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Med Flory, 1926-2014
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Alto saxophonist Med Flory was best known to the general public as an actor, but jazz listeners are most likely to remember him as the co-founder and leader of Supersax. Flory died this week at the age of 87. He made hundreds of appearances in television shows and a few in motion pictures, usually as characters in westerns and action flicks. He’s the big man in the foreground in a scene from the 1966 film Night Of The Grizzly. He ...
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Iola Brubeck, 90, Widow Of Jazz Great Dave Brubeck Dies, Helped Promote Music Genre Worldwide
Source:
Keith Michaud
Iola Whitlock Brubeck, the widow and lifelong collaborator of jazz great Dave Brubeck, died March 12, 2014, at her home after a brave battle with cancer. The University of the Pacific alumna was 90 years old. Mrs. Brubeck earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1945 from College of the Pacific, which became University of the Pacific, where she first met the man who would be her husband. She became an educator, radio producer and writer and served as her ...
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Vocalist/Pianist Patty Wicks: 1945-2014
Source:
All About Jazz
Vocalist and pianist Patti Wicks, who divided her jazz life between New York and Florida for the past 40 years, recording several well-considered albums since the turn of the new century, died from heart failure March 7 in West Palm Beach, Fla. She was 69-years old. Wicks belonged to that rarefied group of performers that include Shirley Horn, Nina Simone and Blossom Dearie—vocalists who play piano. Her piano playing was informed by Bill Evans and her singing by Horn. Her ...
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Renowned Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia dies at 66
Source:
Michael Ricci
Paco de Lucia, the influential Spanish guitarist who vastly expanded the international audience for flamenco and merged it with other musical styles, died suddenly on Wednesday of a heart attack in Mexico. The 66-year-old virtuoso, as happy playing seemingly impossible syncopated flamenco rhythms as he was improvising jazz or classical guitar, helped to legitimize flamenco in Spain itself at a time when it was shunned by the mainstream. “I learned the guitar like a child learns to speak," the guitarist ...
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Trebor Tichenor 1940 - 2014
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Trebor Tichenor, the St. Louis native who became internationally known as a ragtime pianist and historian, has died. He was 74. An obituary in Tuesday's Post-Dispatch says he died Saturday at Laclede Groves in Webster Groves after having suffered a stroke in December. As pianist for the St. Louis Ragtimers, Tichenor (pictured) was a regular performer on St. Louis stages and at ragtime and traditional jazz festivals across the country for five decades. He accumulated what was said to be ...
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Remembering Charlie Bourgeois: 1919-2014
Source:
Carolyn McClair Public Relations
An Arbiter of Good Taste in Music, Cuisine, Fashion and People Long-time Festival Public Relations Director April 27, 1919 – January 26, 2014 New York, NY – Charles Bourgeois, who directed public relations efforts for every festival and event produced by music impresario George Wein since the early 1950s, died Sunday, January 26, from injuries suffered after a fall in his home, it was announced by Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. He was 94. Born April 27, 1919, in Island Pond, ...
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Passings: Alice Babs, Dick Berk
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Alice Babs, the Swedish singer whom Duke Ellington once called “probably the most unique artist I know,” died today in her native Sweden. She was 90. Her breakthrough came in 1940 in the Swedishfilm Swing it magistern (Swing It, Teacher!) She went on to make her name in stage, motion picture and television work, singing in several genres and collaborating with violinist Svend Asmussen and other Scandinavian jazz artists. Her pure soprano voice and rhythmic ability brought her to Ellington’s ...
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Richard McDonnell 1946 - 2014
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Richard “Rich" McDonnell, the former investment banker who founded and ran the independent St. Louis-based label MAXJAZZ, has died. He was 68. Several reports from friends on Facebook say that McDonnell had a stroke on Friday night while watching Houston Person and the Bill Charlap trio at Jazz at the Bistro, where he was a subscriber as well as a board member of the parent organization Jazz St. Louis. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died on ...
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