Obituary News

Jackie Paris: Singer with Mingus, Bird, Hampton

Source: All About Jazz
June 19, 2004

Born: September 20, 1924 in Nutley, NJ Died: June 17, 2004 in Manhattan, NY by Todd S. Jenkins Jazz singer Jackie Paris died of bone cancer on Thursday, June 17, 2004 in Manhattan. He was 79 years old. Criminally under-recorded, Paris was one of the most impressive vocalists of the bebop era and the first to sing Bernie Hanighen's lyrics to Monk's “Round Midnight". Born Carlo Jackie Paris in Nutley, New Jersey, on September 20, 1924, the singer ...

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R&B Music Legend Ray Charles Dies

Source: All About Jazz
June 15, 2004

Legendary US R&B musician Ray Charles has died aged 73 in Los Angeles. Charles, considered a pioneer of soul music, died of acute liver disease, which was diagnosed after he had hip replacement surgery in December. Soul diva Aretha Franklin described him as “a fabulous man" who introduced the world to “secular soul singing". Michael Jackson said he was “a true legend - an American treasure", while Stevie Wonder praised “the genius of his talent of his music". Charles, who ...

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Music Legend And Pioneer, Ray Charles, Succumbs At Age 73

Source: All About Jazz
June 14, 2004

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Ray Charles dies at 73

Source: All About Jazz
June 14, 2004

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) -- Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as “What'd I Say" and ballads like “Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73. Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney. Charles' last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central ...

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New England Conservatory Mourns Death of Jazz Great Steve Lacy

Source: All About Jazz
June 5, 2004

Soprano Saxophone Master Succumbs to Cancer at Age 69 Steve Lacy, one of the greatest soprano saxophonists of all time and a New England Conservatory faculty member since fall 2002, died Friday at New England Baptist Hospital. The jazz master who once defined his profession as “combination orator, singer, dancer, diplomat, poet, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer and general all around good fellow" was 69. He leaves his wife and collaborator, the Swiss singer Irene Aebi. ...

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Steve Lacy, 69, Who Popularized the Soprano Saxophone, Dies

Source: All About Jazz
June 5, 2004

By BEN RATLIFF Copyright 2004 The New York Times Steve Lacy, an American soprano saxophonist who spent more than half of his 50-year career living in Europe and helped legitimize his instrument in postwar jazz, died yesterday in Boston. He was 69. The cause was cancer, according to an announcement from the New England Conservatory of Music, where Mr. Lacy had been teaching since 2002. After performing in New York, his hometown, Mr. Lacy moved to Italy and ...

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Steve Lacy: Soprano Saxophonist, Monk Enthusiast, Free Jazz Pioneer

Source: All About Jazz
June 4, 2004

Born: July 23, 1934 in New York, NY Died: June 4, 2004 in MA

Steve Lacy's return to America in 2002, following three decades in France, was welcomed with as much enthusiasm as Dexter Gordon's triumphant repatriation in the 1970s. A quirky and beloved individualist, Lacy, who died in Boston of liver cancer on June 4, 2004, took a mongrel horn and brought it into a permanent place of jazz prominence. Lacy was the first jazz musician since ...

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Elvin Jones, 76; Coltrane Drummer Helped Propel Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
May 21, 2004

By Matt Schudel Washington Post Staff Writer

Elvin Jones, 76, the drummer who lit the rhythmic fire under the transcendental jazz of saxophonist John Coltrane, died May 18 at a hospital in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. He had a heart ailment.

In his five years with Coltrane's quartet in the 1960s, Mr. Jones set the standard for modern jazz drumming, incorporating the polyrhythmic patterns of African drumming into his incendiary, almost overwhelming technique. McCoy Tyner, the group's pianist, called ...

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