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Remembering Herb Ellis Memorial April 30th
Source:
Michael Ricci
Herb Ellis, a jazz guitarist perhaps best known for his work with the influential Oscar Peterson Trio, has died. He was 88. Ellis, who had Alzheimer's disease, died Sunday morning March 28th at his home in Los Angeles, said his son, Mitch. During his long and varied career, Ellis played with Jimmy Dorsey and Ella Fitzgerald. He also worked as a studio musician and played in the bands of several television shows, including Steve Allen's and Merv Griffin's. There have ...
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Folk Music Singer and Actress Susan Reed Dubbed 'America's Concert Favorite'
Source:
All About Jazz
Folk music thrush and actress Susan Reed died April 25 of natural causes in Greenport, N.Y. She was 84.
Reed was introduced to folk music by members of Ireland's Abbey Players, who would spend time with her family during visits to the United States. She went on to star at Cafe Society in Gotham for two years and was a regular at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall and Los Angeles' Wilshire Ebell Theater. Life magazine saluted Reed in a 1955 cover ...
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Dorothy Provine Singer, Actress Star of "The Roaring Twenties" Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Dorothy Provine, who played the singing, high-kicking flapper in the early-1960s TV series “The Roaring Twenties" and appeared in the all-star movie comedy “It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," has died. She was 75. Provine, a longtime resident of Bainbridge Island, Wash., died of emphysema Sunday at Hospice of Kitsap County in Bremerton, said her husband, Robert Day. A former University of Washington drama major, Provine landed the title role in the low-budget 1958 gangster film “The Bonnie Parker ...
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Italian Screenwriter Furio Scarpelli, Co-Wrote 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and 'The Postman,'
Source:
Michael Ricci
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Furio Scarpelli, who co-wrote some of the best Italian comedies of the postwar period and who ventured into the spaghetti- western genre with the “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," had died, his family said Wednesday. He was 90. Scarpelli died at his home in Rome shortly after midnight, his son, Matteo Scarpelli, told the Associated Press. He had long suffered from heart problems. During a decades-long, prolific partnership with Agenore Incrocci, who went by the name ...
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Gene Lees, Jazz Critic and Historian, Dies at 82
Source:
Michael Ricci
Gene Lees, a prolific jazz critic and historian who approached his subject with a journalist's rigor and an insider's understanding, died on Thursday at his home in Ojai, Calif. He was 82. The apparent cause was a stroke, said Leslie A. Westbrook, a family spokeswoman. The author of numerous books, Mr. Lees was not just an observer of the music scene, he was also a participant. He was an accomplished lyricist whose credits included “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars," the ...
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Purvis Young, Folk Artist Who Peppered Miami with Images, Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
Purvis Young, a self-taught painter who emerged from prison as a young man and by dint of his striking, expressionist vision of urban life and mammoth output over more than three decades transformed a forgotten Miami neighborhood into a destination for contemporary art aficionados, died on Tuesday in Miami. He was 67. An untitled painting on paper and mounted on cardboard by Mr. Young. Many of his works were made on found materials. The cause was cardiac arrest and pulmonary ...
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Gene Lees Jazz Historian and Critic Dies
Source:
Michael Ricci
A Canadian by birth who moved to Ojai more than 30 years ago, he wrote highly personal essays and biographies of such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman and Johnny Mercer.
Gene Lees, a jazz historian and critic known for his pugnacious, highly personal essays and biographies of such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman and Johnny Mercer, died Thursday at his home in Ojai. He was 82. Lees had struggled for many years with heart disease, said ...
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Gene Lees, 1928-2010
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Gene Lees died today. We lost a writer unsurpassed at illuminating music and the world that musicians inhabit. I lost a cherished colleague whose work inspired me, a dear friend whose companionship brightened my existence. For a formal biography, see his entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia. My remarks are more personal.
Gene's books about Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer and Lerner and Lowe are among the finest biographies of our time, regardless of category. He was completing ...
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