Lives
[by Ken Hunt, London] In person Pete Seeger was, much like you’d imagine, physically pretty spindly, pretty lanky but with a muscularity. Born on 3 May 1919 in Manhattan, he had an air of another era about him. He had a personable gentlemanliness quality, if it doesn’t sound too foolish, a real Pete Seeger-ness to him.
The obituaries will rightly talk about his lion-heartedness facing down the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, blacklists and censorship, principles and running the gauntlet because of his involvement in the Civil Rights movement, his antiwar stance, his ecological activities and so on
5. 2. 2014 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear.
23 May – On this date in 1913, Le Sacre du printemps (‘The Rite of Spring’) received its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on the avenue Montaigne in Paris’ 8th arrondissement. Its music is by Igor Stravinsky: its choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky: its performers the Ballets russes company under Serge Diaghilev. It was the sensation of the company’s 1913 season.
25 May – The Tamil playback singer T.M. Soundararajan , born on 24 March 1922 in Madurai in the Madras Presidency, died aged 91 in Chennai.
15. 6. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of change as and when updates arrive, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Updated 12 June 2013.
7 April – The US film-maker Les Blank died at the age of 77 in the Berkeley Hills area of the San Francisco Bay. Born on 27 November 1935 in Tampa, Florida, he made film portraits of Clifton Chenier, Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins among other subjects.
The Guardian published Les Blank’s obituary in its edition of Friday, 10 April 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/12/les-blank-dies-documentary-music
11 April – The Oakland, California-born violinist Sue Draheim died aged 63 in Berea, Kentucky
15. 5. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Last expanded 1 May 2013.
7 March – Born 5 February 1923, in Keithville, Louisiana, the country singer and songwriter Claude King died at the age of 90 in Shreeveport, Louisiana. He was a member of the Louisiana Hayride radio and television show and was famed for his song, Wolverton Mountain, co-written with Merle Kilgore.
Further reading from the Los Angeles Times is here: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20130308,0,3695361.story
20 March – The animator Jack Stokes died
15. 4. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and useful weblinks appear. Latest update: 12 April 2013.
4 February – Pat Halcox died at the age of 82. He born on 18 March 1930 in the London district Chelsea. Trumpet player with the Chris Barber Jazz Band from 1954, he replaced trumpet and band leader Ken Colyer of the Ken Colyer Jazz Band when the band rebranded itself on Colyer’s departure.
His obituary from The Daily Telegraph of 7 February 2013 is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9853652/Pat-Halcox.html
4 February – The Jamaican musician Alva Lewis died. Born on 16 April 1949, he worked with Bob Marley and the Hippy Boys amongst others
8. 3. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances remain in a state of flux as news comes in, details get corrected, information emerges and weblinks appear. This month’s includes the centenary of the birth of Indo-Hungarian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
Last updated: 27 February 2013
3 January – The Karnatic violinist M.S. Gopalakrishnan died, aged 81, in Chennai.
Ken Hunt’s obituary ‘MS Gopalakrishnan: Revered Southern Indian violinist ‘ from The Independent of 20 February 2013 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ms-gopalakrishnan-revered-southern-indian-violinist-8501679.html
15 January – The singer and guitarist Shirley Douglas died, aged 73, in Benissa, Spain
15. 2. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] As ever these remembrances are fluid and will get changed as news and information comes in and weblinks emerge. Please feel free to send links pertinent to this website’s continent for possible inclusion. Death is a state in flux.
5 December – The US jazz pioneer and early incorporator of world music and non-western classical elements Dave Brubeck died aged 92 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Steve Voce’s obituary ‘Dave Brubeck: Pianist and composer hailed as a major figure of 20th century jazz’ from The Independent of 5 December 2012 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/dave-brubeck-pianist-and-composer-hailed-as-a-major-figure-of-20th-century-jazz-8386994
15. 1. 2013 |
read more...
[by Kate Hickson, Powys, Wales] These remembrances are not fixed. They are in a state of flux cum backfill as news comes in, as details get corrected, information emerges and weblinks appear.
3 November – Kingston, Jamaica-born sound system pioneer Duke Vin (properly Vincent George Forbes) died aged 84. Chris Salewicz’s obituary ‘Duke Vin: ‘Soundman’ who brought sound systems to Britain’ from The Independent of 21 November 2012 is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/duke-vin-soundman-who-brought-sound-systems-to-britain-8336228.html The same day Doogie Paul, bassist with James Yorkston from 2001, died. Yorkston’s tribute ‘RIP Doogie Paul’ is at: http://www.dominorecordco
15. 12. 2012 |
read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Aged 50, Joe Strummer died of a suspected heart attack at home in Broomfield in Somerset on 22 December 2003. In the warm glow and cold slab reality of his death, he seemed to have changed people’s perceptions of ‘reality’ more than most ever do. He was never the Bob Dylan figure that some claimed him to be after his death, though. Mind you, he did get to guest on Dylan’s Down In The Groove (1988).
The son of Ronald Mellor, a British civil servant in the Foreign Office who went where the diplomacy of the day posted him, he was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey on 21 August 1952. Strummer, as he later ‘became’, had a wider understanding of other cultures than most Brits of his, or indeed previous, generations
2. 7. 2012 |
read more...
[by Ken Hunt] Ahmet Ertegun will predictably be most remembered for the big acts and platinum hit-makers. He and Nesuhi Ertegun also pay-rolled a project of immense significance for the worlds of US vernacular music – folk, blues, gospel, work song and beyond. That project was Atlantic’s Southern Heritage Folk Series (1960), seven LPs, also released in Britain, culled from 80 hours of field recordings made sometimes under the most arduous, sometimes the most exhilarating of circumstances. It was the work of the white Texan folklorist, author and broadcaster Alan Lomax (1915-2002) and the Sussex-born folk singer Shirley Collins. Collins’ America Over The Water (2004) and her Arts Council-supported multi-media talk of the same name home in on that 1959 field trip
18. 6. 2012 |
read more...
« Later articles
Older articles »