Obituary News

Don Lanphere, Seattle Sax great, dead at 75

Source: All About Jazz
October 10, 2003

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
October 8, 2003

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
October 8, 2003

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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Jazz Bassist and Scat Singer Chubby Jackson Dies in Rancho Bernardo

Source: All About Jazz
October 7, 2003

Jazz bassist and scat singer Chubby Jackson died in Rancho Bernardo, California on Oct 1, 2003 just shy of his 85th birthday.

Chubby was often called the cheer leader of Jazz for his enthusiasm and humor that was so much a part of his musical career. He was respected for his incredible energy on and off the bandstand. His death came after a long battle with kidney failure and cancer.

In a statement from his Florida home, Chubby's son, drummer ...

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Nina Simone: Singer Dubbed The High Priestess of Soul

Source: All About Jazz
April 24, 2003

Nina Simone genuinely earned the epithet unique. Although she was once dubbed The High Priestess of Soul, she fitted no precise musical pigeon-holes, and her genius was tempered by an unpredictability which made every concert an adventure for her audience. She could be a wildly inconsistent performer, given to ludicrously overdramatic delivery, abbreviated sets, and berating her paying customers for being insufficiently attentive. At the other extreme, she was a powerful, emotive singer who successfully bridged ...

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Nina Simone: A Tribute

Source: All About Jazz
April 23, 2003

For people the world over, the passing of the great, legendary Dr. Nina Simone will be met with much sadness. An often-unsung hero and pioneer in the civil rights movement, Nina was a woman of conviction who left her country of birth rather than compromise her artistic integrity, a woman who challenged the status quo, but more than that, a woman who knew how to touch the hearts of so many with her distinctive musical blend of jazz, blues and ...

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Nina Simone is Dead at 70

Source: All About Jazz
April 21, 2003

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Jutta Hipp: Pianist Made Brief Impact On 50s Bop Scene

Source: All About Jazz
April 10, 2003

Jutta Hipp studied painting in Leipzig, but became interested in jazz in the early 1940s, and formed her own group in Munich after the war. She worked with Hans Koller in Europe, and recorded for Blue Note with her own band in 1954.

She moved to the USA in 1955 and made further recordings with a trio which included Peter Ind (and later Ahamed Abdul-Malik) on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums, and also recorded with Zoot Sims. She stopped ...

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