Obituary News

Ruby Braff was Memoralized at Stenesky Memorial Chapel, February, 12, 2003

Source: All About Jazz
February 13, 2003

Continue Reading

Ruby Braff: Cornet Master with a Distinctive Voice

Source: All About Jazz
February 11, 2003

Cornet, trumpet Born: March 16, 1927 in Boston, Massachusetts Died: February 9, 2003 in North Chatham, Massachusetts

Ruby Braff began his jazz career as an out-of-time traditionalist playing with veteran jazzmen of an earlier age, and rose to establish his own standing as one of the handful of leading artists playing in traditional and mainstream idioms.

He did so on the back of one of the most beautiful instrumental sounds in jazz, a prodigious gift for ...

Continue Reading

Trumpeter/Cornetist Ruby Braff Dies at 75

Source: All About Jazz
February 10, 2003

Continue Reading

Mongo Santamaria: Cuban Percussionist Was Popular Latin Jazz Leader

Source: All About Jazz
February 8, 2003

Percussion, bandleader Born: April 7, 1922 in Havana, Cuba Died: February 1, 2003 in Miami, Florida

Mongo Santamaria enjoyed a long and successful career in Latin music. His recordings and concert performances ranged from the authentic percussion music of Afro-Cuban religious rituals through to Latin-jazz reworkings of American jazz and pop hits. His song Afro-Blue became a contemporary jazz standard, best-known in the coruscating version by saxophonist John Coltrane. His own adaptation ...

Continue Reading

Donald Blackman Dead at 60 (Jazz Saxaphonist)

Source: All About Jazz
February 2, 2003

Donald Blackman, jazz saxaphonist died last Tuesday on January 28th, 2003. He was creamated, and there was a quiet private service. However, a memorial is planned for him, and will be announced as soon as the information becomes available. He played with Hank Johnson Trio, and Tony Babino,vocalist on Staten Island, and many others. He will be missed by the people whose lives he touched. Cause of death was pulmonary edema (water on the lung). It was also rumored that ...

Continue Reading

Don Suhor: Veteran New Orleans jazzman (1932-2003)

Source: All About Jazz
January 29, 2003

By Charles Suhor Don Suhor, a clarinetist and alto saxophonist who spanned many styles and eras on the New Orleans jazz scene, died of cancer on January 27. He was 70 years old. Suhor's 55-year career “epitomized the life of the working New Orleans jazz musician," Keith Spera wrote in a Times-Picayune article. “Rarely a headliner, Mr. Suhor worked 'the grind,' playing jazz brunches, hotels and so-called tourist clubs, the bread-and-butter gigs that didn't lead to fame or recording contracts ...

Continue Reading

Bill Russo: Ground-breaking Composer and Arranger

Source: All About Jazz
January 23, 2003

Composer, arranger, conductor, trombone, teacher Born: June 25, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois Died: January 11, 2003 in Chicago, Illinois

Bill Russo was one of the most important composers and arrangers in jazz history. He contributed some of the most innovative orchestral scores ever written in a jazz idiom to the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the Fifties, and later founded important jazz orchestras in London and Chicago.

He was born William Joseph Russo, and attended the same ...

Continue Reading

Denise Jokinen Passed Away On Christmas Eve

Source: All About Jazz
December 30, 2002

Continue Reading