Obituary News

Travolta Lawyer Issues Statement "Heartwrenching"

Source: All About Jazz
January 3, 2009

John Travolta's teenage son likely will be buried in Florida following his death at the actor's home in the Bahamas, an attorney said Saturday.

Preliminary plans are to fly the body of 16-year-old Jett Travolta to Ocala by midweek, Michael McDermott, Travolta's corporate and commercial attorney. Travolta, 54, and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 46, have a house in Ocala.

“John and Kelly are still sleeping," McDermott said late Saturday morning. “They probably stayed up most of the night ... ...

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John Travolta's son Jett dies at 16

Source: All About Jazz
January 2, 2009

Teenager was on family vacation in Bahamas Jett Travolta, died Friday morning in the Bahamas after suffering a fatal seizure.

Police in the Bahamas say John Travolta's teenage son has died after injuring himself at the actor's vacation home. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey says 16-year-old Jett Travolta hit his head in a bathtub Friday morning. She said he was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand Bahama Island.

Jett was the oldest child of Travolta and his ...

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Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 31, 2008

Freddie Hubbard, one of hard bop's most versatile and soulful trumpeters who in the 1960s appeared on one essential album after the next, died yesterday in Los Angeles of a heart attack. He was 70.

Hubbard, like Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd and Booker Little, was an heir to Clifford Brown's searing, rapid-fire trumpet style. Often paired with Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter on Blue Note recordings, Hubbard also recorded with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in the early and ...

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Fallen Marines to be Awarded Navy Cross

Source: Michael Ricci
December 31, 2008

Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter saved Iraqi police and fellow Marines from a truck-driving suicide bomber, Marine brass say. The April attack could have slain dozens. They had known each other only a few minutes, but they will be linked forever in what Marine brass say is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice in the Iraq war.

Cpl. Jonathan Yale, 21, grew up poor in rural Virginia. He had joined the Marine Corps ...

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Delaney & Bonnie

Source: All About Jazz
December 31, 2008

Earlier this week Rolling Stone reported on the passing of Delaney Bramlett, the Mississippi native who co-wrote Eric Clapton's “Let It Rain" and was credited with teaching George Harrison how to play slide guitar. Here's a look back at a classic 1969 feature on the songwriter and his then-wife and musical partner, Bonnie.

Bonnie Bramlett is the female part of a new recording act, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, and the wife of the Delaney part. She, like her husband, ...

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Freddie Hubbard, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 70

Source: Michael Ricci
December 31, 2008

Freddie Hubbard, a jazz trumpeter who dazzled audiences and critics alike with his virtuosity, his melodicism and his infectious energy, died on Monday in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 70 and lived in Sherman Oaks. The cause was complications of a heart attack he had on Nov. 26, said his spokesman, Don Lucoff of DL Media. Over a career that began in the late 1950s, Mr. Hubbard earned both critical praise and commercial success — although rarely for the same ...

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Freddie Hubbard is Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
December 30, 2008

Freddie Hubbard died this morning in the Sherman Oaks district of Los Angeles. He was hospitalized there since he had a heart attack on November 26. Hubbard was 70.

From the trumpeter's first recording with the Montgomery Brothers in 1958, it was evident that reports coming out of Indianapolis were true: the city had produced a remarkable trumpet player, one who might equal another twenty-year-old, Lee Morgan. After his arrival in New York, Hubbard quickly proved the point. ...

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Guitarist Delaney Bramlett Dies at 69

Source: Billboard Magazine
December 30, 2008

Rock guitarist Delaney Bramlett, who collaborated with such artists as George Harrison and Eric Clapton, died in a Los Angeles hospital following gallbladder surgery. He was 69. His wife, Susan Lanier-Bramlett, said he died on Saturday after “seven hard months" of ill health. “I held him and he held on up until the last breath with which he went in peace to the light and on into eternity," she said in a statement. The Mississippi native first gained renown in ...

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