Smokin Joe Kubek has passed - My thoughts and prayers are with his family

Johnny Main of the 44's has posted that Smokin Joe Kubek has suffered a heart attack in his room before his show. He is reportedly passed. I will provide more information as I have it. It is a sad day indeed.


Born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, Kubek grew up in the Dallas, Texas area. In the 1970s during his teen years, he played with the likes of Freddie King and in the 1980s began performing with Louisiana-born singer, Bnois King. In 1985, Kubek released his first record on Bird Records, a 45 RPM single with the tracks "Driving Sideways" (written by Freddie King and Sonny Thompson) and "Other Side Of Love" (written by Doyle Bramhall, Sr.). The single was executively produced by Clint Birdwell and co-produced by Charley Wirz and Kubek. The two tracks reappeared on Kubek's 2012 album, Let That Right Hand Go, produced by Clint Birdwell and issued on Birdwell's label, Bird Records Texas. The album is a collection of mostly unreleased material recorded since the 1980s (with the 1985 single's track, "Other Side Of Love", entitled "The Other Side Of Love"). In 1991, Kubek released his first full-length album entitled Steppin' Out Texas Style (Bullseye Blues Records) and has since released over a dozen albums on various labels.

BB King has passed. - My thoughts and prayers are with his family

LAS VEGAS (AP) — B.B. King, whose scorching guitar licks and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died late Thursday at home in Las Vegas. He as 89.
His attorney, Brent Bryson, told The Associated Press that King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT.
Bryson said funeral arrangements were being made.
Although he had continued to perform well into his 80s, the 15-time Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and had been in declining health during the past year. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and exhaustion. He had been in hospice care at his Las Vegas home.
For most of a career spanning nearly 70 years, Riley B. King was not only the undisputed king of the blues but a mentor to scores of guitarists, who included Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall and Keith Richards. He recorded more than 50 albums and toured the world well into his 80s, often performing 250 or more concerts a year.
King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent notes.
The result could bring chills to an audience, no more so than when King used it to full effect on his signature song, "The Thrill is Gone." He would make his guitar shout and cry in anguish as he told the tale of forsaken love, then end with a guttural shouting of the final lines: "Now that it's all over, all I can do is wish you well."

Advertisement

His style was unusual. King didn't like to sing and play at the same time, so he developed a call-and-response between him and Lucille.
"Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more," King told The Associated Press in 2006. "When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling."
A preacher uncle taught him to play, and he honed his technique in abject poverty in the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues.
"I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did," he said in the 1988 book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music."
"People all over the world have problems," he said. "And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die."
Fellow travelers who took King up on that theory included Clapton, the British-born blues-rocker who collaborated with him on "Riding With the King," a best-seller that won a Grammy in 2000 for best traditional blues album.
Still, the Delta's influence was undeniable. King began picking cotton on tenant farms around Indianola, Mississippi, before he was a teenager, being paid as little as 35 cents for every 100 pounds, and was still working off sharecropping debts after he got out of the Army during World War Two.
"He goes back far enough to remember the sound of field hollers and the cornerstone blues figures, like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson," ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons once told Rolling Stone magazine.
King got his start in radio with a gospel quartet in Mississippi, but soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where a job as a disc jockey at WDIA gave him access to a wide range of recordings. He studied the great blues and jazz guitarists, including Django Reinhardt and T-Bone Walker, and played live music a few minutes each day as the "Beale Street Blues Boy," later shortened to B.B.
Through his broadcasts and live performances, he quickly built up a following in the black community, and recorded his first R&B hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," in 1951.
He began to break through to white audiences, particularly young rock fans, in the 1960s with albums like "Live at the Regal," which would later be declared a historic sound recording worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
He further expanded his audience with a 1968 appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and when he opened shows for the Rolling Stones in 1969.
  King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the Songwriters Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, gave a guitar to Pope John Paul II and had President Barack Obama sing along to his "Sweet Home Chicago."
Other Grammys included best male rhythm 'n' blues performance in 1971 for "The Thrill Is Gone," best ethnic or traditional recording in 1982 for "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere" and best traditional blues recording or album several times. His final Grammy came in 2009 for best blues album for "One Kind Favor."
Through it all, King modestly insisted he was simply maintaining a tradition.
"I'm just one who carried the baton because it was started long before me," he told the AP in 2008.
Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena, Mississippi, King was raised by his grandmother after his parents separated and his mother died. He worked as a sharecropper for five years in Kilmichael, an even smaller town, until his father found him and took him back to Indianola.
"I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family," he said.
When the weather was bad and he couldn't work in the cotton fields, he walked 10 miles to a one-room school before dropping out in the 10th grade.
After he broke through as a musician, it appeared King might never stop performing. When he wasn't recording, he toured the world relentlessly, playing 342 one-nighters in 1956. In 1989, he spent 300 days on the road. After he turned 80, he vowed he would cut back, and he did, somewhat, to about 100 shows a year.
He had 15 biological and adopted children. Family members say 11 survive.
———
Associated Press writer John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.  

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

Randy Chortkoff has passed. My thoughts are with his family.

Randy Chortkoff, founder, president and CEO of Delta Groove Productions, passed away today at 8:40am in Los Angeles at the age of 65.
A highly successful entrepreneur outside of the music business, Chortkoff simultaneously followed his true passion as a music producer, performer, and promoter for two decades before founding Delta Groove Productions almost 15 years ago. Delta Groove was his labor of love, a culmination of a lifelong devotion to traditional blues and roots music. Through his vision and leadership, the company quickly rose to its current position as an industry leader, encompassing Delta Groove Records, Eclecto-Groove Records, No Respect Records, Festivals Exclusive Booking Agency, independent artist and event promotions and management, and more.

Ever the astute businessman, in recent months Randy oversaw the planning and arrangements for Delta Groove Productions and its affiliates to continue to flourish and carry his passion onward after his passing, under the leadership of longtime associates Jeff Fleenor and Tammie Barnum, and the rest of the talented and devoted Delta Groove team.
Randy leaves behind children Jessica, Taylor and Joshua, an extended family of Delta Groove musicians whose lives he touched, and a worldwide network of music lovers who both shared and benefited from his passion for music.

Randy was also was the leader of top blues band The Mannish Boys.

Few blues acts have perfected the tricky maneuver of honoring the storied history of the Blues, while at the same time keeping the music up-to-date, as well as Delta Groove’s The Mannish Boys. It’s a balancing act that they’ve honed over the course of six highly-acclaimed CD releases and countless nights gigging on concert stages around the world. Conceived as an all-star showcase for the cream of the west coast blues crop, The Mannish Boys have stayed true to that vision. They’ve continually evolved through the years, seeking out and spotlighting the talents of true Blues legends in a setting that stays true to the deep roots of genre, providing them with the support required to excite today’s blues audiences.
Their newest release on Delta Groove marks a number of firsts for The Mannish Boys. “Double Dynamite”, as the title suggests, serves up a double dose of The Mannish Boys on a two CD set, allowing them to really stretch out and feature more special guests and sounds than on any of their previous releases. Especially notable is new featured vocalist Sugaray Rayford, a soulful, gospel-inflected singer, originally from Texas, who has been little known outside of his current home base in Southern California until now. Also along for the ride this time, and adding variety and depth in the vocal department, are veterans James “Icepick” Harman, Mike Finnigan (who in the ‘60s played keyboards on Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” LP, among many other accomplishments in his long career), and Jackie Payne, plus long-time Mannish Boys frontman Finis Tasby. The band’s regular guitarists Kirk Fletcher and Frank Goldwasser also take turns in front of the vocal mic, as does The Mannish Boys harp playing honcho Randy Chortkoff. And as a special treat this time out, Mud Morganfield, oldest son of the undisputed king of Chicago blues, Muddy Waters, also contributes as a guest vocalist, bringing a south side Chicago blues unrivaled by any living vocalist. Other special guests on this amazing release include harmonica aces Rod Piazza, Jason Ricci and Bob Corritore, and guitarists Elvin Bishop, Junior Watson, Nathan James, and Kid Ramos, all backed by the hard-swinging rhythm section of Jimi Bott and Willie J. Campbell, plus an array of other very special musicians.

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

James Wheeler has Passed - Our thoughts are with his family and friends

It is with great sorrow that we learn that the great James Wheeler has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. We will release more details as they become available. James will be greatly missed at Rosa's Lounge, in the Chicago blues community and throughout the world. He was one of the sweetest human beings we have ever encountered and what a wonderful singer and picker he was too. Rest in sweet peace our dear James.

Blues guitarist James Wheeler was born in Albany, GA, on August 28, 1937. His earliest musical influences were the big bands of the time, especially Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and his first idol, Louis Jordan. Following his older brother Golden, Wheeler moved to Chicago in 1956. Golden had started playing harmonica in the clubs, becoming friends with many blues musicians, including Little Walter. It was after the move to Chicago that James Wheeler picked up the guitar and started jamming with local musicians. Wheeler's first big break came when he played guitar with Billy Boy Arnold, which lead to the formation of the Jaguars in 1963, backing up B.B. King, Millie Jackson, O.V. Wright, and Otis Clay. Clay was so impressed with Wheeler's playing that after the Jaguars broke up in 1972 he asked Wheeler to put together his touring band, which lasted three years. Following a brief tour with the Impressions, Wheeler took a non-music day job, picking up weekend gigs here and there for the next decade. In 1986, Wheeler received a call from Otis Rush asking him to play a weekend gig that turned full-time, lasting until 1993. After recording and touring stints with Mississippi Heat, Magic Slim, and Willie Kent, he released his much anticipated solo recording, Ready, in 1998 on Delmark Records. Featuring ten original tracks plus three covers, his band featured brother Big Golden Wheeler on harmonica and pianist Ken Saydak. Following a hectic tour schedule through Europe and South America, Wheeler's second release, Can't Take It, followed in 2000, again, on the Delmark label. Can't Take It spotlights all original compositions by Wheeler, fronting the same band, with the exception of Ron Sorin replacing Big Golden on harp.

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Joe Cocker has passed - Our thoughts are with his family and friends

British singer Joe Cocker, whose had hits that included "You Are So Beautiful" and "Up Where We Belong," and a contortionist style of performance memorably parodied by John Belushi on "Saturday Night Live," has died. He was 70.
His London-based agent, Barrie Marshall, said Cocker died Monday of lung cancer in Colorado, where he has lived for the past two decades.
  © The Associated Press FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2000 file photo, singer Joe Cocker poses in Central Park in New York. Cocker, best known for the songs, "You Are So Beautiful," and the 1980s duet "Up Where We Belong," with Jennifer Warnes, died Monday, Dec. 22… Cocker, a song interpreter more than a songwriter, first became known through his hit cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," and a characteristically manic performance at the first Woodstock festival in 1969. His raucous "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" tour of 1970 produced a film and a recording that went gold.
He had a top 10 hit in 1975 on the aching ballad "You Are So Beautiful," with his voice cracking on the final emotional note and won his first Grammy Award in 1983 for his "Up Where We Belong" duet with Jennifer Warnes, which was the theme of the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman."
Cocker, who received an Order of the British Empire in 2011 for his contribution to music, released 40 albums and continued to tour after the hits dried up.
He was known for an intense, twitchy stage presence where his arms would flail and face contort as he wrung notes from his raspy voice. When he performed on "Saturday Night Live" in 1976, Belushi parodied him onstage, exaggerating his movements by flipping to the ground. It was a clip seen as widely as Cocker's own performances.
Years later, Cocker told The Associated Press' Mary Campbell that he was playing an imaginary piano and air guitar while singing — the elements that contributed to this unique style.
"That was the frustration of not being able to play, really," he said.
Cocker moved to Crawford, Colorado, a town of fewer than 500 people, in the early 1990s. He and his wife, Pam, ran a children's educational foundation — the Cocker Kids Foundation — that raised funds for the town and schools, and ran the Mad Dog Cafe for several years in town, said Tom Wills, publisher of The North Fork Merchant Herald, a local community newspaper.
Wills said Cocker bought about 40 acres of property and built a hillside mansion — which he called Mad Dog Ranch — when he moved to Colorado.
A group of Cocker's friends gathered Monday at community radio station KVNF to play Cocker's songs.
"He had a long battle with cancer. We're trying to do a little tribute for him," said Bob Pennetta, a real estate agent and board member of the Cocker Kids Foundation.

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Jack Bruce, Bassist for Supergroup Cream, Dead at 71

Jack Bruce, the bassist for legendary rock supergroup Cream, has died. He was 71.
Bruce's family announced his death via Facebook and the musician's official website.
"It is with great sadness that we, Jack's family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father, granddad and all-round legend," the statement said. "The world of music will be a poorer place without him, but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts."

See also: 45 Essential Classic Rock Anthems

Post by Jack Bruce.

The Scottish-born singer died Saturday "at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family," publicist Claire Singers confirmed.
No further details were provided, but the Press Association reported that Bruce died of liver disease.
Bruce is best known as a member of the 1960s British band, Cream, performing alongside members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. Formed in 1966, Cream went on to sell 35 million albums in just two years, according to Bruce's website. The band's third album, Wheels of Fire became the first-ever platinum-selling double album. Cream split shortly after its debut in 1968, and Bruce went on to front his own bands.
"Jack felt that he had strayed too far from his ideals, and wanted to re-discover his musical and social roots," according to Bruce's website.
He returned to the studio to record his 2001 solo album Shadows in the Air, which hit no. 5 on the British jazz and blues chart.
Bruce was born to musical parents in Glasgow, Scotland, on May 14, 1943. His parents traveled extensively in Canada and the U.S., and a young Bruce attended 14 different schools. He finished his formal education at Bellahouston Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, to which he won a scholarship for cello and composition.
Bruce left Scotland at 16, and in 1962, joined his first important band, the influential Alexis Korner's Blues Inc., in London. It featured drummer Charlie Watts, who later joined The Rolling Stones.

Johnny Winter Dead?

It has been reported that Johnny Winter, a young man of 70 and currently on tour has passed.

This was announced by Sugar Blue, a super harp player during his show at Rosa's Lounge this evening.  I have not found any other specific references to this information or been able to substantiate this claim and at this point believe that it is not true. I will report back as soon as I have determined the facts but at this point I am with his fans around the world praying that he is "Still Alive and Well"! Rock on Johnny!!  

New Johnny Winter Studio Release “Step Back” out Sept. 2nd

July 4th, 2014

No Comments

Johnny Winter releases perhaps his greatest album on September 2, 2014! Step Back features an amazing list of musical guests and takes Johnny back to a more aggressive style of blues… one that helped shape the musical icon. Produced by Paul Nelson.
Buy it at Amazon.
Step Back Track Listing
1. Unchain My Heart – Johnny Winter
2. Can’t Hold Out (Talk To Me Baby) – Johnny Winter with Ben Harper
3. Don’t Want No Woman – Johnny Winter with Eric Clapton
4. Killing Floor – Johnny Winter with Paul Nelson
5. Who Do You Love – Johnny Winter
6. Okie Dokie Stomp – Johnny Winter with Brian Setzer
7. Where Can You Be – Johnny Winter with Billy Gibbons
8. Sweet Sixteen – Johnny Winter with Joe Bonamassa
9. Death Letter -Johnny Winter
10. My Babe – Johnny Winter with Jason Ricci
11. Long Tall Sally – Johnny Winter with Leslie West
12. Mojo Hand – Johnny Winter with Joe Perry
13. Blue Monday – Johnny Winter with Dr. John

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

Tabby Thomas has passed - Our thoughts are with his family and friends (by Chelsea Brasted)

Tabby Thomas, the renowned Baton Rouge blues guitarist, died early Jan. 1, 2014, just shy of his 85th birthday, according to a source close to the family. Thomas was perhaps best known for having opened Tabby's Blues Box, a ramshackle room on North Boulevard that was a haven for blues lovers across the world. Thomas was born Ernest J. Thomas on Jan. 5, 1929 in Old South Baton Rouge, where he grew up on Mary Street. He quickly became known as Tabby for his catlike reflexes on McKinley High School's football team. Thomas served with the Air Force following his graduation from McKinley, but music had always been on his mind since singing with the church choir at St. Lukes. While in California with the Air Force, he entered and won a talent competition with KSAN radio in 1952. That first success stuck with him, and it ignited a lifelong dedication to his craft. After his first few records didn't sell well, Thomas returned home to Baton Rouge where he began recording new tracks with Excello Records' J.D. Miller in Crowley and met Jocelyn Marie Johnson, who became his wife. Thomas worked various jobs to supplement his income to provide a stable lifestyle for his family, including a tenure with Ciba Geigy, where he worked as a union steward. In 1978, Thomas found a rundown building at 1314 North Boulevard and, with the help of his cousin, Woodrow Vaughn, and his two sons, Thomas opened Tabby's Blues Box a year later. "It was during the time when disco had pretty much dried up all the gigs for south Louisiana blues musicians. They didn't have any place to play. My dad had the idea for it to be like a blues social club, and that's what it became," said Chris Thomas King, one of Thomas' sons and himself a successful musician, in an interview earlier this year. Tabby's Blues Box quickly became the go-to spot for blues lovers looking for the real deal, old-fashioned blues room. "Just about everybody came through Tabby's," Thomas said in an October interview. "I had a lot of friends I had met when I was touring all over Europe in places and they start coming by to see me. It made the place famous. Everybody knew Tabby's Blues Box." But its reputation couldn't save it, and the Blues Box closed by 2000 with the construction of the North Boulevard overpass. Thomas moved the club to a location on Lafayette Street, but it never caught on the way the old location did. It closed for good in 2004 following a stroke Thomas had while preparing to go on stage. "It's a very sad day. The legendary Baton Rouge bluesman, husband, father, and friend Tabby Thomas passed away this morning. He's the father of Chris Thomas King," wrote Rueben Williams, Thomas' former manager, on Facebook. "He was an inspiration to so many and the reason for a lot of people's start including Tab Benoit, Troy Turner, his son Chris's and many others. He left us with great Louisiana music and unbelievable stories." Funeral and visitation arrangements were not immediately available.  

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Eric Guitar Davis Murdered

Eric "Guitar" Davis, an up-and-coming blues musician who was the son of legendary drummer Bobby "Top Hat" Davis, was killed early Thursday morning on the South Side, authorities said. Davis, 41, of south suburban Riverdale, was one of two people killed a short time apart on East End Avenue in South Shore, authorities said. "He was a talented guy,'' said Ronnie Baker Brooks, a blues musician who worked with Davis on his last album. "It's just a tragic loss." "We deeply grieve the loss of our Blues brother, Eric Guitar Davis," musician Billy Branch wrote on Davis' Facebook page. Police said about 4:45 a.m., a 74-year-old man was found shot repeatedly in a car in the 7000 block of South East End Avenue. Killed was Willie Cooper, 74, of South Shore, who was prounced dead at 5:08 a.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. He was a retired CTA bus driver and longtime church deacon at St. Phillip Neri Church, ABC7 reported. At 5:20 a.m., police said a man — later identified as Davis — was found behind the wheel of a car in the 6700 block of South East End Avenue. He had been shot in his torso and neck, police said. He was prounced dead at 6:07 a.m., the medical examiner said. On Thursday, police were investigating if there was any connection between the two shootings. No one was in custody. "Doc" Pellegrino, who runs Kingston Mines blues club in Lincoln Park, said Davis was at a party at the club the night before the shooting. "He was a really nice guy," Pellegrino said Wednesday. "People enjoyed him. He was well-thought of." Bob Koester, owner of Delmark Records, said his label was about to record Davis. "He was next in line for the blues before these guys shot him," Koester said. "Maybe we should give these gang guys some target practice." In addition to Kingston Mines and House of Blues, Davis had dazzled crowds at Chicago Blues Fest and toured Europe frequently. He played Rosa's Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, earlier this month, with his band, the Troublemakers. Slideshow Eric "Guitar" Davis was found fatally shot in the 6700 block of the South East End, Thursday morning. Eric Guitar Davis "It's like I lost a brother," said Tony Mangiullo, who owns Rosa's. Mangiullo said it was "a matter of time" before Davis made it big. "He had all the components. He had a vision. He had the roots. He was able to interact with people," he said. According to a bio on Davis' website, Davis first learned drums from his father, who played with such greats as Muddy Waters and Otis Rush. By the age of 10, he was playing percussion behind blues greats Junior Wells, B.B. King and others at clubs like the Checkerboard Lounge and the now-shuttered Theresa's, the bio said. Buddy Guy, though, is the one who turned him onto guitar years ago while the two were at the Checkerboard, which was on 43rd Street before it moved to Hyde Park. "Buddy Guy ... told Eric that 'in order to get all the girls' you have to play this, and handed Eric his old beat up Fender guitar,and showed Eric his first chord," the bio says. "Fast foward almost 30 years later and you have Eric Guitar Davis." Mangiullo said Davis had come a long way since he first played at the club a few years ago. He said Davis' set that night wasn't that great, but he knew he was dedicated because he brought in a full band with horns and was willing to work hard. "I knew he had a vision, he was confidant about his talent and he was willing to work for it," he said. He saw huge improvement when he played on Dec. 7 at the club. He was writing his own music and wowing the crowd. "The last show was his best," he said. His last text message from Davis was Monday, when Davis asked about playing the club in January. He signed off the text saying, "I can only be me." Mangiullo thinks that was a reference to a conversation they recently had about the importance of carving your own niche as a musician. Now instead of playing a gig at Rosa's, the club will hold a fundraising concert to benefit Davis' children on Jan. 19.By Josh McGhee

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

George Duke has passed - My thoughts are with his family and friends

By Jim Farber / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Duke played with the likes of Frank Zappa, Michael Jackson, George Clinton, Anita Baker and Regina Belle.

Related Stories

• Frank Zappa's record label went 'From Straight to Bizarre' with out-there artists
• Harlem Week: It's time to take action to correct America's long history of gun violence  
• Harlem Week: Lackluster reviews don't dismay director of 'Motown: The Musical'  
• Harlem Week: Motown churned out the solid gold hits, but also provided plenty of social commentary  

George Duke, the master keyboardist who bridged the worlds of jazz, R&B, funk, and Brazilian music, died Monday at St John’s Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 67.
No cause was given.
Duke’s passing comes just over a year after the death of his wife, Corine, from cancer last July. The keyboardist dedicated his just-released album, “DreamWeaver,” to her memory.
PHOTOS: STARS GONE TOO SOON

Tom Copi

Jazz keyboardist George Duke, pictured in 1960, died Monday at St John’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

In a career that spanned more than 40 years, Duke worked with stars including Michael Jackson, on 1979’s “The Wall,” Miles Davis, producing and composing tracks on several key albums of the ‘80s, and Frank Zappa, with whom he appeared on “Mothers of Invention” albums from 1970 through the early ‘90s.

Duke, who was born in San Rafael, Calif., studied trombone, contrabass and composition at the San Francisco Conservatory, where he graduated in 1967. But his made his name expressing himself on a wide variety of keyboards, from acoustic piano to clavinet to all manner of synthesizers. He became a key player in the development of jazz-fusion in the late ‘60s, particularly after collaborating with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. The release of their joint album, “The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio,” cemented his reputation in 1969.
Duke veered into the avant-garde through his work with Zappa, which began with 1970’s “Chunga’s Revenge.” He also appeared in the Zappa movie “200 Motels” in 1971 and played on important Mothers’ albums like “Over-Nite Sensation” and “Apostrophe.”
PHOTOS: IN MEMORIAM: STARS WE'VE LOST IN 2013

Gallo Images/Getty Images

George Duke performs on stage during the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz 2007 festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Duke made major waves in the R&B world by collaborating with musicians from George Clinton to Anita Baker to Regina Belle. In the ‘70s, he established his deep connection to Brazilian music, recording and performing with Milton Nascimento, Flora Purim, and Airto Moreira.
In the hip-hop world, the keyboarist’s songs have been sampled by acts from Daft Punk to Kanye West to Ice Cube.
Duke issued more than 40 albums under his own name, some in collaboration with drummer Billy Cobham or bassist Stanley Clarke. Throughout his career, Duke had the ability to make synthetic instruments — like the ARP Odyssey and Prophet 5 — sound soulful. His playing could be sensitive or disruptive, but in any guise, it showed total command.
He is survived by two sons, Rasheed and John. Funeral services will be private.
Upon hearing the news of his passing, jazz flutist Bobi Humphrey posted on her Facebook page, “George Duke! Forty years, my friend! Heaven! A little bit funkier!”

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

JJ Cale has passed

John Weldon Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013), known as JJ Cale or J.J. Cale, was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician. Cale was one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back". Songs written by Cale that have been covered by other musicians include "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton, "Clyde" by Waylon Jennings and "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1956. Along with a number of other young Tulsa musicians, Cale moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he first worked as a studio engineer.[ Finding little success as a recording artist, he later returned to Tulsa and was considering giving up the music business until Clapton recorded Cale's "After Midnight" in 1970. His first album, Naturally, established his style, described by Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin as a "unique hybrid of blues, folk and jazz, marked by relaxed grooves and Cale's fluid guitar and laconic vocals. His early use of drum machines and his unconventional mixes lend a distinctive and timeless quality to his work and set him apart from the pack of Americana roots-music purists." In 2013 Neil Young remarked that of all the musicians he had ever heard, J.J. Cale and Jimi Hendrix were the two best electric guitar players. Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean-Jacques Cale". In the 2006 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Cale talks about Elmer Valentine, co-owner of the Sunset Strip nightclub Whisky a Go Go, who employed him in the mid-1960s, being the one that came up with the "JJ" moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale. Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail. His biggest U.S. hit single, "Crazy Mama", peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved it higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words. Cale died on July 26, 2013, at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, California, after a heart attack.  

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band! My favorite JJ Cale song in tribute

Music collaboration giant Bob Brozman dies at age 59

SANTA CRUZ -- Guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman, one of the most internationally prominent musicians to come out of Santa Cruz County, died Wednesday at his home in Ben Lomond. He was 59. The cause of death is pending.
Brozman had built a career as a guitarist and ethnomusicologist, moving from an early fascination with the delta blues of the American south to a consuming passion for the traditional music of Hawaii. He was also one of the world's leading authorities on the National steel guitar.

The early years

Brozman emerged in Santa Cruz in the 1970s as a street musician, playing a decidedly un-contemporary American roots style of music. Known for playing anything from obscure jazz tunes to Hawaiian chanties,

Bob Brozman at home in July, 1992. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel file) (Dan Coyro)

often dressed in a white suit, Brozman was one of Santa Cruz's most familiar faces in clubs before launching a recording career that took him around the world. In recent years, Brozman has traveled extensively, performing in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the South Pacific. He often said that his work as a musician was a form of anthropology. His love for early jazz, blues and Hawaiian, as well as Caribbean, Okinawan and Afro-Latin forms, may have been seen as a form of electicism, but, he said, each musical tradition was linked. "I play music that is the accidental result of Colonial exploitation."
Brozman discovered the National steel guitar at the age of 13, and it was, he said, a turning point in his life. "At the very beginning,"

---

Advertisement

---

said his long-time friend, collaborator and producer Daniel Thomas, "Bob was fascinated with the bottle-neck. He told once that to find a style, you have to find all the things you don't like. He didn't like things plugged in. So that led him to the acoustic guitar. But he didn't think it was loud enough, so that led him to the lap steel, then the bottle-neck." From there, he developed an obsession with 78-rpm recordings of early American music, which led him to his first exposure to Hawaiian and Calypso. He studied ethnomusicology at Washington University in St. Louis, and, while in college, he would often travel throughout the South to play with and learn from jazz and blues musicians from the 1920s and 1930s.

Mixed with culture

Anthropological understanding was always a feature of Brozman's music. While he was popular in Europe early in his career for his rakish image, often interpreted by the media as part Leon Redbone, part Frank Zappa, he never pursued wide commercial success in the U.S. He was intent in documenting and eventually actively participating in all the ways the guitar interacted with local cultural traditions.
"He was always interested," said Thomas, "in what happens when a guitar is left behind in some culture or on some island with no instructions on how to use it, and how it adapts to what that culture feels is consonant. He told me, 'I just feel like I'm here to follow the guitar to all the places it finds a home."
Brozman was one of American music's greatest collaborators, having recorded albums with a number of musicians in a dizzying number of cultures, including Indian master Debashish Bhattacharya, American mandolin master David Grisman and even local string bands from Papua New Guinea in a release designed to benefit local music in that nation.

Tour memories

Thomas remembered a Canadian tour in which Brozman led a huge collaboration between musicians from India, South America, Europe and Japan. "We had 16 musicians who had mostly never met," he said. "We had a Greek speaker with no translator, a Japanese musician with no translator, and others from India, South America, all over the place. We had one day to rehearse, and without exception every one of these virtuosos musicians were terror-struck, except for Bob. He just said, 'Don't worry, I'm the hub here, plug your spokes in and here's what we're going to do.' The very next day we were in front of 20,000 people at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, with a 16-man band, and one day of rehearsal. I don't know any other musicians who had cajones like that."
The secret to his collaborative success, he told the Sentinel in 2000, was a deeply thought-out approach that involved educating himself about a given culture, understanding music's place in that culture, figuring out the body language of how musicians communicate comfort or discomfort and anthropological cues -- "observing pupil diameter, facial movement, respiration and fine muscle movement so that I'm as empathetic as possible toward how a person approaches their music and their instrument."
Brozman was severely injured in a car accident in 1980, and carried pain with him the rest of his life. Still, he kept up a prodigious traveling schedule that brought him to almost every corner of the globe. He had been popular in Germany, France and the U.K. for years, and had cultivated sold-out audiences in Spain, Italy and Australia. He played widely in Japan, and was known to perform in unusual places such as Singapore.

News travels fast

Daniel Thomas, who has been Brozman's closest musical ally for the past 20 years, said he spent much of the day on Thursday calling people all over the world with the news of Brozman's passing. Soon, his e-mail folders began filling up.
"It's astonishing to me," said Thomas, "how many people I don't know who know Bob's work and who managed to find me online to express their grief. I've received about a thousand messages in the past six hours, from people I don't even know who have the albums and getting the albums out and thinking, Who can I say this to? Who can I tell how important he was to me, even though I never knew him."
Contact Wallace Baine at wbaine@santacruzsentinel.com.
Bob Brozman
Born: March 8, 1954, New York City Died: April 24, 2013, Ben Lomond Survivors: Wife, Haley S. Robertson. Daughter, Zoe Brozman Education: Washington University, St. Louis Career: First emerged as a street and club musician in Santa Cruz before becoming a recording artist and world-touring musician. Released his first solo album in 1981, 'Blue Hula Stomp,' and has released about 30 albums since, including many collaborations with musicians from all over the world. Authored the definitive work on National steel guitars 'The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments.' Services: Pending.

 By WALLACE BAINE
Santa Cruz Sentinel

If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Update Jimmy Dawkins Passing

I have recieved confirmation from Delmark Records that Jimmy Dawkins has indeed passed. No further details are available at this time. I have been waiting to get more info but none have been released. My thoughts are with his family Bman







  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”