Golden Slumbers: Deaths In The Musical Community
Boston legend
Steven Paul Perry was a Boston legend and a popular guitarist who played with everybody from Robert Cray to John Hiatt as well as his own band the Human Condition. It was one of those lives seeped in rock guitar, the sort people don’t have any more. But he died of lung cancer despite several attempts to fund care for his battle with lung cancer. Along with sorrow for his passing, how about health care for musicians. Before you continue to blast Obamacare, please consider what the alternative can be.
Mulgrew Miller – Even looked a little like Oscar Peterson, but Mulgrew was mellower, all tone and patience. A lovely jazz pianist who you can hear at his most melodic on Chapters 1 and 2 Keys To The City/Work. Miller He was the Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University and the Artist in Residence at Lafayette College for 2008-2009. He died of a stroke last week at the age of 57.
Jean Bach – was the director of the 1996 documentary “A Great Day In Harlem”, about the taking of a famous picture of 57 of the biggest stars in the jazz world on the steps of a New York brownstone for Esquire in 1958. The musicians included Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Gene Krupa, Bud Freeman, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Mingus and Sonny Rollins. She was 94 years old.
Marvin Junior – Because of “The Love We Had Stays On My Mind” as a 1970s phenom that the band was a 70s hit, They were a 1960s doo wop band and lead singer Marvin Junior had a “robust, earthy baritone” according to the New York Times. He was 77 years old.
Clarence Burke Jr – The lead singer of the siblings r&B act the Five Stairsteps who had a 1970s hit with “Ooh Child” He was 64.
