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Wilfrid Mellers Musicologist and Critic Passes
Source:
All About Jazz
Wilfrid Mellers, an English musicologist, composer, critic and teacher who published more than 20 books on subjects ranging from 17th-century English and French composers to the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, died on May 16 in Scrayingham, North Yorkshire. He was 94 and had homes in Scrayingham and the nearby city of York.
His death was confirmed by Jonathan Wainwright, director of the music department at the University of York, where Mr. Mellers taught for many years. As ...
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Earle H. Hagen Emmy-Winning TV Music Composer
Source:
Michael Ricci
Earle H. Hagen, the Emmy Award-winning television composer who wrote the memorable theme music for “The Andy Griffith Show," “The Dick Van Dyke Show," “I Spy" and other classic TV programs, has died. He was 88.
Hagen, who composed the jazz standard “Harlem Nocturne" and was a former big-band trombonist for Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Ray Noble, died Monday night at his home in Rancho Mirage, said his wife, Laura. He had been ill for several months. After spending ...
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Jimmy McGriff, Blues Organist Crossed Musical Lines
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jimmy McGriff, the acclaimed blues organist, who scored his first hit in the 1960s with an instrumental arrangement of “I've Got a Woman," then continued to record hard-swinging grooves that appealed to audiences across musical boundaries, died Saturday at a nursing home in New Jersey. He was 72. The cause of death was not known but was believed to be heart failure, said his wife, Margaret McGriff. McGriff was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis many years ago. Though sometimes described as ...
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Sidney Pollack His Life & Times
Source:
Michael Ricci
Sydney Pollack, the Academy Award-winning director of “Out of Africa" who achieved acclaim making popular, mainstream movies with A-list stars, including “The Way We Were" and “Tootsie," died Monday. He was 73.
Pollack, who also was a producer and actor, died of cancer at his home in Pacific Palisades, according to Leslee Dart, his publicist and friend. As a filmmaker, Pollack had a reputation for being a painstaking craftsman -- “relentless and meticulous," screenwriter and friend Robert Towne once said. ...
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"Tootsie" Director Pollack Dead at 73
Source:
All About Jazz
An agent for actor and director Sydney Pollack said Monday the Academy Award winner has died. He was 73.
Agent Leslee Dart said Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. She said Pollack was surrounded by family. Pollack appeared in some of the films he directed, including the gender-bending hit Tootsie, which starred Dustin Hoffman. He won producing and directing Oscars for Out of Africa in 1985. The films Pollack directed include Sketches of ...
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Jimmy McGriff Organist Dies
Source:
All About Jazz
Jimmy McGriff must have had a big crayon box because the great organist colored his music with so many shades of blue.
McGriff, who died Saturday May 24th, passed after a very long illness with MS. He grooved as hard as any organist I know. I wonder whether there's ever been a song title that accurately reflected an artist's work as well as “Groove Grease" from McGriff's album of the same name. And McGriff's funky licks on the title track ...
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Dick Martin's Last Laugh-In
Source:
Michael Ricci
“Look That Up In Your Funk and Wagnell's" Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catchphrases as “Sock it to me!," has died. He was 86. Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at Santa ...
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