Posts Tagged Eulogy
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May 26, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Jimmy Cobb
The great Jimmy Cobb has died, aged 91. He was the last surviving member of the dream team that played on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue – the jazz album that even non-jazz fans know and love (and probably own). Cobb was one of the great jazz drummers – a master of sensitivity and taste, […]Archive
May 1, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Tony Allen
Reports are coming in that Tony Allen has died. He was just shy of his 80th birthday and had remained very active in music across the last decade; in fact he was super prolific – with a diverse range of collaborations across jazz, pop and funk music. But even if he had stopped playing 40 […]Archive
April 29, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Hamilton Bohannon
Hamilton Bohannon has died. The drummer and journeyman musician was 78. He was no household name, but there’s a good chance your household has heard his music – whether when a teenage Bohannon was playing drums for the teenaged (“Little”) Stevie Wonder and as the bandleader backing many other Motown players, or via his own […]Archive
April 4, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Bill Withers
Bill Withers has died. He was 81. I wasn’t going to add to the eulogy posts as you can – and will already have perhaps already – read about him almost anywhere else. But then, Bill Withers meant the world to me. As he did to so many. So I wanted to share a line […]Archive
March 25, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Manu Dibango
Manu Dibango a giant of afro-jazz and funk has died. He was 86. And had been diagnosed with Coronavirus. Dibango, from Cameroon, is best remembered for his 1972 hit Soul Makossa – a song Michael Jackson stole from twice; a tune that arrived in time for disco and seemed to exist then and now in […]Archive
March 23, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Eric Weissberg
Eric Weissberg has died. He was 80 and is at peace now having wrestled with dementia across the last half decade. Even if you don’t think you know the work of Eric Weissberg – you do. You know it because of an iconic movie and the score that he helped to create. Weissberg was a […]Archive
March 22, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Ray Rogers has died. Known to the world as – he was sometimes the butt of jokes, more often celebrated (rightly) as a legendary singer and performer. He was a bit of a songwriter too, but his greatest skill was knowing what songs worked best – his greatest hits all covers; he celebrated the […]Archive
March 10, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Keith Olsen
Reports are coming in just now that record producer and sound engineer Keith Olsen has died. There’s a chance that you have several records he had a hand in as part of your record collection. Put another way, there’s almost no chance his fingerprints aren’t all over the albums you know and love. He’s perhaps […]Archive
March 6, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. McCoy Tyner
The great McCoy Tyner has died. Aged 81. His family has confirmed the death but not the cause of yet. Tyner was one of the most prolific and influential jazz pianists of the modern era, best known for his contributions to the classic John Coltrane Quartet (appearing on the albums A Love Supreme, Ballads, Crescent, […]Archive
February 18, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
R.I.P. Jon Christensen
Jon Christensen has died, aged 76. The Norwegian drummer was one of the greats of Euro jazz working with Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Tomasz Stanko and many others. It wasn’t just European jazz artists that he worked with – though he was a staple of the ECM label. That of course meant he worked with […]Archive
January 19, 2020 by Simon Sweetman