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Grady Tate RIP
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Grady Tate died on Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 85. His wife Vivian said that he had dementia. In demand for years as a drummer, he was encouraged by Peggy Lee to begin singing publicly and launched a new career as a vocalist. Tate’s professional debut was with the organist Wild Bill Davis in 1959. In the decades that followed, he worked with major jazz artists including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Oliver Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, ...
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Grady Tate (1932-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Grady Tate, one of the most prolific drummers in the soul-jazz era beginning in the early 1960s who recorded on nearly 700 sessions and who easily could have had a career as a vocalist, died on October 8. He was 85. Tate began his recording career with Wild Bill Davis, the father of the jazz organ, on Davis's 1959 album Flyin' High. He remained with Davis through four albums in the early 1960s. Listening to the recording today, you realize ...
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Pete Turner (1934-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pete Turner, a commercial photographer who befriended jazz producer Creed Taylor early in his career in the late 1950s and whose richly saturated color images were used on album covers by Creed when he was at ABC-Paramount, Impulse, Verve, A&M and, most notably, CTI, died Sept. 18. Turner was 83. Pete's iconic images were featured on hundreds of album covers, including Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Wes Montgomery's A Day in the Life, Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave ...
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Larry Elgart (1922-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Larry Elgart, an alto saxophonist and enterprising and tireless big-band leader whose major success began at the very moment when nearly all other swing orchestras were arthritic relics and the word “band" typically referred to four guys with long hair playing electric instruments and a drum set, died on August 29. He was 95. In the 1950s and '60s, Elgart frequently teamed with his trumpet-playing brother, Les, on albums and in concert, drawing deserved comparisons to other Swing-era siblings including ...
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John Abercrombie: 1944-2017
Source:
Universal Music Enterprises
From Tina Pelikan at ECM Records It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of the great guitarist John Abercrombie. John Abercrombie, one of the great improvisers, died on August 22, after a long illness. He will be much missed, for his sensitive musicality, his good companionship, and his dry humor which enhanced many a session. He leaves behind an extensive discography which will be studied as long as people continue to play jazz guitar. John made his ...
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Jerry Lewis: (1926-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jerry Lewis, whose geeky, high-strung brand of humor starting in the late 1940s made him a national sensation and early TV star while still in his 20s and whose seemingly ad-libbed routines as a befuddled jerk in '60s films influenced several generations of improv comics, died on Aug. 20. He was 91. Personally, I was never a huge fan. His nerdy comedy bits with Dean Martin always seemed grating and juvenile (a generational thing?), and most of his movies with ...
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Joe Fields, 1929-2017
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
On July 12 we lost Joe Fields. During his long career Fields was the guiding spirit of record labels committed to unalloyed jazz. He started the Cobblestone label and later changed its name to Muse. Among the dozens of musicians he recorded on Muse over three decades were Woody Shaw, Houston Person, Grant Green and Pat Martino. In the 1980 Fields absorbed the Savoy and Landmark labels, whose holdings encompassed recordings by major figures including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dexter ...
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Geri Allen (1957-2017)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Geri Allen, a jazz pianist and composer with a deeply personal approach to standards and original works who explored a lyrical and tender side of the avant-garde, died on June 27 of cancer. She was 60. Early in her career in the 1980s, Geri recorded extensively with saxophonist Oliver Lake and with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian. Into the 1990s and beyond, Geri seemed to add more and more earthiness and soul to her explorations than many avant-garde ...
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