The Ghoul Pool: 2020 Deaths, Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Tony Allen (age 79) - Allen was a Nigerian-born percussionist best known for his early collaboration with guitarist Fela Kuti, among other acts. He is often cited as one of the originators of the music genre called "Afrobeat." After leaving Kuti's band in 1979, Allen formed his own bands, including "The Good, the Bad, and the Queen" and "Rocket Juice." Allen suffered a ruptures aortic aneurysm and died April 30, 2020.

Sweet Pea Atkinson (age 74) - Hillard Atkinson was an R&B vocalist, perhaps best known as a member of the 1970's band Was (Not Was). He also had a brief solo career, and sang backup on a wide range of artists' albums including Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Iggy Pop. He was a founding member of the little-known band The Boneshakers. Atkinson succumbed to a heart attack on May 5, 2020.

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— B —
Bucky Baxter (age 65) - Baxter was a multi-instrumentalist on strings, mainly the guitar and pedal steel guitar. He was a founding member of the backup band for Steve Earle and appeared on four of Earle's albums. He played pedal steel in Bob Dylan's touring band in the 1990s, also appearing on Dylan's Grammy-winning "Time Out of Mind" in 1996. Baxter died May 25, 2020.

Hamilton Bohannon (age 78) - Bohannon was a percussionist, record producer, and band leader; often credited as one of the leading performers of the disco era. He had been a studio musician in Detroit, working with many Motown acts, before founding his own label specializing in the bass-heavy beat associated with disco. Bohannon died April 24, 2020.

Hux Brown (75) - Lynford "Hux" Brown was a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae guitarist with a long discography over his 50-year-career. In the US, he is known for his work with Paul Simon and Jimmy Cliff, and for a three-and-a-half decade stint with Toots and the Maytalls. Brown died suddenly on June 18, 2020.

Buddy Cage (age 73) - Cage was one of the best-known practitioners of pedal steel guitar, including long stints with Great Speckled Bird and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also recorded with such artists as Anne Murray, David Bromberg, and Bob Dylan. Cage died of multiple myeloma on February 5, 2020.

Nedda Casei (age 87) - Casei was an operatic mezzo-soprano, a leading mezzo for the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than twenty years; a period in which she made some 280 appearances. She recorded with such conductors as Bernstein, Rivoli, and Swarovski. Casei was also a teacher, leading master classes at universities worldwide. Casei's death was announced on January 29, 2020.

Jimmy Cobb (age 91) - Cobb was a respected jazz drummer with a long career. He may be best known for his work on the iconic Miles Davis album, "Kind of Blue." He played with dozens of jazz musicians afterwards, including such legends as Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, and Richie Cole. Cobb succumbed to lung cancer on May 24, 2020.

Richie Cole (age 72) - Cole was a jazz musician, primarily an alto saxophonist. He also composed and arranged music for a number of jazz groups. Over the years, Cole was associated with such bad leaders as Lionel Hampton, Doc Severinsen, and Buddy Rich. His discography stretches to nearly a hundred performances as both a leader and a sideman. Cole died May 2, 2020, of natural causes.

Anton Coppola (age 102) - The uncle of film director Francis Ford Copola, Anton Coppola was a celebrity in his own right. He came from a family of musicians, including a composer brother Carmine. Anton's musical career began before his tenth birthday, performing in a Metropolitan Opera production. He became a composer and conductor, composing an opera about anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti and leading performances of Carmen and Of Mice and Men. He had a cameo appearance in The Godfather. Coppola died March 9, 2020.

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— D —

Joe Diffie (age 61) - Diffie, a country singer, hit the country-western charts with almost three dozen singles in the period 1990-2004, as well as seven albums. He was a writer of note as well, writing or co-writing songs that charted for such acts as Jo Dee Messina and Tim McGraw. Diffie succumbed to COVID-19 and died March 28, 2020, in Nashville.

Steve Farmer (age 71) - Farmer was a member of the group The Amboy Dukes in 1968 when he collaborated with Ted Nugent to write "Journey to the Center of the Mind." The two collaborated on another twenty-odd songs on the Dukes' three studio albums. The band broke up in 1970 and, except for a single performance at the Fillmore Detroit in 2000. Farmer died April 7, 2020.

Henry Gray (age 95) - Gray, a Lousiana native, performed and recorded his blues stylings for more than seven decades. He appeared with a wide range of acts, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and the Rolling Stones. His piano style is considered the archetype of "Chicago Blues piano." Henry was inducted into teh Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. Gray continued to play his piano up until weeks before his death on February 17, 2020.

Marty Grebb (age 73) - The Chicago-born Grebb had a fifty-year career as a keyboardist, including early success with local band The Buckinghams that led to six top-ten hits. He then toured with national artists such as Chicago, Leon Russell, Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt; spending 25 years as a member of Raitt's road band. Grebb appeared on hundreds of tracks with dozens of artists, plus film work. Grebb died January 2, 2020.

Cady Groves (age 30) - The Kansas native Groves was a singer-songwriter who released a handful of singles and EPs of pop music. Her best-known work is probably "This Little Girl," which she released at the age of 21. Groves died May 2, 2020, of unstated causes, apparently natural.

Little Richard (age 87) - Born Richard Penniman, "Little Richard" was considered a pop icon for much of the past seventy years. His earliest work dates to the 1950s, although his influence reaches across pop to rook to blues to hip-hop. He received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1993, and is a member of the Songwriters, R&B, Blues, and Rock and Roll halls of fame; as well as having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Little Richard died of bone cancer on May 9, 2020.

Dame Vera Lynn (age 103) - Lynn's renditions of "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "We'll Meet Again" and her tireless performances for the troops have long been credited with helping the British endure World War II; an accomplishment for which she received the OBE. She was acclaimed as a national treasure, and performed up until her death. She passed away 18 June, 2020.

Johnny Mandel (age 94) - Mandel was a Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer and arranger who wrote music for television and movies. He is best-known for songs such as "The Shadow of Your Smile" (from The Sandpiper), "Emily" (from The Americanization of Emily), and "Suicide Is Painless" (theme song of both the movie and television series, M*A*S*H). He also arranged the Grammy-winning version of "Unforgettable" that reunited Nat King and Natalie Cole. Mandel died June 29, 2020.

Ellis Marsalis, Jr. (age 85) - Marsalis, a jazz pianist and teacher, was the patriarch of his legendary New Orleans musical family. Among his many students are his own sons, Bradford and Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Connick, Jr. He was a member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, and an NEA Jazz Master. Marsalis contracted COVID-19 and died in a New Orleans hospital on April 1, 2020.

Barbara Martin (age 79) - Martin joined a girl group known as the Primettes in 1960, and the following year the four members signed with Motown impresario Berry Gordy, renaming the group The Supremes. Martin left in 1962, and the rest is hiistory: the remaining three formed a trio that became one of the biggest Motown acts of the decade. Martin died March 3, 2020.

Lyle Mays (age 66) - Mays was a jazz pianist best known for a decades long collaboration with Pat Metheny. During Mays' tenure with the Pat Metheny Group, the ensemble collected eleven Grammy awards. Mays also worked as a sideman with artists like Joni Mitchell, Bobby McFerrin, and Earth Wind and Fire. Mays died February 10, 2020.

Alan Merrill (age 69) - Merrill (born Allan Sachs) was a musician and actor active in the 1970s. As a member of the defunct rock group The Arrows, Merrill was co-author of the pop icon "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." He released multiple albums in Japan and the UK and hosted a television show in England. Merrill died of COVID-19 on March 29, 2020.

Ennio Morricone (age 91) - Morricone was a composer and conductor, best known in the US for his film and television scores. He collaborated with director Sergio Leonoe on a fistful of "spaghetti westerns" before he was picked up by Hollywood. Among his dozens of American film scores are those for Brian De Palma's The Untouchables and Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. His works collected Oscar and Grammy nomnations like kids collect rocks. He died after a fall on July 6, 2020.

Bob Nave (age 75) - Nave, a keyboardist who favored the Hammond organ, was a member of one-hit wonders The Lemon Pipers when they soared to the top of the charts with "Green Tambourine" in 1968. The band soon broke up, and Nave spent the next few years with a variety of rock, blues, and jazz bands. Beginning in the 1980s, he was a radio DJ in Cincinnati (not for WKRP), occasionally lending his sound to The Blues Merchants. Nave died January 27, 2020.

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— O —
Keith Olson (age 74) - Olson was a musician, sound engineer, and record producer who worked with a wide array of artists including Ozzy Osborne, Heart, Whitesnake, The Animals, and the Grateful Dead. His credits include more than a dozen multi-platinum albums and almost forty gold records; and he launched the careers of such artists ans Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Olson died March 9, 2020 .

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— P —

Neil Peart (age 67) - Peart was the drummer for the Toronto-based rock band Rush and shared writing credit as lyricist for many of the band's compositions. He was inducted into the DRUM Magazine Hall of Fame in 1993 and, with his Rush bandmates, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. He also wrote fiction and travel nonfiction. Peart retired from Rush in 2015 and succumbed to glioblastoma on January 7, 2020.

Bucky Pizzarelli (age 94) - Pizzarelli was a jazz guitarist and sometime session musician; the father of jazz musicians John and Martin Pizzarelli. He spent almost eighty years as a musician, from the big band era through pop and rock to jazz. He played with Benny Goodman's orchestra and others, including appearances at the White House for three different presidents. Pizzarelli contracted the COVID-19 virus and died April 1, 2020.

Joe Porcaro (age 90) - Porcaro, a jazz drummer, compiled a long list of appearances as a sideman with such acts as Rosemary Clooney, Gerry Mullligan, Richard Marx, and Harry Connick Jr. He may have been most proud of his appearances with the band Toto, founded by his sons Jeff, Mike, and Steve. His work appears on the soundtrack of Enter the Dragon due to collaboration with Lalo Schifrin. Porcaro died July 5, 2020.

Bonnie Pointer (age 69) - Bonnie and her three sisters (June, Anita, and Ruth), collectively known as The Pointer Sisters, were a hot Soul/R&B act in the 1970s, charting such hits as "Yes We Can Can." The group collected three Grammy Awards in the '70s and '80s, two of them after Bonnie left in 1977. As a solo act, Pointer met moderate success. She died of cardiac arrest on June 8, 2020.

John Prine (age 83) - A mailman turned singer-songwriter, Prine is best known as a teller of blue-collar tales. Many of his best-known works are cover versions by other artists, songs such as "Illegal SMile," "Hello In Ther," "Angel from Montgomery," and "Grandpa Was a Carpenter." Prine received eleven Grammy nominations between 1972 and 2018, winning twice, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. He died of complications from the COVID-19 virus on April 7, 2020.

Harold Reid (age 80) - Reid was a founding member of the Statler Brothers in 1955, singing bass next to his younger brother Don. The group, none of whom is named Statler, received multiple CMA Awards and three Grammy Awards over the years before officially retiring in 2002. The elder Reid succumbed to kidney failure on April 24, 2020.

Kenny Rogers (age 81) - Rogers made his bones in the music industry with folk groups The New Christy Minstrels and the First Edition before striking out on his own as a solo act. He was a multiple Grammy, American Music, and Country Music Award winner and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Some of his biggest hits were duets, especially with Dolly Parton. He also appeared in many television shows. Rogers died March 20, 2020.

Elinor Ross (age 93) - Ross, a soprano, was an internationally-known opera singer who appeared in operas in the Americas and Europe. She was particularly well-known for her work with Italian operas. Ross retired in 1979 at the age of 53 as a result of Bell's Palsy. She passed away March 6, 2020.

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— S —

Adam Schlesinger (age 52) - Schlesinger was a guitarist and vocalist, a founding member of Fountains of Wayne. He was a multiple Emmy Award winner and a Grammy winner, and was nominated for an Oscar and a Tony. Besides FoW, Schlesinger also composed for film, television (mainly themes and award show compositions) and for the stage, including a musical adaptation of Cry Baby. Schlesinger died April 1, 2020, of COVID-19.

Peter Serkin (age 72) - Serkin began his career as a concert pianist at age 12; playing with the orchestras of Cleveland and Philadelphia before his twentieth birthday. Serkin was awarded a Grammy in 1966 as the most promising young classical artist and was nominated for a recording Grammy three times. After a brief hiatus from playing, Serkin re-launched his career, performing and recording well into the 2010s. Serkin died of pancreatic cancer February 1, 2020.

Gene Shay (age 85) - Shay was a long-time radio DJ in the Philadelphia area, broadcasting from 1962 to 2015 on several different stations, both AM and FM. He was active in the city's folk music scene, helping to found the Philadelphia Folk Music Festival. Shay is credited with discovering Bob Dylan, bringin him to Philly in 1963 for his first-ever concert. Shay also interviewed such stars as Joni Mitchel, Jackson Browne, and Tom Waits. He died of COVID-19 on April 17, 2020.

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— T —
Edward Tarr (age 83) - Tarr was a Grammy-winning trumpeter and musicologist with a specialization in baroque and Romantic music. He died in Germany, where he had lived since the 1970s, on March 24, 2020.

Frederick Tillis (age 90) - Tillis composed and taught jazz music, as well as performing on saxophone and writing poetry. He retired from teaching but remained a professor emeritus at U. Mass, Amherst. He published a dozen or so books of poetry and authored a textbook on jazz theory. Tillis died May 4, 2020.

McCoy Tyner (age 81) - Tyner forged a career as a modern jazz pianist beginning at age 17 in his native Philadelphia. He appeared with John Coltrane throughout the early 1960s, including the bandleader's best-known album, A Love Supreme. After leaving Coltrane in 1965, Tyner was essentially a solo act, releasing numerous albums up through the '90s. He won five Grammy awards and was named a Jazz Master by the NEA. Tyner died March 6, 2020.

Eric Weissberg (age 80) - A talented multi-instrumentalist, Weissberg began his career as a bluegrass fiddler. After a stint in the National Guard, he rejoined his band to tour with folk icon Judy Collins. When the group broke up, he became a session musician, contributing string accompaniment to albums by such artists as Bob Dylan, Collins, and John Denver. He is probably best known for playing the banjo part of "Duelin' Banjos," theme song for Deliverance, in 1972. Weissberg succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease on March 22, 2020.

Betty Wright (age 66) - Wright was a singer, songwriter, and background singer in soul and R&B. Her biggest hit came in 1971, when she released "Clean Up Woman," though she had already been a recording since she was thirteen. Wright picked up a Grammy in 1974 for "Where Is the Love?" She released dozens of singles over a fifty-year career and appeared as a background vocalist on many more. She died of cancer on May 10, 2020.

The Ghoul Pool

Friday, January 3, 2020

2020 Deaths, Music

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