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Ed Bickert (1932-2019)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ed Bickert, a Canadian jazz guitarist whose highly tasteful chord voicings and juicy sense of harmony made him a first-choice gig and recording sideman and leader in Toronto, and who today is considered one of jazz's finest guitar accompanists, died on February 28. He was 86. Bickert was a favorite of guitarist Jim Hall and was most likely introduced to him by Canadian bassist Don Thompson, who worked with Jim since 1974. In the 1980s, when Jane Hall, Jim's wife, ...
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Ed Bickert, 1932-2019
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
One of Canada’s finest musicians, guitarist Ed Bickert, died on Thursday. He was 86. He was quiet and reserved, but the rich harmonies in Bickert’s playing captivated listeners and fellow musicians alike. Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, with whom Bickert performed and recorded in the 1970s, wrote in the notes for one of his albums that he sometimes turned around on the bandstand to ”count the strings on Ed’s guitar … how does he get to play chorus after chorus of ...
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André Previn (1929-2019)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
André Previn, a piano prodigy who began his career at MGM while still in high school in the mid-1940s and excelled at jazz, classical and easy listening in the 1950s and beyond, died on February 28. He was 89. Previn escaped Nazi Germany with his family in 1938 when he was still a child. The family emigrated to Los Angeles, where they had relatives. Previn grew up in the Hollywood film studios thanks in part to his great uncle, Charles ...
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Departures: Andre Previn And Ira Gitler
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
This week, music lost two venerable and influential figures. Andre Previn, who distinguished himself as a performer and composer in a wide range of styles and genres, died on Thursday at his home in New York City. He was 89. A gifted pianist whose work as a film composer and orchestrator began before he left high school, Previn won four Academy Awards for his film scores. He performed orchestral works and wrote many pieces played by renowned musicians including the ...
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Ira Gitler (1928-2019)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ira Gitler, a jazz author, journalist and producer who was a wealth of eyewitness knowledge and whose liner notes starting in the early 1950s appeared on more albums than many of the musicians he wrote about recorded, died on February 23. He was 90. Ira is perhaps best known for writing Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz volumes starting in the 1950s. Each musician entry was concise and, at one point, included the addresses of the artists, presumably so that musicians, ...
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Ethel Ennis (1932-2019)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ethel Ennis, a female jazz-pop singer with an exceptional vocal range and a warm, seductive style that made listeners feel as if they just kicked off their shoes and extended their legs on a soft sofa, died on February 17. She was 86. There was a hint of Sarah Vaughan in Ennis's voice, but instead of deploying Vaughan's coy phrasing at the end of lyric lines, Ennis played it straight, releasing a warm, elegant vibrato. Starting in 1955, her albums ...
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Bob Freedman (1934-2018)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Robert M. Freedman, a jazz pianist, saxophonist and Grammy-winning arranger who orchestrated for artists ranging from Sarah Vaughan and Harry Belefonte to Maynard Ferguson and Paul Simon, and scored theme music for TV shows including ABC's Monday Night Football, died on Dec. 22, 2018. He was 94. Bob was a long-time JazzWax reader and an avid email correspondent, especially when I posted on Ferguson or Pomeroy. I was informed late last year that Bob might have passed away, a fact ...
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