Obituary News

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre Dead at 86

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2008

Pioneering jazz performer and composer Jimmy Giuffre, whose distinctive avant-garde clarinet style drove a lengthy career that included working with legend Woody Herman, has died at age 86, US media reported. Giuffre, a central figure in West Coast jazz best known for penning the big band classic “Four Brothers" with Herman in 1947, died Thursday in Pittsfield in the northeast state of Massachusetts, according to JazzTimes.com. He died of pneumonia and complications from Parkinson's disease, it said. A musician with ...

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Bebe Barron, Scored the Science Fiction Film "Forbidden Planet"

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2008

Bebe Barron, a pioneering composer who started manipulating sounds after receiving a tape recorder as a wedding present and later scored the 1956 science-fiction film “Forbidden Planet," the first full-length feature to use only electronic music, has died. She was 82. Barron died April 20 of complications related to old age at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said her son, Adam Barron. With her engineer husband, Louis Barron, she created “a soundscape for 'Forbidden Planet' that no one could ...

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Another Train, Another River: Jimmy Giuffre, 1921-2008

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2008

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Jazz Legend Humphrey Lyttelton Dies

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2008

Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and presenter of Radio 4 comedy show “I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue", has died aged 86. Lyttelton, who had hosted the “self-styled antidote to panel games" since 1972, was admitted to hospital earlier this week for surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Best known as a musician, Lyttelton began playing the trumpet in 1936 and still toured with his band up until recently. In 1956, Lyttelton's Bad Penny Blues was the first British jazz record ...

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George T. Butler Jr., Columbia Executive Greatly Influenced Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
April 28, 2008

George T. Butler Jr., an influential figure in the business of jazz as an A&R man and record company executive, died April 9 at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Calif. He was 76. Butler was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2005 but died of multiple organ failure, his sister, Jacqueline Butler Hairston, said. His overall medical condition took a turn for the worse in January after he walked out of his assisted living facility in Hayward and fell in ...

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Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, Daughter of Legendary Broadway Impresario

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2008

Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the daughter of legendary Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, died of congestive heart failure April 11 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91. Stephenson was born Oct. 23, 1916, in New York City, where her father was famous for mounting the musical stage spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies. Her mother was actress Billie Burke, who would be most remembered for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the 1939 movie classic ...

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William F. Ludwig II, Son of the Founder of Ludwig Drum CO.

Source: All About Jazz
April 23, 2008

William F. Ludwig II, 91; son of the founder of Ludwig Drum Co. built a set for Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr was so proud to play a Ludwig drum set during the Beatles' first televised appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964 that he asked William F. Ludwig II to build a special set for him with the company name printed in bold letters at the top of the bass drumhead. Naturally, Ludwig obliged. “I remember my dad watching ...

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Mahlon Clark, Respected Clarinetist's Passing Noted

Source: All About Jazz
April 23, 2008

Mahlon Clark, 84; clarinetist played with Welk, Sinatra and Madonna

Mahlon Clark, the clarinetist who performed on the soundtracks of numerous Hollywood movies and recorded with artists as varied as Lawrence Welk and Madonna, has died. He was 84. Clark, who also played a well-known clarinet solo in recordings of “Baby Elephant Walk," died Sept. 20 of natural causes at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, his family announced. At Capitol Records, Clark developed a friendship with Nelson Riddle, arranger, ...

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