Obituary News

Lolly Vegas Redbone Musican Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2010

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, ...

Continue Reading...

Bossa Nova Pioneer Johnny Alf Dies

Source: All About Jazz
March 5, 2010

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 ...

Continue Reading...

Nathan Scott film and TV composer, arranger and conductor

Source: Michael Ricci
March 5, 2010

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, ...

Continue Reading...

Bobby Espinosa Keyboardist for '70s Latin Soul Band El Chicano Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 3, 2010

Bobby Espinosa, played keyboard for El Chicano. The East L.A. band had top-40 hits in the 1970s with “Viva Tirado" and “Tell Her She's Lovely." “El Chicano hit a groove that defined 'Latin soul' on the West Coast," said guitarist and producer Ry Cooder. Bobby Espinosa, a keyboard player who helped create the confluence of jazz, R&B and rock sounds for El Chicano, the East L.A. band that had top-40 hits in the 1970s with “Viva Tirado" and “Tell Her ...

Continue Reading...

David Soyer (1923-2010)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 2, 2010

David Soyer, the founding cellist of the regal Guarneri String Quartet who also appeared on many jazz and pop record dates in the 1940s and 1950s, including Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin, died on February 25th at his home in New York. He was 87.

David was best known in the classical world as a sublime cellist whose robust bowing technique and warm vibrato could move listeners to feel melancholy, sympathy and elation depending on the piece of music played. ...

Continue Reading...

Hall & Oates Bassist Tom Wolk Dies

Source: All About Jazz
March 2, 2010

Tom “T-Bone" Wolk, who performed with scores of musicians but was best known as the longtime bass player for the band led by pop-rock stars Daryl Hall and John Oates, has died. He was 58. Wolk died Sunday in New York, hours after completing a recording session with Hall, who was working on a solo album, the duo's manager, Jonathan Wolfson, said Monday. Wolfson said the cause of death was believed to be a heart attack. Wolk had been ...

Continue Reading...

John Reed, Master of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patter Songs Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 1, 2010

John Reed, a silver-tongued Gilbert and Sullivan singer renowned for urbanity, verbal inanity, touching humanity, antic insanity and (a noteworthy trait in a world-famous player quite used to performing for crowned heads of state) a singular lack of theatrical vanity, died in Halifax, England, on Feb. 13, his 94th birthday.

From 1959 to 1979, Mr. Reed was the principal comedian of the DOyly Carte Opera Company, the London professional troupe founded in the 1870s to stage the operettas of Gilbert ...

Continue Reading...

Osmond Son Commits Suicide by Jumping from Building

Source: All About Jazz
February 28, 2010

The teenage son of singer Marie Osmond killed himself by jumping from a building in downtown Los Angeles, celebrity news television program “Entertainment Tonight" reported on Saturday.

“ET" said Michael Blosil, 18, leapt from his apartment around 9 p.m. (0500 GMT) Friday after leaving a note saying he intended to kill himself due to a long battle with depression that made him feel as if he had no friends. The report on ET's website quotes Marie Osmond as saying, “My ...

Continue Reading...