Home » Jazz News
Obituary News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Don Gardner: 1931–2018
Source:
All About Jazz
Philadelphia lost another great cultural leader this week with the passing of Donald Gardner, who died on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, at the age of 87. Gardner’s legacy spanned eight decades starting in 1947 as a singer and songwriter. His biggest hit was “Need Your Lovin,” which rose to number four on the R&B charts in 1962 and was later recorded by Otis Redding, Tom Jones, and Jackie Wilson among others. After releasing his third album, he created his own ...
Continue Reading
Randy Weston (1926-2018)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Randy Weston, a jazz pianist and composer who was the first artist producer Orrin Keepnews signed to his new Riverside label in 1954 and who became one of the most ardent champions of Pan-Africanism in jazz, died on September 1. He was 92. [Photo of Randy Weston by Chester Higgins] Randy was perhaps best known for his composition Hi-Fly, which he introduced on his New Faces at Newport album in 1958. The song's catchy melody and moody harmony helped the ...
Continue Reading
Randy Weston, 1926-2018
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Pianist and composer Randy Weston, who championed the African origins of jazz, died at home in New York yesterday. He was 92. With his distinctive rhythmic patterns and powerful harmonic progressions, Weston underlined the African heritage that so definitively helped shape the music’s development. He frequently visited and performed in Nigeria and other African nations. For a time in the late ‘60s he lived in Tangier, Morocco, and opened a club there. Several of Weston’s compositions long since took their ...
Continue Reading
Pat Arana, trombonist of the St. Louis Stompers, dies at age 72
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Trombonist Joseph Patrick “Pat" Arana of the St. Louis Stompers died of cancer last Wednesday, August 22 in St. Charles, MO. Arana was 72 years old and was retired from teaching music in the Ritenour School District. He performed locally and at festivals all over the country with the Stompers, worked with many other jazz and popular music groups in St. Louis, and was an original member of Jean Kittrell and Red Lehr’s Old St. Louis Levee Band. Services were ...
Continue Reading
Jimmy Wilkins (1921-2018)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jimmy Wilkins, the trombone-playing brother of arranger-saxophonist Ernie Wilkins and the last surviving member of Count Basie's original New Testament Band launched in 1951, died August 24. He was 97. In recent years, Jimmy led a big band in Las Vegas using arrangements by his brother Ernie and Frank Foster. Jimmy and I spoke every six months or so. Our last conversation was in July. I'll miss him and his Count Basie stories. Here's my entire JazzWax interview with Jimmy: ...
Continue Reading
Jack Costanzo (1919-2018)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jack Costanzo, whose fierce bongo playing added drama and heat to hundreds of recordings and performances by jazz, pop and Latin artists starting in the late 1940s before moving on the TV and film, died August 18. He was 98. Costanzo wasn't the first to record jazz on the bongos. The instrument first appeared on Latin 78s as early as 1925 and on Afro-Cuban recordings by Machito in 1941. He also wasn't the first to record on the bongos in ...
Continue Reading
Jean Kittrell 1927 - 2018
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Pianist and singer Jean Kittrell, who performed traditional jazz, swing and ragtime in St. Louis and around the world from the 1960s into the 2000s, died on Tuesday, August 14 in Edwardsville, IL. She was 91 years old. A native of Birmingham, AL, Kittrell began playing piano as a youth in church, and went on to earn a degree in music theory at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi. She began her jazz career in the late 1950s accompanying her husband, ...
Continue Reading
Jack Costanzo, 1920-2018
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The percussionist Jack Costanzo was so closely identified with his instrument that early in his career he became known as “Mr. Bongo.” Costanzo died over the weekend at his home near San Diego, California. He was 98. During his long career he worked with Stan Kenton, Nat Cole, Charlie Parker and dozens of other musical stars. He was frequently featured in motion pictures and television programs in duets with celebrities including dancer Ann Miller, singer Judy Garland and actor Marlon ...
Continue Reading
