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Drummer John Guerin Passes at 64
Source:
All About Jazz
John Guerin, one of the most versatile drummers ever, died Jan. 5 in Los Angeles from heart failure brought on by complications from pneumonia. He was 64. His vast credits ranged from Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Brown, Frank Sinatra and the L.A. Express to Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Bobby McFerrin, Peggy Lee, Blue Mitchell, Dianne Schuur and too many more to name here.
John was born in Hawaii, but grew up in San Diego, before ...
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The Jazz World's Losses were Many
Source:
All About Jazz
Dec 29, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The jazz world said farewell to many of its performers and supporting figures during 2003. So many, it departed that it seemed there would be a surge on the perpetual jazz big band -- wherever it lives on.
The most notable were saxophonist-trumpeter-arranger-composer Benny Carter -- one of the great, prolific and unheralded jazz composers of the 20th century -- plus percussionist Mongo Santamaria, singer-pianist Nina Simone, saxophonist Teddy Edwards, trombonist ...
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Carl Fontana dead at 75 of complications of Altzheimers
Source:
All About Jazz
A brilliant trombonist who has spent much of the past 40 years playing commercial music in Las Vegas, Carl Fontana occasionally emerges to remind listeners just how technically skilled he is. The son of a saxophonist, Fontana started out playing in his father's group during 1941-1945, but did not gain prominence until he was with Woody Herman's Orchestra (1952-1953). Fontana spent time in the big bands of Lionel Hampton (1954), Hal McIntyre (1954-1955) and most importantly Stan Kenton (1955-1956), being ...
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Don Lanphere, Seattle Sax great, dead at 75
Source:
All About Jazz
From the Seattle Times: 'Seattle Jazz Patriarch' was top bebop artist By Stephen H. Dunphy Seattle Times associate editor Don Lanphere, the legendary Wenatchee-born bebop jazz saxophone player who overcame dependence on drugs and alcohol to become one of the deans of Seattle jazz musicians, died yesterday at Group Health Eastside Hospital in Redmond. He was 75. Mr. Lanphere, of Kirkland, was a regular at jazz events in the region, playing a gig at Tula's, in numerous festivals and as ...
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Shawn Lane: rock and world-fusion guitarist
Source:
All About Jazz
Shawn Lane Guitarist and keyboardist 3/21/63 - 9/26/03
Guitarist Shawn Lane, who progressed from a teenaged hard-rock star to a master of world fusion music, has died after a drastic battle with lung disease. He was forty years old.
Lane began his musical interests very young, studying piano and cello from the age of four. He took up the guitar at eight, and it remained his principal instrument from then on. He quickly became a legend ...
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Frank Lowe: powerful, undersung free jazz tenor saxophonist
Source:
All About Jazz
Memphis, TN, June 24 1943 - New York, NY, Sept. 19 2003
Woefully undersung until recently, Frank Lowe was a ferociously energetic tenor saxophonist who drew inspiration from the first and second waves of free jazz in the 1960s. Principally remembered for his work with drummer Rashied Ali and a couple of the dozen-plus albums issued under his name, Lowe had subsisted in the shadows of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler for much of his career. In the past few ...
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