Jimmy Castor, Funk Saxophonist Sampled by Numerous Rappers, Dead at 64

Jimmy Castor, an acclaimed disco-funk saxophonist whose classic horn lines have been sampled by such hip-hop artists as Kanye West, N.W.A. and Eric B. and Rakim, died Monday, Jan. 16 in Las Vegas of unknown causes, Prefix reports. He was 64.

Born in New York City in 1947, Castor is best known for leading the disco-era group the Jimmy Castor Bunch, whose 'Troglodyte (Cave Man)' was a No. 4 R&B hit in 1972. Prior to forming that outfit, he played with numerous bands, and in the late '50s, he found his initial success as a singer, taking over for Frankie Lymon in the doo-wop group the Teenagers.

While 'Troglodyte' was his highest-charting single, another 1972 tune, 'It's Just Begun,' has perhaps proved his most enduring. The tune has been sampled by dozens of hip-hop artists, and in appears in the memorable breakdancing scene from the 1983 film 'Flashdance.'

Known as "The Everything Man," Castor was more than just a singer and horn player. As his website points out, he was also a respected producer, songwriter and arranger, and he penned his first million-selling single, 'I Promise to Remember,' before leaving high school.

Johnny Otis , R&B Innovator Passed Away

Johnny Otis, the white child of Greek immigrants who aligned himself with black culture and became a pioneer of rhythm & blues music, died Jan. 17 in the Los Angeles area at age 90. A cause of death was not reported. Best known as the author of the R&B staple “Willie and the Hand Jive,” Otis’ career as a singer, musician, bandleader, songwriter, producer, arranger, talent scout, author, impresario and disc jockey spanned more than six decades.

Born John Veliotes Dec. 21, 1921 in Vallejo, Calif., and raised in Berkeley, Otis grew up among African-Americans and decided early in his youth that he preferred black culture and would live his life as a member of the black community. Otis, who played drums, vibraphone and percussion, began performing with swing bands in the early 1940s and by the middle of that decade had formed his own band, which would over time include R&B stars Little Esther Phillips, Charles Brown and the Robins, who would later morph into the Coasters. Otis scored his first R&B chart-topper in 1950 with “Double Crossing Blues” on the Savoy label.

Relocating to the Los Angeles area in 1943—he would live there most of his life—Otis gravitated toward the emerging rhythm & blues style of the late ’40s and quickly established himself as a prime mover, despite the fact that virtually no other white musicians were involved with the music at that time in a performing capacity. One of his earliest hits, “Harlem Nocturne,” became an R&B staple.

Otis also had an ear for new talent and is credited with discovering several top names in the R&B genre, among them Etta James (he co-wrote and produced her first hit, “The Wallflower”), Big Jay McNeely, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John and Hank Ballard, the latter three as a talent scout for King Records. In 1952, Otis worked with a young Little Richard, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (he produced her pre-Elvis “Hound Dog”) and Johnny Ace at the Houston-based Peacock label.

Otis started his own label, Dig Records, in 1955, but it only last a few years. His output of hit records also dried up through most of the ’50s, until he signed with Capitol Records, resulting in the massively successful “Willie and the Hand Jive” in 1958—the recording, built upon the trademark “Bo Diddley beat,” reached the Top 10 of both the R&B and pop charts and became Otis’ signature tune. Otis later disavowed his “rock ’n’ roll years,” saying his recordings of that period were creatively weak, although he stood by his biggest hit because he felt it was true to the black music tradition.

Otis continued to record into the 1960s and beyond (often as the Johnny Otis Show) and although his days on the charts ended with the ’60s, he remained a formidable presence on the R&B scene as a popular radio and television host in the L.A. area, and he continued to exert an influence through his other endeavors. One of his most famous compositions was “Every Beat of My Heart,” first recorded by the Royals and later a major hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips. In 1969 he recorded a risqué album under the name Snatch and the Poontangs. The following year he played at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Esther Phillips and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.

Meanwhile, his son, guitarist Shuggie Otis, became a popular blues and R&B-based rock artist who often performed in tandem with his father. Johnny Otis became politically involved (he ran for California State Assembly and lost) and also served as pastor of his own Landmark Church. In 1968 he published a Civil Rights-related book, Listen to the Lambs, and in 1994 he authored Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue, a chronicle of the Los Angeles R&B scene. He also painted, sculpted and even sold his own brand of apple juice and ran a grocery store in northern California. After his move north, he also hosted a popular radio program on KPFA, The Johnny Otis Show.

Johnny Otis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a “non-performer,” despite his many recordings and decades as a bandleader. He retired from performing in 2006.

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke dies at 29

The pioneering Canadian freestyler, who helped get
superpipe accepted into the Olympics, died Thursday
after a Jan. 10 crash during a training run in Park City,
Utah.
Burke, who lived near Whistler, in British Columbia, was
29.
Tests revealed she sustained "irreversible damage to
her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac
arrest," according to a statement released by her
publicist, Nicole Wool, on behalf of the family.

Dear Friends,

It is with heavy heart that I write these words. On Wednesday, January 18th, our good friend, Yuri Rasovsky, passed-away. He had been battling cancer for the past year.

Born on July 29, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, Yuri worked professionally in theatre and broadcasting as an actor, writer, director, and producer since 1970. In 1972, he founded the National Radio Theatre of Chicago. He has since created hundreds of radio productions that have been aired around the world. In 1993, Yuri formed the Hollywood Theatre of the Ear, where he prolifically produced audio theatre works, many of which were commissioned by Blackstone Audio.

In his forty year career as an audio dramatist, writer, producer, and director, Yuri has won numerous awards, among which are two Peabody Awards, nine Audie Awards, and a Grammy. Two of his works are Grammy Award finalists this year.

In my opinion, Yuri was the greatest audio dramatist of our modern age. I have often compared him to Orson Welles. Passionately wedded to his work, he would not accept anything less than perfection. As a writer, Yuri demanded every bit as much of himself as he did of his performers. As a producer, he was brilliant and relentless. I believe everyone who worked with him will attest to his genius and his zeal.

Yuri has left behind an incredible body of creative work, a vast array of devoted friends and fellow artists, and the love of his life, Lorna Raver, with whom he lived in Los Angeles.

We at Blackstone Audio will remember Yuri best by his self-appointed, self-deprecating, cheeky nickname, “El Fiendo.” Despite his best efforts to maintain his hard, curmudgeonly persona, all of us who were fortunate enough to know him well saw the soft underbelly of a beautiful human being. He will be sincerely missed.

Sincerely,
Craig Black, Founder and CEO

Etta James has died.

Didn't catch this until today but what a bummer. I got super into 'Troglodyte' this past year, putting it on mixes to terrify my friends, listening to it non-stop on my iPod. I even freaked out an NHL fighter, via twitter, by suggesting it to him.

Etta James dead

Etta James, the iconic R&B diva who rose to fame in the mid-’50s and remained active until late last year when it was announced that she had terminal leukemia, died this morning, January 20, at age 73 in Riverside, Calif. In addition to leukemia, James suffered from dementia and kidney failure. Ten years ago she underwent gastric bypass surgery to deal with a weight problem that had found her reaching 400 pounds.
Ettajames_credit_alanmercercopy_span3
Alan Mercer

Etta James

James—whose hits included the R&B chart-topper “The Wallflower,” the raucous soul shouter “Tell Mama,” its equally popular B-side “I’d Rather Go Blind” (which actually never charted in Billboard), and the definitive reading of the ballad “At Last”—was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, as well as the Blues Hall of Fame. A six-time Grammy winner and recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, James’ passing fell three days after that of Johnny Otis, the musician and bandleader credited with giving James her start.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. 25, 1938 in Los Angeles, Etta James was the daughter of a single mother (she believed her father to be the legendary pool player Minnesota Fats) and was raised by caregivers. She began singing in church at age 5, and in her early teens, now living in San Francisco, she joined a singing group, the Creolettes. She was discovered by Otis, who arranged for her to sign with Modern Records in 1954. Early the following year she recorded “The Wallflower,” which reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. Originally subtitled “Roll With Me Henry,” then changed to “Dance With Me Henry” to avoid problems with censors, the record was a response to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me Annie.”

James left Modern for the Chess Records subsidiary Argo Records and continued to place records in the R&B Top 10 into the early ’60s, among them “Good Rockin’ Daddy,” “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “If I Can’t Have You,” “My Dearest Daddy,” “At Last” (in early 1961), “Trust In Me,” “Don’t Cry, Baby,” “Something’s Got a Hold on Me,” “Stop the Wedding” and “The Pushover.” Embraced by the rock ’n’ roll audience as well as R&B fans, she ultimately placed 28 singles on the Billboard pop chart. Her last major hit, the gutsy “Tell Mama,” written by Clarence Carter, was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Ala., and released on the Cadet label (another Chess offshoot) in late 1967. It was later covered by Janis Joplin, one of many avowed fans among rock and soul artists.

James was prized for her ability to effortlessly fuse various styles into her own, including jazz (as early as her 1967 Tell Mama album), blues, gospel and pop. Although her presence on the record sales chart diminished, she continued to evolve with the times and remained an in-demand concert attraction. Due to drug addiction and alcohol, which plagued her from the 1960s and are detailed in her autobiography Rage to Survive, she was largely sidelined through much of the '80s, until overcoming her problems late in that decade (although she sang at the Olympics in 1984 and appeared in the Chuck Berry concert film Hal! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll), when she signed with Island Records and released the Jerry Wexler-produced album The Seven Year Itch. Meanwhile, her early recordings found favor with new audiences, particularly “At Last,” featured in a car commercial and several films.

Further recordings found James incorporating funk and hip-hop but it was Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday, her 1993 album for Private Records, that won James her first Grammy, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. She returned to jazz often in her later career, while continuing to record and perform blues and R&B material. She performed at numerous jazz festivals, including Montreux, Monterey and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She released her final album, The Dreamer, last November.

James’ performances were often salacious—she delighted audiences with raunchy speech and often simulated sexual acts on stage. “Etta is earthy and gritty, ribald and out there in a way that few performers have the guts to be,” singer Bonnie Raitt wrote in a 2005 article for Rolling Stone magazine. “You can’t overestimate her influence.”

At last, indeed. Goodnight, sweet lady.

Joe Paterno has died.

DICK TUFELD, the voice of the “Lost in Space” Robot has died, his long
time pal and costar BILL MUMY announced via Facebook.

Mumy, who starred on the Irwin Allen classic space opera as Will
Robinson, posted on his official Facebook page, “Dick Tufeld was a
really cool guy. He's reunited with his wife Adrian now. R.I.P. Dick.
You will be missed bigtime.”


In addition to voicing the Robot, Tufeld was a familiar voice actor
having served time announcing the exploits of the super-sub Seaview on
“Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, “Time Tunnel” and in commercials
for the bubble bath Mr. Bubble.


Mumy later posted a jazz video, “This one's for Dick Tufeld. He was
close friends with Miles Davis. Peace on your journey, pal...”


Ironically. Tufeld also was the announcer on various Disney TV shows
including the 1957-59 series, Zorro, which starred future Lost in
Space lead Guy Williams.


He also reprised in his role as the Robot in the 1998 feature "Lost in
Space" which starred Matt LeBlanc.


“Danger! Danger!” Just won’t be the same without Dick saying it.
Adios, amigo . . .

"Warning, Will Robinson! Warning, Will Robinson!"

ATHENS, Greece -- Theo Angelopoulos, an award-winning Greek filmmaker known for his slow and dreamlike style as a director, was killed in a road accident Tuesday while working on his latest movie. He was 76.

Police and hospital officials said Angelopoulos suffered serious head injuries and died at a hospital after being hit by a motorcycle while walking across a road close to a movie set near Athens' main port of Piraeus.

The driver, also injured and hospitalized, was later identified as an off-duty police officer.

The accident occurred while Angelopoulos was working on his upcoming movie "The Other Sea."

Angelopoulos had won numerous awards for his movies, mostly at European film festivals, during a career that spanned more than 40 years.

In 1995, he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for "Ulysses' Gaze," starring American actor Harvey Keitel.

Born in Athens in 1935, Angelopoulos lived through the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and the ensuing 1946-49 Greek Civil War - recurring themes in his early films.

He studied law at Athens University, but eventually lost interest and moved to France where he studied film at the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris.

After returning to Greece, he worked as a film critic for a small, left-wing newspaper and started to make films during the 1967-74 dictatorship.

Described as mild-mannered but uncompromising, Angelopoulos' often sad and slow-moving films mostly dealt with issues from Greece's turbulent recent history: war, exile, immigration and political division.

It was not until 1984 with "Voyage to Kythera" that his scripts were written in collaboration with others.

Angelopoulos mostly attracted art-house audiences, using established actors including Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau in two of his most widely acclaimed films, "The Bee Keeper" and "The Suspended Stride of the Stalk."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/24/4211971/g...l#storylink=cpy

John Levy, the first black jazz business manager

John Levy, a bassist who became a prominent manager of major jazz artists, died Jan. 20 in Altadena, Calif., at age 99. A cause of death for the NEA Jazz Master was not revealed, although Levy had recently been treated for heart problems. Credited as the first African-American business manager in the jazz field, Levy’s clients included, at various times, Freddie Hubbard, Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Ramsey Lewis, Ahmad Jamal, Abbey Lincoln and others.

Born in 1912 in New Orleans, Levy grew up in Chicago, where he first took up the bass in his teens. After working regularly in Chicago, he moved to New York while a member of violinist Stuff Smith’s band. He also played behind such jazz giants as Billie Holiday, Billy Taylor and Lennie Tristano and recorded with Erroll Garner, among others. Levy became a member of British pianist George Shearing’s quintet in the late ’40s and began taking on business responsibilities for the band, which led to Levy, who was self-taught in business, forming his own management company, John Levy Enterprises, in 1951. Shearing became Levy’s first client, and Levy’s management roster eventually took on numerous other clients—others who trusted Levy with their business affairs included Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Shirley Horn, Herbie Hancock and Joe Williams. He also managed comedian Arsenio Hall.

Levy was awarded with the NEA Jazz Master designation in 2006.

AMSTERDAM—Nicol Williamson, the British actor best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film "Excalibur," has died of esophageal cancer, his son said Wednesday. He was 75.

His son Luke said the actor died Dec. 16 in Amsterdam, where he had lived for more than two decades.

Williamson had dozens of film credits to his name but won more plaudits for his stage acting. Playwright John Osborne once described him as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando."

He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966 for his role in Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" and again in 1974 for Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." He also was nominated three times for acting honors at the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.

In films, he was an acclaimed wizard Merlin in John Boorman's "Excalibur" and also played Little John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn's Lady Marian in the 1976 movie "Robin and Marian."

Luke Williamson described his father as multi-talented and multi-faceted.

"He could do it all," Williamson said in a telephone interview. "He could sing, he wrote poetry, he wrote prose, he wrote a book ... He was working on a CD in the year leading up to his illness, and he finished it while he was going through chemotherapy."

Nicol Williamson won rave reviews for his theater work but never warmed to the acting scene, which Luke described as self-congratulatory and insincere.

"Dad didn't play that game," he said. "One of the tremendous things about Nicol was that he was always straight up with you."

The Dutch capital appealed to Nicol in part because the city was "a very easy place to live" while being close to Britain and the rest of Europe. As he left the theater behind, he gravitated more toward musical projects, including the CD, which Luke said would eventually be released on his father's website.

Luke Williamson said his father was also survived by his wife, Jill Townsend. Williamson's death was first confirmed by his son Wednesday on his father's website.

Robert Hegyes, the Jersey-born actor who played Jewish Puerto-Rican wheeler-dealer Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein on the 1970s classic "Welcome Back Kotter," died after an apparent heart attack in his Metuchen home this morning. He was 60.

Hegyes, who also co-starred on "Cagney and Lacey" and taught occasional master classes at his alma mater, Rowan University, was best known for his work on "Kotter," in which he performed alongside a young John Travolta as one of the tough remedial students known at the Sweathogs. Hegyes and nearly all of the original cast members reunited last year at the TV Land Awards to recognize the show's 35th anniversary.

On his website, Hegyes wrote that he modeled the swaggering, skirt-chasing Epstein after Chico Marx, whom he played in a national touring production of "A Night With Groucho." He was a big fan of the Marx Brothers: "They were immigrant Jews, and I was an immigrant Italian. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo were intellectuals ... They all played the piano and took music lessons, and they were all juvenile delinquents; I could definitely relate."

Hegyes had suffered a heart attack a couple of years ago and was not in good health, his brother Mark Hegyes of Montana said. Metuchen police responded to a call for medical assistance from Hegyes' home at 9:02 a.m., and Hegyes, who was experiencing chest pains, was taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison, police said. By the time he arrived at the emergency room at 9:40 a.m., he was in full cardiac arrest and died, according to hospital spokesman Steven Weiss.
robert-hegyes-welcome-back-kotter-juan-epstein-dead-60.JPGGETTY IMAGESLast year, Hegyes, second from left, and other cast members of "Welcome Back, Kotter," (from left, Marcia Strassman, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, John Travolta, Ellen Travolta and Gabe Kaplan ) accepted the 35th Anniversary Award at the 9th Annual TV Land Awards.

Hegyes, whose father was Hungarian-American and whose mother was Italian-American, grew up in Perth Amboy and Metuchen. He was one of the kids equally at home on the gridiron and in the footlights. His nickname: Chico. He wrote that his mother, a big Broadway musical and Frank Sinatra fan, stoked his theatrical ambitions, making him sing along with Ol' Blue Eyes and "incessantly" to "Maria" from "West Side Story."

He graduated from Rowan University (then Glassboro State College) with a bachelor's degree in speech/theater and secondary education -- Rowan spokesman Joe Cardona called him a "great friend" of the school, noting that he sported a Rowan shirt while co-starring as Det. Esposito on "Cagney and Lacey" -- and quickly found work in New York, co-starring Off-Broadway in "Naomi Court" and in the Broadway drama "Don't Call Back." He was then cast as Epstein, a role he played for "Kotter"'s four-season run on ABC.

Following "Kotter" and "Cagney & Lacey," he continued to act on television, mostly in guest-starring roles including "NewsRadio," "Diagnosis Murder" and "The Drew Carey Show," and made occasional films, including "Bob Roberts" with Tim Robbins. He also taught at Brooks College of Long Beach, Calif., and wrote screenplays. Peter Loewy, who runs the Forum Theatre Arts Center in Metuchen, says he planned to work with Hegyes on a one-man show a year or so ago, but Hegyes' health problems -- he needed a hip replacement, among other things -- put it on hold indefinitely. "He was a gentle guy," Loewy remembers. "He had, ironically, a big heart."

Hegyes was retired but still talked about directing and getting more involved in local arts efforts, Mark Hegyes said. "He always had these great schemes," his brother said, "but last week he said I'm not going to do that anymore."

Hegyes leaves behind three siblings, two children, Cassie and Mack, and two step-children, Sophia and Alex.

Visitation will be at Flynn & Son Funeral Home at 23 Ford Ave., Fords, on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The funeral will take place during the evening visiting hours.

He better have a note from his mother.

Patricia Neway (1919-2012)
By Kevin Daly

Operatic soprano and Tony-winner Patricia Neway, best known for her associations with Gian Carlo Menotti and Rodgers and Hammerstein, died peacefully in her home in Corinth, Vermont on January 24, 2012 of natural causes. Ms. Neway was 92.


Born in Brooklyn, in 1919, Neway studied at the Mannes College of Music, making her professional debut in the Broadway chorus of Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne in 1942. Her first leading role in an opera came courtesy of a 1942 production of Cosi fan Tutti with the Chautauqua Opera. Neway performed regularly with the NYCO from 1951-1966, making her debut in the world premiere of Tamkin’s The Dybbuk and originating The Mother in Weisgall’s Six Characters in Search of an Author (opposite Beverly Sills). The soprano was featured soloist of the Opera Comique in Paris from 1952-54, singing Tosca and Katherina Mihaylovna in Risurrezione, as well as principal singer in the first two seasons of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.


A self-proclaimed hybrid, Ms. Neway famously helped Menotti bring opera to Broadway. She created a sensation as Magda Sorel in the Pulitzer Prize winning original Broadway production of The Consul, in which she stopped the show with the climactic aria “To This We’ve Come.” She would go onto sing the role in the opera’s London and Paris premieres, and later recreated the role for television in 1960. Her association with Menotti continued with Maria Golovin, a role she premiered in Brussels in 1957, which she later played on Broadway and with the NYCO. Neway also appeared in NYCO productions of The Medium and Amahl and the Night Visitors.


Most notably, Ms. Neway originated the role of the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music opposite star Mary Martin, introducing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” to the public. She won the Best Featured Actress Tony for her efforts. In the 1960s, her association with Rodgers and Hammerstein continued with revivals of The King and I (Lady Thiang) at Lincoln Center and Carousel (Nettie Fowler) at the City Center. Neway also appeared in a 1967 TV version of the latter starring Robert Goulet. (I’m not one hundred percent positive, but I think Ms. Neway is the only person to have played these three roles in major NY productions).


The dramatic soprano retired to Corinth, VT where she lived with her husband John Francis Byrne, who passed away in 2008. Speaking with Ms. Neway’s niece today, I learned that the soprano enjoyed her life immensely, from the success of her career to the privacy of her retirement. On February 25, Vermont Public Radio will be live streaming a retrospective on the soprano’s career.

Veteran director John Rich, who worked on a number of TV classics including "All in the Family," "Gunsmoke" and "Gilligan's Island," has died.

He was 86.

He directed the pilot for "All in the Family" and spent four years directing and producing the classic comedy for which he won two DGA Awards and three Emmys. Rich was prolific, directing more than 40 episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" as well as "Bonanza," "The Rifleman," "The Twilight Zone" and "Murphy Brown."

Rich was also a board member of the Directors Guild for more than 50 years, and was a key player in the union's 196- merger ith the Radio and Television Driectors Guild and was integral to the formation of the pension and health plans.

DGA President Taylor Hackford on Sunday morning issues a statement on Rich, which read :

“We are deeply saddened to learn today of the passing of John Rich. A legendary figure in the history of TV comedy, John tirelessly served our Guild for nearly six decades. He directed some of the most beloved classics of all time and his skills as a television director were unsurpassed, but no matter how busy and successful his career was, John always made time for the DGA.

“No one who ever sat in a meeting with John will ever forget his stories about the early days of the Guild or his lovably salty sense of humor. John began making an impact in the Guild from the very first time he attended a meeting of what was then the Screen Directors Guild. At that meeting, he had the chutzpah to point out that of the illustrious members – including Capra, Stevens, Wyler and Hitchcock – who had convened to elect a board of directors, none had ever worked in television. And the very next day – John got a call that they had appointed him – this brash young television wunderkind, as an alternate member of the new board. And once he began serving the Guild, he never stopped, with more than 50 years on the National Board and Western Directors Council, and even after his retirement continued serving as the Chairman of the Directors Guild Foundation.

“But what we’ll remember the most is his dedication to defending the economic and creative rights of our members, pushing for the merger of the Screen Directors Guild and Radio & Television Directors Guild, establishing the Pension Plan and serving on almost every Negotiations Committee since 1960. We’ll always be grateful to have had the benefit of his formidable presence, his outspoken nature and his years of experience that came from leading and supporting the Guild in some of its most important moments. Our hearts go out to his wife Pat and his family at this difficult time.”

'Soul Train' creator Don Cornelius found dead

By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY



Don Cornelius, the man behind classic 1970's dance show Soul Train, was found dead in his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home this morning.

TMZ reports that law enforcement sources say he died from a gunshot wound to the head and officials believe it was self-inflicted. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Cornelius was 75.

Margaret Runyan Castaneda, 90, debunked much of husband/author Carlos Castaneda’s mysticism
(From The Los Angeles Times on Jan. 31, 2012.)
GLENDALE, Ariz. – They were an unlikely couple, the Latin American immigrant and the West Virginia divorcee whose paths crossed in mid-1950s Los Angeles.

But, by Margaret Runyan Castaneda’s account, she and Carlos Castaneda were kindred spirits whose time together helped turn him into a countercultural phenomenon.

Carlos wrote “The Teachings of Don Juan,” a 1968 bestseller that told of his peyote-fueled adventures with Don Juan Matus, a Mexican shaman who purportedly guided him to an alternate realm inhabited by giant insects, witches and flying humans. Presented as an anthropological work, the book resounded with a generation of youthful rebels who turned the 1970s into a rollicking era of social and pharmacological experimentation.

Decades after their marriage ended, Margaret wrote her own book, which punctured some of the mystery surrounding the man who came to be viewed as either a godfather of New Age or one of its greatest charlatans.

“Much of the Castaneda mystique is based on the fact that even his closest friends aren’t sure who he is,” Margaret wrote in her 1996 book “A Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda.”

Margaret, who has died at 90, said she believed that Don Juan was an extravagant fiction drawn from many sources, including conversations and activities she shared with Carlos during their long, tangled relationship. She went so far as to describe her ex-husband’s books, which include “A Separate Reality” (1971) and seven other bestsellers, as “our biography.”

Her death Dec. 24 in Glendale, Ariz., from a heart attack was confirmed by her only survivor, son C.J. Castaneda, also known as Adrian Vashon. His birth certificate lists Carlos as his father even though his biological father was a different man.

Many puzzles surround Carlos Castaneda’s legacy, including whether his marriage to and divorce from Margaret were ever official.

“She was a very engaging person, who was interested in the things that Carlos was interested in at that time,” said Douglass R. Price-Williams, who was a UCLA anthropology professor when Carlos was a graduate student there in the early 1970s.

“She saw through some of his mythmaking, but not all of it,” the professor said. “She was sort of confused herself. Anyone who knew him any length of time was confused about the man.… It didn’t surprise me at all that comes across in her book.”

Born Nov. 14, 1921, in Charleston, W. Va., Margaret Runyan was the oldest of six children of a dairy farmer who, according to her son, read her the entire Book of Knowledge, a popular children’s encyclopedia.

In the late 1930s, after graduating from high school, she briefly worked for Union Carbide before heading west and settling in California. She found a job in Los Angeles at Pacific Bell, eventually rising to night chief operator.

She met Carlos in 1955 when her dressmaker’s daughter delivered some garments to her apartment. The daughter brought a friend she introduced as “Carlos from South America.”

For Margaret, an attractive brunet who was some years older than Carlos, it was enchantment at first sight.

She already was immersed in the philosophy of Neville Goddard, a metaphysics teacher with a burgeoning L.A. following. The next time she saw Carlos, she slipped him her phone number inside a copy of Goddard’s book about controlling one’s dreams, a power that Carlos later claimed he learned from Don Juan. They began dating several months later and in 1960 were married in Mexico.

According to Margaret’s memoir, Carlos had been deceptive since the beginning of their relationship, telling her, for instance, that he was born in Brazil, the son of a professor. Legal documents would later show that he was born in Peru and was the son of a goldsmith.

She theorized that Carlos came up with the name Don Juan Matus because of their mutual enjoyment of Mateus wine, which, she wrote, “he jokingly referred to as his most valuable teacher.”

She also suggested that Carlos was inspired to structure his books as a conversation with Don Juan because of a remark she once made about Plato turning Socrates into a character in his famous dialogues.

“His books are conversations he is holding with himself,” Margaret told author Richard de Mille in “The Don Juan Papers,” a collection of essays critical of Carlos’ work.

Leslie Carter – the sister of Nick and Aaron Carter – has died, a spokesperson for the Carter family has confirmed to Access Hollywood.

“Our family is grieving right now and it’s a private matter. We are deeply saddened for the loss of our beloved sister, daughter, and granddaughter, Leslie Carter,” the Carter family said in a statement to Access on Tuesday night. “We request the utmost privacy during this difficult time.”

Leslie, an aspiring singer, was 25.

She died earlier in the day on Tuesday in upstate New York. No further details on Leslie’s death were immediately available.

In 2008, she married her husband Mike.

In July 2010, Leslie reportedly announced on her Twitter page that she was pregnant with her first child. Leslie reportedly gave birth to daughter Alyssa Jane Ashton on April 1, 2011.

In 1999, Leslie reportedly signed a record deal with Dreamworks Records and began working on a debut album. However, the album was never released.

Her single, “Like Wow!,” was featured on the “Shrek” soundtrack in 2001.

Poland’s 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska, whose simple words and playful verse plucked threads of irony and empathy out of life, has died. She was 88.

Szymborska, a heavy smoker, died in her sleep of lung cancer Wednesday evening at her home in the southern city of Krakow, her personal secretary Michal Rusinek said.

She died surrounded by relatives and friends, said Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, a journalist and a friend of the poet.

The Nobel award committee’s citation called her the “Mozart of poetry,” a woman who mixed the elegance of language with “the fury of Beethoven” and tackled serious subjects with humor. While she was arguably the most popular poet in Poland, most of the world had not heard of the shy, soft-spoken Szymborska before she won the Nobel prize.

She has been called both deeply political and playful, a poet who used humor in unforeseen ways. Her verse, seemingly simple, was subtle, deep and often hauntingly beautiful. She used simple objects and detailed observation to reflect on larger truths, often using everyday images — an onion, a cat wandering in an empty apartment, an old fan in a museum — to reflect on grand topics such as love, death and passing time.

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on Twitter that her death was an “irreparable loss to Poland’s culture.”

Last year, President Bronislaw Komorowski honored Szymborska with Poland’s highest distinction, The Order of the White Eagle, in recognition of her contribution to her country’s culture.

Rusinek said on TVN24 that as long as her condition allowed, Szymborska was working on new poems, but she had not had time to arrange them in order for a new book, which she had intended. The book will be published this year, he said.

The Nobel Prize brought a “revolution” into the life of the modest poet and she had to struggle to protect her privacy, Rusinek said, but the prize also was a “great joy, a great honor which brought new friendships and changes for the better.”

Despite six decades of writing, Szymborska had less than 400 poems published.

Asked why, she once said: “There is a trash bin in my room. A poem written in the evening is read again in the morning. It does not always survive.”

Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski said in a statement that Szymborska was candid, authentic and hostile to any form of celebrity.

“She had understanding for others, she understood the weaknesses of others and had huge tolerance for them,” the statement said. “On the other hand, she expected to have a modest place for herself.”

Szymborska was born in the village of Bnin, now part of Kornik, near Poznan in western Poland on July 2, 1923. Eight years later she moved with her parents to Krakow, and developed deep ties to the medieval city, with its rich artistic and intellectual milieu. She lived there until her death.

After the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II, Szymborska found work as a railway clerk to avoid deportation to Germany as a forced laborer. In her free time, she studied at illegal underground universities.

The American surrealist painter and writer Dorothea Tanning, who was married to the late German painter Max Ernst, has died, a spokeswoman says.

Tanning died on Tuesday in New York. She was 101.

"It is my sad duty to announce that Dorothea Tanning has passed away. She died peacefully in her home," Pamela Johnson, director of the Dorothea Tanning Foundation, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tanning joined the surrealist painters' movement after moving to New York from her birthplace in Illinois in the 1930s. There she met Ernst, living with him in the United States and France.

After Ernst's death in 1976 Tanning returned to New York and restarted her career.

"In her mid-70s, she became more productive than ever in her studio, and in her mid-80s launched a new and successful career as a writer and poet," Johnson said. "She worked until her last days, publishing her second book of poems, Coming to That, in the fall of 2011."

Angelo Dundee, the Hall of Fame trainer who guided Muhammad Ali’s career, died of a heart attack Wednesday night in Clearwater. Dundee was 90.

Dundee had been admitted to a Clearwater-area hospital after suffering a blood clot following his return trip from Louisville to celebrate Ali’s 70th birthday two weeks ago, said his son, Jim Dundee. After spending a few days in the hospital, Dundee was transferred to a rehabilitation center, where he died Wednesday.

“He was recuperating and coming along quite well,” Dundee said. “He was already making plans to take a trip to Las Vegas for another event in two weeks.

“Thankfully, the whole family was with him. We have lost a great man.”

Dundee’s legendary training career spanned six decades. He worked with 16 world champions but most notably Ali, the iconic heavyweight champion, whom Dundee guided from his early fights through his first-title winning performance against Sonny Liston, the three epic fights with Joe Frazier, the knockout win over George Foreman and final career bout in 1981.

Dundee’s 40-year link of guiding champions stretched from Willie Pastrano in the 1950s to Foreman’s title-winning performance at age 45 in 1994.

“My dad led a wonderful life,” Jim Dundee said. “Sadly, many of the great people from that generation are gone. This is the end of an era.”

Dundee and his brother and promoter, Chris, made South Florida a boxing destination when Chris opened the 5th Street Gym in the Miami Beach in the early 1950s. For the next 30 years, Chris promoted shows at the nearby Miami Beach Auditorium and Angelo trained many of the fighters who worked out at the Gym and fought in his brother’s cards.

Born Angelo Mirena in Philadelphia, he took the surname Dundee after his older brother Johnny, used it to promote his own boxing career. Angelo moved to New York in the 1940s, where he began his career as a trainer and later settled in Miami Beach, where he joined his brother, Chris.

More than 10 years ago, Dundee and his wife, Helen, moved to Clearwater to be closer to Jim and their daughter Terri Dundee Coughlin. Helen Dundee died in 2010.

In addition to his son and daughter, Dundee is survived by six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral services are pending.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/01/2620...l#storylink=cpy

Artist Mike Kelley was found dead yesterday at his L.A. home of an apparent suicide, as ArtInfo reports. He was 57 years old.
In addition to being a renowned visual artist, Kelley was also a musician. He was a founding member of the proto-punk Detroit band Destroy All Monsters, who earned a cult following with their experimental performance art. Incarnations of the band included members of the Stooges and MC5. In 1994, Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label released a three-disc collection of music by Destroy All Monsters.
Kelley was a longtime friend of Kim Gordon when he created the artwork for Sonic Youth's 1992 album Dirty. Kelley had previously collaborated with Sonic Youth on a piece of music, in 1988, for the New York-based Tellus Audio Cassette series.
Kelley graduated from University of Michigan in 1976, and then moved to L.A., where he studied with Laurie Anderson at the California Institute of the Arts. There he formed the conceptual punk performance group Poetics, as ArtInfo notes. Kelley's solo art career bloomed in the early 1990s, with gallery shows around the world. 

Ben Gazzara Dies at 81
By Brent Lang at TheWrap
Fri Feb 3, 2012 8:20pm EST

Ben Gazzara died Friday of pancreatic cancer, the New York Times reported.

The star of award films and plays such as "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was 81 years old.

Gazzara employed his distinctive, gravel-specked voice and powerful stare most memorably in a series of film collaborations with the director John Cassavetes.

For the maverick director, Gazzara played a collection of bitter spouses and down-on-their heels gamblers and theater directors in films such as "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night."

Like Peter Falk, his co-star in Cassavetes' "Husbands," Gazzara was perfectly suited to the director's signature examinations of bruised men who struggle to articulate and come to grips with their emotions, fears and hopes in a rapidly changing world.

Fittingly, he died the same day that Cassavetes did more than twenty years ago.

Among his other notable film roles were an accused killer in "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), the smooth-talking pornographer Jackie Treehorn in the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" (1998), and a grandfather separating from his wife of 40 years in Todd Solondz's "Happiness"(1998).

Less successful was his starring role opposite his then-lover Audrey Hepburn in Peter Bogdanovich's "They All Laughed" (1981). The romantic comedy was a box office and critical disaster.

As for "Roadhouse" (1989), the critics hated the Patrick Swayze action movie too, but thanks to frequent television play, Gazzara's role as villainous businessman became a cult favorite.

On stage, Gazzara originated the role of the alcoholic, sexually confused Brick in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It helped make his name, but he saw the role go to Paul Newman in the 1958 film adaptation.

Even after Hollywood beckoned, Gazzara was comfortable migrating from stage to screen, making frequent appearances on Broadway. He was nominated for three Tony awards for playing a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain," for doing double duty in two short plays Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” and David Scott Milton’s “Duet," and for playing the alcoholic George in a revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

His last Broadway role came in 2006's acclaimed revival of the social protest drama "Awake and Sing!"

Gazzara's performance in HBO's "Hysterical Blindness" earned him his first Emmy award in 2006. He also earned plaudits for his starring role in the TV movie, "An Early Frost" (1985), one of the first nationally broadcast works to deal with the AIDS crisis.

Gazzara was married three times to Louise Erickson (1951–1957), actress Janice Rule (1961–1979), and German model Elke Stuckmann.

He his survived by Stuckmann, their daughter, and an adopted daughter. Gazzara's brother, Anthony, also survives him.

Producer, director and screenwriter Zalman King, whose credits include erotically-charged films such as "9 1/2 Weeks," "Red Shoe Diaries" and "Wild Orchid," died Friday morning at his Santa Monica home following a six-year battle with cancer. King, whose wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, was at his side at the time of his death, was 70.

Born Zalman Lefkovitz in 1942 in Trenton, N.J., King was primarily known for his racy fare of the '80s and '90s, though his son-in-law, Allison Burnett, told TheWrap that his reputation failed to capture the totality of King's personality.

"Zalman was a far more complex and human artist and man than anyone who only knew him from afar can possibly comprehend," Burnett told TheWrap. "He was a truly magnificent human being."

In his later career, King focused on documentaries about musicians, directing films about country singers Willie Nelson and Dale Watson, and musician Toledo Diamond. Burnett told TheWrap that he also directed music videos for rap groups, typically free of charge.

"He loved to support artists everywhere he went," Burnett said.

Actor Charlie Sheen, a longtime friend of King's offered tribute to the director on his Facebook page Friday.

"The world lost a brilliant and noble soul today," Sheen wrote. "My dear friend of 40 years, Zalman King, just lost his battle with cancer. Fought like a recon Marine til the bitter end. Say a prayer for his amazing wife Pat and their lovely daughters. Safe travels my friend."

King is survived by his wife and their two daughters, screenwriter Chloe King and designer and painter Gillian Lefkovitz.

Wonderful actor. My two favorite Gazzara performances are probably those in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Anatomy of a Murder...RIP.

He wasn't the first-ever movie zombie, but he was the first to appear in George A. Romero's 1968 classic, "Night of the Living Dead."

Actor Bill Hinzman has died of cancer at 75, horror site Dread Central is reporting.

His character, dubbed the Graveyard Zombie, makes an appearance early in the film, staggering towards brother and sister Barbara and Johnny in a cemetery, and killing Johnny. The line, "They're coming to get you, Barbara" is famously delivered by Johnny just before Hinzman comes after the siblings.

Other creatures called zombies had been depicted in film, but it was Romero who introduced the slow-walking, flesh-eating undead that we now think of when we hear the term. The movie is a cinema classic, and thousands of variously decaying zombies have attacked humans in films since then, but Hinzman was the first.

Dread Central had high praise for Hinzman. "Afixture on the convention circuit, Bill was always there with a smile for fans, often appearing in costume as the famed ghoul we all grew up with," site contributor Uncle Creepy (!) wrote.

Hinzman later acted in other horror films, and wrote, produced, edited, directed and starred in 1988's "Flesh Eater," in which he appears to play the same zombie from "Night of the Living Dead." He continued to represent the film that made him famous, even answering questions at a Chicago production of "The Musical of the Living Dead."

Nello Ferrara, creator of Red Hots, dead at 93.

This really hits home. The Ferrara Pan candies were easily some of my favorites growing up. Sure they could sometimes be a little racist ("Cherry Clan"), but I always avoided those, not because of the racial insensitivities...I just didn't like cherry.

Alexander the Grapes and Lemonheads were always my candy of choice. Now they all have the generic -Head moniker, but they still taste fantastic. Simpy a great mix of flavor and texture. I always loved how the outside "skin" of a lemon head was shiny and a little soft (maybe this comment should be in the gay marriage thread that just got bumped).

And who could forget classics like red hots and jawbreakers. Sure the jawbreakers flavors weren't too flashy, and they were a bit staid...but sometimes those classic flavors were the perfect sugar hit.

Anyway, Ferrara will be missed, but thankfully his legacy lives on in my shitty teeth and exhorbitant dental bills.

Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow, a former columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, was killed Friday in a car crash in northern Michigan.

Mr. Zaslow teamed up with some of the country’s most inspirational people to help tell their stories, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Randy Pausch, the subject of Zaslow’s huge hit “The Last Lecture,” which has been translated into 48 languages and sold more than 5 million copies in English alone.

He was a columnist at the Wall Street Journal at the time of his death. He was 53.

Mr. Zaslow, the father of three daughters, was killed in a crash near the northern Michigan town of Elmira at 9 a.m. Friday, according to FOX 2 Detroit, which employs Mr. Zaslow’s wife, anchor Sherry Margolis.

Police said Mr. Zaslow lost control of his car and was hit by a semi-truck on a snow-covered road. He had been in the area previously for a book-signing.

Mr. Zaslow initially worked at the Wall Street Journal from 1983 to 1987, when he entered a Sun-Times contest to replace Ann Landers.

Mr. Zaslow, based in Chicago for the Journal at the time, applied with the intention of writing a Journal column about the experience.

Instead, out of 12,000 applicants, he and Diane Crowley, Ann Landers’ daughter, were chosen to do side-by-side columns.

His column, “All That Zazz,” was wide-ranging. He brought together a group of readers called the Regular Joes who would chime in with advice. He held an annual singles party that drew national attention — and led to many marriages.

Mr. Zaslow launched school supply drives in his column. He also raised untold sums for the Sun-Times charity.

“Jeff was just a bundle of energy,” said Sue Ontiveros, Sun-Times deputy features editor, who spent time as Zaslow’s editor. “He did so well with the column, and his subsequent books, because he was such a compassionate man who was interested in people. He was kind and funny and so humble about his talents. And oh, how he loved Sherry and their girls.”

After leaving the Sun-Times in 2001, he went on to write “The Last Lecture,” “Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope,” “The Girls From Ames,” “The Highest Duty” and “The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for our Daughters.”

Wall Street Journal Editor Robert Thomson told his staff Friday: “Jeff’s writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world and his journalistic life has been a source of inspiration for all journalists.”

A native of Philadelphia, he lived in Michigan.

did not see a post for this guy, but most deserving. i would pay to see a good treatment of this guy's life on the big screen.

link
ROGER BOISJOLY, 1938 - 2012

The night before the 1986 explosion, Boisjoly and four others argued that joints in the shuttle's boosters couldn't withstand a cold-weather launch.

February 07, 2012|Ralph Vartabedian


The 1986 explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and killed seven astronauts shocked the nation, but for one rocket engineer the tragedy became a personal burden and created a lifelong quest to challenge the bureaucratic ethics that had caused the tragedy.

Roger Boisjoly was an engineer at solid rocket booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol and had begun warning as early as 1985 that the joints in the boosters could fail in cold weather, leading to a catastrophic failure of the casing. Then on the eve of the Jan. 28, 1986, launch, Boisjoly and four other space shuttle engineers argued late into the night against the launch.

In cold temperatures, o-rings in the joints might not seal, they said, and could allow flames to reach the rocket's metal casing. Their pleas and technical theories were rejected by senior managers at the company and NASA, who told them they had failed to prove their case and that the shuttle would be launched in freezing temperatures the next morning. It was among the great engineering miscalculations in history.

A little more than a minute after launch, flames shot out of the booster joint, melted through the nearby hydrogen fuel tank and ignited a fireball that was watched by the astronauts' families and much of the nation on television. Boisjoly could not watch the launch, so certain was he that the shuttle would blow up. In the months and years that followed, the disaster changed his career and permanently poisoned his view that NASA could be trusted to make the right decisions when matters came to life and death.

Boisjoly, 73, died of cancer Jan. 6 in Nephi, Utah, though news of his passing was known only in the southwest Utah community where he retired.

The Challenger disaster and the resulting investigation pulled back the curtain on NASA's internal culture, revealing a bureaucracy that had made safety secondary to its launch objectives and to the political support it needed to continue the shuttle program.

"It was the end of the dream," said John Pike, executive director of GlobalSecurity.org and a longtime analyst of U.S. aerospace. "Before the Challenger, you could think about the idea of going boldly where no one had gone before. The accident ended it."

Boisjoly was not the only engineer who attempted to stop the launch and suffered for blowing the whistle. Allan J. McDonald was Thiokol's program manager for the solid rocket booster and became the most important critic of the accident afterward.

When he was pressed by NASA the night before the liftoff to sign a written recommendation approving the launch, he refused, and later argued late into the night for a launch cancellation. When McDonald later disclosed the secret debate to accident investigators, he was isolated and his career destroyed.

The tragedy was particularly hard on Boisjoly, who would sometimes chop wood in the Utah winter to work out his anger.

In a 2003 interview with The Times, he recalled that NASA tried to blackball him from the industry, leaving him to spend 17 years as a forensic engineer and a lecturer on engineering ethics.

When the space shuttle Columbia burned up on reentry in 2003, killing its crew of seven, the accident was blamed on the same kinds of management failures that occurred with the Challenger.

By that time, Boisjoly believed that NASA was beyond reform, some of its officials should be indicted on manslaughter charges and the agency abolished.

NASA's mismanagement "is not going to stop until somebody gets sent to hard rock hotel," Boisjoly said.

"I don't care how many commissions you have. These guys have a way of numbing their brains. They have destroyed $5 billion worth of hardware and 14 lives because of their nonsense."

Boisjoly was born April 25, 1938, and raised in Lowell, Mass., where he graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a degree in mechanical engineering.

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Roberta; daughters Norma Patterson and Darleen Richens, eight grandchildren and three brothers.

Breaking News:

Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dies
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer – 2 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.

At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," ''You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.

Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.

Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.

A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

HOLY SHIT!

Comics artist John Severin has died, according to a statement from the family. The Marvel and EC artist, known for titles including “Two-Fisted Tales” and “The Incredible Hulk” was 90. Severin was also a major contributor to “Cracked” and “MAD.” The New Jersey-born artist died at his Denver, Colorado home on Sunday.




John Severin illustrated Marvel titles including "Sub-Mariner." Marvel Comics.
Former Marvel Comics chairman and president Stan Lee spoke about Severin in a statement from the family released at www.comicsbeat.com.

“He had an art style that was uniquely and distinctly his own,” Lee said. “The minute you looked at his artwork you knew you were looking at a John Severin illustration; it could be no one else. Besides his inimitable style, there was a feeling of total authenticity to whatever he drew, whether it was a Western, a crime story, a superhero saga or a science fiction yarn. Not only was his penciling the very finest, but his inking, too, had a distinctive Severin touch that made every strip he rendered stand out like a winner.”

In a more than 60-year career, Severin illustrated comics for many of the major publishers. He was one of the five cartoonists who founded “MAD,” and illustrated war comics including “Two Fisted Tales” and “Frontline Combat” for EC Comics.

For Marvel, Severin worked as both a penciler and inker. Titles included “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Sub-Mariner” and “Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes.”

Dory Previn

^ Severin was the last of the MAD bullpen when it started as a comic book. Sadness. I spent a lot of hours as a kid trying to ape his (and Elder's) drawing style. His inking was impeccable as was his eye for detail. Kurtzman said Severin was the only artist who could draw buttons properly, where they looked like they were actually holding a garment shut. He had an expert eye for anatomy and knew all of the differences between the facial types around the world.

News broke on Thursday that actor Neil Hope, who achieved fame on the iconic Canadian after-school program Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High and Degrassi: The Next Generation is dead — and has been for five years.

While several news outlets are reporting that news of Hope’s death was made official on Thursday (Feb. 16), the public Facebook group “Let’s Bring The Real Neil Hope (“Wheels” from Degrassi)” features a confirmation of the actor’s death from Hope’s sister-in-law, Tracy Northrup Hope, dated Jan. 12, 2012. At that time, Tracy reported his date of death as Nov. 25, 2007, and indicated he died of natural causes.

Hope reportedly died in Hamilton at age 35.

Hope was born Sept. 24, 1972, in Toronto. His parents were alcoholics — his Degrassi character also struggled with alcoholism — and Hope was candid about his struggle with his parents’ addictions growing up, encouraging teens to speak up and seek help in a 1992 series called Degrassi Talks, which featured the show’s actors discussing issues such as safe sex and addiction. Hope himself struggled with alcohol addiction after the filming of the documentary The Dark Side, which focused on the death of his father.

Former New York Mets Hall-of-Fame catcher Gary Carter died Thursday at age 57.

"I am deeply saddened to tell you all that my precious dad went to be with Jesus today at 4:10 pm.," his daughter Kimmy Bloemers, wrote on the family's website. "This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to write in my entire life but I wanted you all to know. He is in heaven and has reunited with his mom and dad. I believe with all my heart that dad had a STANDING OVATION as he walked through the gates of heaven to be with Jesus."

The Carter family has granted ESPN access to the family website to inform the public.

Carter originally was diagnosed with four brain tumors last May. In recent months, the family hoped that, with chemotherapy and other treatments, the tumors were in check. But in January, the family revealed that doctors found several new tumors on Carter's brain.

Carter made a public appearace at the beginning of the month, going to Opening Day for the college baseball team he coached.

Last spring, after experiencing headaches and forgetfulness, Carter underwent an MRI that revealed four small tumors.

Carter, an 11-time All Star, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 after retiring in 1992. He finished his 19-year career with a .262 average, 324 home runs and 1,225 RBIs.

"Gary's enthusiasm, giving spirit and infectious smile will always be remembered in Cooperstown," said Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "Our thoughts are with Sandy, Christy, Kimmie, DJ and the entire Carter family on this very sad day."

The effervescent Carter, nicknamed "Kid," is perhaps best known for helping the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series. He had 24 homers and 105 RBIs that season, then drove in 11 runs in the playoffs.

"When you think of the great baseball field generals, you think Gary Carter," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said in a statement. "He ran the game from behind the plate with strong leadership and passion. The Kid's contribution to our national pastime is big, but his heart was even bigger. We'll always remember his caring way, ever-present smile and strong devotion to family, community and the Baseball Hall of Fame."

NCIS star Mark Harmon's mother, actress and fashion designer Elyse Knox Harmon, passed away on Wednesday at her Los Angeles home surrounded by family. She was 94.

A contract player who starred in close to 40 films for such studios and 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Universal, Knox played the lead opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in 1942's The Mummy's Tomb, worked with Abbott and Costello and in several Joe Palooka movies based on the famed comic strip. She was also a pin-up girl during World War II, appearing in Yank magazine.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Knox studied fashion in Manhattan and pursued a career in fashion design, modeling some of her own creations in Vogue magazine before her good looks found Hollywood calling in the late '30s.

Knox married football star Tom Harmon in 1944, and her wedding dress was made from the silk of the parachute that saved his life after his plane was shot down over China during WWII. The couple settled in Los Angeles and had three children: Mark and his older sisters Kristin and Kelly. Happily married for 46 years, Knox established herself as an accomplished impressionist painter.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to The Lange Foundation in honor of Knox's enduring love for animals.

http://www.etonline.com/news/119180_Mark_H...om_Passes_Away/

LOS ANGELES—Michael Davis, the bassist of influential late 1960s rock band MC5, has died of liver failure, his wife said Saturday. He was 68.

Davis died at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., on Friday afternoon after a month-long hospitalization for liver disease, said Angela Davis.

Born on June 5, 1943, the bassist gained attention in the revolutionary Detroit band MC5 and later played in a version of the group called DKT-MC5 with former MC5 members Wayne Kramer on guitar and Dennis Thompson on drums.

The original MC5 rose to prominence from 1964 to 1972, making waves with incendiary anti-establishment lyrics and a blistering early-punk sound, starting with their first album "Kick Out the Jams," released in 1969.

A sought-after bassist and also producer, Davis was planning to be in Belgium this week recording with punk rock musician Sonny Vincent, said Davis' wife.

Davis had a scare in 2006 when he injured his back in a motorcycle accident on a Southern California freeway. He later co-founded the non-profit Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools.

In the last few years, Davis also returned to a love of painting, fostered when he first studied fine arts at Wayne State University in Michigan. He dropped out of the program in 1964 to play music, but started studying art again recently in Oregon and California, with the intention of finishing his bachelor's degree in fine arts.

Davis is survived by his wife, their three sons, and a daughter from a previous marriage. Memorial plans were pending, said Angela Davis.

Those who keep alive memories of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco will gather today to honor one of the last people known to have been alive when the great city was brought to its trembling knees.

Rose Cliver was 3 years old on April 18, 1906, when the quake and resulting fire killed more than 1,000 people and ruined more than 28,000 buildings. When she died Saturday at a residential care home in Santa Rosa, she was 109.

She attended an annual commemoration of the disaster in 2009, and "enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame," said her son, Don Cliver of Santa Rosa. She told The Chronicle that day that she and her family, who lived in Bernal Heights, had climbed Bernal Hill after the quake and "watched San Francisco burn."

Don Cliver said his mother wasn't supposed to live long after her premature birth, but was the picture of health thereafter. One of 13 siblings, she lived an ordinary life - marriage, homemaking, two children of her own - and enjoyed traveling and quarter slot machines in her later years.

It was only after a stroke and a fall a couple of years ago, her son said, that she moved in with him in Santa Rosa and accepted help with cooking and cleaning.
Lee Houskeeper, an organizer of the city's annual earthquake commemorations, said she will be honored at noon today at John's Grill at 63 Ellis St. This year's April 18 remembrance, he said, will be dedicated to her. Funeral services have not yet been scheduled.

Her death, Houskeeper said, leaves four known '06 quake survivors.

Al DeLory, who produced and arranged Glen Campbell smashes “Gentle On My Mind,” “Galveston,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman,” died on Feb. 5 at age 82.

Mr. DeLory’s productions help define country-pop music and enabled Campbell’s transition from session musician to superstar. His death was mentioned by Campbell’s wife, Kim, at a Grammy event on Feb. 11, but no cause of death has been released.

Born Alfred De Lory on Jan. 31, 1930, in Los Angeles, he was the son of a studio musician. He studied piano as a child and began arranging music while in the Army, for an Army service band. Upon his discharge, he worked as a piano player in studio orchestras and in clubs, and in the late 1950s he penned “Mr. Custer,” a novelty hit for Larry Verne.

In the early 1960s, Mr. DeLory began working as a studio musician in Los Angeles, and in that capacity he worked with artists including The Beach Boys (playing on the famed Pet Sounds album), Tina Turner and The Righteous Brothers.

Asked by Capitol Records chief Ken Nelson to produce Campbell, Mr. DeLory set about finding and writing arrangements for songs that remain staples of Campbell’s live performances.

“It was Glen’s voice and the strength of those songs that inspired me to write arrangements that exceeded my expectations,” Mr. DeLory wrote in a biography. Indeed, those arrangements remain marvels of elegance and sophistication, and Mr. DeLory worked with Campbell to establish a sound that served as a template for other pop-leaning country artists.

“I believe that country-pop is definitely here to stay,” Mr. DeLory asserted 40 years ago, and the ensuing decades have bolstered that opinion.

Based in Los Angeles, Mr. DeLory also produced movie soundtracks and recordings for artists such as Dobie Gray, The Turtles, Wayne Newton and The Lettermen, and he released four albums of his own on Capitol. But his work with Campbell remained his calling card. He won two Grammy Awards for those productions, and neither he nor Campbell won any when working separately.

Mr. DeLory’s late-life years were spent in Nashville, where he moved following his wife’s death. In Nashville, he began performing and recording Latin jazz music. His Floreando and Hot Gandinga albums drew raves for their intricate and danceable soundscapes.

“He was always following the muse,” said bass player and Nashville Musicians Union president Dave Pomeroy. “A beautiful soul who made many lifetimes’ worth of great music.”

Mr. DeLory’s daughter, Donna De Lory, is a singer, songwriter and producer who performed for years as a backing vocalist for Madonna.

No memorial service or survivor information is available.

A tasty pianist, producer & bandleader:



Oh, and his daughter's cute.

Musicians Hall of Famer Billy Strange, a songwriter, guitarist and arranger who aided the hit-making efforts of Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra, has died in Nashville at age 81.

“My dear friend, the legendary guitarist/arranger Billy Strange passed away this morning in Nashville,” Nancy Sinatra wrote on her Twitter page. “My heart is shattered.”

Mr. Strange wrote the musical arrangement for Sinatra’s smash, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” directing standup bass player Chuck Burghofer to play the song’s signature sliding descent.

Mr. Strange also played the haunting guitar part on Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” a minimalist recording popularized in the new century as part of the soundtrack for the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill. And he helped arrange “Somethin’ Stupid,” Ms. Sinatra’s duet with father Frank Sinatra.

For Presley, Mr. Strange contributed hit compositions including “A Little Less Conversation” and “Memories.” He also wrote Chubby Checker’s hit, “Limbo Rock.”


A member of the “Wrecking Crew” of Los Angeles-based session musicians in the 1960s, Mr. Strange played guitar on the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album, as well as on recordings by The Everly Brothers, Randy Newman, Willie Nelson, Nat King Cole and many others.

Mr. Strange was raised in Long Beach, Calif., and he was performing on local radio with his father and mother as a young boy. He began playing guitar at age 14, and touring with other musicians at 16.

Though he worked in the rodeo, as a truck driver and as a stunt man in his 20s, he settled into a musical life, performing early on with Spade Cooley, Roy Rogers, Count Basie, Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant and others.

His striking guitar work soon caught the attention of major producers, and he became an essential member of the informal group known as “The Wrecking Crew.” And he released a series of solo works in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s that highlighted his unusual tone and musicianship.

When Presley came to Los Angeles for sessions, he employed Mr. Strange as a player and arranger, and the two became fast friends, riding motorcycles together and sitting and playing with baby Lisa Marie Presley together.

Mr. Strange moved to Middle Tennessee in the early 1970s, and in Tennessee he ran a publishing company for Frank and Nancy Sinatra.

Frank Carson.

Wow. Couple of great behind the scenes guys right here

Steven Kordek, 1911-2012
Space Mission was one of my favourite games..

(from the Chicago Tribune)
If not for the need of some shelter from the rain, pinball might never have had its wizard.

During the height of the Depression, Steven Kordek was walking down North Ashland Avenue looking for work when he was caught in a downpour.

Mr. Kordek ducked inside Genco Pinball Co. to escape the deluge. He was approached by a woman working there who offered him a job in the factory as solderer.

"You could say he was in the right place at the right time, but he saw it as more a blessing, a gift from God," said his daughter Kathy Petrash.

Mr. Kordek went on to be considered one of the three best pinball designers of all time, according to Gary Flower, author of "Pinball: The Lure of the Silver Ball."

He was the first to use a single pair of powerful "electrified" flippers near the bottom of the game in his revolutionary "Triple Action" game in 1948. He developed the drop target for the 1962 game "Vagabond" and multiball play for 1963's "Beat the Clock."

"Steve had such a passion for the game," said Larry DeMar, a video game and pinball designer and president of Leading Edge Design in Northbrook. "He was the master, the grand expert, the best ambassador the game has ever had."

Mr. Kordek, 100, a longtime resident of Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood, died Sunday, Feb. 19, at Rainbow Hospice in Park Ridge of complications related to a fall a year and a half ago, his family said.

During his career, his other best-selling games included "Space Mission," "Grand Prix" and "Pokerino."

"It wasn't just about the machine as a working mechanical device," Jim Schelberg, editor of the Pingame Journal, said in a 2009 Tribune article. "He loved pinball."

Born and raised in the city's Bucktown neighborhood, Mr. Kordek was the son of a Polish immigrant and the eldest of 10 children. He was a graduate of the now-closed Weber High School on the North Side.

In his early 20s, Mr. Kordek joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked for a few years with the Forestry Service in Idaho.

"It was hard finding work back then, so when he returned to Chicago he told us he'd start each day by going to church and hoping to find a job," his daughter said.

Mr. Kordek's prayers were answered when he was hired by Genco, where he worked his way up from the production line to the engineering department. When the company's head designer fell ill, Mr. Kordek was told to fill in and design a new pinball game — one to beat all others.

Then 26, he had never designed a game himself. So he borrowed a concept — the flipper — from a competitor. But instead of having six flippers in the upper playing field, he reduced it to two electrified flippers at the bottom, which resulted in more power to rocket the ball back to the top.

"What Steve did was revolutionize the game of pinball," DeMar said. "It now became a defensive battle."

At a 1948 pinball trade show, Mr. Kordek's groundbreaking "Triple Action" game stole the show and rendered every other game obsolete.

"I just figured, what the hell, two flippers on a game was enough," Mr. Kordek told the Tribune in a 2009 interview, saying he was always taught to be frugal. "There was no way I was going to put six flippers on a game when I could get away with two."

In the 1950s, Mr. Kordek left Genco to work for Bally Manufacturing Corp., and later Williams Manufacturing Co., both in Chicago. Williams, another pinball giant, was where in 1976 he designed what some say was his favorite game, "Space Mission."

"He did it to commemorate the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz space mission," said DeMar, who worked with Mr. Kordek at Williams. "It was not only a big hit, it was his pride and joy."

Through the 1970s, Mr. Kordek designed up to 20 games a year, depending on the demand. He eventually became chief adviser and mentor to dozens of up-and-coming designers, a role he relished, said DeMar.

"He'd help with the minutiae, things like putting the finishing touches on ball traps," DeMar said. "No one could fine-tune a game better than him."

Mr. Kordek retired from Williams in 1999 after the company closed its pinball division, but he remained on for several years as a volunteer archivist, helping to preserve the game's rich history.

"There wasn't anyone who cared more or did more for the game," DeMar said.

Mike Melvoin dies at 74; studio musician, composer

A distinguished pianist and composer, Mike Melvoin was a former head
of the Recording Academy and worked with Frank Sinatra, Michael
Jackson and the Beach Boys.


Mike Melvoin, a pianist/composer/arranger whose credits reach from
Stan Getz and Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson and the Beach Boys, and
who was the first active musician to serve as national president of
the Recording Academy, has died. He was 74.


A first-call pianist and keyboardist since the early 1960s, Melvoin
died Wednesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank,
said his daughter Wendy. He had cancer.


In addition to his studio work, Melvoin remained strongly linked to
jazz, his first musical love, performing on a regular basis in local
clubs, frequently touring internationally and releasing numerous
recordings of his own groups.


Pianist/composer Michael Lang, also a busy member of the Los Angeles
community of jazz and studio musicians, expressed high praise for
Melvoin's many accomplishments, noting his "unique, significant
contributions to jazz and popular music as a pianist, arranger and
songwriter as well as a composer of film music."


Jazz alto saxophonist Phil Woods, who performed on Melvoin's album
"It's Always You," was equally enthusiastic about another area of
Melvoin's skills — his songwriting. "They're not just your regular Tin
Pan Alley," Woods said. "It's the American song form raised a notch.
Mike is like fine wine."


Among the numerous sessions in his lengthy resume, Melvoin played on
such memorable recordings as Frank Sinatra's "That's Life," Natalie
Cole's "Unforgettable," the Jackson 5's "ABC," and "Pet Sounds" and
"Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.


"It was a marathon," Melvoin said, mentioning the "Good Vibrations"
recording dates while describing the ups and downs of life as a studio
musician. "Six double sessions," he recalled. "All for one song."


His name turns up with remarkable consistency among the backing
players for one varied hit after another, including Helen Reddy's "I
Am Woman," John Lennon's "Stand By Me," Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen"
and Quincy Jones' all-star collective, "We Are the World."


As a busy studio musician for a good part of his career, Melvoin was
always quick to defend the skills and the versatility of the players
who performed, as he did, on recordings, films, television shows and
beyond, bringing life to every style and genre of music.


"Studio guys get sold short," he told the Boston Herald in 2004.
"There's an innate distrust that people have that if you do one thing,
somehow that's the authentic article, and if you do more than one
thing, somehow it's not. The truth is the great studio players are the
authentic article in everything they do."


In 2011, when the Recording Academy made changes in the Grammy awards
structure, Melvoin was in the vanguard of the movement to rescind the
category changes. As a pianist whose career had touched every
stylistic area, he was especially bothered by the effect of the
changes upon instrumentalists.


"Everyone who has ever played an instrument," he said in a public
statement, "has had the possibility of receiving recognition from the
Grammys gutted. That cannot and will not stand."


Melvoin's advocacy for the recognition of instrumental musicians
continued until his death.


Michael Melvoin was born May 10, 1937, in Oshkosh, Wis. He began to
play piano at the age of 3, and was an active performing musician as a
teenager.


After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1959 with a bachelor's
degree in English, he moved to New York, focusing on a career as a
professional musician. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1961.


Melvoin, who was separated from his wife, Sandra, is survived by twin
daughters Wendy and Susannah, both singer-songwriters; four
grandchildren; a brother; and Melvoin's companion, actress Theresa
Russell. His son, Jonathan, a member of the group Smashing Pumpkins,
died in 1996 of a fatal heroin overdose.


http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,2738819.story