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Sammy Nestico (1924-2021)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sammy Nestico, whose swing-happy compositions and arrangements for Count Basie's orchestra in the 1960s and '70s gave the band fresh relevance and enabled Nestico to fulfill a lifelong ambition, died January 17. He was 96. Nestico started young, in the early 1940s, in the orchestra of Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate radio station before joining Charlie Barnet's band mid-decade. By honoring the wish of his worried mother, Nestico returned to the local radio station and enrolled in college, missing out on the ...
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Cándido Camero (1921-2020)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Cándido Camero, a conga and bongo player who moved to New York from Cuba in 1946 and wound up recording on hundreds of jazz, Latin and disco albums, died November 7. He was 99. Cándido's arrival coincided with a wave of Cuban and Puerto Rican immigration. Quotas were eased to take the stress off sagging economies in the Caribbean and prevent the onset of Communism. With the arrival of musicians, Latin music and instruments entered the pop mainstream. Taking hold ...
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Annie Ross: 1930-2020
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Annie Ross, a pioneering vocalese singer and songwriter, and the last surviving member of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross—arguably the best-known and most successful vocal group in jazz—died on July 21. She was 89. Writing lyrics to jazz standards and modern jazz solos and singing them was a mark of subterranean hipness in the late 1940s and early '50s. Her first two vocalese sides in 1952, for which she wrote the lyrics, were Twisted, based on a Wardell Gray solo, and ...
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Thanks, Freddy, for the jazz connection
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
The fine pianist and singer Freddy Cole died Saturday, June 27, at age 88 at his home in Atlanta. He had been struggling with cardiovascular issues for a while. His manager, Suzi Reynolds, called him Mr. Magic. “He wove a web of sonic beauty with every note and kept listeners silently breathless with his casual, elegant storytelling...," she reflected Sunday via email. While working for many years in the immense shadow of his far-famous elder brother, Nat King Cole, Freddy ...
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Johnny Mandel (1925-2020)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Johnny Mandel, a elegant arranger, composer, conductor and bass trumpeter who began his career writing for big bands in the 1940s, crossed over to jazz in the '50s and wound up scoring movies in the late 1950s and beyond, including main titles that became standards, died June 29. He was 94. Like other player-arrangers of the era, including Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini, Johnny settled in Los Angeles and tailored his passion for jazz to the commercial demands ...
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Christo (1935-2020)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Lost this week in the flurry of shocking events in Minneapolis and on the nation's streets was the death on May 31 of environmental artist Christo Javacheff, known professionally as Christo. He was 84. With his wife, Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, Christo specialized in massive sculptural pieces that shrouded iconic architecture and intruded on landscapes and lakes with colorful fabric, fences and floating walkways. Their purpose was to jolt the emotions of viewers and stimulate wonderment and joy, especially ...
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Lennie Niehaus (1929-2020)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Lennie Niehaus, a Los Angeles alto saxophonist and prolific composer for big bands and his own octet starting in the 1950s before moving on to television and Clint Eastwood-directed films, died May 28. He was 90. Lennie was one of the giants of the West Coast linear jazz sound. Along with Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Pete Rugolo and Dave Pell, Lennie arranged prolifically for West Coast small groups and big bands in the 1950s, introducing a new dynamic, ...
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Jimmy Cobb (1929-2020)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jimmy Cobb, a drummer whose sensitive, smoldering touch on Miles Davis albums such as Kind of Blue and Some Day My Prince Will Come gave the trumpeter's masterful sextet and quintet a sheer, elegant quality, died on May 24. He was 91. Jimmy began his recording career on Dinah Washington 78s in the late 1940s followed by alto saxophonist Earl Bostic in the early 1950s. He then recorded LPs with Cannonball Adderley and his brother Nat throughout the 1950s. In ...
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