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Ronnie Spector (1943-2022)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ronnie Spector, whose quivering, commanding vocals as the lead singer of the Ronettes in the early 1960s touched the hearts of love-struck teens and set new standards for girl groups on records and TV shows, died January 12. She was 78. With her high, sonorous teenage voice and distinct New York accent, Ronnie, along with the Ronettes, had a way of connecting instantly with young radio listeners, especially in urban markets. Under the guidance of record producer Phil Spector starting ...
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2022 - Jazz musicians felled by coronavirus, Chapter 6
Source:
Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Here is the latest update to our running, chronological list of jazz-related jazz-related COVID-19 deaths, updated as we receive them. This segment begins with deaths in 2022. Chapter 5 covers the second half of 2021 and Chapter 4 lists deaths in the first half of the 2021, a combined 57 known losses. Chapters one, two and three contain 2020's 63 known losses. Our profound sympathies to their families, friends and fans as we remember the musical legacies they have given ...
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Barry Harris (1929-2021)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Barry Harris, a jazz pianist and beloved educator whose leadership and sideman recordings celebrated bebop—the 1940s modernist movement that established a roadmap for improvised jazz—died on December 8. He was 91. Though Harris was too young to have participated in bop's birth or initial popularity in the years immediately after World War II, the Detroit-based pianist caught the tail end of the first wave. In particular, he was influenced by and adored Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, bebop's founding-father pianists, ...
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Slide Hampton (1932-2021)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Slide Hampton, a slide trombonist and a prolific leader, composer and arranger for many of the most significant big bands of the post-war era, including several led by Maynard Ferguson, died November 18. He was 89. Though not as well known to jazz fans as J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Urbie Green or Curtis Fuller, Hampton was an in-demand sideman, arranger and leader whose smooth, punchy playing and whip-cracking arrangements delivered drama and daring. Here are 10 favorite tracks—including 8 as ...
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Margo Guryan (1937-2021)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Margo Guryan, a singer-songwriter and sunshine pop pioneer whose first and only commercial album in 1968 was notable for its swinging, breathy approach and layered vocal overdubs, died on Nov. 8. She was 84. Guryan's album, Take a Picture, for Bell Records, had a happy-go-lucky, bedroom-and-incense feel and still sounds of the era—between San Francisco's Summer of Love and before the violence at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968. The album also has a distinctly young, ...
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Canadian Jazz Guitarist Jim Kilburn Departs at 94
Source:
All About Jazz
Born October 3, 1927, Canadian jazz guitarist Jim Kilburn passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 13, 2021, at 10:50 am at the age of 94 at his Qualicum, BC, Vancouver Island home. A cast member of the short documentary film, In the Zone: Rick Kilburn, the jazz guitarist had peaked at 11.2 million internet hits on the movie website IMDB Pro in October 2021. A husband, father, music mentor, writer of fly-fishing and entomology, master fly-tier, illustrator, cartoonist, electrical technician, ...
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Pat Martino (1944-2021)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pat Martino, a hard-swinging jazz guitarist whose singular soul-jazz feel elevated his visibility in 1970s only to suffer a health crisis that forced him to relearn the instrument with miraculous results, died on Nov. 1. He was 77. Martino's recording career began in 1963 under his real name, Pat Azzara. He started as a sideman on Willis Jackson's Gravy album. Recording for Prestige, Martino was swept up into the label's distinct soul-jazz sound that would distinguish its recordings into the ...
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Dave Brubeck and Mort Sahl
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mort Sahl, a Canadian-born American comedian who helped pioneer socio-political satire in the 1950s and '60s, died on October 26. He was 94. For a brief moment in 1958, he hosted a pilot for a local San Franciso TV jazz show called Jam Session. He wasn't the show's planned host but he agreed to sit in. And why not? The group featured live at the Black Hawk was the Dave Brubeck Quartet. What's special about the following clip is the ...
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