Obituary News

Actor Peter Graves Found Dead

Source: All About Jazz
March 15, 2010

Actor Peter Graves was found dead Sunday at his home in Pacific Palisades, according to law enforcement sources.

Graves, who stared in “Mission: Impossible," “Airplane!" and Billy Wilder's “Stalag 17"--apparently died of natural causes, the sources said.

Graves was 83, according to a biography on the website IMDB.com, was the younger brother of Gunsmoke's star James Arness.

In a Times story late last year, Graves said he initially turned down the role for “Airplane!" because he thought it was in ...

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Johnny Alf, a 'Father of Bossa Nova,' Dies at 80

Source: Michael Ricci
March 12, 2010

Johnny Alf, an influential Brazilian songwriter, pianist and singer whose delicately swinging music was a precursor to the bossa nova, died on March 4 in Santo Andre, Brazil, just outside Sao Paulo. He was 80 and lived in Sao Paulo. The cause was prostate cancer, said his manager, Nelson Valencia. Though he was not widely known outside Brazil and enjoyed mass popularity only intermittently in his homeland, Mr. Alf, born Alfredo Jose da Silva, is highly regarded among Brazilian musicians ...

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Mark Linkous Virtual One-Man Band Behind Sparklehorse

Source: Michael Ricci
March 10, 2010

Mark Linkous, a reclusive singer-songwriter who recorded as the virtual one-man band Sparklehorse, known for an often haunting and dreamy alternative-pop sound, committed suicide Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life," his family announced on his website. His publicist, Shelby Meade, confirmed that he had used a gun. Linkous had long struggled with depression and almost died ...

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Banjo Player John Becker Dies at Age 90

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 8, 2010

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that banjo player and guitarist John Becker died late last month at the age of 90. Becker was involved with jazz and popular music in St. Louis for more than 50 years, playing with big bands in the 1940s, serving as musical director at KSD-TV, and playing concerts, festivals and on the Robert E. Lee riverboat as a member of the Jazz Incredibles. Becker had been a hospice patient for four years, ...

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Jazz Great Tony Campise Dies at 67

Source: Michael Ricci
March 8, 2010

Local jazz saxophone great Tony Campise, who was nominated for a Grammy in 1992 for his “Once In a Blue Moon" LP, died Sunday morning at University Medical Center Brackenridge a day after having a brain hemorrhage. Campise, 67, never fully recovered from an October fall outside a Corpus Christi hotel, where he hit the back of his head. He had shown signs of improvement, even playing the sax to the delight of his nurses at Texas Neuro Rehab Center, ...

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Johnny Alf Bossa Nova's "Father" Dies at 80

Source: JAZZzology by Richard Watters
March 7, 2010

Johnny Alf, a Brazilian pianist and singer credited with inventing Bossa Nova, has died. He was 80... Alf died Thursday in a Sao Paulo hospital of multiple organ failure after a fight with prostate cancer. Alf always rejected the term bossa nova, but musicians who came after him, including Tom (Antonio Carlos) Jobim, Leny Andrade and Carlos Lyra, say they were influenced by his style. Ruy Castro, who wrote the definitive history Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music ...

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The Singer-Songwriter Known as Sparklehorse is Dead

Source: Michael Ricci
March 7, 2010

Mark Linkous, a singer-songwriter whose music, released under the name Sparklehorse, was renowned in the indie-rock and alt-country worlds for its dark, allusive themes and fragile beauty, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47.

He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friends home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Mr. Linkous was pronounced ...

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Ron Banks Founder of R&B group Dramatics

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2010

Ron Banks, 58, whose silky falsetto helped give the Dramatics one of the most enduring careers in R&B, died Thursday at his home in Detroit after apparently suffering a heart attack, said Billy Wilson, president of the Motown Alumni Assn. Banks was one of the founding members of the Detroit vocal group, which formed in the mid-1960s and continued to play for avid audiences around the country. Banks' sweet voice and smooth choreography helped distinguish the Dramatics, particularly in Detroit's ...

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