Van Cliburn 1934-2013

Van Cliburn died this week. Had it not been for Mr. Rogers, I wouldn't have known who Van Cliburn was in my younger years.

And looking back, I find it amazing that our Cold War with the Soviet Union permeated everything. It consumed us. And it was all a dick swinging contest. Not only in regards to military supremacy, but the Space Race, sports, music, Rocky IV, everything was a contest. I didn't know why we hated the the guys wearing the CCCP shirts, but I knew we were supposed to hate them.

And in 1958, Van Cliburn was a part of that.

 

Dave Brubeck 1920-2012

Legendary Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck died today, one day short of his 92nd birthday.

Brubeck is best known for Take Five.

 

Frank Foster Dies at 82

I've been meaning to put this up for a week now. We lost another jazz giant.

NY Times: Frank Foster, a saxophonist, composer and arranger who helped shape the sound of the Count Basie Orchestra during its popular heyday in the 1950s and ’60s and later led expressive large and small groups of his own, died on Tuesday at his home in Chesapeake, Va. He was 82.

Music Break! Michael Brecker

I'm in one of those moods, so I always go to the source that snaps me out of it. My favorite saxophonist, Michael Brecker, who left this world too soon.

Delta City Blues

Clarence Clemons Dies at 69

NJ.com: Clarence Clemons — the Big Man with the big horn — died today of complications from a stroke he suffered last weekend, said a source close to Bruce Springsteen. He was 69 years old.

He was the spirit of the E Street Band, and the oaken staff that Bruce Springsteen leaned on. There have been many charismatic figures in the band, but none had the personal gravity of Clarence Clemons, the group’s Bunyanesque saxophonist.

Les Paul Dies at 94

NY TIMES: Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. He was 94.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, the Gibson Guitar Corporation and his family announced.

Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s.