Obituary News

Jazz star Shirley Horn dies

Source: All About Jazz
October 22, 2005

Shirley Horn, the US jazz pianist and vocalist who found fame working with Miles Davis, has died aged 71. Horn died in her native Washington, DC after a long illness, according to a statement released by her recording label Verve Records. Horn, considered one of the last great jazz vocalists of her era, was compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae. She was nominated for seven consecutive Grammys and won in 1998 for the best jazz vocal performance. Her winning ...

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Jazz singer and pianist Shirley Horn dies

Source: All About Jazz
October 22, 2005

NEW YORK — Shirley Horn, the jazz pianist and vocalist who got her start opening for Miles Davis and became revered as a master interpreter of American standards, has died at the age of 71, her record label said yesterday. Horn died Thursday night in her native Washington, D.C., after a long illness, according to a statement released by Verve Records. Horn was often compared to Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae, and considered one of the last great ...

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Father of Russian Jazz Oleg Lundstrem Dies

Source: All About Jazz
October 14, 2005

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - Oleg Lundstrem, the father of Russian jazz, died Friday at the age of 89. “Oleg Lundstrem passed away during the night," said Alexander Bryskin, the director of the Jazz Music Orchestra. “Lundstrem was an epoch in music," said Igor Butman, a famous Russian jazz musician. “He was a unique person, an outstanding organizer, who managed to maintain an orchestra of top musicians and music arrangers for several decades. He was an extremely modest person ...

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Bluesman Paul 'Wine' Jones dies

Source: All About Jazz
October 13, 2005

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Bassist Jack Lesberg dead at 85

Source: All About Jazz
October 6, 2005

ENGLEWOOD, NJ -- Jack Lesberg, a steadfast and versatile bassist who worked with many legends of jazz in the 1940's and 50's and also had a career as a symphonic player, died on Sept. 17 at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home in Englewood, N.J. He was 85.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease, his daughter Valerie Kaplan said.

Born and reared in Boston, Lesberg initially studied the violin, which he played in area clubs before switching permanently to double ...

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Bluesman, throat singer Paul Pena dead at 55

Source: All About Jazz
October 4, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO --Paul Pena, a San Francisco blues guitarist who wrote one of the biggest hits for the Steve Miller Band, has died. He was 55.

Pena is perhaps best known for writing “Jet Airliner," a Top 10 hit in 1977. He's lived off the royalties from that song.

Pena also is familiar to audiences for the 1999 Academy Award-nominated documentary “Genghis Blues," which tells the story of how he took up Tuvan throat singing.

Pena died Saturday from complications ...

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Saxophonist Steve Marcus dead at 66

Source: All About Jazz
September 28, 2005

NEW HOPE, Pa. (AP) - Steve Marcus, a jazz saxophonist who recorded and toured with Stan Kenton, Herbie Mann and Buddy Rich, died Sunday. He was 66.

Marcus died in his sleep at his home in New Hope, family members said.

He was a pioneer of the jazz fusion movement of the late 1960s, a musical movement that combined elements of rock 'n' roll and jazz.

Marcus had been touring lately with the quintet “Steve Smith and Buddy's Buddies," a ...

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Sterling Dorwin Weed: Oldest U.S. big band leader dies at 104

Source: All About Jazz
September 15, 2005

ST. ALBANS, Vt. --Sterling Dorwin Weed, the nation's oldest known active bandleader, whose Weed's Imperial Orchestra played dates from the early 1930s to this summer, has died. He was 104.

“It was age, and he was just worn out, really," Derby said.

Weed studied piano as a youth, but said in an Associated Press interview in 2001 that his public career began in 1912, when he was 11. His older brother Ora, a trombonist, said the city band's piccolo player ...

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