Obituary News

Jazz Pianist and Composer Weldon Irvine Dead from Gunshot Wound to Head Via Suicide

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2002

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David "Bubba" Brooks: May 29, 1922 - April 11, 2002

Source: All About Jazz
April 18, 2002

David Kenneth Brooks known a “Bubba" in the jazz community was a swing musician from the old school passed over Thursday, April 11, 2002 at Harlem Hospital. His tenor saxophone sound, derived from Coleman Hawkins to Chu Berry to Hershel Evans to Lester Young and Paul Gonsalves always expressed a personal feeling for the blues. Jazz patron Al Vollmer said, “He digested all the greats and it still came out as Bubba Brooks." Mr. Brooks was born in the “silk ...

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John Cephas, Guitarist with the Duo Cephas and Wiggins, Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 7, 2009

John Cephas, a guitarist and singer who kept the Piedmont blues style alive as part of the duo Cephas and Wiggins, died on Wednesday at his home in Woodford, Va. He was 78.

Less celebrated than the raw Delta blues of Mississippi or its electrified offshoot in Chicago, the jaunty and melodic Piedmont sound developed in the coastal plains of Virginia and the Carolinas. Characterized by a lilting rhythm and complex fingerpicking guitar, it has echoes of ragtime and perhaps ...

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Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008)

Source: RVAjazz
December 31, 2008

Legendary trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died yesterday in the early morning from complications of a heart attack suffered on November 26. Hubbard became an immensely influential figure in jazz during his long career, which got a kick start in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the '60s.Here are some links to some fine obits and other posts around the web:NPR All Things Considered and the New York Times both provide obituaries worth reading. Ethan Iverson gives 16 iconic ...

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Walter Fuller, 93; Jazz Musician, Civil-Rights Pioneer

Source: All About Jazz

By Jack Williams Copley News Service

He traveled with medicine shows in his youth, a precocious musician doubling as a rattlesnake-toting stagehand for a doctor of potions and tonics.

He played his trumpet at Chicago speakeasies in the Al Capone era, often surrounded by armed patrons of dubious reputation.

And for several years, before and during World War II, he was lead trumpeter and vocalist for legendary jazz pianist Earl Fatha Hines.

When Walter Fuller made his home ...

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Teddy Edwards: Major Player on the West Coast Scene

Source: All About Jazz

Born: April 26, 1924 in Jackson, Mississippi Died: April 20, 2003 in Los Angeles, California

Teddy (Theodore Marcus) Edwards was a major figure on the post-war jazz scene in Los Angeles, where he settled in 1945, and adopted his familiar tenor (rather than alto) saxophone in a group led by Howard McGhee.

He led his own bands for five decades, and also worked as a soloist with many major names in jazz, including Max Roach, Benny Goodman, Shelly ...

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Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian Drummer, Dies at 76

Source: All About Jazz

Babatunde Olatunji, the Nigerian drummer, bandleader and teacher who was a tireless ambassador for African music and culture in the United States, died on Sunday in Salinas, Calif. He was 76 and lived at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif.

The cause was complications of advanced diabetes, said his daughter Modupe Olantunji Anuku.

Mr. Olatunji's 1959 album, Drums of Passion, was the first album of African drumming recorded in stereo in an American studio, and it introduced a generation ...

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Bobby Rodr

Source: All About Jazz

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