All Discussions Tagged 'dies' - Pittsburgh Jazz Network2024-03-28T10:14:30Zhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/group/obituaries/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=dies&feed=yes&xn_auth=noBassist Richard Davis joins the ancestors on September 6, 2023 at 93.tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-09-09:1992552:Topic:7164432023-09-09T21:02:18.206ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="firstHeading mw-first-heading" id="firstHeading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Davis (bassist)…</span></h1>
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<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Davis (bassist)</span></h1>
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<tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above"><div class="fn">Richard Davis</div>
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<tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span class="mw-default-size"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Davis.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="Richard Davis at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, February 28, 1987"><img alt="Richard Davis at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, February 28, 1987" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Richard_Davis.jpg/220px-Richard_Davis.jpg" width="220" height="323" class="mw-file-element"/></a></span><div class="infobox-caption">Richard Davis at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, California, February 28, 1987</div>
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<tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header">Background information</th>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th>
<td class="infobox-data">April 15, 1930<br/><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Illinois" class="mw-redirect" title="Chicago, Illinois">Chicago, Illinois</a>, U.S.</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th>
<td class="infobox-data">September 6, 2023<span> </span>(aged 93)</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Genres</th>
<td class="infobox-data"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz" title="Jazz">Jazz</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music" title="Pop music">pop</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music" title="Classical music">classical</a></td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Occupation(s)</th>
<td class="infobox-data role">Musician, educator</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Instrument(s)</th>
<td class="infobox-data note">Double bass</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Labels</th>
<td class="infobox-data"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Records" title="Muse Records">Muse</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Records" title="Palmetto Records">Palmetto</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Records" title="Marge Records">Marge</a></td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Website</th>
<td class="infobox-data"><span class="url"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.richarddavis.org/">www.richarddavis.org</a></span></td>
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<p><b>Richard Davis</b><span> </span>(April 15, 1930 – September 6, 2023) was an American jazz bassist. Among his best-known contributions to the albums of others are<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dolphy" title="Eric Dolphy">Eric Dolphy</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_to_Lunch!" title="Out to Lunch!">Out to Lunch!</a></i>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hill_(jazz_musician)" title="Andrew Hill (jazz musician)">Andrew Hill</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_Departure_(Andrew_Hill_album)" title="Point of Departure (Andrew Hill album)">Point of Departure</a></i>, and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Morrison" title="Van Morrison">Van Morrison</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_Weeks" title="Astral Weeks">Astral Weeks</a></i>, of which critic<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greil_Marcus" title="Greil Marcus">Greil Marcus</a><span> </span>wrote (in<span> </span><i>The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll</i>), "Richard Davis provided the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album."<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Biography">Biography</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Davis_(bassist)&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Biography">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>Born on April 15, 1930 in<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Illinois" class="mw-redirect" title="Chicago, Illinois">Chicago, Illinois</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>Davis began his musical career with his brothers, singing bass in his family's vocal trio.<sup id="cite_ref-ALLMUSIC_3-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-ALLMUSIC-3">[3]</a></sup><span> </span>He studied double bass in high school with his music theory teacher and band director,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dyett" title="Walter Dyett">Walter Dyett</a>. He was a member of<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Youth_Symphony_Orchestras" title="Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras">Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras</a><span> </span>(then known as the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago) and played in the orchestra's first performance at Chicago's Orchestra Hall on November 14, 1947. After high school, he studied double bass with Rudolf Fahsbender of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra while attending<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VanderCook_College_of_Music" title="VanderCook College of Music">VanderCook College of Music</a>.</p>
<p>After college, Davis performed in dance bands. The connections he made led him to pianist<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Shirley" title="Don Shirley">Don Shirley</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>In 1954, he and Shirley moved to New York City and performed together until 1956,<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>when Davis began playing with the<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauter-Finegan_Orchestra" title="Sauter-Finegan Orchestra">Sauter-Finegan Orchestra</a>. In 1957, he became part of<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Vaughan" title="Sarah Vaughan">Sarah Vaughan</a>'s rhythm section, touring and recording with her until 1960.<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup></p>
<p>During the 1960s, Davis was in demand in a variety of musical circles. He worked with many of the small jazz groups of the time, including those led by<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dolphy" title="Eric Dolphy">Eric Dolphy</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaki_Byard" title="Jaki Byard">Jaki Byard</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_Ervin" title="Booker Ervin">Booker Ervin</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hill_(jazz_musician)" title="Andrew Hill (jazz musician)">Andrew Hill</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvin_Jones" title="Elvin Jones">Elvin Jones</a>, and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Tjader" title="Cal Tjader">Cal Tjader</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-4" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>From 1966 to 1972, he was a member of<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thad_Jones/Mel_Lewis_Orchestra" title="The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra">The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-5" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>He has also played with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Sebesky" title="Don Sebesky">Don Sebesky</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Nelson" title="Oliver Nelson">Oliver Nelson</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra" title="Frank Sinatra">Frank Sinatra</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis" title="Miles Davis">Miles Davis</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Gordon" title="Dexter Gordon">Dexter Gordon</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Henderson" title="Joe Henderson">Joe Henderson</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Jamal" title="Ahmad Jamal">Ahmad Jamal</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_bio_4-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-Official_bio-4">[4]</a></sup></p>
<p>Davis recorded with pop and rock musicians in the 1970s, appearing on<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro" title="Laura Nyro">Laura Nyro</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(Laura_Nyro_album)" title="Smile (Laura Nyro album)">Smile</a></i>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Morrison" title="Van Morrison">Van Morrison</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_Weeks" title="Astral Weeks">Astral Weeks</a></i><span> </span>(for which Davis also served as<span> </span><i>de facto</i><span> </span>bandleader during the recording sessions<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup>), and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen" title="Bruce Springsteen">Bruce Springsteen</a>'s<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greetings_From_Asbury_Park,_N.J." class="mw-redirect" title="Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.">Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.</a></i><span> </span>and<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run" title="Born to Run">Born to Run</a></i>. During his career he performed classical music with conductors<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky" title="Igor Stravinsky">Igor Stravinsky</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein" title="Leonard Bernstein">Leonard Bernstein</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulez" title="Pierre Boulez">Pierre Boulez</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski" title="Leopold Stokowski">Leopold Stokowski</a>, and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunther_Schuller" title="Gunther Schuller">Gunther Schuller</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Official_bio_4-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-Official_bio-4">[4]</a></sup></p>
<p>After living in New York City for 23 years, he moved to Wisconsin in 1977 and became a professor at the<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison" title="University of Wisconsin–Madison">University of Wisconsin–Madison</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-6" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-LarkinJazz-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>teaching bass, jazz history, and improvisation. His former students include<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Parker_(musician)" title="William Parker (musician)">William Parker</a>, David Ephross, Sandor Ostlund, Hans Sturm, Alex Kalfayan, Ryan Maxwell and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_E._H._Seigfried" title="Karl E. H. Seigfried">Karl E. H. Seigfried</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup></p>
<p>Richard Davis died on September 6, 2023, after two years in hospice care. He was 93.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Awards_and_honors">Awards and honors</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Davis_(bassist)&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Awards and honors">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<ul>
<li>Best Bassist,<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downbeat_Magazine" class="mw-redirect" title="Downbeat Magazine">Downbeat</a></i><span> </span>International Critics' Poll (1967–74)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEA_Jazz_Master" class="mw-redirect" title="NEA Jazz Master">NEA Jazz Master</a><span> </span>(2014)<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_note-8">[8]</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Discography">Discography</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Davis_(bassist)&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Discography">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<div class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article:<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_discography" title="Richard Davis discography">Richard Davis discography</a></div>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Sounds" title="Heavy Sounds">Heavy Sounds</a></i><span> </span>(Impulse!, 1967) with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvin_Jones" title="Elvin Jones">Elvin Jones</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses_for_Richard_Davis" title="Muses for Richard Davis">Muses for Richard Davis</a></i><span> </span>(MPS, 1969)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philosophy_of_the_Spiritual" title="The Philosophy of the Spiritual">The Philosophy of the Spiritual</a></i><span> </span>(Cobblestone, 1971)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistrophy_%26_Now%27s_the_Time" title="Epistrophy & Now's the Time">Epistrophy & Now's the Time</a></i><span> </span>(Muse, 1972)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dealin%27" title="Dealin'">Dealin'</a></i><span> </span>(Muse, 1973)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_One_(Richard_Davis_album)" title="As One (Richard Davis album)">As One</a></i><span> </span>(Muse, 1976)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_Free_(Richard_Davis_album)" title="Fancy Free (Richard Davis album)">Fancy Free</a></i><span> </span>(Galaxy, 1977)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Gemini" title="Divine Gemini">Divine Gemini</a></i><span> </span>(SteepleChase, 1978) with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Dickerson" title="Walt Dickerson">Walt Dickerson</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_(Richard_Davis_album)" title="Harvest (Richard Davis album)">Harvest</a></i><span> </span>(Muse, 1977 [1979])</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Out_West_(Richard_Davis_album)" title="Way Out West (Richard Davis album)">Way Out West</a></i><span> </span>(Muse, 1977 [1980])</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenderness_(Walt_Dickerson_and_Richard_Davis_album)" title="Tenderness (Walt Dickerson and Richard Davis album)">Tenderness</a></i><span> </span>(SteepleChase, 1977 [1985]) with Walt Dickerson</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persia_My_Dear" title="Persia My Dear">Persia My Dear</a></i><span> </span>(DIW, 1987)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_and_Soul_(Archie_Shepp_and_Richard_Davis_album)" title="Body and Soul (Archie Shepp and Richard Davis album)">Body and Soul</a></i><span> </span>(Enja, 1989 [1991]) with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Shepp" title="Archie Shepp">Archie Shepp</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bassist:_Homage_to_Diversity" title="The Bassist: Homage to Diversity">The Bassist: Homage to Diversity</a></i><span> </span>(Palmetto, 2001)</li>
</ul>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Davis_(bassist)&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<div class="reflist"><div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references">
<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-1" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text">Marcus, Greil.<span> </span><i>The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll</i>.</span></li>
<li id="cite_note-LarkinJazz-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-0"><span class="cite-accessibility-label">Jump up to:</span><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-LarkinJazz_2-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFColin_Larkin1992" class="citation book cs1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Larkin_(writer)" class="mw-redirect" title="Colin Larkin (writer)">Colin Larkin</a>, ed. (1992).<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Popular_Music" class="mw-redirect" title="Encyclopedia of Popular Music">The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz</a></i><span> </span>(First ed.).<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Publishing" class="mw-redirect" title="Guinness Publishing">Guinness Publishing</a>. p. 115.<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-85112-580-8" title="Special:BookSources/0-85112-580-8">0-85112-580-8</a>.</cite></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-ALLMUSIC-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-ALLMUSIC_3-0" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFRon_Wynn" class="citation web cs1">Ron Wynn.<span> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/richard-davis-mn0000851653/biography">"Richard Davis | Biography"</a>.<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllMusic" title="AllMusic">AllMusic</a></i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved<span> </span><span class="nowrap">2015-09-04</span></span>.</cite></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Official_bio-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-Official_bio_4-0"><span class="cite-accessibility-label">Jump up to:</span><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a><span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-Official_bio_4-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://richarddavis.org/">"Richard Davis"</a>.<span> </span><i>Richarddavis.org</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved<span> </span><span class="nowrap">9 October</span><span> </span>2016</span>.</cite></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-5" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text">Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-55652-542-7" title="Special:BookSources/1-55652-542-7">1-55652-542-7</a></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-6" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.music.wisc.edu/faculty/richard-davis/">"The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music | Richard Davis"</a>.<span> </span><i>Music.wisc.edu</i>. 2014-07-14<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved<span> </span><span class="nowrap">2015-09-04</span></span>.</cite></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-7" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFChappell2023" class="citation news cs1">Chappell, Robert (September 7, 2023).<span> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://madison365.com/richard-davis-international-jazz-legend-and-champion-of-racial-justice-dies-at-93/">"Richard Davis, international jazz legend and champion of racial justice, dies at 93"</a>.<span> </span><i>Madison365</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved<span> </span><span class="nowrap">September 7,</span><span> </span>2023</span>.</cite></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Davis_(bassist)#cite_ref-8" title="Jump up">^</a></b></span><span> </span><span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130706033543/http://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/jmCMS/master.php?id=2014_03&type=bio">"NEA Jazz Masters: Richard Davis"</a>.<span> </span><i>National Endowment for the Arts</i>. Archived from<span> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://arts.gov/honors/jazz/jmCMS/master.php?id=2014_03&type=bio">the original</a><span> </span>on July 6, 2013<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved<span> </span><span class="nowrap">June 27,</span><span> </span>2013</span>.</cite></span></li>
</ol>
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</div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Davis_(bassist)&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<ul>
<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://richarddavis.org/">Official site</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1384661/">Richard Davis</a><span> </span>at<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMDb_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="IMDb (identifier)">IMDb</a></li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/Richard+Davis+%282%29">Richard Davis</a><span> </span>discography at<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discogs" title="Discogs">Discogs</a></li>
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</div> Ahmad Jamal, jazz pianist with a spare, hypnotic touch, dies at 92tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-17:1992552:Topic:7139642023-04-17T03:01:42.534ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<div class="grid-layout"><div class="grid-full-inner-standard"><div class="w-100"><h1 class="font--headline offblack headline mb-xs pb-xxs-ns" id="main-content"><span>Ahmad Jamal, jazz pianist with a spare, hypnotic touch, dies at 92</span></h1>
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<h2 class="font--subhead font-light offblack mb-sm pb-xxs-ns subheadline">His taut and rhythmically supple approach to jazz piano — notably his best-selling recording of “Poinciana” — influenced…</h2>
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<div class="grid-layout"><div class="grid-full-inner-standard"><div class="w-100"><h1 class="font--headline offblack headline mb-xs pb-xxs-ns" id="main-content"><span>Ahmad Jamal, jazz pianist with a spare, hypnotic touch, dies at 92</span></h1>
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<h2 class="font--subhead font-light offblack mb-sm pb-xxs-ns subheadline">His taut and rhythmically supple approach to jazz piano — notably his best-selling recording of “Poinciana” — influenced generations of other musicians who embraced his less-is-more dynamics</h2>
<div class="flex print-byline print-mt-none"><div class="byline-wrapper flex-column flex"><div class="PJLV PJLV-ihSmMVC-css"><div class="mb-xxs"><div class="flex items-center"><div class="flex"><div class="dib font-xxs"><span class="wpds-c-cNdzuP">By<span> </span></span><span class="wpds-c-kBnelm wpds-c-kBnelm-cIdiJW-isLink-false">Gene Seymour</span></div>
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<div class="wpds-c-kgabfe wpds-c-kgabfe-ikrKXLV-css"><span class="PJLV PJLV-ihqANPJ-css undefined overrideStyles">Updated<span> </span><span class="wpds-c-iKQyrV wpds-c-iKQyrV-ihqANPJ-css undefined overrideStyles">April 16, 2023 at 7:34 p.m. EDT</span><span class="wpds-c-jwSVuw">|</span>Published<span> </span></span><span class="wpds-c-iKQyrV">April 16, 2023 at 6:18 p.m. EDT</span></div>
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Mr. Jamal in 1983. (Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post)<br />
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<div class="teaser-content grid-center"><div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Ahmad Jamal, whose taut, spare and rhythmically supple approach to jazz piano influenced generations of other musicians who embraced his less-is-more dynamics, died April 16 at his home in Ashley Falls, Mass. He was 92.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">The cause was complications from prostate cancer, said his daughter Sumayah Jamal.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">In a professional career that began at 14 in his native Pittsburgh, Mr. Jamal proved over seven decades to be a musician of ceaseless growth and invention, a minimalist, classicist and modernist who sought to erase distinctions among musical genres. He was also, in the 1950s, among the first African American performers who publicly adopted the Muslim faith.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Mr. Jamal’s preferred musical format was the trio, and he found critical success with a quiet, understated rhythmic style and dramatic use of silence between notes. His trademark was an ingeniously airy approach to classic pop standards such as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcsQUwKka-4">Love for Sale</a>,”<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZ6K0lGrdU">“A Gal in Calico”</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I05hWDL8ZDg">“Don’t Blame Me”</a><span> </span>or in his own groove-inflected compositions such as<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iboh0JPLfk">“Ahmad’s Blues,”</a><span> </span>a song that became part of the jazz repertoire.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">His group was the house band for Chicago’s Black-owned Pershing Hotel lounge — a favorite hangout for Billie Holiday and<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/05/17/all-around-showman-sammy-davis-jr-dies/b42a1e87-97e6-4c77-8f25-f50f776b431a/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9">Sammy Davis Jr.</a><span> </span>— when Mr. Jamal recorded his 1958 commercial breakthrough, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIW0bRcV6Ic">Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not For Me</a>.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">The million-selling album stayed on the Billboard magazine charts for more than 100 weeks, and its centerpiece was an eight-minute rendition of the 1930s pop ballad “Poinciana.”<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0e2G32f3IU">Mr. Jamal’s version</a><span> </span>— his signature number for the rest of his life — was driven by a Caribbean-flavored, near-hypnotic bass-and-drum pulse from whose rolling contours the pianist set off delicately timed eruptions of chords and clusters.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">The most prominent contemporary to embrace Mr. Jamal as a stylistic influence was trumpeter<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1991/09/29/jazz-great-miles-davis-dies-at-65/678f31bb-894f-4b82-ba89-610e0a301942/?itid=lk_inline_manual_12">Miles Davis</a>, who recalled in his 1989 autobiography that Mr. Jamal “knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Pianists as diverse as<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mccoy-tyner-titan-of-jazz-piano-who-helped-propel-coltrane-quartet-dies-at-81/2020/03/06/5f935eca-5fe8-11ea-b29b-9db42f7803a7_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_14">McCoy Tyner</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/cedar-walton-pianist-and-nea-jazz-master-dies-at-79/2013/08/20/0afb75da-09b1-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_14">Cedar Walton</a><span> </span>and Bill Charlap also claimed Mr. Jamal as an influence on their approaches to the jazz piano trio. Even Matthew Shipp, among the more idiosyncratic and independent-minded of progressive jazz pianists, referred to Mr. Jamal as “a musical architect of the highest order.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“You never quite know what the guy’s going to do,” music journalist Jim Macnie wrote in the Village Voice in 2010, amid a new release and concert dates by Mr. Jamal. “Quips fly from his right hand; queries bubble up on the left. They’re linked by a devastating sense of swing, an addiction to group interaction, and a deep trust in melody.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Buoyed by the success of “But Not for Me,” Mr. Jamal became a household name at a time when jazz was waning and rock was ascendant. He and his ever-changing trio lineup continued a whirlwind of nightclub tours while sometimes chafing against commercial expectations. He approached his goal — extending the boundaries of the piano trio format — with the intensity of a religious scholar.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Although cordial with interviewers, Mr. Jamal projected a studious, almost frosty austerity onstage, displaying no climactic flourishes or colorful traits beyond those woven into his playing. He often seemed remote in performance, totally absorbed in his thematic variations.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“I sometimes get the feeling that Jamal would rather crawl into the piano than off the bench at the conclusion of a performance, so deeply involved is he in his music,” San Francisco Examiner jazz critic Phil Elwood once wrote.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“Maybe so,” Mr. Jamal replied in 1982 to Elwood’s observation. “But I regret that I still don’t have enough time to spend with my instrument. I think I could become more at one with it if I did.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Frederick Russell Jones, known since childhood as Fritz, was born in Pittsburgh on July 2, 1930. His father worked in the steel mills, and his mother was a domestic worker. He began playing at 3 when an uncle challenged him to imitate him on the family piano.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">His formal lessons began four years later, and he was drawn to works by French classical composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, who often put spaces of silence between notes. He was steeped in all forms of music at Westinghouse High School, the alma mater of esteemed jazz pianists such as<span> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/03/archives/erroll-garner-jazz-pianist-53-composed-misty-thats-my-kick.html">Erroll Garner</a><span> </span>(“my major, major influence”) and<span> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/30/obituaries/mary-lou-williams-a-jazz-great-dies.html">Mary Lou Williams</a>. Fritz Reiner conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at school assemblies.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">By the time he was a freshman, Mr. Jamal was jamming at the musicians’ union hall and working in Pittsburgh nightclubs. “I’d do algebra during intermission, between sets,” he told Down Beat magazine. His ambition to attend the Juilliard School was soon eclipsed by his income.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“It was 25 cents here, $6 there,” he explained to<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/12/29/the-jazz-of-jamal/f06fd766-2748-47a6-9053-2411b07fa3fe/?itid=lk_inline_manual_28">The Washington Post in 1983</a>. “When I got up to $60 a week, which was as much as my father was making, I said, well, this is it.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">He came roaring out of Pittsburgh with a reputation for an extraordinary musical vocabulary, able to sight-read Bach as easily as a chart by<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/04/27/jazzman-count-basie-is-dead-at-age-79/3f00de59-9cbc-493d-9343-f9082987fcb7/?itid=lk_inline_manual_30">Count Basie</a>, and found himself in great demand as a sideman.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Newly married, he settled in Chicago in 1950 and converted to Islam from the Baptist faith of his youth following an encounter with bop trumpeter Idrees Sulieman. His faith freed him, he said, from the indignities of racial segregation and the petty cruelties he endured in show business.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">In his transition from Fritz Jones to Ahmad Jamal, he told Time magazine, “I haven’t adopted a name. It’s a part of my ancestral background and heritage. I have re-established my original name. I have gone back to my own vine and fig tree.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">He credited his faith with bolstering his musical confidence as he was leading a bass-guitar-piano trio,<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxlUgFY943M">the Three Strings</a>, and recording for the Okeh label of Columbia Records in the early 1950s. The ensemble, Saturday Review music critic Irving Kolodin wrote at the time, began to make “a quiet noise in jazz circles, attracting attention not by flamboyance and flash but by a low-keyed tonal production.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">With the astronomical success of “But Not For Me,” Mr. Jamal was pulling down $3,000 a week. He purchased a 16-room Chicago mansion, started a nightclub (alcohol-free, per his faith), and engaged in other business ventures from greeting cards to pies. None of these enterprises succeeded, and Mr. Jamal became mired in debt.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">His first marriage, to Virginia Wilkins (who took the Muslim name Maryam Mezzan), ended in divorce in 1962, and she later sued him for nonpayment of child support for their daughter, Mumeenah. His own lawyers also sought money from him, according to news reports at the time.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Mr. Jamal moved to New York for a long residency at the Village Gate nightclub. Amid a hectic performing schedule, Mr. Jamal enjoyed acclaim in 1970 for an<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZTUFoD2UN8">electrically amplified keyboard version</a><span> </span>of composer Johnny Mandel’s theme from the movie and TV sitcom “M*A*S*H.” That same year, Mr. Jamal released one of his more significant trio albums,<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCpApGVXWg">“The Awakening,”</a><span> </span>with bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Frank Gant. It was among his many recordings that hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Common and Nas later mined for samples in their own mixes.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Critics and audiences began to notice subtle adjustments in Mr. Jamal’s style. By the early 1980s, he was moving away from interpretations of classic pop standards and favoring more original compositions, telling music journalist Eugene Holley Jr. that it was “time for the musician to write his own repertoire rather than to keep resurrecting the things that are in somebody else’s mind.”</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Capitalizing on a resurgence of interest in acoustic jazz in the 1990s, Mr. Jamal released several new live albums under the rubric “The Essence,” and his legacy and influence were more fully acknowledged.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“Through the use and space and changes of rhythmic tempo, Jamal invented a group sound that had all the surprise and dynamic variation of an imaginatively ordered big band,” wrote jazz critic Stanley Crouch, who placed Mr. Jamal on an equal footing with<span> </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/02/18/thelonious-monk-63-jazz-pianist-composer-dies/38da7e4a-ca2a-4647-8259-52b1ae2a662c/?itid=lk_inline_manual_44">Thelonious Monk<span> </span></a>as an innovator and influence.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">Mr. Jamal’s prodigious surge of activity continued unabated into the 21st century with recordings and performances that attested to his inventive powers and still-authoritative command of rhythm. He was declared a Jazz Master in 1994 by the National Endowment for the Arts and won a<span> </span><a href="https://ahmadjamal.com/awards">Lifetime Achievement Grammy</a><span> </span>in 2017.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">His daughter Mumeenah Counts died in 1979. His second marriage, to Sharifah Frazier, with whom he had Sumayah, ended in divorce. His third marriage, to Laura Hess-Hey, also ended in divorce, but she remained his manager until his death. In addition to Sumayah, survivors include two grandchildren.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">In February 2020, six months shy of his 90th birthday, Mr. Jamal sounded to critics as frisky and authoritative as ever in live performance at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. He spoke of a magnetic connection with his instrument, a sensation that neither age nor any other factor could compromise.</p>
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<div class="article-body"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" dir="null">“When I pass a piano anywhere, I have to touch it or play it,” Mr. Jamal once told the Boston Globe. “The reward of being a musician is not money. It’s the wonderful, indescribable feeling of knowing you’re performing at your highest level. It’s a spiritual feeling. You can always make money. But you can’t always latch onto your own spirit. Maybe these moments represent the ultimate freedom.</p>
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</div> Legendary Steelers RB Franco Harris dies at 72tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2022-12-22:1992552:Topic:6741722022-12-22T02:48:37.606ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="Header"><div class="navigation"><div class="YDC-UH" id="YDC-UH"><div class="YDC-UH-Stack" id="YDC-UH-Stack"><div id="mrt-node-UH-2-Rmp"><div id="UH-2-Rmp-Proxy"><div class="rmp-module"><div class="maas-item"><div class="m-AolHeader--innerContainer"><div class="top-wrap"><div class="title-bar" id="td-app-aol-module-1"><div class="logo"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Legendary Steelers RB Franco Harris dies at…</span></div>
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<div class="caas-attribution-with-share"><div class="aol-attr"> <br/><div class="aol-attr__author"><div class="aol-attr-item-author"><span class="caas-author-byline-collapse"><span class="aol-attr__author--title">NICK BROMBERG</span></span></div>
December 21, 2022, 6:32 AM</div>
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<div class="caas-body"><p>Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Franco Harris has died. He was 72.</p>
<p>Harris’ death comes just days before the 50th anniversary of the Steelers’ celebration of the “Immaculate Reception.” Harris made one of the most iconic plays in NFL history on Dec. 23, 1972, against the Oakland Raiders when he swooped in and grabbed a pass from Terry Bradshaw intended for John Fuqua before it hit the ground.</p>
<p>After grabbing the ball, Harris ran it in for a game-winning touchdown with just seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Steelers won that divisional playoff game 13-7 before losing the AFC title game to the undefeated Miami Dolphins.</p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-college-football-sports-efc7c3e417ad04594ae32a3fbc0a693a" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Harris’ son, Dok, told the Associated Press</a><span> </span>that his father died overnight and that a cause of death was not immediately known.</p>
<p>With the Raiders visiting Pittsburgh on Saturday night, the Steelers are having a ceremony to honor Harris’ play at halftime of the game. Harris’ iconic No. 32 is also set to be retired by the team.</p>
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<div class="caas-figure-with-pb"><div><div class="caas-img-container"><img class="caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded" alt="Franco Harris made one of the most legendary plays in NFL history. (via the NFL)" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ooC5VUbBuaJg49FAknNLcQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTczNA--/<a href="https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_yahoo_sports_800/07e0033ad0050ceace5bd59b501f3244">https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_yahoo_sports_800/07e0033ad0050ceace5bd59b501f3244</a>"/></div>
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Franco Harris made one of the most legendary plays in NFL history. (via the NFL)<br />
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<h2>Harris was a rookie in 1972</h2>
<p>Harris’ legendary play immediately made him a member of Pittsburgh Steelers lore as a rookie. He rushed 188 times for 1,055 yards across 14 games in his first season with the team in 1972, though hardly anyone remembers those rushing yards or his 10 rushing touchdowns from that season.</p>
<p>Harris would rush for more than 1,000 yards in eight of his 11 seasons in Pittsburgh. He averaged 5.6 yards a carry as a rookie and scored a league-leading 14 rushing touchdowns in 1976. After one season in Seattle after 12 years in Pittsburgh, Harris finished his career with 12,120 rushing yards and 91 TDs. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.</p>
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<p>Before he was selected by the Steelers with the 13th pick in the 1972 draft, Harris played collegiately at Penn State. Harris rushed for over 600 yards in each of his three seasons on the field for the Nittany Lions and scored 25 total touchdowns while pairing with Lydell Mitchell in the backfield.</p>
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<div class="caas-figure-with-pb"><div><div class="caas-img-container"><img class="caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded" alt="Franco Harris of the Steelers dances past Seattle Seahawks linerbacker Keith Butler (53) in first period action Sunday, Sept. 10, 1978 in Pittsburgh. Harris picked up five yards on the play. Harris is the eight leading rusher in NFL history. (AP Photo/RCG)" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/scy9tOz4ybXe29OcWV3UCg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD04MTU-/<a href="https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_yahoo_sports_800/4551f925df3349435b9b8bb4b3abd0f8">https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_yahoo_sports_800/4551f925df3349435b9b8bb4b3abd0f8</a>"/></div>
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Franco Harris of the Steelers runs with the ball on Sept. 10, 1978, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/RCG)<br />
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<h2>Steelers emerged as a powerhouse in the 1970s</h2>
<p>The Steelers went 11-3 in 1972 after drafting Harris 13th overall. It was Pittsburgh’s first winning season since a 7-4-3 campaign in 1963 and the third straight year of improvement after the Steelers bottomed out at 1-13 in Chuck Noll’s first season as head coach in 1969.</p>
<p>That 11-3 season set the standard for what the Steelers became in the 1970s. After losing to that immortal Dolphins team in the AFC title game, the Steelers went 10-4 the following season before the Raiders got revenge in a 33-14 divisional playoff game a day shy of the first anniversary of Harris’ catch.</p>
<p>With Harris as a central figure of Pittsburgh's rushing attack, the Steelers went on to win four of the next six Super Bowl titles. The Steelers beat the Vikings 16-6 to win Super Bowl IX in January 1975 and then beat the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X. Harris rushed 34 times for 158 yards in the win over the Vikings and had six rushing touchdowns in the playoffs that season.</p>
<p>After beating the Cowboys again in Super Bowl XIII, the Steelers then capped off their 1970s Super Bowl run with a 31-19 win over the Los Angeles Rams.</p>
<p>Harris played in 19 postseason games with the Steelers and finished with 400 carries for 1,556 yards and 16 rushing TDs to go with that one receiving TD against the Raiders. The Steelers were 14-5 in the playoffs when Harris was on the field.</p>
<p>Since that Super Bowl after the 1979 season, the Steelers have had just eight losing seasons and two more Super Bowl victories. The Steelers enter Saturday’s game at 6-8 and must win out to avoid their first losing season under head coach Mike Tomlin.</p>
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</div> Irene Cara, ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ Singer, Dies at 63tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2022-11-29:1992552:Topic:6640672022-11-29T00:50:21.246ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<div><div><div class="css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 class="css-1l8buln e1h9rw200" id="link-6432d611">Irene Cara, ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ Singer, Dies at 63</h1>
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<p class="css-1n0orw4 e1wiw3jv0" id="article-summary">Ms. Cara was a child star from the Bronx who gained fame in the 1980s as a singer of pop anthems and as the star of the movie “Fame.”…</p>
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<div class="css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 id="link-6432d611" class="css-1l8buln e1h9rw200">Irene Cara, ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ Singer, Dies at 63</h1>
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<p id="article-summary" class="css-1n0orw4 e1wiw3jv0">Ms. Cara was a child star from the Bronx who gained fame in the 1980s as a singer of pop anthems and as the star of the movie “Fame.”</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Irene Cara as Coco Hernandez performing in a scene from the 1980 movie “Fame.” A former child actor, dancer and singer, she was the voice behind two of the biggest movie theme songs of the 1980s.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>United Artists/Archive Photos/Getty Images</span></span></span><br />
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<div class="css-sklrp3"><div class="css-1e2jphy epjyd6m1"><div class="css-233int epjyd6m0"><p class="css-4anu6l e1jsehar1"><span class="byline-prefix">By<span> </span></span><span class="css-1baulvz"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/alex-traub" class="css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0">Alex Traub</a></span><span> </span>and<span> </span><span class="css-1baulvz last-byline"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/amanda-holpuch" class="css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0">Amanda Holpuch</a></span></p>
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<div class="css-ejne5g"><span class="css-1sbuyqj e16638kd3">Published<span> </span>Nov. 26, 2022</span><span class="css-233int e16638kd4">Updated<span> </span>Nov. 27, 2022</span></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Irene Cara, who belted out the title tracks of two beloved song-and-dance movies of the 1980s, “Flashdance” and “Fame,” has died. She was 63.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Her death, at her Florida home, was confirmed by her publicist, Judith A. Moose,<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://twitter.com/Irene_Cara/status/1596392865948499968" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on Twitter</a><span> </span>on Saturday. Ms. Moose, who did not specify where in Florida or when Ms. Cara died, said the cause was “unknown and will be released when information is available.”</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Cara, an actor, dancer and singer during her girlhood in the South Bronx, garnered expectations that she would become a major star. That never occurred, but she did become known for her contributions to two enduring movies, each of which chronicled the artistic ambitions of people like herself: talented, working-class city dwellers.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">She scored her most memorable hit with <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miax0Jpe5mA" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Flashdance … What a Feeling.”</a><span> </span>With a low, deep voice, she gently crooned the confessions that open the tune, then unleashed a power for sustaining notes in the exclamatory chorus.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In 1984, her writing credit on the song earned her Oscar and Golden Globe awards for best original song, and she also won a Grammy for best pop vocal performance.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In “Fame” (1980), Ms. Cara not only sang the title track but also appeared in a starring role as Coco Hernandez, one of several students the movie follows throughout their years at a New York City performing arts high school.</p>
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<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Cara knowledgeably incarnated a diva-to-be — chewing gum while pitching a fellow musician to start a band and instructing him “there’s a lot of money out there,” gleefully tap dancing in a puddle on a subway platform, twirling her sunglasses while singing at a piano, walking on a crowded sidewalk while looking absorbed in a showbiz industry newspaper.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In addition to singing the movie’s title number,<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1gMQ_q3FSM" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Fame,”</a><span> </span>Ms. Cara also sang another single on the soundtrack, the ballad<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mkRwkQRoQ" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Out Here on My Own.”</a><span> </span>Both songs were nominated for an Oscar in 1981. The film was nominated for several awards, and “Fame” won for both best original song and score.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In 1980, a journalist with People magazine asked Ms. Cara to recount the achievements of her young career. “You’re obviously not from New York,” she<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091215154722/http://www.people.com:80/people/archive/article/0,,20077840,00.html" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">replied</a>. “Everyone in New York knows what I’ve done.”</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Some commentators shared her lofty sense of herself. “Move over Streisand, Ross and Summer. Make room for Irene Cara,” Ebony magazine<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=r1A3E8uMxOEC&pg=PA88#v=onepage&q&f=false" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote</a><span> </span>in 1981. “Since co-starring in the Oscar-nominated movie ‘Fame,’ her career has taken off like lightning.”</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Cara was born Irene Escalera on March 18, 1959, in the Bronx. She<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/jul/14/disappearing-years/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">repeatedly disputed reports</a><span> </span>about her birth year, at times describing it as 1964. Her official Twitter account says she was born in 1962. Her mother<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/03/archives/child-actors-are-still-taking-their-cues-from-mom.html" title="">told The New York Times in 1970</a><span> </span>that a young Ms. Cara, already a busy performer by then, was 11 years old.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Ms. Cara in 1986. At 13, she was a regular on “The Electric Company,” a children’s show broadcast mostly on public television in the 1970s.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Aaron Rapoport/Corbis, via Getty Images</span></span></span><br />
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Her mother,<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/03/archives/child-actors-are-still-taking-their-cues-from-mom.html" title="">Louise Escalera</a>, was a cashier, and her father, Gaspar Escalera, was a saxophonist who worked at a steel factory. She told Ebony that she, her two brothers and two sisters belonged to a musical family, with a grandmother in Puerto Rico who could play five instruments.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Information on Ms. Cara’s survivors was not immediately available.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Cara grew up in New York City and attended music, acting and dance classes as a child; she was said to be able to play the piano<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.thebackstorywithirenecara.com/about-irene" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">by ear at age 5</a>. She attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, a school for child performers and children studying the arts.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">At 13, she was a regular on “<a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/28/archives/-the-electric-company-tv-program-found-helpful-to-children-8363.html" title="">The Electric Company</a>,” a children’s show broadcast mostly on public television in the 1970s. She was also a member of its band, the Short Circus.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ms. Cara stayed busy, taking roles in theater, television and film, including the title role in “Sparkle,” a 1976 film about a family of female singers in the 1960s; it was<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/movies/sparkle-remade-with-jordin-sparks-and-whitney-houston.html" title="">remade in<span> </span></a>2012.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">The character Alex Owens dancing in the film “Flashdance.” Ms. Cara won the Oscar for best original song as one of the writers of “Flashdance … What a Feeling,” the title song, which she also sang.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>CBS, via Getty Images</span></span></span><br />
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">She continued to act and make music into the 1990s, but she found herself bogged down by a lawsuit that she filed in 1985 against a record executive, Al Coury, and a firm of his, Network Records. She sued for $10 million,<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/02/27/Grammy-and-Oscar-winning-singer-Irene-Cara-filed-a-10/6271478328400/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">accusing</a><span> </span>Mr. Coury of exploiting her trust and withholding royalties from the “Flashdance” soundtrack and her first two solo records, “Anyone Can See” (1982) and “What a Feelin’” (1983).</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In 1993, a California jury awarded her $1.5 million, People magazine<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://people.com/archive/ready-for-an-encore-vol-56-no-2/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a><span> </span>in 2001.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">She told People that the dispute had unjustly branded her as being difficult to work with and that she had been “virtually blacklisted” by the music industry. In 2020, she<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svOXJRjDHTY" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shared</a><span> </span>on YouTube two lighthearted dance songs from 1985 that she said had never been released because of the lawsuit.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">By 2001, People was describing Ms. Cara as a singer whose time had come and gone, but whose stardom remained vivid to those who recalled it. During a recent recording session in Orlando, People reported, an agent had spotted a familiar face.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Is that Irene Cara?” the agent whispered to a young client of his. “She was huge.”</p>
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</div> Joey DeFrancesco, driving force on the Hammond organ, dies at 51tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2022-08-28:1992552:Topic:5933102022-08-28T03:04:53.671ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="storytitle"><h1>Joey DeFrancesco, driving force on the Hammond organ, dies at 51</h1>
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<div class="story-meta has-byline has-org" id="story-meta"><div class="story-meta__one"><div class="dateblock"><span class="date">August 26, 2022</span><span class="time">10:24 AM ET…</span></div>
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<div class="storytitle"><h1>Joey DeFrancesco, driving force on the Hammond organ, dies at 51</h1>
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<div id="story-meta" class="story-meta has-byline has-org"><div class="story-meta__one"><div class="dateblock"><span class="date">August 26, 2022</span><span class="time">10:24 AM ET</span></div>
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<div class="story-meta__two"><div id="storybyline" class="storybyline-wrap linkLocation"><div class="bucketwrap byline" id="res1119560663"><div class="byline-container--block"><div class="byline byline--block byline--has-link"><div class="byline__photo"><a href="https://www.npr.org/people/510604589/nate-chinen" rel="author"><source class="img" type="image/webp"></source><source class="img" type="image/jpeg"></source><img src="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/01/19/natechinen_sq-75cf158b6c85496dd3567515f6287b305e710b30-s100-c85.jpg" class="img" alt="Nat Chinen."/></a></div>
<p class="byline__name byline__name--block"><a href="https://www.npr.org/people/510604589/nate-chinen" rel="author">Nate Chinen</a></p>
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<div class="credit-caption"><div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption"><p>Joey DeFrancesco performs at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis in 2021.<span> </span><b class="credit">Mark Sheldon<span> </span></b><b class="hide-caption">hide caption</b></p>
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<div class="enlarge_html"><div class="image_data"><p class="caption">Joey DeFrancesco performs at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis in 2021.</p>
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<p>Joey DeFrancesco, who brought the richly enveloping sound of the Hammond B-3 organ roaring back into the jazz mainstream in the early 1990s, reigning as its preeminent ace for more than 30 years, died on Thursday. He was 51.</p>
<p>Gloria DeFrancesco, his wife and manager,<span> </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ChuMkgdAF_D/?igshid=N2NmMDY0OWE%3D">announced his death</a><span> </span>on social media, but did not provide a cause.</p>
<p>Few jazz artists in any era have ever dominated the musical language and popular image of an instrument the way DeFrancesco did with the organ — as early as 17, when his head-turning debut was released on Columbia Records. He exhibited supreme technical command at the keyboard, reeling off ribbons of notes with his right hand. And he took full advantage of the sonic possibilities presented by an organ console, with its drawbars, switches and pedal board; his organ could lurch abruptly from an ambient hum to a sanctified holler, or change timbres and textures in the middle of a phrase. Like his idol and closest parallel, Jimmy Smith, he revealed new vistas on the instrument.</p>
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<p>Also like Smith, DeFrancesco was emotionally evocative with his sound, unfailingly reaching audiences with a soulful message rooted in the blues. His language encompassed not only bebop and the blues but also the modal dialects of organist Larry Young, and pianists like McCoy Tyner. His radiant brand of virtuosity attracted collaborators ranging from Miles Davis, whose band DeFrancesco joined while still a senior in high school, to Van Morrison, with whom he made two recent albums. He is prominently featured on Christian McBride's 2020 release<span> </span><em>For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver</em>, which won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in April.</p>
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<div id="res1119590378" class="bucketwrap internallink insettwocolumn inset2col"><div class="bucket img"><a id="featuredStackSquareImage687886485" href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/23/687886485/a-reunion-of-brotherly-love-joey-defrancesco-traces-his-roots"><source class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/webp"></source><source class="img lazyOnLoad" type="image/jpeg"></source><img src="https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/01/23/christian_joey_sq-60c2d368ac7e7e65f602ac6674d9faeb7404f121-s100-c15.jpg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="A Reunion Of Brotherly Love: Joey DeFrancesco Traces His Roots"/></a><div class="bucketblock"><h3 class="slug"><a href="https://www.npr.org/series/347174538/jazz-night-radio">Jazz Night In America</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/23/687886485/a-reunion-of-brotherly-love-joey-defrancesco-traces-his-roots">A Reunion Of Brotherly Love: Joey DeFrancesco Traces His Roots</a></h3>
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<p>DeFrancesco made some 30 albums of his own, a few of which involve an implicit passing of the torch from sterling predecessors like Smith and Jack McDuff. Other albums featured an array of kindred spirits, old and young, including the tenor saxophone masters Illinois Jacquet, George Coleman, Houston Person and most recently Pharoah Sanders. On his latest,<span> </span><em>More Music,<span> </span></em>DeFrancesco demonstrates his own proficiency on tenor saxophone, as well as trumpet, keyboards and vocals. "He had nothing left to prove on organ," McBride, who is the host of the NPR program<span> </span><em>Jazz Night in America</em>, tells WRTI. "I think that's why he took up trumpet and saxophone. I told him if he ever picked up bass, we'd have some words!"</p>
<p>Like McBride, who interviewed DeFrancesco for a<span> </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/23/687886485/a-reunion-of-brotherly-love-joey-defrancesco-traces-his-roots">2019 episode</a><span> </span>of<span> </span><em>Jazz Night in America</em>, he remained closely associated with his native Philadelphia even long after he'd made his home elsewhere. Partly this was due to the deep tradition of the organ combo in Philly — as Pat Martino, a guitar luminary who cut his teeth with a marquee generation of jazz organists there, implied in his 2011 autobiography,<span> </span><em>Here and Now!<span> </span></em>(with Bill Milkowski). Martino, who<span> </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/02/1051419471/jazz-guitarist-pat-martino-a-virtuoso-twice-over-dies-at-77">died last year</a>, hailed DeFrancesco in the book as "an exceptional artist," adding: "As a player, he's just ferocious, in that tradition of Jimmy Smith and all the great Philly organists."</p>
<p>Born in Springfield, Pa. on April 10, 1971, Joseph DeFrancesco came to music as a birthright. His father, known as "Papa" John DeFrancesco, played organ on the Philadelphia jazz scene; his grandfather and namesake, Joseph DeFrancesco, had played saxophone and clarinet during the swing era of the 1930s, in upstate New York. His older brother, Johnny, is a blues guitarist.</p>
<p>Joey started out banging on a toy piano, but by age 4 he had graduated to his father's organ, which hulked in the house whenever it wasn't set up for a residency at a club. He learned not only from his father but also from prominent organists like Trudy Pitts and Shirley Scott.</p>
<p>At age 9, Joey's father brought him to the Settlement Music School, a community organization with a long history of mentoring young talent. The band, mostly composed of high school kids, was directed by Lovett Hines, who remembers that Joey was so little that when he sat at the piano bench, his feet wouldn't touch the ground.</p>
<p>"He was a terror at the organ," recalls Hines, who stayed in contact with DeFrancesco over the years. "You could maybe best him on trumpet or tenor, but once he sat down at the organ, it was all over."</p>
<p>DeFrancesco was only 10 when he played his first professional gig, at Gert's Cocktail Lounge on South Street, which held a jam session every Monday night. Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and drummer "Philly" Joe Jones were regulars. By the time McBride met DeFrancesco at Settlement Music School a few years later, "Joey was already a local superstar as a middle schooler," McBride recalls. "I was 12, he was 13. We were the youngest ones in the band."</p>
<p>DeFrancesco attended the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where his classmates included McBride, drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. He was the first of their peer group to get a record deal, after his performance at the first annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition impressed George Butler, a producer and A&R executive at Columbia.</p>
<p>He eventually worked in a range of situations beyond the typical organ combo, including a group called The Free Spirits, a fusion group with guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Dennis Chambers. But he also pulled others into his zone; even with McLaughlin, DeFrancesco found a foot-tapping groove, notably on a 1995 album titled<span> </span><em>After the Rain,<span> </span></em>with master drummer Elvin Jones.</p>
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<p>In recent years, DeFrancesco took a focused interest on what he called "spiritual jazz," ranging from Sanders to Sun Ra, with a searching quality and a more open harmonic territory. As for his exploration on the organ, it was no different than it ever had been. "I've always been stretching the boundaries of the instrument since day one," he<span> </span><a href="https://philadelphiaweekly.com/rb-and-jazz-organist-joey-defrancesco-heads-home-for-headline-show-at-the-kimmel-center/">told<span> </span><em>Philadelphia Weekly</em></a><span> </span>in 2019. "I have my influences, but nobody's played the organ the way I play it."</p>
<p><em>Additional reporting by Josh Jackson of WRTI.</em></p>
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<li><a class="tag tag--artist" href="https://www.npr.org/artists/18958749/joey-defrancesco">Joey DeFrancesco</a></li>
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</div> Vocalist Ernie Andrews pass at 94tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2022-02-23:1992552:Topic:5541742022-02-23T05:18:30.939ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="firstHeading mw-first-heading" id="firstHeading">Ernie Andrews</h1>
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<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading">Ernie Andrews</h1>
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<tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above"><div class="fn">Ernie Andrews</div>
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<tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dexter_Gordon_%26_Ernie_Andrews.jpg" class="image" title="Ernie Andrews, left, and Dexter Gordon at KJAZ, Alameda, California, December 1980"><img alt="Ernie Andrews, left, and Dexter Gordon at KJAZ, Alameda, California, December 1980" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Dexter_Gordon_%26_Ernie_Andrews.jpg/220px-Dexter_Gordon_%26_Ernie_Andrews.jpg" width="220" height="147"/></a><div class="infobox-caption">Ernie Andrews, left, and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Gordon" title="Dexter Gordon">Dexter Gordon</a><span> </span>at<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KREV_(FM)" title="KREV (FM)">KJAZ</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda,_California" title="Alameda, California">Alameda, California</a>, December 1980</div>
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<tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header">Background information</th>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><span class="nowrap">Birth name</span></th>
<td class="infobox-data nickname">Ernest Mitchell Andrews Jr.</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th>
<td class="infobox-data">December 25, 1927<span class="noprint ForceAgeToShow"><span> </span>(age 94)</span><br/><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia" title="Philadelphia">Philadelphia</a>, Pennsylvania, United States</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Genres</th>
<td class="infobox-data"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues" title="Blues">Blues</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz" title="Jazz">jazz</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music" title="Pop music">pop</a></td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><span class="nowrap">Occupation(s)</span></th>
<td class="infobox-data role">Singer</td>
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<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Labels</th>
<td class="infobox-data"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNP_Records" title="GNP Records">GNP</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records" title="Capitol Records">Capitol</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_Records" title="Dot Records">Dot</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNP_Crescendo_Records" title="GNP Crescendo Records">GNP Crescendo</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Records" title="Discovery Records">Discovery</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Records" title="Muse Records">Muse</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HighNote_Records" title="HighNote Records">HighNote</a></td>
</tr>
<tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><span class="nowrap">Associated acts</span></th>
<td class="infobox-data"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James" title="Harry James">Harry James</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Ernest Mitchell Andrews Jr.</b>,<sup id="cite_ref-bare_1-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-bare-1">[1]</a></sup><span> </span>known professionally as<span> </span><b>Ernie Andrews</b><span> </span>(born December 25, 1927) is an American<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz" title="Jazz">jazz</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues" title="Blues">blues</a>, and<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music" title="Pop music">pop</a><span> </span>singer.</p>
<div id="toc" class="toc"><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2>
</div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#Career"><span class="tocnumber">1</span><span class="toctext">Career</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#Discography"><span class="tocnumber">2</span><span class="toctext">Discography</span></a><ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#As_leader"><span class="tocnumber">2.1</span><span class="toctext">As leader</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#As_sideman"><span class="tocnumber">2.2</span><span class="toctext">As sideman</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#References"><span class="tocnumber">3</span><span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Career">Career</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernie_Andrews&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Career">edit source</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<p>Ernie Andrews was born in<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia" title="Philadelphia">Philadelphia</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania" title="Pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>, United States, but grew up in<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles" title="Los Angeles">Los Angeles</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-Downbeat_2-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-Downbeat-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>and is said to have been discovered by songwriter<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Greene_(American_songwriter)" title="Joe Greene (American songwriter)">Joe Greene</a><span> </span>in 1945. Greene wrote his biggest hit, "Soothe Me".<sup id="cite_ref-AMG_Green_3-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-AMG_Green-3">[3]</a></sup></p>
<p>Andrews was a member of the<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James" title="Harry James">Harry James</a><span> </span>orchestra, debuting on November 26, 1958, at the Blue Note jazz club in Chicago. He recorded with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Records" title="Columbia Records">Columbia Records</a><span> </span>and others.<sup id="cite_ref-Downbeat_2-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-Downbeat-2">[2]</a></sup><span> </span>His career declined in the 1960s and 1970s but would rebound in the 1980s. He recorded with the<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Capp" title="Frank Capp">Capp/Pierce Juggernaut Band</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Harris" title="Gene Harris">Gene Harris</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_McShann" title="Jay McShann">Jay McShann</a>, and the Harper Brothers. Andrews played a leading part in the<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film" title="Documentary film">documentary film</a>,<span> </span><i>Blues for Central Avenue</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-AMG_4-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-AMG-4">[4]</a></sup></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Discography">Discography</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernie_Andrews&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Discography">edit source</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="As_leader">As leader</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernie_Andrews&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: As leader">edit source</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3>
<ul>
<li><i>In the Dark</i><span> </span>(GNP, 1957)</li>
<li><i>The Importance of Being Ernest</i><span> </span>(GNP, 1959)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Session!" title="Live Session!">Live Session! Cannonball Adderley with Ernie Andrews</a></i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records" title="Capitol Records">Capitol</a>, 1965)</li>
<li><i>This Is Ernie Andrews</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_Records" title="Dot Records">Dot</a>, 1967; CD reissue:<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verve_Records" title="Verve Records">Verve</a>, 2005)</li>
<li><i>Soul Proprietor</i><span> </span>(Dot, 1968)</li>
<li><i>Ernie Andrews Sings with the Fuzzy Kane Trio</i><span> </span>(Phil-L.A. of Soul, 1970)</li>
<li><i>Travelin' Light</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNP_Crescendo_Records" title="GNP Crescendo Records">GNP Crescendo</a><span> </span>1975) compilation</li>
<li><i>Hear Me Now!</i><span> </span>(LMI, 1979)</li>
<li><i>Sings from the Heart</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Records" title="Discovery Records">Discovery</a>, 1981)</li>
<li><i>No Regrets</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse_Records" title="Muse Records">Muse</a>, 1993; CD reissue:<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32_Records" title="32 Records">32 Jazz</a>, 1998)</li>
<li><i>The Great City</i><span> </span>(Muse, 1995)</li>
<li><i>The Many Faces of Ernie Andrews</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HighNote_Records" title="HighNote Records">HighNote</a>, 1998)</li>
<li><i>Girl Talk</i><span> </span>(HighNote, 2001)</li>
<li><i>Jump For Joy</i><span> </span>(HighNote, 2003)</li>
<li><i>How About Me</i><span> </span>(HighNote, 2005)</li>
<li><i>The L.A. Treasures Project</i><span> </span>with<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton-Hamilton_Jazz_Orchestra" class="mw-redirect" title="Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra">Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Morrison" title="Barbara Morrison">Barbara Morrison</a><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri_Records" title="Capri Records">Capri</a>, 2014)</li>
</ul>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="As_sideman">As sideman</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernie_Andrews&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: As sideman">edit source</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3>
<p><b>With<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Burrell" title="Kenny Burrell">Kenny Burrell</a></b></p>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_Is_Forever" title="Ellington Is Forever">Ellington Is Forever</a></i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Records" title="Fantasy Records">Fantasy</a>, 1975)</li>
<li><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_Is_Forever_Volume_Two" title="Ellington Is Forever Volume Two">Ellington Is Forever Volume Two</a></i><span> </span>(Fantasy, 1977)</li>
</ul>
<p><b>With<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Capp" title="Frank Capp">Frank Capp</a><span> </span>&<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Pierce" title="Nat Pierce">Nat Pierce</a></b></p>
<ul>
<li>Frank Capp & Nat Pierce:<span> </span><i>Juggernaut</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Jazz" title="Concord Jazz">Concord</a>, 1977)</li>
<li>The Frank Capp-Nat Pierce Orchestra:<span> </span><i>Juggernaut Strikes Again!</i><span> </span>(Concord, 1982)</li>
</ul>
<p><b>With<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James" title="Harry James">Harry James</a></b></p>
<ul>
<li>"Blue Baiao" b/w "She's Got to Go" (45rpm single,<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Records" title="MGM Records">MGM</a>, 1959) Andrews sings on the B-side<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup></li>
<li><i>Live at the Riverboat</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_Records" title="Dot Records">Dot</a>, 1966)<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup></li>
<li><i>Our Leader!</i><span> </span>(Dot, 1967)<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup></li>
<li><i>Duke Ellington, Harry James, Herb Pomeroy, Jon Hendricks</i><span> </span>(Europa Jazz, 1981).<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-8">[8]</a></sup><span> </span>Live with Harry James & His Orchestra at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1965</li>
<li><i>One Night Stand with Harry James at the Blue Note</i><span> </span>(Joyce, 1983)<sup id="cite_ref-JoyceAragon_9-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Andrews#cite_note-JoyceAragon-9">[9]</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<p><b>With others</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Cooper_(musician)" title="Bob Cooper (musician)">Bob Cooper</a><span> </span>and Snooky Young,<span> </span><i>In a Mellotone</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_Records" title="Contemporary Records">Contemporary</a>, 1986)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Hampton" title="Lionel Hampton">Lionel Hampton</a>,<span> </span><i>Live at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre</i><span> </span>(Phillip, 1998) 2-CD</li>
<li>The Harper Brothers,<span> </span><i>You Can Hide Inside the Music</i><span> </span>(Verve, 1992)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Harris" title="Gene Harris">Gene Harris</a><span> </span>& the Philip Morris Superband,<span> </span><i>Live at Town Hall, N.Y.C.</i><span> </span>(Concord, 1989)</li>
<li>Gene Harris & the Philip Morris All-Stars<span> </span><i>Live</i><span> </span>(Concord, 1998)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Hibbler" title="Al Hibbler">Al Hibbler</a>, I Surrender Dear (Score [Aladdin subsidiary], 1957)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plas_Johnson" title="Plas Johnson">Plas Johnson</a>,<span> </span><i>Christmas in Hollywood</i><span> </span>(Carell, 2000)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskia_Laroo" title="Saskia Laroo">Saskia Laroo</a>,<span> </span><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Eyes_2000" title="Sunset Eyes 2000">Sunset Eyes 2000</a></i><span> </span>(Laroo, 1999)</li>
<li>The Legacy Band,<span> </span><i>The Legacy Lives On</i><span> </span>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Avenue_Records" title="Mack Avenue Records">Mack Avenue</a>, 2000)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_McShann" title="Jay McShann">Jay McShann</a><span> </span>& the Paris All-Stars,<span> </span><i>Paris All-Star Blues: A Tribute to Charlie Parker</i><span> </span>(MusicMasters/BMG;<span> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_Heritage_Society" title="Musical Heritage Society">Musical Heritage Society</a>, 1991)</li>
</ul>
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</div> Jill West, Pittsburgh blues dynamo and pediatric nurse, dies at 68tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2021-11-27:1992552:Topic:5531712021-11-27T05:41:30.430ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="pgevoke-header-row2"><div class="pgevoke-header-row2-wrapper clearfix"><div class="pgevoke-header-row2-right valignfix"><img alt="Jill West performs at the 10th Annual Voices Carry benefit at Stage AE in 2014." src="https://9b16f79ca967fd0708d1-2713572fef44aa49ec323e813b06d2d9.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/1140x_a10-7_cTC/20140930bwAuberleSeen09-8-1637938542.jpg"></img></div>
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<div class="pgevoke-story-bottomarea clearfix"><div class="pgevoke-grid-area-main"><h1 class="pgevoke-story-bottomarea-headline">Jill West, Pittsburgh blues dynamo and pediatric nurse, dies at 68</h1>
<div class="pgevoke-story-byline pgevoke-story-byline-verified pgevoke-story-byline-centerimage pgevoke-story-byline-hasimage pgevoke-story-byline-smallerfont pgevoke-story-byline-doneloadingapi pgevoke-story-byline-doneloadingimage"><div class="pgevoke-story-byline-left"><span> </span><div class="pgevoke-story-byline-authorimage"><img src="https://www.post-gazette.com/assets-1y/images/misc/pg-logo-100px-green-byline.png" alt="Pittsburgh Post-Gazette logo"/></div>
<span> </span><br />
<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-text"><div class="pgevoke-story-byline-line1">SCOTT MERVIS</div>
<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-line2">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</div>
<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-line3"><span class="pgevoke-story-byline-email"><a href="mailto:smervis@post-gazette.com">smervis@post-gazette.com</a></span><a href="https://www.twitter.com/scottmervis_pg" class="pgevoke-story-byline-twittericon" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a></div>
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<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-right"><span> </span><div class="pgevoke-story-byline-date">NOV 26, 2021</div>
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<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-time">9:53 AM</div>
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<div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body"><div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body-inner pgevoke-story-bodytext-inner"><div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body-text"><p>Jill West was one of those musicians who lived the double life.</p>
<p>By day, she was an operating room nurse, first at UPMC Presbyterian and then Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>On night and weekends, she worked the clubs as a dynamic blues and R&B belter billed as the “Queen of Pittsburgh Blues.”</p>
<p>Ms. West, of Elliot, died Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She was 68.</p>
<p>“She was as close as we get in Pittsburgh to the real deal,” said Ron Esser, owner of the Blawnox blues club Moondog’s. “She exemplified that. She was a great singer, a great performer, a great bandleader.”</p>
<p>“She was a true professional who knew how to lead a band,” added guitarist Jimmy Adler, who worked with her in the mid-’90s.</p>
<p>Ms. West grew up in Elliot and began performing in the mid-’70s, singing a variety of styles in a wedding band called Shylock while also performing with such prestigious local musicians as jazz trombonist Harold Betters and Rodney McCoy and the Silk Band.</p>
<p>In Jazzmin, a quartet with three singers and a keyboardist, she performed easy-listening music.</p>
<p>It was all a precursor to her discovery of the blues. That happened in the mid-’80s, when she was asked to sing with local musician Bob Beach.</p>
<p>“She started coming out to see us. She liked what she was hearing. She thought she could sing that kind of stuff -— and she could,” Beach said. “Eventually, we started doing all the shows with her.”</p>
<p>She had to go to the record store, she told the Post-Gazette in 2001, to figure out what blues was.</p>
<p>In the racks, she found Koko Taylor's "Live From Chicago: An Audience With the Queen," and there was no looking back.</p>
<p>"That's all, she wrote. That's the only thing I wanted to play," Ms. West said.</p>
<p>At the same time, she noted, "I am not a blues woman. I have been very comfortable my entire life. My man wasn't beating me and stealing my money — I didn't have any of those terrible things."</p>
<p>Her first venture into the genre was with the Bob Beach Blues Band, which doubled as American Music, a group that played classic rock, depending on what the club wanted.</p>
<p>In 1991, she took the reins of the Hell Hounds, a hard-edged Pittsburgh band that featured guitarist Don Hollowood of Hollowood Music and Ron “Bird” Foster from the Silencers.</p>
<p>Over the next several years, the Hell Hounds would evolve into Jill West and the Blues Attack, one of the city’s premier blues acts. The Hell Hounds have the honor of opening for such legends as Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley and B.B. King, and in 2006 placed third at the International Blues Competition in Memphis.</p>
<p>Mr. Esser said was Ms. West knew how to take charge of a situation.</p>
<p>“Jill West made it very clear that when Jill West was in the room and it was her gig, it was<span> </span><em>her</em><span> </span>gig. It might have been your club, it might have been your event, but it was her gig, and she was the boss. And everyone respected her.”</p>
<p>The Blues Attack released several albums of original songs and covers, including “Faceful of Blues” and “Headline Blues.”</p>
<p>When she wanted to be with her ladies, Ms. West was also a member of Pittsburgh Women of the Blues, formed at Moondog’s in 1996, with a lineup that also included Shari Richards, Jill Paone Simmons, Erin Burkett and Lucy Van Sickle.</p>
<p>“I hate to say blues because once again it tends to pigeonhole,” Ms. West noted in an interview on her website, “because it's not strictly a group of blues women, but we still are grateful to be pigeonholed together in that category, although I certainly consider myself a straight ahead blues and rhythm and blues woman.”</p>
<p>"Jill and I shared the desire to not be pigeonholed as solely 'blues' singers,” Ms. Richards said. “Ironically, some of our best times together were singing in the original Pittsburgh's Women of The Blues. That band gave seven female vocalists the chance to build much-needed camaraderie in what was at that time a very male-dominated scene.</p>
<p>“What struck a lot of musicians about Jill was her laser focus regarding her musical career. ‘Queen Of The Blues’ became her moniker, which was naturally bestowed upon her as she gave her loyal audiences 110% each & every show. She ran her band and her shows with a discipline that reflected her day gig as a nurse.”</p>
<p>Mr. Esser said that his most memorable experience with Ms. West was when his newborn son was in the hospital for 77 days.</p>
<p>“During that time, a doctor came to me and said that, ‘Who do you know that you get all this special treatment?’ I said, ‘I'm friends with Jill West.’ He said, ‘That explains it all.’</p>
<p>“Jill West went out of her way for her friends, however she could and whatever she could do. She didn’t take no for an answer. I could talk about musicians that I liked. I didn't like Jill West. I loved Jill West.”</p>
<p>In a Facebook post, friend and fellow nurse Gaelle Kelly wrote, “She taught me more than you can EVER know. How to laugh out loud…how to be unapologetically Me,” adding, “The BLUES will be forever BLUER without this extraordinary woman to sing them.”</p>
<p class="pgevoke-story-endofstorydate">First Published November 26, 2021, 9:53am</p>
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</div> Jeannette native Slide Hampton, eminent jazz trombonist, composer and arranger, dies at 89tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2021-11-24:1992552:Topic:5533672021-11-24T21:20:57.815ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="pgevoke-story-toparea-cutout clearfix"><div class="pgevoke-story-toparea-cutout-image"><div class="pgevoke-story-toparea-cutout-gallerybutton"><div class="pgevoke-story-toparea-cutout-gallerybutton-inner"><div class="pgevoke-story-toparea-cutout-gallerybutton-circle"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Jeannette native Slide Hampton, eminent jazz trombonist, composer and arranger, dies at 89…</span></div>
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<div class="pgevoke-story-byline-right"><span> </span><div class="pgevoke-story-byline-date">NOV 23, 2021</div>
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<div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body"><div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body-inner pgevoke-story-bodytext-inner"><div class="pgevoke-contentarea-body-text"><p>Legendary jazz trombonist and bandleader Slide Hampton walked onstage at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh on the night of Dec. 3 and shared a bit of advice with the music fans in attendance. </p>
<p>"Hang onto your hats," he smiled. </p>
<p>With that, the 13-piece JazzMasters big band was off on a high-flying mission — complete with thrills and chills but nary a spill — to reimagine the music of Dizzy Gillespie.</p>
<p>It was only one of the many nights Mr. Hampton, a native of Jeannette, brought his wildly imaginative riffs, interludes and shout choruses, along with his deft handling of quirky rhythms and occasional dissonance to Pittsburgh over the years.</p>
<p>A virtuoso jazz trombonist and as a Grammy Award-winning composer and musical arranger, Mr. Hampton died Thursday at his home in Orange, N.J. He was 89.</p>
<p>Mr. Hampton spent his entire life in music, beginning as a singer and dancer with a family band that included his parents and most of his 11 brothers and sisters after they moved to Indianapolis. He began playing the trombone at age 12.</p>
<p>Even though he was right-handed, he played the trombone left-handed because the first trombone he received as a child was configured that way. His sisters gave him the nickname of Slide.</p>
<p>“I was hearing music every day from the time that I was born,” he said in a 2007 interview with the National Endowment for the Arts, “so I knew right away that my life would be in music.”</p>
<p>The Hampton family band traveled throughout the Midwest and appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Apollo Theater and Savoy Ballroom in the 1940s. Inspired by the bebop generation of jazz musicians, including trumpeter Gillespie and trombonist J.J. Johnson, who was also from Indianapolis, Mr. Hampton embarked on an independent musical career in his late teens.</p>
<p>Although he began playing the trombone begrudgingly — “I only did it because the band needed a trombone, and I was the youngest,” he said — Mr. Hampton was soon praised for his mellow tone and for his dexterity on the unwieldy instrument, which requires the use of a long metal slide to change notes.</p>
<p>“It has to use the beauty of its sound to make a point,” he told the New York Times in 1982. “Playing a trombone makes you realize that you’re going to have to depend on other people.”</p>
<p>Musicians recognized Mr. Hampton’s abilities as a trombonist, composer and arranger, and he worked for many notable bandleaders in the 1950s and early 1960s, including Lionel Hampton (no relation), Maynard Ferguson, Art Blakey, Max Roach and Gillespie. He also began to lead his own groups in clubs and recording studios.</p>
<p>In 1968, after touring Europe as a member of Woody Herman’s band, Mr. Hampton decided to stay. He lived in Paris for several years, working with European and expatriate American musicians and absorbing other styles of music, including Brazilian bossa nova and the classics.</p>
<p>“There is no way I’m going to tell you I don’t have a lot to learn from classical music,” he told the Houston Chronicle in 1992. “I listen to all the classical composers, from Bach and Beethoven to Stravinsky and Bartok. I’m looking ‘inside’ the music, to the musical and spiritual aspects.”</p>
<p>Mr. Hampton returned to the United States in 1977 with a renewed sense of purpose. He organized groups that emphasized the rich, brassy sound of the trombone, with as many as 14 trombones playing at a time. He developed a flair for performing and arranging Brazilian music.</p>
<p>He rejoined Gillespie’s band, serving as musical director, garnered critical acclaim for his own recordings and became widely lauded as one of the foremost trombonists of his time. Jazz critic Gary Giddins, writing in the Village Voice in 1990, called Mr. Hampton “perhaps the most underrated bebop virtuoso soloist alive.”</p>
<p>He practiced the trombone four to five hours a day, all the while continuing to write original compositions and musical arrangements.</p>
<p>In an interview with the Post-Gazette before that 1993 show, Mr. Hampton said his goal was to interpret the music of his predecessors, not repeat it.</p>
<p>"I think the thing that's important as far as the music that came before is to have an influence from that music that's obvious in what you do," he said. “But just an influence. Not a copy. Their purpose in making the music was so that it would influence people after them to do something of their own."</p>
<p>He found that influence listening to the big bands.</p>
<p>Big bands produce "a very high level of energy," he said. "You feel it physically. You actually feel it. It's not just a matter of listening to it. And that's actually what we want to achieve with this ensemble.”</p>
<p>In September 2000, he was back at in town at a North Side studio recording a Christmas album with legendary Nancy Wilson and members of the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Band, which also performed shows at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.</p>
<p>In 2001, he participated in an open jam session marking the first jazz festival at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Laurel Highlands.</p>
<p>And in 2002, he was among the class inducted into the Pittsburgh Jazz Society's Jazz Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>Mr. Hampton won his first Grammy for his arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail” on singer Dee Dee Bridgewater’s 1997 album, “Dear Ella.” He won another Grammy, for best instrumental composition, for “Past Present & Future,” an original work featured on a 2004 recording by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.</p>
<p>“All my stuff is by inspiration, not by theory or even experience,” Mr. Hampton told Newark’s Star-Ledger newspaper in 2005. “I just write what I’m inspired to write, let it go wherever it goes.”</p>
<p>Locksley Wellington Hampton was born April 21, 1932. He was in his early teens when his family band played at Carnegie Hall.</p>
<p>Over the years, Mr. Hampton taught at several colleges, including Harvard, the University of Massachusetts and DePaul University in Chicago. During the early 1990s, he conducted master classes at Slippery Rock University and Duquesne University.</p>
<p>He became a mentor to countless younger musicians, especially trombonists. In 2005, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the country’s highest official honor for jazz musicians.</p>
<p>His wife of more than 50 years, the former Althea Gardner, died in 2006. A son, Gregory Hampton, died in 2019. Survivors include three children, Lamont Hampton of Nashville, Locksley Hampton of Wilmington, N.C., and Jacquelyn Hampton of Atlanta; five grandchildren; and numerous great-grandchildren.</p>
<p class="pgevoke-story-endofstorydate">First Published November 23, 2021, 11:35pm</p>
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</div> Bay Area rapper Zumbi dies at a Berkeley hospital. August 15, 2021tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2021-08-16:1992552:Topic:5518822021-08-16T19:46:56.442ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<h1 class="articleHeader--headline">Bay Area rapper Zumbi dies at a Berkeley hospital. Fans are grieving and police investigating…</h1>
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<h1 class="articleHeader--headline">Bay Area rapper Zumbi dies at a Berkeley hospital. Fans are grieving and police investigating</h1>
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<div class="articleHeader--timestamp">Aug. 15, 2021Updated: Aug. 15, 2021 6:46 p.m.</div>
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<p>Stephen Gaines (right), shown with fellow Zion I member Amp Live, died Friday at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley.</p>
<span class="credits">Zion I 2014</span><br />
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<p>Berkeley police are investigating the death of Bay Area rapper Stephen Gaines, who went by the stage name Baba Zumbi as part of the group Zion I, after a physical altercation at a hospital, according to officials and people close to Gaines.</p>
<p>Gaines, 49, was a prolific hip-hop musician and MC whose friends and family members recalled him as an “incredible human being” and a “super father” to three sons. It was not immediately known what caused his death Friday morning at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center on Ashby Avenue.</p>
<div id="paywall" class="content-wrapper"><p>His family released a statement to The Chronicle on Sunday reading, “We are in a deep state of grief and processing this loss. We are awaiting further details from the hospital at this time so we can understand exactly what happened and determine our next steps.”</p>
<p>Fans and collaborators posted a stream of tributes to Gaines, who released his first album with DJ and producer Amp Live, called “Mind over Matter,” in 2000, before pumping out many more popular projects the next two decades. He made<span> </span><a href="https://www.kqed.org/pop/28324/on-zion-is-tech-a-housing-crisis-turns-personal">headlines in 2016</a><span> </span>for writing a song about gentrification in the Bay Area while he was being evicted from his Oakland home because the owner wanted to sell it. Just a week before his death, he finished a new album and was planning a Zion I reunion tour for this year.</p>
<p>Friends said Gaines had asthma and was recovering from COVID-19. He and at least 30 other people had contracted the virus at his last performance, on July 24 in the Sierra foothills town of Nevada City, said True Allah, who goes by the stage name True Justice and booked the show.</p>
<p>Allah said Gaines told him he had a lingering cough when they texted Wednesday. Another friend, Jorge Guerrero, who goes by the stage name Deuce Eclipse, said Gaines sounded fine when he spoke with him on the phone Thursday, excited about future plans.</p>
<p>The Alameda County Coroner’s Office said Gaines’ death was under investigation by Berkeley police.</p>
<p>In response to an inquiry from The Chronicle about the case, Berkeley police Lt. Melanie Turner said police responded to calls at 5:16 a.m. Friday from Alta Bates hospital patients and staff about a patient involved in a physical altercation with nurses and hospital security officers. Security officers reportedly had the patient pinned down, said Turner, who declined to identify the patient by name.</p>
<p>Turner said the circumstances that preceded the altercation were under investigation.</p>
<p>Upon arrival, “officers started handcuffing the involved person and determined that he needed immediate medical assistance,” Turner said. Police began lifesaving measures until Alta Bates staff were able to take over, she said, but “unfortunately and sadly he was pronounced deceased on the scene.”</p>
<p>Police Department homicide detectives are investigating, Turner said. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office was notified and, during the preliminary investigation, determined no force was used by Berkeley police officers, Turner said.</p>
<p>Ashley Boarman, a spokesperson for Sutter Health, which runs Alta Bates, said that “due to our compliance with state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to comment.”</p>
<p>Four friends from the hip-hop scene who knew Gaines for decades praised his character and expressed shock over reports of a physical altercation.</p>
<p>“Steve was not a violent person; he never sought violence; he never condoned violence,” said Allah, who knew Gaines for 25 years. “However, I know as a person, I know Steve is very firm in his beliefs.”</p>
<p>Allah said Gaines “doesn’t subscribe to mainstream media, specifically in regard to the current global pandemic,” and “wasn’t an advocate of being vaccinated,” although Allah said Gaines wore masks.</p>
<p>He praised his friend as an “incredible human being” and an “immensely gifted artist and entertainer and lyricist” who was “very thoughtful and cared not only for his immediate circle, but for strangers and fans alike.” Gaines, whom friends and family called Steve or Zumbi, is survived by his three sons, his mother and a brother.</p>
<p>Clemente Peña, whose stage name is Dj Twelvz, was Gaines’ friend for 23 years and became Zion I’s DJ in 2015 when Amp Live left the group. Gaines was “the most consistent friend I’ve ever had” and “didn’t compromise his integrity ever.” Peña said Gaines “loved his sons more than anything.”</p>
<p>Rahsaan Abdul, who goes by the stage name Friz-B, described Gaines as the “guy you wanted your daughter to marry” and a “super father.”</p>
<p>“To leave those little beautiful fatherless young boys, to me that’s the most painful thing,” he said. “I could never see him doing anything that would put that in jeopardy.”</p>
<p>In its statement, Gaines’ family said, “Zumbi was a man of many talents and was blessed to be able to share his gifts and love of music, most importantly hip-hop, with the world. ... And even with his overabundance of talent, his true passion and purpose was the love and energy he put into his three sons.”</p>
<p>Guerrero said Gaines was his best friend and like a brother.</p>
<p>“Part of my heart, half of my heart is gone,” he said.</p>
<p>Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:<span> </span><a href="mailto:mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com">mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com</a><span> </span>Twitter:<span> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/mallorymoench">@mallorymoench</a></p>
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<div class="articleFooter--bio"><p>Mallory Moench is a San Francisco City Hall reporter. She joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2019 to report on business and has also written about wildfires, transportation and the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
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</div> Charles Connor, drummer for Little Richard, dies at age 86tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2021-08-02:1992552:Topic:5518542021-08-02T17:47:07.439ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="Article__Headline"><h1 class="Article__Headline__Title">Charles Connor, drummer for Little Richard, dies at age 86</h1>
<p class="Article__Headline__Desc">Charles Connor, known for being Little Richard’s drummer who performed with other music greats including James Brown and Sam Cooke, has died</p>
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<div class="Article__Headline"><h1 class="Article__Headline__Title">Charles Connor, drummer for Little Richard, dies at age 86</h1>
<p class="Article__Headline__Desc">Charles Connor, known for being Little Richard’s drummer who performed with other music greats including James Brown and Sam Cooke, has died</p>
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<div class="Byline__Content"><div class="Byline__Group"><span class="Byline__ByCopy">By</span><span class="Byline__AuthorRow"><span class="Byline__AuthorContainer"><span class="Byline__Author">The Associated Press</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Byline__TimestampWrapper"><div class="Byline__Meta Byline__Meta--publishDate">August 1, 2021, 7:10 PM</div>
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<p>LOS ANGELES -- Charles Connor, known for being Little Richard’s drummer who performed with other music greats including James Brown and Sam Cooke, has died. He was 86.</p>
<p>Connor’s daughter, Queenie Connor Sonnefeld, said her father died peacefully in his sleep early Saturday while under hospice care at his home in Glendale, California. She said her father had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder that causes fluid buildup.</p>
<p>Connor Sonnefeld called the drummer a “great father” who was always positive and a person who never gave up on his dreams.</p>
<p>“He was one of those drummers that was a bricklayer of creating that rock ‘n’ roll genre,” she said. “He played behind so many legendary musicians in the 1950s. He was a loving grandfather and was very proud of his family and took a lot of pride in his contributions to rock ‘n’ roll.”</p>
<p>Connor began playing drums at age 12. Three years later, he started his professional career when Professor Longhair, a singer and pianist, hired him as a last-minute replacement for the 1950 Mardi Gras in New Orleans.</p>
<p>After Connor turned 18, he joined Richard’s original road band, The Upsetters. The band appeared in several popular feature films including “The Girl Can’t Help It” with Jayne Mansfield along with “Don’t Knock the Rock” and “Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll.”</p>
<p>During his career, Connor toured with various musicians such as James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the original Coasters. He also received a certificate of special recognition from Rep. Maxine Waters in 1994.</p>
<p>Connor released his motivational book “Don’t Give Up Your Dreams: You Can Be a Winner Too!” 2008. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame two years later.</p>
<p>In 2013, Connor released his EP album “Still Knockin." At the time of his death, he was working on his autobiographical documentary.</p>