Jazz guitarist Pat Martino, revered for the fluid precision and blistering speed of his playing died on Monday at the age of 77. In 1980, after undergoing neurosurgery that saved his life, he was forced to relearn the instrument. Regardless of the setting, Martino played the guitar with an intensity of focus and impeccable clarity at even the most dizzying pace, NPR insists.
The co-founder and the guitarist of the Stockholm post-punk band Viagra Boys, has died aged 47. Representatives of the band shared this lovely note with Pitchfork: “Benjamin or “Benis” as we knew him, spread laughter and happiness wherever he went and we will cherish the memories we have of touring the world together. Benjamin, we love you with all of our hearts and Viagra Boys would have been nothing without you. This planet just lost one the good ones”.
Songwriter and composer Leslie Bricusse, well known for the Nina Simone classic 'Feeling Good', and the theme songs to the James Bond films 'Goldfinger' and 'You Only Live Twice', has died at the age of 90. Bricusse won two Oscars - Best Original Song 'Talk to the Animals' from 1968's 'Doctor Dolittle' and Best Original Score for 'Victor/Victoria' in 1983. His songbook also includes 'Candy Man' and 'Pure Imagination' from 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'. BBC remembers the "lyrical genius of film".
Steve Strange, widely respected live agent and co-founder of X-ray Touring, has died aged 53 after a short illness, Music Business Worldwide reports. A statement from X-ray reads: “His overwhelming love of music lead to a 30 year plus career guiding the touring of an eclectic mix of artists from all genres of music that he adored". Strange’s artist roster down the years has included Eminem, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Queens of the Stone Age, The Charlatans, Jimmy Eat World and many more. Emma Banks of CAA wrote on social media: “Steve Strange – a truly good and loving person without a bad bone in his body. The life and soul of every occasion, a music man to the core and dedicated to his clients, friends and family".
Sarah Dash of the powerhouse R&B trio Labelle died on September 20th at age 76, just three days after her last performance. As a founding member of Labelle, Dash appeared on their ubiquitous 1975 dance floor classic 'Lady Marmalade', adding sensuality to the trio’s sound - heard especially in Dash’s parts on the deep cut '(Can I Speak to You Before You Go to) Hollywood'. Dash’s last performance was September 18, when she joined LaBelle onstage in Atlantic City for an impromptu reunion. “She was healthy and fine and sang her face off” - her bandmate Patti LaBelle says - “The crowd went crazy. She had the best send-off. If that’s the way you’re going to leave, she left like a queen”, Rolling Stone reports.
Richard H. Kirk, founding member and the sole full-time member of industrial icons Cabaret Voltaire, has died at age 65, Treble reports. Formed in Sheffield, England in 1973 by Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson, Cabaret Voltaire used reel-to-reel tape loops and early synthesizers to create a sound as bleak as the crumbling factory buildings in their hometown. Along with their Dada-influenced live performances, Cabaret Voltaire helped create what would become known as industrial music and were and remain hugely influential with classic records like 'Nag Nag Nag', 'Red Mecca', and 'The Crackdown' on bands such as New Order, Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and many others.
Music impresario George Wein, who spawned the modern music festival when he helped launch the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals, has died at the age of 95, Variety reports. Wein co-founded the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. Newport was the first and largest event of its kind in the U.S., setting the standard for outdoor music festivals to come.
The legendary British guitarist and songwriter, Michael Chapman, an influence on Ryley Walker, William Tyler, Steve Gunn, Meg Baird and Thurston Moore, has died at the age of 80, Guardian reports. His career started in the late 1960s - "on a rainy night in 1966 I went into a pub in Cornwall but I couldn’t afford to pay to go in,” he once recalled. “I said, tell you what, I don’t want to stay outside in the rain, I’ll play guitar for half an hour. I’ve been at it ever since”.
History of Yesterday remembers the notoriety of the classic music genius: "Beethoven famously chopped the legs off of his piano to feel the notes from the floor vibrations. When that stopped working, he attached a metal rod to the piano. While composing, he bit the rod to feel the notes... When aristocrats attended his performance and talked in the crowd, he would stop playing, turn, and stare at them from his bench, his eyes cutting lasers out into the crowd. There would be painful silence until he’d resume".
Legendary Jamaican producer and a pioneer of dub, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, whose pioneering accomplishments made him of of reggae's most eccentric producer-vocalist, has died aged 85 in Jamaica, Jamaica Observer reports. State Prime Minister Andrew Holness confirmed the news in a tweet on Sunday, adding that Perry has "worked with and produced for various artists, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Congos, Adrian Sherwood, the Beastie Boys, and many others. Undoubtedly, Lee Scratch Perry will always be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music fraternity".
Inge Ginsberg has composed songs for Nat King Cole, Doris Day and Dean Martin, and in her 90s she decided to reinvent herself as a death metal singer. In a documentary, she said she had turned to death metal because she wanted to be heard. She has died at age 99, the New York Times reports
Charlie Watts, longtime drummer of The Rolling Stones, has “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family” at the age od 80, NME reports. Watts joined The Rolling Stones shortly after their formation in January 1963. He was the only member of the band other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to have been featured on all of their studio albums, and also never missed a gig.
"Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll's pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician, known for singing close harmonies with his brother, was 84" - NPR reports. They left behind hits such as 'All I Have To Do Is Dream', 'Wake Up Little Susie', 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Cathy's Clown', influencing the likes of music giants the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and many others.
Nanci Griffith, a Texas-born singer-songwriter celebrated in folk and country-music circles for her crystalline voice and storytelling skill, died Friday in Nashville at age 68, Tennessean reports. Throughout her career, Griffith cornered a self-described "folkabilly" sound that merged elements of country music with her empathetic folk sensibilities.
The former CBS Records president who may have been the most powerful person in the music business in the closing years of the 20th century has died, Billboard reports. Walter Yetnikoff helped sell megastars like Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. Yetnikoff also cultivated a reputation as a loud, snarling, hard-partying power broker, and was a symbol of an era of past excesses.
"Paul Johnson’s signature meld of disco loops, overdriven kicks and unfiltered sleaze was nothing short of alchemy. Even when chopping up the vocals of Leroy Burgess or Roy Ayers, Johnson’s records simmered with raucous charisma, a gift that made him stand out amongst greats of the ’90s house scene" - DJ Mag writes about Paul Johnson, who died aged 50 "leaving behind a chasm in house music".
Joey Jordison was a founding member of Slipknot in 1995, played the drums on the band's five first albums, staying until his departure in December 2013. He later revealed that he suffered from transverse myelitis, a neurological disease that limited his the ability to play the drums. Not only was he one of metal’s premier drummers, he was a key songwriter in the group, responsible for co-writing some of Slipknot’s best-known songs, Blabbermouth reports.
Robby Steinhardt, a co-founder and former member of the progressive rock group Kansas, died Saturday at age 71, CJ Online report. Steinhardt shared lead singing duties with Steve Walsh while performing for 18 years with Kansas, while his classically influenced violin playing set Kansas apart from other rock bands.
Veteran rapper Biz Markie has passed away Friday, July 16th aged 57, due to complications from diabetes, TMZ reports. Hailing from Harlem, New York, Biz Markie first made a name for himself as a beatboxer performing in Manhattan nightclubs in the early 1980s, releasing his first album 'Goin’ Off'. The 1989 single 'Just a Friend' propelled him to superstardom. The hip-hop universe is saying goodbye: The Roots drummer Questlove said “he taught me ALOT. I’m using ALL the education he taught me”; Beastie Boys' Mike D remembers his old friend and colleague - "we are so grateful to have had so many unforgettable experiences with the truly unique and ridiculously talented Biz Markie".
"Have you ever started listening to something and knew that you were different after? That’s how I was with 'Nia'" - The Root writer Panama Jackson in a loving tribute to Gift of Gab, Blackalicious MC who died last week, and who "seriously, seemed as if he was literally born to rap. He tried things, clearly in the name of hip-hop".
"In his pursuit of something he came to call Fourth World music Jon Hassell exerted an influence on his contemporaries that went far beyond the immediate popularity of his own work. To create “a contemporary coffee-coloured classical music”, Hassell drew together strands of music from around the world to make something that, without compromising its own identity, seemed to belong everywhere" - Guardian writes in the obituary to the trumpeter and composer.
"He was focussed on entertaining the audience, relying on the seemingly simple concept of giving people what they want. That ‘by-fans, for-fans’ ethos informed the launch of Kerrang! – the magazine he founded in the summer of 1981 – and it is still the driving force behind what we do now" - UK metal weekly Kerrang! wrote remembering their former editor Alan Lewis who died this week aged 76. Lewis also served as the top editor at NME, Sounds, Record Collector, among other papaers. Dozens of journalists and editors remember working with Lewis - NME collected those lovely tributes.
Pop-country vocalist B.J. Thomas, famous for the 1969 smash 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head', written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 Paul Newman/Robert Redford Western 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', has died at the age of 78 from lung cancer. Grammy-winning singer had hits in pop, country, and gospel with songs like 'Hooked on a Feeling' and '(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song'. The New York Times looks back at his career.
Singer John Davis, the true vocal talent behind notorious pop duo Milli Vanilli, has died from coronavirus at the age of 66, Variety reports. Fronted by Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, Milli Vanilli sold more than 30 million singles, but were stripped of a Grammy Award after it emerged they lip-synced on hits they had never recorded. Davis and other fellow session singers provided vocals on Millie Vanilli's album 'Girl You Know It's True', which sold 11 million copies, but were only listed as backing singers, with Morvan and Pilatus falsely given credit. After the lip-syncing scandal, Davis and fellow original singer Brad Howell formed The Real Milli Vanilli. In later years Davis performed alongside Morvan as part of their collaborative project Face Meets Voice.
Co-founder and namesake of Vans shoe company, Paul Van Doren has passed away at age 90, NBC reports. Van Doren launched Vans in 1966 and has since built the Anaheim, California-based company into a global sneaker and streetwear brand. Last month, Van Doren released his memoir 'Authentic'.
Will Mecum, founding guitarist of long-running stoner metal outfit Karma to Burn, has died, Metal Sucks reports. Will formed Karma to Burn with bassist Rich Mullins and drummer Nathan Limbaugh in 1994 in Morgantown WV, to release six albums with the band.
Al Schmitt, one of the most revered engineers and producers in the annals of the music business, winner of record 20 Grammys, has died aged 91. In 2015, he also became the first to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Among his recordings are Henry Mancini's 'Moon River', Neil Young's 'On the Beach', Toto's 'Africa', Ray Charles' 'Genius Loves Company', and 150 other gold or platinum records by Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Josh Groban, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
Australian musician Anita Lane, a flower of Melbourne 1980s post-punk scene, and the former member of The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party, has died aged 62, Louder Than War reports. Lane co-wrote early Birthday Party tracks ‘A Dead Song’, ‘Dead Joe’ and ‘Kiss Me Black’, as well as Bad Seeds songs ‘From Her To Eternity’ and ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ with her then-boyfriend Nick Cave. Lane went on to have a long and distinguished career, working with the likes of Kid Congo Powers, Gudrun Gut and Einstürzende Neubauten. Lane also released a number of solo albums.
Italian chanson and pop music singer and actress Milva, very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, passed away Friday at her home in Milan, Italy, aged 81, Deutsche Welle reports. With an active career spanning decades, Milva sold some 80 million records, and recorded 173 albums. Her penchant for singing in foreign languages led to her success around the world - she released songs in English, French, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Japanese. She had an especially large fan base in Germany, where she gained fame with sophisticated easy listening tracks.
Jim Steinman, the composer, lyricist and record producer behind many rock and pop hits has died at the age of 73, Deadline reports. His roster of hit records began with Meat Loaf’s smash 1977 debut album 'Bat Out of Hell' (among the 35 best-selling albums in U.S. history, racking up 14 million units sold), only to be continued by Bonnie Tyler hits 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and 'Holding Out For A Hero', Barry Manilow’s 'Read ‘Em and Weep', Celine Dion’s 'It’s All Coming Back to Me Now' and many more.
