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Obituary

Pianist Joe Bonner Passes

Source: James Nadal
November 24, 2014

By Arturo Gomez, KUVO Denver The extremely gifted composer and pianist, a resident of the Denver area since the early 1980s has passed away. Joe Bonner was born April 20, 1948 in Rocky Mount, NC, he died Friday, November 20, 2014 in Denver. He recorded and toured with many giants of jazz including Pharaoh Sanders, Woody Shaw, Leon Thomas, Harold Vick, Fred Wesley, Richie Cole, Carlos Garnett, Azar Lawrence, Roy Brook, Billy Harper and many others. Joe had recently recorded ...

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Obituary

Loss Of A Quiet Giant: Will Connell 1938-2014

Source: John Pietaro
November 22, 2014

By John Pietaro I was heartily saddened by the sudden unexpected phone call: downtown’s unsung hero of Free Jazz, Will Connell, Jr., was hospitalized and non-responsive. Immediately the jazz and new music community rallied and the outpouring of love for Will was apparent. We’d all been preparing for his big moment at the front of the stage, his week-long residency at the Stone, set to occur in December. None of this made sense yet one day later, November 19, the ...

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Obituary

Buddy Catlett, 1933-2014

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
November 14, 2014

I was saddened to learn on the road that Buddy Catlett died yesterday. I remember him looking as he does in this photograph made around the time we were both involved in Seattle’s vibrant jazz community in the early-to-mid 1950s. He left town to work with a variety of large and small bands. By the end of the decade Buddy had joined the big band his childhood friend Quincy Jones took to Europe that also included Seattleites Floyd Standifer and ...

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Obituary

Acker Bilk: Legendary jazz clarinettist dies aged 85

Source: Michael Ricci
November 3, 2014

Clarinettist Acker Bilk, who personified the trad jazz revival of the 1950s and '60s, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 85. His most famous song Stranger on the Shore was the UK's biggest selling single of 1962 and made him an international star. Born Bernard Stanley Bilk, he changed his name to Acker - Somerset slang for “mate" - after learning to play the clarinet in the Army. His last concert was in August 2013. Pamela ...

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Obituary

Kenny Wheeler is Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 20, 2014

Kenny Wheeler, a Canadian who became a towering figure in British music and an icon of jazz musicians around the world, has succumbed to a long illness. He was in a London nursing home for several months and was moved recently to the hospital where he died. He was 84. Wheeler’s brilliance as a composer and arranger, dating from from the 1960s, came to be generally acknowledged fairly late in his career. From the 1968 suite based on Don Quixote ...

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Obituary

Kenny Wheeler, contemporary jazz musician, dies aged 84

Source: Michael Ricci
September 19, 2014

Trumpeter and composer became part of the free-improvisation movement after joining the London jazz scene Kenny Wheeler, one of the giants of British jazz, has died aged 84. Born in Canada in 1930, the trumpeter and composer joined the London jazz scene after moving to Britain in 1952. He played in groups alongside the likes of Ronnie Scott, John Dankworth and Tubby Hayes as well becoming part of the free-improvisation movement. He gained critical attention in the 1970s with a ...

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Obituary

Jackie Cain (1928-2014)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 17, 2014

Jackie Cain, a vocalist who gave bebop a carefree vocalese spin in the late 1940s with her singer-pianist husband Roy Kral and, as Jackie and Roy, became one of the most beloved jazz-pop singing duos and recording artists of the 1950s and beyond, died Sept. 15 at her home in New Jersey. She was 86. Throughout her career, Jackie was widely admired by jazz and pop vocalists but never duplicated or bested. The ringing sound of her voice, ease of ...

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Obituary

Losses: Jackie Cain, Joe Sample

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
September 17, 2014

Following a long illness, Jackie Cain died Monday afternoon in her New Jersey home. She was 86. She and Roy Kral combined their talents in 1946. They incorporated the spirit of bebop in their work with Charlie Ventura’s sextet, capturing the public imagination with “East of Suez” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” Recorded with Ventura at a concert in Pasadena, California, in 1949, the records received widespread radio airplay in the days when that was still a route to jazz ...

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