Music Industry/Authors Obituary Thread

[KingLouieLouie]

Bluegrass Singer Jimmy Martin Dies at 77

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/19302685

May his spirit and legacy never cease....

Bluegrass Singer Jimmy Martin Dies at 77

05/14/2005 5:08 PM, AP


Jimmy Martin, a pioneering bluegrass singer and guitarist who performed with the Blue Grass Boys and many other performers, died Saturday. He was 77.

Martin died in a Nashville hospice, more than a year after he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, said his son, Lee Martin.

"He loved bluegrass music, country music. Bill Monroe was his idol and someone he patterned himself after musically," Lee Martin said, referring to bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, head of the Blue Grass Boys.

After performing as lead vocalist for the Blue Grass Boys periodically through 1955, Martin formed his own band, the Sunny Mountain Boys, and recorded with Decca records for 18 years.

"In his heyday, he could take an audience of any size and have them eating out of his hand," said Sunny Mountain Boy member Bill Emerson. "He'd just smoke those people, and they'd be waiting in line for him when he got offstage."

Martin recorded several bluegrass standards, including "Rock Hearts," "Sophronie," "Hold Watcha Got," "Widow Maker" and "The Sunny Side of the Mountain."

Martin was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Honor in 1995. His life was also the subject of an independent documentary film, "King of Bluegrass: The Life and Times of Jimmy Martin," which was released in 2003.

"Jimmy's strong, high vocal range pushed (Bill) Monroe's tenor up into the sky, helping shape what has become known as the 'high lonesome sound,'" wrote George Goehl in the liner notes to "Don't Cry To Me," a compilation that accompanied the documentary.

According to the film's Web site, Martin was fired at the age of 21 for singing on the job at a factory in Morristown. He then went to see the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and talked his way backstage, where he persuaded Monroe to sing a couple of songs with him.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Martin performed on both the "Louisiana Hayride" and "WWVA Wheeling Jamboree," which were well-known country music shows. He also made guest appearances on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, but never became a regular cast member, which was his childhood dream.

Martin collaborated with many other artists throughout his career, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. His voice was the first heard on the Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album in 1972, and his appearances on subsequent albums brought his feisty spirit to audiences that might never have attended a bluegrass festival.

"Jimmy's temperature is higher than the rest of ours," Dirt Band member Jeff Hanna said in a 2002 interview. "He's a wild man in the best sense of the term, and he's the only one who brought the fire of rockabilly music to bluegrass."

Martin performed until his later years, usually from April until October. He also served as a mentor to many musicians, including J.D. Crowe and Paul Williams.

___

On the Net:

http://www.kingofbluegrass.com/

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Soul Asylum's Bassist Mueller Dead

Oh lord... allow me to express my deepest condolences to his family... I loved their music throughout high school..especially "Runaway Train" and "Misery"...
RIP....

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7405247/soulasylum?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

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Soul Asylum's Mueller Dead
Founding bassist of Minneapolis rockers loses year-long battle with cancer

Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, 41, died Friday at his home in Minneapolis after suffering from throat cancer. Mueller had been battling cancer since May of 2004.

A Minneapolis benefit in his honor last October brought the long-estranged songwriting principles of Husker Du back together, and featured Twin Cities stalwarts such as Paul Westerberg, the Gear Daddies, Golden Smog and, with Mueller's cancer temporarily in remission, Soul Asylum.

Mueller was a founding member of Soul Asylum and played in the group for over twenty years, along with singer/guitarists Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner. Formed in 1984, Soul Asylum evolved from Loud Fast Rules, which had begun in 1981 and included Meuller, Murphy and Pirner. After nearly a decade of much critical acclaim and little cash, Soul Asylum broke through in 1992 with Grave Dancers Union, a multiplatinum smash largely on the strength of single "Runaway Train."

Prior to Mueller's death, Soul Asylum had completed an album of new material, their first since 1998's Candy from a Stranger. "We don't know where or when we're going to put this out," said Pirner in 2001 of self-produced sessions in New Orleans and Minneapolis. "The stuff that's finished is kind of a typical smattering of styles. Some of it is loud, fast and aggressive, and some of it is really introspective and sounds like I was born in a barn."

The creative hiatus came partly because the same wave that helped break Soul Asylum had receded. "It's sort of sad to say, but you could see the whole grunge rock band thing getting totally oversaturated and people were looking for something new," Pirner told Rolling Stone in 2001. "We needed to reassess how far we've gone and how much further we're going to go and which way we want to go and what we do right and what we do wrong. It was kind of time to take inventory."

Mueller is survived by his wife Mary Beth and his mother Mary. A memorial service for Mueller will be held Wednesday at the Lakewood Cemetery Chapel in Minneapolis.


COLIN DEVENISH
(Posted Jun 20, 2005)

 

[Beaver]

Sad news. Grave Dancers Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine were great back to back albums. I shall crank them up while I pack tomorrow.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Promoter Chet Helms Dies

Certainly one of the true icons in the history music promotions.... May I express my deepest condolences to his family.... RIP Chet...

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/st...n?pageid=rs.NewsArchive&pageregion=mainRegion

Promoter Chet Helms Dies
Sixties San Francisco scene-maker was sixty-two

Chet Helms, San Francisco rock promoter, manager and key figure in 1967's Summer of Love, died Saturday of complications from a stroke suffered earlier in the week. He was sixty-two.

Born in Santa Maria, California, Helms was the oldest of three boys. After his father died when Helms was nine, the family moved to Texas. Helms remained in Texas for the next decade, enrolling in and dropping out of the University of Texas before moving to San Francisco in 1962. His beginnings as a music promoter were modest, as Helms served as a host of jam sessions in his Haight-Ashbury district home. Big Brother and the Holding Company was one of the groups that played, and while serving as their manager, Helms dramatically altered the course of the band by recruiting an old college acquaintance by the name of Janis Joplin to be their singer.

Helms was an early partner of legendary promoter Bill Graham, with the two putting on several shows at the Fillmore before parting ways. Graham continued to promote shows at the Fillmore, while Helms and his Family Dog production company moved to the Avalon Ballroom, with the Grateful Dead a mainstay, and everyone from the Doors to Bo Diddley passing through.

Country Joe and the Fish honed their chops underneath the Avalon's psychedelic light shows, and the band's guitarist Barry Melton credits Helms with fostering the kind of nurturing environment that helped bands progress. "There was an ethic unique to the time and place of San Francisco in the Sixties, an extraordinary ethic of tolerance and acceptance," he says. "Chet was the living embodiment of that tolerance and acceptance and openness that made it all happen. That element was very much a reflection of who he was."

After the scene dissipated, Helms took a hiatus from concert promotion in 1970, returning to the business off and on in 1978. In 1980 he began running Atelier Dore, an art gallery in San Francisco, and became passionate about digital photography in recent years.

"He was so tough that it's a surprise," says his widow Judy Davis. "This last year he was having a lot of problems with hepatitis C, and by the time he had his stroke he was weakened. He had a beautiful death. There were about ten people around the bed."

Helms is survived by his wife, a stepdaughter and three grandchildren.


COLIN DEVENISH
(Posted Jun 27, 2005)

 

[O]

Luther Vandross dead at 54

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer
10 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Grammy winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as "Here and Now" and "Any Love" sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54.

ADVERTISEMENT

Vandross died at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., said hospital spokesman Rob Cavanaugh. He did not release the cause of death.

Since suffering a stroke in his Manhattan home on April 16, 2003, the R&B crooner stopped making public appearances — but amazingly managed to continue his recording career. In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet "Dance With My Father

 

[KingLouieLouie]

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer
10 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Grammy winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as "Here and Now" and "Any Love" sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54.

ADVERTISEMENT

Vandross died at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., said hospital spokesman Rob Cavanaugh. He did not release the cause of death.

Since suffering a stroke in his Manhattan home on April 16, 2003, the R&B crooner stopped making public appearances — but amazingly managed to continue his recording career. In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet "Dance With My Father

What? I'm just shocked..... Lord... I was thinking of him earlier today.... Lord... dont know what to say, but.... I would like to express my deepest condolences and may he RIP.... He was a legend over the past few decades and his legacy will never be forgotten....

 

[WizardOfAz]

Sad news. Sounds like he never fully recovered from the stroke.

His music will live on.

 

[PDXChris]

He had been sick on oand off for years, he had cancer a few year back too, that is why he lost so much wieght for a while, I will remember his crazy lady that came in to my store when I will worked for a record store many years back, she told me how she met him the night before and just died, she needed to replace the cd's that he signed, that was good times.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Obie Benson, One Of The Four Tops, Dies

Motown lost a musical pillar Friday.

Renaldo (Obie) Benson, who for more than half a century provided the bass vocal foundation to the Four Tops' lush harmonies, died Friday morning at Harper Hospital in Detroit. He had turned 69 on June 14.

Benson had been battling a sudden onset of medical problems. Last month, he suffered a heart attack after the amputation of a leg because of circulation problems. He was subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer, and began intense, stage-four chemotherapy last week.

Abdul (Duke) Fakir and Levi Stubbs remain the two surviving members of the Four Tops, founded in 1954 on Detroit's northeast side and heralded as one of the longest-running acts in the history of American popular music. Vocalist Lawrence Payton, Benson's closest boyhood friend, died in 1997.

Benson "enjoyed every moment of his life," Fakir said through a publicist Friday. "He put a smile on everyone's face, including my own."

The outgoing Benson, who played a key role in directing the Four Tops' concert choreography, was known as a reliable source of comic relief within the group, which was a veteran ensemble by the time it signed to Motown Records in 1963. The quartet's statistics on the Billboard pop charts remain formidable: 24 hits in the top 40, seven in the top 10, and two No. 1s.

Many of the songs Benson recorded with his group mates remain radio staples, including "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "Bernadette."

Benson rarely slowed down during his tenure with the Tops, who celebrated their 50th anniversary with a bash at the Detroit Opera House last summer. Even as he hit his 60s, he continued to spend more than a third of each year on the road, performing Four Tops shows across the world.

His last significant performance came on April 8, when the group played "Late Show With David Letterman."

As his condition worsened in recent weeks, Benson was replaced onstage by Payton's son, Roquel Payton.

Benson is survived by two daughters, Eboni Benson and Tobi Benson, and an ex-wife with whom he remained close, Valaida Benson.

Funeral arrangements are not yet available.

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm4867_20050701.htm

 

[phillycard]

I will miss him tremendously. A fantastic singer and a seemingly genuine person. It's a sad day in music.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Wow.. doesnt it always come in 3s?

I mean... Chet Helms died late last wk, then of course Luther Vandross, and now Obie Benson.....

I loved the Four Tops.. Obviously it's in my blood to do so, but they had so many good hits... "Reach Out", "Bernadette", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Aint No Woman Like The I Got", "Standing In The Shadows of Love", "I Can't Help Myself" and "Shake Me, Wake Me" are just to name a few of my faves by them.... They had such longevity to...even outlasted the original Temptations and Supremes...

He certainly will be missed..RIP......

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Music Industry Obituary Thread

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/21475029

Singer 'Big' Al Downing Dead at Age 65

07/05/2005 8:54 PM, AP

"Big" Al Downing, a singer-songwriter and pianist who had success in country, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll and even disco, has died after suffering from leukemia. He was 65.

Downing, of Leicester, Mass., was hospitalized last week and died Monday in Massachusetts, his publicist Martha Moore said Tuesday.

He was one of the few successful black country artists.

Born in Centralia, Okla., Downing grew up listening to country music and learned to play piano at a young age.

He began his career as a keyboard player in rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson's band, performing on Jackson's biggest hit, "Let's Have a Party."

As a solo artist, he and his band the Chartbusters charted two rock songs in 1964. A soul duet with Little Esther Phillips made the charts in 1963, and a disco record charted in 1975, according to the Country Music Association's Encyclopedia of Country Music.

Downing returned to his country roots in the late 1970s and had moderate hits with "Mr. Jones" and "Touch Me (I'll Be Your Fool Once More)."

Downing, a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, performed "Mr. Jones" on the Grand Ole Opry in May.

Over the years, his songs were recorded by Fats Domino, Bobby Blue Bland, Tom Jones and Webb Wilder.

Downing is survived by his wife of 27 years, Beverly, and four stepsons.

Funeral services will be Saturday in Spencer, Mass.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/07/04/1116884-ap.html

Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot dies

PARIS (AP) - Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot, who recorded with Miles Davis and arranged music for Chet Baker, has died, a fellow musician said Monday. He was 77.

The bass player, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died in Paris on Sunday, said pianist Rene Urtreger, a member of Michelot's longtime jazz trio, HUM.

Michelot played with Davis on one of the great soundtracks of the 1950s, for Louis Malle's classic thriller Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). He recorded with artists including Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and Django Reinhardt, and he arranged music for Baker's 1955-56 Barclay sessions in Paris.

Michelot was considered Europe's best jazz bassist in the second half of the 1950s, Urtreger said.

"He had a magnificent natural sound, clear, deep and true," Urtreger said. "It was a dream to play with him."

Originally trained in classical piano, Michelot learned bass as a teenager, then performed for American troops stationed in France after the end of the Second World War. He was highly sought-after for concerts by American musicians in Paris in the postwar years.

Michelot had a role in French director Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight, about a musician on the skids in 1950s Paris.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/07/0606.cfm

Jay-Z's Nephew Dies In A Car Accident
Wednesday July 06, 2005 @ 03:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Jay Z

Jay-Z has lost his nephew — whom he referred to as his best friend and son — in a car accident.

AllHipHop.com reports Colleek D. Luckie, 18, was in the passenger seat of his Chrysler 300 when it drifted across the centreline of a Pennsylvania highway and collided head-on with a tractor-trailer. The car, driven by a friend of Luckie's, then struck a telephone pole and continued through a field for another 300 feet or so. Luckie was killed, despite wearing a seat belt. The driver sustained minor injuries and was treated at a hospital.

Jay-Z gave the car, worth about $43,400 Canadian, to Luckie as a graduation gift. The rapper often wrote about his sister's children in his songs, most notably in "Anything" ("Dear nephews, I’m writing this with no pen or a pad/And I’m signing it, ya uncle, ya best friend, and ya dad/Don't look back if you fall and you’re feeling bad/I’m right there from your cut to when you peelin' the scab") and "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)," which sees the rapper refusing to get into a fight because, "I got nephews to look after."

In other hip-hop news, Louisiana-based artist Beelow has been shot in the head and is now recovering in hospital.

He got into an argument in front of a store on Monday when he was accused of selling bootlegged CDs and DVDs. "An argument ensued between two men and one placed the gun to his head and shot him twice," a police officer said and added that members of Beelow's entourage returned fire.

Beelow is expected to recover and police are exploring several leads in the meantime. The assailant could reportedly be linked to another local rapper who recently signed a record deal. An anonymous source told AllHipHop.com that numerous figures associated with the Louisiana bootlegging scene have also been hospitalized following a meeting from a few months ago between record store owners, rappers and various members of council.

—Angela Kozak

 

[KingLouieLouie]

http://www.411mania.com/music/news/article.php?news_id=8230
Founding Member Of Parliament-Funkadelic Passes Away
Posted By Michael Melchor on 07.07.05

Ray Davis dead at age 65

Ray Davis, a founding member of Parliament/Funkadelic, died from respiratory complications at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. He was 65.

Davis provided bass vocals on songs such as "Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucka)," "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Flashlight" - all major hits for the band that also included George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins.

411 Music gives its condolences to the family and friends of Ray Davis.


Credit to: Billboard.com

Send Feedback to Michael Melchor | E-Mail This To Your Friend!

 

[KingLouieLouie]

http://www.nme.com/news/112993.htm

FINN BROTHERS SPEAK ABOUT HESTER

NEIL and TIM FINN have paid tribute to ex-CROWDED HOUSE drummer PAUL HESTER during the FINN BROTHERS’ first show in Australia since the death of their former bandmate.

As previously reported on NME.COM, Hester’s body was discovered in Melbourne earlier this year.

Speaking to the crowd (July 12) at the first of four shows the Finn Brothers are due to perform at the Sydney Opera House over the next week, frontman Neil Finn became emotional as the band returned for the first of two encores, saying; “I’ve been thinking about Paul Hester all night… I really miss him,” before asking the crowd to join in on a semi-acoustic rendition of Crowded House hit ‘Four Seasons In One Day’ and saying “I thought you might want to sing a song with me for him.”

The band are currently on tour with Mercury Rev throughout Australia and New Zealand to coincide with the Splendour In The Grass Festival, which takes place next week in Byron Bay on the New South Wales coast.

The Finn Brothers shows kick off several weeks of sideshows for bands including Queens Of The Stone Age, Futureheads, Bloc Party, Interpol and Ryan Adams, who are all set to play the festival at Belongil Fields on July 23 and 24.

 

[O]

Blues Legend Long John Baldry Dies

Blues Legend Long John Baldry Dies

07/22/2005 7:02 PM, AP


Long John Baldry, the British blues legend who helped launch the careers of such rock greats as Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, has died, his agent and friends said. He was 64.

Baldry was admitted to a Vancouver hospital with respiratory problems in April and died of a chest infection Thursday, agent Frank Garcia said on the musician's Web site.

"The music world has lost an absolute legend," said close friend Anya Wilson, a Toronto music publicist who worked with Baldry in the 1970s.

"They've lost one of the first and most powerful white blues singers — an innovator, an entrepreneur of new music and one of the most wonderful people you could hope to meet."

Baldry, nicknamed Long John because of his 6-foot-7 height, was born in East Maddon, England, but became a Canadian citizen in 1981.

Credited as one of the main forces in British blues, rock and pop music in the 1960s, he first hit the top of the U.K. singles charts in 1967 with "Let the Heartaches Begin."

One of his most memorable hits was "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll" was co-produced by Stewart and Elton John.

Although Baldry released over 40 albums — that included the songs "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," "Come and Get Your Love" and "A Thrill's a Thrill" — singing was considered his forte.

He was perhaps best known for nurturing the nascent talent of a host of musicians who are now worldwide superstars.

Baldry's early 1960s stage act featured the likes of Stewart, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Jimmy Paige and Ginger Baker.



RIP

 

[Brian in Mesa]

RIP: Ibrahim Ferrer

Buena Vista front man dies at 78
By Michael Connellan
August 8, 2005

The Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, the front man of The Buena Vista Social Club, has died at 78. He fell ill on Wednesday after a month-long European tour and died on Saturday of multiple organ failure in Havana.

"He completed his tour with great bravery," his wife, Caridad Diaz said. "We are deeply affected by his death."

A legend of the Cuban music scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Ferrer fell into obscurity and poverty. He was shining shoes when the American guitarist Ry Cooder found him. Ferrer said: "An angel came and picked me up. He said, 'Chico, come and do this record'."

The Buena Vista Social Club was formed, and the 1997 album of the same name was a worldwide hit, selling more than four million copies. The album won a Grammy, the highest musical accolade in America, in 1998.

A solo career followed for Ferrer, granting him riches, world tours, and a further Grammy nomination in 2004. But, as a Cuban, he was refused US entry to attend the award ceremony.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Chris Whitley Dies

I regret posting this... He was definitely both a gifted song-writer and musician... Him and his contributions will be missed:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/8857123/?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

Chris Whitley Dies
Eclectic singer-songwriter succumbs to lung cancer at forty-five

Chris Whitley, who skirted the edges of alternative rock in the 1990s while creating his own spectral brand of American music, died November 20th of complications from lung cancer. He was forty-five.

Whitley's career spanned a wide range of styles, from pop, grunge and jazz to avant-garde noise; over the years he worked with producers Daniel Lanois and Craig Street, Dave Matthews, members of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and DJ Logic. He is best known, however, for carving a personalized, often brooding take on country blues, marked by his mastery of the slide steel guitar and other stringed instruments.

After honing his style as a busker on the streets of New York, the Houston native spent much of the 1980s in Belgium, fronting a pop group known as A Noh Rodeo. Returning to America, Whitley shifted his focus to the atmospheric sound of the National steel guitar. He recorded his major label debut, Living With the Law, for Columbia Records in 1991. Sonically crafted by producer Malcolm Burn and propelled by the radio success of the song "Big Sky Country," the album received glowing reviews and heralded the arrival of a prodigious new talent.

But Whitley sidestepped the attention, taking four years to release a follow-up, reportedly in part due to a stint in rehab. When he did return, his music was once again wildly transformed. Din of Ecstasy, featuring Whitley on electric guitar, was a churning nod to Jimi Hendrix, downtown noise and grunge's then-ubiquitous presence.

A second hard-rock album, Terra Incognita, was followed by another sharp switchback, 1998's Dirt Floor, a solo effort recorded in a single day in a Vermont log cabin. By this point it was apparent that Whitley wasn't especially interested in mainstream success. In 2002, Sony issued a single-disc selection of his time with the label's subsidiaries, Long Way Around: An Anthology 1991-2001.

In 2000, Whitley released Perfect Day, a sublime collection of cover songs by Willie Dixon, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and others produced by Craig Street (Cassandra Wilson). The past five years saw a flurry of projects, including 2001's experimental Rocket House, recorded for Dave Matthews' ATO Records, as well as a temporary relocation to Dresden, Germany. Whitley's most recent recording, Soft Dangerous Shores, came out in July of this year on the Messenger label; another album, Reiter In, is set for release in December.


JAMES SULLIVAN
(Posted Nov 22, 2005)

 

[Pariah]

Wow. I didn't know he was sick.

I have his first album ("Living with the Law," I think). Great stuff. Didn't listen to anything after that, though.

RIP

 

[Brian in Mesa]

RIP.

Here's the official website, which appears to be run by his family: Chris Whitley

 

[O]

Link Wray dead at 76

Fri Nov 25, 6:56 PM ET



LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Musician Link Wray, best-known for his 1958 instrumental single "Rumble," died of unspecified causes November 5 in Copenhagen. He was 76.




In a career that spanned six decades, Wray made his mark with a piercing guitar sound that paved the way for punk and heavy metal. He is credited with inventing the power chord and pioneering distortion by deliberately punching holes in his amplifier.

"Rumble" peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. His 1959 hit, "Raw-Hide," which he performed with his band, the Wraymen, hit No. 23.

In the late 1970s, Wray became known to a new generation of fans playing alongside rockabilly artist Robert Gordon. His music has appeared in such movies as "Pulp Fiction," "Independence Day" and "Desperado." Wray is said to have inspired Pete Townshend, Bruce Springsteen, "Little" Steven Van Zandt and other well-known artists.

In 2002, Wray was named one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time by Guitar World magazine. He gave his last performance in Los Angeles in July. He is survived by his wife and son.

Reuters/Billboard

 

[starbucks]

alot of death lately. :-(

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Singer Lou Rawls dies of lung cancer
Jan 6, 2006
By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Silken-voiced crooner Lou Rawls, whose career covered almost every form of black American music from gospel and blues to R&B, soul and jazz, died on Friday at age 72 after a battle with lung cancer, his spokesman said.

The pioneering crossover artist with silky voice and a four-octave range was known for such signature hits as "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," "Lady Love" and "Love is a Hurtin' Thing." His 1960s "talking the song" style on some recordings was called pre-rap by critics.

He once said, "I've gone the full spectrum -- from gospel to blues to jazz to soul to pop and the public has accepted what I have done through it all. I think it means I have been doing something right at the right time."

Even Frank Sinatra was big fan and once said Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game."

Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spokesman Paul Shefrin said. He quoted the singer's family as saying he was 72 years old but some reference books place his age at 70.

Rawls won three Grammy awards and 13 nominations in a career that lasted more than 40 years.

He made more than 60 albums, acted in 18 movies, including "Blues Brothers 2000" and "Leaving Las Vegas," and appeared in 16 television series, starting with a small role in "77 Sunset Strip."

Rawls received many honors during his lifetime including having a street named after him in Chicago.

Ill for more than a year with lung cancer that spread to his brain, Rawls recently filmed public service announcements for Hurricane Katrina relief. His last public performances were a series of three concerts he gave in San Diego in mid-November, Shefrin said.

In an interview last month with the Arizona Republic, Rawls was optimistic despite his cancer.

"Don't count me out, brother," he said. "There's been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'."

VERSATILE VOCALIST

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, called Rawls one of the world's most versatile vocalists with "one of the most recognizable voices anywhere."

Rawls was born in Chicago's South Side and was raised by his grandmother, who insisted he sing in the choir at her Baptist church.

As a teenager he sang with several gospel groups and after a stint in the Army as a paratrooper, he joined the Pilgrim Travelers with Sam Cooke, a soul singer to whom he was often compared.

During one tour in the late 1950s, he was involved in a crash where he was pronounced dead but was actually in a coma that lasted for 5 1/2 months.

It took him more than a year to recuperate. When he recovered he switched to secular music, providing back-up on some of Cooke's seminal recordings and releasing a jazz album of his own called "Stormy Monday" in 1962.

His first full-fledged R&B album "Soulin"' in 1966 contained his first hit "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing."

In 1971, Rawls hit the Top 20 again with "Natural Man," a song whose theme was black pride.

Also in 1971, the readers of the jazz magazine Downbeat named him their favorite male vocalist, topping Sinatra, who was the usual winner.

Although he never went to college, Rawls became a major fund-raiser for the United Negro College Fund. He recalled that a woman once came up to him and said, "Thank you, you made my grandson the first college grad in our family."

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Barry Cowsill Found Dead
Fri Jan 06, 2006

Barry Cowsill, as one grieving family member put it, is "safe."

The months-long search for the missing musician, who achieved teen idol status in the late 1960s as a member of the Partridge Family-inspiring pop act the Cowsills, ended Wednesday with a call from morgue officials in New Orleans.

"Barry Steven Cowsill is no longer with us," his brother Richard Cowsill wrote in announcing the news Wednesday night on Cowsill.com. "We truly [know] that he is already in the arms of our mother Barbara. He is safe."

Cowsill's skeletal remains were found in a face down position under a wharf in storm-ravaged New Orleans on Dec. 28, another brother, Bob Cowsill, said Friday.

A total of 1,100 bodies have been recovered in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina swamped the city on Aug. 29, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals announced Wednesday.

It was not known how or when Cowsill died, Bob Cowsill said, adding that the skeletal remains suggest to the family that he perished in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.

Cowsill, who'd moved to New Orleans only months before Katrina, was last definitively heard from in a voice message left on his sister Susan's cell phone, and retrieved shortly after the hurricane hit. In it, he said he'd seen looting, and asked for help.

"I don't know how he reacted to the situation he got himself in," Bob Cowsill said. "Of all of us, he was probably the least mentally equipped to handle [it]."

Cowsill, who would have turned 51 on Sept. 14, was due to fly to Los Angeles on Aug. 29 to check himself into rehab for alcohol abuse. Bob Cowsill said he'd worked hard to convince his younger brother to agree to the flight--and the treatment plan.

"He was so close to getting it together, and, gee whiz, this dumb hurricane just got in the way," Bob Cowsill said. "It's just amazing to me."

Barry and Bob Cowsill weren't just brothers; they were bandmates, too. At the height of their career, the Cowsills consisted of siblings Barry, Bob, Billy, John, Paul, Susan and their mother Barbara. Barry Cowsill was the bassist. The group's harmonizing hits included "Hair" and "The Rain, the Park and Other Things."

The Cowsills served as fodder for the 1970-74 sitcom The Partridge Family, about a six-member family band--three brothers, two sisters, one mom.

Barbara Cowsill died in 1985.

With Barry Cowsill's death confirmed, and the four-month-long mystery surrounding his whereabouts solved, Bob Cowsill said the coping process begins anew.

"It's awful again because you're dealing with fact," Bob Cowsill said. "As long as you didn't hear, you could create other scenarios that were possible also."