Rolling Obituary Thread: 2015

what the hell. rip ornette :(

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ornette-coleman-dead-20150611-column.html

This bears repeating, loudly and frequently:

“Now I didn’t call the music I was doing ‘free jazz,’” Coleman told the Tribune in 2003. “Someone [at the Atlantic record label] named it that, put a Jackson Pollack painting on it and called it ‘Free Jazz.’”

aw fuck

Zapf Dingbat guy?

Morbs close enough, his fault

Pioneering cookery broadcaster Marguerite Patten

the american dream

:(

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/2980664/dusty-rhodes-dances-o.gif

Pioneering cookery broadcaster Marguerite Patten

One of those great misheard lyrics (or not?) was I always thought that's who Lou mentioned in "Run run run"

country singer Randy 'All American Redneck' Howard (wanted on multiple charges of DUI and possessing a firearm while intoxicated) shot to death in a gunfight with an unlicensed bail enforcement agent

America

NASA Gemini/Apollo launch commentator Jack King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4OBKOlgmfo

America

― rallizes mcguire (unregistered), Saturday, 13 June 2015 18:35 (Yesterday)

Did you mean 'MURRICA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯'?

only just found out via the radio that Ron Moody and James Last have died in the last couple of days, what a crappy week

Madame Carven

Blaze Starr, Baltimore burlesque queen

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-blaze-starr-20150615-story.html#page=1

http://www.wmur.com/entertainment/mighty-sam-mcclain-grammynominated-blues-singer-from-nh-dies/33610568

I saw the Louisiana-raised Mcclain do a great special show where he dueted with Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat. They put an album out together too.

Tenko scriptwriter Jill Hyem

Jack Rollins, manager-producer of Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May, Robin Williams etc

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/obituaries/jack-rollins-dies-at-100-sharpened-talent-like-woody-allens.html

(oh and exec producer for Letterman's Late Night)

Rick Ducommun, who had some pretty memorable small roles in big movies and was iirc really excellent in The 'Burbs.

:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Z2SxEuuQ0

Not seeing an obit yet, but Alligator Records is reporting that Wendell Holmes, soulful singer/guitarist of the the Holmes Brothers band has passed on at age 72.

http://touch.dailypress.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83793598/

Earlier this year, the group's drummer Popsy Dixon died.

Sherman Holmes, 75, said it has been a tough year for him emotionally.

"It has taken a toll on me," he said. "I miss them so much. I miss Popsy, and I miss being with my brother. It's not the same, even though I'll carry it on. It’s just that I feel lonely. When I go on the road without them there, it's very lonely."

One of the Bs in BBS Productions:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/steve-blauner-dead-dies-easy-rider-five-easy-pieces-1201522567/

james salter

:(

Alan Almond, host of Detroit soft-rock radio program Pillow Talk (syndicated throughout the country as well), known for his almost comically deep voice and melodramatic delivery.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/alan-almond-longtime-detroitarea-host-of-popular-nighttime-radio-show-pillow-talk-dies/33625584

Composer & "Third Stream" theorist Gunther Schuller: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/22/arts/music/gunther-schuller-composer-who-synthesized-classical-and-jazz-dies-at-89.html

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/06/harold_battiste_dies.html

Harold Battiste, New Orleans saxophonist, composer and educator, dies at 83

Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 19, 2015 at 12:01 PM, updated June 19, 2015 at 10:42 PM

Harold Battiste Jr., the prolific saxophonist, pianist, producer, arranger and educator who helped shape music in New Orleans and beyond for more than six decades, died early Friday (June 19) after a lengthy illness. He was 83.

Mr. Battiste founded A.F.O. Records, the first New Orleans label owned by musicians, which released Barbara George's 1961 hit "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)." He collaborated with Sam Cooke on two of the soul star's landmark singles. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, he served as Sonny and Cher's musical director, and helped launch Dr. John's career.

In 1989, he returned to New Orleans and joined the jazz studies faculty at the University of New Orleans, mentoring and inspiring countless students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/22/arts/music/gunther-schuller-composer-who-synthesized-classical-and-jazz-dies-at-89.html?_r=0

Gunther Schuller, composer/performer who worked extensively with the Modern Jazz Quarter, among many others.

(I found this out via a note from my wife, because Schuller was the commencement speaker at the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 15, marking the shortest time -- 36days -- between CIM booking a speaker and their death. Previously CIM has been responsible for killing Marvin Hamlisch [555 days] and Van Cliburn [284 days].)

Noted above.

Laura Antonelli, film star (Visconti’s The Innocent and Ettore Scola’s Passion of Love)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/laura-antonelli-dead-italian-actress-804183

James Horner, plane crash

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-horner-dead-titanic-composer-804365

shit

our hearts will go on

(sorry)

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/breakingnews/ci_28362171/don-featherstone-creator-pink-flamingo-lawn-ornament-dies

I hope Horner stipulated in his will that his funeral should be accompanied by the climactic music cue from Aliens.

wouldn't be the first time he'd repurposed his own music

he was mega guilty of that for sure, but real talk he was also mega guilty of making some of the most colorful & ecstatic orchestral music of the last 30 years

couldn't resist the cheap gag but yeah i've enjoyed plenty of his scores

and he was in a good place rn -- his latest, for annaud's Wolf Totem, is fantastic

Dick Van Patten! R.I.P.

86 is enough (another distasteful joke, heard on the radio this morning).

Seeing foreign reports that actress/singer Magali Noël (worked with Fellini, Costa Gravas, Ackerman) has passed.

Patrick Macnee

:(

:-(

Farewell Mr. Steed

Have never seen the Avengers but know the dude as Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg in "Spinal Tap": "And so say all of us... 'tap' into America!"

RIP