Soul icon Darondo dies at 67
DARONDO 1946 – 2013 Om nivore Recordings is saddened to report the passing of funk and soul icon Darondo from heart failure this past Sunday (June 9). Born and bred in Berkeley, California, Darondo – given name William Daron Pulliam – first played professionally at the age of 18 in The Witnesses, a blue-eyed soul troupe resident at East Bay teen club the Lucky 13 in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the early 1970s that the singer-guitarist hit his stride. He fashioned a unique blend of street soul, informed by Al Green, the Dells and others, but always identifiable by his own special delivery, sliding from gravelly baritone to wailing falsetto in the space of a measure. By the late 1970s Darondo had left the music business and his subsequent adventures – cable video personality, globe-trotting entertainer, unorthodox therapist, and rebirth as a cult performer in the late 2000s – make for a colorful story that demonstrated th...