Home » Jazz News
Obituary News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Stan Tracey dies aged 86
Source:
Michael Ricci
Stan Tracey, a prime mover in British jazz for more than half a century, has died at the age of 86. The jazz pianist and composer had a keen musical intelligence and was renowned for Under Milk Wood, his 1968 suite based around Dylan Thomas's radio play. Tracey was born on December 30, 1926, in Denmark Hill, South London, and made numerous albums, some of which deserve a place among the great post-war jazz recordings. His father was not musical ...
Continue Reading
Chico Hamilton
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Chico Hamilton’s drumming with the original Gerry Mulligan Quartet and his own small groups helped introduce many young listeners to jazz in the 1950s. His death last week in New York brought a reaction from Don Conner that may strike a chord with other Rifftides readers. R.I.P. Chico Hamilton! Chico died recently at 92. This was meaningful to me as Chico’s group was the first live band I’d ever heard. I was 18 and L.A. was dark and mysterious. I ...
Continue Reading
NEA Jazz Master Chico Hamilton Dead At 92
Source:
AMT Public Relations
Jazz Legend Chico Hamilton Dead at 92 “I'm happy to say that I'm able to find people wherever I go that are not black, not white- they're just human beings. I don't dig staying in one groove. At this stage of my life, I've dedicated myself to playing what I want to play, how I want to play it, for the rest of my time. Regardless of whether one might like it or one might not like it. That's where ...
Continue Reading
West Coast jazz great Chico Hamilton dies at 92
Source:
Michael Ricci
Bandleader, drummer and NEA jazz master Chico Hamilton has died. He was 92 years old. Born Foreststorn Hamilton in Los Angeles in 1921, Hamilton's music career began with some notable high school classmates including future legends in their own right, Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus. He eventually went on to perform and tour with Lester Young, Lena Horne and Gerry Mulligan before putting together his first quintet in 1955. A landmark group that forged the sound of West Coast jazz ...
Continue Reading
Chico Hamilton, a California Cool Jazzman, Dies at 92
Source:
Michael Ricci
Chico Hamilton, a drummer and bandleader who helped put California on the jazz map in the 1950s and remained active into the 21st century, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 92. His death was announced by April Thibeault, his publicist. Never among the flashiest or most muscular of jazz drummers, Mr. Hamilton had a subtle and melodic approach that made him ideally suited for the refined, understated style that came to be known as cool jazz, of which his ...
Continue Reading
Father John D'Amico, jazz piano player, composer and teacher
Source:
Michael Ricci
If his smile was like a warm hug, as a fan put it, his piano playing was like a mellow caress. Father John D'Amico was not only an outstanding jazz pianist who gathered fans wherever he played throughout the city, but he was also a warm and fuzzy friend and a man devoted to social causes. When he died Thursday in Lankenau Hospital, doctors and nurses wept. “They really loved him," said his wife, Kathleen. “He was the kind of ...
Continue Reading
Frank Wess, 91, Saxophonist and Flutist With the Basie Band, Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Frank Wess, who helped popularize the flute as a jazz instrument in the 1950s and ’60s with the Count Basie Orchestra, where he was also a standout saxophone soloist, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 91. The cause was a heart attack related to kidney failure, said his longtime companion, Sara Tsutsumi. Mr. Wess was not the first flutist in jazz. But his tonally rich and technically deft flute solos enjoyed an unusually prominent platform: the front row of ...
Continue Reading
Frank Wess dies at 91; key player in major jazz ensembles
Source:
Michael Ricci
Though the saxophonist never became as famous as other musicians of his time, he was a force in making the flute a jazz instrument. Long before jazz pianist Billy Taylor became world-famous, he planned in high school to switch to saxophone. But then he heard the new kid in school—Frank Wess—play the horn. “He's the reason I don't play the tenor saxophone," Taylor said in a 2008 Washington Post interview. “Even in his teens, he was really a remarkable player." ...
Continue Reading
