzle/Nicholas Dingley (24)
British drummer born in Royal Leamington Spa, England. He had played
in UK-based bands Marionette, The Fuck Pigs, Demon Preacher along side
of Nik Fiend of later Alien Sex Fiend fame, and The Dark, before joining
the Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks in 1982. He stayed with the band until
his death. He was a huge influence upon Hanoi Rocks' music and even
more so on their style. (Hanoi Rocks was on their
first American tour. In a break in the tour, Razzle was out with Mötley
Crüe's singer Vince Neil, when Razzle lost control of the car they
were in and collided with an on coming car. He was taken to South Bay
ER but was tragically declared dead on arrival. Vince dedicated Theater
of Pain, Mötley Crüe's third studio album, to Razzle)
b. December 2nd 1960.
1991: Buck Clayton/Wilbur Dorsey Clayton (80)
American jazz trumpet player, fondly remembered for being a leading
member of Count Basies 'Old Testament' orchestra. In the mid 30's
he was a leader of the "Harlem Gentlemen" in Shanghai, where
he worked closely with Li Jinhui, father of Chinese popular music in
Shanghai. In the long run, his contribution changed the course of music
history in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He has worked with many leading
artists and musicians including Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Sy Oliver,
Benny Goodman and Harry James and became a member of Norman Granzs
'Jazz at the Philharmonic' package, appearing in April in a concert
with Young, Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. In 1955 he appeared
in the Benny Goodman Story, also working with Goodman in New York two
years later. In 1958 he was at the World Fair in Brussels for concerts
with Sidney Bechet, and toured Europe the following year and annually
through the 1960s. (died quietly in his sleep
) b. November 12th 1911.
1994: Tom Jobim/Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de
Almeida Jobim (67) Brazilian composer singer, pianist, guitarist
and arranger; a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova
style, he is acknowledged as one of the most influential popular composers
of the 20th century. His songs have been performed by many singers and
instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally. He acquired international
fame with the release of the Grammy Award-winning album Getz/Gilberto,
featuring his international hit "The Girl from Ipanema" sung
by Astrud Gilberto. Notable performers of his songs include Ella Fitzgerald,
Frank Sinatra, Toninho Horta, Andy Williams, Lambert, Hendricks, &
Ross, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Sting, Diana Krall, Claudine Longet,
Carlos Santana and George Michael (heart failure) b.
January 25th 1927.
2003: Ruben Gonzalez (84) Cuban
pianist; in 1940, he moved to Havana, where he played in the charangas
of Paulina Álvarez and Paulín, with Arsenio Rodríguez,
Kubavana and Senén Suárez and in the big bands Siboney
and Riverside. In 1943, he released his first recording, together with
Arsenio Rodríguez. In the early 1960s he became the pianist for
the Orquesta de Enrique Jorrín, and would continue to play for
him for the next 25 years. He started a second career in 1996 under
Ry Cooder's wing, that same year he released the solo album "Introducing
... Rubén González". The next year, Ry Cooder produced
the Grammy winning "Buena Vista Social Club", featuring Ruben
González. He recorded and released his last album "Chanchullo"
in 2000.(?) b. May
26th 1919.
2004: Dimebag Darrell/ Darrell Abbott (25)
American guitarist. Best known as a founding member of the heavy metal
bands Pantera and Damageplan, he also performed in the country music
band Rebel Meets Rebel. He frequently appeared in guitar magazines and
in readers' polls, where he was often included in the top ten metal
guitarist spots. In addition, he wrote a Guitar World magazine column,
which has been compiled in the book Riffer Madness. (killed
when a man stormed the stage during a gig at the Alrosa Villa Club in
Columbus. Nathan Gale, aged 25, began firing at the band and crowd,
killing 5 people) b. August 20th 1966.
2006: Martha Tilton (91)
US singer best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels
Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin'
Miss Tilton. While attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, she
was singing on a small radio station when she was heard by an agent
who signed her and began booking her with larger stations. She then
dropped out of school to join Hal Grayson's band, before joining The
Benny Goodman Band. She was one of the first artists to record for Capitol
Records in 1942, among her biggest hits as a solo artist were "I'll
Walk Alone"; "I Should Care" and "A Stranger in
Town"; and three in 1947: "How Are Things in Glocca Morra";
"That's My Desire"; and "I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder".
She also worked on radio and in films including Sunny, Swing Hostess,
Crime, Inc., and The Benny Goodman Story. Her last film appearance was
as the band vocalist in the TV movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom
in 1975 (natural causes) b.
November 14th 1915.
2009: Su Cruickshank (63)
Australian jazz singer, writer, comedian, actor and entertainer, known
as the 'Diva on the Hill' and 'The Queen of Jazz'; back in the 60's
Su spent some time in the UK, where she sang in the jazz joints of London,
after which she returned home to Newcastle, NSW, Australia, where she
started singing at The Orient Hotel, and joined the Hunter Valley Theatre
Company. Since 1979 her performances were many and varied,
spanning the gamut of the performing arts from variety shows, jazz concerts
and comedy to film, theatre, radio and television. One of her early
successes and best-known film roles was as the mother of Yahoo Serious
in Young Einstein. She also starred on the ABC's drama GP, was a regular
guest on The Bert Newton Show and Midday with Ray Martin, and Su also
hosted her own interview show in 1995 and 1996. For many years she hosted
the Midsummer Festival of Jazz at Sydney's Domain for the Festival of
Sydney(heart and kidney
failure) b.????
December
9
1984: Razzle/Nicholas
Dingley (24) British
drummer with Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks, of which he had a strong
influence on their style. He recorded 2two albums with them "Back
to Mystery City" in 1983 and "Two Steps from the Move"
in 1984. Prior to Hanoi Rocks, he had played in UK-based bands Marionette,
The Fuck Pigs, Demon Preacher and The Dark.(While
on tour in US he died in a car crash when out with Vince Neil of Motley
Crue, Vince lost control of the car and hit an opposing vehicle. Razzle
was taken to South Bay ER but was declared DOA, 8 December at 19:12
local time. It was already 9 December in Europe, which is considered
his official time of death)
b. December 2nd 1960.
1995:
DJ Doctor Nice/ Darren Robinson (28)
US rapper and founder member of Fat Boys; he was a pioneer of beatboxing,
a form of vocal percussion used in many rap groups throughout the '80s
and '90s. He
and his group were featured in the 1985 movie "Krush Groove",
appearing under the name Disco Three at the start before acquiring the
name The Fat Boys near the end. (weight eventually
contributed to his death. He died of a heart attack, weighing 450 lb
/ 204 kg at the time) b. June 10th 1967.
1994: Garnett Silk/Garnett Damoin Smith (28)
Jamaican reggae singer;
born Manchester, Jamaica, he began his
career at the age of twelve, when he performed under the name Little
Bimbo. He later,
under the name Garett Silk recorded his first track in 1985, but it
would be two years later before his first single, "Problem Everywhere"
was released. 1992
saw the release of his first album "It's Growing". He also
worked as a deejay on sound systems such as Soul Remembrance, Pepper's
Disco, Stereophonic, and Destiny Outernational. During the early 1990s
he was hailed as a rising talent, but his career was ended by his early
death. In 2000, Atlantic released The Definitive Collection, a two-CD
set showcasing the ten tracks the singer had recorded during sessions
for his unfinished second album. (Tragically died
while attempting to save his mother from a house fire at his home in
Mandeville, Jamaica) b.
April 2nd 1966
1996:
Patty Darling/Patricia J. "Patty" Donahue (40)
lead singer of the 1980s New
Wave rock group The Waitresses with the hits "I Know What Boys
Like" and "Christmas Wrapping". she is credited on Alice
Cooper's Zipper "Catches Skin" with "vocals and sarcasm."
She later worked for MCA A&R, finding other talented musicians (lung
cancer)
b. March 29th 1956.
2002: Mary Hansen
(36) Australian
guitarist, singer as well as percussion, keyboards and occasionally
sang lead vocals. She moved to London in the late 1980s and became a
backing singer with the Essex-based indie band, The Wolfhounds. She
met the founder of Stereolab Tim Gane when the Wolfhounds played with
his band McCarthy, and joined Stereolab as second vocalist in 1992.
As
a side project in
2000 she helped form the band Schemawith members of the Seattle space
rock group, Hovercraft (cycling accident)
b. November 1st
1966.
2005: Mike Botts (61)
US drummer with Bread; while still at college he played with
a band called The Travellers Three and worked as a studio musician.
He was working with Tony Medley when he met David Gates and became a
member of Bread from 1970 to '74, after which he toured and recorded
with Linda Ronstadt for 2 years. He reunited with Bread in '76 to '78
for one final album and world tour. His always continued his session
and studio career - working, recording and touring with the likes of
Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold, Richard Carpenter and Dan Fogelberg. In 1996,
the members of Bread once again reunited for a world tour that ran until
the fall of 1997. He also contributed to several soundtracks for films
and finally recorded
his only solo album, Adults Only, released in 2000. (colon
cancer) b. December
8th 1944.
2005: György Sándor (93)
Hungarian pianist; He recorded the complete piano works of Kodály,
Prokofiev, and Bartók; for the latter he won the Grand Prix du
Disque of the Charles Cros Academyin 1965. He taught at the Southern
Methodist University, then at the University of Michigan, and from 1982,
at the Juilliard School. His pupils included Hélène Grimaud,
Gyorgy Sebok, Christina Kiss, Barbara Nissman, Ian Pace, fortepiano
performer Malcolm Bilson and composer Ezequiel Viñao. In 1996
New York University awarded Sandor an honorary doctorate. He continued
to teach and perform into his nineties (heart
failure) b. September 21st
1912
2006: Freddie Marsden (66) UK drummer
with the Liverpool band Gerry & the Pacemakers. He and brother Gerry
formed the band in the late 50's and it was the 2nd band to sign with
Brian Epstein. Their first 3 records shot to No.1 "How Do You Do
It?", "I
Like It", "You'll Never Walk Alone" ,
all released in 1963. The
latter has remained the anthem of the crowds at Liverpool Football Club,
played before kick-off every Saturday.
They had also became the first act to acheive three consecertive No.1's
hits in the UK charts.
In 1965 the group were featured on scooters for the film Ferry Cross
The Mersey (cancer)
b. October 21st 1940.
2006:
Georgia Gibbs/Frieda Lipschitz (87)
American
singer,
she began her professional career at the age of thirteen, and was singing
in Boston's Raymor Ballroom the following year. She recorded her first
record with the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra in 1936. Her voice is best
showcased on romantic ballads and torch songs like Melancholy Baby,
I'll Be Seeing You, Autumn Leaves and You Keep Coming Back Like A Song.
Yet she could be equally thrilling belting out a red hot jazz numbers
like Red Hot Mama and A-Razz-A-Ma-Tazz, or jiving with tunes like Ol
Man Mose and Shoo Shoo Baby. In more recent years, again her reputation
steadily grew partially due to the availability of her songs on CD.
(died of leukemia) b.
August 17th 1919.
2009: Faramarz Payvar (77) Iranian
composer and santur player; Faramarz,
was one of the country's prominent composers, he
started learning music at the age of 17 under the tutorship of great
Iranian master Abol-Hasan Saba. His achievements in traditional Persian
music and playing the Santour brought him fame, leading to his co-operations
with the Iranian Department of Art and Culture in 1954. He founded the
'Art and Culture Orchestra', which included greats such as Hossein Tehrani,
Khatere Parvaneh, Houshang Zarif, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, Rahmatollah
Badiee and Abdol-Vahab Shahidi. He also played the Setar and published
a book on Tar and Setar in 1996. After getting a scholarship from Iran's
National Music Conservatory, Faramarz majored in English Language at
UK's Cambridge University and was graduated in 1965. He also studyed
Western music at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The veteran artist
amazed music lovers by his performances in every corner of the world.
His world tours took him to countries like the US, Germany, the UK,
Sweden, France, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, and Russia.
(died after
struggling with brain damage for a long time) b.
February 10th 1933.
December 10
1967:
Otis Redding (26) An
influential Black-American deep soul singer. He became a local celebrity
as a teenager after winning a local Saturday morning talent show at
the Douglass Theatre 15 weeks in a row. In 1960 he made his first recordings,
"She's All Right" and "Shout Bamalama" under the
name "Otis and The Shooters". In 1962 he recorded "These
Arms of Mine", a ballad that he had written. The song became a
minor hit on Volt Records, a subsidiary of the renowned Southern soul
label Stax. He continued to release for Stax/Volt, and built his fan
base by extensively touring a live show with support from fellow Stax
artists Sam & Dave. Further hits between 1964 and 1966 included
"Mr. Pitiful", "I Can't Turn You Loose" (which was
to become The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), "Try a Little
Tenderness","(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and "Respect",
later a smash hit for Aretha Franklin. He wrote most of his own material
including "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" which he had
recorded only a few days before his death. He considered it unfinished.
In 1993, the U.S. Post Office issued an Otis Redding 29 cents commemorative
postage stamp. He was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994,
and in 1999 he posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed three Redding recordings
"Shake," "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," and
"Try a Little Tenderness" among its list of "The 500
Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll." and Rolling Stone ranked him
No.21 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time (The
plane carrying Otis Redding and The Bar-kays crashed at 3.28.pm into
Lake Monoma killing most of the passengers. Trumpet player Ben Cauley
was the only
band member to survive the crash & bassist James Alexander missed
the flight) b.
September 9th 1941.
1967:
Jimmy King (18) American guitarist in The Bar-Kays; the
Bar-Kays began in Memphis, Tennessee as a studio session musician group,
backing major artists at Stax Records. They were chosen in 1967 by Otis
Redding to play as his backing band. (Died
so young in the tragic Otis Redding plane crash)
b. 1949
1967:
Ronnie Caldwell (18) American electric organist and keyboardist
with The Bar-Kays (Died
so young in the tragic Otis Redding plane crash)
b. December
27th 1948
1967: Phalon
Jones (18)
American saxophonist in The Bar-Kays, (Died
so young in the tragic Otis Redding plane crash)
b.1949
1967: Carl Cunningham (18) American
drummer in The Bar-Kays, (Died
so young in the tragic Otis Redding plane crash)
b.1949
1987: Jascha
Heifetz (86) Lithuanian-born
American violin virtuoso. He is widely regarded as the greatest violinist
of the 20th Century. He owned both the 1714 "Dolphin" Stradivarius
and the 1740 "ex David" Guarneri del Gesù, the latter
of which he preferred and kept until his death.(He died at the Cedar-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles after a brain surgery as a result of a
fall and loss of consciousness at home) b.February
2nd 1901 [O.S.
January 20]
1987:
Slam Stewart/Leroy Elliot Stewart (73)
American jazz bass player whose
trademark style was his ability to bow the bass (arco) and simultaneously
hum or sing an octave higher. He was a very busy sessionist and played
with many of the jaz icons through the 40s to the 80's, Art Tatum's
trio, Benny Goodman Sextet, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester
Young as well as leading his own group
(?) b. September 21st
1914.
1987:
Jascha Heifetz (86) World renown
Russian violin virtuoso born in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the
Russian Empire. He took up the violin when he was only three years old,
he was a child prodigy, making his public debut at seven, in Kovno playing
the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered
the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer himself.
In April 1911, Jascha performed in an outdoor concert in St. Petersburg
before 25,000 spectators; there was such a sensational reaction that
police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert.
In 1914, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur
Nikisch. The conductor was very impressed, saying he had never heard
such an excellent violinist. On October 27th 1917, he made his American
debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, and became an immediate sensation
and remained in the country becoming an American citizen in 1925. He
continued to play around the world with all the great orchestras until
the mid 1970s, after an operation to his sholder, but he continued to
play privately until the end. Jaschais regarded as one of the greatest
violinists of all time and in 1989, received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award.(?)
b. February 3nd 1901.
1991: Headman Shabalala (46)
South African singer and member of the world famous Ladysmith
Black Mambazo choral group which was founded and still led by his brother
Joseph. He joined the first incarnation of his brother Joseph's group
the Ladysmith Black Mambazo in
1960 alongside his brother Enoch and various cousins and relatives.
He sang the bass voice, adding sounds to the songs that would become
synonymous with the group's rhythm; the low gruffs and growls and the
"clicking" noises (he was shot and killed by a white, off-duty
security guard in an apparent racial killing)
b. October 10th 1945.
1996: Faron Young (64)
US country music singer; originally known as "the Hillbilly
Heartthrob" and "the Singing Sheriff". Faron had many
hits including "Young Love", "If You Ain't Lovin' (You
Ain't Livin')", "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young", "Sweet
Dreams", "Hello Walls", "It's Four in the Morning".
He co-founded, with Preston Temple, the Nashville trade newspaper, The
Music City News. His band, the Country Deputies, was one of country
music's top bands, and toured with him for many years and in
2000 he was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame
(Depressed by his poor and failing health, he shot himself)
b. February 25th 1932.
1999: Rick Danko (56) Canadian
bassist, also played accordion, violin, mandolin, guitar, fiddle; famous
for co-founding The Band who originally started out as Bob Dylan's first
all electric backing band, just known as the band, they kept that name.
At 17, already a five-year music veteran, he booked himself as the opening
act for Ronnie Hawkins, an American rockabilly singer whose group, The
Hawks, were considered to be one of the best in Canada and by September
1960, he was Hawkins's bassist. A few years later Rick and some of the
band went out on there own and ended up as The Band. He also enjoyed
a busy solo career, he recorded demos and made a number of appearances
on albums by other artists throughout the 1980s and 1990s,including
a tour in 1989 with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson as part of Ringo Starr's
first All-Star Band. (died in his sleep of heart failure)
b. December 29th 1942.
2007: Emil Brenkus (94) American
jazz bassist, he played the Pittsburgh jazz scene alongside greats such
as Sam Nestico, Billie May, Benny Benack and Baron Elliot. A true veteran
trooper, Emil played regularly until just weeks before his death (died
of prostate cancer 8 days after his birthday)
b. December 3rd 1913.
2007: Jerry Ricks (67)
American blues guitarist and much in demand freelance guitarist
and solo world touring musician. He started playing guitar in local
coffee shops in the late 1950s and worked as a booking manager for the
Second Fret Coffee House in Philadelphia from 1960-1966, coming into
contact with many key figures in the blues revival. He toured with the
Buddy Guy Blues Band on a State Department-sponsored East African tour,
after which he moved to Europe. He recorded 13 solo albums in Europe,
but his first American releases did not arrive until 1998, with Deep
in the Well. The album was nominated for three W.C. Handy Awards. (died
in hospital in the Adriatic town of Rijeka; complications from a brain
tumor) b. May 22nd 1940.
2008:
Didith Reyes/Maria
Helen Bella Avenila Santamaria (60)
Filipino actress, singer best known for recording a string of hit love
ballads in the 1970s, including "Bakit Ako Mahihiya", "Araw-Araw,
Gabi-Gabi," "Nananabik", "Hatiin Natin ang Gabi,"
and "Hindi Kami Damong Ligaw". She started out singing with
Circus band and Time Machine, after which she signed up with Vicor Music
Corporation as a solo artist, her debut album "Didith", was
a platinum bestseller in 1975. She won a Gold Prize and the Best performer
at the 1977 Tokyo Music Festival. She was also notorious for accidentally
exposing her breast, while singing "Bakit Ako Mahihiya?" during
the 1977 FAMAS Awards Night (heart attack) b.
September
17th 1948.
2009: Kenny Dino/Kenneth J. Diono (67)
American pop singer; Kenny spent several months stationed in Iceland
while serving
in the Navy, he
came runner-up in a talent show with his version of a song by Elvis
Presley. Back in America
he put together a band which
toured in Texas and Louisiana. He frequently played with Doug Sahm at
the San Antonio Blues Club at this time.
Moving to New York he released his only hit record "Your Ma Said
You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night", in 1961. Robert Plant later
covered this song on his 1990 release, Manic Nirvana. Kenny was offered
a chance to duet with Paul Simon but turned it down. (He
was driving from Melbourne, Florida to his home in Cocoa after finishing
a gig. He pulled over to the side of the road where he suffered a fatal
heart attack) b. July 12th 1939.
December
11
1964: Sam Cooke (33) US
R & B, gospel and soul
singer; he was a pioneer and one of the most
important soul singers in history, some call him the inventor of soul
music and he's souls most popular and beloved performer in both the
black and white communities. In the early and mid 50's he sang with
The Soul Stirrers where he wrote and recorded 14 tracks and wrote or
arranged a further 10 for them. He brought out
his first
solo record "Lovable" in 1956 while still a member of The
Soul Stirrers, but under the name of Dale Cooke. Leaving the group in
1957 he went on to have 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and
1965, including hits like "You Send Me", "Summertime",
"A Change Is Gonna Come", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful
World" and "Bring It on Home to Me". He was also among
the first modern black performers and composers to be active on the
business side of the music. He founded his own record label SAR Records
in 1961, followed by a publishing imprint and management firm, both
as an extension of his career. In 1986, he was inducted as a charter
member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, In 1999, he was honored with
the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2008 Rolling Stone magazine
named him the 4th Greatest Singer of All Time (shot to death by Bertha
Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel
in South L. A., who claimed that he had threatened her, and she killed
him in self-defense, the details of the case are still in dispute)
b. January 22nd 1931.
1975: Lee Wiley
(67) American
jazz singer born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma; while still in her
early teens, Lee left home to begin a career singing with the Leo Reisman
band. In 1939, she made a 78 album set of eight Gershwin songs with
a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed
by 78 album sets dedicated to Cole Porter in 1940 and Richard Rodgers
& Lorenz Hart in 1940 (and 1954), Harold Arlen in 1943 and Vincent
Youmans and Irving Berlin in 1951. In 1954, she opened the very first
Newport Jazz Festival accompanied by Bobby Hackett. She later recorded
two of her finest albums, West of the Moon in 1956 and A Touch of the
Blues in 1957 before retiring (colon cancer)
b. October
9th 1908.
1998: James Lynn Strait (30) US
singer; best known as founder member, lead vocalist and lyricist of
the metal/punk band Snot. The band recorded one album before his death
"Get Some" in 1997. When the band performed on the 1998 Ozzfest
tour, he was arrested in Mansfield, Massachusetts, for indecent exposure
after emerging nude from the oversized toilet prop used by Limp Bizkit
in their performances. Lynn
also appeared as a guest on Tura Satana's song 'Down', a duet with friend
Tairrie B on Manhole/Tura Satana's first album. In 2000, Snot released
the album, Strait Up, as a tribute to Lynn, the album features appearances
by the lead vocalists of a number of major rock groups (killed
tragically when a truck struck his Ford Tempo on the 101 Freeway near
Santa Barbara at approximately 1 p.m) b.
August 7th 1968.
2004: M.S. Subbulakshmi/Madurai Shanmukhavadivu
Subbulakshmi (88) Indian singer; well known for her Carnatic
voice, and widely regarded as the premier female classical vocalist
of her generation. Her first public performance during the Mahamaham
festival at Kumbakonam at the age of eight, and released her first recording
at the age of ten. By the age of 17, she was giving concerts on her
own, including major performances at the Madras Music Academy. She traveled
to London, New York, Canada, the Far East, and other places, performing
concerts at Carnegie Hall, New York; the UN General Assembly; the Royal
Albert Hall, London; and at the Festival of India in Moscow. She was
the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest
civilian honor (complications relating to pneumonia and cardiac irregularities)
b. September 16th 1916.
2006: Walter Ward (66) American
R&B singer, lead vocalist of The Olympics; in 1954 when he was attending
Centinela High School in Inglewood, CA, he and his cousin Eddie Lewis
formed a group The Challengers. After winning a number of talent shows,
they were approached by another singing duo who asked to join forces.
In 1955 the quartet became The Olympics. His last performance with The
Olympics was on November 12th 2006, at a Doo-Wop Spectacular on Long
Island, New York just a month before his sad death (?) b.August
28th 1940.
2007: Christie Hennessy/Edward Christopher
Ross (62) Irish folk singer-songwriter born in Tralee, County
Kerry, and left school at age 11; he wrote several songs that became
hits for other singers including 'Don't Forget your Shovel', made famous
by Christy Moore and 'All the Lies that You Told Me', recorded by Frances
Black. He had recently gone into the studio to record an album with
both Luka Bloom and Christy Moore sharing vocals on one of the tracks
(died from mesothelioma, which has been attributed
to his younger years working on building sites in London)
b. November 19th
1945.
December 12
1985: Ian Stewart (47) Scottish
keyboardist and co-founder of The Rolling Stones; with his love of rhythm
& blues, boogie-woogie, blues and big-band jazz, hewas first to
respond to Brian Jones's advertisement in Jazz News of 2 May 1962 seeking
musicians to form a rhythm & blues group. Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards joined in June, and the group, with Dick Taylor on bass and
Mick Avory on drums, played their first gig under the name The Rollin'
Stones at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962. Because the band's manager
Andrew Oldham did not think Ian fitted the image he wanted to market
and thought six was too many members, so he officially "left the
group" in 1963, but continued until his death as their road manager
and pianist playing on all their albums of the first decade among others.
In 1975 Stewart joined the band on stage again, playing piano on numbers
of his choosing throughout tours in 1975-76, 1978 and 1981-82. He favoured
blues and country rockers, and remained dedicated to boogie-woogie and
early rhythm & blues. As well as his life with the Rolling Stones
he contributed to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from Led
Zeppelin IV and "Boogie With Stu" from Physical Graffiti.
Another was Howlin' Wolf's 1971 London Sessions. He
also played with the back-to-roots band Rocket 88. Ian was inducted
posthumously in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 with the band
(he began having respiratory problems. On 12 December
he went to a clinic to have the problem checked out; he suffered a heart
attack and died in the waiting room) b.
July 18th 1938.
1987:
Enrique Jorrín (60)
Cuban composer, violinist and band director, famous as the inventor
of the Cuban dance music called cha-cha-chá.
Brought up in Havana, he started to learn the violin at aged 12, and
later studied at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana. While a member
of Orquesta América in the early 1950s, he created a new genre
of dance music which became known as the cha-cha-chá. In 1964,
he toured Africa and Europe with his orchestra, Orquesta de Enrique
Jorrín, then in 1974, he organized a new charanga, which included
singer Tito Gómez and pianist Rubén González. This
orchestra is still active in Havana and includes many songs by Enrique
in their active repertoire (?)
b. December 25th 1926.
1988: Jim Bulliet (79) founder of Bullet Records which he started
in 1945, the label national hit was Francis Craig's pop recording of
"Near You" made in early 1947, but the label was known for
country music artists such as Boots Woodall's Radio Wranglers
(died in Nashville, TN)
1991. Ronnie Ross (58) alto-tenor-baritone sax, clarinet, arranger,
(died in London, UK)
2006: Kenny Davern (71) American jazz clarinetist and occasional
sax player; in 1997, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Rutgers
University, and in 2001 he received a honorary doctorate of music at
Hamilton College, Clinton, New York.(heart attack).
2007: Lee Vincent (91) US bassist and radio personality for WILK
radio in Pennsylvania , (heart failure).
2007: Ike Wister Turner (76) US
rock 'n' roll pioneer, singer, guitarist, bandleader, talent scout,
record producer; in 1951, among many othe acheivements, he penned and
recorded what historians have debated as "the first rock and roll
record" with "Rocket 88, and is famed for his 16 years as
one half of Ike and Tina Turner and is a 2 time Grammy award winner
(Died of a cocaine overdose his Californian home)
b. November 5th 1931...
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December 13
1960: John Charles
Thomas (59)
American
baritone known for his exuberant singing style and powerful voice.
After leaving the Peabody Institution in 1912, he traveled briefly with
a touring musical company, then settled in New York where he performed
with a Gilbert & Sullivan company before signing to the Shubert
Brothers in The Peasant Girl which opened in 1913. For the next nine
years, he starred in a series of hit Broadway musicals including Her
Soldier Boy, Maytime, Naughty Marietta, and Apple Blossoms (with Fred
and Adele Astaire). His opera debut was as Amonasro in Aida presented
by the semi-professional Washington National Opera in March, 1925. From
1925 -1932, he spent his time in Europe, singing under contract at La
Monnaie opera house in Brussels for the seasons of 1925-1927. He returned
to La Monnaie for 25 performances in 1928, 8 in 1930, and 4 in 1931.
He appeared with Chaliapin in performances of Faust at Covent Garden,
London in July 1928. In 1938 he helped Edwin Lester launch the Los Angeles
Civic Light Opera, appearing in the company's very first production
as Franz Schubert in Blossom Time, a Viennese operetta Das Dreimäderlhaus.
He toured Australia in the 40s as Sir John Charles Thomas. John was
engaged to star on the Westinghouse Radio Program from 1943-1946 with
the Victor Young Orchestra. He gradually retired from the concert stage
after 1950, and settled in Apple Valley, California (?)
b.
September 6th 1891.
1983: Marshall Brown (62) American
jazz trombonist and sometimes bass trumpet or euphonium. He was one
of the few left-handed players of the trombone.
He earned a music degree from New York University.Over his career he
performed and recorded with Pee Wee Russell, Ruby Braff, Beaver Harris
and Lee Konitz, but he devoted much of his career to education (?)
b. ??.??.1920
2001: Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner
(33) American
musician and genre innovator. He is best known for being the founder,
singer, lead guitar player and main songwriter of Death, which he founded
in 1983 as Mantas, and was one of the first bands of the death metal
genre. He played an important role in the development of death metal
with his band Death, which later evolved into more of a progressive
metal sound. Originally inspired by the likes of inspired by Iron Maiden,
Kiss and Billy Idol, and was particularly interested in the metal movement
known as NWOBHM, Kerrang! magazine stated that "Chuck Schuldiner
was one of the most significant figures in the history of metal"
(cancer) b. May 13th
1967.
2002: Zal Yanovsky (57)
Canadian guitarist; an early rock n roll performer to wear a cowboy
hat, and fringed "Davy Crockett" style clothing, he helped
set the trend followed by such 1960s performers as Sonny Bono, Johnny
Rivers and David Crosby. He joined Cass Elliot in the Mugwumps, a group
made famous by her later group the Mamas & the Papas, in the song
"Creeque Alley"; after which he and John Sebastian formed
the Lovin' Spoonful. The band became an immediate smash with their first
single, "Do You Believe in Magic?" a Top Ten hit in 1965,
which led off a remarkable string of hits that established the Spoonful
as one of the few American bands that could challenge the chart dominance
of the Beatles and their British Invasion contemporaries. He recorded
a solo album, Alive and Well in Argentina in 1971, did a stint playing
guitar with Kris Kristofferson and co-produced Tim Buckley's 1969 album
Happy Sad in collaboration with Jerry Yester, before returning to Canada
to become a restaurateur. He and Spoonful have reunited on a couple
of occasions, filming an appearance in Paul Simon's 1980 film One Trick
Pony and performing some of their hits on stage on the occasion of the
band's 2000 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (heart
attack) b. December 19th 1944.
2005: Timothy Anderson Jordan II (24)
American keyboardist, guitarist, and songwriter. He was primarily known
as a touring member of the platinum-selling band, The All-American Rejects.
Tim played with Green Olive Tree, and in 2003 he enlisted in Snapdragon
Records' punk band Welton before providing backing vocals, keyboards,
and percussion to Number One Fan's live performances, including the
2005 Warped Tour, a Late Show with David Letterman appearance, and performances
on Jimmy Kimmel Live. In 2005 Tim left The All-American Rejects to join
Tooth & Nail rock band Jonezetta (Sadly he
took his own life) b. March 8th 1981.
2007: Philippe Clay/Philippe Mathevet (80)
French singer,
mime artist
and actor,
known for for his interpretations of songs by Charles Aznavour, Claude
Nougaro, Jean-Roger Caussimon and others. He was seen frequently on
TV in series directed by Josée Dayan in the 1980s and 1990s.
He recorded over 150 songs in his long career. (heart
failure) b. March
7th 1927.
2009: Yvonne King Burch (89) American
singer born in Salt Lake City, Utah; Yvonne sang with here sisters Donna,
Louise and Alyce under the name The King Sisters.
Formed in the '30s they traveled to San Francisco to audition for radio
station KGO, to replace the Boswell Sisters. In 1935, they worked with
bandleader Horace Heidt until 1938. In the following years, they separately
and together sang with the bands of Artie Shaw and Charlie Barnet. They
also turned down a request to be the vocal group for the Glenn Miller
orchestra. They recorded for the same label as Miller, Bluebird, and
had their first hit with a vocal version of Miller's hit, "In The
Mood". Luise married guitarist Alvino Rey, and they appeared with
him in a series of hit songs.
They
also appeared in a number of Hollywood features in the 1940s. During
World War II, they appeared regularly on Kay Kyser's radio series. In
1965, they began hosting their own ABC television network show, The
King Family Show, which featured many family members as well as other
talent, the show ran until '69. (Yvonne
had a fall while at her nephew Cam's cabin,
she was rushed to the hospital, but sadly died several days later)
b. January 15th 1920.
December
14
1963:
Dinah Washington (39)
US
singer; because of her strong voice and emotional singing, she is known
as the "Queen of the Blues". She became one of the most influential
vocalists of the twentieth century, credited among others as a major
influence on Aretha Franklin. At 16 as Ruth Jones, she toured the US
black gospel circuit with Roberta Martin accompanying her at the piano.
There was a period when she performed in clubs
as
Dinah Washington while singing and playing piano in Sallie Martin's
gospel choir as Ruth Jones. In 1943, she began recording for Keynote
Records and released the 12-bar blues "Evil Gal Blues", her
first hit. She then switched to Chicago-based Mercury Records and from
1948 to 1955, she had numerous hits on the R&B charts, including
"Am I Asking Too Much", "Baby, Get Lost," "Trouble
in Mind", ""I Won't Cry Anymore", "TV is The
Thing This Year", "Teach Me Tonight" and a cover of Hank
Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart".
In 1959, she won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance.
With "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" and in 1986 inducted
into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
(died from an accidental overdose of prescription
diet pills mixed with alcohol. She was 5'2" tall and had fought
weight problems for most of her life, she was dieting to lose weight
for the festive season) b. August 29th
1924.
1997: Kurt Winter (51) Canadian
guitarist with the highly successful rock band The Guess Who; he started
his career with the Winnipeg bands the Fifth, Brother,
Gettysbyrg
Address, and before joining Guess Who in 1970. He played stunning
machine gun style solos on such hits as "Raindance" and "Albert
Flasher". After leaving the band he went into the world of business
as well as regrouping with various incarnations of "Guess Who"
under the leadership of bassist Jim Kale (kidney
failure) b. April 2nd 1946.
2001: Secondo
"Conte" Candoli (74) American jazz trumpeter
based on the West Coast of the US. He played in the big bands of Woody
Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc
Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show. He played with Gerry
Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials. He also recorded with
a band called Supersax, a Charlie Parker tribute band that consisted
of a saxophone quintet, the rhythm section, and either a trumpet or
trombone. He was inducted into The International Jazz Hall of Fame in
1997 (died after a long battle with prostate cancer)
b. July 12th 1927.
2006: Ahmet
Ertegün (83) Turkish-American co-founder and
executive of Atlantic Records and chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame and museum, described as "one of the most significant figures
in the modern recording industry". He also co-founded the New York
Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League. In his early
days he wrote a number of classic blues songs, including "Chains
of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen", under the pseudonym "A.
Nugetre" (Ertegün backwards). "Nugetre" also wrote
the Ray Charles hit "Mess Around", with lyrics that drew heavily
on Pinetop Smith. He also was part of the shouting choral group on Turner's
"Shake, Rattle and Roll". In 1987, he was inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, of which he himself was a founder.(On
Oct 29, 2006 he slipped and hit his head while backstage at a Rolling
Stones performance in New York for the 60th birthday of former US President
Bill Clinton. Although he was initially in stable condition, Ahmet soon
took a turn for the worse, he fell into a coma from which he did not
recover) b. July 31st 1923.
2007: Frank Morgan (73) American
jazz saxophonist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He mainly
played alto saxophone but also played soprano saxophone. During the
1950s he was known as a Charlie Parker protege and recorded several
bebop albums. He started taking heroin at the age of 17, became addicted
and ended up spending time on and off in a few Californian prisons.
In the 60's while at San Quentin prison, he formed a small ensemble
with another addict and sax player, Art Pepper. The Frank Morgan Quartet
featured Dolo Coker on piano, Flip Greene on bass and Larance Marable
on drums and in 1985 he started recording again, releasing Easy Living
in June 1985. He suffered a stroke in 1998, but subsequently recovered
and recorded additional albums. From 1985 till his death in 2007 he
relaesed 16 albums. (heart related)
b. December 23rd 1933.
2009: Chris Feinstein (42) American
bassist; he joined Ryan Adams & the Cardinals in 2006 as a touring
member and played bass on their 2007 releases 'Easy Tiger' and the 'Follow
the Lights' EP, as well as 2008's 'Cardinology.' He was also a major
contributor to the 2002 'I Am Sam' soundtrack, serving as a producer
and playing bass, guitar and percussion. Prior to this Chris played
bass with a variety of different musicians, including Fat Joe on his
2002 album 'Loyalty', Albert Hammond Jr.'s 2006 album 'Yours to Keep'
and on Minnie Driver's 2008 album 'Seastories'. Chris and longtime Adams
drummer Brad Pemberton had played in bands together since attending
high school in Nashville. (died at his home in
Manhattan. The cause of death is still unknown). b.
????
December 15
1943: Fats Waller/Thomas Wright Waller (39)
African-American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer.A
skilled pianist, widely recognized as a master of stride piano, he was
one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and
commercial success in America and in Europe. He wrote or co-wrote classics
such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'"
and "Squeeze Me". A prolific composer of novelty swing tunes
in the 1920s and 30s, he sold many of his compositions for relatively
small sums, and as they became hits, other songwriters had already claimed
them as their own. He was once kidnapped by four men, a terrified Waller
found he was the 'surprise guest' at Al Capone's birthday party. He
had a successful tour of the UK and Ireland in the late 1930s, and appeared
in one of the earliest BBC Television broadcasts. He appeared in several
feature films and short subject films, most notably "Stormy Weather"
in 1943, which was released only months before his death. His inductions
include - Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970; Big Band and Jazz Hall of
Fame in 1989; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993; 2005 Jazz at
Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame and in 2008 he was
inducted into the Gennett Records Walk of Fame (died
of pneumonia aboard an eastbound train in the vicinity of Kansas City,
Missouri, following a west coast engagement)
b. May 21st 1904.
1944: Glenn Miller (40) American
jazz musician, arranger, composer and band leader in the swing era.
He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942,
leading one of the best known "Big Bands". His signature recordings
include, "In the Mood", "Tuxedo Junction", "Chattanooga
Choo Choo", "Moonlight Serenade", "Little Brown
Jug", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000". In 1926, he toured and
played with Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles, during which he wrote
several musical arrangements of his own. He earnt a living as a freelance
trombonist in several bands. In November of 1929, an original vocalist
named Red McKenzie hired Glenn to play on two records that are now considered
to be jazz classics: "Hello, Lola" and "If I Could Be
With You One Hour Tonight". Not only were these 2 numbers considered
major musical items, but they also represented one of the major breakthroughs
in blacks and whites playing together. He was a member of Red Nicholss
orchestra in 1930, his bandmates included Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa.
In the mid-1930s, Miller also worked as a trombonist and arranger in
The Dorsey Brothers ill-fated co-led orchestra, where he composed the
song "Annie's Cousin Fanny" and "Dese Dem Dose"
for the Dorsey Brothers Band. In 1935, he assembled an American orchestra
for British bandleader Ray Noble, developing the arrangement of lead
clarinet over four saxophones that eventually became the sonic keynote
of his own big ban. (While travelling to entertain
U.S. troops in France during WW II, his plane disappeared in bad weather
over the English Channel. His body was never found) b.
March 1st 1904.
1954: Oscar
"Papa" Celestin (70)
New
Orleans jazz bandleader, reed player, singer, born in Napoleonville,
Louisiana, he played guitar and trombone before deciding on cornet as
his main instrument. He took music lessons from Claiborne Williams,
and played with the Algiers Brass Band by the early 1900s, also with
various small town bands before moving to New Orleans in 1904, at age
20. In New Orleans he played with the Imperial, Indiana, Henry Allen
senior's Olympia Brass Bands, and Jack Carey's dance band; early in
his career he was sometimes known as "Sonny" Celestin. Around
1910 he got the job as leader of the house band at the Tuxedo Dance
Hall on North Franklin St, Storyville. He kept the name "Tuxedo"
for the name of his band after the Dance Hall closed. For some years
Oscar co-led the Tuxedo Band with trombonist William Ridgely. They made
their first recordings with the band during the Okeh Records field trip
to New Orleans in 1925. His band became a regular feature at the Paddock
Lounge on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, and made regular radio
broadcasts, television appearance, and more recordings. In 1953 Oscar
gave a command performance for President Eisenhower at the White House.
His last recording singing, was "Marie LaVeau" in 1954. In
view of the tremendous contribution Oscar made in jazz throughout his
lifetime, the Jazz Foundation of New Orleans had a bust made and donated
to the Delgado Museum in New Orleans. Near the end of his life, he was
honored as one of the greats of New Orleans music. Over
4000 people marched in his funeral parade (?)
b. January 1st 1884
1979: Jackie Brenston (49) American
R&B singer and saxophonist born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. After
leaving the army 1947, he learned to play the tenor saxophone, linking
up with Ike Turner in 1950 as sax player and occasional singer in his
band. The local success of Ikes Kings of Rhythm prompted B. B.
King to recommend them to studio owner Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee,
where the band made several recordings in early March 1951, including
"Rocket 88", on which Brenston sang lead and which he was
credited with writing. Phillips passed the recordings on to Chess Records
in Chicago, but they released "Rocket 88" as by "Jackie
Brenston and his Delta Cats". The record soon reached No.1 on the
U.S. Billboard R&B chart and stayed at that position for over a
month. It is a very contrivertial believe this to be the first rock
and roll record, whatever, Sam Phillips used the success of the record
to start Sun Records the following year. After a few more sessions with
Ike, Jackie left to play saxophone with Lowell Fulson's band in 1953-1955.
After which he rejoined Ike Turner, until the early 1960s. Though he
recorded with Turner's Kings of Rhythm throughout those years, Jackie's
voice, was heard on only two of the many singles that the band had out
during that time. He was forbidden to ever sing Rocket 88 and had been
reduced to being Ike Turner's baritone sax-player. After a final recording
session with Earl Hooker in 1963, so sadly Jackie's drinking habit had
became much worse and he played only occasionally in local bars when
he could. (died of a fatal heart attack)
b. August 15th 1930.
1981: Samuel Jones (57) American
jazz double bassist, cellist and composer born in Jacksonville, Florida.
Over his career he played with Bobby Timmons, Tiny Bradshaw, John Lee
Hooker, Les Jazz Modes, Kenny Dorham, Illinois Jacquet, Freddie Hubbard,
Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk among others. He is known for his
work with Cannonball Adderley from 1959 to 1965, but also spent several
years working with Oscar Peterson and Cedar Walton and recorded with
Bill Evans in the 1950s. His career primarily revolved around the New
York City jazz scene. Samuel wrote the jazz standard "Del Sasser",
among other tunes (?) b.
November 12th 1924.
1984: Jan Peerce (80) American
operatic tenor and father of film director Larry Peerce. In 1932 he
was hired as a tenor soloist with the Radio City Music Hall company,
he soon had a nationwide following. This led to concert engagements
and he made his operatic debut in May of 1938 in Philadelphia as the
Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, followed by his first solo recital in New
York in November 1939. He went on to work with the legendary maestro
Arturo Toscanini and made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera on November
29, 1941, singing Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata, parts of Cavaradossi
in Tosca, Rodolfo in La bohème, and in Gounod's Faust. He was
hailed by the critics as the "All-American successor to the 'greats'
of opera's almost extinct 'Golden Age'." In 1956 he made a sensation
in Moscow as a musical "cultural exchange" ambassador, being
the first American to sing with the famed Bolshoi Opera (?)
b. June 3rd 1904.
2001: Rufus Thomas (84) American
R&B, funky soul singer, songwriter; born in Memphis he was often
referred to as "The World's Oldest Teenager", he always answered
he was "The World's Finest Teenager". He started his career
as a professional entertainer, in 1936 with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels,
an all-black revue that toured the South. He then worked for twenty-two
years at a textile plant. In 1951 he started at WDIA where he hosted
an afternoon show called Hoot and Holler. WDIA, featuring an African-American
format, was known as "the mother station of the Negroes" and
became an important source of blues and R&B music for a generation,
its audience consisting of white as well as black listeners. In the
the 60's and 70's his hits included "Walking The Dog", "Do
the Funky Chicken", "(Do the) Push and Pull", "The
Breakdown" and "Do the Penguin". He performed at Wattstax
in 1972, leading a crowd of 40,000 in the "Funky Chicken."
(heart attack) b.
March 26th 1917.
2008: Davy Graham/Davey
Graham (68)
UK guitarist, singer and arranger; an influential figure in the 1960s
folk music revolution in England, inventing the concept of the folk
guitar instrumental. He is best-known for his acoustic instrumental,
"Anji" and for his use of Dadgad tuning. He inspired many
of the practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar, such as Bert
Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Paul Simon, Eltjo Haselhoff and
even Jimmy Page, who heavily based his solo "White Summer"
on Graham's "She moved thru' the Bizarre/Blue Raga". He was
one of UK's greatest guitarists, revered by many generations of guitarists
over his 50 year career, but sadly, ofen over looked by the media (lung
cancer) b. November 22nd 1940.
December
16
1921: Camille Saint-Saëns (86) French
keyboardist and composer; he wrote in virtually all genres, including
opera, symphonies, concertos, songs, sacred and secular choral music,
solo piano, chamber music and revived forgotten dances. His creepy Danse
Macabre appears in the 1997 TV series Jonathan Creek. Other popular
ones from many include Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, The Carnival
of the Animals, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony), Samson and Delilah,
and Havanaise (died of pneumonia, at the Hôtel
de l'Oasis in Algiers. His body was brought back to Paris for a state
funeral at La Madeleine and was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse
in Paris) b. October 9th 1835
1988: Sylvester James (44) American
disco & soul musician, and gay drag performer, known for singing
in falsetto, despite a rich baritone voice. He started his career when
he moved to San Francisco in 1967, performing in a musical production
called Women of the Blues, after which he joined a group of transvestite
performance artists called The Cockettes in the early 1970s, with his
repertoire of Bessie Smith. He formed a band Sylvester & the Hot
Band before starting his solo career. On September 20, 2004 Sylvester's
anthem record, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)", was inducted
into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 19, 2005,
Sylvester himself was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for
his achievement as an artist (complications from
Aids) b. September 6th 1947
1997: Nicolette Larson (45)
US singer songwriter; started out singing with Hoyt Axton's band
and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. She worked as a session
vocalist for Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Michael McDonald, Willie
Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Young, Christopher Cross, Little Feat, Mary
Kay Place, The Dirt Band, The Beach Boys, Pure Prairie League, and The
Doobie Brothers. In 1979, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best
New Artist. She also had a minor role in the 1988 film Twins. To mention
a few s he sang backing vocals on Neil Young's "Comes a Time"
and "Harvest Moon" albums, and duets on the song "Motorcycle
Mama". She also sang backup on the Van Halen song "Could This
Be Magic?", "Sweet Blue Midnight" by The Georgia Satellites,
and on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's hit "Make a Little Magic".
In the mid to late 1980's she had several Country chart hits, including
the duet, "That's When You Know Love's Right" with Steve Wariner.
The song peaked at #9 on Billboards Top Country Singles chart in 1986
(complications arising from a cerebral edema)
b. July 17th 1952.
2001: Stuart Adamson (43) UK lead
singer, guitarist, songwriter and pianist; he founded the Scottish art-punk
band The Skids and later the rock group Big Country, enjoying hits such
as "In a Big Country", "Look Away" and "Wonderland".
In the 1990s he founded his last band the alternative country rock act,
The Raphaels. In 2006, his music achieved an unexpected success when
U2 and Green Day covered "The Saints Are Coming" as a charity
single.(found dead in Hawaii a month after disappearing
from his home in the US) b. April 11th
1958.
2003: Gary Stewart (58) American
musician, singer and songwriter; known for his drinking songs, he was
one of the first so-called "outlaw" country performers. During
the peak of his popularity in the mid-1970s Time magazine described
him as the "king of honkytonk." He had 29 Country Chart hits
including "Drinkin' Thing", "You're Not the Woman You
Used to Be" "In Some Room Above the Street", "Out
of Hand", "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)"and
"Flat Natural Born Good-Timin' Man" (died
of self-inflicted gunshot wound to the neck 2 weeks after the death
of his wife of 40 years) b. May 28th 1944.
2006: Taliep Petersen (55) South
African singer, composer and director of a number of popular musicals.
He worked most notably with David Kramer, with whom he won an Olivier
Award. In the early 80's he formed a band, called Sapphyre, that played
interpretations of traditional Cape Malay songs. In 1986 he and David
Kramer collaborated on the first of a number of musicals together, District
Six: The Musical, exploring the culture and history of the Coloured
community in Cape Town. This was followed by Poison, Fairyland, Crooners,
Kat and the Kings, Klop Klop and Spice Drum Beat: Ghoema. In 2001 he
presented a television series about District Six called O'se Distrik
Ses and has featured on South Africa reality talent shows, Idols and
Joltyd in 2002 (shot dead at his home; his wife,
together with two men were charged with his "planned and/or premeditated"
murder) b.????
2007: Dan Fogelberg (56) American
singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist whose music was inspired by
sources as diverse as folk, pop, classical, jazz, & bluegrass music.
Born in Peoria, Illinois, Dan's first instrument, at an early age, was
the piano but he soon took an interest in the Hawiian slide guitar and
when his grandfather presented him with one, he spent hour after hour
teaching himself the skills. This, combined with his admiration of The
Beatles, he taught himself electric guitar and by the age of 13 he had
joined his first band, a Beatles cover band, The Clan
... READ
MORE ... (sadly lost his battle
with prostate cancer) b. August 13th 1951.
2008: Harold Gramatges (90) Cuban
composer and pianist; he founded and directed Cuba's Municipal Conservatory
Orchestra, where he worked as professor of Harmony, Composition, Aesthetics
and Music History. In 1958, he received the Reichold of Caribbean and
Central America Prize, conferred by the Detroit Orchestra for his Sinfonía
en mi. In 1959, he created the Musical Department at Casa de las Américas.
He has spent his life working on transforming and developing musical
education in Cuba. His catalog of works includes symphonic, chamber,
vocal and incidental music for theater and movies. In 1961 and 1964,
he was the Cuban Ambassador to France (died in
La Habana, Cuba) b. September 26th 1918.
December
17
1978: Erskine Tate (82) American bandleader, banjo and violinist;
helped pioneer Chicago jazz and big band music with his Vendome Orchestra.
The band featured a young Louis Armstrong.()
1978: Don Ellis (44) American
jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader, born in Los Angeles,
CA.and graduated from Boston University in 1956 with a composition degree.
His first job was with the Glenn Miller band, directed by Ray McKinley.
He stayed with the band until September 1956, when he joined the Seventh
Army Symphony and Soldiers' Show Company. Among his many projects Don
is maybe best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly
in the area of unusual time signatures. Later in his life he worked
as a film composer, among other works contributing a score to 1971's
The French Connection and 1973's The Seven-Ups.
(heart attack) b.
July 25th 1934.
1982: Big Joe Williams (79)
Delta blues man, songwriter. His guitar was very heavily modified. He
added a rudimentary electric pickup, whose wires coiled all over the
top of his guitar. He also added three extra strings, creating unison
pairs for the first and second courses and an octave pair for the fourth
course.
1982: Leonid Borisovich Kogan (58)
Russian violin virtuoso, one of the 20th century's most famous Soviet
violinists. He ranked among the greatest representatives of the Soviet
School of violin playing. From age ten he studied in Moscow with the
noted violin pedagogue Abram Yampolsky. He studied at the Central Music
School in Moscow from 1934 to 1943, then at the Moscow Conservatory
from 1943-48, where he also studied as a postgraduate from 1948-51.
At
the age of 17, and while still a student, he performed throughout the
USSR. He was co-winner of the first prize at the World Youth Festival
in Prague. In 1951 Kogan won first prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition
in Brussels with a dazzling performance of Paganini's first concerto
that included an outstanding interpretation of Sauret's cadenza. His
official debut was in 1941, playing the Brahms Concerto with the Moscow
Philharmonic in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He was made
an Honoured Artist in 1955 and a People's Artist of the USSR in 1964,
and received the Lenin Prize in 1965. (Leonid
died of a heart attack in Mytishchi, while travelling by train between
Moscow and Yaroslavl to a concert he was to perform with his son. Two
days before, he had played the Beethoven Concerto in Vienna)
b. November
17th 1924.
1996:
Armando Gallop (26) He was regarded as one of the originators
of the worldwide 'House' scene (Leukaemia)
1999:
Rex Allen (78)
American actor and singer; popular entertainer known as "The
Arizona Cowboy. He wrote and recorded many songs, a number of which
were featured in his own films.(died in Tucson, Arizona from injuries
received when his caretaker accidentally ran over him in the driveway
of his home).
1999: Grover Washington Jr. (56)
Saxophone virtuoso; the most popular saxophonists of all time, considered
to be the founding father of smooth jazz and a master of the jazz-funk
genre (a heart attack)
2000: Erich Schmid (93)
Swiss composer born in in Balsthal, Switzerland; among many
other international conducting roles, he was chief conductor of the
Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich from 1949 to 1957 (?)
b. January 1st 1907.
2004: Dick Heckstall-Smith (70) UK saxophonist; the Graham Bond
Organization, Blues Incorporated, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Coliseum,
Mainsqueeze and many other solo projects. (cancer)
2006: Denis Peyton (63) English
tenor and baritone saxophonist, harmonica, and guitarist, best known
maybe for his time with the Dave Clark Five. The group's distinctive
sound was due in part to Denis's saxophone riffs. They had top ten hits
such as "Glad All Over" which topped the British charts, then
in February 1964 went to No. 6 in the US,
"Bits
and Pieces", "Can't You See That She's Mine", "Because",
"Anyway You Want It" , "I Like It Like That", "Catch
Us If You Can", "Over And Over", and "You Got What
It Takes". Over
his career he also played with The Renegades, The Les Heath Combo, The
Blue Dukes, and The Mike Jones Combo. A month before his death, the
band was nominated for the US Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame for 2007, Dave
Clark said Denis had been thrilled at the news, but also added he knew
he wouldn't around to collect it. (sadly he died
of cancer) b. August
11th 1943.
2007: Joel Dorn (65) American
jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur; he started
working at Atlantic Records. Later he founded the 32 Jazz, Label M,
and Hyena Records labels. The
many artists he worked with included: Roberta Flack, Max Roach, Yusef
Lateef, Willy DeVille, the Neville Brothers, Herbie Mann, Les McCann,
Eddie Harris, Mose Allison and Rahsaan Roland Kirk (heart
attack) b.
April 7th 1942.
2008: Freddy Breck/Gerhard Brecker (66)
German schlager singer,
composer, produce and news anchor; his
first success was "Überall auf der Welt", based on the
"Gefangenenchor" from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco. He went on
to score 5 platinum records and 35 gold records over the course of his
careerIn 1978 he issued an English-language record, which landed in
the Top 10. In the 1980s he worked as a news presenter for various stations,
and wrote music for groups such as the Original Naabtal Duo, the Kastelruther
Spatzen and Nina & Mike. He founded his own label, Sun Day Records,
with his wife Astrid in 1998, and in 1999 they released music as a duo,
"Astrid & Freddy Breck" (cancer) b.
January 21st 1942.
2008: Feliciano "Flash" Vierra Tavares
(88) American musician, singer and guitar player; he was
the patriarch of the musical Tavares family, which included the Tavares
Brothers, a successful Grammy-winning 1970s and 1980s R&B comprised
of five of his sons. He was a self taught musician who learned by listening
to the radio and Cape Verdean music at an early age. He remained active
within the musical community, in spite an early diagnosis of prostate
cancer, he was able to travel to Cape Verde and continued to perform
solo until he was 84 years old. Besides his own children, he inspired
a lot of kids to play music, and he kept the Cape Verdean musical heritage
alive (prostate cancer) b. 1928
December
18
1983: Jimmy Nolan (47)
former guitarist with James Brown (heart attack).
1987:
Warne Marsh (60) saxophone tenor; solo/Supersax (collapsed and died
on stage due to
a heart attack at the legendary
Donte's club, Hollywood)
1990: Paul Tortelier (76) French
cellist and composer born in Paris. At
aged 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire and he won the first prize
in cello at the conservatoire when he was 16; his debut was with the
Orchestre Lamoureux in 1931 at the age of 17, were he performed Lalo's
Cello Concerto. In 1937 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under
Serge Koussevitsky, as first cellist through 1940. In 1938 he began
a solo career at Boston's Town Hall, accompanied by Leonard Shure. His
major recordings include the Bach Cello Suites in 1960 (Paris) and 1982
(London), Elgar Cello Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Adrian Boult conducting in 1972, and Strausss Don Quixote in 1973
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Beecham conducting in
1947/48 and the Staatskapelle Dresden, with Rudolf Kempe conducting
in 1973. (died
in Villarceaux Yvelines, near Paris)
b. March 21st 1914
2000: Kirsty
MacColl (41) Singer, songwriter; Drug Addix/solo (boating accident
off the coast of Mexico when a speedboat hit her).
2001: Gilbert Bécaud (74) French singer, composer, actor,
known as Monsieur 100,000 Volts for his energetic performances, best-known
hit "Et maintenant", that became an English language hit after
being translated into "What Now My Love". ()
2001:
Dimitris Dragatakis (87) was a Greek composer of classical
music,
born in Epiros and studied the violin at the Greek National Conservatory
in Athens. He is considered an important modern Greek composer, influenced
by the musical traditions of Greece and ancient Greek drama, his music
came to reflect his interest in new techniques; he developed a free
atonal style of writing, winning several of major prizes. Dimitris taught
advanced harmony at the Greek National Conservatory for 20 years, until
he was appointed vice president of the conservatory in 1997. He played
in the Opera Orchestra as a violist and later served on the board of
the Greek National Orchestra. He was vice president and honorary president
of the Greek Composers Union.
(died in Athens)
b. January 22nd 1914.
2001:
Clifford
Thomas Ward (57) English singer, songwriter, born in Stourport-on-Severn,
Worcestershire; after leaving school, he formed a beat band 'Cliff Ward
and The Cruisers'. The band was popular in Birmingham and also in demand
at American Army bases in France. He went on to a solo career releasing
20 albums over his long career (after being diagnosed
as having multiple sclerosis in 1984, he continued to record and write
songs living at home, cared for by his wife Pat. Died from pneumonia)
b.
February 10th 1944.
2009: Rex Yetman (76) Canadian bluegrass
musician, born in Jamestown, Newfoundland;
Rex
was one of the founding members of the York County Boys, Canada's first
bluegrass band. They played around Ontario and eastern Canada through
the 1960s and early 1970s. They recorded "You Done Me Wrong"
and "Down The Road Blues". Rex played mandolin and sang on
the album, Bluegrass Jamboree with the York County Boys, which was the
first bluegrass album in Canada. More recently he played with Crooked
Stovepipe of St. John's, who were awarded the East Coast Music Association's
bluegrass album of the year in 2006. (?)
b. ??.??.1933
December
19
1991: Joseph
Dennis "Joe" Cole (30) American
roadie for Black Flag and Rollins Band. He was also the best friend
and roommate of the musician, actor Henry Rollins. Joe's memoirs "Planet
Joe", was published posthumously by 2.13.61, Inc. publishing, in
which he documented his experiences on the last Black Flag tour and
first Rollins Band tour. Henry Rollins went on to publish a two-part
book series, the first book chronicling his time with Cole as his roommate,
'See a Grown Man Cry', and the second Rollins' non-stop working to near-nervous
breakdown in the year following Joe's death, 'Now Watch Him Die'. Sonic
Youth's "JC" was inspired by Joe's murder, and the Sonic Youth
song "100%" on their Dirty album was dedicated to him. The
music video shows a reenactment of the police finding Joe, played by
actor Jason Lee, dead
(Joe was shot and killed in a robbery at his home,
as he and Henry returned from a video rental store, the murder remains
unsolved) b. April 10th 1961.
1993: Michael Clarke/Michael James Dick (47)
US
drummer and original member of The Byrds,
but during The Notorious Byrd Brothers recording sessions,1967-1968,
he was fired. He did a stint with the Flying Burrito Brothers after
their first album, before he worked with Firefall. In the late '70s
Michael joined Jerry Jeff Walker. After which Michael joined ex-Byrds
singer Gene Clark for a series of controversial shows billed "A
20th Anniversary Celebration of the Byrds." Many clubs simply shortened
the billing to "the Byrds," and the pair soon found themselves
involved in acrimonious court battles with Roger McGuinn, David Crosby,
and Chris Hillman over usage of the group's name. The Byrds set aside
their differences long enough to appear together at their induction
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in January of 1991, where the
original lineup played a few songs together. Michael continued to tour
with a group called "Byrds Celebration," but his health declined
as his drinking accelerated (liver failure due
to more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption) b.
June 3rd 1946.
1997:
Jimmy Rogers/James A. Lane (73)
US blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his
work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.
He learned the harmonica alongside his childhood friend Snooky Pryor,
and as a teenager took up the guitar and played professionally in East
St. Louis, Illinois. He relocated to Chicago and by 1946 had recorded
his first record as a harmonica player and singer Jimmy
joined Muddy Waters in the late 40's, with whom he helped shape the
sound of the Chicago Blues style. Jimmy left Muddy in 1954 for a solo
career, he enjoyed several successful record releases on the Chess label,
most notably "Walking By Myself", but as the 1950s drew to
a close and interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from
the music industry. In the early 1960s he worked as a member of Howling
Wolf's band, before finally withdrawing from the music business altogether
for 10 years. After which he continued his solo career. In 1995 Jimmy
was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (?)
b. June
3rd 1924.
2000:
Robert Buck (42) American guitarist; born in Jamestown, New
York, Bob was a founding member and guitarist of 10,000 Maniacs from
1981 until his death. Some of his compositions with Natalie Merchant
are among the most popular songs recorded by 10,000 Maniacs, including
'What's the Matter Here?', 'Hey Jack Kerouac', 'You Happy Puppet' and
'These Are Days'. He also played in the Texas-based super-band League
of Blind Women, writing much of the band's material. In 2000, while
on tour in upstate New York, he was rushed to hospital when it was discovered
he was suffering from acute liver disease. He was transferred to the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for treatment where his condition
soon worsened despite the efforts of the leading transplant teams at
the facility (liver failure)
b. August 1st 1958.
2000: Roebuck "Pops" Staples (85)
American singer, songwriter and guitarist born on a cotton plantation
near Winona, Mississippi. He dropped out of school after the 8th grade
to sing with a gospel group before marrying and moving to Chicago in
1935. Here he sang with the Trumpet Jubilees before forming
The Staple Singers
in 1948. The gospel group performed in local churches, with him singing
and playing guitar behind his children. They first recorded in the early
1950s with songs including "This May Be the Last Time" and
"Uncloudy Day". In 1998 he received a National Heritage Fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999 the Staple Singers
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
(He died following a concussion from a fall)
b. December 28th 1914.
2000: Milton John "Milt" Hinton (90)
American
jazz double bassist,
"the dean of jazz bass players", "The Judge"; born
in Vicksburg, Mississippi, then he moved to Chicago, Illinois at 11.
At Wendell Phillips High School and Crane Junior College, he learned
to play the bass horn, tuba, cello and the double bass. In the late
1920s and early 30s, he worked as a freelance musician in Chicago. During
this time, he worked with famous jazz musicians such as Jabbo Smith,
Eddie South, and Art Tatum. In 1936, he joined a band led by Cab Calloway.
He possessed a formidable technique and was equally adept and bowing,
pizzicato, and "slapping," a technique for which he became
famous while playing with the big band of Cab Calloway from 1936 to
1951. Unusually for a double bass player, he was frequently given the
spotlight by Calloway, taking virtuose bass solos in tunes like "Pluckin'
the Bass.". He later became a television staff musician, working
regularly on shows by Jackie Gleason and later Dick Cavett. His work
can be heard on the Branford Marsalis album Trio Jeepy. Hinton twice
received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts for his work
as a jazz educator: a music fellowship in 1977 and an NEA Jazz Master
award in 1993. Milt was one of the more wanted and most recorded double
bass players in the history of jazz (died
in Queens, N.Y. City) b. June 23rd 1910.
2001:
Marcel Mule (100) French classical
saxophone legend; nicknamed "Le
Patron", he was twenty-two years old,
when he became a member of France's most illustrative wind, brass, and
percussion ensemble, the band of the Garde Republicaine. He served as
a member of this ensemble for thirteen years. It was here that he formed
his outstanding Quatuor de Saxophones de Paris and became renown as
a soloist and ensemble performer. (died peacfully in his sleep)
2004: Renata Tebaldi (82) Italian
international soprano
singer born in Pesaro; she began her studies at the conservatory
of Parma, taking lessons with Ettore
Campogalliani for three years. Renata had to concentrate on scales and
voice training for two years before she was allowed to learn the first
songs towards the end of her second year of training. Her major breakthrough
came in 1946, when she auditioned in Milan for Arturo Toscanini, who
called her "voce d'angelo" (angel voice). Tebaldi made her
La Scala debut that year at the concert which marked the reopening of
the theatre after World War II. She sang the "Prayer" ("Dal
tuo stellato soglio") from Rossini's biblical opera, Mosè
in Egitto, as well as the soprano part in Verdi's Te Deum. By the end
of her career in 1976, she had sung in 1,262 performances, 1,048 complete
operas, and 214 concerts around the globe. (Died
at her home, in San Marino) b. February
1st 1922.
2005:
Billy Amstell (94)
British clarinetist, alto / tenor saxophonist;
he played piano at 10, then taught himself alto sax at 13. He played
locally in Glasgow before moving to London in 1930, where he played
with Jack Harris, Roy Fox, and Spike Hughes. In 1932 he joined Bert
Ambrose's band, where he played primarily tenor saxophone and worked
well into the 1940s. He worked with Geraldo in the late 1940s and played
with the BBC Dance Orchestra for five years in the 1950s. The 1960s
saw Billy do an increasing amount of studio work, including with George
Chisholm; by the 1980s he was recording more often on clarinet, and
released an album under his own name, Session After Midnight, in 1980.
He wrote an autobiography in 1986, Don't Fuss, Mr. Ambrose, and continued
to perform occasionally into his nineties (?)
b. August 20th 1911.
2008: Page Cavanaugh (86) American
jazz pianist and singer; began on piano at age nine and played with
Ernie Williamson's band in 1938-39. While serving in the military during
World War II, he met guitarist Al Viola and bassist Lloyd Pratt, with
whom he formed a trio. After the war they had hits including "The
Three Bears", "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", and "All
of Me". The trio appeared in the films A Song Is Born, Big City,
Lullaby of Broadway (with Doris Day) and Romance on the High Seas. Additionally,
they played on Frank Sinatra's Songs by Sinatra radio program and on
The Jack Paar Show. He played in Los Angeles area nightclubs through
the 1990s, both in a trio setting with Viola for many years and as a
septet, the Page 7 (kidney failure) b.
January 26th 1922.
December 20
1973: Bobby Darin/Walden Robert Cassotto (37)
US singer; classified as a rock & roll singer, a Vegas hipster cat,
an interpreter of popular standards, or even a folk-rocker, which ever,
he was one of the best singers of his era (At
the age of 8 he was stricken with rheumatic fever which left him with
a seriously diseased heart. He died during surgery to repair a faulty
heart valve)
1989: Kurt Böhme (81)
German bass vocalist; known
for his interpretations of Wagnerian roles and Baron Ochs von Lerchenau
in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier ()
1982: Arthur Rubinstein (95)
Polish
five time Grammy
award winning
pianist; considered as one of the
greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th Century. He received international
acclaim for his performances of Chopin and Brahms and his championing
of Spanish music. In the mid 70s, Arthur's eyesight began to deteriorate
and he retired from the stage at age 89 in May 1976, giving his last
concert at London's Wigmore Hall, where he had first played nearly 70
years before. (died in Geneva, Switzerland, on
the first anniversary of his death, an urn holding his ashes was buried
in Jerusalem) b. January
28th 1887.
1999: Hank Snow/ Clarence Eugene Snow (85)
Canadian Country singer, ten times voted Canada's top country
music performer. Set up the "Hank Snow International Foundation
For Prevention Of Child Abuse".()
2004:
Frank "Son" Seals
(62) American
blues guitarist and singer, born
Frank Seals in Osceola, Arkansas in 1942, he grew up immersed in the
blues. His childhood home was a few rooms in the back of his father
Jim's juke joint, The Dipsy Doodle (famous for blues in the front and
dice in the back), with musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson, Albert
King and Robert Nighthawk playing within earshot of his bed nearly every
night. Frank was the youngest of 13 children, and gained the nickname
"Little Son" in deference to his father, Jim, who was known
locally as "Ol' Man Son"... READ
MORE ... (complications
of diabetes) b. August 14th 1942.
2007: Lydia Mendoza (91) US guitarist
and singer of Tejano music; known as a lone artist and performer, her
voice and twelve-string guitar-playing figure prominently in her ability
to both nurture and transmit the vast oral tradition of popular Mexican
song with beauty and integrity.
2009: James Gurley (69) American
guitarist, born in Detroit, Michigan. In 1962, he and his wife Nancy
moved to San Francisco and he became part of the coffee-house circuit,
playing in the folk and country blues tradition. For a time, he played
with J.P. Pickens and the Progressive Bluegrass Boys, before joining
Big Brother and
the Holding Company in 1965 and
had a breif relationship with Janis. Since 1970, and Nancy's death,
as well as his work with The Holding Company, James was involved in
a number of independent projects. In 1981, he had a new wave band, "Red
Robin and The Worms", playing bass and recorded with New Age drummer
Muruga Booker and has also been actively involved in writing and recording
solo work. James stopped touring with Big Brother in 1997 to devote
his full attention to these projects. (heart attack)
b. December 22nd 1939.
December 21
1941: Peetie Wheatstraw/William Bunch (39)
US blues pianist,
guitar and singer; born in Ripley, Tennessee, his influence was enormous
during the 1930s, often considered the most important Blues figure of
the era. Peetie began recording in 1930 and was so popular that he continued
to record through the worst years of the Great Depression, when the
numbers of blues records issued was drastically reduced. However, he
made no records between March 1932 and March 1934, a period in which
he perfected his mature style.
For
the rest of his sadly short life, he was one of the most recorded blues
singers and accompanists. His total output of 161 recorded songs was
surpassed by only four pre-war blues artists: Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy,
Lonnie Johnson and Bumble Bee Slim. Among the clubs of St Louis and
East St Louis his popularity was outstanding, rivalled only by Walter
Davis (died
on his birthday while he was a passenger in the back seat of a Buick
when it struck a standing freight train, instantly killing his two companions;
Peetie died in the hospital some hours later)
b. December 21st 1902.
1987: John Spence (18)
American singer
and founding member of the Ska band No Doubt, along with Eric Stefani.
John, who came up with the band's name from his favorite expression,
took on the role as the lead vocalist, with the Madness-inspired Eric
behind the keyboard. John was No Doubt's energetic frontman, doing backflips
and wild screams on the stage (he shot himself
dead, while in a parking lot at Anaheim, California)
b. February 3rd 1969.
1988: Paul Jeffreys (36)
English rock musician and bassist, he was a founding member
of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
and played bass on the first two Cockney Rebel albums, "The Human
Menagerie" and "The Psychomodo". He worked with a number
of British bands, including Be Bop Deluxe, the Warm Jets and the Electric
Eels. (Paul & his wife Rachel were killed
by a terrorist bomb on PanAm flight 103, crashing over Lockerbie, Scotland)
b. February 13th 1952.
1992: Albert King/Albert Nelson (69)
US blues guitar virtuoso, singer, composer, one of the "Three Kings
of the Blues Guitar", along with B. B. King and Freddie King. Standing
6' 4", and weighed 260 pounds, known as "The Velvet Bulldozer",
he was a major
influence on blues & rock guitar players, some say without him,
modern guitar music would not sound as it does, his style has influenced
both black and white blues players from Otis Rush and Robert Cray to
Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Cream
hit "Strange Brew" is a note-for-note cover of King's solo
on his Stax Record hit "Crosscut Saw". Born in Indianola,
Mississippi, he recorded his first disc in 1953 for Parrot Records in
Chicago, but it made no impact. His first minor hit came in 1959 with
"I'm a Lonely Man" written by Bobbin Records and fellow guitar
hero Little Milton, responsible for Albert's signing with the label.
However, it was not until his 1961 release "Don't Throw Your Love
on Me So Strong" that he had a major hit. In the 1970s, he was
teamed with members of The Bar-Kays and The Movement including bassist
James Alexander and drummer Willie Hall adding strong funk elements
to his musi (heart attack) b.
April 25th 1923.
1992:
Nathan
Milstein (88) Russian born,
American violin virtuoso, born in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire,
now in Ukraine. He was widely considered one of the finest violinists
of the 20th century, he made his American debut in 1929 with Leopold
Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He eventually settled in New
York and became an American citizen. He toured repeatedly throughout
Europe, maintaining residences in London and Paris. Nathan was known
for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from
the Romantic period. He performed at a high level into his mid 80s,
retiring only after suffering a broken hand. During the late 1980s,
Nathan published his memoirs, From Russia to the West.
He received a Grammy Award in 1975 for his recording
of Bach's sonatas and partitas, and was awarded the Légion d'honneur
by France in 1968. He was also awarded Kennedy Center honors by President
Ronald Reagan (?) b.
December 31st 1903.
1997:
Amie Comeaux (21) US
country music singer; at nine years old,
she sang the Star-Spangled Banner at a New Orleans Saints game in the
Louisiana Superdome, and continued to do so throughout her teenage years
(As she passed a car, her car hydroplaned due
to severe rain weather and struck a tree, and she was killed on impact).
1998: Karl Denver/ Angus McKenzie (67) Scottish yodelling pop
singer best remembered for his recording of the Zulu folk song Wimoweh
()
2009: Pete King (80) British saxophonist
and co-founder and manager of London's famous jazz club, Ronnie Scott's,
for almost 50 years. His first professional work was with Jiver Hutchinson
in 1947, he went on to play with the bands of Kenny Graham, Teddy
Foster, Leon Roy, George
Evans' Saxes n Sevens, Oscar Rabin, and Kathy Stobart. In
September 1952 he recorded with the Ronnie Scott Quintet, while playing
with the various Scott bands in the latter half of the 50s, Pete was
also a member of Jack Parnell's band. In 1956, Pete and Ronnie were
members of the Victor Feldman Big Band. In 1959, Pete and Ronnie opened
the legendary Ronnie Scott's jazz club and Pete effectively gave up
his playing to run the club, which he continued to do for nine years
after Scott's death in 1996, until the sale of the club to theatre impresario
Sally Greene in June of 2005 (died
after a long illness)
b. August 23rd
1929.
December 22
1985: D. Boon/Dennes
Dale Boon (27)
American singer, songwriter and guitarist born in San Pedro, California.
As a teenager he began painting and signed his works "D. Boon",
partly because "D" was his slang for cannabis, partly after
the American pioneer, folk hero and hunter Daniel Boone, but mostly
because it was similar to E. Bloom, Blue Öyster Cult's vocalist
and guitarist. In 1980 he formed the band
Minutemen
with his childhood friend Mike Watt on bass from the remnants of their
previous band, The Reactionaries. Their
most noted recording was "Double Nickels on the Dime", which
is considered by many to be D.Boon at his best in both songwriting and
guitar playing. (Tragically
Dennes was killed in a van accident in the Arizona desert near the Californian
border on route I-10. He had been sick with fever and was lying down
in the rear of the van, when the van ran off the road, he was thrown
out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck)
b. April 1st 1958.
1991: William Godvin "Beaver"
Harris (55)American jazz drummer;
he played clarinet and alto saxophone as
a teenagerand then he became a professional baseball player for the
Kansas City Monarchs (then part of the Negro American League). It was
when he came out of the army he became a professional drummer. He worked
with Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan,
Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Archie Shepp,
Albert Ayler and many others (prostate cancer)
b. April 20th 1936.
2002: Joe Strummer/John Graham Mellor
(50) UK-Turkish singer, musician, born
in Ankara, Turkey; he was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist
and lead singer of the English punk rock band The Clash. He was also
a member of the The
Mescaleros, The 101'ers, and did a short
stint with The Pogues. The Clash are considered one of the most overtly
political, explosive & exciting bands in rock n roll history. Their
songs tackled social decay, unemployment, racism,
political and social repression, police
brutality, and militarism in detail. He worked on a few films including
songs for the 1986 film Sid and Nancy, including "Love Kills"
and "Dum Dum Club". He was also instrumental in setting up
Future Forests (recently rechristened The Carbon Neutral Company), an
organization dedicated to planting trees in various parts of the world
in order to combat global warming (died suddenly
in his home, the victim of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect)
b.
August 21st 1952
2003:
Dave Dudley/David Darwin Pedriska (75)
US country music singer, best-known for
his trucker songs and was one of the icons in this category. His songs
including "Six Days on the Road" and "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun"and
"Fireball Rolled A Seven". In his long career he recorded
more than 70 albums (heart attack at his home
in Wisconsin) b. May 3rd 1926.
2007:
Joe Ames (86)
US singer with The Ames Brothers; The four Ames brothers, Joe,
Gene, Ed and Vic formed a the group with cousin Lennie, in 1948, and
began touring United States Army and Navy bases entertaining the troops
and were offered a job at the Foxs and Hounds nightclub, one of the
fanciest clubs in Boston. They were catpulted into national top billing
with their first hit record, "Rag Mop," in January, 1950.
They later became regulars on such shows as The Arthur Godfrey Hour
and were one of the first acts to appear on the original Ed Sullivan
Show when it was known as Toast of the Town, they made their debut with
him when the show was telecast live from Wanamaker's Department Store.
They notched up
50 U.S. chart entries and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of
Fame in 1998 (?) b.
May 3rd 1921.
2009: Mick Cocks (?) Australian
musician, most noted for his guitar work with Rose Tattoo. He founded
the hard rock band in 1976 with the late guitarist Pete Wells. They
had hits such as 'Bad Boy for Love,' 'We Can't Be Beaten' and 'One of
the Boys.' Mick's original sound and style heavily influenced Guns N'
Roses, who recorded a cover of the Rose Tattoo song Nice Boys.
After a tour of Europe they were hailed the loudest band to play London's
Marquee Club since Led Zeppelin. On their return to Australia Mick left
to pursue his side projects. Other bands and side projects included..
Heaven, Doomfoxx, Pete Wells Heart Attack and the Ted Mulry Gang. At
the request of longtime fans Guns N' Roses, Mick, Anderson, Wells, Leach
and new drummer Paul DeMarco reformed Rose Tattoo in 1993 to open for
the Guns 'n' Roses on their Australian tour; after completing the tour
each member returned to his solo endeavors. (Mick
sadly died of liver
cancer which he
was diagnosed with in April 2009)
b. ??.??.??.
December 23
1992: Eddie Hazel (42) US guitarist
with Parliament/Funkadelic; a mythical figure, original Funkadelic guitarist
who pioneered an innovative funk-metal sound in the early '70s, best
exemplified on his mammoth classic instrumental jam "Maggot Brain",
this track contains a ten-minute guitar solo which was his defining
moment and the one piece of music for which he has remained a legend
and in 2008 Rolling Stone cited it as number 60 on its list of 100 greatest
"guitar songs" of all time. He is a member of the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic
(liver failure) b.
April 10th 1950.
1996:
Ronnie Scott/Ronald Schatt (69)
UK jazz tenor saxophonist; co-founder of the Ronnie
Scott's Jazz Club, in London's Soho district. He
began playing in small jazz clubs at 16 and toured and worked with with
Johnny Claes, Ted Heath, Ambrose, Cab Kaye, and Tito Burns. He was involved
in the short-lived musicians' co-operative Club Eleven band and club,
along with Johnny Dankworth and others, and was a member of the generation
of British musicians who worked on the Cunard liner Queen Mary in order
to visit New York and hear the new music directly. He was among the
earliest British musicians to be influenced in his playing style by
Charlie Parker and other bebop musicians.In
1952 he joined Jack Parnell's orchestra, then led his own nine-piece
group and quintet and opened his world famous club in 1959 (while
recovering slowly from surgery for tooth implants, died accidentally
from a mixture of brandy and prescription sleeping tablets)
b. January 28th 1927.
2000: Victor Borge/Børge Rosenbaum (91)
Danish entertainer,
a humorist, and world-class pianist affectionately
known as the Clown Prince of Denmark and the Great Dane.
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he played
his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish concert hall Odd Fellow
Palæet (The Odd Fellow's Lodge building). After a few years as
a classical concert pianist, he started his now famous "stand up"
act, with the signature blend of piano music and jokes. Victor played
with some of the world's most renowned orchestras such as the New York
Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Always modest, he felt very honored
when he was invited to conduct the Danish Royal Symphony Orchestra at
the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1992. He toured
until his last days, performing up to 60 times a year when he was 90
years old (died peacefully in his sleep)
b. January 3rd 1909.
2006: Charlie Drake (81) English
comedian, actor, writer and singer, born in London. made his first appearance
on stage at the age of eight, and after leaving school toured working
men's clubs. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II,
he turned professional and made his TV debut in The Centre Show in 1953.
He then joined his wartime comrade Jack Edwardes to form a double act,
named "Mick and Montmorency".
He appeared in the television shows Laughter in Store, and Drake's Progress,
both in 1957, Charlie Drake In
from 1958 to 1960 and The Charlie
Drake Show from 1960 to 1961, being particularly remembered for his
opening catchphrase "Hello, My Darlings!". Charlie appeared
in 4 films in his eaarly career and turned to straight acting in the
80s. He recorded around 18 records, his first in 1958, Splish Splash,
reached No.7 in UK charts, the rest were mostly novelty songs. One of
these, his 1961's My Boomerang Won't Come Back, became a modest hit
in the United States. (sadly
died after suffering multiple strokes)
b. June 19th 1925.
2007: Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (82)
Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was
called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, a
member of jazz royalty. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy
Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours over the course
of his 60 year career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest
pianists of all time. Oscar was blowing a trumpet by the time he was
5 years old and switched to piano after he spent a year in hospital
with tuberculosis.At
15 he won an amateur contest, as a result he was given his own 15 minute
radio show on CKAC, Piano Ramblin. By the early 40s he was
heard nationally on CBC radio shows such as The Happy Gang. While with
the Johnny Holmes orchestra he encountered discrimination when the manager
of the Ritz-Carlton forced him to enter the hotel through a side door
to play a dance there in the 1943. By the time he was 21, he was already
a sparkling virtuoso who could stop a show dead. He made his first record
in 1945, a 78 rpm version of I got Rhythm that sold well.
When Norman Granz signed him to play Carnegie Hall in New York in 1949,
Oscar was only 25. He was also a composer, the 1957 recording of the
Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Festival still crops up on the
best-ever lists of jazz albums. His Canadiana Suite, written in 1964
was a series of jazz themes inspired by the various landscapes and cities
of Canada. During the 60s Peterson he worked with the German producer
Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and recorded 20 albums with him. During the
70s, he had his own television show on CTV. also he teamed up with former
British Prime Minister Edward Heath for a six-part BBC television series
that was aired in 1975, and returned to Montreal to play at the Queen
Elizabeth Hotel during the 1976 Olympics. He accumulated ten honorary
doctorates, was invested in the Order of Canada in 1972, made a companion
of the order in 1984 and in 1991 given the Order of Quebec. He was awarded
the Glenn Gould Prize in 1993 and in 1999, and the concert hall at Concordia
Universitys Loyola campus in Montreal bears his name. Oscar,
last played the Montreal Jazz festival in 2004 was named Down Beat magazines
best jazz pianist 13 times (kidney
failure) b. August 15th
1925.
2009: Judy Kreston (76) American
singer and club owner; Judy had become a fixture on the cabaret circuit
in New York and performed with her husband David Lahm for over 30 years.
Together, they recorded several albums. She was also the owner of the
club Judy's, named in honor of all famous performing Judys from Garland
to Holliday. The club, which opened on West 44th Street later moved
to Eighth Avenue in Chelsea. Judy
got her start by singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs as well as in
stage shows. She left home to join the Shrine Circus, forsaking a role
in the national company of My Fair Lady to do so. She toured military
bases with a USO troupe, playing Laurie in Oklahoma! She soon moved
to New York, performing in The catskills and eventually becoming a well-known
singer on the New York cabaret scene. Highlights of her career include
performing Remembering Felicia Sanders in 1991, a tribute to Sanders,
a cabaret singer in the 1950s and '60s who died in 1974. In 1987, she
sang a program focused on the songs of Anthony Newley
(cancer) b. November 22nd 1933.
December
24
1954: Johnny Ace (25)
R&B singer (backstage at a concert in Houston a drunk Ace amused
himself with a game of Russian Roulette. He aimed a .22 calibre revolver
at his girlfriend, Olivia Gibbs, and fired. He then attempted to shoot
her friend, Mary Carter, however, the gun failed to go off on both occasions.
He swiftly turned the gun on himself and ended his life)
1992: Bobby LaKind () Percussion, Doobie Brothers (cancer)
1999: Zeke Carey () 2nd tenor vocals of The Flamingos.
2000: Nick Massi/Nicholas Macioci (65) Bass singer in The Four
Seasons (cancer)
2002:
Jake Thackray (64) English
singer-songwriter, guitarist, and poet, born in Leeds, Jake began his
working life as a teacher, taking jobs in France and Yorkshire, where
he wrote songs as a teaching aid for his pupils, before performing them
in folk clubs and small theatres, while accompanying himself on a nylon-stringed
acoustic guitar. His songs were featured on the BBC radio show
Northcountryman. In 1967 Released his debut album, The Last Will and
Testament of Jake Thackray, with compositions such as Lah Di Dah, one
of the most sharply satirical love songs in popular music. He went on
to record eight more albums and make more than 1,000 radio and TV appearances.
Although he had appeared in a Royal Variety Performance, Jake
was uncomfortable with big audiences, and would rather settle for a
pub or community hall rather than the grandeur of the London Palladium
(He
died of heart failure) b. February
27th 1938
2008: Alf Robertson (67)
Swedish singer and composer; very popular European singer, during
his long career he produced 50 albums and about 150 singles (serious
illness) b. June 8th 1941.
2009: Tim Hart (61) English
folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member
of electric folk band, Steeleye Span. Born in Lincoln, Tim's first band
the Rattfinks, was formed while at St Albans School. In 1966, he began
performing with the Blackpool born Maddy Prior, touring English folk
clubs. In 1968 and 1969 the duo recorded two albums: Folk Songs of Olde
England, (Volumes One and Two). Tim and Maddy formed Steeleye
Span in 1969 which became one of the best known acts of the British
folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, with
hits including singles "All Around My Hat", "John
Barleycorn", "New York Girls", "Gaudete", "Boar's
Head Carol" and they had 3 top 40 albums, and achieved a "gold"
record with sales of "All Around My Hat".
(lung cancer) b. January 9th
1948.
2009: Derek Loux (37) American
Christian music singer, he worked with the international house of prayer
in KC, Forerunner Music Academy at the International House of Prayer
in Kansas City and helped create the Josiah fund to help needy children.
He released an album entitled, Paper Religion about two
years ago. His music had always been a part of Christian worship. He
was also a part of the senior leadership team ,a worship leader in the
House of Prayer,and a conference speaker for the IHOP-KC. (Died
after a car accident in Nebraska, it seems the accident occurred due
to a major snow storm up in that area) b.????
2009:
Masahiko Shimura (29) Japanese
rock musician; the lyricist, lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of
the rock band Fujifabric. Originally a cover band consisting of junior
high school friends. Fujifabric was founded by Masahiko and his friend
Takayuki Watanabe. After graduating from high school, the Fujiyoshida
moved to Tokyo, and recruited Tadokoro Sachiko, Yuichi Kato and Akira
Hagiwara for the band. Their first full, self-titled studio album released
on November 10th 2004, peaked at No.17 on Japan's Oricon Chart. In
2005 the band released three more singles including the popular Ginga
and Akaneiro no Yuuhi, the latter which featured the song Shinkirou
and was used as the ending theme in the film Scrap Heaven. Masahiko
was the only remaining original member of Fujifabric at the time of
his death and his last album with the band was 2009's 'Chronicle'. (tragically
died of an unknown ailment)
b. July 10th 1980.
December
25
1977: Charlie Chaplin (88) English
actor, composer; as well as his superb comedy acting, the best-known
of several songs he composed are "Smile", for the film "Modern
Times", famously covered by Nat King Cole. "This Is My Song"
from Chaplin's last film, "A Countess From Hong Kong," was
a number one hit in several different languages in the 1960s, and Chaplin's
theme from Limelight was a hit in the 50s under the title "Eternally."
He won an Academy Award in 1972 for his score to Limelight. (died
in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland) b.
April 16th 1889.
1954: Johnny Ace/John Marshall Alexander Jr (24) Pioneering
and influencial Americain R&B singer, pianist, having 8 hits in
a row.(He had been performing at the City Auditorium
in Houston, Texas. During a break between sets, he allegedly decided
to play a game of Russian Roulette. He aimed a .45 caliber revolver
at his girlfriend, Olivia Gibbs, and pulled the trigger. He then attempted
to shoot her friend, Mary Carter. Both times, the hammer fell on an
empty chamber. He then swiftly turned the gun on himself and ended his
life; although rumors that he was murdered circulated in the years after
his death, both police at the scene and later biographers have accepted
the Russian-roulette scenario).
1995: Dean Martin/ Dino Paul Crocetti
(78) actor, singer, member of The Rat
Pack (died of respiratory failure due to emphysema
and lung cancer)
1998: Bryan MacLean (52) US guitarist,
singer; he started playing guitar professionally in 1963 when he got
a job at the Balladeer in West Hollywood playing folk and blues guitar.
He met up with The Byrds and became their equipment manager. It was
when The Byrds were on tour in the UK, Bryan had stayed in the US and
joined Arthur Lee's group The Grass Roots. They changed their name to
Love and were signed toElektra
Records, after 3 albums 'Love' and 'Da Capo' and 'Forever Changes',
Bryan who was suffering from heroine addiction left the band. When at
rock bottom he joined a Christian ministry called the Vineyard, he gradually
assembled a catalogue of his Christian songs and opened a Christian
nightclub in Beverley Hills called The Daisy. He went on to form his
own band and also worked with his half sister Maria McKee and wrote
the song Don't Toss Us Away for the debut album of her band
Lone Justice. In 1996, his Elektra Records late 60s solo demo tapes
were discovered by his mother Elizabeth in the family garage, they were
released in 1997 on CD "ifyoubelievein". The CD was critically
well received after which he completed a spiritual album of Christian
music just before his death (heart attack)
b. September 25th 1946.
2005: Birgit Nilsson (87) Swedish singer; a dramatic soprano
who specialized in operatic and symphonic works. Sweden issued a postage
stamp showing her as Turandot, she also received the Illis Quorum gold
medal, the highest award that can be conferred upon an individual of
Sweden.()
2005: Derek Bailey (75) English
avant-garde guitarist and leading figure in the free improvisation movement,
born in Sheffield, UK, he played the guitar from an early age, studying
with John Duarte among others. He found work as a guitarist in clubs,
radio, dance halls, and so on. He began to play in a trio in Sheffield
with Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars called Joseph Holbrooke. Originally
performing relatively traditional jazz this group became increasingly
free in direction
(complications
from motor neurone disease)
b. January 29th 1930...Read
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2006: James Joseph Brown, Jr (73) commonly referred to as "The
Godfather of Soul", was an American entertainer recognized as one
of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. As a
prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer, he was
a seminal force in the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into
soul and funk. He left his mark on numerous other musical genres, including
rock, jazz, reggae, disco, dance and electronic music, afrobeat, and
hip-hop music.()
2007: Mighty King Kong/Paul Otieno Imbaya (33) Kenyan reggae
musician; crippled as a child from polio went from a street kid to performing
with the popular Simba Ngoma band. (Died at Kenyatta
National Hospital in Nairobi while being treated for poisoning)
2008: Lars Hollmer (60) Swedish
accordionist, keyboardist and composer whose work draws on influences
ranging from Nordic folk tunes to progressive rock. He has been a member
and/or founder of over half a dozen groups,including Samla Mammas Manna
and Accordian Tribe, most of whose work has been recorded at The Chickenhouse,
his well outfitted home studio. As well as his work with bands he has
recorded 10 solo albums. He won a Swedish Grammy award in 1999 for his
record 'Andetag'. He has also composed extensively for Swedish films,
as well as for theater and dance productions (?) b.
1948
2008: Eartha Kitt (81) American
actress, singer, and cabaret star; legendary singer with a distinctive
voice, her hits include "Let's Do It", "Champagne Taste",
"C'est si bon", "Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous",
"Je cherche un homme", "Love for Sale", "I'd
Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink,
Schmink", "Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most
recognizable hit, "Santa Baby", which was released in 1953.
Her unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language
during her years performing in Europe, which she demonstrates with finesse
in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances. She has
6 Awards and 5 nominations as well as having a huge career in film theatre
and TV. Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in
the world." (colon cancer) b. January 17th
1927.
2008: Robert Ward (70) American
blues singer and guitarist; he was known for founding the Ohio Untouchables,
later becoming the Ohio Players, with hits including 'Love Rollercoaster'
and 'Fire'. He played guitar with a unique tone soaked in vibrato coming
from the Magnatone amplifier. He next worked as a session player for
Motown, before coming back into the spotlight in the '90s bringing out
a further four albums (died at home) b. October
15th 1938.
2009: Asheem Chakravarty (50)
Indian vocalist
and jazz fusion musician playing percussions
and tabla;
brought up in an atmosphere of Indian classical, folk and other Indian
forms,
he showed a rhythmic ability at an early age, and is a totally self
taught musician. In 1990 he quit a career in advertising, to co-form
the band Indian Ocean, where he played the tabla, tarang and other percussion
instruments while also being band's vocalist. Indian Ocean fans call
him the man with the golden voice. Asheem sings and plays
the tabla simultaneously, a difficult feat rare by Indian percussionists.
His rhythm structures are unique and contribute a large part to Indian
Oceans signature sound(He
was hospitalized in Doha after suffering a heart attack in October and
was in a coma for a brief period, he was recovering but sadly passed
away after suffering a second cardiac arrest in New Delhi) b.
1957
2009: James Victor "Vic"
Chesnutt (45) America folk rock singer-songwriter
and guitarist, born in Jacksonville, Fla., he was adopted and grew up
in Zebulon, Ga.; his grandfather gave him guitar lessons, having him
transpose Sweet Georgia Brown into every key in the scale.
He
was injured in a car accident in 1983, while drink driving. Around
1985, now confined to a wheelchair, Vic moved to Athens, US, and joined
the band, The La-Di-Da's. After which he began performing solo at the
40 Watt Club; it was there that he was spotted by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.,
who produced his first two albums, Little in 1990 and West of Rome in
1991. He released around 15 solo albums and two with brute, his side
project with himself and members of Widespread Panic. His musical style
is described as a "skewed, refracted version of Americana that
is haunting, funny, poignant, and occasionally mystical, usually all
at once (Sadly
he died from an overdose of muscle relaxants that had left him in a
coma in an Athens hospital) b. November
12th 1964.
December
26
1973: Lowman Pauling (47)singer, guitarist,
songwriter; Five Royales/solo (died while
performing his custodial duties at a Brooklyn synagogue, New York, NY)
1999: Curtis Mayfield (57)
American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer
best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing
the soundtrack to the film Super Fly. He was highly regarded as a pioneer
of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. Curtis
was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano,
saxophone, and drums. Born
in Chicago, Illinois, Curtis began his
career in 1956
while still at Wells High School, when
he joined The Roosters with Arthur and Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler.
Two years later The Roosters, now including also Sam Gooden, became
The Impressions. Curtis
was their main composer, songwriter
and took over as lead singer when Jerry Butler left. In 1970, Curtis
also left The Impressions to begin a solo singing career and he founded
the independent record label Curtom Records. Curtom would go on to release
most of his landmark 1970s records, as well as records by the Impressions,
Leroy Hutson, The Staple Singers, Mavis Staples, and Baby Huey and the
Babysitters, a group which at the time included Chaka Khan, he
also produced many
of these records. Curtis received the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In February, 1998, he had to have
his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Curtis was inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999, but was too ill to attend
the ceremony. His last appearance on record was with the group Bran
Van 3000 on the song "Astounded" for their 2001 album Discosis
(diabetes related)b.
June 3rd 1942.
2004: Mieszko Talarczyk (30) lead singer/guitarist of the Swedish
Grindcore band Nasum, also known for his engineering and production
abilities, he co-founded Soundlab studios with Millencolin guitarist
Mathias Färm (died while on holiday in Thailand
he was killed in the tsunami disaster. His body was identified on February
16, 2005).
2004: Aki Sirkesalo (42) Finnish
musician, born in in Toijala; he started his public career in '84 as
an announcer in the Finnish Broadcasting Company radio show Rockradio.
In 1986 he formed a band called Giddyups, followed with a successful
a cappella group Veeti and the Velvets. He released his first solo album
Mielenrauhaa ("peace of mind") in 1995. He went on to make
four more solo albums, the latest of which was released posthumously
in February 2005 (died with his family in the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake at Khao Lak, Thailand) b.
July 25th 1962.
2005:
Muriel Costa-Greenspon (68) US mezzo-soprano born in Detroit
and studied voice at the University of Michigan and later in New York
City. She made her professional debut with the Detroit Grand Opera Association
at the Detroit Opera House as Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief
in 1960. Over the next decade she appeared with numerous opera companies
around the United States, including performances at the Baltimore Opera
Company, the Opera Company of Boston, the Connecticut Opera, the Dallas
Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company,
and the San Antonio Opera among others. Muriel had a long career at
the New York City Opera between 1963-1993, portraying many character
roles from works by Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Carlisle Floyd,
Arthur Honegger, Gian Carlo Menotti, Lee Hoiby, and Douglas Moore, to
the contralto heroines of Gilbert and Sullivan, and comic scene stealers
by Puccini, Mozart, and Donizetti. She was known not only for her abilities
as a singer and musician but also as an accomplished actress; being
able to create three-dimensional characters, rather than mere caricatures
(natural causes)
b. December 1st 1937.
2007: Joe Dolan (68) Irish singer;
his biggest hit "Make Me An Island" went to Number 3 in the
UK Singles Chart in 1969, and No.1 in fourteen other countries (brain
hemorrhage)
December 27
1976: Freddie King (42) rock blues,
blues guitarist; his influence can still be heard in blues and rock
guitarists today (heart failure)
1978: Bob Luman (41) American country and rockabilly singer best-known
in non-country circles for his crossover novelty hit, "Let's Think
About Living," (pneumonia).
1978:
Chris Bell (27) American guitarist
singer, songwriter born in Memphis, Tennessee. He played in a number
of Memphis bands beginning in the 1960s, before he and Alex Chilton
led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early
1970s. Chris left the group after Big Star's first album, "No.1
Record" in 1972. He recorded as a solo artist for the remainder
of the 1970s; with hits such as "I Am the Cosmos" and "You
and Your Sister", released in 1978. The band This Mortal Coil covered
these two songs on their 1991 album "Blood" (he
was killed instantly when his speeding car hit a tree)
b. January 12th 1951.
1981: Howard Hoagland 'Hoagy' Carmichael (82)
American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best
known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind,"
"Up A Lazy River," "Skylark," and "Heart and
Soul", some of the most-recorded American songs of all time.
(heart attack in Rancho Mirage, California)
b. November 22nd 1899.
1993: Michael Callen (38) American
singer, songwriter, composer, author, and AIDS activist born in Rising
Sun, Indiana. In the early 80s, he was in the mixed gay four-piece band
Lowlife, playing piano and keyboards, singing, yodeling,
and twirling a baton. Next he
was a founding member of the gay male a cappella singing group The Flirtations,
recording two albums. He also had a solo album, Purple Heart. During
his last year, he recorded over 40 songs; Legacy, a 2-CD album of 29
of them, was posthumously released by Significant Other Records in 1996.
In partnership with Oscar winner Peter Allen and Marsha Melamet, he
wrote his most famous song, "Love Don't Need a Reason", which
he sang frequently at gay pride and AIDS related events. In 1993 he
appeared in the films Philadelphia, as part of The Flirtations, and
appeared in drag as "Miss HIV", a singing virus in Zero Patience
(AIDS
related compications) b. April 11th 1955.
2004: Walter Louis "Hank"
Garland (74) American session guitarist; at
age 19, he recorded his million-selling hit "Sugarfoot Rag,"
before becoming
Nashville's busiest country guitar picker, playing
many genres. He is well known for his work on Elvis Presley's recordings
from 1957 to 1961 with such rock hits as "Little Sister,"
"I Need Your Love Tonight" and "A Big Hunk o' Love."
However, he also worked with many country music as well as rock 'n roll
stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s including Patsy Cline, Brenda
Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, the Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph,
Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty. He also played with jazz artists such
as George Shearing and Charlie Parker in New York and went on to record
Jazz Winds From a New Direction, showcasing his evolving talent.
At the request of Gibson Guitar company president, Ted McCarty, Hank
and fellow guitarist Billy Byrd strongly influenced the design of the
Byrdland guitar. Sadly a car crash left
Hank in a coma for months. He eventually recovered but had lost most
of his memory. He learnt to walk, talk and play the guitar again. His
life and times are the subject of the independent film Crazy.(staph
infection) b. November 11th
1930.
2006:
Pierre Delanoë/Pierre Charles Marcel Napoléon Leroyer (88)
French songwriter, lyricist; between the late 40s and the end of the
80s, Pierre wrote 1000s of songs, estimations vary between 4,000 and
5,000, which ever, his lyrics graced hundreds of best-selling chansons
by singers including Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Dietrich,
Johnny Hallyday, Françoise Hardy, Nana Mouskouri, Claude François
and Gilbert Bécaud. His "Je T'Appartiens", a hit in
France in 1955, was covered as "Let it Be Me" by the Everly
Brothers, Tom Jones, Nina Simone, Sonny & Cher and Bob Dylan; and
his 1961 "Et Maintenant" became "What Now, My Love"
for Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and
Elvis Presley. In
the 60s, he also translated into French many American and British hits,
helping Hughes Aufray turn Bob Dylan's "Times They are A-Changin"
and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" into "Les Temps
Changent" and "N'y Pense Plus, Tout Va Bien" and improving
on the original lyrics of the British group Christie's "Yellow
River" when coming up with "L'Amérique" for Joe
Dassin in 1970. In 1955 Pierre was also a founder of Europe 1, formerly
known as Europe n° 1, the privately-owned radio network, it is one
of the leading French radio broadcasters and heard throughout France.
(cardiac
arrest) b December 16th 1918.
2008: Delaney Bramlett (69)
American singer, guitarist, songwriter and record producer; he
became a regular on the U.S. television show Shindig! as member of the
show's house band, the the Shin-diggers, later renamed the Shindogs,
before forming the band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends with his then
wife, Bonnie and Leon Russell. Over a span of 40 years he worked with
many top artists including Etta James, Elvin Bishop, John Hammond, Dorothy
Morrison and The Staple Singers. Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin,
Rita Coolidge, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, John Lennon, The Everly Brothers,
Spooner Oldham, Dr. John, George Harrison, Gram Parsons, Steve Cropper,
Billy Burnette, Mac Davis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dennis Morgan, and his own
daughter, Bekka Bramlett. (complications from
gallbladder surgery) b. July 1st 1939.
December 28
1937: Maurice Ravel (62)
French pianist, composer of Impressionist
music known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental
textures and effects. Born in in the Basque town of Ciboure, France,
near Biarritz, much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and
orchestral music has entered the standard concert repertoire.
Maurice's
piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs and Gaspard de la Nuit,
demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral
music, including Daphnis et Chloé and his arrangement of Modest
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, uses a variety of sound and
instrumentation very effectively (Maurice
sadly died following unsuccessful surgery to relieve an obstructed vessel
supplying blood to his brain) b.
March 7th 1875.
1949:
Ivie Anderson (45) American jazz singer, born in Gilroy,
California; Ivie is best known for performing with Duke Ellington. She
recorded dozens of songs with The Duke between 1932 and 1942 including
"It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)", "I've
Got The World On A String", "My Old Flame", "Your
Love Has Faded", "Solitude", "Stormy Weather",
and "Mood Indigo". In 1937, he also appeared as a singer in
the Marx Brothers movie A Day at the Races and the same year in Hit
Parade of 1937. Ivie developed chronic asthma, which forced her to retire
from touring. She ran a chicken restaurant, Ivie's Chicken Shack, and
continued singing in nightclubs on the west coast (asthma
related) b. July 10th 1905.
1952: Fletcher Henderson Jr (55) African
American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the
development of big band jazz and swing music (heart
problems)
1963: Paul Hindemith (68) German composer,
violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor born in Hanau,
near Frankfurt. His early works are in a late romantic idiom, and he
later produced expressionist works, rather in the style of early Arnold
Schoenberg, before developing a leaner, contrapuntally complex style
in the 1920s. This new style can be heard in the series of works he
wrote called Kammermusik (Chamber Music) from 1922 to 1927. In 1933-35,
he wrote his opera Mathis der Maler, based on the life of the painter
Matthias Grünewald. His most popular work, both on record and in
the concert hall, is probably the Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes
by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943. It takes melodies from various
works by Weber, mainly piano duets, but also one from the overture to
his incidental music for Turandot (Op. 37/J. 75), and transforms and
adapts them so that each movement of the piece is based on one theme.(acute
pancreatitis) b. November 16th 1895.
1976:
Freddie King (42)
Afro-American rock blues guitarist, singer;
born in Gilmer, Texas, where Freddie's mother and uncle began teaching
him to play guitar at the age of six. The family moved to the South
Side of Chicago in 1950, where he played with bands such as The Sonny
Cooper Band and Early Payton's Blues Cats and he formed his first band
Every Hour Blues Boys with guitarist Jimmy Lee Robinson and drummer
Sonny Scott. In 1953 he made recordings for Parrot records, which were
not released and 1956 he recorded "Country Boy", a duet with
Margaret Whitfield for El-Bee records. He
had a twenty year recording career and became established as an influential
guitarist. He inspired American musicians including Bill Freeman, Denny
Campbell and Jimmie Vaughan, and mid 1960s UK blues revivalists such
as Eric Clapton, Chicken Shack and Peter Green.
He perfected his own guitar style based on Texas and Chicago influences
and was one of the first bluesmen to have a multi-racial backing band
on stage with him at live performances. Freddie
toured with the big R&B acts such as Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and
James Brown and is known for his
recordings such as "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" in 1960 and
his Top 40 hit "Hide Away" in 1961, as well as albums such
as "Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King" and "Burglar"
(heart
failure) b. September 3rd 1934.
1977:
Sam T. Brown (39) US session guitarist with Keith Jarrett,
Astrud Gilberto, Barry Manilow,
Thad Jones, Mel Lewis Big Band, James Brown and
others (?).
1978:
Chris Bell (27) guitarist, Big Star (car crashed into a telephone
pole)
1983: Dennis Carl Wilson (39)
American drummer and founder member of The Beach Boys. Born in
Inglewood, California, Dennis was the second oldest of the three Wilson
brothers. The Beach Boys formed in August 1961 under the guidance of
father Murry Wilson, meeting immediate success. Though the Beach Boys
were named for and developed an image based on the California surfing
culture, Dennis was the only real surfer in the band. Their 1961 debut
single "Surfin'" was followed by many chart hits including
"Help Me, Rhonda", "California Girls", "I Get
Around", "Surfing USA", "Barbara Ann", "Sloup
John B", "Good Vibrations", "Wouldn't It Be Nice",
"Fun Fun Fun" and "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)".
Dennis starred alongside James Taylor and Warren Oates in the critically
acclaimed 1971 film "Two-Lane Blacktop" as The Mechanic. He
released his debut solo album Pacific Ocean Blue in 1977. His collaborators
on the album included Daryl Dragon, the 'Captain' of Captain & Tennille
and Gregg Jakobson. The album peaked at No.96 in the US and sold around
300,000 copies. His follow-up album, Bambu, was initially scuttled by
lack of financing and the distractions of Beach Boys projects. A sampling
of its music was officially released in 2008 as bonus material with
the Pacific Ocean Blue reissue. Two
songs from the Bambu sessions, "Love Surrounds Me" and "Baby
Blue" were lifted for the Beach Boys 1979 L.A. (Light Album). The
Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988
(Alcohol related drowning at Marina Del Rey, Los
Angeles. Dennis was buried at sea off the California coast by the U.S.
Coast Guard) b. December 4th 1944.
1985:
Benny
Morton (77) American
jazz trombonist; born
in New York City,
one
of his first jobs was working with Clarence Holiday, and he appeared
with Clarence's daughter Billie Holiday towards the end of her life
on The Sound of Jazz. In the 1960s he was part of the Jazz Giants band:
"Wild" Bill Davison, Herb Hall, Claude Hopkins, Arvell Shaw
and Buzzy Drootin. They toured the U.S. and frequently in Canada where
they did some recording for Sackville Records. Towards the end of the
60's he played with an offshoot of the Jazz Giants under the leadership
of Drootin, called Buzzy's Jazz Family. But he is probably best known
for his work with Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson
(?) b. January 31st 1907.
2009: The Reverend Tholomew Plague/James Owen
Sullivan (28) American hard
rock drummer, singer and multi-musician. He co-found rock band Avenged
Sevenfold in 1999. They achieved mainstream success with their 2005
album City of Evil, which includes singles "Burn It Down",
"Bat Country," "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize
the Day." The band's success followed with their self-titled album,
with singles such as "Critical Acclaim", "Almost Easy",
"Afterlife", "Scream" and "Dear God".
They put out four albums and won Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music
Awards in 2006. The group's self-titled fourth album hit No. 4 on the
Billboard 200 chart in 2007. James also performed vocals and piano in
his and Brian Haner Jr.'s side project, Pinkly Smooth, in 2002 (he
was found dead at his home in Huntington Beach, California, with initial
reports suggesting his death was from natural causes)
b. February 10th 1981.. read
more
December 29
1959: Robin
Milford (56) English
composer born in Oxford; his early compositions met with some success,
his Double Fugue Op. 10 winning a Carnegie Prize and being performed
by the London Symphony Orchestra under Vaughan Williams. In September
1931 his oratorio A Prophet in the Land Op. 21 was performed in Gloucester
Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival - the work was somewhat
overshadowed by the splash made by William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast
performed the same year. In 1937 a performance of his Concerto Grosso
Op. 46 was directed by Malcolm Sargent, and his Violin Concerto Op.
47 was broadcast by the BBC in early 1938.
At
the outbreak of the Second World War Milford volunteered for the army,
and was posted to the Pioneer Corps. After just one week he suffered
a breakdown, after treatment he and his family moved to Guernsey. His
depression worsened after the death of his mother, and then after the
death of his 5 year old son Robin attempted suicide. But not long after
his father and his two friends Finzi and Vaughan Williams died, which
made Robin very ill, eventually the severe depression affected his vision
and his balance
(Robin committed suicide by taking an overdose of aspirin )
b. January
22nd 1903.
1967: Paul Whiteman (77)
Jazz violinist, Large US Navy band/own orchestra; Duke Ellington wrote
in his autobiography: "Paul Whiteman was known as the King of Jazz,
and no one as yet has come near carrying that title with more certainty
and dignity" ()
1980:
Tim Hardin (39)
US blues and folk singer, piano, guitar, songwriter, composer.
Many of his songs were covered by prominate artists including Small
Faces, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Rod Stewart, Weddings Parties Anything,
Joan Baez Four Tops, Doc Watson, Robert Plant, Rick Nelson to mention
a few (heroin and morphine overdose).
2003: Anita Mui (40) Hong
Kong singer; selling over ten million albums
of songs sung in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese (cancer)
2008: Freddie Hubbard (70)
American trumpet player; he began playing with musicians such as Philly
Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, Eric Dolphy , J. J. Johnson
and Quincy Jones. In June 1960 he made his first record as a leader,
'Open Sesame', Also the 60s sees Freddie as a sideman on some of the
most important albums from that era, including, Oliver Nelson's 'The
Blues and the Abstract Truth', Herbie Hancock's 'Maiden Voyage', and
Wayne Shorter's 'Speak No Evil'. He also recorded extensively for Blue
Note Records, eight albums as a bandleader, and twenty-eight as a sideman.
His early 1970s jazz albums Red Clay, First Light, Straight Life, and
Sky Dive were particularly well received and considered among his best
work. "First Light" won him a 1972 Grammy Award. In 2006,
The National Endowment for the Arts honored Freddie Hubbard with its
highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. (complications from
a heart attack) b. April 7th 1938.
2009:
C. Aswath (71) Indian
music composer and exponent of Bhavageete/"expressive poetry"
and Janapada Geete/"folk songs" in the Kannada language and
a graduate in Science from Bangalore University. As a singer, he sung
many of his own compositions. He is, perhaps the only Music Director
in Karnataka, to have carved a niche of his own in all three fields
of Theatre, Sugam Sangeetha and Film. He
has given concerts outside India, like in Melbourne for Melanudi kannada
sangha and few others in UK. His
concert in Bangalore in 2005 was attended by a crowd of almost 100,000
people. He composed the music for over 22 famous Kannada films including
"Santa Shishunala Shareef", "Mysooru Mallige" and
"Nagamandala" directed by T S Nagabharana. (liver and renal
failure) b. December
29th
1938.
December
30
1995: Clarence Satchell
(55)
American musician;
he had a 30-year career as a professional
saxophonist and flutist, noted for working with Wilson Pickett and 'Bobby
Blue Band' and as a founding member of 'The Ohio Untouchables', who
later became Grammy nominated Funk/Soul band 'The Ohio Players'. He
co-wrote a number of top Billboard hits including "Fire",
"Love Rollercoaster", "I Want To Be Free" and "Skin
Tight" (brain aneurysm)
b. April 15th 1940
1995: Ralph
Flanagan/Ralph
Elias Flenniken (81)
American musician born in Lorain, Ohio, he was a famed big band leader,
conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Hal
McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron, Charlie Barnet, and Alvino Rey. By
1949 he formed a very successful orchestra The Ralph Flanagan band,
which is credited with re-popularizing the Glenn Miller "sound".
His theme songs were "Giannina Mia" and "Singing Winds",
the latter title also applying to the orchestra's singing group. He
made many records, among them "Rag Mop" and "Hot Toddy".
(He died in Miami, Florida)
b. April 7th 1914.
1998: Johnny Moore (64)
US singer with the Drifters; he began as lead singer of a group, The
Hornets, before being discovered by The Drifters, joining them as lead
singer, in 1955 aged 21. After returning from the forces, he recorded
as a soloist under the name "Johnny Darrow", before rejoining
the Drifters, now comprised of four new members, and became the lead
singer in 1964 when current lead Rudy Lewis was found dead. The group
was due to record "Under the Boardwalk", and Johnny took over
the lead vocals. Subsequently, he became permanent lead. He
had a string of hits with the group including "Saturday Night At
The Movies", "Up on the Roof", "Come On Over To
My Place", "At The Club" and "Up In The Streets
Of Harlem". He remained with the group when it moved to the United
Kingdom in the 1970s, and remains the group's longest serving member-
he was in the group until his death in 1998. He was given a posthumous
Pioneer Award in 1999 by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.(died suddenly
in London, while on the way to hospital) b. December
14th 1934
2003:
Anita Mui (40) Hong Kong singer
and actress. During her prime years she made major contributions to
the cantopop music scene, receiving many awards and honours. She remained
an idol throughout her 20 year career, and was generally regarded as
a cantopop diva, and at a sell-out concert at Hammersmith, England,
she was dubbed the "Madonna of Asia", a title that stayed
with her throughout her life. In the 1980s the gangtai style of music
was revolutionized by her wild dancing and femininity on stage. She
was famous for having outrageous costumes and also high powered performances
(cervical cancer) b. October 10th 1963.
2004:
Artie Shaw/Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (94)
US clarinetist, composer, bandleader; a leading jazz clarinetist and
big band leader of the mid-20th century. His 1938 recording of Begin
the Beguine made him a popular rival to clarinetist Benny Goodman.(complications
of diabetes)
2007: Willie Robinson (81) American blues singer; performed with,
among others, Steven Tyler, Bonnie Raitt and good friend B.B. King's
21-piece orchestra. (from a fire accidentally started by a cigarette
he had been smoking in bed at his home in Jamaica Plain, Boston).
2009: Rowland Stuart Howard (50)
Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter;
in 1978 he joined the Melbourne based new wave band The Boys Next Door,
Howard's guitar was catalyst to this band and he received acclaim for
writing their underground hit, the ballad "Shivers".
Rowland and the band left for London in 1980, changing their name to
the Birthday Party and launching into a period of innovative and aggressive
music-making, with trips back to Australia and tours through Europe
and the U.S. before relocating to West Berlin in 1982. Howard left the
Birthday Party to become a member of Crime and the City Solution, a
band led by Simon Bonney, and later formed These Immortal Souls with
Genevieve McGuckin, Harry Howard, and Epic Soundtracks. Howard
has also collaborated with the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nikki Sudden, Jeremy
Gluck, Kas Produkt, Barry Adamson, Einstürzende Neubauten, Chris
Haskett, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Fad Gadget, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,
Henry Rollins, and A.C. Marias. He was described by Sam Agostino as
"one of the most influential indie guitarists ever". More
recently he released
his debut solo album called 'Teenage Snuff Film' in 2000. His second
solo album, Pop Crimes, was released in October 2009, Howard toured
Australia that same month, playing shows in Melbourne and Sydney (liver
cancer)
b. October 24th 1959.
December
31
1967: Bert Berns/ Bertrand Russell Berns (38)
US songwriter, producer, record label chief, pioneer of sixties rock
and soul. He wrote and produced records for a wide range of labels,
including Wand, United Artists, Capitol, Laurie, MGM, Big Top, Old Town,
Roulette, and Atlantic Records. In 1963, Berns would replace Jerry Leiber
and Mike Stoller as the staff producer at Atlantic, where he produced
such acts as Solomon Burke ("Cry to Me" and "Everybody
Needs Somebody to Love"), The Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk"
and "Saturday Night at the Movies"), Barbara Lewis ("Baby
I'm Yours" and "Make Me Your Baby"), Little Esther Phillips
("Hello Walls"), Wilson Pickett and LaVern Baker. Berns was
also one of the few American record producers to travel across the Atlantic
to London, where he produced a number of British Decca artists such
as Them ("Here Comes the Night," "Baby Please Don't Go"
and "Gloria"), and Lulu.
(heart failure)
b. November 8th 1929.
1968: George Lewis/Joseph Louis Francois Zenon
(68)
American jazz clarinetist
born in the French quarter of New Orleans;
he played with Buddy Petit and Chris Kelly regularly, and sometimes
with trombonist Kid Ory and many other band leaders including Bunk Johnson's,
a band which he took over after Bunks retirement. George took his band
to San Francisco for a residency at the Hangover Club, then began to
tour around the United States. In the 1960s he repeatedly toured Europe
and Japan, and many young clarinetists from around the world modeled
their playing closely on his. He is name-checked in the Bob Dylan song
"High Water" from the album "Love and Theft" (?)
b. July 13th
1900.
1984: Ronnie Ball (57) UK cool jazz
pianist who enjoyed success on both sides of the
Atlantic. He worked both as a bandleader and under Ronnie Scott,
Tony Kinsey, Victor Feldman, and Harry Klein. In 1952 he moved to New
York City and studied with Lennie Tristano. Among the musicians he played
with are Chuck Wayne, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz, Kenny Clarke, Hank
Mobley, Art Pepper, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Warne Marsh, Buddy Rich,
Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge and Chris Connor () b.
December 22nd 1927.
1985: Ricky Nelson (45) US singer,
guitarist; with more than 50 Hot 100 hits, he was second only to Elvis
Presley as the most popular rock and roll artist of the late 1950s and
early 1960s. He was the first teen idol to utilize television to promote
hit records, in 1957 each episode of the Ozzie & Harriet television
show ended with a musical performance by "Ricky". He went
on to enjoy many charts hits including "It's Late", "Stood
Up", "Be-Bop Baby", "Just A Little Too Much",
"Travelin' Man", "A Teenage Romance", "Poor
Little Fool", "Young World" to mention a few. He was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and also to the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1515 Vine Street. (killed along with six others, when his charted
light aircraft crashed in Texas) b. May 8th 1940.
1997: Floyd Cramer (64) American
pianist and one of the architects of the "Nashville Sound.".
He was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing
piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, The
Browns, Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, the Everly Brothers and
many others. He remained a virtual unknown to anyone but music industry
insiders until he recorded a single in 1960 called "Last Date.",
the instrumental exhibited a relatively new concept for piano playing
known as the "slip note" style. The record went to No.2 on
the Billboard Hot 100. He went on to make numerous albums and toured
with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph, also
performing with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band. In 2003,
he was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame (lung
cancer) b. October 27th 1933.
2002: Kevin MacMichael (51) lead guitarist, Cutting Crew and
Robert Plant (lung cancer)
2005: Enrico di Giuseppe (73) American operatic tenor, he first
sang with the New York City Opera in 1965, as Michele, in the company
premiere of Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street. Following his retirement,
he taught at Florida State University and The Juilliard School.(?)
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2008
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