Obituary
R.I.P. Malcolm Cecil, Synth Pioneer and Stevie Wonder Collaborator Dead at 84
Malcolm Cecil, the influential jazz musician and producer credited with co-designing and constructing the world’s largest analog synthesizer, died Sunday (March 28th) at the age of 84 after a lengthy battle with an undisclosed illness. Hailing from London, Cecil cut his chops by playing bass alongside some of the UK’s most celebrated jazz musicians, including Dick Morrissey, Tony Crombie, and Ronnie Scott, in addition to leading his own quintet called The Jazz Couriers. In the 1960s, he teamed up with Cyril Davis and Alexis Korner to form Blues Incorporated — the highly influential rhythm and blues band whose rotating cast of collaborators included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, and Davey Graham. In fact, as the story goes, Jagger and Ric...
R.I.P. Rob Vitale, Singer of New York Hardcore Band Black Train Jack Dies From COVID-19
Rob Vitale, the lead singer of New York hardcore band Black Train Jack has tragically died from COVID-19 complications. His death was confirmed by a number of figures in the NYHC scene, including Sick of It All. “Our hearts are heavy tonight,” wrote Sick of It All on Facebook on Sunday night. “We lost our friend to COVID. Thinking of all the shows, the tours all the good times and laughs we shared. Rest In Peace Rob.” Sick of It All drummer Armand Majidi added, “Tonight we honor a truly good man who departed this world far too early. Rest easy Rob. It was a pleasure touring with you and sharing many fond moments. @bobeatsbtj you were loved by many and will be missed dearly.” Black Train Jack got their start in the early ’90s and landed a record deal with Roadrunner Records. They released t...
Malcolm Cecil, Synth Pioneer and Stevie Wonder Collaborator, Dies at 84
Cecil designed and built the TONTO — The Original New Timbral Orchestra — an instrument that’s acknowledged as the world’s first and largest multi-timbral, polyphonic analog audio synth. He teamed up with Robert Margouleff to form TONTO’s Expanding Head Band, which led to some surprise collaborations. Cecil and Margouleff’s sonic mastery caught the attention of Stevie Wonder, who tapped the pair to co-produce a string of classic albums, including Music Of My Mind through Fulfillingness’ First Finale. “Music of My Mind was made with the best hearts in the world. Everything we did was done in that three-point of view aspect,” he told OkayPlayer’s Chris Williams for an interview published in 2019, “and we were trading hats during the process of making this album....
R.I.P. Jessica Walter, Arrested Development Actress Dead at 80
Jessica Walter, the Emmy Award-winning actress who famously played Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, has died at the age of 80. According to Deadline, Walter passed away in her sleep at her home in New York City on Wednesday, March 24th. Her daughter, SVP or Drama Programming at Fox Entertainemtn Brooke Bowman, said in a statement, “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica. A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off. While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class and overall joie de vivre.” A native of Brooklyn, Walter began her career in theater before making the transition to television in the...
R.I.P. Craig “muMs” Grant, Oz Actor and Poet Dead at 52
Craig Grant, the actor and poet best known for his work on the HBO drama Oz and who went by “muMs da Schemer” in slam-poetry competitions, has died at 52. He passed away on Wednesday, according to his representative Pam Ellis-Evenas. A cause of death has not yet been determined. Born and raised in New York City in 1968, Grant fell in love with poetry in his youth and was a well-known poet in the local scene by the time he left Mount St. Michael Academy High School. As part of the acclaimed Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, he was featured in the 1998 documentary SlamNation and on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam series, both of which propelled Grant’s career and positioned him as an inspiration to aspiring poets. Grant’s breakout moment in Hollywood came courtesy of his featured role as Poet, a heroin addic...
Connie Bradley, Longtime ASCAP Nashville Head and Music Row Trailblazer, Dies at 75
During her long tenure at ASCAP, Bradley became known as a staunch advocate for music creators. Upon being awarded the Country Music Association’s prestigious Irving Waugh Award of Excellence in August 2018 by Kenny Chesney, the country star remarked, “I’ve been very blessed to have won Entertainer [of the Year] four times with this organization and one of the years that I won, I actually saw Connie standing in the audience, and I thanked her by saying she was one of the best friends that a dreamer could ever have.” “She was one of the many trailblazers, along with Frances Preston and Jo Walker Meador, for women in the Nashville music business,” said CMA CEO Sarah Trahern in a statement. “Her passion for artists, songs and the Country Music industry as a whole paved the way for...
R.I.P. Houston Tumlin, Talladega Nights Actor Dead at 28
Former child actor Houston Tumlin, who famously played Will Ferrell’s son Walker in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, has died at 28 years old. According to TMZ, Tumlin took his own life in his Alabama home on Tuesday afternoon by shooting himself in the head. As of now, investigators haven’t found a note, but his girlfriend was reportedly present in the house at the time of his death. His role as Walker Bobby, the potty-mouthed son of Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby character, was Tumlin’s only acting credit. He starred alongside Grayson Russell in the 2006 comedy, who played Ricky’s other son Texas Ranger. Although the cast included A-listers like Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Sacha Baron Cohen, Tumlin starred in many of the flick’s most memorable scenes, including the not...
R.I.P. George Segal, Just Shoot Me! and The Goldbergs Actor Dead at 87
George Segal, the veteran actor who starred in countless movies and TV shows including Just Shoot Me! and The Goldbergs, has died at 87. He passed away due to complications from bypass surgery in Santa Rosa, California, reports Variety. Born in Great Neck, New York in 1934 to a Jewish family, Segal quickly fell in love with acting after seeing Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire when he was nine years old. He spent his free time playing banjo and watching movies in high school before leaving for Haverford College. Segal then earned his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1955 and briefly served in the US Army. After landing a job as an understudy in a Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh, Segal started securing sporadic roles in a handful of ’60s TV shows and ca...
R.I.P. Dan Sartain, Garage Rock Musician Dead at 39
Alabama garage-rock musician Dan Sartain has died at the age of 39. According to Pitchfork, Sartain’s manager confirmed that he passed on Saturday March 20th, but that no cause of death has been revealed. Sartain was born and raised in Alabama, and he got involved in the Birmingham music scene in the early 2000s. He self-released his first two albums, 2001’s Crimson Guard and 2002’s Romance In Stereo, but then signed to the local label Skybucket for a limited edition tour album called Sartain Family Legacy 1981-1998. That same year, he released his commercial debut Dan Sartain vs. the Serpientes on Swami Records, where he stayed before jumping to One Little Indian for a prolific run of records in the early 2010s. Although he was often slapped wit the rockabill...
Matt ‘Money’ Miller, Titus Andronicus Founding Keyboardist, Dies at 34
Matt “Money” Miller, the founding keyboardist of Titus Andronicus, has died, according to his cousin and the band’s frontman Patrick Stickles. He was 34. Stickles announced Miller’s “sudden and untimely” death on the band’s Twitter account Wednesday. No cause of death has been revealed yet. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce to you the sudden and untimely death of Matt ‘Money’ Miller, founding keyboardist of Titus Andronicus, cover model of ‘A Productive Cough,’ lead vocalist of ‘Home Alone (On Halloween),’ my beloved cousin and the dearest friend I ever had,” Stickles wrote on the official Titus Andronicus Twitter account along their pictures. “It’s hard to know what to say, but I ...
James Levine, Former Met Opera Conductor, Dies at 77
Levine became music director emeritus and remained head of its young artists program but was suspended on Dec. 3, 2017, the day after conducting a Verdi “Requiem” in what turned out to be his final performance, after accounts in the New York Post and The New York Times of sexual misconduct dating to the 1960s. He was fired the following March 12 and never conducted again. He had been scheduled to make comeback performances of Brahms’ ”Ein Deutsches Requiem” this Jan. 17 and 21 in Florence, Italy, but the concerts were canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “No artist in the 137 year history of the Met had as profound an impact as James Levine,” Gelb said in a statement. “He raised the Met’s musical standards to new and greater heights.” Known for bushy hair an an ever-present towe...
R.I.P. Yaphet Kotto, Homicide: Life on the Street and Alien Actor Dead at 81
Yaphet Kotto, an Emmy Award-nominated actor best known for his role in the TV police procedural drama Homicide: Life on the Street, as well as in films like Alien, The Running Man, Live and Let Die, has died at the age of 81. According to his wife of 24 years, Tessie Sinahon, Kotto passed away Monday, March 15th. A cause of death was not immediately made public. The Harlem native portrayed police lieutenant Alphonse “Gee” Giardello throughout Homicide’s seven season run from 1993 to 2000, appearing in a total of 122 episodes. The NBC drama received universal acclaim, winning multiple Emmys, Peabodys, and Television Critics Association Awards. Kotto will also be remembered for on-screen roles in Alien, where he played the space traveler Parker; in the James Bond film Live and Let ...
