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Mark Flugge | 1962-2014: Jazz pianist was busy performer, teacher
Source:
Michael Ricci
As his hearing grew worse and the distortion in his head louder, Mark Flugge struggled to perform the jazz music he loved. The double-punch proved particularly painful for the lifelong pianist. He battled nonstop tinnitus and hearing loss — as well as related depression — for nearly two years. On Sunday, the Bexley pianist took his own life at age 52. Increasingly in recent months, the pleasant tones of music and conversation resembled the din of robots and jackhammers. “A ...
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Remembering Joe Wilder
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Joe Wilder, admired for his trumpet tone, range, stylistic flexibility and for his elegance as a musician and person, is gone. Wilder died at the age of 92 last Friday in New York. Despite his modesty and disinclination to assert himself, his skill put him in demand by big band leaders including Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman, as well as a wide range of Broadway and television producers. Among the dozens of musicians with whom Wilder recorded were ...
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Joe Wilder, trumpeter and NEA jazz master, dies at 92
Source:
Michael Ricci
Joe Wilder, a trumpeter of understated lyricism and breathtaking range, who toured with some of the biggest names in jazz, helped integrate Broadway pit orchestras and enjoyed a late-career renaissance as a rediscovered master, died May 9 at a rehabilitation facility in New York City. He was 92. He had congestive heart failure, said a daughter, Elin Wilder-Melcher. Mr. Wilder performed with such jazz giants as Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie, but he seemed to spend ...
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Joe Wilder (1922-2014)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Joe Wilder, a trumpeter with a polished, punctuating sound whose ferocious recording schedule starting in 1942 with big bands, R&B groups and small jazz ensembles left him little time to record as a leader, died May 9. He was 92. Known to insiders as “Junior," Joe was such a clean and distinct player that he often sounded like a well-dressed pool shark cleaning the table. Like the shark who rids the table of balls with firm control and forceful strokes, ...
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Herb Wong, 1926-2014
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Herb Wong, an academic scientist who became prominent as a jazz critic, record company executive and festival producer, died this week. A PhD in Zoology, he was a native of northern California’s Bay Area.Wong continued to follow his boyhood enthusiasm for jazz as he developed an academic career, teaching at the University of California at Berkelely and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. A gentle man with infectious enthusiasm for all of his interests, Wong taught science, administered university departments ...
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Herb Wong, jazz icon and educator, dies at 88
Source:
Michael Ricci
Easter Sunday this year saw the passing of Herb Wong, 88, a long-time Menlo Park resident renowned internationally as a jazz expert and educator. A mysterious box sparked Mr. Wong's lifelong fascination with jazz. As young boys, he and his brother Elwood had just moved with their parents to Stockton when a package arrived on the doorstep, addressed to the former occupant. “As any boys would, they opened it up," said Paul Fingerote, a colleague and friend for more than ...
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Bay Area jazz lover, expert Herb Wong dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
MENLO PARK — Well-known jazz expert Herb Wong died at home early Sunday morning, leaving behind a legacy filled with writings and interviews covering the world of jazz over much of the 20th century. He was 88. “He had so many roles in the community," said Paul Fingerote, a friend and colleague for 35 years who was working on a book with the Bay Area jazz legend. “He was a true Renaissance man, plus he was a unique guy." Wong ...
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In Memoriam: Fred Ho
Source:
Michael Ricci
"Fred Ho's style is a genre unto itself, a pioneering fusion of free-jazz and traditional Chinese music that manages to combine truculence and delicacy with such natural ease that it sounds positively organic." —Larry Birnbaum, Down Beat. After 8 years of a grueling cancer war, Fred Ho peacefully passed away the morning of April 12th, 2014. He was in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn home, surrounded by friends and loved ones. Fred Ho was a one-of-a-kind revolutionary Chinese American baritone saxophonist, composer, ...
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