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Obituary

Nancy Wilson Is Gone

Nancy Wilson Is Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Sorry to hear of the passing of Nancy Wilson. She was 81 and died yesterday at her home north of Los Angeles in the California desert community of Pioneertown. The singer achieved fame in the 1960s after Cannonball Adderley heard her in a Columbus, Ohio, club and recommended her to Capitol Records. An album she made with Adderley and his quintet became one of her most popular and has remained so for decades. Nearly as successful was her album with ...

Obituary

Roy Hargrove (1969-2018)

Roy Hargrove (1969-2018)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Roy Hargrove, a jazz trumpeter whose chance encounter with Wynton Marsalis in the 11th grade catapulted him from Fort Worth, Texas, to stardom at age 20 in 1990 after tours with Marsalis and a year at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, died November 2. He was 49. Here are five clips that illustrate his measured tone and pretty taste: Here's Hargrove soloing in 1988 on I Remember Clifford with Don Sickler (tp,arr), Frank “Ku-umba" Lacy (tb), Bobby Watson ...

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Obituary

Roy Hargrove, 1969-2018

Roy Hargrove, 1969-2018

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove died of a heart attack in New York yesterday at the age of 49. Hargrove was one of a coterie of young musicians who came to prominence following the sudden superstardom of fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s. Record companies scrambled to find their own Marsalises. Hargrove became famous not long after he was graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas. His technical accomplishments, youth, personality and attractiveness ...

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Obituary

Is Japan Finally Ready For The Streaming Revolution?

Is Japan Finally Ready For The Streaming Revolution?

Source: HypeBot

A new report by indie music rights agency Merlin highlights the slow but now steady shift towards music streaming in Japan, one of the world's last bastions of physical product. As the second largest music market in the world, Japan has been historically slow to take up streaming music despite the presence of advanced broadband capabilities in much of the country. As of 2017, 80%  of music sold in the country comes via physical product, according to the Recording Industry Association ...

Obituary

Rest In Peace Paul Allen: Friend Of Music and Much More

Rest In Peace Paul Allen: Friend Of Music and Much More

Source: HypeBot

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recently passed away, and is remembered as a tech billionaire and noted philanthropist. The Seattle music industry was among the beneficiaries of his generosity, with Allen helping to foster the creative sector. Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy Paul Allen was a co-founder of Microsoft and hence a “tech billionaire.”  But he used that wealth to make a contribution to music in smart and lasting ways through supporting music in Seattle and by ...

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Obituary

Jerry González Is Gone

Jerry González Is Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

It is sad to hear of the death of Jerry González, the extraordinary bandleader, trumpeter and Latin percussionist. He died of heart failure at 69 after being overcome by smoke in a fire in his home in Madrid, Spain on Monday. He had lived in Madrid since 2000. In the late 1970s, González and his bassist brother Andy established The Fort Apache Band, which quickly became one of the leading groups combining jazz and Latin music. Their album Rumba Para ...

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Obituary

Hamiet Bluiett 1940 - 2018

Hamiet Bluiett 1940 - 2018

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Hamiet Bluiett, a native of Brooklyn, IL who co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet and redefined the capabilities of the baritone sax in improvised music, died the morning of Thursday, October 4 at St. Louis University Hospital. He was 78 years old. Bluiett, whose birthday was September 16, had been gravely ill for some time, and according to a Facebook post from his daughter Anaya, was taken off respiratory support last week. As a child, Bluiett (pictured) studied piano, trumpet, and ...

Obituary

Big Jay McNeely (1927-2018)

Big Jay McNeely (1927-2018)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Cecil “Big Jay" NcNeely, the father of the R&B tenor saxophone whose stamina and extravagant stage act starting in the late 1940s included playing on his back, setting the tone for rock 'n' roll and soul artists who followed, died on Sept. 16. He was 91. Big Jay had several significant R&B hits in the late 1940s and '50s, including The Deacon's Hop (#1), Wild Wig and There's Something on Your Mind. But his output included so many jump-blues singles ...


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