Obituary News

Tiny Dramas In Subtle Rhyme - The Genius Of Hal David

Source: Michael Ricci
September 9, 2012

The master lyricist wrote in the people's language, but with complexity to match Bacharach's tunes. Hal David's life was the spectacle of a hard thing done well, with grace. David completed his song in Los Angeles on Sept. 1, at 91. As a musician and lyric-writer, I grew up with his words, especially his celebrated work with Burt Bacharach. How easy the words rode - how twisty the musical rails. I asked a very accomplished songman, Paul Williams ("We've Only ...

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Byard Lancaster, 70, Famed Phila. Jazz Musician

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Byard Lancaster, 70, the Philadelphia jazz musician who earned an international reputation as an avant-garde musical explorer in the 1960s and 1970s, died of cancer Thursday, Aug. 23, at KeystoneCare in Wyndmoor, according to his sister, Mary Ann Lancaster Tyler.

In the decades that followed his early fame, he became a local institution, playing saxophone and flute on the streets, in subway concourses, and at clubs around the city.

Mr. Lancaster played alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones, as well as ...

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Jazz Bassist Flores, Hartford Resident, Dies At 41

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Charles Flores, a Grammy-winning jazz bassist who was born in Cuba but made his home in Hartford for more than two decades, died Wednesday at age 41. The cause was complications related to throat cancer, according to bandleader and composer Michel Camilo, who performed with Flores and counted him as a close friend. Flores had an “unforgettable smile," said Camilo, reached at his New York home. He was “truly gifted with a unique musical sensibility as well as a profound ...

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Von Freeman, 1922-2012

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
August 15, 2012

Von Freeman had everything it took to be a world-famous tenor saxophonist. He chose, instead, to remain in his native Chicago for his entire career. Appearances at a few jazz festivals in the US and abroad were the main exceptions. Freeman’s death on August 11 was announced today. He would have been 89 on October 3. Freeman shared many of the influences that affected such contemporary Chicago tenor artists as Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, Eddie Harris and Fred Anderson. Like ...

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NEA Statement on the Death of NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
August 15, 2012

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman's Statement on the Death of NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman “On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts, it is with great sadness that I acknowledge the passing of 2012 NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman. An extraordinary saxophonist with a sound all his own, Von Freeman's contributions to jazz – and specifically Chicago's jazz history – are numerous. We join many others in the jazz community and beyond in mourning his death while celebrating his ...

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New Orleans Iconic Musician Uncle Lionel Batiste Dies

Source: Wade Luquet
July 9, 2012

Treme Brass Band bass drum player “Uncle" Lionel Batiste passed away on Sunday at the age of 80 after a short illness. In a city filled with characters, Uncle Lionel may be the most recognizable. He began to play the bass drum at the age of ten and was a French Quarter tap dancer as a child. He played with numerous brass bands before settling in as a member of the Treme Brass Band with whom he played hundreds of ...

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Pete Cosey, 1943-2012

Source: Michael Ricci
June 7, 2012

Innovative guitarist 'knew what to do with just one note' Jazz guitarist Pete Cosey used electronic distortion and innovative methods of stringing and tuning his guitar to impress his signature sound on recordings by artists from bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to jazz great Miles Davis. “Pete's sound was something quite amazing," said Wendy Oxenhorn, executive director of the New York-based Jazz Foundation of America. “He took blues, funk, rap and jazz and combined it into a new sound." ...

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Disco Queen Donna Summer dies at 63

Source: Michael Ricci
May 18, 2012

Like the King of Pop or the Queen of Soul, Donna Summer was bestowed a title fitting of musical royalty — the Queen of Disco. Yet unlike Michael Jackson or Aretha Franklin, it was a designation she wasn't comfortable embracing. “I grew up on rock 'n' roll," Summer once said when explaining her reluctance to claim the title. Indeed, as disco boomed then crashed in a single decade in the 1970s, Summer, the beautiful voice and face of the genre ...

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