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John Zacherle (1918-2016)
John Zacherle, a rail-thin B-movie actor who in the late 1950s and '60s became a wildly popular host of children's television shows in Philadelphia and New York, where he appeared dressed as a ghoulish undertaker with a sophisticated wit and sinister laugh, died on Oct. 27, four days before Halloween. He was 98. Zacherle's death may ...
Al Stewart (1927-2016)
Al Stewart, a first-chair swing trumpeter who recorded on some of the most significant New York big-band recordings of the late 1940s and '50s and toured with many marquee jazz orchestras, died on Oct. 17 in Sarasota, Fla., according to his daughter, Amy Abigail Stewart. He was 89. A superb studio sight-reader, Al was in the ...
Claus Ogerman (1930-2016)
Claus Ogerman, an achingly beautiful jazz-pop orchestral arranger whose signature sound behind singers and instrumentalists featured violins scored in a high register with the violas, cellos and bass playing sensually voiced chords below, died in Germany on March 8. He was 85. News of Ogerman’s passing more than seven moths ago seems to have escaped traditional ...
Rudy Van Gelder (1924-2016)
Rudy Van Gelder, a New Jersey optometrist who in the late 1940s extended his passion for ocular precision to professional recording and wound up becoming one of jazz's finest and most enigmatic studio engineers, died on Aug. 25. He was 91. When Rudy started recording at his parents Hackensack, N.J., home (above), he knew virtually nothing ...
Rudy Van Gelder, 1924-2016
Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded thousands of albums by musicians including some of the most important in jazz, died today at 91. As a young man, Van Gelder began recording in a room in his parents’ house in Teaneck, New Jersey. Among his recordings were early albums by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. He was a ...
Toots Thielemans 1922-2016
Toots Thielemans, the man who made the harmonica a well-known jazz instrument died today in Brussels, Belgium, his hometown. He was 94. Thielemans was recently hospitalized after a fall that resulted in a broken arm, but neither his family nor management representatives specified the cause of his death. On an instrument often dismissed as a novelty, ...
Toots Thielemans (1922-2016)
Toots Thielemans, a highly gifted swing-jazz guitarist, accordionist, harmonicist and whistler who began recording in his native Belgium just after World War II before relocating to the States in 1952 and was the composer of the jazz standard Bluesette, died Aug. 22. He was 94. In many respects, Thielemans brought a new level of respect to ...
Bobby Hutcherson: 1941-2016
Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone playing developed deep and complex harmonies, died on Monday at home in Montara, California. He was 75. When Hutcherson came to prominence in the early 1960s, he was in the forefront of young musicians already adept at bebop but seeking greater freedom. He expanded his instrument’s range of tonal colors, with particular ...
Bobby Hutcherson: 1941-2016
Bobby Hutcherson, whose swinging, ringing modal approach on the vibraphone not only revolutionized the instrument's role and personality but also soulfully mirrored the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s, died on Aug. 15. He was 75. Of all the jazz musicians who recorded important albums in the 1960s, Hutcherson (and Wayne Shorter, to some extent) captured a ...
Pete Fountain
As I prepared to leave Ystad, I learned that clarinetist Pete Fountain died on Saturday in New Orleans. By way of his recordings and television exposure, he became an unofficial and effective cultural spokesman for his beloved hometown and was happy to return there following his years in the 1950s with Lawrence Welk’s TV show. Despite ...


