Results for "Obituary"

Jimmy Giuffre, Jazz Clarinetist and Composer, Dies at 86

April 28, 2008

Jimmy Giuffre, the adventurous clarinetist, composer and arranger whose 50-year journey through jazz led him from writing the Woody Herman anthem “Four Brothers" through minimalist, drummerless trios to striking experimental orchestral works, died on Thursday in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was 86. The cause was pneumonia, brought about by complications of Parkinson's disease, said his wife of ...

Jimmy Giuffre; Infused Jazz with Blues, Classical Notes

April 28, 2008

Jimmy Giuffre, a jazz musician who composed a popular big-band anthem of the 1940s and became an innovator of a minimalist form of classically inspired jazz, died April 24 at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass. He had Parkinson's disease and would have turned 87 today. Mr. Giuffre (pronounced JOO-free) had his greatest early fame as ...

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre Dead at 86

April 28, 2008

Pioneering jazz performer and composer Jimmy Giuffre, whose distinctive avant-garde clarinet style drove a lengthy career that included working with legend Woody Herman, has died at age 86, US media reported. Giuffre, a central figure in West Coast jazz best known for penning the big band classic “Four Brothers" with Herman in 1947, died Thursday in ...

Bebe Barron, Scored the Science Fiction Film "Forbidden Planet"

April 28, 2008

Bebe Barron, a pioneering composer who started manipulating sounds after receiving a tape recorder as a wedding present and later scored the 1956 science-fiction film “Forbidden Planet," the first full-length feature to use only electronic music, has died. She was 82. Barron died April 20 of complications related to old age at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in ...

Another Train, Another River: Jimmy Giuffre, 1921-2008

April 28, 2008

Jazz Legend Humphrey Lyttelton Dies

April 28, 2008

Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and presenter of Radio 4 comedy show “I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue", has died aged 86. Lyttelton, who had hosted the “self-styled antidote to panel games" since 1972, was admitted to hospital earlier this week for surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Best known as a musician, Lyttelton began playing the ...

George T. Butler Jr., Columbia Executive Greatly Influenced Jazz

April 28, 2008

George T. Butler Jr., an influential figure in the business of jazz as an A&R man and record company executive, died April 9 at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Calif. He was 76. Butler was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2005 but died of multiple organ failure, his sister, Jacqueline Butler Hairston, said. His overall ...

Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, Daughter of Legendary Broadway Impresario

April 26, 2008

Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the daughter of legendary Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, died of congestive heart failure April 11 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91. Stephenson was born Oct. 23, 1916, in New York City, where her father was famous for mounting the musical stage spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies. Her mother was ...

William F. Ludwig II, Son of the Founder of Ludwig Drum CO.

April 23, 2008

William F. Ludwig II, 91; son of the founder of Ludwig Drum Co. built a set for Ringo Starr Ringo Starr was so proud to play a Ludwig drum set during the Beatles' first televised appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964 that he asked William F. Ludwig II to build a special set for ...

Mahlon Clark, Respected Clarinetist's Passing Noted

April 23, 2008

Mahlon Clark, 84; clarinetist played with Welk, Sinatra and Madonna Mahlon Clark, the clarinetist who performed on the soundtracks of numerous Hollywood movies and recorded with artists as varied as Lawrence Welk and Madonna, has died. He was 84. Clark, who also played a well-known clarinet solo in recordings of “Baby Elephant Walk," died Sept. 20 ...