The French percussionist Jacques Delécluse has passed away. I frankly didn’t know he was alive; we worked out of his book Méthode de Caisse-Claire in college, and those French-published books present themselves with such authority […]
Category: obituary
Jack Bruce 1943-2014
UPDATE: Someone has helpfully pointed out that this happened in 2014, and that the current year is indeed 2015, and I am a complete stoner. I wish I could blame it on Oregon’s now-quite-legal recreational marijuana, […]
Rowdy Roddy Piper 1954-2015
UPDATE: Notice in Rolling Stone. This one’s a real heartbreaker— Portland-based pro wrestling icon Rowdy Roddy Piper has passed away. Years ago he was a regular on Portland Wrestling, an iconic Oregon TV program in […]
Vic Firth 1930-2015
By now everyone knows Vic Firth has passed away. I don’t know what to say about it, except that he wasn’t just a gear manufacturer, he was also a musician, and made major contributions to […]
Two performers
Dave Camp Just had an acquaintance, and fellow Portland musician die this week— Dave Camp, a very talented, charismatic, rock & roll guitarist, singer, and songwriter. I think he was a couple of years younger […]
Masabumi Kikuchi 1939-2015
Pianist Masabumi Kikuchi has died. I mainly knew him through two very beautiful records by Tethered Moon, his band with Paul Motian and Gary Peacock— TM Plays Kurt Weill, and First Meeting. But he did […]
Phil Austin 1941-2015
Very sorry to hear we lost another comedy legend last week: Phil Austin, from the Firesign Theater— an incredible surrealist satire troupe, if you don’t know them; they’re really the American Monty Python. Austin was […]
Ornette Coleman 1930-2015
New York Times notice Ornette Coleman’s Revolution from The New Yorker Four songs @ Vox Rolling Stone notice Huffington Post notice The Guardian notice NPR notice
Stan Freberg 1926-2015
A few clips by comedian, satirist, and ad man Stan Freberg, who died yesterday. His heyday was before my time, but we had several of his albums in my dad’s record collection, and I memorized […]
Getting tired of these
Mortality is a real bitch— just in the past couple of days we’ve lost Idris Muhammad, and Frankie Dunlop. I can’t ignore their passing, but I’m no good at just showering superlatives on people, which […]
Charlie Haden 1937-2014
UPDATE: Haden remembered by some musicians who played with him. Very disappointed to find out that Charlie Haden, the bassist, died yesterday— he’s been one of my musical heroes for a long time, since I […]
Rik Mayall 1958-2014
Very sorry to have lost comic legend Rik Mayall yesterday. He was best known in the US for The Young Ones and small parts on Black Adder, but my favorite thing of his was The […]