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Manny Oquendo, Latin Band Leader and Stylistic Innovator, Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Manny Oquendo, the Latin band leader, timbale player and percussionist who was an expert with the tpico Cuban rhythmic style and later infused it into Latin jazz, died on March 25 in the Bronx. He was 78.
The cause was complications from a kidney operation, said Andy Gonzlez, his musical director of 35 years in their band, Libre.
Mr. Oquendos involvement with Cuban rhythms on the timbales and bongos dated back to his childhood. Born in 1931 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ...
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Charlie Kennedy Alto Saxophonist Played in Gene Krupa's Big Band Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Charlie Kennedy was in many bands and, as a studio musician, played on the scores for West Side Story and My Fair Lady.
Charlie Kennedy, a talented alto saxophonist who was best known for his association with Gene Krupa's big band in the 1940s, has died. He was 81. Kennedy died April 3 of pulmonary disease at his home in Ventura, according to his daughter Lorraine Sutton.
The best years of Kennedy's career were the 1940s, when he played with ...
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Nancy Overton, Singer for the Chordettes Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Nancy Overton, who joined the pop group the Chordettes in 1958 and melded her mellifluous low tones into their barbershop-quartet-like harmonies on some of their later hits, died on Sunday in Blairstown, N.J. She was 83 and lived in Hackettstown, N.J.
The cause was esophageal cancer, her son Rick said.
Ms. Overton sang on the original recordings of two Chordettes hits: Zorro, a vocal version of the theme from the hit television show that climbed to No. 17 on the ...
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David 'Pop' Winans Sr. Patriarch of Gospel Music Family Passes
Source:
Michael Ricci
David “Pop" Winans Sr., the Grammy-nominated patriarch of the award-winning gospel music family, died Wednesday. He was 74.
A statement from his family said he died at a Nashville hospice, where he had been since January after suffering a heart attack and stroke in October.
In 1999, Winans was nominated for a Grammy Award for his solo CD Uncensored. He and his wife, Delores, known as Mom Winans, were nominated for their CD Mom & Pop Winans in 1989. She ...
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Bud Shank, 1926-2009
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Bud Shank's honesty, forthrightness and cheerfulness came through in his playing. Those qualities and his transcendent musicianship were evident to all but those deafened by categorical imperatives having to do with geography, race and style. He lived to be 82, and he worked to the end, one of the great alto saxophonists in jazz. Shank died Thursday night shortly after arriving home in Tucson, Arizona, from Southern California. He had been putting the finishing touches on his next album. He ...
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Bud Shank Alto Saxophonist Was Immersed in West Coast Jazz Scene
Source:
Michael Ricci
Bud Shank, the alto saxophonist who was a key figure in the West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s, has died. He was 82. Shank died Thursday night at his home in Tucson of pulmonary failure, friends said. A versatile musician with an adventurous nature, Shank also played flute and -- during a productive period of studio work -- had pivotal solos on the popular 1960s pop tunes “California Dreamin' “ by the Mamas and the Papas and “Windy" by ...
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Bud Shank: California Dreamin'
Source:
All About Jazz
The great jazz musician Bud Shank has died at the age of 82. He had one of the most unlikely backgrounds for any jazz musician, growing up not in the urban welter of cultural ferment or in the musically rich backwaters of the South -- but on a farm in Ohio. He may not have been the greatest jazz musician to emerge from rural America -- Dave Brubeck grew up as a cowboy in California, after all -- but Shank ...
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Ex-Centrum Jazz Port Townsend Artistic Director Bud Shank Dies at 82
Source:
All About Jazz
PORT TOWNSEND -- Bud Shank, former artistic director of Centrum's Jazz Port Townsend program and a renowned alto jazz saxophonist whose career spanned 60 years, has died at his home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 82. Cause of death was listed as pulmonary failure. While Shank had “some ongoing health issues," according to JazzTimes.com, the Web site said a few days before his death last Thursday he had been in San Diego, recording a new album. Funeral arrangements were pending. ...
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