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moxham123 Diamond Member
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Monday Jun 28, 2021 |
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Johnny Solinger, Skid Row frontman from 1999â"2015, dies aged 55 following liver failure battle |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Saturday Jul 17, 2021 |
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Gary Corbett, a producer, songwriter, and keyboard player best known for co-writing âShe Bop,â a Top 5 single for Cyndi Lauper in 1984, and his touring work with KISS and Cinderella, died yesterday (July 14, 2021). Corbett, believed to be 62 years old, died after a battle with lung cancer, one day before his birthday.
Corbett grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and began taking piano lessons at age four. By the time he was ten years old, he was earning money playing private parties on weekends. After graduating from high school, he was part of Ian Hunterâs touring band.
Several years later, he enjoyed his first significant success, co-writing âShe Bopâ with Lauper and several others. The #3 pop hit was one of four Top 5 singles on her 1983 debut, Sheâs So Unusual, which has sold a reported 16 million copies worldwide.
With his first royalty check, Corbett bought a Yamaha DX7, and an Apple IIe home computer, complete with MIDI interface. Being one of the âfirst kids on the blockâ with these amazing new tools, he quickly became one of New Yorkâs busiest keyboard player/programmers. After a few years of working in many of New Yorkâs studios, he was finishing a project at Electric Lady Studios. During a break, a casual conversation with a fellow keyboardist led him to being hired for Lou Grammâs debut solo tour. Before that tour was done, Corbett was asked to go out on the next KISS tour (1987âs âCrazy Nightsâ) to play keyboards. In between KISS tours, he toured and recorded with many other artists, serving as musical director for Debbie Gibson and Taylor Dayne. In the beginning of 1991 joined up with Cinderella, for their âHeartbreak Stationâ tour.
Amidst other work, Corbett continued to tour with Cinderella. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Monday Jul 19, 2021 |
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Kansas Violinist and Vocalist Robby Steinhardt R.I.P.
On Saturday, Steinhardt â" the musician responsible for Kansas' best violin solos on tracks such as "Dust in the Wind" and a founding member of the group â" died after suffering from acute pancreatitis, according to a public statement by his wife Cindy Steinhardt. He was 71.
"It is with an extremely heavy broken heart that I have to announce to the world, we have lost one of the most incredible people of our timeâŚ. Robby Steinhardt has passed away," his wife wrote on Facebook, sharing that Steinhardt was admitted into the hospital in May, placed on life support and "wasn't expected to live through the night."
However, "Like the true fighter he is, he managed to spring back much to the amazement of his entire medical staff. Once again, he cheated death and the road to recovery had begun," she wrote, referring to a heart attack he faced in 2013.
Cindy continued by saying he was placed in a rehab facility 65 days later "to build his strength," but a fever set in, his blood pressure was "uncontrollable" and he faced sepsis once again.
"He greeted me with a smile, open arms and kisses. His daughter Becky called. They had a beautiful, happy, conversation together," she wrote. "Six minutes later as I held him to keep him warm, he died in my arms at 6:30pm Saturday July 17, 2021."
Steinhardt was set to go on a tour after recording his first-ever solo album with producer Michael Franklin and was looking forward to "being back on stage doing what he loved," Cindy wrote. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Tuesday Jul 27, 2021 |
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Mike Howe, lead singer of Metal Church, R.I.P.
Mike Howe, the singer from the heavy metal band Metal Church, died Monday morning at his home in Eureka, Calif. He was 55.
"It is with our deepest regrets that we must announce the passing of our brother, our friend and true legend of heavy metal music," the post read. "Mike Howe passed away this morning at his home in Eureka, California. We are devastated and at a loss for words. Please respect our privacy and the Howe family's privacy during this most difficult time." |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Thursday Jul 29, 2021 |
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ZZ Top Bassist Dusty Hill Dead at 72
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, who played with the Texas blues-rock trio for over 50 years, died Tuesday at age 72. His rep confirmed the musicianâs death, but said a cause of death was currently unknown.
âWe are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas,â surviving members Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard said in a statement. âWe, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature, and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the âTopâ. We will forever be connected to that âBlues Shuffle in C.â You will be missed greatly, amigo.â |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Sunday Aug 08, 2021 |
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Kool & The Gang Co-Founder Dennis 'Dee Tee' Thomas R.I.P.
NEW YORK â" Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, a founding member of the long-running soul-funk band Kool & the Gang known for such hits as "Celebration" and "Get Down On It," has died. He was 70.
He died peacefully in his sleep Saturday in New Jersey, where he was a resident of Montclair, according to a statement from his representative.
Thomas was the alto sax player, flutist and percussionist. He served as master of ceremonies at the band's shows. His last appearance with the group was July Fourth at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Born Feb. 9, 1951, in Orlando, Fla., Thomas was known for his prologue on the band's 1971 hit, "Who's Gonna Take the Weight." Known for his hip clothes and hats, he was also the group's wardrobe stylist. In the early days, he served as their "budget hawk," carrying their earnings in a paper bag stuffed into the bell of his horn, the statement said.
In 1964, seven teen friends created the group's unique bland of jazz, soul and funk, at first calling themselves the Jazziacs. They went through several iterations before settling on Kool & the Gang in 1969. The group's other founders are brothers Ronald and Robert Bell, Spike Mickens, Ricky Westfield, George Brown and Charles Smith. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Thursday Aug 12, 2021 |
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Mike Finnigan, a keyboardist, vocalist, and session musician who performed with an impressive array of artists including Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jimi Hendrix, has died. He was 76. A source close to Finniganâs family said he succumbed to kidney cancer on Wednesday morning at Ceder Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Finnigan |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Sunday Aug 22, 2021 |
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Don Everly of the Everly Brothers R.I.P.
Don Everly, who with his late younger sibling Phil established the template for close harmony vocalizing in the chart-topping duo the Everly Brothers, died Saturday at age 84 in Nashville. No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
The Los Angeles Times confirmed the death through a family spokesman, even as tributes were already accumulating on social media Saturday night as word circulated about his death.
Everly (pictured above, right) â" an inaugural inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 who also joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 â" grew up singing the high, fluid harmonies that would make him famous in his familyâs country act. Beginning in 1957, he and his brother cut a groundbreaking series of hit ballads and rockers for the Cadence and Warner Bros. labels. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 5816
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Posted: Sunday Aug 22, 2021 |
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Tom T. Hall R.I.P.
Country legend Tom T. Hall has passed away at the age of 85. His son Dean confirmed the news on Twitter, writing: âWith great sadness, my father, Tom T. Hall, died this morning [August 20] at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. Our family asks for privacy during this difficult time.â
Hall joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1971 and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, the Kentucky Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Tuesday Aug 24, 2021 |
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Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones Drummer, R.I.P.
Charles Robert âCharlieâ Watts, the Rolling Stones drummer, has died. He was 80.
Wattsâ publicist confirmed his death in a statement. âIt is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts,â it read. âHe passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.â The statement referred to Watts as âone of the greatest drummers of his generationâ and closed by requesting that âthe privacy of his family, band members, and close friends is respected at this difficult time.â
Wattsâ death comes several weeks after it was announced that the drummer would not be able to partake in the Rolling Stonesâ No Filter tour of U.S. stadiums. âCharlie has had a procedure which was completely successful, but his doctors this week concluded that he now needs proper rest and recuperation,â a rep for the band said in a statement at the time. âWith rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks itâs very disappointing to say the least, but itâs also fair to say no one saw this coming.â |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Sunday Aug 29, 2021 |
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Ron Bushy, drummer for Iron Butterfly, passed away today at 79 of cancer.
ââIn-A-Gadda-Da-Vidaâ was written as a slow country ballad, about one-and-a-half minutes long,â Bushy told Itâs Psychedelic Baby magazine last year. âI came home late one night and Doug [Ingle] had been drinking a whole gallon of Red Mountain wine. I asked him what he had done, while he has been playing a slow ballad on his Vox keyboard. It was hard to understand him because he was so drunk ⌠so I wrote it down on a napkin exactly how it sounded phonetically to me: âIn-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.â It was supposed to be âIn the Garden of Eden.'â
As the song expanded, the group would eventually enter Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island the following year in 1968 to record the track. âWe set up our equipment and [engineer] Don [Caselle] says, âGuys, why donât you just start playing and let me get some mic levels,'â he told Vinyl Writer earlier this year. âWe decided letâs do âVidaâ ⌠we played the entire song without stopping. To make a long story short, when we finished, he said, âGuys, come into the control room.â We listened to it and were blown away.â |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Tuesday Sep 21, 2021 |
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Sarah Dash, member of Labelle, R.I.P.
Sarah Dash, member of R&B trio Labelle who had a US No 1 hit with Lady Marmalade, has died aged 76.
No cause of death has been given, though she had reportedly told family she was feeling unwell in recent days.
Patti Labelle, who co-founded the group with Dash, Nona Hendryx and Cindy Birdsong, said she was âheartbrokenâ and called Dash âan awesomely talented, beautiful and loving soul who blessed my life and the lives of so many others in more ways than I can say. I could always count on her to have my back.â Dash and Labelle had performed together last weekend, with Dash posting footage to her Instagram account.
Reed Gusciora, mayor of Dashâs native Trenton, New Jersey, called her âa superstar in her own rightâ.
Dash was born in Trenton in 1945, the daughter of a pastor and nurse, and moved to Philadelphia as a young woman. She joined a vocal group whose lineup settled around Dash, Labelle, Hendryx and Birdsong, naming themselves the Bluebelles, later Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Their 1962 debut single, I Sold My Heart to the Junkman, shot into the US Top 20. It was followed by acclaimed tracks such as Down the Aisle (The Wedding Song) and doo-wop covers of standards including Youâll Never Walk Alone, Danny Boy and Over the Rainbow.
Birdsong left in 1967 and joined the Supremes, with the remaining trio naming themselves Labelle. With Dash celebrated for her emotive, versatile voice that spanned soprano prettiness and robustly soulful singing, the group branched out, backing Laura Nyro, and covering the Who and touring with them.
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Major mainstream success evaded them until 1974 album Nightbirds, when its lead single Lady Marmalade, a raunchy tale of a New Orleans sex worker lighting up a clientâs dull life, topped the US charts. Later, in the UK, cover versions by All Saints (1998), and by Christina Aguilera, Lilâ Kim, MĂ˝a, and Pink for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack (2001), both reached No 1.
Labelle released two further albums before going on a long hiatus, fully reforming in 2008 for the album Back to Now. In the interim, Dash released four solo albums, and worked as a session singer for Nile Rodgers, the OâJays and others. She joined Keith Richardsâ backing band the X-pensive Winos, and recorded vocals for the Rolling Stonesâ album Steel Wheels. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Thursday Sep 23, 2021 |
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Legendary bass player Bob Moore, who played on many Elvis recordings, passed away at the age of 88 yesterday. In total Bob can be heard on more than 17,000 recordings. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Wednesday Sep 29, 2021 |
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Commander Cody, aka George Frayne R.I.P.
George Frayne IV, who led the band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, a group that combined elements of the rock counterculture with a love for roots music in the early 1970s, died Sunday at age 77. Frayne had been receiving treatment for cancer for several years.
âEarly this morning, as I lay my head upon his shoulder, Georgeâs soul took to flight,â his wife, Sue, said in a post on his Facebook page. âI am heartbroken and weary, and I know your hearts break, too. Thank you so much for all the love you gave and the stories you shared.â
Frayneâs seminal group was popularly best known for a remake of the 1955 rockabilly-flavored song âHot Rod Lincolnâ that made the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972, peaking at No. 9, with some crossover impact on the country and easy listening charts.
Although the groupâs style was often described in its early days as country-rock, the Bay Area-based band had a harder-driving style â" and, as its sci-fi-serial-based name would indicate, more of a sense of humor â" than other country-influenced artists coming along at the time down in Los Angeles, like the Eagles or Poco. The sounds of rockabilly, Western swing, jump blues, jazz and boogie-woogie piano figured into the bandâs free-wheeling style as readily as country, finding enthusiastic fans among followers of rock groups like the Grateful Dead, for whom Commander Cody sometimes opened, as well as devotees of more traditional music forms.
Although it took until 1971 for their major-label debut, âLost in the Ozone,â to be released, the group actually formed in 1967 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, going against the tide of the psychedelia that was peaking along with the flower-power movement in favor of sounds that dipped deep into the supposedly squarer music of decades past, like Western swing pioneer Bob Wills.
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen released seven albums on the Paramount and Warner Bros. labels from 1971-76. After the original groupâs breakup in 1976, Frayne continued to record and tour under the name Commander Cody until shortly before the pandemic kicked in.
He told the website Classicbands.com about the origins of the groupâs name, saying they got it from âthe same place that George Lucas got it: from Republic Pictures. In 1948, 1949, Flash Gordon like operations would run in theaters in between films. Then later, this character Commander Cody made three movies, one of which was âLost Planet Airmen.â I was watching the Lost Planet Airmen movie and I saw the Commander Cody character and I thought it would be a great name for a band. I had no idea anyone was going to have to be Commander Cody. I mean, thereâs no Lynyrd Skynyrd. Thereâs no Steely Dan. Thereâs no Marshall Tucker. Why did there have to be a Commander Cody? Thatâs a long story in itself.
But, of course, there was little sense sci-fi in the music itself⌠although there was a lot of weed. âIn about 1966 I found a Bob Wills album and marijuana,â Frayne said in an interview with No Depression in 2018. âIâm pretty sure those guys were stoned most of the time. I started listening to Jerry Lee Lewisâ album that had âCrazy Armsâ and Buck Owensâ greatest hits. We did [Owensâ] âTiger by the Tailâ regularly. What country music afforded for us was there was no rehearsal; we listened to the record, we drank a bunch of whiskey and coke, and played. Country music is easy to do if someone knows the lyrics and the song, you can follow along relatively easily.â
But, comments like that notwithstanding, Frayne was a serious musician, whose foremost influence as a pianist was Fats Domino. âThe Commander I knew was a music-history buff, fine-arts scholar and one of the sharpest minds Iâve ever encountered,â David Malachowski, a guitarist who joined Commander Codyâs band in the late â90s, told the Times Union, a newspaper in Frayneâs final hometown, Saratoga Springs. Malachowski pointed out the complicated nature of a piano playing style that required different rhythms and even speeds for left-hand and right-hand parts. âI asked him once how he did it, and he said he just played the left-hand figures nonstop all day for about a year, until it became second nature,â the guitarist said.
Born in Boise, Idaho in 1944, Frayne was raised in the Long Island area before attending the University of Michigan, where he received a master of fine arts degree in painting and sculpture the same year the Lost Planet Airmen assembled.
Frayneâs first Ann Arbor band was the Fantastic Surfing Beavers, with a different frontman. After the Commander Cody band formed, according to a 1970 profile by Ed Ward in Rolling Stone, âCommander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen have devoted themselves body and soul to country music and old-time rock and roll. But that devotion is not an easy thing to stick to in the Midwest where, chances are, you associate that type of music with the greasers at the drive-in who love to vamp on longhairs and inevitably wind up becoming cops. And it was even harder in 1967 when everyone was just getting into acid and revolution and high-powered MC5 music and all the other things that have put Ann Arbor and Detroit on the map.â
Frayne told Rolling Stone in that profile: âWe didnât think of appealing to anybody,. We were just having a good time, picking and playing and making a few dollars on the side. It was when the psychedelic ballrooms were starting to be big. We played the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on the same bill with Canned Heat so, naturally, the audience hated us, booed us, you know.â Yet audiences for the Dead and other groups cottoned to the group once they moved to the San Francisco area in 1969. Said Frayne in those early days, âWeâd like to do for country music what (Paul) Butterfield did for blues.â
Of the hit âHot Rod Lincoln,â Frayne said, noting how he came to be its lead singer, âAt that time I couldnât sing a note really, but I could talk fast. It became apparent that Iâd have to become Commander Cody, âcause all the guys in the band who wanted to be Commander Cody wouldâve been out of the question. So, the band voted that I would have to be Commander Cody because I could basically talk fast and had a good rap and gave pretty good radio. Then people started saying âWhoâs the Commander and whatâs he gonna do?â So I had to come up and do a number; because I couldnât sing, I found out thereâs a long history of guys who couldnât sing. I first found it out through Phil Harris and traced it back to Johnny Bond.â
He found his shot in a remake of âHot Rod Lincoln,â originally conceived in 1955 as an answer song to a hit from 1949 titled âHot Rod Race.â If that destined them to be a one-hit wonder commercially, it was OK with him that that was the hit: âI like the song, so it doesnât bother me to do it every night. No problem whatsoever.â
The original bandâs sound grew less country during the 1970s. âWe really liked [our sound] and we played that kind of music until we were booed off stage at the CMA Convention in 1973,â he told Seattle PI in 2013. âIn which case we decided that, well, if these guys are going to treat us like this, weâre not going to do their music anymore. Because their attitude was, âWho are these hippies? Take a bath, find a rock concert, et cetera, et cetera.â That was the end of our interest in country and western swing. The people from Texas found out that I wasnât from Texas and they thought that I was stealing their music and they didnât get it.â
In that same interview, he said, âI smoke a lot of marijuana and itâs really easy to change your groove around when youâre stoned. ⌠I especially enjoy painting while Iâm stoned, and I keep doing that until this very day. On the other hand, I donât smoke weed at rock and roll gigs anymore, whatsoever, because Iâve been more interested in remembering all the words for the song. Donât forget, Iâm an old geezer. I canât afford to forget the words.â
In a 2012 interview, Frayne quipped, âThe secret is weâve been doing the same set for 40 years. Itâs like âThe Rocky Horror Picture Showâ without the gay attire and dancing.â
Frayne was well-regarded as a painter as well as band leader, and published a book of his visual art, âArt Music & Life,â in 2009. He also taught art, including a stint on the arts faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. An experimental video he made, âTwo Triple Cheese Side Order of Fries,â is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Frayneâs wife said on Facebook that memorial events are being planned. âWe are working on 2 big gatherings, on both the east and west coast (The Island and the Bay Area) to celebrate the Old Commanderâs phenomenal life, and to benefit musicians in need,â she wrote. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Wednesday Sep 29, 2021 |
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Dr. Lonnie Smith R.I.P.
Dr. Lonnie Smith, the lauded Hammond B3 organist who was named an NEA Jazz Master, died on Tuesday at the age of 79, as NPR reports. His longtime label Blue Note Records confirmed the news.
âWeâre deeply saddened to announce that Hammond B3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith passed away today at 79 years old,â Blue Note Records wrote on Twitter. âDoc was one of the funkiest & most inventive organists to ever walk the earth & we were proud to bring this remarkable manâs joyous music to fans all over the world.â |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Thursday Oct 21, 2021 |
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Drummer Ronnie Tutt R.I.P.
Tutt played with some of the biggest names in music including Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Elvis Costello, Michael McDonald, and more. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Sunday Oct 24, 2021 |
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Jay Black, the former lead singer of Jay and the Americans, died Friday at the age of 82, his family said.
Complications from pneumonia was the cause of death for the Brooklyn-born frontman, family told Rolling Stone magazine.
Black was the second âJayâ to front the group, following on from Jay Traynor. A third âJayâ fronted the band when they reformed in the early 2000s, the magazine reported. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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Posted: Tuesday Oct 26, 2021 |
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Tommy DeBarge, member of R&B group âSwitch,â is dead at 64
DeBarge, who was a member of the R&B/Funk music band, Switch, passed away on Thursday. While the exact cause of death is not yet known, DeBargeâs daughter, Marina DeBarge, confirmed to TMZ that he suffered from kidney and liver disease. DeBarge also reportedly battled with COVID-19 earlier this year. |
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moxham123 Diamond Member
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