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Franco Cerri (1926-2021)
Franco Cerri, one of the world's finest jazz guitarists whose records and reputation have escaped most American jazz aficionados due to his desire to spend his career in Italy, died on October 18. He was 95. Ruggedly handsome with a joyous sense of swing and impeccable taste, Cerri (pronounced “Cherry") made nearly all of his recordings ...
Dr. Lonnie Smith (1942-2021)
Lonnie Smith, who added a Dr. in front of his name to differentiate himself from organist Lonnie Liston Smith and whose funk-driven organ in the 1960s was a key ingredient in many different soul-jazz combos, died on September 28. He was 79. In addition to his invented moniker, Lonnie's turban, by his own admission, had no ...
George Wein (1925-2021)
George Wein, who launched the outdoor pop-music festival business in 1954 and helped transform jazz from adult music heard in smokey, subterranean clubs to high art staged under the sun and stars for people of all ages on par with classical music, died on Sept. 13. He was 95. Though George considered himself a pragmatic, regular ...
Phil Schaap (1951-2021)
Phil Schaap, a jazz know-it-all, nudnik and tireless fact finder who put all of those skills to work to become one of radio's finest and most passionate jazz authorities, detectives and educators, died on September 7. He was 70. [Photo above of Phil Schaap at WKCR in 1991 by John Abbott, courtesy of John Abbott] Phil ...
Charlie Watts (1941-2021)
In most photos of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts always looked like the band's accountant. Unlike Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman, he didn't seem to fit in nor did it appear in photos that he wanted to. And in many ways he didn't. Watts, at the tail end of the 1950s, was ...
Ronnell Bright (1930-2021)
Ronnell Bright, a jazz pianist and composer who accompanied many of the finest mid-century female jazz vocalists, including Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Lorez Alexandria and Anita O'Day and subbed for Count Basie on several albums and tours, died on August 12. Ronnell was 91. His wife, Dianne Bright, said the cause was ...
Elliot Lawrence: 1925-2021
Elliot Lawrence, one of the last surviving big band leaders of the late 1940s and early 1950s who employed many of the finest and most sophisticated New York jazz musicians who went went on to leadership careers in the LP era, died on July 2. He was 96. In 1960, Elliot began composing, arranging and conducting ...
Margie Evans, Iconic And Sophisticated Queen Of The Blues, Dies At 81
Margie Evans, a legendary, international Blues and Gospel entertainer, songwriter, music producer, actress, music historian, community activist and motivational spokeswoman, who broke barriers for African American female Blues performers with poise, dignity and sophistication, died on March 19, 2021. In addition to her musicianship, Evans is noted as an activist for parity in music education as ...
Bertrand Tavernier (1941-2021)
Bertrand Tavernier, a French filmmaker who directed A Sunday in the Country, Life and Nothing But and, most notably, Round Midnight, a poetic film starring tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon and patterned after the last years of Bud Powell and Lester Young, died in Sainte-Maxime, France, on March 25. He was 79. Produced by Irwin Winkler and ...
Freddie Redd (1928-2021)
Freddie Redd, a hard-bop pianist whose funk-driven, percussive style and sophisticated sense of harmony were reminiscent of Horace Silver but whose recording output seemed thinner than his initial promise, died March 17. He was 92. Born in New York and largely self-taught, Redd recorded sporadically in the 1950s as a sideman, disappearing for blocks of time ...
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