Obituary News

Songwriter William Garvey Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 25, 2009

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Sam Carr Drummer Known for Delta Blues Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 25, 2009

Sam Carr, 83, a drummer who was considered an anchor in the blues scene that continues to draw fans to the poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta region where the music form was born, died Monday of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Clarksdale, Miss.

Carr had a reputation as one of the best blues drummers in the country and, at one time or another, had backed big names including Sonny Boy Williamson II and Buddy Guy.

Carr's father was 1930s ...

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Arthur Ferrante Half of the Popular Piano Duo Ferrante and Teicher Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 21, 2009

Their lush orchestral recordings of 1960s movie themes propelled them to popular and commercial success. The classically trained pair met at the Juilliard School in New York.

Over the course of their 40-year partnership, Arthur Ferrante and Lou Teicher recorded 150 albums, racking up 22 gold and platinum records and selling 90 million records worldwide, and performed 5,200 concerts before retiring in 1989.

Arthur Ferrante, one half of the piano duo Ferrante and Teicher whose lush orchestral recordings of 1960s ...

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Leon Kirchner Pulitzer-Winning Composer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 21, 2009

In his String Quartet No. 3, Leon Kirchner “set out to produce a meaningful confrontation between the 'new' electronic sounds and those of the traditional string quartet." It marked the first time the Pulitzer Prize went to a piece using electronics. Leon Kirchner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of expressive, rigorous, atonal yet romantic music, died Thursday of congestive heart failure at his home in New York. He was 90. A pianist and conductor as well as a composer, Kirchner stood ...

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Mary Travers Rip Peter, Paul and Mary Vocalist Dies

Source: JamBase
September 19, 2009

REMEMBERING MARY TRAVERS

Mary Travers American music has lost one of its strongest, truest voices with the passing of Mary Travers on Thursday September, 17. As part of Peter, Paul And Mary, she was at the forefront of the '60s folk renaissance, inspiring millions of people to greater activism on behalf of racial equality, peace, and opportunity for the oppressed.

Surely one of the most successful folk trios of all time, Peter, Paul And Mary has been a loved member ...

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Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
September 16, 2009

Mary Travers, one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has died.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, says Travers died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut today. She was 72 and had battled leukemia for several years.

Travers joined forces with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey in the early 1960s.

The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off. Their version of “If I Had a Hammer" became an anthem for racial equality. ...

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Henry Gibson, Original 'Laugh-In' Cast Member, Dies at 73

Source: Michael Ricci
September 16, 2009

Henry Gibson, the veteran character actor who came to fame in the late 1960s as the flower-holding poet on TV's landmark satirical comedy show “Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died. He was 73.

Gibson died late Monday night after a short battle with cancer at his home in Malibu, said his son, Jon.

Gibson, who more recently played a recurring role as cantankerous Judge Clark Brown on “ Boston Legal," was part of the original ensemble cast of “Laugh In," ...

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Sam Hinton Folk Songwriter and Singer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 16, 2009

Hinton was one of the founders of the folk-song movement that began in the 1930s. A onetime San Diego area resident, he also wrote two books on the sea and seashore animals.

Sam Hinton, folk singer, songwriter, naturalist and San Diego civic treasure who delighted school children and folk-festival audiences for decades, has died. He was 92. Hinton died Thursday at an assisted living facility in Albany in Northern California where, in failing health, he had moved two years ago. ...

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