Music Obituaries

[waltky]

British singer/songwriter Peter Sarstedt dies aged 75...

Singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt dies aged 75
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 - Peter Sarstedt, best known for his number one hit Where do you go to (my lovely), dies aged 75.

The song topped the UK singles charts in February 1969 and remained number one for four weeks. It was also number one in many other countries and won the Ivor Novello award for best song composition. He died peacefully after a six-year battle with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a family statement said. The statement said his closest family were "with him to the last" and that many people would miss his songs and his music.

Where do you go to (my lovely), a song about a girl born in poverty who becomes a member of the European jet-set, was replaced as number one by Marvin Gaye's I Heard it Through the Grapevine. It was included in the compilation programme One-Hit Wonders at the BBC, which was broadcast on BBC Four last year, although Sarstedt also reached number 10 in the charts with Frozen Orange Juice in June 1969. He wrote more than a dozen albums in a career that spanned more than 50 years, releasing his last, Restless Heart, in 2013

Born into a musical family in India, Sarstedt was one of three brothers who all enjoyed success in the UK singles chart. His older sibling, Richard Sarstedt, who performed under the stage name Eden Kane, also topped the charts with Well I ask You in 1961, while younger brother Clive, performing under the name Robin Sarstedt, reached number three in 1976 with My Resistance is Low.

Sarstedt's music reached new audiences when Where do you go to (my lovely) was included in the Wes Anderson films Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited, which were both released in 2007. According to his website, he retired in 2010 because of his illness - a rare, progressive neurological condition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38548507

[waltky]

Nat Hentoff passes at 91...

Columnist Nat Hentoff dies at 91
January 7, 2017 — Nat Hentoff, an eclectic columnist, critic, novelist and agitator dedicated to music, free expression and defying the party line, died Saturday at age 91.

His son, Tom Hentoff, said his father died from natural causes at his Manhattan apartment. Schooled in the classics and the stories he heard from Duke Ellington and other jazz greats, Nat Hentoff enjoyed a diverse and iconoclastic career, basking in "the freedom to be infuriating on a myriad of subjects." He was a bearded, scholarly figure, a kind of secular rabbi, as likely to write a column about fiddler Bob Wills as a dissection of the Patriot Act, to have his name appear in the liberal Village Voice as the far-right WorldNetDaily.com, where his column last appeared in August 2016.

Ellington, Charlie Parker, Malcolm X and I.F. Stone were among his friends and acquaintances. He wrote liner notes for records by Aretha Franklin, Max Roach and Ray Charles and was the first non-musician named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts. He also received honors from the American Bar Association, the National Press Foundation, and, because of his opposition to abortion, the Human Life Foundation. Hentoff's steadiest job was with the Voice, where he worked for 50 years and wrote a popular column. He wrote for years about jazz for DownBeat and had a music column for the Wall Street Journal. His more than 25 books included works on jazz and the First Amendment, the novels "Call the Keeper" and "Blues for Charles Darwin" and the memoirs "Boston Boy" and "Speaking Freely."

The documentary "The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff" was released in 2014. Jazz was his first love, but Hentoff was an early admirer of Bob Dylan, first hearing the then-unknown singer at a Greenwich Village club in 1961 and getting on well enough with him to write liner notes two years later for Dylan's landmark second album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." "The irrepressible reality of Bob Dylan is a compound of spontaneity, candor, slicing wit and an uncommonly perceptive eye and ear for the way many of us constrict our capacity for living while a few of us don't," Hentoff wrote.

At a time when the media alternately treated Dylan like a prophet or the latest teen fad, Hentoff asked well-informed questions that were (usually) answered in kind by the cryptic star. Hentoff also was willing to be Dylan's partner in improvisation. A 1966 Playboy interview, he later revealed, had been made up from scratch after Dylan rejected the first conversation that was supposed to be published by the magazine. As a columnist, Hentoff focused tirelessly on the Constitution and what he saw as a bipartisan mission to undermine it. He tallied the crimes of Richard Nixon and labeled President Clinton's anti-terrorism legislation "an all-out assault on the Bill of Rights." He even parted from other First Amendment advocates, quitting the American Civil Liberties Union because of the ACLU's support for speech codes in schools and workplaces.

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[waltky]

Death catches up with Tommy Allsup...

Guitarist Who Avoided Buddy Holly Plane Crash Dies at 85
January 12, 2017 — Tommy Allsup, a guitarist best known for losing a coin toss that kept him off a plane that later crashed and killed rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, has died. He was 85.

Singer and musician Austin Allsup says his father died Wednesday at a Springfield, Missouri, hospital from complications from a hernia operation. Tommy Allsup was part of Holly's band when the Lubbock, Texas, singer died in the 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. Allsup flipped a coin to see if he or Valens would get a seat on the plane.

Austin Allsup said Thursday his father took losing the coin toss as a blessing and "knew that he was very lucky to be here." Funeral services are expected to be held next week. Tommy Allsup will be buried in Oklahoma, near his hometown of Owasso.

Today Austin's father and legendary guitar player Tommy Allsup passed away. Please #Pray for Austin and his family. pic.twitter.com/NxeSSYZsMt
— Austin Allsup (@AustinAllsup) January 11, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/news/guitarist...87.html?ref=gs

[waltky]

Al Jarreau passes on...

Jazz Legend Al Jarreau Dead at 76 Following Hospitalization for Exhaustion
February 12, 2017 | Al Jarreau, a seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, died Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 76.

According to a statement from his manager Joe Gordon published by Ebony magazine, the singer was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his passing. His loved ones asked that in lieu of flowers or gifts, donations be made the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music, an organization that supports music opportunities, teachers, and scholarships for students in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin.

Last week, updates on Jarreau’s Twitter account announced he had entered a hospital for exhaustion and was forced to retire from touring “with complete sorrow.” “The medical team has instructed that he cannot perform any of his remianing 2017 concert dates,” his team said in the statement. They continued, “He is thankful for his 50 years of traveling the world in ministry through music, and for everyone who shared this with him – his faithful audience, the dedicated musicians, and so many others who supported his effort.”

=snip=

Musician Steve Lukather of Toto and Ringo’s All-Starr Band shared his condolences as well. “It was an honor working with him and there was no one like him!” he tweeted. “Unreal..”

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[waltky]

Joni Sledge of 70's disco group Sister Sledge passes away...

Joni Sledge of ‘We Are Family’ group dies at 60
Mon, Mar 13, 2017 - Joni Sledge, one of four sisters who, as the group Sister Sledge, sang one of disco’s most enduring songs with We Are Family, has died, a representative said on Saturday.

The singer died aged 60 at her home in Arizona on Friday with the cause of death yet to be determined, publicist Biff Warren said. “We miss her and hurt for her presence, her radiance and the sincerity with which she loved and embraced life,” a family statement said. Daughters of two performers, Joni and her three sisters — Debbie, Kathy and Kim — grew up in Philadelphia and enjoyed moderate success touring in the 1970s with rhythm and blues songs.

However, the sisters found a major hit in 1979 with We Are Family, which was written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, who had emerged as key figures in the disco craze with their band Chic. In an interview last year with the Guardian, Joni Sledge said the sisters had become professionally frustrated by the time they made We Are Family and had considered other careers, such as studying law.

‘ONE-TAKE PARTY’

“Recording the track We Are Family was like a one-take party — we were just dancing and playing around and hanging out in the studio when we did it,” she said. “We did something pretty amazing together,” Rodgers said on Twitter. Despite the message of family unity, Kathy Sledge left the group to pursue a solo career and tensions ensued, with Joni and Debbie remaining the core members.

Sister Sledge came together in various forms for performances that included the Festival of Families in Philadelphia in 2015 and failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign. Speaking in 2015 to Women’s Wear Daily, Joni Sledge said that the chorus of the group’s main hit: “We are family / I got all my sisters with me” carried a time-tested message of unity. “It’s just as powerful today. That’s one of the good things about it. It teaches respect,” she said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../13/2003666692

[waltky]

Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band dead at age 69...
Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band dead at age 69
Sunday 28th May, 2017 — Music legend Gregg Allman, whose bluesy vocals and soulful touch on the Hammond B-3 organ helped propel the Allman Brothers Band to superstardom and spawn Southern rock, died Saturday, a publicist said. He was 69.

Allman died Saturday at his home in Savannah, Georgia, publicist Ken Weinstein said. Allman had cancelled some 2016 tour dates, announcing on Aug. 5 that he was “under his doctor’s care at the Mayo Clinic” due to “serious health issues.” Later that year, he cancelled more dates citing a throat injury. And in March 2017, he cancelled performances for the rest of the year. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, the rock star known for his long blond hair was raised in Florida by a single mother after his father was shot to death. Allman idolized his older brother, Duane, eventually joining a series of bands with him. Together they formed the nucleus of The Allman Brothers Band.

The original band featured extended jams, tight guitar harmonies by Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, rhythms from a pair of drummers and the smoky blues inflected voice of Gregg Allman. Songs such as “Whipping Post,” “Ramblin’ Man” and “Midnight Rider,” helped define what came to be known as Southern rock and opened the doors for such stars as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band. In his 2012 memoir, “My Cross to Bear,” Allman described how Duane was a central figure in his life in the years after their father was murdered by a man he met in a bar. The two boys endured a spell in a military school before being swept up in rock music in their teens. Although Gregg was the first to pick up a guitar, it was Duane who excelled at it. So Gregg later switched to the organ.

Gregg Allman performs at the Americana Music Association awards show in Nashville, Tenn. On Saturday, May 27, 2017, a publicist said the musician, the singer for The Allman Brothers Band, has died.

They failed to crack success until they formed The Allman Brothers Band in 1969. Based in Macon, Georgia, the group featured Betts, drummers Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson and Butch Trucks and bassist Berry Oakley. They partied to excess while defining a sound that still excites millions. Their self-titled debut album came out in 1969, but it was their seminal live album “At Fillmore East” in 1971 that catapulted the band to stardom. Duane Allman had quickly ascended to the pantheon of guitar heroes, not just from his contributions to the Allman band, but from his session work with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and with Eric Clapton on the classic “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” album. But he was killed in a motorcycle accident in October 1971, just months after recording the Fillmore shows. Another motorcycle accident the following year claimed Oakley’s life. .

In a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, Gregg Allman said Duane remained on his mind every day. Once in a while, he could even feel his presence. “I can tell when he’s there, man,” Allman said. “I’m not going to get all cosmic on you. But listen, he’s there.” The 1970s brought more highly publicized turmoil: Allman was compelled to testify in a drug case against a former road manager for the band and his marriage to the actress and singer Cher was short-lived even by show business standards.

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[waltky]

Soul singer Charles Bradley Dies at 68...

‘Screaming Eagle of Soul,’ Charles Bradley Dies at 68
[i]September 24, 2017 — Charles Bradley, known as the “Screaming Eagle of Soul” for a powerful, raspy style that evoked one of his musical heroes, James Brown, died Saturday at age 68./i]

Bradley, who achieved success later in life with his 2011 debut album “No Time for Dreaming,” was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the fall of 2016 and underwent treatment, according to a statement from his publicist, Shazila Mohammed. He went out on tour earlier this year after receiving a clean bill of health, but the cancer returned recently, spreading to his liver, the statement said. Recording on the Daptone label, Bradley was a fiery live performer. He followed up his first album with “Victim of Love” in 2013. His third album, “Changes,” was released last year.


Among his TV appearances was a stop last year on “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” which earned him an Emmy nomination. Born in Gainesville, Florida, Bradley found himself living in New York at age 8. He left home as a teenager and lived as an itinerant until he settled in Brooklyn 20 years ago.

Soul singer Charles Bradley performs at the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, Ga., May 9, 2014. His publicist said Bradley died Saturday after a battle with stomach cancer.

Bradley idolized Brown, working as a Brown impersonator known as Black Velvet before he was discovered by Gabriel Roth, a Daptone co-founder. He later became known for closing shows under his own name with hugs for his audiences. “The world lost a ton of heart today,” Roth said in the statement. “Charles was somehow one of the meekest and strongest people I’ve ever known. His pain was a cry for universal love and humanity. His soulful moans and screams will echo forever on records and in the ears and hearts of those who were fortunate enough to share time with him.”


Roth said he told Bradley recently there’s solace to be found for fans knowing Bradley “will continue to inspire love and music in this world for generations to come.” Bradley’s response? “I tried.”


https://www.voanews.com/a/charles-br...s/4041992.html

[waltky]

Granny thought it said David Crosby...
David Cassidy, 'Partridge Family' star, dies at 67
November 21, 2017 - David Cassidy, pop culture idol of the 1970s, has died as a result of complications from dementia. The musician and actor was 67. His publicist JoAnn Geffen confirmed his death.

Cassidy announced his diagnosis with dementia in early 2017, and reports indicate he died as a result of organ failure. He performed at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York in March, talking about his dementia, and said his arthritis made playing guitar an ordeal. With pretty-boy good looks and a long mane of dark hair, Cassidy was one every girl’s favorite teen crush in the early 1970s and drew screaming crowds at concert appearances. David Cassidy was part of a showbusiness family that included his father, Tony-winning actor Jack Cassidy, stepmother Shirley Jones, half-brother Shaun Cassidy and daughter, actress Katie Cassidy. Raised in New Jersey, Cassidy moved to Los Angeles in 1969 after starring in a Broadway musical that closed after only four performances. In 1970, after signing with Universal, Cassidy took on the role of Keith Partridge in “The Partridge Family.” Keith was the son of Shirley Partridge, who was played by Jones.

David Cassidy's family warn singer is 'very sick'

After the singles “I Think I Love You” and “Cherish” took off, Cassidy began working on solo albums as well. He regularly sold out stadiums, leading to commentators to coin the phrase “Cassidymania.” Several of his shows resulted in riots or mass hysteria, including one notable 1974 performance in Australia, which garnered calls for Cassidy to be deported from the country. At a 1974 London concert, nearly 800 people were injured in a stampede at a Cassidy concert, and one teenage girl died a few days later. He stopped touring and acting soon after, concentrating on recording, and had a hit with “I Write the Songs” before Barry Manilow made it part of his act. In musical theater, he performed in “Little Johnny Jones,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Time” and “Blood Brothers” and created the Vegas shows “The Rat Pack is Back” and “At the Copa.”

Cassidy was Emmy nominated for a guest role on a “Police Story” episode “A Chance to Live.” NBC based the series “David Cassidy – Man Undercover” on the segment, but it lasted just one season. He also made guest appearances on shows including “Fantasy Island,” “The Love Boat” and “Tales of the Unexpected.” In the decades that followed, Cassidy continued to perform in Las Vegas and tour. At later shows, Cassidy was known for participating in Q&A sessions at his concerts. He also played the manager of Aaron Carter’s character in the 2005 film “Popstar” and starred with half-brother Patrick in “Ruby and the Rockits,” created by his half-brother Shaun. But he struggled with achieving his peak fame early in life, dealing with alcoholism and being arrested several times for DUIs. He filed for bankruptcy in 2015. He is survived by half-brothers Shaun Cassidy, actors Patrick and Ryan; daughter Katie Cassidy and son, actor Beau Cassidy.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...020138441.html

[jimmyz]

WOW. There goes a half hour between Speed Racer and the Munsters in my life.