We'd been discussing the demise of William S. Burroughs in Mark's item
#32; if nothing else, Burroughs rates a mention here for his work with 
Laurie Anderson.  But in the same day's paper, on the page facing the 
Burroughs obituary, was another obit for Fela Kuti, of Nigeria.

244 responses total.

I noticed that. I suppose we'll soon see Geo Harrison's obit. 

  Any reason to anticipate Harrison's demise (or is it just the old
  "celebrity deaths always come in threes" thing?)

  Burroughs worked with a fairly wide variety of musical artists.
  In addition to his work with Laurie Anderson on "Mr. Heartbreak"
  he had more involvement with projects by Material (contrary to
  appearances I do *not* receive kickbacks on sales of this album,
  I just like to plug it,) Disposable Heroes of Hiphophrisy, and
  several other bands..

William Burrough's also wrote, and appeared on Tom Wait's fantastic "Black
Rider" album, did work with Kurt Cobain, Tony Trischka, and I believe
had some involement with Throbbing Gristle.  I also like Fela Kunti, BTW.

I remember Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie died within months of each other,
about five years ago.  it was a sad time for the jazz community..

Harrison's been diagnosed with lymphoma. Already removed one big lump, and
I heard it's pretty well spread around.

  Lymphoma can be beat. I'd imagine that he'll be doing the chemo/radiation
thing, but since he's reletivly young, he should beat it.

KNock on vinyl.

Blues guitarist Luther Allison, who had appeared at the Ann Arbor Blues and
Jazz Festival in the late 1960's, died Tuesday, August 12, of lung and brain
cancer.  Luther Allison was 57.

The Times had an obit for Conlon Nancarrow, who composed for player 
piano by punching lots of extra holes in the paper.  
My limited exposure to Nancarrow was on an old sampler EP from 
Columbia, the same one which introduced me to Harry Partch.

Wow...I had no idea Nancarrow lived this long.  I had thought he died a while
ago.

Today's Freep has a short notice too. Interesting sort of guy!

  the latest famous musician death seems to be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,
  a Pakistani singer who had gained popularity in the US in recent years
  through exposure from Peter Gabriel's RealWorld label and through
  collaborations with popular alternative musicians.  He died Saturday
  in a London hospital

  More info at http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9708/16/nusrat.ap/index.html

re #12 What a bummer, I like his stuff at least the more tradational stuff
he does that I have on CD.

I had the good fortune of seeing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan here in town a few
years ago.  A great show.  It's a real pity he's no longer with us...

I saw Cab Calloway a couple years before he died, and also saw Sun Ra about
a year before his death.  See those icons now, since next year they may move
on to the next dimension...

I saw Dottie West perform at Hill Auditorium about a year before her 
death.

Scott, did you see Cab with the Detroit symphony? Good show , GREAT voice,
relativly uninspired performance by the symphony, tho.

No, I saw him with a regular big band at MSU.  Great show.

John Denver has died.  His ultralight aircraft crashed into the ocean 
off Monterey, California.

I couldn't believe it when someone told me.  I jokingly thought it was an
alcohol-related accident.  Well, despite all the fun that's been made of him
(as his music is so..bland and almost cheesy), I miss him.

At Trailblazers this afternoon, during a "Jam Session," a lady in a 
wheelchair honored the late John Denver (never thought I'd be hearing 
that so soon) with an a capella rendintion of "Sunshine On My Shoulder."

My roommate, Jeremey, has an interesting story concerning John Denver. When
he was a young teenager, he saw John in concert somewhere in southern Florida.
He and his brother went to the hotel where John and company were staying
hoping to get an autograph. Jeremey had John's first album, hoping to get it
signed. He and his brother were standing in the lobby, when John came walking
by fairly fast. Jeremey and his brother had to run to catch up. They asked
for autographs, and John stopped and explained that he was in a huge hurry,
and maybe another time. Well, an old couple standing nearby (around 80 years
old, supposedly) heard John refuse the autograph, and they came over and the
woman tore into John, shaming him into giving Jeremey and his brothers
autographs. This is not to say anything bad about John at all. I don't know
his situation at the time. He's a great musician, and has made some beautiful
music, and I really regret that I never got to see him live. 

        The lead singer of the Austrailian group INXS died earlier
this weekend.

        I know two poeple that have met John Denver.  Each with their
own story.  Another musician, Steve Macdonald, will proudfully say
that without John Denver, he never would have picked up/bought a
guitar; theirfore he never would have come to know many people he
enjoys being around today.

  re #23:  I hadn't heard that yet, so I checked out the "Music News
  of the World" at the Addicted to Noise site..  It had this to say:

    Michael Hutchence, the lead singer for INXS, was found dead in
    a Sydney, Australia hotel room on Saturday. Local reports say
    the charismatic and broodingly handsome singer hanged himself
    by his own belt, according to Retuters news service. He was 37.

    Hutchence's suicide comes just before the band was to embark
    on a 20th anniversary tour of Australia following the release
    earlier this year of their most recent album Elegantly Wasted.

  How unexpected and tragically pointless...

Hutchence seems to have shadowed the death of one of the most important
music writers: Robert Palmer (*no* not the Power Station Robert Palmer,
different guy.)  HE wrote _Deep Blues_ which is probably the most autoritative
book on the subject of The Blues, and wrote the companion book to the PBS
series _Rock and Roll: An Unruly History_  The book is more complete and more
accurate than the series (don;t get me wron the series was excellent) He
was in his lat 40's and dies waiting for a liver transplant.

Also the rumours that either Paul Weller or Gary Glitter died are untrue,
although Gary may wish he was dead soon.

I saw that Stephan Grappeli, the jazz violinist died recently. 

NPR had a piece on him. I'm no jazz afficianado, but he could sure
play the fiddle.

Grappeli's obituary appeared in this morning's New York Times.
He was 89 years old and an active performer from the 1920's
until just a year or so ago, when his health began to fail.

Grappeli was a wonderful jazz musician. One of my favorite
vinyls is a re-issue of work he did with guitarist Django
Reinhardt in the 1930's.

Guitarist Michael Hedges died from injuries received in a car accident over
the weekend, he was 42 or 43.  I believe he was also a co-founder of the
Windham Hill record label.

Nicolette Larson died last week at the age of 45.

Re #30 And I still can't get her rendition of "Lotta Love" out of my 
mind.

Yep, whatta song.

        I came across two songs by Nicolette Larson on a Christmas
CD "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on Rhino.  She does
'One Bright Star' and 'Nothing But A Child'.

Pianist Floyd Kramer died of cancer at the age of 64 towards the end of 
1997.  His biggest solo hit was "Last Date" in the early 1960's, but he 
did play backup piano on Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" among other 
works.

Locally:  Geoff Streadwick, 26, co-owner of 40 Ounce. Sound, ex-Gondolier
bassist, and ex-Morsel guitarist.  Geoff was one of my best friends.
His influence on the Ann Arbor music scene was immesurable.  There will
be a memorial gathering Sunday Jan 4th from 2-6 pm at 40 Ounce Sound,
5007 Jackson Rd.  Jan 4th would have been Geoff's 27th birthday.

   yikes, goose, i'm sorry to hear that.

My mom had a few of Floyd Kramer's records. Good country piano.
I hear Sonny Bono crashed into a tree while skiing and died. 
"And the beat goes on"

Looks like bmoran beat me to it, e.g., the death of entertainer turned
Congressperson Sonny Bono.  Ironically, Bono's death came less than a week
after Michael Kennedy's life came to the same tragic end.  

Something tells me that tragic events like these come in groups of three.

Carl Perkins succumbed to a series of strokes today at the age of 65.  His
biggest hit was the classic "Blue Suede Shoes," which was covered by Elvis
Presley.  Other songs he wrote/performed include "Matchbox," "Honey Don't,"
and "Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby," which were covered by the Beatles
early in their career.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss