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Banjo Player John Becker Dies at Age 90
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
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
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
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
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
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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Lolly Vegas Redbone Musican Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Lolly Vegas, 70, the lead singer and guitarist for Redbone, a Native American rock band that had a million-selling hit in 1974 with the bouncy"Come and Get Your Love,"died in his sleep Thursday at his home in Reseda. He had lung cancer and had been in poor health since suffering a stroke 15 years ago, said the band's manager, Michael Stone. Redbonerode the tight, driving style of “Come and Get Your Love" to No. 5 on Billboard's pop singles chart, ...
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Bossa Nova Pioneer Johnny Alf Dies
Source:
All About Jazz
RIO DE JANEIRO/ A founder of Bossa Nova music has died in Brazil after fighting prostate cancer. He was 80.
Pianist Johnny Alf was called the “true father of Bossa Nova" by Ruy Castro, who wrote a definitive history of the music. Alf widely influenced later stars. A statement from a hospital near Sao Paulo says Alf died Thursday evening of multiple organ failure. Alf was born Alfredo Jose da Silva on May 19, 1929, in Rio de Janeiro. He ...
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Nathan Scott film and TV composer, arranger and conductor
Source:
Michael Ricci
Nathan Scott, a film and television composer, arranger and conductor whose credits include composing music for the TV classics “Dragnet" and “Lassie," has died. He was 94. Scott, the father of jazz saxophonist and composer-arranger Tom Scott, died Saturday of age-related causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, said his daughter, Linda Colley. In a four-decade career that began on radio in the early 1940s, Scott launched a six- year post-World War II stint at Republic Pictures as a composer, ...
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