Obituary News

Bud Shank Alto Saxophonist Was Immersed in West Coast Jazz Scene

Source: Michael Ricci
April 6, 2009

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
April 5, 2009

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
April 5, 2009

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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Duane Jarvis L.A. Roots Music Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
April 2, 2009

Duane Jarvis, a stalwart of the Los Angeles roots music scene whose lead guitar work landed him stints playing with Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Michelle Shocked and others when he wasn't recording and touring as a respected singer-songwriter in his own right, died Wednesday after a long bout with colon cancer. He was 51.

Jarvis died at his home in Marina del Rey, where he was receiving hospice care after stopping treatment that in recent months had included ...

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Composer Maurice Jarre Spun Screen Magic

Source: Michael Ricci
March 31, 2009

AN APPRECIATION The writer of such scores as Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia evoked the grandeur of exotic locales while hewing to his own masterful voice.

From the mystical overtones of Ghost to the primitive sounds of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, to the Russian balalaikas in Doctor Zhivago, composer Maurice Jarre always seemed to find the right signature for every film he scored. And unlike so many of today's thundering but essentially interchangeable big-orchestra-plus-electronics scores, the voice ...

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Frances Blaisdell, Girl Flutist Who Opened Doors, Dies at 97

Source: Michael Ricci
March 31, 2009

Frances Blaisdell, a flutist who played her way into what was then the male world of orchestral music, becoming one of the early women to play a woodwind instrument with the New York Philharmonic, died on March 11 in Portola Valley, Calif.

In addition to playing with the Philharmonic, Ms. Blaisdell performed with prominent chamber ensembles, on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall, in vaudeville, and with Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra on the Hour of Charm on CBS ...

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Maurice Jarre, Composer for 'Lawrence of Arabia,' Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 30, 2009

Oscar-winning composer Maurice Jarre, who captured the majesty of the desert in his music for Lawrence of Arabia and wrote the haunting “Lara's Theme" in his score for Doctor Zhivago, has died. He was 84.

Jarre died over the weekend in Los Angeles, where he had lived for decades, Bernard Miyet, a friend of the composer and leader of the French musicians' guild, SACEM, said today. No cause of death was given.

Born in 1924 in Lyon, France, Jarre studied ...

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Steven Bach, Producer, Biographer, Final Cut Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
March 29, 2009

Steven Bach, who as a studio executive at United Artists took the fall for the colossal failure of the western epic Heavens Gate.

Bach went on to write Final Cut, a gripping insider account of the debacle, died on Wednesday at his home in Arlington, Vt. He was 70 and also had a home in Munich.

At United Artists, where he became senior vice president in charge of worldwide production in 1978, Mr. Bach had the misfortune to be associated ...

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