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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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Jon Hendricks, George Avakian: RIP
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
We can be thankful today that Jon Hendricks and George Avakian made so many important contributions to jazz during their long lives. Both died in New York yesterday. Hendricks was 96. Avakian was 98. Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert and Annie Ross formed the vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross for their album Sing A Song Of Basie album in 1958. Expanding the possibilities of a craft that had been pioneered by Eddie Jefferson and King Pleasure, Hendricks married words to ...
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Jon Hendricks (1921-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jon Hendricks, a singer, songwriter and lyricist who pioneered vocalese—the art of crafting words to famed jazz solos—and was a co-founder of the vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, died November 22. He was 96. Jon died on the same day as producer George Avakian. I interviewed Jon in 2009 for JazzWax. Here is my complete interview with him: Jon Hendricks' pure sense of swing, poetic word-play and conversational vocalese remain unmatched. Truth be told, Jon' s splendid contribution to ...
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George Avakian (1919-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
George Avakian, who as an executive and producer at Columbia Records in the 1940s and '50s created a successful formula for packaging jazz as popular music and who signed Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and Johnny Mathis to the label, among others, died November 22. He was 98. [Photo above by Ian Clifford] In the early 1950s, George was a dynamic force in the record business. During those years, the 33 1/3 long-playing album format had emerged along with new recording ...
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Della Reese (1931-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Della Reese, best known as the boss of a band of divine messengers on the 1990s TV series Touched By an Angel but started her career decades earlier as an earthy pop singer, died on Nov. 19. She was 86. Reese's deep and often rousing gospel-fueled voice was powerful and rested somewhere between Dinah Washington, Pearl Bailey and Eartha Kitt on the pop spectrum, depending on the song. Yet her talk-sing approach was an acquired taste. Only two of her ...
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Sol Schlinger: 1926-2017
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sol Schlinger, a baritone saxophonist who played in several major big bands in the 1940s and was part of the East Coast sax section that handled a sizable amount of studio recording in the 1950s and beyond, died last week. He was 91. Among producers, contractors, arrangers and musicians, Sol was considered a rock-solid anchor in reed sections that recorded jazz and pop in New York in the 12-inch LP era, starting in 1955. Back then, many orchestral record dates ...
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