Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Detroit soul legend Amp Fiddler, 65.

Oh shit! RIP

Oh no! Legendary career of course, and my house-loving-but-crowd-hating self has been jamming quietly at home to this one for at least the last half decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkksfth--wU

Jim Ladd, LA Radio Veteran (KNAC, KLOS, KMET) dead at 75

https://lamag.com/arts-and-entertainment/jim-ladd-radio-veteran-siriusxm-dead

SXM Deep Tracks is playing a pretaped Jim Ladd show RIGHT NOW (and according to their schedule, it'll be flowed this evening by a taped shift from Dusty Street, who died in late October).

Oof.

Ok, it's actually Meg Griffin filling in for Ladd, playing songs suggested by his widow and other tracks that were close to him.

RIP. I don’t think I ever heard him or heard of him but of course I am familiar with Meg Griffin as well as the weird feeling of another DJ from one’s youth biting the dust.

I barely remember what my dad's voice sounded like, but I'll probably remember Jim Ladd's voice until the end of time. I'd love to see some playlists from the couple of years he was at KEDG in the late 80s when he eschewed much of the classic boomer rock and was playing stuff like Love And Rockets, The Church, Sonic Youth in between the Jim Morrison "is everybody in?" soundbites.

Ace Farren Ford of the Los Angeles Free Music Society scene has passed away, apparently.

Craig Stewart, founder of the Emperor Jones label. Others knew him personally, I defer to them, and simply say that his label was a real treasury over the years.

too bummed out about Craig dying to make the post he deserves, but Emperor Jones was honestly one of the most distinctive labels of its time, which probably worked against it -- the only aesthetic criterion that really held was "stuff Craig likes," which could be noisy jammy sludgy stuff or organic noise improv or NZ 4-track bedroom weirdo stuff. EJ was a passion project and Craig's passion for music shone through it -- some of his artists went on to greater renown, which was fine by him. He put out My Dad Is Dead's stuff when nobody was really caring about seminal 80s college indie stuff and one of the albums he released, Everyone Wants the Honey But Not the Sting, is among their best work. Very little of what he released is on the streaming services, though you can find it on Youtube -- although only bits and pieces of the Nigel Bunn album, which is a singular wonder in the world. He was the nicest guy, incredibly loving and positive and helpful and passionate; he'd had frontotemporal dementia for some time, which took his power to speak away first, some years ago. He continued sending me emails for a long time with single or double word subject lines, sharing music ("JETHRO TULL!!!") he'd find online, always weird stuff. The tape of Merle Haggard's best he made for me to listen to on tour totally upended my ideas about what country was, his country knowledge was DEEP, he made me several comps that expanded my horizons more than I can say.

Terrible personal loss to me, made a little easier knowing that the last seven or more years have been pretty hard on him & his loved ones, but this passing takes from the world somebody who changed my life permanently.

sending you good feelings as you remember him, JCLC

Wilf Lunn, archetypal crackpot inventor on kids TV on the 70s.

RIP

Wilf Lunn, i hadn't thought about you in 20 years or so but you were an icon of my childhood. i will always smile when i think of you.

Torben Ulrich

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1GTIcTrhW2/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Really remarkable guy, sad that I never got to see any of his work when I might have had the chance.

Wow. He's all time for his appearance in the doc alone.

otm RIP

saw him once, experimental stuff (kind of a piece for piano, poetry and percussion) with an easy vibe, he was very charismatic when introducing the set and explaining the ideas behind it

a note to school from Torben Ulrich making the rounds in Danish media:

Lars is late for school today because we found it important that he stay up until 2 in the morning listening to jazz music and that it was also important he get a good night's sleep

Ruth Seymour, public radio pioneer and manager of LA radio station KCRW

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1220040179/longtime-kcrw-general-manager-ruth-seymour-dies-at-88

Sandy Hurvitz/Essra Mohawk

https://deadline.com/2023/12/essra-mohawk-dead-singer-songwriter-was-75-1235681205/

Oh! RIP

Chicago actor Mike Nussbaum, reportedly the oldest working actor in the US, dies at 99. RIP.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/chicago-actor-mike-nussbaum-dies-182000810.html

former (Dixie) Chick bass/vocalist Laura Lynch :
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/laura-lynch-dead-dixie-chicks-1235850102/

RIP Afro-Colombian champeta & cumbia singer accordionist Lisandro Meza who did an awesome take on Fela's song Shakara called "Shacalao". Disco Fuentes label on twitter reporting death

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

sad to hear! all his disco fuentes albums i have heard rule and that version of Shakara is all time.

"Shakara" must have been huge in Colombia, because there's another version, by the studio-only group Wganda Kenya, that's even wilder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMOajYNU60E

It was indeed! There is also this super good version by Cumbia Moderna De Soledad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz67nw3y8M4

Richard Franklin, only really known as Mike Yates, the Pertwee era UNIT officer in Doctor Who.

Aw. He and Jo Grant had fun together I recall.

RIP Tony Oxley :-(

:-(

RIP. Must have seen him live but I can't remember when.

Only time I saw him was with Cecil Taylor and Bill Dixon at the RFH, playing solo and then as a trio. Oxley really was the one stitching two very different players together - a very commanding presence. Love the picture of his kit on the cover of Ichnos.

Yeah that's the only time I've seen him too. Real shame.

Also the only time I saw him, must have been an ilx day trip. All three members of that night's trio now no longer with us, although Anthony Braxton, also on the bill, yet lives.
The Tony Oxley Quintet's 1969 "The Baptised Traveller" is as fine an example of free music as I've ever heard, RIP to a musician who played without fear.

Henry Sandon, mainstay of the Antiques Roadshow, 95.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/26/antiques-roadshow-pottery-expert-henry-sandon-dies-at-95

Lee Sun-kyun, 48

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67825665

I don't think I've seen him in anything but Parasite. Sounds like he might have ended his life while in the midst of a drug investigation? Sad.

From a Hollywood Reporter article:

"Local media reports that Lee had been under investigation over allegations that he had used illegal drugs. In recent weeks, the South Korean government’s ongoing crackdown on hard drugs has led to a series of allegations against high-profile people including actors, singers, socialites and heirs to the country’s richest families. The K-pop singer G-Dragon is among those who have been swept up in the crackdown, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing last week.

Yonhap reports that Lee had been questioned three times by police, including for 19 hours over the weekend over his use of marijuana and psychoactive drugs. Lee is reported to have visited Seoul’s Gangnam district on multiple occasions since early this year, including last Saturday, where he allegedly took drugs. The actor reportedly said he was tricked into taking drugs by a bar hostess, who then tried to blackmail him."

Ridiculous harassment. What a stupid waste.

Ugh, that's awful.

Wolfgang Schäuble, former German finance minister and key figure in the reunification process, has died at the age of 81.

He was paralysed from the waist down after being shot at an election rally in 1990.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/27/german-political-heavyweight-wolfgang-schauble-dies-aged-81

Bill Granger, 54

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67825337

Brought Australian breakfast/cafe culture to Britain therefore responsible for Millennials and Gen Zers not being able to afford houses.

Ridiculous harassment. What a stupid waste.

Yeah, this story is infuriating.

Horrible story.

Tom Smothers

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/arts/television/tom-smothers-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR3-MgTeqtER15xWBemJ5ZIVpEUlcnqueGQewNHn_Lfnvhp2aPACz6sVIoM

Being reported by numerous accounts that famed visual artist, filmmaker, and provocateur William Pope.L has passed away.

his 2015 MoCA show was terrific and i still think about it from time to time, RIP

Jacques Delors

... who was 98!

Tom smothers!