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News from the darkest corners of the musical universe:
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Sunday, April 15, 2007 ◦
Legendary crooner Don Ho, known for his raspberry-tinted sunglasses and catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died, his publicist said. He was 76. Publicist Donna Jung said the singer died Saturday morning of heart failure. He had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand in 2005.
Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show - a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.
Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles," which Ho mostly hummed as the audience enthusiastically took over.
"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd, adding that he saved it for the end because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."
Donald Tai Loy Ho, who is Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007 ◦
Cuban musician Faustino Oramas, adored for his saucy ballads and one of the last remaining stars behind the acclaimed Buena Vista Social Club compact disc, died on Tuesday at age 95, Cuban state radio said.
Nicknamed "El Guayabero" after a town that inspired him to write a song after he got into trouble there for flirting with a married woman, Oramas died of liver cancer in a hospital in his home town of Holguin, the radio said.
Often called the king of double-entendres, Oramas composed "Candela" -- one of the most rhythmically charged tracks on the 1997 Buena Vista CD. The project brought together the semi-forgotten masters of Cuban "son," a rootsy and passionate style of traditional music considered the backbone of salsa.
Many of its stars have already died -- guitarist Compay Segundo and pianist Ruben Gonzalez in 2003, aged 95 and 84, singer Ibrahim Ferrer in 2005, age 78, and singer-composer Pio Leyva last year at age 88.
Oramas first made his name as a troubadour, wandering from town to town with his guitar and soon became famous for lacing his lyrics with metaphors and sexual innuendo.
Buena Vista Social Club, spearheaded by U.S. guitarist Ry Cooder, and the documentary by Wim Wenders that accompanied it, thrust Cuban son onto the international scene in the late 1990s and the music sold off shelves around the world.
While documents record his birth as in 1911, Oramas was never sure of his exact age. Some say he was as old as 103.
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Friday, March 16, 2007 ◦
Tyrone Hill, trombone player for the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen, left the planet on March 11, 2007 at age 58. He first started playing the trombone during his Gillespie Junior High School days in North Philadelphia.
Tyrone joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1979 and remained a fixture of the brass section for his 28 years in the Arkestra. He brought a pulsating rich and full sound to Sun Ra's music that was appreciated by many of the musicians inside the Arkestra and by countless fans of the band. Sun Ra always relied on Tyrone Hill to kick off compositions like "Discipline 27-II" where his trombone would set the pace that would be followed by the rest of the band. He can be found on over 40 LPs and CDs with the Sun Ra Arkestra.
When not busy with Arkestra engagements, he led the "Deep Space Posse" group whose music was inspired by Sun Ra, but explored other elements in the avant-garde jazz direction. He also provided a house band for a television cooking show hosted by Bobby Seale and has played in the Philadelphia Mummer's Day Parade.
An avid Philadelphia Eagles fan, Tyrone could be found outside the front gate of Lincoln Financial Field playing the Eagles fight song before many Eagles home games. The Philadelphia Daily News featured Tyrone in an October 29, 2004 article with Tyrone stating "I'm a die-hard Eagles fan. I feel like I'm their 12th man because somebody told me that every time I play here, they win. Their winning brings people in the city together. I feel that love in North Philly, where I'm from, and all over the city."
Marshall Allen, the Musical Director of the Sun Ra Arkestra, commented "We will always remember Tyrone for the beautiful music that he created." Arkestra trumpet player Fred Adams noted "I was shoulder to shoulder with Tyrone in the brass section for my entire Arkestra career. His sound always boosted mine and the sum of my trumpet and his trombone always ended up greater than the total of those two instruments." Long time Arkestra vocalist Art Jenkins spoke for many in the band when he said that Tyrone would be deeply missed in the Arkestra.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2007, 3:00 p.m. at the Church of the Advocate, 1801 W. Diamond St., Philadelphia. The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen will participate in the memorial to pay tribute to the dedicated service Tyrone gave within the Arkestra.
Tyrone Hill joins many members of the Sun Ra spirit omniverse Arkestra who are now playing stronger in the next dimension now that Tyrone Hill has joined their ranks.
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Sunday, February 25, 2007 ◦
Barnes & Barnes' classic Voobaha album, along with two Wild Man Fischer albums - Pronounced Normal and Nothing Scary - will be reissued on Collectors' Choice Music on April 3, 2007.
More info here.
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Saturday, February 24, 2007 ◦
Al Viola, a versatile guitarist best known for his long association with Frank Sinatra and his memorable mandolin playing on "The Godfather" soundtrack, has died. He was 87. Viola died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Studio City, said his wife, Glenna.
Viola, who arrived in Los Angeles as a member of the Page Cavanaugh Trio after World War II, became a prominent member of the local recording-studio scene.
He worked in the recording studio - and occasionally did local gigs - with the big bands of Harry James, Ray Anthony, Les Brown and Nelson Riddle. He also worked with jazz groups, including playing with Collette, Red Callender, Bobby Troup, Terry Gibbs and Shelly Manne.
As a studio musician, Viola appeared on more than 500 albums with artists such as Julie London, Steve Lawrence, Marvin Gaye, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt and Natalie Cole.
In addition to being the solo mandolinist who performed the classic "Godfather" theme, he played on numerous TV and film soundtracks, including "West Side Story," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Blazing Saddles."
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Thursday, February 08, 2007 ◦
The Asphalt Tango label is pleased to announce that the new Fanfare Ciocarlia album "Queens and Kings" is finalized.
On Queens & Kings Romania's celebrated brass orchestra Fanfare Ciocarlia welcome onboard their Romani brethren like ESMA REDZEPOVA, SABAN BAJRAMOVIC, JONY ILIEV, LILIJANA BUTLER, MITSOU and KALOOME. Visas obtained, borders crossed, foreign tongues mastered, FANFARE CIOCARLIA and their guests overcame differences of nationality, rhythm and instrumentation to forge an epic celebration of Gypsy life and song.
Release date Europe (except France) 23th February 2007
Release date USA 10th April 2006
More information here.
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007 ◦
Frankie Laine, the singer with the booming voice who hit it big with such songs as "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train," "Cool Water," "I Believe," "Granada" and "Moonlight Gambler," died today at Mercy Hospital in San Diego. He was 93.
Laine entered the hospital over the weekend for hip replacement surgery but suffered complications from the operation, said his friend A.C. Lyles, the longtime producer at Paramount Pictures.
In all, Laine sold well over 100 million records and was hugely popular not only in the United States but in Britain and Australia.
Even after his popularity crested after the rise of rock 'n' roll, Laine was heard for many years singing the theme to the TV series "Rawhide," which featured a young Clint Eastwood and ran until 1966.
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Monday, January 15, 2007 ◦
Alice Coltrane, widow of the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and the pianist in his later bands, who extended her musical searches into a vocation as a spiritual leader, died on Friday in Los Angeles. She was 69.
Read full article here.
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Thursday, January 11, 2007 ◦
Legendary musician, philosopher and anti-art activist Henry Flynt will make a series of presentations in San Diego and Los Angeles, including two lectures on "Musicology," a lecture on "Dignity" and a screening and discussion of his recent "Abstract Cinemas."
More info here.
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Tuesday, January 09, 2007 ◦
Robert Drasnin is recording Voodoo 2, the follow up to the highly influential Voodoo, released by Tops Records in 1959. Although Voodoo was in fact the only Exotica record made by Drasnin in his long and varied career in music, it is considered a classic of the Exotica genre, and it is truly one of the finest examples of what this musical style sought to achieve in the 1950s and 1960s.
Re-issued on CD by Dionysus during the recent Exotica revivalist movement, exposure to the original Voodoo by a new generation has resulted in overwhelming demand for more. After a unanimously enthusiastic response to a live performance in 2005, Mr. Drasnin was delighted at the opportunity to go back into the studio to create a follow-up to his singular masterpiece, almost five decades later.
Although the record will be released by Dionysus Records in Spring of 2007, the recording is being paid for out of Mr. Drasnin's own pocket.
For full information, please see either
http://www.robertdrasnin.com/voodoo2.html
or http://www.myspace.com/drasnin
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007 ◦
Raymond Scott was born in 1908, and we'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth in 2008. Raymondscott.com plans to honor this pioneering musician, composer, inventor, and visionary in a multi-media way.
At least two CD releases are planned in celebration of the centennial. The first (set for release mid-2007) will be a selection of Raymond Scott Quintette recordings from the late-1940s, featuring innovative compositions and arrangements that futurize the style of Scott's legendary '30s Quintette. This compilation of long-out-of-print and unreleased RSQ recordings will take you on vacation to a "Street Corner in Paris," enchant you with an exotic "Snake Woman," mystify you with "Ectoplasm," and present a "Dedicatory Piece to the Crew and Passengers of the First Experimental Rocket Express to the Moon."
The second CD release will be an anthology of Raymond Scott's pioneering electronic music -- the long-awaited follow-up to the Manhattan Research Inc. CD & book set -- featuring vintage futuristic sounds created and performed by Scott on instruments he invented.
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Thursday, December 21, 2006 ◦
For nearly forty years, the soul of bubblegum music has been schizophrenically split. On one side, the producers, songwriters and studio cats who pulled the strings and made most of the money. On the other, the teenage garage rock players who went out on the road bearing the name of a hit band, even if they didn't always know "their" latest tune. They got the glory, but didn't get to write the history.
Now one of those garage-turned-bubblegum bands has crawled out of the pink mists of time to tell their own story. Floyd Marcus, original drummer of the 1910 Fruitgum Company ("Simon Says," "1-2-3 Red Light") is now blogging at the Bubblegum University website in hopes of setting the record straight. In his first post, Floyd describes a triumphant fill-in gig for the Vanilla Fudge, when the initially angry crowd was won over by the raw rock power of the "bubblegum" combo. Future entries will explore the band's formation, studio and road tales and answers to fans' questions.
Floyd Marcus says, "I didn't realize how much wrong information was out there about the band. I'm back, involved again and I can't wait to finally tell the real story. We were a real band, played great, and had crazy experiences on and off the road. We're grateful to Bubblegum University for the soapbox and want our fans to know if they ask the questions, we will answer them!"
The 1910 Fruitgum Company has reformed with original members, and performs frequently in the Eastern U.S. For more about the 1910 Fruitgum Company, visit their website.
Bubblegum University (your sticky pink think tank) is a website run by Kim Cooper, co-editor of the bubblegum bible "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth" and writer of liner notes for "The Best of the 1910 Fruitgum Co." http://www.bubblegum-music.com
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Friday, December 15, 2006 ◦
Ahmet Ertegun, the music magnate who founded Atlantic Records and shaped the careers of John Coltrane, Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and many others, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 83.
A spokesman for Atlantic Records said the death was the result of a brain injury suffered when Mr. Ertegun fell backstage at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan on Oct. 29 as the Rolling Stones prepared to play a concert that marked former President Bill Clinton's 60th birthday. He had been in a coma since then.
More info on Google News.
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