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IN MEMORIAM REMEMBRANCE & TRIBUTE NOVEMBER 8. 2009
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nyadrn said:
on November 8, 2009 11:01 AM ET
IN MEMORY 1974 – Ivory Joe Hunter , American R&B singer, pianist and songwriter (b. 1914) 1983 – James Booker , American jazz singer (b. 1939) 1999 – Lester Bowie , American jazz trumpet player (b. 1941) 2003 – Guy Speranza , American singer, original Riot frontman (b. 1956) 2006 – Basil Poledouris , American film score composer (b. 1945) Ivory Joe Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter ( October 10 , 1914 – November 8 , 1974 ) was an African American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist, best known for his hit recording, " Since I Met You, Baby " (1956). Billed as The Baron of the Boogie, he was also known as The Happiest Man Alive. He is not to be confused with Motown producer-songwriter Joe Hunter . Born in Kirbyville, Texas , he was christened Ivory Joe as an infant. Developing an early interest in music from his father, Dave Hunter, who played guitar , and his gospel-singing mother, he was a talented pianist by the age of 13. As a teenager, Hunter made his first recording for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1933. Radio and recordingsIn the early 1940s, Hunter had his own radio show in Beaumont, Texas , on KFDM , where he eventually became program manager, and in 1942 he moved to Los Angeles , joining Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in the mid 1940s. When he wrote and recorded his first song, "Blues at Sunrise", with the Three Blazers for his own label, Ivory Records, it became a regional hit. [2] In the late 1940s Hunter founded Pacific Records, and in 1947 he recorded for Four Star Records and King Records . Two years later, he recorded his first R&B hits; on "I Quit My Pretty Mama" and "Guess Who" he was backed by members of Duke Ellington's band. [3] After signing with MGM Records , he recorded " I Almost Lost My Mind ," which topped the 1950 R&B charts and would later (in the wake of Hunter's success with "Since I Met You Baby") be recorded by Pat Boone . "I Need You" was a number two R&B hit that same year. With his smooth delivery, Hunter became a hot R&B commodity, and he also began to be noticed in the country-western music community. In April 1951, he made his network TV debut on You Asked For It . By 1954, he had recorded more than a hundred songs and moved to Atlantic Records . His first song to cross over to the pop charts was "Since I Met You Baby" (1956). It was to be his only top-40 pop song, climbing to the number 12 position. While visiting Memphis, Tennessee , in the spring of 1957, Hunter was invited by Elvis Presley to visit Graceland . The two spent the day together, singing "I Almost Lost My Mind" and other songs together. Hunter commented, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."[ citation needed ] Country comebackHunter's "Empty Arms" and "Yes, I Want You" also made the pop charts, and he had a minor hit with "City Lights" in 1959, just before his popularity began to decline. Hunter came back as a country singer in the late 1960s, making regular Grand Ole Opry appearances and recording an album titled "I've Always Been Country." [4] During the 1950s, white artists recorded covers of top R&B tunes. In 1956, when Pat Boone recorded Hunter's smash 1950 R&B hit, "I Almost Lost My Mind," it became a number one hit in 1956. Country singer Sonny James issued a version of "Since I Met You, Baby," and it topped the country charts in 1969, paving the way for Hunter's album The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter and Hunter’s appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival . Hunter was a prolific songwriter , and some estimate he wrote more than 7,000 songs.[ citation needed ] Among those songs are two that Presley put in the top 20: "My Wish Came True" and "Ain't That Loving You, Baby." In 1974, lung cancer led to Hunter's death in Memphis, Tennessee , and he was buried in Kirbyville. |
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had forgotten some of the Ivory Joe Hunter songs but not that i see the Posts - i do remember them = thanks
Reply to Post
That is one great song : )
Enjoy those memories. Music is greating for reminding us isn't it : )
Diane
One of my favorite songs by Ivory Joe Hunter - SINCE I MET YOU BABY - has a very very special memory for me from way back then
Basil Poledouris
| Basil Poledouris | |
|---|---|
| |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Basilis Konstantine Poledouris |
| Born | August 21, 1945
Kansas City, Missouri , USA |
| Died | November 8, 2006 (aged 61) Los Angeles , California , USA |
| Genres | Film score |
| Occupations | Composer , conductor |
| Instruments | Piano , Orchestra |
| Years active | 1970 - 2003 |
| Website | http://www.basil-poledouris.com/ |
Basilis "Basil" Konstantine Poledouris ( August 21 , 1945 - November 8 , 2006 ) was an American music composer who concentrated on the scores for movies and television shows. Poledouris won the Emmy Award for Best Musical Score for work on part four of the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove in 1989.
Biography
Born in Kansas City, Missouri , Basil Poledouris credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer Miklós Rózsa , the second was his Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the church, and used to sit in services, enthralled with the choir's sound. [1] At age 7 he began piano lessons, and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California to study both film and music. Several short films to which he contributed still reside in the university's archives. At USC he met directors John Milius and Randal Kleiser , with both of whom the composer would later collaborate. In 1985, he scored Flesh & Blood for director Paul Verhoeven , again establishing another ongoing collaboration.
Poledouris became renowned for his powerfully epic style of orchestral composition and his intricate thematic designs, and garnered attention for his scores to The Blue Lagoon (1980; dir: Kleiser), Conan the Barbarian (1982; dir: Milius), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Red Dawn (1984; dir: Milius), RoboCop (1987; dir: Verhoeven), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Free Willy (1993) and its first sequel, Starship Troopers (1997; dir: Verhoeven) and For Love of the Game (1999).
His studio, Blowtorch Flats, is located in Venice , California and is a professional mixing facility specializing in film and media production.
Poledouris married his wife, Bobbie, in 1969 and had two daughters, Zoë and Alexis. The elder, Zoë Poledouris , is an actress and film composer who occasionally collaborated with her father composing film soundtracks.
His score for Conan the Barbarian is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of motion picture scoring ever written. [2] [3] [4]
In 1996 he scored the "The Tradition of the Games" [5] for the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony that accompanied the memorable dance tribute [6] to the athletes and goddesses of victory of the ancient Greek Olympics using silhouette imagery. [7]
He spent the last four years of his life living on Vashon Island , in Washington state, and died on November 8 , 2006 in Los Angeles , California, aged 61, due to complications from cancer . [8]
Guy Speranza
Guy Speranza (b. March 12 , 1956 - November 8 , 2003 in Orlando, Florida ) was an American singer , best known as New York -based metal band Riot 's original frontman, from 1976-1981. He sang on their first three albums, 1977's Rock City , 1979's Narita and 1981's Fire Down Under , before leaving the band in 1981. After retiring from music, he would work as an exterminator in Florida until being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer , of which he would die from on November 8 , 2003 .
Lester Bowie
| Lester Bowie | |
|---|---|
Bowie performing the mid 1990's
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| Background information | |
| Born | October 11, 1941 Frederick, Maryland |
| Origin | Chicago, United States |
| Died | November 8, 1999 (aged 58) |
| Occupations | trumpeter , composer |
| Instruments | Trumpet |
| Years active | 1965 – 1999 |
| Labels | Nessa , Freedom , Actuel , Black Saint , Atlantic , Horo , ECM , DIW , Birdology |
| Associated acts | AACM , Art Ensemble of Chicago , Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, Lester Bowie's Organ Ensemble, Archie Shepp , David Murray , Jack DeJohnette , Fela Kuti , Kahil El'Zabar , Defunkt , David Bowie , |
| Website | [1] |
| Notable instruments | |
| Flugelhorn , Bass Drum , Percussion | |
Lester Bowie ( 11 October 1941 – 8 November 1999 [1]) was an American jazz trumpet player [2] and composer . He was a member of the AACM , and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago .
Biography
Born in Frederick, Maryland , Bowie grew up in St Louis, Missouri . At the age of five he started studying the trumpet with his father, a professional musician. He played with blues musicians such as Little Milton and Albert King , and rhythm and blues stars such as Solomon Burke , Joe Tex , and Rufus Thomas . In 1965 he became Fontella Bass 's musical director and husband. [1] He was a cofounder of BAG ( Black Artists' Group ) in St Louis.
In 1966 he moved to Chicago , where he worked as a studio musician, and met Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell and became a member of the AACM . In 1968 he founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago [2] with Mitchell, Joseph Jarman , and Malachi Favors . He remained a member of this group for the rest of his life, and was also a member of Jack DeJohnette 's New Directions quartet. He lived and worked in Jamaica and Africa , and played and recorded with Fela Kuti . [3] Bowie's onstage appearance, in a white lab coat, with his goatee waxed into two points, was an important part of the Art Ensemble's stage show.
In 1984 he formed Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, a brass nonet in which Bowie demonstrated jazz's links to other forms of popular music, a decidedly more populist approach than that of the Art Ensemble. With this group he recorded songs made popular by Whitney Houston , Michael Jackson , Marilyn Manson , and the Spice Girls -- along with more "serious" material. His New York Organ Ensemble featured James Carter and Amina Claudine Myers .
Although seen as part of the avant-garde , Bowie embraced techniques from the whole history of jazz trumpet, filling his music with humorous smears, blats, growls, half-valve effects, and so on. His affinity to reggae and ska is exemplified by his composition "Ska Reggae Hi-Bop", which he performed with the Skatalites on their 1994 "Hi-Bop Ska" (and again with James Carter on "Conversin' With The Elders")
Bowie took an adventurous and humorous approach to music, and criticized Wynton Marsalis for his conservative approach to jazz tradition.
Bowie died of liver cancer in 1999. The following year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. [4] In 2001 the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded Tribute to Lester .
James Booker
James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 - November 8, 1983) was a jazz , New Orleans rhythm and blues and soul musician born in New Orleans , Louisiana , United States .
Biography
Booker was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, both of whom played the piano . He spent most of his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast , where his father pastored a church. Booker received a saxophone as a gift from his mother, but he demonstrated a stronger interest in the keyboard . He first played organ in his father's churches.
After returning to New Orleans in his early adolescence , Booker attended the Xavier Academy Preparatory School. He learned some elements of his keyboard style from Tuts Washington and Edward Frank. [1] Booker was highly skilled in classical music and played Bach and Chopin , among other composers. He also mastered and memorized solos by Erroll Garner , and Liberace . His thorough background in piano literature may have enabled his original and virtuosic interpretations of jazz and other American popular music. These performances combined elements of stride , blues , gospel and Latin piano styles.
Booker made his recording debut in 1954 on the Imperial label , with "Doin' the Hambone" and "Thinkin' 'Bout My Baby." This led to some session work with Fats Domino , Smiley Lewis , and Lloyd Price . [2]
In 1958, Arthur Rubinstein gave a concert in New Orleans. Afterwards, eighteen-year-old Booker was introduced to the concert pianist and played several tunes for him. Rubinstein was astonished, saying "I could never play that... never at that tempo." ( The Times-Picayune , 1958) A gay man, Booker also became known for his flamboyant personality amongst his peers. [3]
After recording a few other singles , he enrolled as an undergraduate in Southern University 's music department. In 1960, Booker's "Gonzo" reached number 43 on the U.S. Billboard chart , and number 3 on the R&B chart . This was followed by some moderately successful singles. In the 1960s, he turned to drugs , and in 1970 served a brief sentence in Angola Prison for possession.
Professor Longhair and Ray Charles were among his important influences. [4]
In 1973 Booker recorded The Lost Paramount Tapes at Paramount Studios in Hollywood , California with members of the Dr. John band . This album was produced by the former Dr. John and Sweathog bassist , David L. Johnson and Daniel J. Moore. The master tapes disappeared from the Paramount Recording Studios library, but a copy of some of the mixes made near the time of the recordings was discovered in 1992, which resulted in a CD release.
Booker's performance at the 1975 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival earned him a recording contract with Island Records . [4] His album with Island, Junco Partner, was produced by Joe Boyd , who had previously recorded Booker on sessions for the Muldaurs' records. [5] During 1976, Booker played and toured with the Jerry Garcia Band.
Booker recorded a number of albums while touring Europe in 1977, including New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!, which was recorded at his performance in the 'Boogie Woogie and Ragtime Piano Contest' in Zurich , Switzerland This album won the Grand Prix du Disque . He played at the Nice and Montreux Jazz Festivals in 1978. Fourteen years later a recording in Leipzig from this tour would become the last record to be produced in the former East Germany . It was entitled Let's Make A Better World!.
From 1977 to 1982 he was the house pianist at the Maple Leaf Bar in the Carrollton neighborhood of uptown New Orleans. Recordings during this time made by John Parsons were released as Spider on the Keys and Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah. [6]
His last commercial audio recording, Classified, was made in 1982 — in four hours according to the producer, Scott Billington . [6] However in the 1980s his physical and mental condition deteriorated. [4]
At the end of October, 1983, film-maker Jim Gabour captured Booker's final concert performance. The footage from the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans was broadcast on Cox Cable and a six-and-a-half-minute improvisation, "Seagram's Jam," featured on Gabour's film - All Alone with the Blues.
Booker died ten days later, on November 8, 1983, while seated in a wheelchair, waiting to be seen at the emergency room at New Orleans Charity Hospital. The cause of death was renal failure . (Orleans Parish Coroner's Death Certificate). His death was mourned by music lovers, but was unsurprising to those who were aware of his life-long history of serious drug abuse and chronic alcoholism .
Harry Connick Jr. , a student and close friend of Booker, is probably his most renowned disciple. Connick, Henry Butler , and Dr. John, among others, have recorded songs with titles and musical styles referencing Booker.
Transcriptions by Joshua Paxton of Booker's playing are available in "The James Booker Collection" and "New Orleans Piano Legends", both published by The Hal Leonard Corporation .
Patchwork: A Tribute to James Booker is a 2003 release consisting of a compilation of his songs performed by various pianists. [6]
The latest Booker album, released in June 2007, is Manchester '77, which consists of a live performance recorded in October 1977 at The Lake Hotel, Belle Vue , Manchester with Norman Beaker on guitar.
On November 6, 2008, Sal Nunziato wrote an article about Booker in The Huffington Post
