Obituary News

Nappy Brown Blues and R&b Singer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 25, 2008

Nappy Brown, a blues and R&B singer whose playful songs of the mid-1950s filled with nonsense syllables, eccentric pronunciation and a heavy beat had touches of early rock n roll style.

Brown died on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C., where he lived. He was 78. The cause was respiratory failure, said Scott Cable, his friend and producer. Mr. Cable said that Mr. Brown, who had returned to recording and touring in recent years, suffered from various ailments since he collapsed in ...

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Connie Haines: Peppy Singer Dies at 87

Source: Michael Ricci
September 25, 2008

Connie Haines, a peppy, petite, big-voiced singer with a zippy, rhythmic style who most famously teamed up with Frank Sinatra as lead vocalists with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra

Haines then went on to a prolific career of her own, died on Monday in Clearwater Beach, Fla. She was 87. The cause was myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease, said Roseanne Young, a friend.

Miss Haines made 200 recordings, including 24 records that sold more than 50,000 copies; regularly filled up prestigious ...

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Mary Ann Russo: 1933-2008 - Vocalist Sang with Jazz and Big Bands

Source: All About Jazz
September 25, 2008

Mary Ann Russo, 75, a Toledo jazz band singer whose career began in childhood, died Monday in the Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. Her death followed a nine-month battle with lung cancer, her daughter, Lisa Young, said. Ms. Russo, of Sylvania, sang with many area jazz and big band groups and performed through nearly every decade of her life, starting at age 6 when she became a regular on WSPD-AM’s Kiddies Karnival program. While in her early teens, she ...

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John Peragallo Jr. Kept Organs on Key, Dies at 76

Source: Michael Ricci
September 24, 2008

John Peragallo Jr., the curator of the organs at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Peragallo who could not go to a church service there or anywhere else without straining to hear if there was anything the least bit amiss with his patient, died on Sept. 12 in Wayne, N.J. He was 76 and lived Paterson, N.J.

John Peragallo Jr. of the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company in the mid- 1990s, when he restored St. Patrick’s Cathedral’s organ. The cause was cancer, ...

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Correspondence: Frishberg on Sudhalter

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 22, 2008

Dave Frishberg's friendship and collaborations with Dick Sudhalter go back more than three decades. He sent this appreciation.

I want to say something about Dick Sudhalter and the sadness of his passing . I'm staggered by Sudhalter's contributions to jazz literature and criticism. There are plenty of good writers who write about the music, but for my money Sudhalter and Benny Green stand out as the enduring literary giants of the genre. Both of them were involved with ...

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Earl Palmer Legendary Rock 'N' Roll Drummer Dies at 83

Source: Michael Ricci
September 21, 2008

Earl Palmer, a New Orleans drummer who provided the distinctive backbeat for seminal rock 'n' roll songs by Fats Domino and Little Richard, then traveled west to become one of Hollywood's busiest session musicians, has died. He was 83.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, Palmer died Friday at his home in Banning after a long illness, his family announced. Often called the most recorded drummer in music history, Palmer played in thousands of rock ...

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Dick Sudhalter, 1938-2008

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 20, 2008

Richard M. Sudhalter gave elegance and exactness to speech, writing and music-making. Dick's perfection of expression came in natural flows, whether he was writing, playing the cornet or chatting over dinner. Gene Lees observed that Dick was the only person he knew who always spoke in perfect sentences and paragraphs. Sudhalter's mastery of language is everywhere in his biographies of Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael and his monumental study Lost Chords. Currents of coherence, logic, passion and humor are equally evident ...

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Henry Z. Steinway Piano Maker Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
September 19, 2008

Henry Z. Steinway, the last Steinway to run the piano-making company his family started in 1853, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

Mr. Steinway once said that he had taken countless piano lessons but never knew which is Beethovens this or Beethovens that. He remained proficient on a typewriters keys, however; long after the world had adopted personal computers, he was still pounding away on his Smith-Corona manual.

Henry Ziegler Steinway named for an uncle, and ...

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