Obituary News

Sax Great Michael Brecker Dies

Source: All About Jazz
January 14, 2007

The Cheltenham native and Grammy winner, 57, had been fighting disease. Michael Brecker, 57, the Grammy-winning saxophonist from Cheltenham who was one of the most highly regarded jazz players of his time and an in-demand session man who contributed to recordings by Bruce Springsteen and Parliament-Funkadelic, died yesterday in New York. In May 2005, Mr. Brecker learned he had myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood and bone-marrow disease formerly known as pre-leukemia. A worldwide search for a near-exact match needed for a ...

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Jazz World Mourns Michael Brecker and Alice Coltrane

Source: All About Jazz
January 14, 2007

By Paul Cashmere It has been a sad weekend for the jazz world with the death of two prominent musicians. Alice Coltrane and Michael Brecker both died this weekend. Born Alice McLeod in 1937, she met and married John Coltrane, credited as the creator of avant-garde music. Alice played with John's band until his death in 1967. Her instruments of choice were piano, harp and Wurlitzer organ. Alice's most recent albums were recorded for the Verve label. (more about Alice ...

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Tenor Saxophonist Michael Brecker Dies at Age 57 in NYC

Source: All About Jazz
January 14, 2007

NEW YORK -- Michael Brecker, a versatile and highly influential tenor saxophonist who won 11 Grammys over a career that spanned more than three decades, died Saturday at age 57. Brecker died in a hospital in New York City of leukemia, according to his longtime friend and manager, Darryl Pitt. In recent years, the saxophonist had struggled with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells. The disease, known as MDS, often progresses ...

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Remembering James Brown

Source: All About Jazz
January 2, 2007

By Bill King James Brown can take his rightful place alongside Coltrane, Miles, Ellington, the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Otis and the giants. The guy had a remarkable music and business mind--a one of a kind way of hearing. I first caught Brown live back in 1964 with cape--three drummers and two bass players. I was playing a prom at the coliseum in Louisville, Kentucky in a side room while Brown inhabited center stage in the sports arena. What ...

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Clarinetist Kenny Davern Dies At 71

Source: All About Jazz
December 14, 2006

By Steve Voce John Kenneth Davern, clarinetist and saxophonist: born Huntington, New York 7 January 1935; married 1970 Elsa Lass (one stepson, one stepdaughter); died Sandia Park, New Mexico 12 December 2006. “Louis Armstrong can say something with one note, but then there are others who take an hour to rev up and wind up with a fart in a bathtub." Although Kenny Davern became one of the most effective jazz clarinettists of the last 50 years, he always regarded ...

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Kansas City Jazz Legend Jay McShann Passes at 90

Source: All About Jazz
December 8, 2006

Kansas City, MO. (December 8, 2006) - Jay McShann, the veteran pianist closely identified with the Kansas City tradition of jazz and blues, passed away yesterday at the age of 90 at St. Luke's Hospital. A master of many styles, McShann established an evolutionary bridge between traditional Kansas City jazz, renowned for a swinging, rhythmic sensibility, and the more intuitive, improvisational bebop form of jazz.

McShann, who became known as “Hootie" among his contemporaries, was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in ...

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Jat McShann Passes

Source: All About Jazz
December 7, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Jay “Hootie" McShann, a jazz pianist and bandleader who helped refine the blues-tinged Kansas City sound and introduced the world to saxophonist Charlie Parker, died Thursday. He was 90.

He died at St. Luke's Hospital. The cause of death was not released to the public, hospital spokeswoman Kerry O'Connor said.

McShann, whose musical career spanned eight decades and earned him accolades from both blues and jazz aficionados, was born James Columbus McShann on Jan. 12, ...

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Walter Booker: December 17, 1933 - November 24, 2006

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 25, 2006

It is with a sad heart that I announce the passing of my beloved husband, bassist Walter Booker, on Friday, November 24, 2006. As soon as I finalize the details, I will advise you of when the celebration of his life will be held at St Peters Church 53rd and Lexington. --Bertha Hope

Walter Booker was born in Prairie View, Texas in 1933 and moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1940s. It wasn't until 1959, at ...

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