Obituary News

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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Broadway Musical Director Peter Howard

Source: All About Jazz
May 9, 2008

Peter Howard, who arranged the dance music, composed the incidental music or conducted the orchestra for many of Broadway's biggest hits of the last half-century, and who sometimes did all three of those underappreciated jobs, died on April 18 in Englewood, N.J. He was 80 and had lived in recent years at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home in Englewood. Mr. Howard made his most significant mark as the dance music arranger for 23 of the 38 Broadway shows he worked ...

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The Function of Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
May 8, 2008

Abstraction under siege in a utilitarian world

Some current jazz-related events have got me thinking about the necessities of life. A quintet featuring saxists Frank Morgan and Sonny Fortune at Catalina's. A benefit for the stroke rehabilitation of reedman Buddy Collette is happening at the same place on Sunday. A tribute to the late pianist Horace Tapscott is scheduled at the Jazz Bakery. There was a benefit for sax legend Teddy Edwards a couple of months ago. And windman Charles ...

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Eddy Arnold "Make the World Go Away"

Source: All About Jazz
May 8, 2008

Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday. Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I'll Hold You in My Heart." His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside ...

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Mona Clayton Hinton: 1919-2008

Source: All About Jazz
May 8, 2008

Edmonia - Mona - Clayton Hinton, the widow of noted jazz musician and documentarian Milt Hinton (1910-2000), died on May 3, 2008, at North Shore Hospital after a long illness. She was living at the Hinton family residence on Milt Hinton Place in the Queens section of New York City. The Hintons first met at Milt's grandmother's funeral in 1939 and were inseparable for the next 61 years. Mona traveled extensively with Milt throughout his career. She was the only ...

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Hee Haw Jim Hager, Half of Hager Twins

Source: All About Jazz
May 3, 2008

Jim Hager, one of the Hager Twins who satirized country life with cornball one-liners on TV's “Hee Haw," died in Nashville, the show's producer said Friday. He was 66. Hager was at a coffee shop when he collapsed Thursday, Sam Lovullo said. He said he had been told that by Jon Hager, the surviving twin. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he had been taken, gave no details on the cause of death. The twins, who were also guitarists and drummers, ...

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