Results for "Obituary"

Surf-Rock Pioneer Richard Delvy Dies

February 12, 2010

Richard Delvy, a pioneering surf-rock drummer, composer, arranger, publisher and producer, died Feb. 6 at West Hills Hospital in California after a long illness. He was 67. Born on April 20, 1942, in Bridgeport, Conn., Delvy relocated to Southern California and became the drummer for the Bel-Airs, one of the earliest surf-rock groups. The band had ...

Fashion Diary: Alexander McQueen, an Appreciation

February 11, 2010

Alexander McQueen, the fashion world's reigning provocateur, was found dead Thursday morning at his home in London. He was 40. The police have not released an official report on the cause of death, but his press representatives at KCD Worldwide said it appeared to be suicide. McQueen's death comes days after his mother's death on Feb. ...

John Dankworth, RIP

February 7, 2010

Saxophonist Sir John Dankworth Dies

February 7, 2010

Sir John Dankworth, a totemic figure of the British jazz scene who worked as a musical director for artists including Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, has died at the age of 82. The saxophonist, whose career spanned more than half a century, died yesterday in King Edward VII hospital, London. He had been ill for ...

Vocal Coach to Stars Maurice Finnell Dies

February 4, 2010

Teacher, composer and vocal coach Maurice Finnell, who taught talent including Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Tyne Daly and Warren Beatty, died Jan. 5 in New York from complications from a fall. He was 93. Finnell was born in New Jersey, and started singing as a boy, performing the theme song for Douglas Fairbanks film “Reaching For ...

Going and Coming: John Norris, Infinite Quintet

February 2, 2010

GOING To repeat: I have no intention of Rifftides becoming an obituary service, but as James Moody says his grandmother told him, “Folks is dyin' what ain't never died before," and some passings demand to be observed. John Norris died yesterday in Toronto at the age of 76. He was the founder of the Canadian jazz ...

Joyce Collins, 1930-2010

January 30, 2010

The pianist and singer Joyce Collins died recently in Los Angeles following a long illness. She was 79. Highly respected in jazz circles, Collins played with a sensitive touch and subtle use of chords. Her singing was an outgrowth of those values, with attention to interpretation of the meaning of songs and, as Marian McPartland put ...

Paul R. Jones Major Collector of African American Art Dies

January 29, 2010

Jones acquired drawings, paintings, photos, sculptures and other works by black artists. 'My goal has been to incorporate African American art into American art,' he once said. Paul Jones began buying pieces in the 1960s after noting that African American art was underrepresented in public galleries. In 2008, he donated about 1,700 pieces valued at $5 ...

J.D. Salinger: A Gift of Words and Silence

January 29, 2010

AN APPRECIATION In his greatest works, a clash between self-expression and self-effacement. “Don't ever tell anybody anything," J.D. Salinger wrote in the closing lines of “The Catcher in the Rye." “If you do, you start missing everybody." For more than two decades now, I've thought about that ending as a piece of code. Not ...

J.D. Salinger, Reclusive Author of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' Dies

January 28, 2010

J.D. Salinger, one of contemporary literature's most famous recluses, who created a lasting symbol of adolescent discontent in his 1951 novel “The Catcher in the Rye," has died. He was 91. Salinger died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., his son Matthew said in a statement released by the author's literary representative. ...