Obituary News

Jimmy McGriff Organist Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 26, 2008

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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Jimmy McGriff Funeral Arrangements in Philadelphia

Source: All About Jazz
May 26, 2008

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Dick Martin's Last Laugh-In

Source: Michael Ricci
May 25, 2008

“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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Huntington Hartford II Spent His Fortune on the Arts

Source: Michael Ricci
May 21, 2008

Huntington Hartford II, heir to the A&P supermarket fortune whose quest to be taken seriously as a patron of the arts led him to bankroll a series of movies, plays, galleries and publications that ultimately drained his wealth, died Monday at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas at the age of 97.

No cause of death was reported.

Ranked among the world's richest people at one time, Hartford was once called by Architect Frank Lloyd Wright “the sort of man who ...

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Lola Montes Renown Flamenco Spanish Dancer

Source: Michael Ricci
May 21, 2008

Lola Montes, One of the country's most renowned Spanish dancers, frequent Southland performer over a career of more than 70 years, has died at the age of 90.

Montes died at her home in Laguna Woods on Friday of complications from pneumonia, Oscar Nieto, a lead dancer with her company, said.

In 1955, Montes started her own company, the Los Angeles-based Lola Montes and Her Spanish Dancers. The troupe signed with Columbia Artists Management Inc. and toured the country for ...

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Bob Florence L.A. Times Obituary

Source: Michael Ricci
May 20, 2008

SKILLFUL MUSIC MAN: Bob Florence was a pianist, composer and masterful arranger who led the popular Bob Florence Limited Edition big band in L.A. He was respected both as a professional and “as a human being," one musician said.

Bob Florence, a pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader who won a Grammy and two Emmy awards in a career reaching back to the late '50s, died Thursday at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles after a lengthy bout with pneumonia. He ...

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Bob Florence, Jazz Composer, Big Band Leader, Dies at 75

Source: All About Jazz
May 18, 2008

Legendary jazz composer, arranger and Big Band leader Bob Florence, who won a Grammy and two Emmy awards during his long career, died Thursday at his home in Thousand Oaks. His death came five days before his 76th birthday. Florence was widely acknowledged as a dominant force in Big Band music, keeping the genre alive with his own Los Angeles-based band, Limited Edition. He also was a respected music educator. “He's been a fixture on the West Coast for over ...

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Vibes for Walt: Walt Dickerson, R.I.P.

Source: All About Jazz
May 18, 2008

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