Barry Beckett R.I.P.
Tribute To Barry Beckett (Bob Seger: Down on meanstreet)
“As a studio musician in the 1960s, Mr. Beckett played in the band affiliated with Fame Studios, the production house that turned an unlikely Southern town, Muscle Shoals, Ala., into a center of indigenous American popular music. The band, known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and also called the Swampers, split from Fame in 1969 and, helped by the producer Jerry Wexler, created its own studio, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, in nearby Sheffield.
Either with the Rhythm Section — which also included the guitarist Jimmy Johnson, the bassist David Hood and the drummer Roger Hawkins — or on his own, Mr. Beckett played behind a remarkable list of performers. They include Aretha Franklin, the Staple Singers, Percy Sledge, J. J. Cale, Boz Skaggs, Paul Simon — he played the organ solo on Mr. Simon’s “Kodachrome” — Bob Seger and Leon Russell. The Swampers were immortalized in Southern rock ’n’ roll when the band Lynyrd Skynyrd tipped hat to them in the 1974 hit “Sweet Home Alabama”” Bruce Weber, New York Times
Huey Long R.I.P.
The Ink Brothers (medley)
“And so began an 80-year career in jazz and popular music. For the rest of the century Mr. Long, who took up the guitar in 1933, performed with an extensive list of greats in a journey that began with Dixieland, moved into swing and jumped forward to bebop. Along the way, he spent nine months in 1945 as a guitarist and singer with the Ink Spots, the enormously popular and influential vocal quartet that paved the way for rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll.
He died on Wednesday in Houston, the last surviving Ink Spot from the days when the group still had some of its original members. He was 105.” William Grimes, New York Times
Koko Taylor R.I.P.
Koko Taylor feat. Little Walter: Wang Dang Doodle (1967)
“”Blues is my life,” Taylor once said. “It’s a true feeling that comes from the heart, not something that just comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and blues is what I always do.”" New York Times
Koko Taylor “Queen of the Blues” Dies at 80
“”She was of the same generation as Muddy [Waters] and [Howlin'] Wolf, she had those [Mississippi] Delta roots,” he said Wednesday. “Even though she had been living in Chicago since the ’50s, her music was still deeply rooted in the South. She had that rhythmic sense, that sense of where you lay the words and how the band locks in around the singer, that intensity of people who have lived that life.” says Bruce Iglauer, owner of Chicago-based Alligator Records and her producer, manager and friend since 1974.” Greg Kot, LA Times
David “Pop” Winans R.I.P.
Bebe & Cece Winans: Addictive Love
“David “Pop” Winans Sr., the patriarchal gospel great, died Wednesday in Nashville. He was 74″ The Detroit News
Eddie Bo R.I.P.
Eddie Bo: Tell It Like It Is
“Sad news out of New Orleans today – Eddie Bo, the great singer, songwriter and producer/composer died today of a heart attack; he was age 79. ” Soul Sides
John Cephas R.I.P.
John Cephas: Devil Got My Woman
“I’d say there was a sweetness in his music, if “sweet” weren’t such a devalued word. The sweetness I’m thinking of is closer to whatever it is that provokes and prolongs happiness.” New York Times
Hank Locklin R.I.P.
Lucky Dube R.I.P.
Lucky Dube: Ding Ding
“Three men have denied at the high court in Johannesburg murdering the internationally-acclaimed South African reggae star Lucky Dube.” BBC
