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Brian Wilson 6/2025

Brian Wilson (82) – The Beach Boys – was born June 20, 1942 in Inglewood, California, the first child of pianist Audree Korthof and Murry Wilson, a machinist who later pursued songwriting part-time. Wilson, along with his siblings, suffered psychological and sporadic physical maltreatment from their father. His 2016 memoir characterizes his father as “violent” and “cruel”; however, it also suggests that certain narratives about the mistreatment had been overstated or unfounded.

From an early age, Wilson exhibited an aptitude for learning by ear. His father remembered how, after hearing only a few verses of “When the Caissons Go Rolling Along“, young Wilson was able to reproduce its melody. His father Murry was a driving force in cultivating his children’s musical talents. Wilson undertook six weeks of accordion lessons, and by ages seven and eight, he performed choir solos at church. His choir director declared him to have perfect pitch. One of Wilson’s first forays into songwriting, penned when he was nine, was a reinterpretation of the lyrics to Stephen Foster‘s “Oh! Susannah“.

At age 12, his family acquired an upright piano, and he began teaching himself to play piano by spending hours mastering his favorite songs. He learned how to write manuscript music through a friend of his father. Wilson sang with peers at school functions, as well as with family and friends at home, and guided his two brothers in learning harmony parts, which they would rehearse together. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard.

I got so into The Four Freshmen. I could identify with Bob Flanigan‘s high voice. He taught me how to sing high. I worked for a year on The Four Freshmen with my hi-fi set. I eventually learned every song they did.

In high school, Wilson played quarterback for Hawthorne High’s football team, played American Legion Baseball, and ran cross-country in his senior year. For his Senior Problems course in October 1959, Wilson submitted an essay, “My Philosophy”, in which he stated that his ambitions were to “make a name for myself in music”. One of Wilson’s earliest public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. He enlisted his cousin and frequent singing partner Mike Love and, to entice brother Carl into the group, named the newly formed membership “Carl and the Passions”. They performed songs by Dion and the Belmonts and the Four Freshmen, impressing classmate and musician, Al Jardine. Disappointed by his college teachers’ disdain for pop music, he withdrew from college after about 18 months. By his account, he crafted his first entirely original melody, “Surfer Girl“, in 1961, inspired by a Dion and the Belmonts rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star“.

The three Wilson brothers, Love, and Jardine debuted their first music group together, called “the Pendletones”, in the autumn of 1961. At Dennis’s suggestion, Brian and Love co-wrote the group’s first song, “Surfin’“. Dad Murry became their manager. Encouraged by the results – Surfin’ became a hit in Los Angeles and reached 75 on the national Billboard sales charts – the group’s name changed to the Beach Boys. Their major live debut was at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year’s Eve, 1961. Just days earlier, Wilson had received an electric bass from his father and quickly learned to play, prompting Jardine to switch to rhythm guitar.

As “Surfin'” faded from the charts, Wilson collaborated with local musician Gary Usher to produce demo recordings for new tracks, including “409” and “Surfin’ Safari“. Capitol Records were persuaded to release the demos as a single, achieving a double-sided national hit.

I wasn’t aware those early songs defined California so well until much later in my career. I certainly didn’t set out to do it. I wasn’t into surfing at all. My brother Dennis gave me all the jargon I needed to write the songs. He was the surfer and I was the songwriter.

Brian Wilson wrote the majority of the Beach Boys’ hits and was one of the first recording artists allowed to act as an entrepreneurial producer, a position he attained thanks to his immediate success with the band after their 7 year contract signing to Capitol Records in 1962.

The next 4 years marked the peak years of his career as a Beach Boy, who “always felt he was a behind-the-scenes man, rather than an entertainer.” Brian Wilson was the architect of the California sound that captured surfing and sun, beaches and girls. Yet for all the “Fun, Fun, Fun,” there was something much deeper and darker in Brian’s abilities as a composer.

It was more than disposable music for teenagers. He had an unparalleled melodic sense, hearing sounds in his mind that others couldn’t. He could worm his way into your head and then break your heart with songs like “In My Room” and “God Only Knows.” The tour de force “Good Vibrations” —- had anyone ever heard of the theremin before he employed its unearthly wail? — is a symphony both complex and easily accessible.

Between January and March 1963, Wilson produced the Beach Boys’ second album, Surfin’ U.S.A., limiting his public appearances with the group to television gigs and local shows to prioritize studio work. David Marks substituted for him on vocals during other live performances. Surfin’ U.S.A.” produced the Beach Boys’ first top-ten single and the accompanying album peaked at number two on the Billboard charts by July, cementing the Beach Boys as a major commercial act. Against Capitol’s wishes, Wilson collaborated with artists outside Capitol, including the Liberty Records duo Jan and Dean. Wilson co-wrote “Surf City” with Jan Berry, which topped U.S. charts in July 1963, his first composition to do so.

For the better part of 1963 and 1964, Wilson lived in the house of his future first wife Marilyn Rovell, who was part of the girl vocal surf group the Honeys, which Wilson served as record producer and chief songwriter. Surfer Girl was the third studio album released in September 1963. Largely a collection of surf songs, the album reached number 7 in the U.S. and number 13 in the UK with lead single “Surfer Girl” a top 10 hit. It was also Brian Wilson’s confirmation as producer and exemplified his attempts to become an entrepreneurial producer like Spector. Still resistant to touring, Jardine was Brian’s live performance substitute. By late 1963 however, Marks’ departure necessitated Wilson’s return to the touring lineup. By the end of the year, Wilson had written, arranged, or produced 42 songs for other acts. He also founded Brian Wilson Productions, a record production company with offices on Sunset Boulevard, and Ocean Music, a publishing entity for his work with artists outside the Beach Boys.

Throughout 1964, Wilson toured internationally with the Beach Boys while writing and producing their albums Shut Down Volume 2 (March), All Summer Long (June), and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (November). In February, Beatlemania swept the U.S., a development that deeply concerned Wilson, who felt the Beach Boys’ pop music direction had been threatened by the British Invasion. “The Beatles invasion shook me up a lot. So we stepped on the gas a little bit.” Their May 1964 answer “I Get Around“, their first U.S. number-one hit, is identified by scholar James Perone as representing both a successful response to the British Invasion and the beginning of an unofficial rivalry between Wilson and the Beatles, principally Paul McCartney‘s songwriting.

“Round, round, get around
I get around, yeah
Get around, round, round, round, I get around”

Talk about hooking you from the very first note…
And then there were the harmonies, the multipart vocals and that dancing lead guitar and…

“I’m getting bugged driving up and down this same old strip
I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip”

This definitely wasn’t Liverpool. It’s like the Beatles hadn’t even happened. This band was cruising the boulevards in California and…

But by late 1964, Wilson faced mounting psychological strain from career pressures. Exhausted by his self-described “Mr Everything” role, he later expressed feeling mentally drained and unable to rest. The mounting pressures exploded in late December 1964, when Brian Wilson suffered one of three mental breakdowns, and Glen Campbell, then a member of the Wrecking Crew, temporarily replaced him on tour until February 1965, when Bruce Johnstone permanently replaced Brian Wilson, so he could focus solely on songwriting and production. he began cultivating a new social circle through music industry connections. Biographer Steven Gaines writes that this period marked Wilson’s first independence from familial oversight, allowing friendships without “parental interference”.

And then, in the heat of the summer of 1965, in July, just after school let out, came “California Girls.” Later it turned out that Brian Wilson had been under the influence of LSD when he started writing this epic song of joy and hope. He later described the session for the song’s backing track, held on April 6, as his “favorite”, and the opening orchestral section as “the greatest piece of music that I’ve ever written”. However, he attributed persistent paranoia later that year to his LSD use. Without judgement, “California Girls” was unlike anything we’d heard previously. The Beatles weren’t employing an intro like that. And the lyrics might sound simplistic, but the best things usually are.
“California Girls” didn’t jump out of the radio. It quieted everything down, relaxed you, and after hearing it once you listened in rapt attention waiting for the explosion of the lyrical part of the song. In my opinion better than “Good Vibrations”.

After this Brian set out to distance himself from “surf music”. Throughout 1965, Wilson’s musical ambitions progressed significantly with the albums The Beach Boys Today! (March) and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (June) and, in late 1965, moved into a newly purchased home in Beverly Hills, to establish more independence and distance. “Pet Sounds” was his next project. He produced most of the album between January and April 1966 across multiple Hollywood studios, mainly employing his bandmates for singing vocal parts and session musicians for the backing tracks. The album’s lead single, “Caroline, No”, released in March 1966, became Wilson’s first solo credit, but peaked only at nr. 32 on Billboard, while the album didn’t get higher than Nr.10. Wilson was “mortified” that his artistic growth had failed to translate into a number-one album. Marilyn stated, “When it wasn’t received by the public the way he thought it would be received, it made him hold back. … but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He needed to create more.”

Soon after Wilson met Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ part time former press officer, who became the Beach Boys’ publicist in 1966. At Wilson’s request, Taylor launched a media campaign to elevate his public image, promoting him as a “genius”.

Brian Wilson is a genius” is a line that became part of a media campaign spearheaded in 1966 by the Beatles‘ former press officer Derek Taylor, who was then employed as the Beach Boys’ publicist. Although there are earlier documented expressions of the statement, Taylor frequently called Brian Wilson a “genius” as part of an effort to rebrand the Beach Boys and legitimize Wilson as a serious artist on a par with the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

With the aid of numerous associates in the music industry, Taylor’s promotional efforts were integral to the success of the band’s 1966 album Pet Sounds in England. As for “Pet Sounds” in the States? A legend now, a blip on the radar screen back in ’66. “Sloop John B” was a monster, but they didn’t write it, which hearkened back to the bad feeling of “Party!” “God Only Knows” got only scattered airplay and it wasn’t until “Shampoo” that most people even HEARD “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” By the end of the year, an NME reader’s poll placed Brian Wilson as the fourth-ranked “World Music Personality”—about 1,000 votes ahead of Bob Dylan and 500 behind John Lennon in the UK. However, the hype generated for the group’s intended follow-up album, Smile, bore a number of unintended consequences for the Beach Boys’ reputation and internal dynamic. Wilson ultimately scrapped Smile and reduced his involvement with the group.

Wilson later said that the “genius” branding intensified the pressures of his career and led him to become “a victim of the recording industry”. As he shied away from the industry in the years afterward, his ensuing legend originated the trope of the “reclusive genius” among studio-oriented musical artists and later inspired comparisons to other musicians such as Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. In order to deliver on the promise of genius, Brian Wilson sought mind expansion in drugs, a common denominator in those days.

Through late 1966, Wilson worked extensively on the Beach Boys’ single “Good Vibrations“, which topped the U.S. charts in December, and began collaborating with session musician Van Dyke Parks on Smile, the planned follow-up to Pet Sounds. Smile was never finished until 40 years later, due in large part to Wilson’s worsening mental condition and exhaustion and an ever growing entourage of irresponsible people standing in the way of brilliance with their self serving interests.

For the remainder of 1968, Wilson’s songwriting output declined substantially, as did his emotional state, leading him to self-medicate with overconsumption of food, alcohol, and drugs. And over the next decades the Beach Boys narrative changed, to become Brian Wilson and then the rest of the group to the point where he was once asked if he still was a Beach Boy. His answer was “No, Maybe a little bit.”

He was a mad genius. Eccentric. Was he damaged by drugs? Was he damaged by ambition? Was he damaged by family expectations? Sure, we knew that he’d had an episode and had refused to go on the road, but with the success of 1974’s “Endless Summer,” the only way forward was to bring Brian back into the band. And they tried and tried, but it never really worked.

There had been isolated moments in the seventies, like “Marcella” and “Sail on Sailor.” And then came 1977’s “Love You.” Brian was handed the reins, he was in complete control and the result may not have been execrable, but it was confounding. Brian seemed to be living in an alternative universe. He made the record he wanted to hear, but it seemed simplistic and childish and was not so listenable.

And then followed the Eugene Landy years of Svengali like control; and the endless solo albums that were billed as comebacks but really never were; and the lawsuits back and forth. We got the legend, we got lawsuits, and at the center was this lost man who you could only feel sorry for, who oftentimes just made you wince. And then it was over. Brian was pushed into the background, and Carl Wilson and Mike Love took back control of the band. According to his second wife Melinda, when they married in 1995, Wilson was entangled in nine separate lawsuits, many unresolved until the early 2000s.

But there was one last hurrah, “Good Timin’,” the opening track on “L.A. (Light Album),” but this sixties magic had no place on the radio in the AOR heyday, never mind all the press being about the disco version of “Here Comes the Night.” The Beach Boys were in the rearview mirror except for the non-Brian “Kokomo” and the story became about Brian himself, constantly facing controversy, lawsuits and declining mental health.

He did some sporadic touring and studio work in the first 15 years of this century and even a Beach Boys reunion type of concert tour, but nothing mindblowing except for finishing the unfinished album “Smiles” thirty years after starting it. Brian Wilson Presents Smile (BWPS) premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in London in February 2004] and its positive reception led to a subsequent studio album adaptation. Released in September, BWPS debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position for any album by the Beach Boys or Wilson since 1976’s 15 Big Ones and the highest ever debut for a Beach Boys-related album. It was later certified platinum. In support of BWPS, Wilson embarked on a tour covering the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Australian Musician quoted one of the touring musicians, “In six years of touring this is the happiest we’ve ever seen Brian”

He continued touring for the next 15 years (In a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, he responded to a retirement question by stating he would rather continue touring than sit idle) and in 2021 sold his publishing rights to Universal Music Publishing Group for $50 million. Promptly after this he got sued by his ex-wife Marilyn for $6.7 million as a claim on half of his songwriting royalties.

On July 26, 2022, Wilson played his final concert as part of a joint tour with Chicago at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, where he was reported to have “sat rigid and expressionless” throughout the performance. Days later, he cancelled his remaining tour dates for that year, with his management citing “unforeseen health reasons”. During a January 2023 appearance on a Beach Boys fan podcast, Wilson’s daughter Carnie reported that her father was “probably not going to tour anymore, which is heartbreaking”.

Brian Wilson died on June 11, 2025, nine days before his 83rd birthday, ending the life of a musical genius whose ambition and gift turned his life into a drama filled tragedy. Al Jardine later reported that Wilson had been struggling with long-term effects of COVID-19 since his last tour: “That was the end of it. He never came back after that.”

But all this focus on the Brian saga was evidence of what he once did. On some level Brian Wilson was already dead for a number of years. You can’t go on the road if no one will buy a ticket. Yes, this was the guy, but he was a shell of himself.

So, the internet is full of obituaries. Telling the story. Of Brian’s genius. But Mike Love has been unjustly overlooked for his lyrics. Van Dyke Parks gets all this credit, but really it’s Mike’s words that embodied the California dream. But Mike is not a tragic figure. And however talented Mike is and Carl was, it’s clear that Brian was on a whole ‘nother level. Do we call it genius? What exactly does “genius” mean? You can employ the label, but you can’t truly quantify it.

But Brian Wilson came up with these songs out of thin air. They were in his head and he had to convey what he thought to those in the studio to concoct these dreams that infected listeners all over the world. Beach Boys music is forever, younger generations are exposed to it via Disney. And if you want pure Americana…

In the aftermath of his life, we know entirely too much about this man’s life. But does that change the magic of the records?
If you want to honor Brian’s memory, listen to the records. And the funny thing is as soon as you press play you will be involved, they are not at a distance, like so many legendary tracks.

California Dreaming. Brian Wilson is the one who hipped us to it.
We cannot thank him enough.
It’s not only a physical place, it’s also a state of mind, and it’s baked into these legendary records. Every emotion was covered, but underneath it all was an optimism. Brian Wilson was a product of the sixties, he digested the culture and fed us back to us, one step ahead, he gave us hope.

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Doug Ingle 5/2024

Doug Ingle (78) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 9, 1945. His father Lloyd, a church organist and accountant, introduced him to music at an early age. The Ingles moved within three months of his birth to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and later, when he was 11,  the family moved to San Diego, CA.

With the timing right in the mid-sixties and California becoming the hotbed for love-ins and psychedelic rock, Ingle formed the original line up for Iron Butterfly with Ron Bushy on drums. As soon as Iron Butterfly formed, they moved to Hollywood Hills and started an excruciating practice and performing schedule.

Of the four musicians in the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida lineup, Ingle was the only one who was a founding member, having formed Iron Butterfly in San Diego in 1966. After a handful of lineup changes, a five-piece Iron Butterfly including Ingle and Bushy put out the band’s debut Heavy in 1968; soon after release, the other three members left and were replaced by Brann and Dornan, resulting in the lineup that would create the 17-minute psych-rock epic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Released less than six months after Heavy and the lineup shuffle, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida would sell a reported 30 million copies worldwide, and a three-minute version of the title track — whose title was based on Bushy’s mishearing of “In the Garden of Eden” — became a Top 5 hit on the Hot 100 and a classic rock staple. Continue reading Doug Ingle 5/2024

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Mike Pinder 4/2024

Mike Pinder (82) – The Moody Blues –  was born in Erdington, Birmingham on 27 December 1941. His father, Bert, was a coach driver and his mother, Gladys (née Lay), was a barmaid. As a child, he had an affinity for rocket ships and outer space which earned him the nickname “Mickey the Moon Boy”. These interests would be recurring themes throughout his career as a song writer. (Mickey the Moonboy. In 1995 Mike got a personal tour at NASA and a treasured memento.)

He was a member of several bands in Birmingham in his teenage years, among them the Checkers, who won first prize of £50 in a talent competition. In his first band, rock’n’roll combo El Riot and the Rebels, Pinder played support to the Beatles in 1963 in a show at Tenbury. As a member of the short-lived Krew Kats, he played for two months in clubs in Hamburg where the Beatles had played.

Between 1962–63, Pinder worked for 18 months as a development engineer, responsible for testing and quality control, at Streetly Electronics in Streetly, Birmingham, a factory manufacturing the first models of Mellotron in the UK. In May 1964 he left Streetly Electronics to co-found The Moody Blues with Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, Clint Warwick and Graeme Edge. Continue reading Mike Pinder 4/2024

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Gary Wright – 9/2023

Mr. Dream WeaverGary Wright was born on April 26, 1943 in Cresskill, New Jersey, to Ann (nee Belvedere) and Louis Wright. His father was a construction engineer, and his mother was a singer, as were his two sisters. His older sister, Beverly, enjoyed some success as a pop and folk singer in the 60s, while his younger sister, Lorna, released the album Circle of Love (1978) and several singles.

His mother encouraged Gary to take an interest in music and acting. He appeared in the TV sci-fi series Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and when he was 12 he was hired as an understudy for a Broadway musical, Fanny. This resulted in him going on stage in the role of Cesario, son of the titular Fanny, played by Florence Henderson, and in 1955, appearing with Henderson on The Ed Sullivan Show.

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Jerry Lee Lewis – 10/2022

Jerry Lee Lewis (87) was born on Sept. 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, to Elmo Lewis, a carpenter, and Mamie (Herron) Lewis. When he was a boy, he and two of his cousins, the future evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and the future country singer Mickey Gilley (who died this year), liked to sneak into a local dance hall, Haney’s Big House, to hear top blues acts perform.

He showed an aptitude for the piano, and his father borrowed money to buy him one. “The more he practiced, the surer the left hand and wilder the right hand became,” Mr. Tosches wrote in “Hellfire.”

At 14, he was invited to sit in with a band performing at a local Ford dealership, which was celebrating the arrival of the 1950 models. He played “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” — the tune, a hit for Sticks McGhee in 1949, would be a minor pop hit for Mr. Lewis in 1973 — and he took home nearly $15 when someone passed the hat. Continue reading Jerry Lee Lewis – 10/2022

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Vangelis 5/2022

17 May 2022  – Vangelis (Greek film composer and keyboards-synthesizer for Aphrodite’s Child). Vangelis was born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou on March 29, 1943 in the Greek town of Agria. He was a self-taught musician who became a young piano prodigy. Then he moved to Paris and co-founded with Demis Roussos, the popular prog-rock group Aphrodite’s Child. After several global mega hits the band eventually split and Vangelis got a solo record deal with RCA Records, while still collaborating often with Roussos.

In 1981 he composed the score for Chariots of Fire. Its opening theme, with its uplifting inspirational swell and ornate arrangement, was released as a single and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. His efforts earned him a win for best original score at the Academy Awards.

The success led him to other film work. Notably, he composed the soundtrack for the original Blade Runner, as well as Carl Sagan’s PBS documentary series Cosmos. Outside of composing scores, Vangelis was prolific in his solo career, regularly releasing albums up until 2021’s Juno to Jupiter.

While he was most associated with the synthesizer, the instrument was also a source of frustration for him. “I’ve been using synthesizers for so many years, but they’ve never been designed properly. They create a lot of problems.” he told NPR in 2016. “The computers have completely different logic than the human logic.” So for his 2016 record Rosetta, dedicated to the space probe of the same name, he built his own synthesizer.

Vangelis had a lifelong interest in space which was reflected in his music — in its breadth and atmosphere. He believed that there was something inherent in humans to want to discover — whether that meant up in the sky or in a studio. For Vangelis, becoming a musician was never a conscious decision. “It’s very difficult not to make music,” Vangelis told NPR in 1977. “It’s as natural as I eat, as I make love. Music is the same.”

Vangelis, who gave the movie Chariots of Fire its signature synth-driven sound, died on the May 17, 2022 in a hospital in Paris, due to heart failure.. He was 79 years old.

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Gary Brooker 2/2022

February 19, 2022Gary Brooker (76) founding lead singer of the late 1960’s musical sensation Procol Harum was born on May 29, 1945, in London’s Metropolitan Borough of Hackney. His father was a professional musician and Gary followed in his footsteps learning to play piano, cornet and trombone as a child. But his most awesome instrument over the years became his voice.

After high school, he went on to Southend Municipal College to study zoology and botany but dropped out to become a professional musician.In 1962 he founded the Paramounts with his guitarist friend Robin Trower. The band gained respect within the burgeoning 1960s British R&B scene, which yielded the Beatles, the Animals, the Spencer Davis Group, the Rolling Stones, and many others. The Rolling Stones, in particular, were Paramounts fans, giving them guest billing on several shows in the early 1960s.

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Ian McDonald 02/2022

Ian McDonald (75) – King Crimson/Foreigner – was born on 25 June 1946 in Osterley, Middlesex, England, the son of Ada (née May) and Keith McDonald, an architect. He grew up in a musical family and taught himself the guitar. His music interests ranged from classical orchestra to dance bands to rock. At 15, he left school and began a five-year stint in the British Army as a bandsman. In 1963 he enrolled at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, where he took clarinet and learned to read music. He later learned piano, flute and saxophone and taught himself music theory. His experience of playing with army bands gave him great musical adaptability as he had to learn many different musical styles such as show tunes, classical, jazz, and military marches. It was this that honed his style to what eventually became the beginnings of the Prog Rock movement.

After leaving the army, McDonald moved back to London, and began making music with his girlfriend, former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble. In May 1968 Ian McDonald placed an advert in Melody Maker which read: “Musicians wanted. Serious ones only.”

Among those who replied was guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles. It proved to be a seminal moment in prog rock that led to the birth of King Crimson. Blending elements of jazz, rock, proto-metal and symphonic music with avant-garde improvisation and complex time signatures, over the next few months the nascent group created a unique sound that was to change the face of popular music.

However, the relationship with Dyble ended and she left the band before they played their first gig in 1969, by which time McDonald, Fripp and Giles were joined by Greg Lake and lyricist Peter Sinfield.

King Crimson’s debut album The Court Of The Crimson King, was filled with McDonald’s multi-instrumental presence on flute, saxes, woodwind, vibraphone, various keyboards, and of course, arguably the album’s signature sound, the Mellotron. Alongside all of that technical virtuosity, built and honed during his stint as an army bandsman in the mid-1960s, Ian was blessed with an ability to write and compose, something he often did on guitar.

Three months after their first gig, they supported the Rolling Stones at their famous free concert in Hyde Park (with new guitarist . They stole the show, with The Guardian reporting that the Stones’ performance was “indifferent”, but that King Crimson were “sensational”. McDonald’s saxophone solo was a high point on their track “21st Century Schizoid Man“, and he went on to play this on their first album In the Court of the Crimson King.

The high point of the Hyde Park gig came when the entire audience of some 650,000 cheered McDonald’s blazing blitzkrieg of a saxophone solo during the band’s show-stopper 21st Century Schizoid Man. “I remember the hairs on the back of my neck rising as the roar from this huge crowd went up,” King Crimson roadie Richard Vickers remembered.

 The album jump-started the progressive rock era, and paved the way for similar bands such as Yes and Genesis, Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Barclay James Harvest and the Moody Blues. McDonald composed 2 of the 5 album tracks, including the title track and “I Talk to the Wind” on which his jazzy flute solo is one of the album’s defining musical moments, and co-wrote the other 3 tracks with the other group members.

Yet within months, growing emotional friction within the group had led him to quit. Along with drummer Mike Giles, he left in the middle of King Crimson’s first US tour. “To keep the band together, I offered to leave instead,” Fripp said. “But Ian said that the band was more me than them.”. (McDonald later ).

McDonald later regretted his hasty decision and apologized to Fripp for leaving the band in 1970. “I was not quite ready for the attention we were getting and I wasn’t emotionally equipped to deal with what was going on,” he said. “I was away from home and it was a spontaneous decision. Perhaps I should have gone home and thought about it a little bit, but there you are.”

McDonald and Giles formed a duo that released one album titled McDonald and Giles, which featured an orchestral backing instead of a Mellotron as used with King Crimson.

Following McDonald And Giles the pair went their separate ways and McDonald’s next contribution to rock’n’roll history could not have been more different. If prog rock meant “taking different influences and expanding the basic combination of drums, guitar and bass”, as he put it, he promptly went back to just such basics when he turned up as a session player on T Rex’s 1971 glam-rock chart-topper Get It On, where he borrowed Mel Collins‘ baritone saxophone and, at the other end of the commercial spectrum, the free-jazz and rock ensemble opus, Septober Energy by Keith Tippett’s Centipede, underlining his view that all music had a value regardless of stylistic considerations. Production work beckoned including Canis Lupus by Darryl Way’s Wolf in 1973, and after his guest spot on King Crimson’s Red in 1974, he went on to produce Fruup’s Modern Masquerades in 1975 and American proggers’ Fireballet’s debut Night On Bald Mountain the same year.

There was a brief attempt to reunite with Fripp and King Crimson in 1974 but it led to nothing and after moving to New York City in 1976 McDonald became a founder-member of Foreigner. With a six-strong line-up of British and American musicians playing a classic, radio-friendly form of stadium rock, the band had huge hits with Feels Like the First Time, Cold As Ice and Hot Blooded. With Foreigner, McDonald played guitar as well as his woodwinds and keyboards.

He recorded three multi-platinum albums that made Foreigner one of the biggest-selling acts of the era before he was bounced out of the band by lead guitarist and main songwriter Mick Jones.

As a session musician McDonald appeared on To Cry You A Song, a Jethro Tull tribute album released 1996 by Magna Carta Records, appearing on Nothing Is Easy and New Day Yesterday. He also appeared on Centipede‘s album Septober Energy. He produced the Darryl Way’s Wolf album Canis Lupus and Fruupp‘s Modern Masquerades (1975). The closing track on Canis Lupus, “McDonald’s Lament”, was dedicated to him. In 1996, McDonald toured with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, which was included on the album The Tokyo Tapes. The group included a performance of King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King“, and “I Talk to the Wind“, the tour also included fellow King Crimson alumni John Wetton. In 1999, he released a solo album, Drivers Eyes, which featured John Wetton, Lou Gramm, John Waite and Gary Brooker.

In 2002 McDonald teamed up with other King Crimson alumni in the 21st Century Schizoid Band, toured for three years and released several live albums.

He said of his chameleon career: “I just contribute to whatever situation I’m in and really it’s all the same to me. It’s music and I’ve been lucky to make it my life’s work.”

“One of the things I’ve always done when I’m recording a song is I ask myself, ‘Could I listen to this 500 times?’ So you have to be honest with yourself when you are making a record. All the while in the studio when we were recording the album I was thinking, ‘Will I still want to listen to this in 50 years’ time.’ So part of me was thinking 50 years ahead if you like.” 

McDonald contributed saxophone and flute to several tracks on Judy Dyble‘s 2009 release Talking With Strangers. The album saw McDonald reunited with Fripp on the 20-minute “Harpsong”.

In 2017, McDonald, his son Maxwell and singer-guitarist Ted Zurkowski formed the band Honey West, which released an album Bad Old World in 2017, which he described as “an alt-country band with rock leanings”.

McDonald died from cancer at his home in New York City on Feb 9, 2022. He was 75 years old.

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Ken Hensley – 11-2020

Ken Hensley, Uriah Heep, was born on August 24, 1945 in South-east London. He learned how to play guitar at the age of 12 from a Bert Weedon manual. His first gig was at The Mentmore Pen Factory, in Stevenage (September 1960). After that, he played with The Blue Notes, Ken and the Cousins and Kit and the Saracens (1962). In 1963, this band evolved into The Jimmy Brown Sound, and they recorded some now lost songs. At this time, Hensley’s first “professional” opportunity almost came about: they were to back Ben E. King on a British visit, but it never happened.

In early 1965, Hensley formed a band called The Gods, with the young guitarist Mick Taylor, well known later for his work with John Mayall and The Rolling Stones. Hensley wrote most of the material, sang and played the Hammond B3 organ as the band already had Taylor on guitar. The Gods’ line-up included, at one time or another, vocalist and guitar/bass player Greg Lake (later of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer), bass player Paul Newton (later the first Uriah Heep bassist), drummer Lee Kerslake (later also of Heep), bassist John Glascock (later of Jethro Tull), and guitarist Joe Konas. In early 1968, they signed with Columbia Records and recorded two LPs and several singles.

Hensley also then played on a one-album side project of The Gods initially planned to become their third album, but was recorded and eventually released in 1969/1970 under the moniker Head Machine’s Orgasm. The album was produced by David Paramor (producer of “The Gods”) and both Hensley and Kerslake featured, along with John Glascock on bass, Brian Glascock on drums, and David Paramor on vocals, all under pseudonyms. Hensley played mostly guitar again, as in the beginning of his career. Although Paramor was credited as composer, the songs bear many of Hensley’s influences. The album was released before Hensley joined Toe Fat, and might almost be considered a prototype for the harder side of his future work in Uriah Heep.

The band eventually split but Cliff Bennett, from the Rebel Rousers, decided to move in a more “progressive” direction and asked The Gods to join him. Under the name Toe Fat they released two LPs, but only the first featured Hensley.

Paul Newton asked Hensley (Christmas 1969) to join forces in Spice, as they were looking for a keyboard player to make their sound less bluesy and more progressive, in keeping with the current trend. In January 1970, Spice changed its name into Uriah Heep.  Also in the line-up were guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron. With Uriah Heep, Hensley found a place to develop and showcase his songwriting and lyrical abilities as well as his keyboard and guitar playing. 

The band’s “classic” line-up featured Hensley, Byron, Box, Kerslake and bassist Gary Thain. During his time with Heep (1970–1980), they recorded 13 studio albums, and the live album Uriah Heep Live – January 1973 along with many compilations and singles. Hensley also recorded his first two solo albums, Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf (1973) and Eager To Please (1975) during this time. He was supported mainly by Mark Clarke and Bugs Pemberton.

After the departure of bassist Gary Thain (who died in 1975) and vocalist David Byron, (who died in 1985) other musicians were brought into the Heep family: John Wetton (FamilyKing CrimsonRoxy Music, later of U.K. and Asia), Trevor Bolder (from Spiders From Mars, later of Wishbone Ash) and John Lawton (Lucifer’s Friend), among others.

In 1980 Hensley left the band, unhappy with the musical direction they had chosen. After trying to put a new band together in the UK (Shotgun), he later moved to the US and played a few gigs in North America as The Ken Hensley Band. Around this time he released his third solo LP, Free Spirit (1980).

In 1982, Hensley joined Blackfoot, a hard rock Jacksonville, Florida-based band. With them, he recorded two albums (1983’s Siogo and 1984’s Vertical Smiles). Although the group had achieved some success, Hensley left after he was informed him of Heep vocalist David Byron’s death in 1985.

After 1985, Hensley lived in semi-retirement in St Louis, Missouri, making a few appearances with W.A.S.P.Cinderella and others. W.A.S.P.’s frontman Blackie Lawless stated that “Ken Hensley wrote the rule book for heavy metal keyboards as far as I’m concerned.” Hensley also owned “The Attic” Recording studio in St. Louis.

In 1994, From Time To Time, a collection of lost recordings, was released featuring rare songs recorded by Hensley between 1971 and 1982, as well as some early versions of Heep’s classic songs, played by Hensley and his roommates at that time, namely guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke(both of Free). Other musicians on the songs were bassist Boz Burrell (King Crimson and Bad Company), guitarist Mick Ralphs (Mott the HoopleBad Company), drummers Ian Paice (Deep PurpleWhitesnake) and Kenney Jones(The Small FacesThe FacesThe Who), amongst others.

IIn 1997 Ken established The Upper Room Studios in St. Louis, Missouri where Ken was involved with several projects including A Glimpse of Glory, together with his band Visible Faith produced by Ken and engineered by chief engineer Bud Martin. In 1999, Hensley’s musical activities began to increase, besides his work with St Louis Music.

During the fourth Uriah Heep Annual Convention in London, May 2000, plans were made for a one-off concert by the so-called “Hensley/Lawton Band”. Hensley was joined by former Uriah Heep singer John Lawton, their first public collaboration since the latter’s departure from Uriah Heep in 1979. With them were Paul Newton (the band’s original bassist) and two members of Lawton’s band, Reuben Kane on lead guitar and Justin Shefford on drums. They played a set of old Uriah Heep classics and some of Hensley’s solo songs, and the concert was recorded for a CD release, followed by an extensive tour of Europe during Spring and Summer of 2001 culminating with a concert on 12 May in HamburgGermany, featuring a full orchestra and a new rendition of Heep’s old classic song “Salisbury”. After the tour, both Ken and John returned to their respective solo careers. 

On 7 December 2001, both John Lawton and Ken Hensley appeared on stage with Uriah Heep during the annual Magician’s Birthday Party at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. This concert was recorded and released as a CD/DVD.

Running Blind, his first studio effort in 21 years, was released worldwide in 2002 and followed by a world tour with his band called “Free Spirit”, that included Dave Kilminster (guitar), Andy Pyle (bass) and Pete Riley (drums).

After moving to Spain, Hensley released The Last Dance (with new songs), The Wizard’s Diary (Uriah Heep classics re-recorded in 2004) and Cold Autumn Sunday (Hensley’s solo songs re-recorded in 2005).

Featuring a number of special guests, the rock opera Blood on the Highway was released in May 2007. The story portrays the rise and fall of a rock’n’roll star. Lead vocals role were split between Hensley and Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep PurpleTrapezeBlack Sabbath), Jørn Lande (ex-The SnakesMasterplan), John Lawton and Eve Gallagher.

In September 2008, Hensley went on stage again with former Heep bandmates Lawton, Kerslake and Newton along with ex-Focus guitarist Jan Dumée, for the “Heepvention 2008” fans meeting.

Hensley continued to write and record a series of new albums, beginning with a collection of songs under the title of Love & Other Mysteries, recorded near his home in Spain and followed in 2011 by Faster, his first studio recording of new songs with his live band, Live Fire. A CD of one of his solo concerts was released by Cherry Red Records in 2013, shortly followed by a live CD recorded with Live Fire during a September/October tour. Trouble, an album of 10 new songs recorded with a revised Live Fire line-up, was released, again by Cherry Red, in September the same year.

In later years, Hensley and his wife Monica lived in the village of Agost near Alicante in Spain.

Hensley died on 4 November 2020, at the age of 75 following a short illness. He had finished an album titled My Book of Answers before his death, that was released on 5 March 2021.Ken  Hensley wrote many of the Uriah Heep songs during his tenure from 1970 to 1980, performing guitar and lead vocals on a number of occasions.

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Bill Rieflin 3/2020

 Bill Rieflin (59) – (King CrimsonMinistryR.E.M.) was born September 30, 1960 in Seattle, Washington.

His music education started around the age of 7 with guitar, followed by other string instruments and by age 11, the drums. Bill Rieflin, a remarkably versatile drummer, instrumentalist whose work over the past 30 years spanned Ministry, R.E.M., Swans, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and King Crimson, among many others.

“I was born in Seattle, or as I always say I was bread-and-buttered here. My first instrument was the ‘pie-annie,’ and I think I started playing when I was seven. Then, somewhere in 1970, I found the G chord on a guitar; I put my finger on the third fret of the high string and strummed it and I said, ‘Hey look, wow! I can play guitar!’ Later that year, I got some drums for Christmas. I think the drums happened because it was the only instrument left in the neighborhood band, so I had to play drums. I was 10 or 11, maybe. I eventually got rid of those damn things and sold them to another neighbor kid [because] I decided I was going to be a guitar player. I was playing guitar until I was asked to come and fill in for a drummer who wasn’t going to make it in some other local band. I hadn’t played for a couple years and warned them of that. But, apparently, I was better than their other guy, and they asked me to stay, so I did. That group was called the Telepaths. The Telepaths paved the way for the Blackouts and the Blackouts eventually – minus one member – went to go work with Al Jourgenson in Ministry. Paul Barker was the last of many bass players; Paul joined in 1981. He was living in Germany at the time, and his brother, Roland, who was an original Blackout, wrote to him and said ‘Come to Seattle! Be in our band!’ And he did. The rest is, uh, the rest.”

A Seattle native and lifelong resident, Bill was a world class musician who exhibited a talent and dedication to his craft that put him into a rare category. Known for much of his career as an extraordinary drummer, he performed with a wide range of artists from Swans and Ministry to REM and King Crimson, amongst others. Bill was also a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist; at home on the guitar, bass and keyboards. He cultivated a highly sophisticated ear and was much sought after as a studio musician and producer.

King Crimson Biographer Sid Smith said it best “Bill’s softly-spoken voice draped itself languorously around the words he used and any observations he offered were rooted in an exacting precision that he also applied to the act of making music which was something that bordered on the sacred for him.” 

Bill’s refined manner, brilliant mind, eye for the ironic and his legendary sense of humor defined him as a man of discerning taste, palate and company. He fed his seemingly unending depths of cultural knowledge with accuracies about such things as the perfect pronunciations when ordering Korean food, the study of amaro, must-sees in the Cotswolds, how to make Rieflin relish, and the crime of the adverb. An avid watcher of Jeopardy, it was the rarest of occasions when Bill didn’t already know the Question before the Answer had been fully read.

His process was surgical in its dissection of what made music great or tawdry. His opinions were always firm, but his mind always open to listen (and readily dismiss). His sharp wit and forthright comments were well-known, but he was also unfailingly generous, and his encouragements and kindnesses were all the sweeter for their sincerity.

Bill Rieflin passed away on 24 Mar, 2020 after a battle with cancer. He was 59.

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Art Neville 7/2019

art neville, keyboard in the neville brothersJuly 22, 2019 – Art Neville was born on 17 December 1937 the oldest son in the famous New Orleans blues/funk family that created the Neville Bothers. Art was born in New Orleans to Arthur Neville and his wife, Amelia (nee Landry). His father was a station porter fond of singing tunes by Nat King Cole and the Texan bluesman Charles Brown. His mother was part of a dance act with her brother, George “Big Chief Jolly” Landry.

The oldest of four brothers, his interest in playing keyboards was triggered at the age of three, when his grandmother took him to a New Orleans church where he spotted the organ. “I turned the little switch and hit one of the low keys,” he recalled. “It scared the daylights out of me, but that was the first keyboard I played.”
He later began playing the piano and performing with his brothers, and in high school joined (and subsequently led) his first band, the Hawketts. He was the lead singer on their version of Mardi Gras Mambo, a regional hit in 1954. It became a regular fixture at New Orleans’s annual Mardi Gras celebrations.
In 1958 he joined the US Navy, emerging in 1962 to continue his musical career. He formed Art Neville and the Neville Sounds, which included Aaron and Cyril before they quit to form their own group. Now a four-piece completed by guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bass player George Porter Jr and drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, they played regularly at New Orleans clubs, backing artists such as the Pointer Sisters and Lee Dorsey.

The Meters Era

In 1965 he was a founder not only of the Meters, whose music in the late 1960s and early 70s helped to define the genre of New Orleans funk, but of the Neville Brothers, who were masters of various soul, blues and gospel styles and were distinguished by their intricate vocal harmonies.
The Meters provided the musical backup for innumerable soul and funk artists, including on big-selling classics such as Lee Dorsey’s Working in the Coal Mine (1966) and Labelle’s Lady Marmalade (1974). But they also had hits in their own right, notably in 1969 with Cissy Strut (1969) and Look-Ka Py Py.

The Meters refined the loping, syncopated rhythm called the “second line” which became emblematic of New Orleans funk. Prime examples included the group’s hits Cissy Strut, Look-Ka Py Py, Chicken Strut (1970) and Hey Pocky A-Way (1974). Cissy Strut, which reached No 23 on the mainstream Billboard chart, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Meters made countless recordings as the house band for the songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint, with highlights including Working in the Coal Mine, which reached No 8 in the UK and the US, Dr John’s album In the Right Place (1973), and Labelle’s US chart-topper Lady Marmalade, a song about a prostitute in the French quarter of New Orleans with the famous line “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”
In 1974 the Meters backed Robert Palmer on his album Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, and in 1975 Paul McCartney invited them aboard the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach, California, to play at the launch party of the Wings album Venus and Mars. Also present was Mick Jagger, who invited the Meters to support the Rolling Stones on their tours of the US and Europe in 1975-76. The group now included Cyril, who joined for their album Fire on the Bayou (1975).

Forming the Neville Brothers

Art and Cyril quit the Meters in 1977 and formed the Neville Brothers with Aaron and Charles. The brothers had already gathered the previous year to back their uncle George Landry on the album The Wild Tchoupitoulas. At first the Neville Brothers were slow to gain recognition. Art recalled how when they used to play at Tipitina’s in New Orleans “you could have blown it up and not hurt anyone but the Neville Brothers”. Though Keith Richards hailed their 1981 album Fiyo on the Bayou as the finest of the year, sales were poor. They failed to release another studio album until Uptown (1987), a conscious effort to find a more mainstream sound (with Richards and Carlos Santana guesting) that prompted accusations of a sellout.

Outside the Neville Brothers Art began playing concerts with his former Meters bandmates, following a reunion at the 1989 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival.
They subsequently formed a new version of the band called the Funky Meters, and Art continued to perform with both outfits.
A change of fortune came with Yellow Moon, sympathetically produced by Daniel Lanois, which successfully moulded the group’s collective skills into a coherent whole. In that year the group won a Grammy for best pop instrumental performance for the Yellow Moon track Healing Chant, while the album also contained several landmark tracks including the title song, a version of Dylan’s With God on Our Side, and Sister Rosa, their ode to the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. 

Art won another Grammy in 1996 with various artists for best rock instrumental performance for SRV Shuffle, a tribute to the guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Their musical groove influenced artists as varied as Little Feat, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy and the Grateful Dead.
Art Neville, who was nicknamed Poppa Funk, toured as part of the Neville Brothers and the Meters with major artists, including the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Tina Turner, and were traditionally the closing act on the final Sunday night of New Orleans’s annual Jazz & Heritage festival.

The Neville Brothers disbanded in 2012, but reunited for a farewell concert in New Orleans in 2015. Three years after Art announced his retirement after more than six decades in the music business.

Art Neville crossed the rainbow to rock and roll paradise on July 22, 2019 at the age of 81.

 

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Edwin Hawkins 1/2018

Edwin Hawkins was born in Oakland, California, on August 19, 1943. he began singing in his church youth choir while still a toddler, and by age five was playing piano; just two years later, he assumed full-time piano accompaniment duties for the family gospel group, making their recorded debut in 1957.
In May 1967, together with Betty Watson, he founded the Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), which included almost fifty members.  This ensemble recorded its first album Let Us Go into the House of the Lord at the Ephesian Church of God in Christ in Berkeley, California privately (on the Century 70 custom label), hoping to sell 500 copies. “Oh Happy Day” was just one of the eight songs on the album. The choir used this LP to raise funds to travel to the 1968 Youth Congress for COGIC in Washington, D.C. to compete in the Congress’ annual choir competition, representing the Northern California region. The choir finished in second place at the contest, and that was the first of many surprises coming their way. Upon their return to California, their LP found its way into the hands of a KSAN underground rock DJ in San Francisco who happened to pick “Oh Happy Day” to play on his station; the song became an instant hit.
Once “Oh Happy Day” received radio airplay in other parts of the U.S. and the ensemble learned of the song’s rising success, they began to contact people in the recording industry who helped them obtain a major contract. The ensemble signed with the newly created Pavilion label (distributed by Buddah), and released a second LP, entitled He’s A Friend of Mine, in 1969. But it was “Oh Happy Day” that rocketed to sales of more than a million copies within two months. The song crossed over to the pop charts, making U.S. No. 4, UK No. 2, Canada No. 2, No. 2 on the Irish Singles Chart, and No. 1 on the French Singles Charts, the Netherlands and the German Singles Charts in 1969.

It became an international success, selling more than 7 million copies worldwide, and Hawkins was awarded his first Grammy for the recording. His arrangement of the song was eventually covered by The Four Seasons on their 1970 album Half & Half. At this time the choir was rechristened the Edwin Hawkins Singers, although the featured voice on “Oh Happy Day” belonged to singer Dorothy Combs Morrison, who soon exited in pursuit of a solo career. Her loss proved devastating to Hawkins’ long-term commercial fortunes.

The choir’s second LP Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts was the 1970 Melanie single “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” on which the label listed the performers as “Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers”. The song peaked at No. 6 in the U.S. and Top 10 in a host of other countries.

Hawkins remained a critical favorite, and in 1972 the Singers won a second Grammy for Every Man Wants to Be Free. Recording prolifically throughout the remainder of the decade, in 1980 they won a third Grammy for Wonderful; a fourth, for If You Love Me, followed three years later. In 1982, Hawkins also founded the Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar, an annual weeklong convention that offered workshops exploring all facets of the gospel industry and culminating each year with a live performance by the assembled mass choir. Although Hawkins recorded less and less frequently in the years to follow, he continued touring regularly. In 1990, Hawkins, credited as a solo performer, had a number 89 hit on the R&B chart with “If at First You Don’t Succeed (Try Again)”.
In the 1992 movie Leap of Faith, Hawkins is the choir master for the gospel songs. In 1995 he toured extensively with the Swedish choir Svart Pa Vitt. His Music and Arts Seminar continued to grow as well, with the 2002 choir including members from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Hawkins also recorded throughout the 2000s, releasing All the Angels in 2004 and Have Mercy four years later.

Edwin Hawkins was one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound.  His arrangement of “Oh Happy Day”, which was included on the Songs of the Century list.

Hawkins died of pancreatic cancer on January 15, 2018, in Pleasanton, California, at the age of 74.

Altogether Hawkins has won four Grammy Awards and In 2007, Hawkins was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame and attended the formal awards show in 2009.

The Edwin Hawkins Singers performance of “Oh Happy Day” at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival appears in the 2021 music documentary, Summer of Soul.
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DikMik 11/2017

November 16, 2017 – DikMik (Hawkwind) was born Michael Davies in 1943 in Richmond, England.

In 1969, DikMik Davies and friend Nik Turner signed on as roadies for the group that Dave Brock, a childhood friend of theirs, had formed with guitarist Mick Slattery, bassist John Harrison and drummer Terry Ollis.

It was the time of early psychedelics and electronic music and DikMik’s interest in the burgeoning genre of electronic music had led to him being offered a slot in the psychedelic space rock band Hawkwind, before even their first gig of .

Gatecrashing a local talent night at the All Saints Hall, Notting Hill, they were so disorganised as to not even have a name, opting for “Group X” at the last minute, nor any songs, choosing to play an extended 20-minute jam on The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel was in the audience and was impressed enough to tell event organizer, Douglas Smith, to keep an eye on them. Continue reading DikMik 11/2017

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Fats Domino 10/2017

October 24, 20017 – Antoine Dominique Fats Domino was born on February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight in a Louisiana Creole family. At age 9, he started to learn piano, taught by his brother-in-law, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. By age 14, Domino was performing in New Orleans bars.

In 1947, Billy Diamond, a New Orleans bandleader, accepted an invitation to hear the young pianist perform at a backyard barbecue. Domino played well enough that Diamond asked him to join his band, the Solid Senders, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans, where he would earn $3 a week playing the piano. Diamond nicknamed him “Fats”, for three reasons: Domino reminded him of the renowned pianists Fats Waller and Fats Pichon, and young Domino’s ferocious appetite.

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Virgil Howe 9/2017

September 11, 2017 – Virgil Howe was born on September 23, 1975 in London, England, the second son to Yes founding member/ guitarist Steve Howe. He played on several of his father’s projects: he performed on keys, alongside his brother Dylan Howe on drums, for the Steve Howe solo albums The Grand Scheme of Things (1993) and Spectrum (2005). He was in Steve Howe’s Remedy band, who released an album Elements (2003), toured the UK and then released a live DVD. He wrote and performed on a piece on his father’s 2011 release Time. He also plays drums on 11 tracks of Steve Howe’s Anthology 2: Groups and Collaborations that were largely recorded in the 1980s. Under the name The Verge, Virgil Howe produced the Yes Remixes album, released 2003.

Nexus, due November 2017, is a joint album by Virgil & Steve Howe, due on InsideOut. Father Steve described the album: “Most of the credit goes to Virgil on this; it’s Virgil’s bed and melodies but I’ve come in to add a little bit more.” Continue reading Virgil Howe 9/2017

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Earl Lindo 9/2017

September 4, 2017 – Earl Lindo was born Earl Wilberforce “Wire” Lindo on January 7, 1953 in Kingston, Jamaica. His nickname “wire” over time became “Wya”.

While attending Excelsior High School in the late sixties, he played bass and classical piano, before he became interested in the jazz sounds of Lee Dorsey and Jimmy Smith.  With Barry Biggs, Mikey “Boo” Richards, and Ernest Wilson he then played in the Astronauts. Continue reading Earl Lindo 9/2017

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Goldy McJohn 8/2017

Goldy McJohn - SteppenwolfAugust 1, 2017 – Goldy McJohn (Steppenwolf) was born John Raymond Goadsby in Toronto, Canada on May 2, 1945. He was raised by middle class parents in Toronto, Canada. They put him into piano lessons at a young age and with this foundation he became a pioneer in the use of the electronic organ in rock and roll.
“I was classically trained,” said Goldy. He also stated that no one else in rock and roll was doing was he was at the time. “I played on a Lowrey,” he said. And this is part of what he said gave songs such as “Born to be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride” their unique sound.
“I was up at 4 a.m. daily to practice from the age of seven until…I got stupid,” Goldy said.
While school in general was not his thing, (he was suspended from high school for three months,) he always did exceptionally well in music.
“I got 100 in music, which brought my average up to maybe 14,” Goldy said. His parents could not afford private school that could have catered more to the needs of a student like him. Continue reading Goldy McJohn 8/2017

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Melvyn Deacon Jones 7/2017

melvyn deacon jones bluesJuly 6, 2017 – Melvyn “Deacon” Jones was born December 12, 1943 in Richmond Indiana. By the time he was a teenager, Deacon was proficient on trumpet and performed with his brother Harold in the high school band. Harold Jones later became a famed jazz drummer.

After graduating in 1962, Jones was a founding member of Baby Huey and the Babysitters with Johnny Ross and James Ramey. After paying a few dues in the Gary area, Deacon and the band set up shop in Chicago where they played five nights a week for five years, according to USA Today. During that time, Jones managed to further his musical education at the prestigious American Conservatory of Music. Continue reading Melvyn Deacon Jones 7/2017

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Toby Smith 4/2017

Toby Smith, Fender Rhodes  keyboard magician with JamiroquaiApril 11, 2017 – Toby Smith (Jamiroquai) was born Toby Grafftey-Smith on October 29, 1970.

Growing up he received classical training on piano and early on developed a keen interest in the “nerdy” side of music. At age 14 he started recording his own tunes on a Tascam and produced his first record at 17, then signed his track “Kleptomaniacs” to London Records. At about the same time his sister took him clubbing in London and he developed an interest in house (dance) music.  Continue reading Toby Smith 4/2017

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Geoff Nicholls 1/2017

geoff nicholls, keyboardist for Black SabbathJanuary 28, 2017 – Geoff Nicholls was born on 28 February 1948, in Birmingham, England. He started out as a guitarist in his early teens, and his idols included Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Django Reinhardt. He also became proficient on the piano and organ, but never entirely forsook the guitar, and he became a serious admirer of Jimi Hendrix’s playing from 1966 onward.

Geoff Nicholls played lead guitar in several Birmingham bands such as Colin Storm & the Whirlwinds, The Boll Weevils, The Seed, starting in his teens. In 1968, Nicholls was recruited into the short-lived second lineup of the psychedelic pop band the World of Oz, succeeding David Kubinec on keyboards, as well as adding a second guitar to their sound on some songs. Following their split in the spring of 1969, he joined Johnny Neal & the Starliners, a cabaret-type act that was enjoying a good run of success in live performances, and even had a single out (“Put Your Hand in the Hand”) at the time on Parlophone. The group was busy enough, and made numerous television appearances, even winning a competition on the showcase Opportunity Knocks, but their brand of soft pop/rock wasn’t what Geoff had in mind for his career, nor the music he wanted to be playing. Continue reading Geoff Nicholls 1/2017

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Marvell Thomas 1/2017

Memphis soul performer Marvell ThomasJanuary 23, 2017 – Marvell Thomas was born in Memphis Tennessee on August 22, 1941. The Thomas family is rooted in music and especially Memphis Soul. Legendary rock and roll pioneer Rufus (Walking the Dog) was his dad. His sisters Carla and Vaneese were much noted, especially Carla (the Queen of Memphis Soul) reached superstardom.

The eldest child of Rufus and Lorene Thomas, Marvell was born in 1941 and grew up in the shadow of Beale Street, where his father performed. “You could call it a second home,” Thomas said in 2011. “It was just three blocks from our house. I was a little kid, 5 years old, running up and down Beale Street all the time, much to my parents’ chagrin when they found out. Of course, I was there a lot legitimately too, when my father was hosting the talent show every Thursday night at the Palace Theatre.” Continue reading Marvell Thomas 1/2017

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Leon Russell 11/2016

leon_russellNovember 12, 2016 – Leon Russell was born Claude Russell Bridges in Lawton, Okla., on April 2, 1941. An injury to his upper vertebrae at birth caused a slight paralysis on his right side that would shape his music, since a delayed reaction time forced him to think ahead about what his right hand would play.

He started classical piano lessons when he was 4 years old, played baritone horn in his high school marching band and also learned trumpet. At 14 he started gigging in Oklahoma; since it was a dry state at the time, he could play clubs without being old enough to drink. Soon after he graduated from high school, Jerry Lee Lewis hired him and his band to back him on tour for two months.

Continue reading Leon Russell 11/2016

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Buckwheat Zydeco 9/2016

buckwheat-zydecoSeptember 24, 2016 – Buckwheat Zydeco was born Stanley Dural Jr. born in Lafayette, Louisiana on November 14, 1947. He acquired his nickname as a youth, because, with his braided hair, he looked like the character Buckwheat from Our Gang/The Little Rascals movies. His father, a farmer, was an accomplished amateur traditional Creole accordion player, but young Dural preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues.

Dural became proficient at the organ, and by the late 1950s he was backing Joe Tex, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many others.

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Keith Emerson 3/2016

Keith emersonMarch 10, 2016 – Keith Noel Emerson (Emerson,Lake,Palmer ELP/ The Nice) was born in Todmorden, Yorkshire on 2 November 1944. His family had been evacuated there from the south coast of England during the Second World War. He grew up in Goring-by-Sea, in the borough of the seaside resort of Worthing, West Sussex and attended West Tarring School. His parents were musically inclined and arranged for him to take piano lessons starting at the age of 8. His father, Noel, was an amateur pianist, and thought that Emerson would benefit most as a player from being versatile and being able to read music. However, he never received any formal musical training, and described his piano teachers as being “local little old ladies”. He learned western classical music, which largely inspired his own style, combining it with jazz and rock themes. Continue reading Keith Emerson 3/2016

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Allen Toussaint 11/2015

November 10, 2015 – Allen Toussaint was born January 14, 1938 in New Orleans.

Allen Toussaint has crossed many paths in his illustrious 40 years plus career in music. He has produced, written for, arranged, had his songs covered by, and performed with music giants The Judds, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Patti LaBelle, Mac “Dr. John” Rebannac, Aaron and Art Neville, Joe Cocker, The (original) Meters, Glen Campbell, The Band, Little Feat, The Rolling Stones, Devo, Ernie K-Doe, Lee Dorsey, Irma Thomas, Etta James, Ramsey Lewis, Eric Gale and the countless others.

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John Tout 5/2015

John Tout (1)May 1, 2015 – John Tout  was reportedly born in Hackney South London in September of 1944.

He got a piano on his 8th birthday and studied music for the next 8 years. He was mostly into classical Russian composers. By age 18 he joined his first band, got entangled with the Rupert’s People line up and replaced John Hawken on the keys for Renaissance between 1970 and 1980 and again from 1999 to 2002. When he joined the band, in 1970, Renaissance had undergone a complete overhaul from its beginnings as a project founded by Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, and by the end of 1970, no original members remained.

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Edgar Froese 1/2015

Edgar FroeseJan 20, 2015 – Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream) was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, on D-Day 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. Members of his family, including his father, had been killed by the Nazis and his mother and surviving family settled in West Berlin after the war.

He took piano lessons from the age of 12, and started playing guitar at 15. After showing an early aptitude for art, Froese enrolled at the Academy of the Arts in West Berlin to study painting and sculpture. In 1965, he formed a band called The Ones, who played psychedelic rock, and some rock and R&B standards.

While playing in Spain, The Ones were invited to perform at Salvador Dalí’s villa in Cadaqués. Froese’s encounter with Dalí was highly influential, inspiring him to pursue more experimental directions with his music. The Ones disbanded in 1967, having released only one single (“Lady Greengrass” / “Love of Mine”).

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Mac McLagan 12/2014

Ian Mac MCLaganDecember 3 – 2014 – Ian Patrick ‘Mac’ McLagan (keyboards for the Small Faces)was born on May 12th 1945 in Hounslow, Middlesex, England.

His first professional group was with the Muleskinners, followed by the Boz People with Boz Burrell. Then in 1965, Manager Don Arden hired him for the sum of £30 a week, to join The Small Faces, (the £30 dropped to £20 after his probation period, like the other members received!).

His debut gig with them was at London’s Lyceum Theatre on November 2nd that same year and he can be heard on all of their hits including “Sha-La-La-La-Lee”, “Itchycoo Park”, “Lazy Sunday”, “All or Nothing”, and “Tin Soldier”.

In 1969, after Steve Marriott left the group and Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood joined, the band changed its name to Faces. He stayed with the Faces until they split in 1975, after which he worked as a sideman for the Rolling Stones, both in the studio and on tour as well as on various Ronnie Wood projects, including the New Barbarians.

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Ray Manzarek 5/2013

Ray Manzarek-doors May 20May 20, 2013  – Ray Manzarek Jr.  was the architect of The Doors’ intoxicating sound. His evocative keyboard playing fused rock, jazz, blues, classical and an array of other styles into something utterly, dazzlingly new, and his restless artistic explorations continued unabated for the rest of his life.

He was born on February 12, 1939 to Polish immigrants Helena and Raymond Manczarek and grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and was introduced to the piano at the tender age of seven.

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Don Blackman 4/2013

Don BlackmanApril 11, 2013 – Don Blackman was born on September 1st 1953 in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

A childhood neighbor was Charles McPherson, and while still a teenager (15) he played in McPherson’s ensemble with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. At the beginning of the 1970s, he played electric piano with Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Roy Ayers, before becoming a member of Lenny White’s group Twennynine, for whom he penned songs such as “Peanut Butter” and “Morning Sunrise”, key pieces in Jamaica Queens’ ’70s’ jazz-funk explosion.

He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982 on Arista Records, including the songs “Holding You, Loving You”, “Heart’s Desire” and “Since You’ve Been Away So Long” that became minor hits in Europe.

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Jon Lord 7/2012

July 16, 2012 – John Douglas “Jon” Lord ( Deep Purple/Whitesnake)  was born in Leicester, England on June 9th 1941 and retained a strong bond with the city throughout his life. His father was an amateur saxophone musician and encouraged Lord from an early age. There was an old upright piano in the house and Jon showed an early interest in the instrument so his parents enrolled him for formal piano lessons when he was seven. At nine he found another teacher, Frederick All, who gave recitals for the BBC and played the church organ. “He was a marvelous teacher”, says Lord. “He could impart a love of music to his students as well as teaching them to play it. He taught me to enjoy music and to want to play well.” Those influences were a recurring trademark in Jon’s work.

He attended Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys between 1952 and 1958 and then worked as a clerk in a solicitor’s office for two years, but was fired for taking too much time off work.

Lord absorbed the blues sounds that played a key part in his rock career, principally the raw sounds of the great American blues organists Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff and “Brother” Jack McDuff (“Rock Candy”), as well as the stage showmanship of Jerry Lee Lewis and performers like Buddy Holly, whom he saw perform at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in March 1958.

Lord moved to London in 1959–60, intent on an acting career and enrolling at the Central School of Speech and Drama, in London’s Swiss Cottage. Following a celebrated student rebellion he became a founder of Drama Centre London, from where he graduated in 1964. From here on his life became a Who’s Who in the early London years of the British Invasion and beyond.

Small acting parts followed, and Lord continued playing the piano and the organ in nightclubs and as a session musician to earn a living. He started his band career in London in 1960 with the jazz ensemble The Bill Ashton Combo. Ashton became a key figure in jazz education in Britain, creating what later became the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Between 1960 and 1963, Lord and Ashton both moved on to Red Bludd’s Bluesicians (also known as The Don Wilson Quartet), the latter of which featured the singer Arthur “Art” Wood, brother of guitarist Ronnie Wood. Wood had previously sung with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and was a junior figure in the British blues movement.

In this period, Lord altered the spelling of his name from his birth name “John” to “Jon” and his session credits included playing the keyboards in “You Really Got Me”, The Kinks number one hit of 1964, however in a Guitar World interview Ray Davies of The Kinks stated it was actually Arthur Greenslade playing piano on that particular track.

Following the break-up of Redd Bludd’s Bluesicians in late 1963, Wood, Lord, and the drummer Red Dunnage put together a new band, The Art Wood Combo. This also included Derek Griffiths (guitar) and Malcolm Pool (bass guitar). Dunnage left in December 1964 to be replaced by Keef Hartley, who had previously replaced Ringo Starr in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. This band, later known as “The Artwoods”, focused on the organ as the bluesy, rhythmic core of their sound, in common with the contemporary bands The Spencer Davis Group (Steve Winwood on organ) and The Animals (with Alan Price). They made appearances on the BBC’s Saturday Club radio show and on such TV programs as Ready Steady Go!. It also performed abroad, and it appeared on the first Ready Steady Goes Live, promoting its first single the Lead Belly song “Sweet Mary” — but significant commercial success eluded it. Its only charting single was “I Take What I Want”, which reached number 28 on 8 May 1966.

The jazz-blues organ style of black R&B organ players in the 1950s and 1960s, using the trademark blues-organ sound of the Hammond organ (B3 and C3 models) and combining it with the Leslie speaker system (the well-known Hammond-Leslie speaker combination), were seminal influences on Lord. Lord also stated later that he was heavily influenced by the organ-based progressive rock played by Vanilla Fudge after seeing that band perform in Great Britain in 1967, and earlier by the personal direction he received from British organ pioneer Graham Bond.

The Artwoods regrouped in 1967 as the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre“. This was an attempt to cash in on the 1930s gangster craze set off by the American film Bonnie and Clyde. Hartley left the band in 1967 to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Lord next founded the “Santa Barbera Machine Head”, featuring Art’s brother, Ronnie Wood, writing and recording three powerful keyboard-driven instrumental tracks, giving a preview of the future style of Deep Purple. Soon thereafter, Lord went on to cover for the keyboard player Billy Day in “The Flower Pot Men”, where he met the bass guitarist Nick Simper along with drummer Carlo Little and guitarist Ged Peck. Lord and Simper then toured with this band in 1967 to promote its hit single “Let’s Go To San Francisco”, but the two men never recorded with this band.

In early 1967, through his roommate Chris Curtis of the Searchers, Lord met businessman Tony Edwards who was looking to invest in the music business alongside partners Ron Hire and John Coletta (HEC Enterprises). Session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was called in and he met Lord for the first time, but Chris Curtis’s erratic behaviour led the trio nowhere. Edwards was impressed enough by Jon Lord to ask him to form a band after Curtis faded out. Simper was contacted, and Blackmore was recalled from Hamburg. Although top British player Bobby Woodman was the first choice as drummer, during the auditions for a singer, Rod Evans of “The Maze” came in with his own drummer, Ian Paice. Blackmore, who had been impressed by Paice’s drumming when he met him in 1967, set up an audition for Paice as well. The band was called the “Roundabout” at first and began rehearsals at Deeves Hall in Hertfordshire. By March 1968, this became the “Mark 1” line-up of “Deep Purple”: Lord, Simper, Blackmore, Paice, and Evans. Lord also helped form the band “Boz” with some of its recordings being produced by Derek Lawrence. “Boz” included Boz Burrell (later of King Crimson and Bad Company), Blackmore (guitar), Paice (drums), Chas Hodges (bass).

Lord pushed the Hammond-Leslie sound through Marshall amplification, creating a growling, heavy, mechanical sound which allowed Lord to compete with Blackmore as a soloist, with an organ that sounded as prominent as the lead guitar. Said one reviewer, “many have tried to imitate [Lord’s] style, and all failed.” Said Lord himself, “There’s a way of playing a Hammond that’s different. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that you can play a Hammond with a piano technique. Well, you can, but it sounds like you are playing a Hammond with a piano technique. Really, you have to learn how to play an organ. It’s a legato technique; it’s a technique to achieve legato on a non-legato instrument.”

In early Deep Purple recordings, Lord had appeared to be the leader of the band. Despite the cover songs “Hush” and “Kentucky Woman” becoming hits in North America, Deep Purple never made chart success in the UK until the Concerto for Group and Orchestra album (1970). Lord’s willingness later to play many of the key rhythm parts gave Blackmore the freedom to let loose both live and on record.

On Deep Purple’s second and third albums, Lord began indulging his ambition to fuse rock with classical music. An early example of this is the song “Anthem” from the album The Book of Taliesyn (1968), but a more prominent example is the song “April” from the band’s self-titled third album (1969). The song is recorded in three parts: 1. Lord and Blackmore only, on keyboards and acoustic guitar, respectively; 2. an orchestral arrangement complete with strings; and 3. the full rock band with vocals. Lord’s ambition enhanced his reputation among fellow musicians, but caused tension within the group.

Simper later said, “The reason the music lacked direction was Jon Lord fucked everything up with his classical ideas.” Blackmore agreed to go along with Lord’s experimentation, provided he was given his head on the next band album.

The resulting Concerto For Group and Orchestra (in 1969) was one of rock’s earliest attempts to fuse two distinct musical idioms. Performed live at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 September 1969 (with new band members Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, Evans and Simper having been fired), it was recorded by the BBC and later released as an album. The Concerto gave Deep Purple its first highly publicised taste of mainstream fame and gave Lord the confidence to believe that his experiment and his compositional skill had a future

Purple began work on Deep Purple in Rock, released by their new label Harvest in 1970 and now recognised as one of hard rock’s key early works. Lord and Blackmore competed to out-dazzle each other, often in classical-style, midsection ‘call and answer’ improvisation (on tracks like “Speed King”), something they employed to great effect live. Ian Gillan said that Lord provided the idea on the main organ riff for “Child in Time” although the riff was also based on It’s a Beautiful Day’s 1969 psychedelic hit song “Bombay Calling”. Lord’s experimental solo on “Hard Lovin’ Man” (complete with police-siren interpolation) from this album was his personal favourite among his Deep Purple studio performances.

Deep Purple released another six studio albums between 1971 (Fireball) and 1975 (Come Taste the Band). Gillan and Glover left in 1973 and Blackmore in 1975, and the band disintegrated in 1976. The highlights of Lord’s Purple work in the period include the 1972 album Machine Head (featuring his rhythmic underpinnings on “Smoke on the Water” and “Space Truckin'”, plus the organ solos on “Highway Star”, “Pictures of Home” and “Lazy”), the sonic bombast of the Made in Japan live album (1972), an extended, effect-laden solo on “Rat Bat Blue” from the Who Do We Think We Are album (1973), and his overall playing on the Burn album from 1974.

Roger Glover would later describe Lord as a true “Zen-archer soloist”, someone whose best keyboard improvisation often came at the first attempt. Lord’s strict reliance on the Hammond C3 organ sound, as opposed to the synthesizer experimentation of his contemporaries, places him firmly in the jazz-blues category as a band musician and far from the progressive-rock sound of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. Lord rarely ventured into the synthesizer territory on Purple albums, often limiting his experimentation to the use of the ring modulator with the Hammond, to give live performances on tracks like Space Truckin’ a distinctive ‘spacy’ sound. Instances of his Deep Purple synthesizer use (he became an endorser of the ARP Oyssey) include “‘A’ 200”, the final track from Burn, and “Love Child” on the Come Taste the Band album.

In early 1973 Lord stated: “We’re as valid as anything by Beethoven.”

Lord continued to focus on his classical aspirations alongside his Deep Purple career. The BBC, buoyed by the success of the Concerto, commissioned him to write another piece and the resulting “Gemini Suite” was performed by Deep Purple and the Light Music Society under Malcolm Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall in September 1970, and then in Munich with the Kammerorchester conducted by Eberhard Schoener in January 1972. It then became the basis for Lord’s first solo album, Gemini Suite, released in November 1972, with vocals by Yvonne Elliman and Tony Ashton and with the London Symphony Orchestra backing a band that included Albert Lee on guitar.(Ritchie Blackmore had played the guitar at the first live performance of the Gemini Suite in September 1970, but declined the invitation to appear on the studio version, which led to the involvement of Lee. Other performers were Yvonne Elliman, Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Tony Ashton).

In March 1974, Lord and Paice had collaborated with friend Tony Ashton on First of the Big Bands, credited to ‘Ashton & Lord’ and featuring a rich array of session talent, including Carmine Appice, Ian Paice, Peter Frampton and Pink Floyd saxophonist/sessioner, Dick Parry. They performed much of the set live at the London Palladium in September 1974.

This formed the basis of Lord’s first post-Deep Purple project Paice Ashton Lord, which lasted only a year and spawned a single album, Malice in Wonderland in 1977, recorded at Musicland Studios Musicland Studios at the Arabella Hotel in Munich. He created an informal group of friends and collaborators including Ashton, Paice, Bernie Marsden, Boz Burrell and later, Bad Company’s Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and others. Over the same period, Lord guested on albums by Maggie Bell, Nazareth and even folk artist Richard Digance. Eager to pay off a huge tax bill upon his return the UK in the late-1970s (Purple’s excesses included their own tour jet and a home Lord rented in Malibu from actress Ann-Margret and where he wrote the Sarabande album), Lord joined former Deep Purple band member David Coverdale’s new band, Whitesnake in August 1978 (Lord’s job in Whitesnake was largely limited to adding color or, in his own words, a ‘halo’ to round out a blues-rock sound that already accommodated two lead guitarists, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody.

A number of singles such as “Here I Go Again”, “Wine, Women and Song”, “She’s a Woman” and “Till the Day I Die” entered the UK chart, taking the now 40-something Lord onto Top of the Pops with regularity between 1980 and 1983. He later expressed frustration that he was a poorly paid hired-hand, but fans saw little of this discord and Whitesnake’s commercial success kept him at the forefront of readers’ polls as heavy rock’s foremost keyboard maestro. His dissatisfaction (and Coverdale’s eagerness to revamp the band’s line-up and lower the average age to help crack the US market) smoothed the way for the reformation of Deep Purple Mk II in 1984.

During his tenure in Whitesnake, Lord had the opportunity to record two distinctly different solo albums and was later commissioned by producer Patrick Gamble for Central Television to write the soundtrack for their 1984 TV series, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, based on the book by Edith Holden, with an orchestra conducted by Alfred Ralston and with a distinctly gentle, pastoral series of themes composed by Lord. Lord became firmly established as a member of UK rock’s “Oxfordshire mansion aristocracy” – with a home, Burntwood Hall, set in 23.5 acres at Goring-on-Thames, complete with its own cricket pitch and a hand-painted Challen baby grand piano, previously owned by Shirley Bassey. He was asked to guest on albums by friends George Harrison (Gone Troppo from 1982) and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour (1984’s About Face), Cozy Powell (Octopus in 1983) and to play on an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic, Wind in the Willows. He composed and produced the score for White Fire (1984), which consisted largely of two songs performed by Limelight. In 1985 he made a brief appearance as a member of The Singing Rebel’s band (which also featured Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in the Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais-scripted film Water (1985) (Handmade Films).

In the 1980s he was also a member of an all-star band called Olympic Rock & Blues Circus fronted by Pete York and featuring a rotating line-up of the likes of Miller Anderson, Tony Ashton, Brian Auger, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson, Chris Farlowe and many others. Olympic Rock & Blues Circus toured primarily in Germany between 1981 and 1989. Some musicians, including Lord, took part in York’s TV musical extravaganza Superdrumming between 1987 and 1989.

Lord’s re-emergence with Deep Purple in 1984 resulted in huge audiences for the reformed Mk II line-up, including 1985s second largest grossing tour in the US and an appearance in front of 80,000 rain-soaked fans headlining Knebworth on 22 June 1985, all to support the Perfect Strangers album. Playing with a rejuvenated Mk. II Purple line-up (including spells at a health farm to get the band including Lord into shape) and being onstage and in the studio with Blackmore, gave Lord the chance to push himself once again. His ‘rubato’ classical opening sequence to the album’s opener, “Knocking at Your Back Door” (complete with F-Minor to G polychordal harmony sequence), gave Lord the chance to do his most powerful work for years, including the song “Perfect Strangers”. Further Deep Purple albums followed, often of varying quality, and by the late-1990s, Lord was clearly keen to explore new avenues for his musical career.

In 1997, he created perhaps his most personal work to date, Pictured Within, released in 1998 with a European tour to support it. Lord’s mother Miriam had died in August 1995 and the album is a deeply affecting piece, inflected at all stages by Lord’s sense of grief. Recorded largely in Lord’s home-away-from-home, the city of Cologne, the album’s themes are Elgarian and alpine in equal measure. Lord signed to Virgin Classics to release it, and perhaps saw it as the first stage in his eventual departure from Purple to embark on a low-key and altogether more gentle solo career. One song from Pictured Within, entitled “Wait A While” was later covered by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on her 2003/2004 album My Heart. Lord finally retired from Deep Purple amicably in 2002, preceded by a knee injury that eventually resolved itself without surgery. He said subsequently, “Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so – if you see what I mean”. He even dedicated a song to it on 2004’s solo effort, Beyond the Notes, called “De Profundis”. The album was recorded in Bonn with producer Mario Argandoña between June and July 2004.

Lord slowly built a small, but distinct position and fan base for himself in Europe. He collaborated with former ABBA superstar and family friend, Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad,) on the 2004 track, “The Sun Will Shine Again” (with lyrics by Sam Brown) and performed with her across Europe. He subsequently also performed European concerts to première the 2007-scheduled Boom of the Tingling Strings orchestral piece.

In 2003 he also returned to his beloved R-n-B/blues heritage to record an album of standards in Sydney, with Australia’s Jimmy Barnes, entitled Live in the Basement, by Jon Lord and the Hoochie Coochie Men, showing himself to be one of British rock music’s most eclectic and talented instrumentalists. Lord was also happy to support the Sam Buxton Sunflower Jam Healing Trust and in September 2006, performed at a star-studded event to support the charity led by Ian Paice’s wife, Jacky (twin sister of Lord’s wife Vicky). Featured artists on stage with Lord included Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Phil Manzanera, Ian Paice and Bernie Marsden.

In July 2011, Lord performed his final live concert appearance, the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall, where he premiered his joint composition with Rick Wakeman. At that point, they had begun informal discussion on recording an album together. Up until 2011, Lord had also been working on material with the recently formed rock supergroup WhoCares, also featuring singer Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, guitarist Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, second guitarist Mikko Lindström from HIM, bassist Jason Newsted formerly from Metallica and drummer Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden, specifically the composition “Out of My Mind,” in addition to new compositions with Steve Balsamo and a Hammond Organ Concerto. Lord subsequently cancelled a performance of his Durham Concerto in Hagen, Germany, for what his website said was a continuation of his medical treatment (the concert, scheduled for 6 July 2012, would have been his return to live performance after treatment).

Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra was effectively recommissioned by him, recorded in Liverpool and at Abbey Road Studios across 2011 and under post-production in 2012 with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performing, conducted by long-time collaborator, conductor Paul Mann. The recording was at completion at the time of Lord’s death, with Lord having been able to review the final master recordings. The album and DVD were subsequently released in 2012.

In July 2011, Lord was found to be suffering from pancreatic cancer. After treatment in both England and in Israel, he died on 16 July 2012 at the London Clinic after suffering from a pulmonary embolism. He was 71.

• On 11 November 2010, he was inducted as an Honorary Fellow of Stevenson College in Edinburgh, Scotland. On 15 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree at De Montfort Hall by the University of Leicester. Lord was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 8 April 2016 as a member of Deep Purple.

• Lars Ulrich, founding member and drummer in Metallica commented, “Ever since my father took me to see them in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the impressionable age of 9, Deep Purple has been the most constant, continuous and inspiring musical presence in my life. They have meant more to me than any other band in existence, and have had an enormous part in shaping who I am. We can all be guilty of lightly throwing adjectives like ‘unique,’ ‘one-of-a-kind’ and ‘pioneering’ around when we want to describe our heroes and the people who’ve moved us, but there are no more fitting words than those right now and there simply was no musician like Jon Lord in the history of hard rock. Nobody. Period. There was nobody that played like him. There was nobody that sounded like him. There was nobody that wrote like him. There was nobody that looked like him. There was nobody more articulate, gentlemanly, warm, or fucking cooler that ever played keyboards or got anywhere near a keyboard. What he did was all his own.”

• Former keyboard player of rock band Yes, Rick Wakeman, who was a friend of Lord’s, said he was “a great fan” and added “We were going to write and record an album before he became ill. His contribution to music and to classic rock was immeasurable and I will miss him terribly.” In mid-2013, Wakeman presented a BBC One East Midlands-produced TV program about Lord and his connection to the town of his birth.

• Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA), who described Jon Lord as her “dearest friend”, paid him tribute at the 2013 edition of Zermatt Unplugged, the annual music festival which both he and she served as patrons. “He was graceful, intelligent, polite, with a strong integrity,” she said. “He had a strong empathy and a great deal of humor for his own and other people’s weaknesses.”

• Keyboardist Keith Emerson said of Lord’s death, “Jon left us now but his music and inspiration will live forever. I am deeply saddened by his departure.” In a later interview in November 2013, he added, “In the early years I remember being quite jealous of Jon Lord – may he rest in peace. In September 1969 I heard he was debuting his “Concerto For Group & Orchestra” at the Royal Albert Hall, with none other than Malcolm Arnold conducting. Wow! I had to go along and see that. Jon and I ribbed each other, we were pretty much pals, but I walked away and thought: ‘Shit, in a couple of weeks’ time I’m going to be recording The Nice’s Five Bridges Suite … not at the Albert Hall but at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon!’ A much more prosaic venue. Later, Jon wanted me to play on his solo album, Gemini Suite, but that was around the time ELP were breaking big and we were touring. He was a lovely guy, a real gentleman.”

• A concert tribute to Lord took place on 4 April 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall. Performers and presenters included Deep Purple, Bruce Dickinson, Alfie Boe, Jeremy Irons, Joe Brown, Glenn Hughes, Miller Anderson and Steve Balsamo.

• In December 2012 the Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, joined the campaign to honor Lord with a blue plaque at his childhood home at 120 Averill Road, where he lived until he was twenty, saying it would be “an important reminder of the city’s contribution to the world of contemporary music.”

• Lord was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple in April 2016

 

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Eric Woolfson 12/2009

eric-woolfsonDecember 2, 2009 – Eric Woolfson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 18th March 1945. Eric had an uncle in Glasgow who played the piano masterfully and who inspired Eric to want to become a musician. After a very short spell of piano lessons which were soon abandoned, Eric started playing by himself and became a self-taught pianist who never was able to read music!

In his teens, following a brief but somewhat unsuccessful foray into the profession of Chartered Accountancy where they said he’d be better apprenticed to a circus, Eric went to London via Manchester where he got involved with music business agency, Kennedy Street Enterprises. He joined one of their acts HERMAN’S HERMITS as a guest pianist for a short spell, and had high hopes of becoming a permanent member of one of their other groups, but they wouldn’t guarantee him a retainer and so he decided to carry on further south to London. The musicians Eric left behind in Manchester, shortly afterwards became known as 10CC. Finally arriving in London he hung around Denmark Street a.k.a. ‘Tin Pan Alley’ where he managed to get work as a session pianist and worked with musicians such as Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones who went on to form LED ZEPPELIN and managed to fix a meeting with the Record Producer & Co. Manager of THE ROLLING STONES, Andrew Loog Oldham.

After being kept waiting for over four hours for his meeting, Oldham finally showed up and asked Eric to play something he’d written himself. After playing just one song, Oldham stood up and said ‘You’re a fucking genius’ and immediately offered Eric a publishing deal with Oldham’s newly formed company ‘Immediate Records’.

Oldham placed Eric’s work with a number of well known artists of the day such as MARIANNE FAITHFULL and FRANK IFIELD as well as using Eric as a session pianist on many of his independent productions.

Other songs written by Eric found their way into various record producers’ hands, including MICK JAGGER’s first attempt as a record producer with a singer called CHRIS FARLOWE – although Eric’s song eventually was consigned to the B-side, the single OUT OF TIME went to number one in the UK Charts.

Eric signed other publishing deals with other companies as his repertoire flourished and more and more of his songs found their way to major recording artists, both in Europe and America.

He signed a deal with Southern Music where he joined the ranks of composers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Eric remembered Lloyd Webber and Rice’s decision to create stage musicals as a vehicle for their songs, rather than the more difficult route of trying for covers by the big artists of the day. As time went by, Eric realized how well founded their idea was.

Later, Eric was taken on as an independent record producer by several record companies working with artists including DAVE BERRY, THE EQUALS and THE TREMELOES.

Around this time, Eric had the idea to make an album inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote some of the material which later found its way into the Alan Parsons Project and at that time he recorded some demos with guitarist Rick Westwood of THE TREMELOES. Eric produced the recordings but was not sure that he had the necessary skill to realize such a grandiose project and shelved the idea.

Despite having many of his songs recorded all over Europe, Eric found that earning a living as a songwriter was not easy and so he decided to try his hand at artist management.

His first two clients were a singer CARL DOUGLAS who had just reached the top of the charts with KUNG FU FIGHTING and a record producer called ALAN PARSONS who he had met while on a session at Abbey Road Studios.

Alan had decided to become a producer and with Eric as his manager, he enjoyed a string of successes including consecutive number one hits with PILOT and COCKNEY REBEL. Other notable successes were JOHN MILES and AL STEWART with YEAR OF THE CAT.

At that time, the film business had become a director’s medium with luminaries such as Stanley Kubrick being more influential in the making of a film than the stars who appeared in it. Now having access to Alan’s production and engineering talent, Eric saw an opportunity to mirror this in the record business by combining his own writing talents with Alan’s. His Edgar Allan Poe idea came off the shelf and the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT was born.

The first album entitled TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, EDGAR ALLAN POE was released in 1976. It was immediately obvious that there was more to the idea than one album, but as the original record deal was for only the first album, a new deal was done with Arista Records for nine further albums.

Despite there being no live performances and few obvious hit singles the venture was a great success. There were however hit singles (many on which Eric sang lead vocal) including EYE IN THE SKY, TIME and DON’T ANSWER ME, three of which in addition to record sales, have been played on American radio more than 1 million times.

After ten albums Eric wanted to develop in other areas and decided it was time to move into the area of stage musicals. His first attempt, inspired by Sigmund Freud, was entitled FREUDIANA which was premiered in 1990 in Vienna’s historic THEATER AN DER WIEN where Beethoven premiered ‘Fidelio’, his one and only opera. Eric had always been inspired by creative minds and his wife Hazel had been studying psychology and began to leave books on Freud lying around the house. Intrigued by the titles, Woolfson became fascinated by their content and started researching Freud and spent a lot of time in the Freud Museum in London, even lying on the couch on which Freud’s patients recounted their dreams.

The success of this first musical work led to Woolfson’s second musical GAUDI which premiered in 1994 in Aachen, Germany and went on to be staged in Alsdorf (1995) and Cologne (1996) where a 1,700-seat theatre was specially built in the heart of the city to stage the show. Half a million people saw GAUDI in the five years that it ran and every performance received a standing ovation. A german tour of GAUDI was later planned for 2009/2010 and an Asian production planned for 2010.

For his next musical GAMBLER, Eric drew on his experiences of living in Monte Carlo (in the late 70s) which had also been the inspiration for the Alan Parsons Project TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD album. Many of the songs from this album (Eye in the Sky, Turn of a Friendly Card, Snake Eyes, Games People Play and Time) were included in the show. It was premiered in Germany in Monchengladbach in 1996. GAMBLER has so far had seven productions in Korea, one of which also toured Japan in 2002 and 2005 (the first time a Korean language production had been staged in this way) and it won several Korean Tony Awards.

In 2007 Eric’s musical DANCING SHADOWS premiered in Asia. This was a unique musical project inspired by a famous Korean play entitled A FOREST FIRE based on the anti-war play Forest Fire by the Korean playwright Cham Bum-Suk. The noted playwright and author Ariel Dorfman wrote the book and Eric wrote the music and lyrics. The production won 5 Korean Tony awards including Best Musical. International production plans for the show are in development.

Eric’s work POE re-visits his original Tales of Mystery and Imagination inspiration, Edgar Allan Poe. It had its world premiere concert showcase at Abbey Road Studios in 2003 and a studio album was released containing 10 songs from the piece ‘POE, More Tales of Mystery and Imagination’.

The latest project that Eric worked on was the result of having gone through the APP archives to find bonus tracks for the 2007/2008 Sony and Universal releases of all 10 Alan Parsons Project albums in remastered expanded edition versions, plus a new Essential APP compilation. Eric discovered a number of songs which hadn’t been included on the original APP albums for a variety of reasons. These were later included, in their unfinished form as bonus tracks on the expanded edition APP albums, and Eric also completed and recorded some of these songs which are included on the ‘Eric Woolfson sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was‘ album which was released in January 2009.

Eric died of kidney cancer in the early hours of the 2nd December 2009, aged 64.

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Larry Knechtel 8/2009

famous session musician larry knechtelAugust 20, 2009 – Lawrence William Larry Knechtel (Bread, The Wrecking Crew) was born on August 4, 1940 in Bell, California. Larry took piano lessons in his pre-teen years. Naturally gifted with perfect pitch, Larry moved beyond sheet music and started playing by ear. An interest in radio and electronics prompted him to build his own crystal radio, which introduced him to the blues and early rock-n-roll which was being aired by local R&B stations. Excited by what he heard, Larry purchased 45’s of black R&B artists and studied them intently. He also joined an inner-city youth band which included players from several local schools in the central Los Angeles area. This proved to be a fertile experience which introduced him to other good players, some of whom later became noted session musicians, among them saxophonist Jim Horn and guitarist Mike Deasey.

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Billy Powell 1/2009

Billy PowellJanuary 28, 2009 – William Norris “Billy” Powell was born on June 3rd 1952 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Powell grew up in a military family and spent several of his childhood years in Italy, where his father was stationed with the U.S. Navy. After his father died of cancer in 1960, the Powells returned to the United States to settle in Jacksonville, Florida. In elementary school, Powell met Leon Wilkeson, who would become a lifelong friend and the bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Powell took an interest in piano and he began taking piano lessons from a local teacher named Madalyn Brown, who claimed that Billy did not need a teacher as he was a natural and picked things up well on his own.

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Rick Wright 9/2008

Richard-Wright-Live-48September 15,  2008 – Rick Wright (Pink Floyd) was born on July 28, 1943 in Hatch End, London.
He started teaching himself to play guitar, trumpet and piano at age 12 after he was recuperating from breaking a leg. His mother helped and encouraged him to play the piano. He took private lessons in musical theory and composition at the Eric Gilder School of Music and became influenced by the traditional jazz revival, learning the trombone and saxophone as well as the piano. Uncertain about his future, he enrolled in 1962 at the Regent Street Polytechnic which was later incorporated into the University of Westminster. There he met fellow musicians Roger Waters and Nick Mason, and all three joined a band formed by classmate Clive Metcalf called Sigma 6.

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Danny Federici 4/2008

DannyApril 17, 2008 – Danny Federici was born January 23, 1950 grew up in the same neighborhood and became life long friend and over 40 years the keyboardist with Bruce Springsteen in bands Child, Steel Mill and The E Street Band.

Danny started to play accordion when he was seven years old, and was soon playing at parties, clubs and on radio. He attended Hunterdon Central High School in New Jersey, when he, along with Vini Lopez started the band, Child at the end of the ’60s, with Bruce Springsteen their chosen singer, a friendship and working friendship that lasted throughout his life.

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Richard Bell 6/2007

richard_bellJune 15, 2007 – Richard Bell was born in Toronto, Canada on March 5, 1946. The son of famous Canadian composer and musician Dr. Leslie Bell, he began piano lessons at the age of 4, and studied at Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music. Later he also learned to play the organ, saxophone, and accordion, and composed music.

Bell’s career first gained significance when he joined Ronnie Hawkins as a member of the group And Many Others, following the departure of Hawkins’s previous band (who would gain fame as the Band). Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970, and they renamed themselves Crowbar, subsequently recording Official Music (as King Biscuit Boy with Crowbar) (1970, Daffodil; 1996, Stony Plain). Bell left Crowbar shortly after this to join Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band, making good on an offer made the previous year when while on tour in New York, he was contacted by Michael Friedman, an associate of Janis Joplin’s manager Albert Grossman.

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Billy Preston 6/2006

billy-prestonJune 6, 2006 – William EverettBilly” Preston (Beatles/Stones/etc.) was born on September 2, 1946 in Houston, Texas but raised mostly in Los Angeles, California.

When he was three, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother Robbie’s lap. Noted as a child prodigy, Preston was entirely self-taught and never had a music lesson. By the age of ten, Preston was playing organ onstage backing several gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and Andraé Crouch. At age eleven, Preston appeared on Nat King Cole’s national TV show singing the Fats Domino hit, “Blueberry Hill” with Cole. Also at eleven, he appeared in the W.C. Handy biopic starring Nat King Cole: St. Louis Blues (1958), playing W.C. Handy at a younger age.

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Johnnie Johnson 4/2005

Johnny JohnsonApril 13, 2005 – Johnnie Johnson (Johnny B Goode) was born July 8th 1924 in Fairmont, West Virginia. He began playing the piano in 1928.
While serving in the US Marine Corps during WW II, he was a member of Bobby Troup’s all serviceman jazz orchestra, The Barracudas. After his return, he moved to Detroit and then Chicago, where he sat in with many notable artists, including Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1952 and put together a jazz and blues group, The Sir John Trio.  with the drummer Ebby Hardy and the saxophonist Alvin Bennett. The three had a regular engagement at the Cosmopolitan Club, in East St. Louis. On New Year’s Eve 1952, Bennett had a stroke and could not perform. Johnson, searching for a last-minute replacement, called a young man named Chuck Berry, the only musician Johnson knew who, because of his inexperience, would likely not be playing on New Year’s Eve. Although then a limited guitarist, Berry added vocals and showmanship to the group. When Bennett was not able to play after his stroke, Johnson hired Berry as a permanent member of the trio.

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Dave Rowberry 6/2003

dave-rowberryJune 6, 2003 – David Eric “Dave” Rowberry was born on July 4, 1940 in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, England. Rowberry began his musical career at the University of Newcastle and began playing piano and the keyboards with various blues and jazz bands before joining the ‘Mike Cotton Jazzmen’ and backup performers to the likes of Solomon Burke, P.J. Proby, and the Four Tops.

The Animals were already one of the major British Invasion groups in May 1965 when founding keyboardist Alan Price suddenly left due to fear of flying and other issues with frontman Eric Burdon and bass player Chas Chandler whose connection to impressario/agent for Jimi Hendrix put uncertainty into the band’s future. According to lead singer Eric Burdon, Rowberry, while considered a good musician, was chosen partly because of his passing physical resemblance to Price. On the other hand, Burdon’s crony Zoot Money claims that he was approached first (no reason was given why he declined!!), and Rowberry only selected as a second choice.

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Herman Brood 7/2001

July 11, 2001 – Herman Brood was born on November 5th 1946 in Zwolle, the Netherlands. In the early years, his influences included Fats Domino and Little Richard. He always liked to paint and play piano.

He started playing the piano at age 12 and founded beat band The Moans in 1964, which would later become Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers. He also briefly played piano with Dutch premier blues band Cuby and the Blizzards, but was removed by management when the record company discovered he used drugs.

For a number of years in the late 1960, early 1970s Herman spent time in jail for dealing LSD, or moved abroad, while he had a number of short-term engagements with The Studs, the Flash & Dance Band, Vitesse.

In 1976, Brood started his own group, Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, (and started work with photographer Anton Corbijn) initially with Ferdi Karmelk on guitar, (Nina Hagen’s romantic partner and father of her daughter), Gerrit Veen (bass), Peter Walrecht (drums), and Ellen Piebes and Ria Ruiters (back vocals). They played the club and bar circuit, first in Groningen, In 1977 the band released their first album, Street.

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Linda McCartney 4/1998

linda mccarthyApril 17, 1998 – Linda Louise, Lady McCartney (Wings) was born Linda Eastman on September 24, 1941 in New York City.  Prior to marrying Paul, she was a professional photographer of celebrities and contemporary musicians, with her work published in music industry magazines. Her photos were also published in the book, Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era, in 1992.

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Floyd Cramer 12/1997

Floyd CramerDecember 31, 1997 – Floyd Cramer was born in Shreveport Louisiana on October 27th 1933 but grew up in Huttig, Arkansas where he taught himself the piano.

After finishing high school in 1951, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the Louisiana Hayride radio show where he performed with the likes of Jim Reeves, Faron Young, Webb Pierce, and, in his debut, Elvis Presley.

In 1953, he cut his first single, “Dancin’ Diane”, backed with “Little Brown Jug”, for the local Abbott label. During 1955 he played dates with an emerging talent who would later figure significantly in his career, Elvis Presley.

Cramer moved to Nashville in 1955 where the use of piano accompanists in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, “in day and night doing session”. Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, the Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramer’s piano playing, for instance, on Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”.

In 1957, Cramer released his own solo debut, That Honky-Tonk Piano, and in the next year scored a minor pop hit with the single “Flip, Flop and Bop.” As his solo career was largely secondary in relation to his session work, he recorded his own music sporadically, but in 1960 notched a significant country and pop hit with the self-penned instrumental “Last Date.”

The instrumental exhibited a relatively new concept for piano playing known as the “slip note” style. The record went to No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100. He went on to make numerous albums and toured with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph, also performing with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band.

From 1965 to 1974, Cramer annually released a Class Of… album, a collection of the year’s top hits done in his own inimitable style. In 1971, he also teamed with Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph for the album Chet, Floyd and Boots. By 1977, Cramer was exploring modern technology, and on the LP Keyboard Kick Band, he played eight different keyboard instruments, including a synthesizer.

In 1980, he released his last significant hit, a recording of the theme from the hit TV drama Dallas. Though largely quiet for most of the decade, in 1988 Cramer released three separate albums — Country Gold, Just Me and My Piano!, and Special Songs of Love.

In 2003, he was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1961 he was quoted saying: “Trying to launch myself on a solo career, after being Elvis Presley’s pianist for so long, placed me in an unenviable position. Some people thought I was trying to cash in. If I had wanted to cash in on my association with Elvis, I would have done it five years ago.”

He died in Nashville, Tennessee after a fight with lung cancer on Dec 31, 1997 at the age of 64.

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Nicky Hopkins 9/1994

Nicky HopkinsSeptember 6, 1994 – Nicky Hopkins was born on February 24, 1944 in Perivale, Middlesex to the NE London. He began playing the piano at age 3. As pianist, organ player Nicky recorded and performed on an amazing amount of noted superstar British and American popular music recordings of the 60s and 70s as a session musician.

At the start of the 60s he started out as the pianist with Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages, after which he joined The Cyril Davies R&B All Stars. Due to suffering from Crohn’s disease he mainly focused on studio work in London. He worked extensively for leading UK independent producers Shel Talmy and Mickie Most and performed on albums and singles by The Kinks, The Move, Cyril Davies, Jon Mark, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Donovan, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Art Garfunkel, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Carly Simon, McGuinness Flint, Bill Wyman, Harry Nilsson, Peter Frampton,  the Easybeats, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield and Cat Stevens and many, many others.

Between 1965 and 1968 hardly a week went by without a record release featuring Nicky on keyboards.

In 1967, after turning down an offer from Led Zeppelin, he joined The Jeff Beck Group, formed by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, with vocalist Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Micky Waller, playing on their influential LPs Truth and Beck-Ola.

After two years of gruelling schedules he settled in the warm climate of Southern California where helped define the “San Francisco sound”, playing on albums by Jefferson Airplane, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Steve Miller Band. He briefly joined Quicksilver Messenger Service and performed with Jefferson Airplane at the Woodstock Festival. In 1968 he played piano with the Swedish psychedelic group Tages on the single “Halcyon Days”, produced in Abbey Road Studio.

Nicky joined the Rolling Stones live line-up on the 1971 Good-Bye Britain tour, as well as their 1972 North American Tour and the early ’73 Winter Tour of Australia and New Zealand. He recorded a few solo albums but remained one of the most important rock ‘n’ roll session musicians of his time.

Nicky sadly died on September 6, 1994 at age 50 in Nashville, Tennessee, of complications from intestinal surgery necessitated by his ailment.

With a discography that runs from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Zappa, few others can boast such a wide range of credits and a presence on so many important records. As Nils Lofgren said, ‘Nicky wrote the book on rock’n’roll piano’.

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Mick Ronson 4/1993

Mick Ronson (46) – guitar with David Bowie/ Bob Dylan – was born May 26, 1946 in Kingston upon Hull, England. He was the first son of George and Minnie Ronson and had two younger siblings, Maggi and David. As a child he practiced  to play classically piano, recorder, violin, and (later) the harmonium. He initially wanted to be a cellist, but moved to guitar upon discovering the music of Duane Eddy, whose sound on the bass notes of his guitar sounded similar to that of the cello, according to Ronson.  

The City of Hull was a musical hub in those early days and he joined his first band, The Mariners when he was 17. While Ronson was working with The Mariners, another local Hull group– The Crestas–recruited him on the advice of The Mariners’ bassist John Griffiths. With Ronson on board the Crestas gained a solid reputation, making regular appearances at local halls: Mondays at the Halfway House in Hull, Thursdays at the Ferryboat Hotel, Fridays at the Regal Ballroom in Beverley, and Sundays at the Duke of Cumberland in North Ferriby, the typical circuit of those days.

Winding his way through several local and regional bands such as The Voice, The Wanted, The Rats. The last  group played the local circuit, and made a few unsuccessful trips to London and Paris.

In 1967 The Rats recorded the one-off psychedelic track “The Rise and Fall of Bernie Gripplestone”at Fairview Studios in Willerby and can be heard on the 2008 release, Front Room Masters – Fairview Studios 1966–1973. In 1968, the band changed their name briefly to Treacle and booked another recording session at Fairview Studios in 1969, before reverting to their original name. Around that time, Ronson was recommended by Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span) to play guitar on Michael Chapman‘s critically acclaimed Fully Qualified Survivor al

Guitarist

bum that came out in 1970.

In March 1970, during the recording sessions for Elton John‘s album Tumbleweed Connection, Ronson played guitar on the track “Madman Across the Water“. The song, however, was not included in the original release, but became the title for Elton John’s 4th studio album with Davey Johnstone doing the guitar parts. . The recording featuring Ronson was released on the 1992 compilation album, Rare Masters, as well as the 1995 reissue and 2008 deluxe edition of Tumbleweed Connection.

Early in 1970, Rats’ drummer John Cambridge went back to Hull in search of Ronson, intent upon recruiting him for a new David Bowie backing band called The Hype. He found Ronson marking out a rugby pitch, one of his duties as a Parks Department gardener for Hull City Council. Having failed in his earlier attempts in London, Ronson was reluctant, but eventually agreed to accompany Cambridge to a meeting with Bowie. Two days later, on 5 February, Ronson made his debut with Bowie on John Peel‘s national BBC Radio 1 show.

The Hype played their first gig at The Roundhouse on 22 February with a line-up that included Bowie, Ronson, Cambridge, and producer/bassist Tony Visconti. The group dressed up in superhero costumes, with Bowie as Rainbowman, Visconti as Hypeman, Ronson as Gangsterman, and Cambridge as Cowboyman.

Soon after Ronson started recording and touring with David Bowie as guitarist with the Spiders of Mars, Bowie’s backing ensemble. They now included Trevor Bolder, (later Uriah Heep) who had replaced Visconti on bass guitar, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, were used in the recording of Hunky Dory. The departure of Visconti meant that Ronson, with Bowie, took over the arrangements, while Ken Scott co-produced with Bowie. Hunky Dory featured Ronson’s string arrangements on several tracks, including “Life On Mars?“.

That band, minus Wakeman, became known as the Spiders from Mars from the title of the next Bowie album. Again, Ronson was a key part of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, providing string arrangements and various instrumentation, as well as playing lead guitar. Ronson’s guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians. Bowie and Ronson followed Ziggy Stardust with Aladdin Sane, David’s first #1 album and 1973 covers album Pin Ups.. Mick was increasingly highlighted on these records, and his stinging, razoring guitar on ‘Panic in Detroit’, ‘Cracked Actor’ and ‘The Prettiest Star’ was astonishing.

Producer Ken Scott: 

“Is David Bowie talented? Absolutely. Is David Bowie worthy of the adulation often heaped upon him? Sometimes. Would everyone know his name if not for his pairing with Mick Ronson? Quite possibly not. Ronno was the major part of the team that brought David to the forefront of modern music. He made my job as an engineer and producer so much easier and enjoyable. I can only speak for myself, but I know the five records we did together would have been nowhere near as good without the personality and unbounded talents Mick Ronson brought to the studio everyday.”

In the early 70s Bowie and Ronson collaborated with a number of other artists. Together hey produced Lou Reed’s seminal Transformer album, and while David received most credit for this he later acknowledged that Mick made a massive contribution to the sessions playing guitar and piano. Reed later admitted that Mick’s arrangements and influence was stronger than David’s (“Ronson was an incredible guitar player”, said Reed. “A great producer and great arranger. A lovely man.”)

Bowie and Ronson also produced Lulu, scoring a hit with “The Man Who Sold The World”.

Lulu: “Mick Ronson was the first guitarist who ever accessed and combined a pop/rock and punk ethic in his guitar playing. His style was totally unique to the day. I loved working with Mick in the studio. He was not a diva, he was a kind and gentle soul.”

In 1972 Ronson provided a strings-and-brass arrangement for the song “Sea Diver” on the Bowie-produced All the Young Dudes album for Mott the Hoople. Ronson appeared on the 1972 country rock album Bustin’ Out by Pure Prairie League, where he undertook string ensemble arrangements. 

Years later in 1994 a year after Ronson’s death  Bowie said in an interview:

“Mick was the perfect foil for the Ziggy character. He was very much a salt-of-the-earth type, the blunt northerner with a defiantly masculine personality, so that what you got was the old-fashioned Yin and Yang thing. As a rock duo, I thought we were every bit as good as Mick and Keith or Axl and Slash. Ziggy and Mick were the personification of that rock n roll dualism.”

On July 3, 1973 however, David Bowie shocked his fans at a gig in Hammersmith, London, by saying it was the last show he would ever do. It was a fantastic bit of showbiz – really, it was only the end of his Ziggy Stardust character, not the last show for David Bowie – but it did mark the end of the road for the Spiders From Mars, the backing band that had transformed Bowie from a struggling Dylan-influenced one-hit wonder into the most exciting glam rock star of the 70s. Read the story here.

After leaving Bowie’s entourage, Ronson released three solo albums over the years. His solo debut, 1974’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue, featured a version of Elvis Presley‘s “Love Me Tender”, as well as Ronson’s most famous solo track, “Only After Dark“. Between this and the 1975 follow-up, Ronson had a short-lived stint with Mott the Hoople, after which Ronno took off for the States. 

In late ’75 Ronson met Bob Dylan in New York’s Greenwich Village, and shortly afterwards Dylan invited Mick to join his touring band. Ronson thought Dylan “sang like Yogi Bear” but joined The Rolling Thunder Revue for eight months, playing with Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett, Joni Mitchell, Roger McGuinn, with whom he developed a great friendship and Bob Neuwirth. He even performed a ‘solo’ number in Dylan’s set, Is There Life on Mars? But then, after  he temporarily became part of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour in 1976, Ronson became a long-time frequent collaborator with Mott’s former leader Ian Hunter, commencing with the album Ian Hunter (UK No. 21) and featuring the UK hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, including a spell touring as the Hunter Ronson Band. 

In 1976 Ronson helped Kinky Friedman on his album Lasso From El Passo, and produced and played on Roger McGuinn’s solo record Cardiff Rose. Roger McGuinn: 

“After Rolling Thunder was over, I went back to California and decided it was time to record my fourth solo album. I invited Ronson to produce me, using Guam as the studio band. That became the Cardiff Rose album – it was one of my favorites. Mick did a stunning job as a producer, perhaps best illustrated on the song Jolly Roger. Mick made the track into a great seafaring song. I don’t know how, but he went out and found wind sounds and creaking noises for the ship’s timbers and assembled the whole thing. He literally was an audio artist. Absolutely brilliant.”

Looking back on his two RCA albums, Ronson felt that his management had tried to turn him into a David Cassidy-type figure. Cassidy he was not, but he was happy to work with the pop idol, playing sparkling guitar on Cassidy’s hit single Gettin’ It In The Street.

David Cassidy:

“Mick Ronson was a far greater musician and a far greater person than anyone was allowed to know. I loved him and admired his uniqueness, and was privileged to have worked with him.”

In 1977 he played live with Van Morrison and Dr John in Europe (but, contrary to popular opinion, did not contribute to the sessions for Morrison’s A Period Of Transition), assisted Roger Daltrey on his album One Of The Boys, produced an album for Topaz, played with Philip Rambow, played on a Benny Mardones album [Thank God For Girls], and provided guitar on several cuts for John Cougar Mellencamp’s album Chestnut Street Incident. Mick later played a major role on American Fool, rescuing a song Mellencamp had rejected – helping make a worldwide hit.
 
Mountain drummer Corky Laing started writing with Ian Hunter, and the duo recorded with Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi and Ronson (Mick joked the new band was to be called Mott The Mountain’) and then John Cale. The first set of recordings found posthumous release as The Secret Sessions.
 
In the late 70s and early 80s Ronson worked on albums by Rue Morgue, David Johansen, Ellen Foley and on Meat Loaf’s Deadringer album.
David Johansen: “Me and Ronson met at the Gramercy Park Hotel when Bowie came over. We both enjoyed a cocktail. When Mick moved to New York we’d hang out, and he produced a record for me called In Style. Mick had, like, frosted hair and manicured nails and all that jazz – he was one of the cats. On his birthday I gave him a fine sharkskin suit which was very hip at the time. He asked: ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ I said: ‘Wear it – you’ll look good.’ And with his thick Hull accent Mick said: ‘I don’t give a fook how I look!’ To me, that’s funny. What a great human being. I dug him like crazy.”
 
In 1981 Mick recorded and toured the US with ex-Rolling Thunder man T-Bone Burnett as support to The Who. He’d turned down a far more lucrative offer to play live with Bob Seger.
Ian Hunter: “Ronson went on the road with T-Bone for $100 a week, sleeping on people’s floors. The alternative was $2,500 a week with Bob Seger, but Mick didn’t like the music and C, F and G. I really admired him for that. Suzi (his wife) however had a fit!”
 
Feeling out of place in the 80s music scene, at one point Ronson thought of giving up music completely and becoming a chef. He ran barbecues at Ian’s home and was affectionately known as The Great Marinator. Ronson could never relate to the technique-heavy fretboard gymnastics of the hairband 80s, so he continued working with artists such as Steve Harley and Lisa Dalbello.
 
In 1987 Ian Hunter toured Canada with The Roy Young Band, and the following year Ian invited Mick to join him for live work. The duo cut the album YUI Orta, billed for the first and only time on record as Hunter Ronson. The record was notable for Mick’s tear-jerking instrumental Sweet Dreamer. Ronson’s 80s collaborations were numerous and included Slaughter And The Dogs, Dead Fingers Talk, Los Illegals, The Visible Targets, The Midge Ure Band, Kiss That, Lisa Dominique, The Melvilles, Andi Sexgang, Funhouse, The Fentons, The Phantoms, Ian Thomas, David Lynn Jones. The Тоll, Lennex and Perfect Affair. He also jammed with Duran Duran’s John and Andy Taylor.
 
Ronson also assisted Swedish duo EC2 (Carola Westerlund and Estelle Milbourne), and moved to Stockholm in 1990 to live with Carola Westerlund. The couple had a son, Joakim (Kym). During ensuing recording sessions with Randy Vanwarmer in Sweden in 1991, Mick started to experience significant back pain. He returned to London, where he was given the earth-shattering news that he was suffering from inoperable and terminal liver cancer and had only months to live. In typical style, Ronson remained focused on fulfilling a series of Scandinavian live dates with Graham Parker, and was determined to beat the disease.
Ronson’s output and collaborations remained prolific. He worked with Johan Wahlstrom, Ian Hunter, Leather Nun, Dag Finn, The Sonic Walthers, Dalbello and Casino Steel, produced Morrissey’s acclaimed Your Arsenal album and recorded again with Bowie. In addition, Ronson had been writing new material, and suddenly a third solo album (originally titled To Hull And Back) became his remaining lifeblood.
 
Mick’s last recorded work was with hard rockers The Wildhearts. Ronson also reunited one last time with Ian Hunter and David Bowie, in April 1992, at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Mick played on All The Young Dudes and Heroes. Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard provided backing vocals on …Dudes. 
After the Freddie Mercury Tribute, Mick’s health deteriorated desperately.
According to Ian Hunter, Mick was sick for 23 hours a day, then the other hour he’d be on the phone telling everybody how wonderful he felt. But then when I moved in with him towards the end I saw what he was doing. The morphine would come down to a point where he’d be totally sane, and then he would pick up the phone and he was telling everybody how wonderful he felt. He wanted everyone not to worry about him. The first thing out of his mouth was: ‘How are you?’
 
He was a warehouseman, car mechanic and municipal gardener – but boy could he play guitar (and piano, recorder, violin, bass and drums). Mick Ronson became the undisputed king of glam rock guitarists, ace arranger and prolific producer on countless sessions from David Bowie and Lou Reed to John Mellencamp and Morrissey. He toured with Bob Dylan and was lifelong sideman to Mott The Hoople legend Ian Hunter. He was band leader of the Bowie’s Spiders From Mars, and produced and played with dozens of other artists ( Morrissey, Slaughter & The Dogs, The Wildhearts, The Rich Kids, Elton John, Johnny Cougar, T-Bone Burnett and many others such as Lou Reed, Pure Prairie League, David Cassidy, Topaz, Roger McGuinn, Roger Daltrey, John Cougar Mellencamp, Ellen Foley, Rich Kids …) often more for pleasure than for self-acclaim or financial reward. He was considered to be the finest British guitarist to emerge since the days of Clapton and Beck.
 
Mick Ronson died April 29, 1993 from liver cancer at the age of 46.
 
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