Obituary News

Chief Sandrell Rivers: 1947-2010 - Florida Cultural Leader

Source: Michael Ricci
January 26, 2010

By Holly Spillane

The South Florida arts world lost a dynamic leader and passionate advocate of jazz and blues on the first morning of the new year. Chief Sandrell Rivers' efforts affected countless area residents over a lifetime of service and tireless promotion of arts, culture and education. Through her associations with the Sunshine Jazz Organization, Diaspora Arts Coalition, The Urban League of Greater Miami, Miami-Dade County, Africa Reconnect, Inc. and others, she remained committed to the assertion that the ...

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Jimmy Wyble Eclectic Guitarist for Benny Goodman and Red Norvo Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
January 25, 2010

Jimmy Wyble, 87, a guitarist of great range who played with country-western swing bandleader Bob Wills as well as with the Benny Goodman and Red Norvo jazz combos, died of heart failure Jan. 16 while under hospice care at his home in Altadena, according to his friend and fellow guitarist Larry Koonse.

James Otis Wyble was born Jan. 25, 1922, in Port Arthur, Texas. While working for a Houston radio station and playing guitar in western swing bands in the ...

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Larry 'L.A.' Johnson Dies at 62; Filmmaker Collaborated with Neil Young

Source: Michael Ricci
January 25, 2010

Johnson brought realism and whimsical surrealism to various film and multimedia projects with the rocker, from 1974's 'Journey Through the Past' to last year's 'Neil Young: Archives: Volume I.'

Larry “L.A." Johnson met Neil Young at Woodstock in 1969, where Johnson was working on the film of the concert. Their collaboration lasted more than 40 years. “He never lost the eye and ear of an original artist, one unafraid to listen to himself first," Young said in a statement. Johnson ...

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Gerald McCabe Founder of Folk Music Venue McCabe's Guitar Shop Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
January 22, 2010

The Santa Monica store played an important role in the evolution of Southern California's folk music community.

Gerald McCabe, a furniture designer whose passion for woodworking and love of music led to the creation of the Santa Monica folk music institution McCabes Guitar Shop, died Sunday in Eugene, Ore., two days after suffering a heart attack. He was 82. McCabe left his namesake operation before it became celebrated for the intimate concerts that have been held there for decades, but ...

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Kate McGarrigle Canadian Folk Singer and Songwriter Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
January 20, 2010

Kate McGarrigle, the Canadian singer and songwriter who, with her sister Anna, recorded a string of critically acclaimed albums of literate and wistfully romantic homespun songs and then became the proud matriarch of an extended folk-rock-pop musical family, died Monday after battling cancer in recent years. She was 63. McGarrigle died at her home in Montreal surrounded by Anna and their older sister, Jane, as well as Kate's children, singer-songwriters Rufus and Martha Wainwright. “There were a lot of people ...

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Ed Thigpen 1930 - 2010

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 18, 2010

The esteemed drummer Ed Thigpen, known for his elegant bearing and tasteful timekeeping in support of jazz luminaries such as Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald, died Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark at age 79.Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Thigpen also had a couple of connections to St. Louis. Between college and his move to New York, he lived here for about a year circa 1950 with his father, the drummer Ben Thigpen; and his brother Bensid ...

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Bobby Charles Louisiana Singer and Songwriter Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
January 16, 2010

Bobby Charles, 71, the singer-songwriter who penned such hits as Fats Domino's Walking to New Orleans,See You Later Alligator by Bill Haley and His Comets and But I Do by Frogman Henry, died Thursday at his home in Abbeville, La.

Charles had diabetes and was in remission from kidney cancer, said his publicist, Karen Johnson, but she did not know the cause of death. He had been living in his native Abbeville since his home in Holly Beach in south ...

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Teddy Pendergrass Dies at 59; Quintessential R&B Boudoir Crooner

Source: Michael Ricci
January 16, 2010

Soul singer combined romantic love songs with a sexy stage presence. Left paralyzed by a 1982 car crash, he established a group for people with spinal cord injuries that focuses on quality of life.

When Pendergrass was a toddler, his mother recognized his talent as a singer. He joined a church youth choir and was ordained a minister at age 10. As a teenager, he joined a group called the Cadillacs, which merged in the late 1960s with Melvin's Blue ...

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