Obituary News

Travolta Heartbroken over Son's Death

Source: All About Jazz
January 5, 2009

John Travolta said Sunday he and his wife Kelly Preston are “heartbroken" over the death of their chronically ill 16-year-old son, in their first public statement since Jett's death..

We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives. Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered.

We have received ...

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Service for Freddie Hubbard

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
January 4, 2009

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Daniel Nagrin Modern Dancer and Choreographer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
January 4, 2009

Daniel Nagrin, a choreographer, performer, teacher and writer who was known for intensely dramatic solos that became modern-dance classics, died on Dec. 29 in Tempe, Ariz. He was 91 and lived in Tempe.

For him, jazz was not a finger-popping, torso-twisting genre of self-involvement but a tool to explore character. Don McDonagh --Dance magazine (1997)

Mr. Nagrins choreography and performing were craggily innovative, drawing on jazz movement and music as well as traditional modern dance and classical ...

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Alfred Shaheen Hawaiian Print Pioneer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
January 4, 2009

Shaheen revolutionized the garment industry in postwar Hawaii by designing, printing and producing aloha shirts and other ready-to-wear items under one roof. Elvis Presley wore a red aloha shirt in this Alfred Shaheen print on the album cover for the Blue Hawaii soundtrack in 1961.

Alfred Shaheen, a textile manufacturer who revolutionized the garment industry in postwar Hawaii by designing, printing and producing aloha shirts and other ready-to- wear items under one roof, has died. He was 86. Shaheen died ...

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Dizzy Gillespie Sounded Some of Modern Jazz's Earliest Notes

Source: Michael Ricci
January 3, 2009

Dizzy Gillespie, the trumpet player whose role as a founding father of modern jazz made him a major figure in 20th-century American music and whose signature moon cheeks and bent trumpet made him one of the world's most instantly recognizable figures, died yesterday (January 7, 1993) at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, N.J. Mr. Gillespie, who was 75, had been suffering for some time from pancreatic cancer, his press agent, Virginia Wicks, said. In a nearly 60-year career as a composer, ...

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Rainbow Room to Close Grill Citing Economy

Source: All About Jazz
January 3, 2009

The recession has reached the ritzy Rainbow Room, the special- occasion spot that overlooks midtown Manhattan from high above the tourist-attracting Rockefeller Center skating rink.

With business slowing and the lease in dispute, the venue's Italian- themed Rainbow Grill restaurant plans to shutter as of Jan. 12, a spokesman said Saturday. Its bar, banquet space and the weekend dinner-dancing sessions that reflect its glamorous history will continue on the 65th floor. “It's a very difficult decision to make, given the ...

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Vincent Ford Songwriter for Bob Marley Dies

Source: All About Jazz
January 3, 2009

Some claim Marley gave friend credit to help him support himself. Vincent Ford, a songwriter credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic “No Woman, No Cry," has died in Jamaica. He was 68.

Ford died Sunday at a hospital of complications from diabetes, said Paul Kelly, a spokesman for the Kingston-based Bob Marley Foundation.

The song, which appeared on Marley's 1974 Natty Dread album, was inspired by the Kingston ghetto of Trench Town where Marley and Ford ...

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Jack Quigley Composer Conducted 'World Around Us' Dies

Source: All About Jazz
January 3, 2009

Musician Jack Quigley Composer, conductor and pianist Jack Quigley died Dec. 14 in Burbank, Calif. after a heart attack. He was 79.

Born in Taunton, Mass., he attended the Boston U. School of Music. During that time, his composition for string quartet was performed by the Boston String Quartet. In 1958, he conducted a weeklong series, The World Around Us for WJAR TV in Providence, R.I., which explored the phenomena of jazz in America. His recording career began soon thereafter, ...

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