Transitions

Robin Gibb, a Bee Gee With a Taciturn Manner, Dies at 62

May 20, 2012

By Ben Sisaro | Published in NY Times |5/20/2012 Robin Gibb, one of the three singing brothers of the Bee Gees, the long-running Anglo-Australian pop group whose chirping falsettos and hook-laden disco hits like “Jive Talkin’ ” and “You Should Be Dancing” shot them to worldwide fame in the 1970s, died on Sunday in London. He [...]

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Donna Summer, 1948-2012: The Queen of Disco, Who Transcended the Era

May 17, 2012

By JON PARELES Published: May 17, 2012 in the NY TIMES Donna Summer, the multimillion-selling singer and songwriter whose hits captured both the giddy hedonism of the 1970s disco era and the feisty female solidarity of the early 1980s, died on Thursday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 63. The cause was lung [...]

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Chuck Brown dies: The ‘Godfather of Go-Go’ was 75

May 16, 2012

Published in the Washington Post Chris Richards, Updated: Wednesday, May 16, 4:42 PM Chuck Brown, the gravelly voiced bandleader who capitalized on funk’s percussive pulse to create go-go, the genre of music that has soundtracked life in black Washington for more than three decades, died May 16 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 75.The death, [...]

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Ska pioneer Lloyd Brevett dies

May 5, 2012

Jamaican double bassist Lloyd Brevett, whose band The Skatalites pioneered ska music and paved the way for reggae, has died at the age of 80. Published: 4 May 2012 Last updated at 05:58 ET@ BBC News Entertainment & Arts The Skatalites formed in 1964 and combined jazz, R&B and mento to create ska and take [...]

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Longtime Doobie Brothers drummer Hossack dies

March 13, 2012

Associated Press – 3 hrs ago (as re-printed in Yahoo News) DUBOIS, Wyoming (AP) — Longtime Doobie Brothers drummer Michael Hossack, whose work is heard on the hits “Listen To The Music” and “China Grove,” died of cancer at age 65, his manager said Tuesday. Hossack died Monday at his home in Dubois, Wyoming, manager Bruce Cohn [...]

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Family and friends gather to honor Don Cornelius

February 16, 2012

By Anthony McCartney, The Associated Press Friends and family are gathering for a private memorial service for “Soul Train” creator and host Don Cornelius in Los Angeles. The service was led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who arrived early and perused blowup photos of Cornelius that were positioned around the lobby of Liberty Hall at [...]

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Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012)

February 12, 2012

Yesterday after a long day out running my typical Saturday errands, I decided to spend some time relaxing online. I checked in to one of my social forums and followed up on a few threads I was participating in earlier that morning before leaving the house. It wasn’t until maybe an hour later (by then [...]

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Jimmy Castor, Musician Who Mastered Many Genres, Dies at 71

January 18, 2012

BY DOUGLAS MARTIN| PRINTED IN THE NYTIMES ONLINE EDITION 1/17/2012 Jimmy Castor, a singer, instrumentalist and songwriter whose mastery of genres from doo-wop to Latin soul to funk, and instruments including saxophone and bongos earned him the title Everything Man, died on Monday in Henderson, Nev. He was 71. The cause was heart failure, his [...]

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Howard Tate, 72, talented soul singer

December 7, 2011

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic Howard Tate, 72, an immensely talented soul singer who dropped out of the music business in frustration after the often brilliant albums he made in the late 1960s and early 1970s failed to reach a wide audience, died Friday of multiple myeloma and leukemia in his apartment in Burlington [...]

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Ten Years Ago Today (Nov 29th) …

November 29, 2011

… George Harrison died of lung cancer at only 58 years young. I remembered his talent earlier today at my Tumblr Blog.

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Andrea True, Singer of Disco Hit, Dies at 68

November 24, 2011

By PAUL VITELLO PUBLISHED 11/24/11 NY TIMES Andrea Truden arrived in New York from Nashville in 1968 with a yearning for stardom and no fixed idea about how to achieve it. She landed bit parts in a slew of movies, including “The Way We Were.” She sang in nightclubs, wrote music for television commercials and, [...]