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Marlene VerPlanck Is Gone
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
From New York comes news that the singer Marlene VerPlanck died today at 84. She reportedly had pancreatic cancer but managed to keep the illness a secret from nearly everyone. Beginning in the 1960s Ms. VerPlanck worked closely with her husband Billy as a studio musician, singing in commercial jingles. In the 1970s she began singing in jazz clubs and at festivals and appeared at Carnegie Hall. Billy VerPlanck died in 2009. By then his wife’s career as a jazz ...
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Marlene VerPlanck (1933-2018)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Marlene VerPlanck, a polished jazz vocalist who began her recording career in 1955, had a strong second career in the 1960s and '70s as a prolific jingle singer, sang backup on Frank Sinatra's Trilogy album and had a third career recently as she toured and performed to critical praise, died January 14. She was 84. Despite being diagnosed in November with pancreatic cancer, Marlene continued to sing in New York and New Jersey and planned to perform in February, according ...
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Maurice Peress, 1930-2017
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Maurice Peress, a conductor who served as a link between jazz and classical music, died at his home in New York. He was 87. Peress collaborated with Duke Ellington in preparing the composer’s 1943 “Black, Brown And Beige” for performance by a symphony orchestra. He also worked closely with New YorkPhilharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein in adapting Bernstein’s “Mass” and works by Charles Ives for symphony performance. When he was conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic, a performance by Ellington’s band ...
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Keely Smith (1929-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Keely Smith, a vocalist best known in the 1950s at nightclubs and on TV as the stone-faced half of a husband-and-wife comic duo in which she impatiently waited out and mocked the rubbery crooning style of mate Louis Prima before delivering a sincere pop rendition of her own, died on December 16. She was 89. After their divorce in 1961, the split left fans wondering whether the personality differences that made their on-stage act so successful were, in part, rooted ...
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Jeter Thompson 1930 - 2017
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Pianist Jeter Thompson, whose leadership of the groups Quartette Trés Bien and Trio Trés Bien made him a significant figure on the St. Louis jazz scene from the Gaslight Square era into the 21st century, died on Friday, December 1. He was 87 years old. Born in St. Louis on March 16, 1930, Thompson started playing piano at five years old, and made his first professional appearance at age 16 in 1946, performing with saxophonist Emmett Carter at a downtown ...
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Beverley Thorne (1924-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Beverley “David" Thorne, the last of the Case Study architects and the designer of Dave and Iola Brubeck's modernist California and Connecticut homes, died December 6 in Sonoma, Calif. He was 93. Bev's death was confirmed yesterday by architect, colleague and long-time friend Paul Wood, who said from France that Bev was admitted to the hospital in Sonoma last week with pneumonia. View Bev Thorne's architectural designs here. I knew Bev through Paul, and I exchanged emails routinely with Bev ...
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Mundell Lowe (1922-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mundell Lowe, an impeccable jazz guitarist, arranger and talent scout who recorded on many important East Coast jazz albums and introduced Bill Evans to Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews in the mid-1950s, died on December 2. He was 95. Few guitarists played with as many jazz greats as Mundy. The list includes Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Mary Lou Williams and Ben Webster. Mundy, as he was known among friends and insiders, had one of the smoothest sounds ...
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Mundell Lowe, 1922-2017
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Guitarist Mundell Lowe died today. He was 95. Lowe’s career began at 13 when he frequently went from his home in Laurel, Mississippi, to work at clubs in New Orleans’ French Quarter. After service in World War Two, he honed his bebop skills and became one of New York’s busiest guitarists. He worked with a cross-section of major musicians including the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, pianist Billy Taylor, and his own quintet at The Embers and other clubs. He was in demand ...
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