Obituary News

Warren Cowan Star Publicist Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 15, 2008

Legendary Hollywood press agent Warren Cowan, who represented such stars as Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra, has died. (Pictured on left with his wife Barbara)

Warren Cowan & Associates spokeswoman Jazmine Vicenty confirmed early Thursday that Cowan had died. She declined to give other details, he was 87. The trade paper Daily Variety reported Cowan died Wednesday night of heart failure and cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The jovial Cowan, known for working the press lines at awards ...

Continue Reading

Ilyas Malayev, Uzbek Musician and Poet

Source: Michael Ricci
May 14, 2008

Ilyas Malayev, a musician and poet renowned in Uzbekistan and transplanted to Queens, where he was a legend among fellow Bukharan Jews, died on Friday May 2, 2008 in Flushing. He was 72 and lived in Forest Hills. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Lana Levitin, his manager. Before emigrating from his native land in Central Asia, Mr. Malayev won fame and official plaudits in the former Soviet Union for his interpretation of the shash maqam, a body of folk ...

Continue Reading

Robert Rauschenberg Pioneer of Pop Art

Source: Michael Ricci
May 13, 2008

Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg dies in Fla. at 82

Robert Rauschenberg, whose use of odd and everyday articles earned him a reputation as a pioneer in pop art but whose talents spanned the worlds of painting, sculpture and dance, has died, his gallery representative said today. He was 82. Rauschenberg died Monday, said Jennifer Joy, his representative at PaceWildenstein gallery in New York. Rauschenberg, who first gained fame in the 1950s, didn't mine popular culture wholesale as Andy Warhol did ...

Continue Reading

Larry Levine "Wall of Sound" Engineer

Source: All About Jazz
May 13, 2008

Larry Levine: Gold Star recording engineer who played a crucial role in the building of Phil Spector's “Wall of Sound"

Larry Levine, the recording engineer who helped translate the grandiose sonic vision of record producer Phil Spector into some of the biggest-selling and most influential recordings of the rock era, died Thursday, on his 80th birthday, at his home in Encino.

The announcement by his wife, Lyn, gave no cause of death, but he had suffered from emphysema and heart ...

Continue Reading

Italian Free Jazz Pioneer Mario Schiano Dies at 75

Source: All About Jazz
May 13, 2008

Continue Reading

Leyla Gencer Turkish Soprano Thrived in Italy

Source: All About Jazz
May 12, 2008

Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer, 79, who made her career at Italy's famed La Scala opera house, died Friday of respiratory problems and heart failure at her home in Milan, a Turkish arts foundation announced. La Scala expressed “immense sorrow" over Gencer's death and said the singer -- known as La Diva Turca, or the Turkish Diva -- had “one of the most emotional voices of any time." Her career spanned about 30 years and included more than 70 roles. In ...

Continue Reading

Gospel Singer Dottie Rambo Dies on Tour

Source: All About Jazz
May 12, 2008

Gospel singer Dottie Rambo dies in tour bus wreck in Mo.

Joyce “Dottie" Rambo, an influential gospel singer and songwriter, died early today when her tour bus ran off the highway and struck an embankment. She was 74. Seven other people on the bus were injured in the wreck about two miles east of Mount Vernon on Interstate 44, the Missouri Highway Patrol said. They were hospitalized in Springfield with moderate to severe injuries, according to the patrol. It was ...

Continue Reading

Jerry Walace Goes Down Primrose Lane

Source: All About Jazz
May 10, 2008

Jerry Wallace, 79, the smooth-voiced pop and country singer who scored his first two hits in the late 1950s with “How the Time Flies" and “Primrose Lane," died of congestive heart failure Monday at his home in Victorville. Wallace began recording in 1951 and had his first hit in 1958 with “How the Time Flies"; a year later came “Primrose Lane," which reportedly sold more than a million copies and was his biggest-selling record. He had more than 45 pop ...

Continue Reading