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Billy Root (1934-2013)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Billy Root, a tenor and baritone saxophonist in several major big bands and small jazz groups in the 1950s and 1960s before he relocated to Las Vegas in 1968 just as the city was becoming a pop and rock entertainment capital, died July 30. He was 79. Billy was born in Philadelphia and his father was a drummer who took him to see Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford and other bands in the '40s. Billy began playing tenor sax ...
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Writer of hits JJ Cale dead at 74, official website says
Source:
Michael Ricci
(CNN) — Musician JJ Cale, whose songs “Cocaine" and “After Midnight" were made famous by Eric Clapton, died Friday after suffering a heart attack, his official website and his management agency's website announced. His contemporaries considered him a legend, even if many fans weren't familiar with his name. He was 74. CNN's calls Saturday to Cale's representatives, the medical examiner's officer in San Diego County and Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla were not immediately returned. Lynyrd Skynyrd made Cale's ...
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Two Losses, One Gain
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
This week, jazz lost two artists who made substantial contributions to the music. The vibraharpist Peter Appleyard was one of Canada’s best known jazz musicians. Laurie Frink was a New York jazz community insider, honored as a masterly lead trumpeter, revered as a teacher. Born in England in 1928, Appleyard moved to Canada in his early twenties, established himself in Toronto’s jazz community and became a popular figure on Canadian television. He toured for nearly a decade as a featured ...
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Paul Smith (1922-2013)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the late 1940s and 1950s, few pianists moved as effortlessly and deftly between jazz and pop as pianist Paul Smith—who died June 29 at age 91. Instrumental pop, as a genre, came into its own after 1948, with the advent of the 10-inch LP. Pop back then still had plenty of swing but was really jazz-light—easy-going music that had a bit of kick but didn't venture too far off a familiar song's melody. One could argue that many of ...
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Paul Smith, 1922-3013
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Another pianist, primarily noted for his impeccable accompaniment of singers but who was also a soloist of wide ranging abilities, died today. Paul Smith was 91. He was probably best known for his work with Ella Fitzgerald. He also played for Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan and Doris Day, among others. Early in his career, he worked with Ozzie Nelson, Les Paul and Tommy Dorsey. For a quarter of a century, he was the music director for Steve Allen’s television program. ...
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Bengt Hallberg RIP
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Bengt Hallberg, honored as one of the finest pianists in modern jazz, died today in Uppsala, Sweden, of congestive heart failure. He was 80 years old. Hallberg’s keyboard touch and harmonic inventiveness came to the attention of musicians and listeners outside his native Sweden on Stan Getz’s 1951 recording of the traditional song “Ack Värmeland du sköna,” released in the US as “Dear Old Stockholm.” He made a further impression internationally with his playing on Quincy Jones arrangements for Clifford ...
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Jeanne Arland Peterson, matriarch of Minnesota jazz, dies at 91
Source:
Michael Ricci
Her two daughters escorted the frail woman to the piano at Hopkins Center for the Arts. After she sat down and put her fingers on the keys, Jeanne Arland Peterson couldn’t have seemed more at home. Her timing was impeccable, her melodies ornate and her sense of rhythm swinging. For her swan-song performance on a cold night last December, the matriarch of Minnesota jazz was scheduled to perform two piano pieces. She ended up playing several numbers — some solo, ...
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Jazz Face: Jeanne Arland Peterson, 1921-2013
Source:
JazzINK by Andrea Canter
If Minnesotans only know one area jazz musician by name, it's most like Jeanne Arland Peterson. Maybe they remember her as the organist for the Minnesota Twins 40 years ago. Or remember her voice and piano skills over two decades on WCCO radio. More recently, she was often heard with three (and later four) generations of family musicians on holiday concert and jazz festival stages, or with her daughters Patty and Linda at a Mother's Day brunch. Area jazz fans ...
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