Jazzman Ornette Coleman has died at the age of 85 in New York.
A saxophonist born in Texas, Ornette Coleman was one of the most innovative musicians in modern jazz.
Ornette Coleman began his career in the 1950s and later pioneered an unconventional style described as “free jazz”.
His 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come is regarded by many as one of the most influential jazz records.
His publicist, Ken Weinstein, said Ornette Coleman died on June 11 after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Ornette Coleman, along with fellow saxophonist John Coltrane, was credited with breaking down the traditional structures of jazz and creating a more free-flowing form of expression.
Critics branded his idea of improvising without chord changes as chaotic but it eventually became mainstream in both jazz and rock.
Ornette Coleman’s influence was recognized later in his life and he received both a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2007.
He once said he grew up “so po” his family couldn’t afford the “o” or the “r”.
He bought a cheap alto saxophone at 14 and played in local rhythm and blues bands before moving to Los Angeles.
Contemporary Records bought some of his compositions in 1958 but found studio musicians unable to play them so hired Ornette Coleman instead and they were released as his first album.
He moved to New York and was signed by Atlantic Records, who released The Shape of Jazz to Come in 1959. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 248 on its list of the 500 greatest albums.
Ornette Coleman married poet Jayne Cortez in 1954 but they divorced 10 years later.
The musician is survived by their son, Denardo, a drummer and producer who began performing with his father at age 10.
Jazz composer and arranger Gerald Wilson, whose career spanned more than 75 years, has died at the age of 96.
Gerald Wilson’s son, jazz guitarist Anthony Wilson, said his father died on September 8 at his Los Angeles home from pneumonia.
The big band leader began his career in the late 1930s as a trumpeter for Jimmy Lunceford’s band before forming his own big band in 1944 featuring female trombonist Melba Listo.
He played and worked as a composer-arranger with the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie, and he arranged music for Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Bobby Darin.
Gerald Wilson, who was born in Shelby, Mississippi, and later moved with his family to Detroit, started out on piano and bought his first trumpet at age 11. During his tenure as a trumpeter with Lunceford, he arranged the hit tunes Hi Spook and Yard Dog Mazurka.
Gerald Wilson began his career in the late 1930s as a trumpeter for Jimmy Lunceford’s band before forming his own big band in 1944 featuring female trombonist Melba Listo
After four years with Lunceford and a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Gerald Wilson settled in Los Angeles, where he worked in the bands of Benny Carter, Les Hite and Phil Moore before forming his own band. He worked with Billie Holiday on the singer’s tour of the South in 1949.
Gerald Wilson led his own bands in the ’50s and ’60s, but took frequent hiatuses as he became one of the most in demand arrangers and orchestrators in jazz and pop music. He wrote more than 60 charts for Charles, scored motion pictures such as Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, and served as the conductor and music director of TV’sThe Red Foxx Show.
However, despite his commercial success, Gerald Wilson never gave up his dedication to jazz.
His marriage to a Mexican-American, Josefina Villasenor Wilson, led him to incorporate Latin music into his jazz compositions. His tune, Viva Tirado, dedicated to bullfighter Jose Ramon Tirado, became a Top 40 pop hit for the rock group El Chicano in 1970. He also composed his first piece for symphony orchestra, Debut: 5/21/72, on a commission from Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Gerald Wilson became famous for his dance-like style of conducting, which he said helped listeners know what they were hearing.
Jazzman Horace Silver has died at the age of 85, National Public Radio (NPR) said on Wednesday.
NPR said Horace Silver’s son Gregory had called it directly with the news of his death.
One of the most highly regarded pianists and composers in jazz, Horace Silver was one of the pioneers of a rhythmic jazz style known as hard bop.
Horace Silver began his career as a tenor saxophonist in clubs in Connecticut. But after he moved to New York in the 1950s, he switched to piano and began performing at the Blue Note Jazz Club.
Many of his compositions became jazz standards, including Sister Sadie, The Preacher and Filthy McNasty.
Horace Silver was one of the pioneers of a rhythmic jazz style known as hard bop
His family came from Cape Verde, and Horace Silver was influenced by the folk music from the Portuguese-speaking islands off of Africa.
One of his earliest musical influence was his father, who played multiple instruments, including the violin, guitar and mandolin, according to NPR.
Horace Silver’s first album is regarded as a milestone in the development of hard bop – a style Silver continued to explore during his 25-year relationship with Blue Note records.
He also performed with many jazz greats such as Lester Young, Miles Davis and Art Blakey.
His bands have consistently been a training ground for great soloists, and his sidemen have included a host of subsequently famous names.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s he experimented with larger groups and a different style, but from midway through the 1980s he returned to hard bop, and in the 1990s created some worthy successors to the many classic albums he made during his 28 years at Blue Note.
Horace Silver’s piano style has been described as “involving sharply defined, bluesy right hand phrasing, over a grumbling left-hand bass unlike the style of any other player”.
Jazz singer Jimmy Scott has died at the age of 88.
Jimmy Scott had the rare genetic condition Kallmann’s Syndrome, which meant he never reached puberty and his voice did not deepen.
Madonna once described him as “the only singer who makes me cry”.
Jimmy Scott also recorded with Lou Reed and appeared on the soundtrack to 1990s TV drama Twin Peaks.
Jimmy Scott had the rare genetic condition Kallmann’s Syndrome, which meant he never reached puberty and his voice did not deepen
Speaking of his voice, which was often mistaken for a woman’s, he said: “I learned that it was a gift that I was able to sing this way.
“Many times, I’d think, I’d love to try this in a lower register… but then after a while you think, sing with what you got.”
Jimmy Scott began his recording career in the 1950s. By 1962, he had been signed by Ray Charles, who also produced his album Falling in Love Is Wonderful.
He regarded the album as his “masterpiece” – but it was withdrawn from sale after a matter of weeks because of a legal wrangle with his former record label, and Jimmy Scott withdrew from the music industry.
Jimmy Scott then took jobs including as a shipping clerk, waiter and a ward captain for the Democratic Party before a late musical renaissance that began in the early 1990s.
All the Way, which was released in 1992, was nominated for a Grammy Award for best jazz vocal performance.
Jimmy Scott’s career blossomed late in life as he continued to record and tour.
Yusef Lateef, a multi-instrumentalist known for fusing jazz and Eastern music, has died at 93.
Grammy-winning Yusef Lateef played in bands with Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus and gained a global following as one of the first to incorporate world music into jazz.
In 1987, Yusef Lateef won a Grammy for best new age performance for Little Symphony, on which he played all the instruments.
Yusef Lateef had battled prostate cancer and died on Monday at his home in Shutesbury, Massachusetts.
Yusef Lateef played in bands with Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus and gained a global following as one of the first to incorporate world music into jazz
An obituary posted by the Douglass Funeral Home in Amherst said he was “well known for his support and mentorship of up and coming artists” and that he had been performing up to summer 2013.
Born William Emanuel Huddleston in 1920, Yusef Lateef emerged out of the Detroit jazz scene in the 1940s and ’50s before moving to New York in 1960.
Yusef Lateef began his career as a tenor saxophonist but also mastered the flute, oboe and bassoon and used woodwind instruments from many countries in his music.
Jazz star Gloria Lynne, whose career included dozens of albums and whose signature song was I Wish You Love, has died just weeks before her 84th birthday, her son said.
Gloria Lynne died on October 15 at Columbus Long-Term Acute Care Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, of a heart attack.
Born in New York in 1929, Gloria Lynne sang as a child in church, then won an amateur contest at age 15 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, said her son, P.J. Allen.
Gloria Lynne sang as a child in church, then won an amateur contest at age 15 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater
The prize: $15, $5 of which Gloria Lynne lost when her mother slapped the bills out of her hand upon discovering she had entered the contest without telling her.
Soon, she was signed by Everest Records.
“But her real break came with Harry Belafonte’s Strolling ’20s,” P.J. Allen said, referring to the 1966 television special that included Duke Ellington, Sidney Poitier, Nipsey Russell, Sammy Davis Jr. and Diahann Carroll.
Gloria Lynne last performed on August 27 at 54 Below in New York, said Todd Barkan, who produced the show and knew her for 40 years.
[youtube Qkecwh4wJac 650]
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU GDPR 2016/679. Please read this to review the updates about which personal data we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated policy. AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
