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John Thms. Williams (1929-2018)
John Thomas Williams, a spritied jazz pianist strongly influenced by Bud Powell and Horace Silver who recorded with the Stan Getz Quintet in the early 1950s before recording his two sole leadership albums for EmArcy in 1954 and '55, died on December 15. He was 89. Born in Windsor, Vt., Williams began as a church organist ...
Nancy Wilson: 1937-2018
Nancy Wilson, a sassy and sultry jazz-pop singer with extraordinary vocal and visual performing talents who emerged in 1959 just as the pop charts were starting to be dominated by soft Brazilian voices, vocal harmonies by beach bands, British invaders and back-beat soul from Detroit and Memphis, died yesterday. She was 81. Nancy was first and ...
Roy Hargrove (1969-2018)
Roy Hargrove, a jazz trumpeter whose chance encounter with Wynton Marsalis in the 11th grade catapulted him from Fort Worth, Texas, to stardom at age 20 in 1990 after tours with Marsalis and a year at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, died November 2. He was 49. Here are five clips that illustrate his ...
Roy Hargrove, 1969-2018
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove died of a heart attack in New York yesterday at the age of 49. Hargrove was one of a coterie of young musicians who came to prominence following the sudden superstardom of fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s. Record companies scrambled to find their own Marsalises. Hargrove became famous not long after ...
Rest In Peace Paul Allen: Friend Of Music and Much More
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recently passed away, and is remembered as a tech billionaire and noted philanthropist. The Seattle music industry was among the beneficiaries of his generosity, with Allen helping to foster the creative sector. Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy Paul Allen was a co-founder of Microsoft and hence a “tech ...
Hamiet Bluiett 1940 - 2018
Hamiet Bluiett, a native of Brooklyn, IL who co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet and redefined the capabilities of the baritone sax in improvised music, died the morning of Thursday, October 4 at St. Louis University Hospital. He was 78 years old. Bluiett, whose birthday was September 16, had been gravely ill for some time, and according ...
Big Jay McNeely (1927-2018)
Cecil “Big Jay" NcNeely, the father of the R&B tenor saxophone whose stamina and extravagant stage act starting in the late 1940s included playing on his back, setting the tone for rock 'n' roll and soul artists who followed, died on Sept. 16. He was 91. Big Jay had several significant R&B hits in the late ...
Don Gardner: 1931–2018
Philadelphia lost another great cultural leader this week with the passing of Donald Gardner, who died on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, at the age of 87. Gardner’s legacy spanned eight decades starting in 1947 as a singer and songwriter. His biggest hit was “Need Your Lovin,” which rose to number four on the R&B charts in ...
Randy Weston (1926-2018)
Randy Weston, a jazz pianist and composer who was the first artist producer Orrin Keepnews signed to his new Riverside label in 1954 and who became one of the most ardent champions of Pan-Africanism in jazz, died on September 1. He was 92. [Photo of Randy Weston by Chester Higgins] Randy was perhaps best known for ...
Randy Weston, 1926-2018
Pianist and composer Randy Weston, who championed the African origins of jazz, died at home in New York yesterday. He was 92. With his distinctive rhythmic patterns and powerful harmonic progressions, Weston underlined the African heritage that so definitively helped shape the music’s development. He frequently visited and performed in Nigeria and other African nations. For ...
