Obituary News

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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Elvin Jones: Legendary Drummer and Bandleader

Source: All About Jazz
May 19, 2004

Born: September 9, 1927 in Pontiac, MI Died: May 18, 2004 in Englewood, NJ

By Todd Jenkins

Despite all of his accomplishments in life -- and there were so many -- Elvin Jones is most likely to be remembered for his family ties and his service in John Coltrane's celebrated quartet. His passing at the age of 76 leaves brother Hank as the last musical Jones sibling, and pianist McCoy Tyner as the sole survivor of the Coltrane ...

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Jazz Drumming Legend Elvin Jones Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 19, 2004

Elvin Ray Jones, a renowned jazz drummer and member of John Coltrane's quartet, has died in the US aged 76.

Jones, who also played alongside Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, died of heart failure in a New Jersey hospital on Tuesday.

Jones, named by Life magazine as “the world's greatest rhythmic drummer", joined band leader Charlie Mingus' ranks in New York in the mid-1950s.

He played on some of Coltrane's famed recordings, including A Love Supreme.

Born in ...

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Percussion powerhouse Elvin Jones dies at 76

Source: All About Jazz
May 19, 2004

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Jazz Drummer Elvin Ray Jones Dies at 76

Source: All About Jazz
May 18, 2004

NEW YORK (AP) - Elvin Ray Jones, a renowned jazz drummer and member of John Coltrane's quartet who also played alongside Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, died Tuesday. He was 76. Jones died of heart failure in an Englewood, N.J., hospital, said his wife of 38 years, Keiko Jones. “He's happy. No more suffering," said Keiko Jones. “He's been fighting for so long." Jones, called by Life magazine “the world's greatest rhythmic drummer," was born in Pontiac, Mich., ...

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Remembering John LaPorta

Source: All About Jazz
May 14, 2004

John D. LaPorta, (b. Philadelphia, PA, April 1, 1920, - d. Sarasota, FL, May 12, 2004) a world class musician (all the reeds), arranger, composer and educator.

He was revered by musicians everywhere. During his career he played and recorded with Woody Herman, Herb Pomeroy, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Fats Navarro, Oscar Pettiford, Lennie Tristano and Gunther Schuller. Classically trained, he has performed with Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, ...

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