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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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Jim Hall, Jazz Guitarist, Dies at 83
Source:
Michael Ricci
Jim Hall, a jazz guitarist who for more than 50 years was admired by critics, aficionados and especially his fellow musicians for his impeccable technique and the warmth and subtlety of his playing, died on Tuesday at his home in Greenwich Village. He was 83. The cause was heart failure, his wife, Jane, said. The list of important musicians with whom Mr. Hall worked was enough to earn him a place in jazz history. It includes the pianist Bill Evans, ...
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Jazz guitarist Jim Hall dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Hall, one of the leading jazz guitarists of the modern era, whose subtle technique, lyrical sound and introspective approach strongly influenced younger proteges such as Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, died early Tuesday at age 83, his wife said. Hall died in his sleep after a short illness at his Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan, said Jane Hall, his wife of 48 years who described her husband as “truly beloved by everybody who ever met ...
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Jack Reardon (1934-2013)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Songwriter Jack Reardon, who wrote the lyrics to The Good Life in 1962 (music by Sacha Distel), died Dec. 3. He was 79. Jack wrote the lyrics to dozens of great songs, but The Good Life stands out. It was one of those songs that any artist in any music genre could pick up and knock out of the park. From time to time I'd get to chat with Jack whenever I'd call my dear friend and former record-industry executive ...
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