Obituary News

IAJE Founding Executive Director Passes Away at 89

Source: All About Jazz
November 5, 2002

Matt Betton, Executive Director Emeritus of the International Association for Jazz Education and founder of Manhattan Enterprises, Betton's Family Music Center, and Jazz Education Press passed away on November 3, 2002, at the Hospice Care Center in Loveland, Colorado.

As founding Executive Director of the National Association of Jazz Educators (later renamed the International Association for Jazz Education), Betton is credited with building the organization from the ground up during its first 20 years and establishing its reputation as the ...

Continue Reading

Dodo Marmarosa: Troubled Pianist Made Brief But Lasting Impact On Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
October 13, 2002

Michael “Dodo" Marmarosa was a reclusive personality who flitted in and out of jazz history after making an initial but lasting impact as one of the progenitors of bebop in the mid to late 1940s. He was said to have been a prodigiously gifted child at the piano in his native Pittsburgh, where his school mates included pianist Errol Garner. He studied classical piano before turning to jazz. He was given the rather unflattering nickname of Dodo because of his ...

Continue Reading

Modern /free jazz great, bassist Peter Kowald from Wuppertal Germany passed away at 2:00 am Saturday September 21, 2002 in NYC.

Source: All About Jazz
September 21, 2002

Peter Kowald bassist from Wuppertal Germany passed away at 2:00 am Saturday September 21, 2002 in NYC.

Kowald died of a heart attack at the home of Patricia and William Parker after playing a concert in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at B.T.M. with Masahiko Kono, Tatsuya Nakatani and Kazuhisa Uchihashi. Emergency workers tried to save him working intensely for 45 minutes.

Details regarding funeral arrangements and a memorial will be posted when we receive them.

Peter Kowald distinguished himself as one of ...

Continue Reading

Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa: Legendary jazz pianist

Source: Michael Ricci
September 20, 2002

Michael “Dodo" Marmarosa, a piano wunderkind who was for about a decade one of the most sought-after pianists in the history of jazz, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 76. For the past few years, Mr. Marmarosa was a resident at the VA Medical Center in Lincoln Lemington, where he occasionally played piano and organ for other residents and guests. On the day of his death, his sister, Doris Shepherd of Glenshaw, said he played a small ...

Continue Reading

Lionel Hampton: Vibes, Drums, Piano, Bandleader

Source: All About Jazz
September 15, 2002

Continue Reading

Lionel Hampton, 94, Pioneering Jazz Vibraphonist

Source: All About Jazz
September 2, 2002

By Claudia Levy - The Washington Post

Lionel Hampton, 94, the frenetic jazz vibraphonist, gifted bandleader and storied showman who was one of the most celebrated musicians of the swing era and went on to a six-decade career on the American stage, died Saturday in a hospital in New York after a heart attack.

Hampton, who made hundreds of records, was known for tremendous energy and for directing bands that were among the most long-lived and consistently popular large ensembles ...

Continue Reading

Jazz Great Lionel Hampton, 94, Dies

Source: All About Jazz
September 2, 2002

NEW YORK (AP)--Lionel Hampton, the vibraphone virtuoso and standout showman whose six-decade career ranked him with the greatest names in jazz history, died Saturday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 94.

Hampton, whose health was failing in recent years, died at Mount Sinai Medical Center at about 6:15 a.m., said his manager, Phil Leshin.

Hampton worked with a who's who of jazz greats, from Benny Goodman to Charlie Parker to Quincy Jones. But over the last decade, Hampton battled health ...

Continue Reading

Alan Lomax: Famous Collector of Music In The Field

Source: All About Jazz
July 28, 2002

Continue Reading