Obituary News

Arne Domnerus

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 5, 2008

The list of veterans of the glory days of modern jazz in Sweden grew significantly shorter on Tuesday with the death of Arne Domnerus at the age of eighty-three. The alto saxophonist and clarinetist came to popular attention in the late 1940s and early 1950s as one of the most adroit disciples of Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. Within a few years, his own personality emerged and he distinguished himself as a soloist immediately recognizable for the individuality and warmth of ...

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The Caymmi Afflatus from Dorival to Dori

Source: All About Jazz
September 4, 2008

As a musician of international renown, Dori Caymmi has firmly established himself as an artist of substantial influence in both the Brazilian and global community. The influences behind this Brazilian composer is artfully demonstrated in his music; an amalgam of jazz styles and impressions that contribute to Mr. Caymmi's work like facets in a diamond. Along with Miles Davis and Antonio Carlos Jobim, one such major influence is his late father Dorival Caymmi, another widely acclaimed composer whose own work ...

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Singer Clea Bradford Dies at Age 67

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
September 4, 2008

Clea Bradford, a jazz singer who spent her formative years in St. Louis, has died of complications from breast cancer at age 67 in a Washington, DC hospital.Born in Mississippi and raised in Charleston, MO and St. Louis, Bradford (pictured) was a protege of trumpeter Clark Terry and saxophonist Jimmy Forrest who in the 1960s gigged frequently in the St. Louis area with Quartette Tres Bien. She later toured the Playboy Club circuit, using the Gateway City as ...

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Swedish Jazz Musician Arne Domnerus Dies at 83

Source: All About Jazz
September 3, 2008

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Arne Domnerus, one of Sweden's most influential jazz musicians, has died. He was 83. The alto saxophonist and orchestra leader died Tuesday morning after a long period of illness, his son, Leif Domnerus, told The Associated Press. He said Domnerus had heart surgery last year, after which he suffered pneumonia and a brain hemorrhage. Born outside Stockholm in 1924, Domnerus started his first professional orchestra in the 1940's. He played with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Clark ...

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Bill Melendez Animator and Voice of Snoopy Passes

Source: Michael Ricci
September 3, 2008

The Emmy-winning animator's career extended for nearly seven decades. He's best known for bringing Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and the rest of the comic strip to TV and the big screen.

Animator, director and producer Jose Cuautemoc “Bill" Melendez, whose television programs and theatrical films featuring Charles Schulz's “Peanuts" characters earned four Emmy Awards, an Oscar nomination and two Peabody Awards, died Tuesday at St. John's hospital in Santa Monica, according to publicist Amy Goldsmith. He was 91.

Melendez's career ...

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Jerry Reed Country Singer Appeared in 'Smokey and the Bandit' Films

Source: Michael Ricci
September 3, 2008

Jerry Reed, whose roles in three Smokey and the Bandit Southern comedy films opposite Burt Reynolds often overshadowed his gifts as a prolific country singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist>

Reed died Monday at his home outside Nashville of complications from emphysema. He was 71. “He was still recording right up until he couldn't any more," his booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed, who is not related, said Tuesday. “He had been ill for some time."

Reed gained widespread fame as Reynolds' wisecracking foil ...

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Don Lafontaine Thunder Throat the Trailer King

Source: Michael Ricci
September 3, 2008

Don LaFontaine, the highly sought-after voice-over artist whose sonorous-voiced narration on several thousand movie trailers earned him the title of “The Trailer King," has died. He was 68.

LaFontaine, who also did voice-over work on countless radio and network television promotional spots and commercials, died Monday of complications after treatment for an illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said. The illness was not specified.

He was known as “Thunder Throat," “The Voice of God" and “the ...

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Clea Bradford, 67; Jazz Singer Was Known for Her Versatility

Source: All About Jazz
September 3, 2008

Clea Bradford, 67, a versatile jazz singer who toured the Soviet Union with Earl “Fatha" Hines and recorded with Clark Terry in the 1960s, died Aug. 19 of complications from breast cancer at Holy Cross Hospital. She lived in Silver Spring. Ms. Bradford, who settled into a second career as a voice coach in the Washington area after two decades of touring, was not a big star but a “huge twinkle," as she once joked to The Washington Post, and ...

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