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Jazz has lost another true master - Phil Woods
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Word spread very quickly through the jazz community this afternoon that alto saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master (Class of 2007) Phil Woods passed away today. He was 83. The news came less than a month after Woods told the audience at a September 4 concert at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh that he had just played his final gig. He had long suffered from emphysema and performed for several years while using oxygen. The Springfield MA native was a ...
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Delaware Water Gap jazz legend Phil Woods dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jazz legend Phil Woods died Tuesday morning, according to Bensing-Thomas Funeral Home in Stroudsburg. He was 83 years old. Woods, who lived in Delaware Water Gap since 1976 and is one of the founders of the prestigious DWG Celebration of the Arts jazz and arts festival, recorded with jazz visionaries as Quincy Jones, Clark Terry, Thelonious Monk, Benny Carter, John Coates Jr. and others during his distinguished career. Upon receiving the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in ...
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Legendary Crusaders Sax Man Wilton Felder Passes Away
Source:
Michael Ricci
Houston and the world lost a giant today with the passing of Wilton Felder, saxophonist for the fabled Crusaders. Mr. Felder was 75. Word of his passing reached the internet via longtime collaborator Ray Parker, Jr.’s Facebook page around 2 p.m. today. Felder’s passing comes only a year after the death of his lifelong friend and fellow Crusader Joe Sample. Crusaders trombonist Wayne Henderson died in April, 2014, which now leaves drummer Nesbert “Stix” Hooper as the only living Crusader ...
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Jazz loses one of its great advocates
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Jazz lost one of its finest ambassadors this holiday weekend. Broadcaster “Tom the Jazzman" Mallison died overnight in a head-on collision as he was driving home to Greenville after his weekly Sunday night radio show on North Carolina's Eastern Public Radio. He had been a steady volunteer broadcaster on the station in New Bern for more than 30 years. Mallison was a great friend, as well as a tremendous advocate for and promoter of jazz - and a mentor to ...
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Cilla Black (1943-2015)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Cilla Black, a singing coat-check girl at Liverpool's Cavern Club when the Beatles were getting their start who went on to become one of Britain's most beloved female pop singers, died on Aug. 1 at her summer home in Spain. She was 72. Despite being produced by George Martin, managed by Brian Epstein and helped along by pals John Lennon and Paul McCartney by giving her songs, Black was virtually unknown in the States. She had only three pop hits ...
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Van Alexander (1915-2015)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Van Alexander, a big band arranger and bandleader whose arrangements date back to 1936 and was best known for A-Tisket, a Tasket, a song he co-wrote with Ella Fitzgerald and arranged for Fitzgerald and Chick Webb in 1938, died on July 19 in Los Angeles. He was 100. When I interviewed Van in 2012, he was already in his late 90s but his memory was as sharp as a tack. I reached Van through arranger Johnny Mandel, and Van was ...
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Losses: Rumsey, Alexander, Taylor
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Howard Rumsey, the 1940s Stan Kenton bassist who went on to become a key figure in southern California jazz, died on February 15. He was 97. Although he continued to play the bass, Rumsey became famous as the entrepreneur who led the band at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach south of Los Angeles. The club was at the center of a 1950s west coast jazz movement that gained audiences around the world. Over more than a decade, some of the ...
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Howard Rumsey (1917-2015)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Howard Rumsey, a West Coast jazz bassist who began his recording career in Stan Kenton's orchestra in 1941 and managed the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., a club that became ground zero for the West Coast jazz sound starting in the early 1950s, died July 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 97. When I interviewed Howard in 2009, it quickly became apparent that the Lighthouse and Howard's Lighthouse All-Stars had paved the way for the airy jazz sound that ...
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