-
-
related tags:
- Soul
- Bet
- Hip Hop
- Hiphopdx
- MTV
- Raphael Saadiq
- Rap
- Mixtape
- R&B Singer
- Music
- RnB
- Ne-Yo
- Street Cred
- Current
- Blame It
- Motown
- Marvin Gaye
- Internet
- Pop
- hip hop music
- Neo Soul
- Singer
- Entertainment
- Funk
- Indie Heat
- Indie Heat Video Magazine
- Keri Hilson
- R. Kelly
- Web Entertainment
- Keyshia Cole
- Rhythm & Blues
- neo-soul
- D'Angelo
- bladdha
- Falsetto
- Gym Class Heroes
- Rapper
- Indieheat
- Ray Charles
- Otis Redding
- robin thicke
- rhapsody
- Emusic
- Rap Music
- Hip-Hop
- Showcase
- Hip
- Music Videos
- unsigned
- Ashanti
tagged w/ R&B
-
Don Cornelius, "Soul Train," Has Died | Photos | Videos |
CNN...
.
How Don Cornelius became the 'pope of soul'
By John Blake and Todd Leopold, CNN
updated 4:34 PM EST, Wed February 1, 2012
Don Cornelius' impact on America went beyond music. "Soul Train" united white and black America together.
.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
"Soul Train" host Don Cornelius' impact on America was bigger than music
"He was an ambassador, the pope of soul," one sociologist says
Show's message was "I'm black and I'm proud," Gladys Knight says
Stars and fans praised his cool persona, boldness and cultural "tightrope" act
.
PART ONE...
.
(CNN) -- Don Cornelius never led a civil rights march, launched a boycott or gave a speech before a cheering crowd of protesters.
But his impact on America was as profound as virtually any civil rights leader, says Shayne Lee, a sociologist who grew up watching "Soul Train."
Cornelius' groundbreaking TV show didn't just captivate African-Americans -- it tied white and black America together in a way that had not been done before, says Lee, who teaches a course on hip-hop at the University of Houston.
"He was an ambassador, the pope of soul," Lee said. "For a lot of suburban whites living in segregated America, this was their first exposure to this exiting new world of movement and energy. He made black culture more accessible."
Cornelius, who hosted "Soul Train" for 22 of its 36 years on the air, died Tuesday. He was 75. Police reports indicate he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The suave Cornelius was known by an entire generation of African-Americans as the dapper host of "Soul Train" who signed off each show by blowing a kiss and declaring, "We wish you love, peace and souuuullll."
Most of the tributes to Cornelius that poured in following his death focused on his contribution to music. Others said his legacy was bigger than sound.
Cultural impact of 'Soul Train'
Kenny Gamble, co-founder of Philadelphia International Records, which produced the theme song for "Soul Train," says Cornelius was a great contributor to American, not just black, culture.
"Soul Train," like Apple and Coca-Cola, is an American brand, Gamble says.
"Soul Train" traditions, like dancers gathering to cheer on fellow dancers as they shimmied down a dance line, are now a part of pop culture.
"No matter where you go in this world, people are doing the 'Soul Train' dance line," he said. "What's a party without the 'Soul Train' dance line?"
Gamble still sounded stunned after hearing the news about Cornelius.
"Unbelievable," he said. "That was my man."
Singer Gladys Knight told CNN that Cornelius was an unsung hero whose show amplified the message, "I'm black and I'm proud."
"He encouraged us to be ourselves," she said. "We're going to give you this platform and you go out and do your thing."
Sociologist Lee said that message -- be black and proud -- drove the civil rights movement. And just as the civil rights movement overturned segregation, Cornelius erased cultural barriers that separated white and black Americans living apart in their own cultural cocoons.
"I see Cornelius as a civil rights activist," said Lee, author of "Erotic Revolutionaries."
"The civil rights movement changed the legal structure; Cornelius changed the cultural structure. Changing the culture can change hearts in a way that protests can't."
Cornelius first changed television.
TV had not been known as friendly terrain for African-Americans before "Soul Train." Blacks were often seen in caricatured roles -- as minstrels, servants or outlaws. They were seen through the lens of white America.
"Soul Train" changed the focus. It lifted the veil on black America and showed blacks being themselves, and not as whites imagined them, said Lee.
"The show introduced the notion that blacks were creative, we have something to offer and we're not going anywhere. And if you give us a chance, you might like some of our moves," Lee said.
Cornelius offered white America a new way to see black men, Lee says. He wasn't a sidekick or servant, nor was he angry.
"He walked a tightrope," Lee said. "If he was too in-your-face, he would have been offensive on television, or too accommodating he would have been perceived as an Uncle Tom.
"He was soooo cool."
The cool apparently wasn't an act to those who knew him and knew how he launched "Soul Train."
.
CONTINUED...
.CNN... . How Don Cornelius became the 'pope of soul' By John... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 10 days ago
- |
- 28 comments
-
-
Etta James Has Died | Mourners Bid Passionate Farewell
Los Angeles Times...
.
Public viewing scheduled for Etta James
January 25, 2012
.
A public viewing will be held Friday in Inglewood for R&B great Etta James, who died last week at the age of 73, a family representative said.
The viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Manchester Chapel at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary, 3801 W. Manchester Blvd.
The Rev. Al Sharpton will lead a private memorial service for the singer Saturday.
—Phil Willon
.
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/etta-james-singer-dies-at-73.html
The New York Times...
.
Etta James, Powerful Voice Behind ‘At Last,’ Dies at 73
.
PHOTO:
Etta James in the studio in Chicago with the Chess Records founder Phil Chess, left, and the producer Ralph Bass in 1960.
.
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: January 20, 2012
.
Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73.
Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.
Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s with records like “Good Rockin’ Daddy.” She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards, as she did in 1961 with “At Last,” which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by Glenn Miller’s orchestra. And among her four Grammy Awards (including a lifetime-achievement honor in 2003) was one for best jazz vocal performance, which she won in 1995 for the album “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.”
Regardless of how she was categorized, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had “one of the great voices in American popular music, with a huge range, a multiplicity of tones and vast reserves of volume.”
For all her accomplishments, Ms. James had an up-and-down career, partly because of changing audience tastes but largely because of drug problems. She developed a heroin habit in the 1960s; after she overcame it in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly described her struggles with addiction and her many trips to rehab in her autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” written with David Ritz (1995).
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 at the time; her father was long gone, and Ms. James never knew for sure who he was, although she recalled her mother telling her that he was the celebrated pool player Rudolf Wanderone, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was reared by foster parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.
She began singing at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first record, “Roll With Me Henry,” which set her own lyrics to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ recent hit “Work With Me Annie.” When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to “The Wallflower,” although the record itself was not.
“The Wallflower” rose to No. 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1954. As was often the case in those days with records by black performers, a toned-down version was soon recorded by a white singer and found a wider audience: Georgia Gibbs’s version, with the title and lyric changed to “Dance With Me, Henry,” was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (Its success was not entirely bad news for Ms. James. She shared the songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who had arranged for her recording session. (Mr. Otis died on Tuesday.)
In 1960 Ms. James was signed by Chess Records, the Chicago label that was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other leading lights of black music. She quickly had a string of hits, including “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “Trust in Me” and “At Last,” which established her as Chess’s first major female star.
She remained with Chess well into the 1970s, reappearing on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and high-spirited “Tell Mama.” In the late ’70s and early ’80s she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.
After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Ms. James found herself in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of “At Last” closely modeled on hers. (Ms. Knowles played Ms. James in the 2008 movie “Cadillac Records,” a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of Chess.) Ms. Knowles also performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for President Obama in Washington.
When the movie was released, Ms. James had kind words for Ms. Knowles’s portrayal. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the Washington performance, she told an audience, “I can’t stand Beyoncé,” and threatened to “whip” the younger singer for singing “At Last.” She later said she had been joking, but she did add that she wished she had been invited to sing the song herself for the new president.
Ms. James’s survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills; two sons, Donto and Sametto James; and four grandchildren.
.
Though her life had its share of troubles to the end — her husband and sons were locked in a long-running battle over control of her estate, which was resolved in her husband’s favor only weeks before her death — Ms. James said she wanted her music to transcend unhappiness rather than reflect it.
“A lot of people think the blues is depressing,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992, “but that’s not the blues I’m singing. When I’m singing blues, I’m singing life. People that can’t stand to listen to the blues, they’ve got to be phonies.”
.
http://collegecandy.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/etta-james.jpg?w=600&h=337
.Los Angeles Times... . Public viewing scheduled for Etta James January... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 22 days ago
- |
- 57 comments
-
-
Johnny Otis, "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues," Has Died
The New York Times...
.
Johnny Otis Has Died
.
Johnny Otis, ‘Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,’ Dies at 90
.
By IHSAN TAYLOR
Published: January 19, 2012
Johnny Otis, the musician, bandleader, songwriter, impresario, disc jockey and talent scout who was often called “the godfather of rhythm and blues,” died on Tuesday at his home in Altadena, Calif. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by his manager, Terry Gould.
Leading a band in the late 1940s that combined the high musical standards of big band jazz with the raw urgency of gospel music and the blues, Mr. Otis played an important role in creating a new sound for a new audience of young urban blacks. Within a few years it would form the foundation of rock ’n’ roll.
With a keen ear for talent, he helped steer a long list of performers to stardom, among them Etta James, Jackie Wilson, Esther Phillips and Big Mama Thornton — whose hit recording of “Hound Dog,” made in 1952, four years before Elvis Presley’s, was produced by Mr. Otis and featured him on drums.
At Mr. Otis’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Ms. James referred to him as her “guru.” (He received similar honors from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and the Blues Foundation.)
Mr. Otis was also a political activist, a preacher, an artist, an author and even, late in life, an organic farmer. But it was in music that he left his most lasting mark.
Despite being a mover and shaker in the world of black music, Mr. Otis was not black, which as far as he was concerned was simply an accident of birth. He was immersed in African-American culture from an early age and said he considered himself “black by persuasion.”
“Genetically, I’m pure Greek,” he told The San Jose Mercury News in 1994. “Psychologically, environmentally, culturally, by choice, I’m a member of the black community.”
As a musician (he played piano and vibraphone in addition to drums) Mr. Otis can be heard on Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love,” Charles Brown’s “Drifting Blues” and other seminal rhythm and blues records, as well as on jazz recordings by Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet. As a bandleader and occasional vocalist, he had a string of rhythm and blues hits in the early 1950s and a Top 10 pop hit in 1958 with his composition “Willie and the Hand Jive,” later covered by Eric Clapton and others. His many other compositions included “Every Beat of My Heart,” a Top 10 hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1961.
As a disc jockey (he was on the radio for decades starting in the 1950s and had his own Los Angeles television show from 1954 to 1961) he helped bring black vernacular music into the American mainstream.
Johnny Otis was born John Alexander Veliotes (some sources give his first name as Ioannis) on Dec. 28, 1921, in Vallejo, Calif., the son of Greek immigrants who ran a grocery. He grew up in a predominantly black area of Berkeley. Mr. Otis began his career as a drummer in 1939. In 1945 he formed a 16-piece band and recorded his first hit, “Harlem Nocturne.”
As big bands fell out of fashion, Mr. Otis stripped the ensemble down to just a few horns and a rhythm section and stepped to the forefront of the emerging rhythm and blues scene. In 1948 he and a partner opened a nightclub, the Barrelhouse, in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
From 1950 to 1952 Mr. Otis had 15 singles on Billboard’s rhythm and blues Top 40, including “Double Crossing Blues,” which was No. 1 for nine weeks. On the strength of that success he crisscrossed the country with his California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, featuring singers like Ms. Phillips, billed as Little Esther — whom he had discovered at a talent contest at his nightclub — and Hank Ballard, who a decade later would record the original version of “The Twist,” the song that ushered in a national dance craze.
Around this time Mr. Otis became a D.J. on the Los Angeles-area radio station KFOX. He was an immediate success, and soon had his own local television show as well. He had a weekly program on the Pacifica Radio Network in California from the 1970s until 2005.
Hundreds of Mr. Otis’s radio and television shows are archived at Indiana University. In addition, he is the subject of a coming documentary film, “Every Beat of My Heart: The Johnny Otis Story,” directed by Bruce Schmiechen, and a biography, “Midnight at the Barrelhouse,” by George Lipsitz, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2010.
While he never stopped making music as long as his health allowed, Mr. Otis focused much of his attention in the 1960s on politics and the civil rights movement. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the California State Assembly and served on the staff of Mervyn M. Dymally, a Democratic assemblyman who later became a United States representative and California’s first black lieutenant governor.
Mr. Otis’s first book, “Listen to the Lambs” (1968), was largely a reflection on the political and social significance of the 1965 Watts riots.
In the mid-1970s Mr. Otis branched out further when he was ordained as a minister and opened the nondenominational Landmark Community Church in Los Angeles. While he acknowledged that some people attended just “to see what Reverend Hand Jive was talking about,” he took his position seriously and in his decade as pastor was involved in charitable work including feeding the homeless.
In the early 1990s he moved to Sebastopol, an agricultural town in northern California, and became an organic farmer, a career detour that he said was motivated by his concern for the environment. For several years he made and sold his own brand of apple juice in a store he opened to sell the produce he grew with his son Nick. The store doubled as a nightclub where Mr. Otis and his band performed.
Later that decade he published three more books: “Upside Your Head!: Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue” (1993), a memoir of his musical life; “Colors and Chords” (1995), a collection of his paintings, sculptures, wood carvings and cartoons (his interest in art had begun when he started sketching cartoons on his tour bus in the 1950s to amuse his band); and “Red Beans & Rice and Other Rock ’n’ Roll Recipes” (1997), a cookbook.
Mr. Otis continued to record and perform into the 21st century. His bands often included family members: his son John Jr., known as Shuggie, is a celebrated guitarist who played with him for many years, and Nick was his longtime drummer. Two grandsons, Lucky and Eric Otis, also played guitar with him.
In addition to his sons, he is survived by his wife of 70 years, the former Phyllis Walker; two daughters, Janice Johnson and Laura Johnson; nine grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.
Long after he was a force on the rhythm and blues charts, Mr. Otis was a familiar presence at blues and even jazz festivals. What people wanted to call his music, he said, was of no concern to him.
“Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it’s all African-American music,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 1993. “The music isn’t just the notes, it’s the culture — the way Grandma cooked, the way Grandpa told stories, the way the kids walked and talked.”
.The New York Times... . Johnny Otis Has Died . Johnny Otis,... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 22 days ago
- |
- 13 comments
-
-
RIHANNA ASKING FOR SOME PIPE ?, BLUE IVY WEED, DIDDY, RICK ROSS, BLACK PEOPLE.. Industry 5
RIHANNA ASKING FOR SOME PIPE ?, BLUE IVY WEED HOW DID THIS HAPPEN ?, DIDDY, RICK ROSS, THE PROBLEM WITH BLACK PEOPLE.. THIS WEEK IN THE INDUSTRY 5
Read Full Story: http://www.waneenterprises.com/videos/livewire/158RIHANNA ASKING FOR SOME PIPE ?, BLUE IVY WEED HOW DID THIS HAPPEN ?, DIDDY, RICK ROSS,... more-
- Wizzane
- added this
- 19 days ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Tom Ardolino, NRBQ Drummer, Has Died
Los Angeles Times...
.
Tom Ardolino dies at 56; former NRBQ drummer
Tom Ardolino was a teenage amateur drummer when tapped by NRBQ. He spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for the category-defying band.
PHOTO:
NRBQ is shown in 1990. Clockwise from left are Joey Spampinato, Tom Ardolino, Terry Adams and Al Anderson. (Waring Abbott)
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
January 11, 2012
.
Members of the category-defying band NRBQ knew from the outset that their prospects of mainstream success were slim to none.
With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the reward of accolades from fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, as well as from a coterie of devoted fans scattered across the planet.
The group's anything-goes-and-usually-does approach was what first caught the ear of 15-year-old drummer Tom Ardolino, who sent a fan letter to keyboardist Terry Adams after catching one of the group's shows in Springfield, Mass. In 1974, Adams invited him to join the group when drummer Tom Staley quit.
Ardolino spent the next few decades providing nimble, propulsive backbeats for bandmates Adams, guitarist Al Anderson and bassist Joey Spampinato until health issues forced him to quit touring. Those problems contributed to his death Friday at age 56 from alcoholism-related illness.
"Tommy deserves an entire wing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Raitt told the Boston Globe last year. "There's [Rolling Stones drummer] Charlie Watts, and there's Tom Ardolino. That's it."
During NRBQ's relentless touring schedule — they often logged 250 shows a year — Ardolino projected the image of the world's happiest bus driver. Under a mass of long, black curly hair and peering out from behind a grizzly beard and mustache, Ardolino bounced atop the stool of his drum kit as he pounded out sultry shuffles, effervescent swing beats, insistent rock and slinky R&B pulses, country two-steps or intricate jazz polyrhythms that anchored his fellow players' flights of musical fancy.
"Between 1974 and whenever I left that band, I can tell you that that was the baddest-ass rhythm section that ever lived," Anderson told the Boston Globe, referring to the Ardolino-Spampinato half of the group that Anderson left in 1994. "NRBQ was kind of destined not to make it big because critics and radio couldn't put a name on it. But we were so great because we were playing 250 nights a year, and we started thinking with one mind."
Ardolino was born Jan. 12, 1955, and was a teenage amateur drummer in Springfield when he got a call from Adams after Staley decided to bow out.
"I was ready," Ardolino told the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate in 1999, when the band was on a 30th anniversary tour. "My problem was I had to learn to play for like a whole set long, and [to play] harder, because I was used to playing with records, which was soft."
Responding to the moment was NRBQ's calling card in concert, a trait that rarely translates into commercial success, which typically requires steady predictability.
NRBQ could never be easily pigeonholed, and therefore handily marketed, so only three of the group's albums ever charted, in the lower reaches of Billboard's Top 200 Albums rankings. Their 1969 debut "NRBQ," which originally stood for New Rhythm & Blues Quintet, and their 1990 album "Wild Weekend" are among the group's best-known recordings.
"We get disappointed sometimes, and we don't understand," Ardolino told The Times in 1992. "One of our old record labels sent us a statement once claiming the total sales of one of our albums was three cassettes. But it ain't gonna stop us. Besides, I think we have a great life. We get to play whatever we want, and we got to meet a lot of great people. I know all the good record stores in every town."
After the band went on hiatus about a decade ago, Ardolino released a solo album, "Unknown Brain." Adams resurrected NRBQ in recent years and has continued touring and recording, with himself as the only remaining original member.
Elvis Costello once told Rolling Stone, "I'd much rather any day go see NRBQ playing than any of our illustrious punk bands in England."
Ardolino's alcoholism progressed in recent years, according to the Boston Globe, and he was hospitalized in November. He died at Kindred Hospital in Springfield, Mass., the newspaper reported.
He was separated from his wife, Keiko, with whom he had a stepdaughter, Emiko, and a stepson, Liku. He is also survived by his brother, Richard.
.Los Angeles Times... . Tom Ardolino dies at 56; former NRBQ drummer Tom... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 5 comments
-
-
New Hip Hop Artist STeaDY Drops New Single “Usual”
You have to listen to hot new hip hop artist STeaDY! STeaDY (aka Zach Wada) who created an initial following in the Midwest but is also burning up the Urban scene in the Bay Area. His first single "Usual" was produced by up and coming producer, Kyle Cecil for Hella Melody Productions. With a raspy tone and original lyrics STeaDy’s sound is unique and unforgettable. STeaDY’s music is ready for the streets,and he lives by the motto…"I make feel good music, let everyone else follow trends."
Check out his single on iTunes and hit him up Facebook and
Twitter (steady314)You have to listen to hot new hip hop artist STeaDY! STeaDY (aka Zach Wada) who... more-
- bluedarts
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Please help support my work.
Critique my songs, if you will at: www.myspace.com/kazeakacali.-
- KazieAKAcali
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
You're invited to swing through and support this hot new artist: KazieAKAcali.
Merry christmas to all, and help support my music if you will. www.soundcloud.com/kazieakacali.Merry christmas to all, and help support my music if you will.... more-
- KazieAKAcali
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
RIHANNA RESPONDS TO RACIST MAGAZINE ARTICLE
Ok in the world of journalism we guest some people will got to any lengths to bring attention to themselves or their publication. A German magazine went hard on Rhianna with an article called the Deniggabitch. Rhianna got wind of it and went to her twitter and went in on the editor in chief of the magazine
Read RIhanna response at the link warning it's not pretty
http://www.waneenterprises.com/news/858Ok in the world of journalism we guest some people will got to any lengths to bring... more-
- Wizzane
- added this
- 1 month ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Howard Tate, Soul Singer Given Second Chance in Music, Has Died
Los Angeles Times...
.
PASSINGS: Howard Tate
Howard Tate, a soul singer who got a second chance at musical career, dies at 72.
Howard Tate, seen in 2003, had three top 20 rhythm-and-blues hits in the late 1960s and early ’70s, including “Get It While You Can,” written by his longtime producer Jerry Ragovoy (who died in July) and later recorded by Janis Joplin. (Brian Branch-Pric / Associated Press)
.
December 10, 2011, 9:17 p.m.
.
Howard Tate, 72, a soul singer who got a second chance at a career three decades after being derailed by disputes with industry executives, personal tragedy and drug addiction, died Dec. 2 in Burlington, N.J., said a spokesman for the Burlington County medical examiner.
Born in Macon, Ga., and reared in Philadelphia, Tate had three top 20 rhythm-and-blues hits in the late 1960s and early '70s, including "Get It While You Can," written by his longtime producer Jerry Ragovoy (who died in July) and later recorded by Janis Joplin.
Tate toured with Aretha Franklin as her recording of "Respect" climbed the charts in 1967. But he eventually walked away from music, disillusioned that he was not receiving the royalties he thought he deserved, and became an insurance salesman in suburban Philadelphia.
"I got rid of my own records, and I didn't listen to other people's records because I didn't want to flash back," he told the Associated Press in 2003.
Then, Tate later recounted, tragedy struck. A daughter died in a fire. His marriage fell apart. He began drinking heavily, became addicted to crack and was homeless for a decade in Camden, N.J. Ragovoy and others thought he had died.
By the mid-1990s Tate had overcome his addictions and became a minister. He returned to the recording studio in 2003 to make the Grammy-nominated album "Rediscovered," with Ragovoy producing and doing most of the writing. Tate later toured and released four more CDs.
"A call from God" had brought him back to an industry he had "hated and despised so bad," Tate once said.
.
los angeles times staff and wire servicesLos Angeles Times... . PASSINGS: Howard Tate Howard Tate, a soul singer who... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 2 months ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
-
Sylvia Robinson, Hip-Hop Pioneer and Singer-Songwriter, Has Died | "Pillow Talk" | "Love Is Strange"
CNN...
.
Singer, hip-hop pioneer Sylvia Robinson dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 7:49 PM EST, Thu September 29, 2011
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Singer-songwriter and music entrepreneur dies at 76
She was most known for single "Pillow Talk"
Sylvia Robinson helped start Sugar Hill Records
.
(CNN) -- Sylvia Robinson, a singer-songwriter who went on to become a pioneer in the hip-hop music business, introducing the seminal "Rapper's Delight," died Thursday in New Jersey of congestive heart failure. She was 76.
Best known as an artist for 1973's sultry "Pillow Talk," Robinson was a "trendsetter" in music, publicist Lynn K. Hobson told CNN.
"She was known as the founder of hip-hop," Hobson said. "She was vibrant, with an over-the-top personality."
Robinson's singing, producing and songwriting career dated back to the 1950s, when she recorded as "Little Sylvia" and later as one half of the duo "Mickey & Sylvia." The team's hit "Love Is Strange," which hit the pop charts in early 1957 and reached No. 1 on the rhythm-and-blues chart, found new life three decades later in the 1987 movie "Dirty Dancing." She also produced "Love On a Two-Way Street" for the Moments in 1970.
Born Sylvia Vanterpool, Robinson and her late husband, Joe, founded Sugar Hill Records in 1979 and released the early hip hop hit, "Rapper's Delight," performed by the Sugar Hill Gang. Her eldest son, Joey, was a member of the group she formed.
The song, which adapted the musical track of Chic's "Good Times," began with the familiar lines, "I said a hip hop, a hippie, a hippie to the hip hip hop, you don't stop to rock it."
The label also signed Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which had success in the 1980s, including the hit "The Message."
Kanye West and Alicia Keys are among the artists who sampled songs associated with Robinson, Hobson said.
The funeral is scheduled for October 11 at Community Baptist Church in Englewood, New Jersey.
"RIP to my grandmother," MTV personality Darnell Robinson, the entrepreneur's grandson, wrote on his Twitter account Thursday. "We lost Mommy Sylvia this morning but she will never be forgotten!"
.
CNN's Phil Gast contributed to this report.CNN... . Singer, hip-hop pioneer Sylvia Robinson dies By the CNN Wire Staff... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 4 months ago
- |
- 9 comments
-
-
Nights At The Roundtable - The Pentagons - 1961
Starting off the week with some late Doo-Wop . . .really.-
- Gordonskene
- added this
- 5 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Jerry Leiber, of Leiber & Stoller, Has Died
The New York Times...
.
August 22, 2011
Jerry Leiber, Prolific Writer of 1950s Hits, Dies at 78
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Jerry Leiber, the lyricist who, with his partner, Mike Stoller, wrote some of the most enduring classics in the history of rock ’n’ roll, including “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me” and “On Broadway,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 78.
The cause was cardio-pulmonary failure, said Randy Poe, president of Leiber & Stoller Music Publishing.
The team of Leiber and Stoller was formed in 1950, when Mr. Leiber was still a student at Fairfax High in Los Angeles and Mr. Stoller, a fellow rhythm-and-blues fanatic, was a freshman at Los Angeles City College. With Mr. Leiber contributing catchy, street-savvy lyrics and Mr. Stoller, a pianist, composing infectious, bluesy tunes, they set about writing songs with black singers and groups in mind.
In 1952, they wrote “Hound Dog” for the blues singer Big Mama Thornton. The song became an enormous hit for Elvis Presley in 1956 and made Leiber and Stoller the hottest songwriting team in rock ’n’ roll. They later wrote “Jailhouse Rock,” “Loving You,” “Don’t,” “Treat Me Nice,” “King Creole” and other songs for Presley, despite their loathing for his interpretation of “Hound Dog.”
In the late 1950s, having relocated to New York and taken their place among the constellation of talents associated with the Brill Building, they emerged as perhaps the most potent songwriting team in the genre.
Their hits for the Drifters remain some of the most admired songs in the rock ’n’ roll canon, notably “On Broadway,” written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and “Stand By Me” with Ben E. King. With Phil Spector, Mr. Leiber wrote the Drifters hit “Spanish Harlem.”
They wrote a series of hits for the Coasters, including “Charlie Brown,” “Young Blood” with Doc Pomus, “Searchin’,” “Poison Ivy” and “Yakety Yak.”
“Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” a 1954 hit written for the Robins, became the title of a Broadway musical based on the Leiber and Stoller songbook. In 1987, the partners were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller have written some of the most spirited and enduring rock ’n’ roll songs," the hall said in a statement when they were inducted. “Leiber and Stoller advanced rock ’n’ roll to new heights of wit and musical sophistication.”
Jerome Leiber was born on April 25, 1933, in Baltimore, where his parents, Jewish immigrants from Poland, ran a general store. When Jerry was 5, his father died and his mother tried, with little success, to run a small store in one of the city’s worst slums. When he was 12, she took him to Los Angeles.
It was while attending Fairfax High in Los Angeles and working in Norty’s Record Shop that he met Leonard Sill, a promoter for Modern Records, and confessed that he wanted to be a songwriter. After Sill urged him to find a pianist who could help him put his ideas onto sheet music he met Mr. Stoller through a friend, and the two began writing together
“Often I would have a start, two or four lines,” Mr. Leiber told Robert Palmer, the author of “Baby, That Was Rock & Roll: The Legendary Leiber and Stoller” (1978). “Mike would sit at the piano and start to jam, just playing, fooling around, and I’d throw out a line. He’d accommodate the line — metrically, rhythmically.”
Within a few years they had written modestly successful songs for several rhythm-and-blues singers: “K.C. Lovin’ ” for Little Willie Littlefield, which under the title “Kansas City” became a No. 1 hit for Wilbert Harrison in 1959.
In 1952, Sill arranged for Mr. Leiber and Mr. Stoller to visit the bandleader Johnny Otis and to listen to several of the rhythm-and-blues acts who worked with him, including Big Mama Thornton, who sang “Ball and Chain” for them. Inspired, the partners went back to Mr. Stoller’s house and wrote “Hound Dog.”
“I yelled, he played,” Mr. Leiber told Josh Alan Friedman, the author of “Tell the Truth Until They Bleed: Coming Clean in the Dirty World of Blues and Rock ’n’ Roll” (2008). “The groove came together and we finished in 12 minutes flat. I work fast. We raced right back to lay the song on Big Mama.”
In 1953 they formed Spark Records, an independent label, with Sill, but without national distribution it failed to score major hits. Atlantic Records, which had bought the Leiber and Stoller song “Ruby Baby” and “Fools Fall in Love” for the Drifters, signed them to an unusual agreement that allowed them to produce for other labels. The golden age of Leiber and Stoller began.
Their seemingly endless list of hit songs from this period included “Love Potion No. 9” for the Clovers (later a hit for the Searchers).
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Leiber and Mr. Stoller concentrated on production. They founded Red Bird Records, where they turned out hit records by girl groups like the Dixie Cups (“Chapel of Love”) and the Shangri-Las (“Leader of the Pack,” “Walking in the Sand”).
They sold the label in 1966 and worked as independent producers and writers. Peggy Lee, who had recorded their song “I’m a Woman” in 1963, recorded “Is that All There Is?” in 1969.
Mr. Leiber is survived by three sons, Jed, Oliver and Jake, and two grandchildren.
With Mr. Stoller and David Ritz, Mr. Leiber wrote a 2009 memoir, “Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography.”
.
PHOTO:
From left, Mike Stoller, Elvis Presley and Jerry Leiber at MGM Studios in 1957.The New York Times... . August 22, 2011 Jerry Leiber, Prolific Writer of 1950s... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 6 months ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Nick Ashford, of Ashford & Simpson, Has Died
The New York Times...
.
August 22, 2011
Nick Ashford, of Motown Writing Duo, Dies at 70
By BEN SISARIO
Nick Ashford, who with Valerie Simpson, his songwriting partner and later wife, wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and later recorded their own hits and toured as a duo, died Monday at a hospital in New York City. He was 70 and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Ashford had throat cancer and was undergoing treatment, but the cause of his death was not immediately known. His death was announced by Liz Rosenberg, a friend who is a longtime music publicist.
One of the primary songwriting and producing teams of Motown, Ashford & Simpson specialized in romantic duets of the most dramatic kind, professing the power of true love and the comforts of sweet talk. In “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” from 1967, their first of several hits for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, lovers in close harmony proclaim their determination that “no wind, no rain, no winter’s cold, can stop me, baby,” but also make cuter promises: “If you’re ever in trouble, I’ll be there on the double.”
Gaye and Terrell also sang the duo’s songs “Your Precious Love,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By.” Diana Ross sang their “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand,” and when she rerecorded “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ in 1970, it became the former Supreme’s first No. 1 hit as a solo artist.
“They had magic, and that’s what creates those wonderful hits, that magic,” Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire told The Associated Press after learning of his friend’s death. “Without those songs, those artists wouldn’t have been able to go to the next level.”
Nickolas Ashford was born in Fairfield, S.C., and raised in Willow Run, Mich., where his father, Calvin, was a construction worker. He got his musical start at Willow Run Baptist Church, singing and writing songs for the gospel choir. He briefly attended Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti, before heading to New York, where he tried but failed to find success as a dancer.
In 1964, while homeless, Mr. Ashford went to White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, where he met Ms. Simpson, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate who was studying music. They began writing songs together, selling the first bunch for $64. In 1966, after Ray Charles sang “Let’s Go Get Stoned,” a song Ashford & Simpson wrote with Joey Armstead, the duo signed on with Motown as staff writers and producers.
They wrote for virtually every major act on the label, including Gladys Knight and the Pips (“Didn’t You Know You’d Have to Cry Sometime”) and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (“Who’s Gonna Take the Blame”).
While writing for Motown, Ashford & Simpson nursed a desire to perform, which Berry Gordy Jr., the founder and patriarch of the label, discouraged. They left the label in 1973 and married in 1974.
Ashford & Simpson’s initial collaborations sold poorly, but by the late ‘70s, songs like “Don’t Cost You Nothing,” “It Seems to Hang On” and “Found a Cure” became hits on the R&B charts. Their biggest hit as a solo act was “Solid,” which reached No. 12 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1984.
They also continued to write hits for other people. “I’m Every Woman“ was a hit for Chaka Khan in 1978, and later for Whitney Houston on the soundtrack to the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.” In 1996, they opened the Sugar Bar on West 72nd Street in Manhattan, where they often presided over open mic nights. Recently, they received a songwriting credit on Amy Winehouse’s song “Tears Dry on Their Own,” which contains a sample from “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Besides his wife, Mr. Ashford is survived by two daughters, Nicole and Asia; his brothers Paul, Albert and Frank; and his mother, Alice Ashford.
Ashford & Simpson toured throughout their career, their harmony and vocal interplay illustrating the passion of their lyrics and of their life together.
“When Ms. Simpson sits down at the piano and begins to sing in a bright pop-gospel voice, unchanged since the 1970s,” Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote in a review in 2007, “she awakens the spirit and tosses it to Mr. Ashford, whose quirkier voice, with its airy falsetto, has gained in strength from the old days. Soon they are urging each other on. By the time their romantic relay winds to a close, both are sweating profusely, and the audience is delirious.”
.
PHOTO: Richard Termine for The New York Times
Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson performing in 2006 at the Regency Hotel in Manhattan.
.The New York Times... . August 22, 2011 Nick Ashford, of Motown Writing Duo,... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 6 months ago
- |
- 5 comments
-
-
Rolling Stones/Janis Joplin Songwriter Jerry Ragovoy Has Died
Jerry Ragovoy dies at 80; songwriter had hits with Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin
Jerry Ragovoy wrote or co-wrote hits including 'Time Is On My Side,' 'Piece of My Heart,' 'Cry Baby,' 'Get It While You Can' and 'Stay With Me.'
By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
July 19, 2011
Soul songwriter Jerry Ragovoy wrote one of his more famous tunes – "Time Is On My Side," which turned into a massive hit for the Rolling Stones — under the pseudonym of Norman Meade.
He was saving his own name for the works he planned to write one day for Broadway.
Instead, Ragovoy found his metier in the 1960s as a pop music producer and writer or co-writer of now-classic records that also included "Cry Baby" and "Piece of My Heart." Both were covered by Janis Joplin, who heavily relied on him to forge her style.
Ragovoy died Wednesday at a New York City hospital of complications from a stroke, said his wife, Bev. He was 80.
"Jerry was a giant of soul, R&B and rock songwriting and record production," Jim Steinblatt, a spokesman for the performance rights group ASCAP, told The Times in an email. "His songs were far better known than he was."
"Cry Baby" is considered by some to be "the first true soul song, marking the place where black church first bleeds over into pop music," Robert Meyerowitz wrote in the Phoenix New Times in 1997 when a Ragovoy-heavy Joplin collection was released.
The song was originally penned by Ragovoy and one of his writing partners, Bert Berns, for Garnet Mimms, who had the biggest hit of his career with "Cry Baby," which topped the R&B charts in 1963.
The Ragovoy-Berns team also wrote "Piece of My Heart" for Erma Franklin, Aretha Franklin's older sister. Erma broke into the top 10 R&B charts with it in 1967 before Joplin made it one of her signature songs. (Berns died in late 1967 of a heart attack at 38.)
Self-taught as a composer, Ragovoy once said he came up with "Time Is On My Side" in an hour after an arranger friend inquired if he had written any songs that jazz trombonist Kai Winding might record.
After New Orleans singer Irma Thomas' version charted, Ragovoy fielded a call from a representative for the Rolling Stones, a band he said he'd never heard of.
"Next thing I know, it's out and it's their first hit in this country," he told New Times in 1997. "I was amazed 'cause … I listened to it and thought, 'What on Earth is this?"
Other notable songs that Ragovoy co-wrote include "Get It While You Can," one of many he composed for singer Howard Tate; and the ballad "Stay With Me" for Lorraine Ellison. She also originally recorded "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)," which he wrote with Chip Taylor. Joplin covered all three.
"Stay With Me" was a classic example of his style, according to the All Music online database, "a slow, emotionally wrenching number which could almost be a gospel song but for the symphonic orchestral production, vocalized passionately and played with faint echoes of Broadway and opera."
He was born Jordan Ragovoy on Sept. 4, 1930, in Philadelphia but since childhood had preferred to be called Jerry. His father was an optometrist who also practiced alternative medicine.
Growing up, Ragovoy was steeped in classical music, but after graduating from high school he was exposed to — and became transfixed by — gospel and rhythm and blues while working in an appliance store in an African American neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Outside the store in 1953, he heard a group of kids singing and decided to produce a record with them. The resulting "My Girl Awaits Me" by the Castelles sold more than 100,000 copies, and Ragovoy realized he had discovered a career.
In 1969, he founded the Hit Factory, a recording studio in New York City that he sold in 1975. He was considered a first-class producer and arranger, with a roster that included Bonnie Raitt and Dionne Warwick.
"Jerry was humble and self-effacing," said Jeff Jampol, who manages the estate of Joplin, who died in 1970. "Once he said, 'I used to talk to Janis Joplin a lot. I was working on a couple of songs for her, but then she passed away and I never got a chance to record them.'"
Soon after the new musical "One Night With Janis Joplin" premiered in May in Portland, Ore., Ragovoy was in the audience. The show closes with one of the previously unproduced songs he wrote for her. It is called "I'm Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven."
Ragovoy had lived in Stamford, Conn., with his wife, Bev. He is also survived by twin daughters, Melissa Ragovoy of Houston and Gillian Ragovoy Ferguson of New York City; a sister, Loretta Margulies of Philadelphia; and a granddaughter.Jerry Ragovoy dies at 80; songwriter had hits with Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin Jerry... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 7 months ago
- |
- 7 comments
-
-
Nights At The Roundtable - Garnet Mimms (RIP Jerry Ragovoy) - 1964 | Newstalgia
A tribute to Jerry Ragovoy tonight.-
- Gordonskene
- added this
- 7 months ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
-
Scandal rocks the house of Beyonce: Ex-manager, father accused of theft
Did Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s father and former manager steal from his daughter? According to legal documents filed July 11 by Knowles, Live Nation told the singer her father "had stolen money from Beyonce on her most recent tour or otherwise taken funds that [he] was not entitled to," TMZ reports.
On March 28, 2011, Beyonce severed business relations with her father announcing he would no longer manage her multimillion dollar recording career. Did Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s father and former manager steal from his daughter?... more-
- ringinginmyears
- added this
- 7 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Saturday Video Roundup: I know it’s been done before, but let’s do it again anyway! A sweet Neo-Soul Sampler...
I've written about various "Neo-Soul" artists before, but today I thought I'd put together a huge sweet soul sampler for those of you who think you might be interested but don't have time to go researching on your on. So here's some selections from Adele, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, She & Him, Fitz & the Tantrums, The Pipettes, Amy Winehouse, Nouvellas, Lucky Soul, Little Jackie and more. Click to play, and just try to keep your butt from dancing...I've written about various "Neo-Soul" artists before, but today I... more-
- hoosierdaddy
- added this
- 7 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
John Legend sued by New Jersey songwriter for 'Maxine's Interlude'
R&B artist John Legend is being sued for copyright infringement for the song Maxine's Interlude appearing on his platinum-selling 2006 album, Once Again.R&B artist John Legend is being sued for copyright infringement for the song... more-
- ringinginmyears
- added this
- 7 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Carl Gardner, Founding Member of the Coasters, Has Died
Carl Gardner, founding member of the Coasters, dies at 83
Carl Gardner was also lead singer of the R&B group whose hits included 'Yakety Yak,' 'Charlie Brown' and 'Poison Ivy.'
Photo: Carl Gardner, Earl Carroll, Billy Guy, Will Jones
The Coasters went through many personnel changes through the years, but Carl Gardner was a constant for 50 years. Here: Gardner, Earl Carroll, Billy Guy and Will Jones. (Gilles Petard, Redferns / June 14, 2011)
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
June 14, 2011
Carl Gardner, a founding member and lead singer of the Coasters, the renowned R&B vocal group whose memorably amusing hits included "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown" and "Poison Ivy," has died. He was 83.
Gardner, who had been battling congestive heart failure and Alzheimer's disease, died Sunday in hospice care in Port St. Lucie, Fla., said his wife, Veta.
The Texas-born Gardner was lead tenor vocalist for the Los Angeles-based R&B vocal group the Robins before he and fellow Robins member Bobby Nunn teamed with Billy Guy and Leon Hughes —along with guitarist Adolph Jacobs — to form the Coasters in 1955.
With the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller writing and producing their records for Atco Records, a division of Atlantic, the Coasters scored their first hit single with "Down in Mexico" in 1956, with Gardner doing the lead vocal.
The double-sided hit "Young Blood" and "Searchin'" followed — as did "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown," "Poison Ivy," "Along Came Jones," "Little Egypt" and other hits.
The Coasters became known as the "Clown Princes of Rock 'n' Roll," for both their humorous storytelling songs and their comedic stage performances.
"They were sort of our comedy troupe, and we wrote songs for them and assigned different lines to different singers because they were, like, acting out little plays," Stoller told The Times on Monday.
"Carl was either the romantic lead or he was the straight man," Stoller said. "He was the barker at the beginning of 'Little Egypt' 'Step right up, folks' — and that was his persona in the group for those things."
The Coasters would choreograph the songs themselves for their stage shows, and when they'd perform their routines for him and Leiber in a rehearsal room, "we'd fall down laughing," recalled Stoller.
Gardner, he said, "had a beautiful voice" and always wanted to sing ballads.
"With all these hits, we finally agreed to do an album with the Coasters called 'One by One,' and Carl got a chance to do solo performances on songs like 'Moonlight in Vermont,' 'Satin Doll' and 'Moonglow.'
"It wasn't what the public wanted to hear from the Coasters, but he did have a lovely voice.... It's just one of those things: He became famous for the comedy stuff."
The Coasters underwent personnel changes over the years. But when it became the first vocal group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the inductees were what is considered the "classic lineup" of Gardner, Guy, Will "Dub" Jones and Cornell Gunter.
Born into a poor family in Tyler, Texas, on April 29, 1928, Gardner began singing at an early age.
"Singing was his passion," said Veta Gardner, who became the group's manager in the late '80s and wrote the 2007 as-told-to biography of her husband, "Yakety Yak, I Fought Back: My Life With the Coasters."
"Even as a young kid, he had a beautiful voice. They used to call him the town crier because he used to walk and sing. Everybody could hear him sing."
Gardner, who had a stint in the Army as a teenager, arrived in Los Angeles in the early '50s with a dream of becoming a big-band singer. "He didn't plan on being a group singer," said his wife.
In 1954, he took over as lead tenor for the Robins, which was then recording for Leiber and Stoller's small Spark Records label. As a member of the Robins, Gardner sang lead on the hit "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and also sang on "Riot in Cell Block #9."
Despite the many changes in the Coasters' personnel over the years, Veta Gardner said, "Carl kept the group going."
The Gardners also were involved in legal disputes with a number of other groups calling themselves the Coasters.
"I call them fakesters," said Veta Gardner, describing her husband's group as "the real deal, because he was singing with them all along."
In 1993, Gardner was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx.
"That devastated him, but it didn't affect his voice," his wife said. "After three months of treatment with radiation, he was back on the road performing again."
And when her husband suffered a stroke in 2004, she said, "that didn't stop him. He was back on stage again."
But in 2005, 50 years after the Coasters had formed, Gardner decided to retire.
"He told me, 'Veta, I don't have my voice anymore.' He was getting hoarse a lot; he couldn't take the high note anymore. He said, 'I want people to remember how I used to sing.' "
Besides his wife of 24 years, Gardner is survived by his daughter, Brenda; his sons, Carl Jr. and Ahilee; three stepsons, Ramon, Hanif and Wayne; his brother, Howard; his sister, Carol Bartlett; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.Carl Gardner, founding member of the Coasters, dies at 83 Carl Gardner was also... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 8 months ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
