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Ed Thigpen, RIP
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
An American jazz master who relocated to Europe nearly four decades ago died yesterday in Denmark hours after eight of his peers were honored in New York. Drummer Ed Thigpen succumbed to heart and lung problems in a hospital in Copenhagen, his home since 1972. He was 79. Thigpen was universally admired for his technique, which he applied with taste and musicianship that made him one of the best known drummers in the world during his long run as a ...
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Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Legend Dies Aged 79
Source:
JAZZzology by Richard Watters
Ed Thigpen, Chicago-born drummer with the Oscar Peterson Trio during the famed jazz pianist's popular early-'60s period, died on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at the age of seventy-nine in Kingdom Hospital in Copenhagen after being ill for a long period of time.Besides appearing on dozens of albums with Oscar Peterson, Thigpen recorded and performed with many other jazz greats, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Drew, Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane, and Dinah Washington, as well as pop artists including ...
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Ed Thigpen, 1930-2010: "Mr. Taste" Drummed for Pianist Oscar Peterson's Trio in the Late 1950s And '60s
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jazz lovers called him “Mr. Taste," and the nickname couldn't have been more fitting. Always fashionably dressed -- and sounding as impeccable as he looked--Ed Thigpen conveyed elegance in every aspect of his life and art. At the same time, his ability to generate propulsive, hard-hitting swing rhythm made him a driving force in pianist Oscar Peterson's great trio of the late 1950s and '60s, which also included bassist Ray Brown. This high-profile spot established Mr. Thigpen, born in Chicago ...
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Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen, who often was described as “Mr. Taste" for his sensitive accompaniment of instrumentalists and singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell and Billy Taylor, died Wednesday at Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen. He was 79. Thigpen, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was hospitalized before Christmas with heart and lung problems. His son, Michel, noted on Thigpens website that his father “passed away very peacefully . . . in the company of his friends and family." ...
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Dennis Stock Friend and Photographer of James Dean Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Dennis Stock, a photographer whose iconic images of James Dean helped seal the actor's legacy after his death in 1955, died Monday in Saratoga, Fla., the Magnum photo agency announced today. He was 81.
Stock shot Dean during the filming of Rebel Without a Cause and in the actor's hometown of Fairmount, Ind. But his best known photo was of Dean walking in the rain in Times Square.
Stock also documented the hippie lifestyle in the 1960s as well as ...
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Teddy Pendergrass Soul Singer Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
He became the reigning sex symbol of R&B in the 1970s and '80s and then an inspirational figure after a car accident left him paralyzed.
Teddy Pendergrass, who became R&B's reigning sex symbol in the 1970s and '80s with his forceful, masculine voice and passionate love ballads and later became an inspirational figure after suffering a devastating car accident that left him paralyzed, died Wednesday. He was 59. The singer's son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father died at Bryn ...
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Consuela Lee, 83, Pianist and Educator, Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Consuela Lee, a jazz pianist who fought to establish an arts school for children in rural Alabama on the grounds of a moribund academy founded by her grandfather, died Dec. 26 in Atlanta, where she had lived since 2007. She was 83. Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Monica Moorehead; her mother had Alzheimers disease, she said. Ms. Lee was a classically trained pianist who recorded distinctive arrangements of compositions by Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin ...
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Saxophonist George Garanian, Russia's Jazz Pioneer, Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Shortly upon his arrival in Krasnodar, Russia, where he was scheduled to conduct the Krasnodar Municipal Big Band during two planned concerts with featured soloist Michel Legrand, the Soviet jazz veteran bandleader, arranger, composer, and alto saxophonist George Garanian was hospitalized in the morning hours of January 11, 2010. According to his wife, Nelly Zakirova, the 75-years-old bandleader suffered a heart attack, which eventually led to his death.
George (Georgy) Garanian was born in Moscow on August 14, 1934. He ...
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