Sad news to report. Former Destroy All Monsters noisemaker and one of the greatest American artists of his generation, Mike Kelley, committed suicide today. He was 57.
Holland Cotter of the New York Times writes an obituary of Ann Arbor, Michigan’s greater sons. RIP.
Sad news for Fleetwood Mac fans today. Bob Weston, guitarist of Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s, passed away at the age of 64. The Associated Press reported the following:
According to the Associated Press, the autopsy revealed that the cause of Weston’s death was a gastrointestinal haemorrhage, cirrhosis of the liver and throat problems. London police confirmed Weston’s death and stated that they would not treat the death case as suspicious.
HT: Luis Torregrosa.
Sad news to report. Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt, founder of Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond, two of the coolest bands the late sixties and early seventies respectively, passed away Monday due to complications from a respiratory infections. Reinhardt was 63.
Billy Cox of the Herald Tribune wrote an obituary on the late guitarist, which can be read here.
It is with great sadness that I have the displeasure of advising the readership of the death of one of the most wonderful voices to come out of Africa. Cesária Évora, the ‘barefoot diva‘ of Cape Verde, passed away on December 17th, 2011. The first song I ever heard from her, ‘Saudade’, left an indelible mark on me. Being exposed to the concept of morna, a feeling similar to the Spanish duende, I felt I had crossed onto a point in time where love and longing intersected. Évora’s dark, husky voice expressed this longing beautifully. May she rest well.
You don’t run into too many cool jazz violinists. When I was younger, I worked with a brilliant guy named Ted who got me hooked into jazz. As I experimented with slabs of vinyl, I came across Billy Bang’s name, and was instantly blown away by his music. City Newspaper of Rochester, Maryland, reports that Billy passed away on April 11. RIP.
AMOTM would like to acknowledge the passing of experimental outsider musician Zoogz Rift, who was one hell of an odd character. You can read his obituary here, courtesy of Crawdaddy Magazine. R.I.P.
Tragic news from the world of experimental music. The Quietus reports that Egyptian experimental musican Ahmed Basiony was killed on January 25, 2011, during the first day of anti-government demonstrations. John Kannenberg performs 4’33” in his memory. A sample can be found at the link.
Mexico is a land rich with tradition, and they have a musical heritage that ranks well with any country on Earth. Narcocorridos are not part of that tradition. Rather, it is part of the musical cesspool that is so disregarded that some local authorities banned this excrement. It is not that I have anything against the musicality of the bandas. In fact, some of these are utterly magnificent instrumentalists. It is the fact that they glorify the vile animals ruining the country in a way that makes gangsta rap artists look like choir boys that gets my goat.
One of the bigger artists in the genre, El Shaka, was murdered today. Ironically, he had had to announce that he was not dead thanks to an erroneous press report. He was shot to death in his Cadillac at close range. His murder makes him the seventh musician killed in the past three years. The wages of peddling the glories of a drug baron are on display for everyone to see. What a waste of talent.
Swedish prog-rock legend Bo Hansson passed away April 24th. He was found dead in a hotel room in Stockholm, Sweden.
Hansson had a stellar career in Sweden, teaming up with Janne Karlsson to form Hansson & Karlsson, releasing albums that spread out to an international audience, even catching the attention of Jimi Hendrix, who would go on to jam with the band. Hendrix would take one of Hansson’s compositions, “Tax Free,” and do a cover of it. in 1972, he released a progressive rock masterpiece called “Music Inspired by Lord Of The Rings,” which would earn him international acclaim, and would end up being sampled by younger musicians, something Hansson got great pleasure out of, apparently. RIP.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the sultry voice of Lena Horne has been forever silenced. RIP.
