Obituary News

Peter Levinson Publicist and Biographer of Jazz Greats Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
November 16, 2008

Peter J. Levinson, a music publicist who parlayed his close familiarity with jazz personalities into rich and sometimes intimate biographies of them, died on Oct. 21 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 74.

The cause was injuries suffered from a fall, said Dale Olson, a publicist and his longtime friend. Nearly two years ago Mr. Levinson received a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative disease popularly called Lou Gehrigs disease. With the aid of his talking computer ...

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Rosetta Reitz Champion of Jazz Women

Source: Michael Ricci
November 15, 2008

Rosetta Reitz, an ardent feminist who scavenged through the early history of jazz and the blues to resurrect the music of long-forgotten women and to create a record label dedicated to them, died on Nov. 1 in Manhattan. She was 84.

Ms. Reitz (pronounced rights) came by her interest in jazz through her husband and male friends, but as the feminist movement gathered steam in the 1960s, she noticed something was missing: the musics women. So she started collecting old ...

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Edward Scott Mc Michael Seattle Bids Tuba Man a Sad Goodbye

Source: Michael Ricci
November 14, 2008

SEATTLE He played Itsy Bitsy Spider when it rained and the theme from Chariots of Fire even when the home team lost. Thumbs up! he insisted when you were not so sure. Want to be a part of it tonight? he beseeched, a call for coins and maybe transformation.

Edward Scott McMichael was a busker with perfect pitch and an improbable horn whom most people in this city knew by another name, Tuba Man. He wore funny hats and said ...

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Jody Reynolds Rockabilly Singer's 'Endless Sleep' Hit Top 10 Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
November 14, 2008

Jody Reynolds, the 1950s rockabilly singer and songwriter whose one and only Top 10 hit, “Endless Sleep," was the first of a wave of melodramatic “teen tragedy" tales, died of liver cancer Nov. 7 in Palm Desert. He was 75.

Endless Sleep, which peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in 1958, opened the door for a string of similarly tragic pop hits including Mark Dinning's “Teen Angel," Ray Peterson's “Tell Laura I Love Her," Johnny Preston's ...

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Miriam Makeba Taking Africa with Her to the World

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2008

To be the voice of a nation speaking to the wider world is a tough mission for any performer. To be the voice of an entire continent is exponentially more difficult. Both were mantles that the South African singer Miriam Makeba took on willingly and forcefully.

Despite her lifelong claim that she was not a political singer, she became Mama Africa with an activists tenacity and a musicians ear. She died Sunday, at 76, after a concert in Italy.

Treating ...

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Mae Mercer Blues Singer Also Had a Hollywood Career Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2008

Blues singer and actress Mae Mercer was found dead in her Northridge home Oct. 29. She was 76 and had been in ill health.

Mae Mercer, a deep-voiced blues singer who spent much of the 1960s performing at a blues bar in Paris and touring Europe before launching an acting career back home in films and television, has died. She was 76. Mercer was found dead Oct. 29 at her home in Northridge, said Reginald D. Brown, a friend. He ...

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Hendrix Drummer Mitch Mitchell Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2008

Mitch Mitchell, the drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s, has been found dead in his Oregon hotel room. He was 61.

Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner in Multnomah County, said Mitchell was found dead shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday in his room at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland. She said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy is planned.

Hendrix, one of music's most celebrated guitarists, joined with Mitchell and bass player Noel ...

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Mel Graves - Jazz Bassist, Composer, Teacher

Source: All About Jazz
November 13, 2008

Mel Graves, a gifted bassist, composer and teacher equally at home in the jazz and classical worlds, died Saturday at his Petaluma home of pancreatic cancer. He had turned 62 two days earlier. Mr. Graves was a fluent improviser known for his work with Mose Allison, Denny Zeitlin, Dewey Redman and other top jazz players, and a prolific composer and arranger who wrote for the Kronos Quartet and other new music ensembles. He had hoped to attend Sunday's musical tribute ...

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