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Yusef Lateef (1920-2013)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yusef Lateef, a saxophonist and flutist who was one of the last surviving members of Dizzy Gillespie's 1949 big band and who helped pioneer spiritual jazz in the mid-1950s, soul-jazz in the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley, and metaphysical jazz starting in the 1980s, died on December 23. He was 83. Yusef was among the first black jazz musicians to covert to Islam in 1948 through the Ahmadiyya Muslim movement and in later years eschewed the word “jazz"—viewing it as derogatory ...
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Yusef Lateef, R.I.P.
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The roll call of distinguished jazz artists leaving us seems to grow longer by the day. Now comes news of the passing of Yusef Lateef, who died today in Detroit. He was 93. As a youngster in Detroit, Lateefmastered several reed instruments and early in his career became a respected performer, composer and educator. He was an inspiration and model for a generation of young Detroit musicians who in the 1950s moved to New York and themselves became influences in ...
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Herb Geller, 1928-2013
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
We have word from Herb Geller’s family that the venerable alto saxophonist died on Thursday in a Hamburg, Germany, hospital. He succumbed to pneumonia. Geller had been under treatment for the past couple of years for a form of lymphoma. He turned 85 in November. As noted in this Rifftides post lastJune, Geller remained not merely active but energetic until fairly recently, performing in clubs and at festivals throughout Europe. He had lived in Hamburg since 1965. Until his mandatory ...
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Passings: Stan Tracey, George Buck
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Stan Tracey, the pianist sometimes called the godfather of British jazz, died on December 6. He was 86. Tracey helped to draw international attention to jazz in the United Kingdom and influenced the development of scores of younger players. Through most of the 1960s he was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s club in London and frequently accompanied visiting American musicians. Of that period, he told The Guardian’s John Fordam, ...with people like Rahsaan Roland Kirk or Sonny Rollins and ...
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Pianist and Educator Jimmy Amadie Passes Away at Age 76 After Long Battle with Cancer
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jimmy Amadie, the celebrated Philadelphia pianist and educator known for his contributions in improvisational jazz theory, passed away on December 10, 2013 in Philadelphia, PA. He was 76. His death comes after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007. Amadie was known not only for his supreme musicality, but also for his unrelenting fighting spirit. As a rising jazz pianist in the late 1950s, Amadie toured with the Woody Herman Band, accompanied Mel Torme, and played with some of jazz’s ...
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Jazz impresario & Palm Court Jazz Cafe owner George Buck dies at 84
Source:
Michael Ricci
NEW ORLEANS - George Buck, the businessman, producer and music impresario who preserved and enhanced the history of recorded New Orleans jazz and other music through his record labels and radio stations as well as the French Quarter’s Palm Court Jazz Cafe, died Wednesday. He was 84. Kathy Edegran, who with her husband, Lars, helps manage the Palm Court Jazz Cafe on Decatur St. and Mr. Buck's record labels, said Mr. Buck died of a heart attack. He had been ...
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Jim Hall, 1930-2013
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Devra Hall Levy informed friends this morning that her father died last night in his sleep at home in New York, six days following his 83rd birthday. In her message, Ms. Levy wrote from Los Angeles, “He was not feeling well, but had not to my knowledge been diagnosed with any particular illness.” Jim Hall was born in Buffalo, New York, raised in Cleveland and received his formal musical education at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The guitarist performed steadily ...
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Jim Hall (1930-2013)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jim Hall, a soft-spoken and sophisticated postmodernist jazz guitarist who recorded as a leader and with many of the most visionary artists on the East and West coasts, offering swinging rhythmic support and piercing melodic solos, died on December 10. He was 83. Thanks to early friendships with prolific artists and a reputation for being a lyrical musical adventurer, Jim appeared on many of jazz's finest recording sessions. In the mid-1950s, his work with the Chico Hamilton Quintet blazed a ...
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