Gene Seymour is a movie critic who has actually discussed music, motion pictures and culture for The New York Times, Newsday, Home Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter @GeneSeymour The viewpoints expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author. View more opinion at CNN
(CNN) A dispiriting couple of weeks in the lives of music fans have now climaxed with the death of Expense Withers, whose lean, leathery-tough vocals on such pop classics as ” Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Usage Me,” “Simply the 2 of Us” and “Lean on Me” were deeply woven into the soundtracks of a number of generations’ lives.
Withers passed away Monday at 81 of what his family has referred to as “heart problems.” His death has actually not been linked to the Covid-19 infection. His loss, coming at about the same time that “Lean on Me” has resurfaced as an international anthem of cumulative will throughout the coronavirus pandemic, nevertheless feels like another in an already seemingly unrelenting series of current body blows to the music world.
Among the casualties: Adam Schlesinger, Water fountains of Wayne establishing member, lead singer and songwriter; Joe Diffie, Grammy-winning country-music vocalist; Alan Merrill, best known for writing Joan Jett’s 1980 s anthem, “I Love Rock-and-roll;” Manu Dibango, a Cameroon saxophonist whose riffs on the hit 1972 dance tune, “Soul Makossa,” assisted spearhead worldwide interest in African pop; and Aurlus Mabelle, the Congolese song-and-dance man dubbed king of the eclectic blend of black pop genres known as “soukous.”
Of all music genres, nevertheless, it is jazz that’s been struck especially hard and deep by Covid-19 Four musicians of different ages have actually passed away in the last few weeks from the disease, the most recent of which are Ellis Marsalis and Bucky Pizzarelli, two master instrumentalists who found prevalent fame relatively late in their storied careers and likewise passed their traditions on to their kids.
Marsalis, who was 85, was a fixture in his native New Orleans as a pianist doggedly advancing the cause of bop and other post-1940 s jazz music in a city more inclined to accept the pre-swing period of the 1920 s. Over time, Marsalis’ commitment, chops and reputation as a music educator won him regard and affection from the musical cognoscenti of his hometown.
Of Marsalis’ many prominent trainees, consisting of Terrence Blanchard and Harry Connick Jr., the most celebrated were four of his six sons. The achievements of Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis were significant enough to change the Marsalises into the unofficial royal family of jazz. Together with their daddy, they likewise were strong and sometimes acerbic protectors of jazz custom which by the time Branford and Wynton ended up being breakout stars in the early 1980 s, also included the type of hard bop music their father continued to play into his 70 s and 80 s.
Bucky Pizzarelli, who passed away at 94, was a buoyantly lyrical guitar player who invested most of his early profession as a session artist operating in tape-recording studios and with such bands as Benny Goodman’s and the Tonight Show’s NBC Orchestra. He became a component in New york city clubs, playing in a number of little ensembles with such artists as saxophonists Zoot Sims and Bud Freeman and violinists Joe Venuti and Stephane Grappelli.
Many noteworthy of these professional associations was the one he shown his kid John, whose performances with his father, starting i n 1980 when John was 20, were also a type of apprenticeship, allowing ultimate renown in his own right as a guitarist and vocalist. John Pizzarelli’s popularity reached the point that his father happily and happily played a supporting function in his son’s own prominent gigs.
What made the deaths of these 2 dad figures in jazz particularly poignant was that they continued to play, teach and influence deep into their senior years with the possibility of having a lot more to contribute to the music through the development of their trainees.
Pianist Mike Longo, whose coronavirus-related death at 83 came March 22, was, together with Marsalis, a pianist and teacher of similar presents and impact. His glittering resumé, consisting of offering backup to saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and vocalist Nancy Wilson (to name a few), is controlled by his long time association with trumpet terrific Dizzy Gillespie, who tapped him to be his musical director and arranger in 1966 and continued to work with him, officially and informally, until Gillespie’s death in1992
Besides his work as an author, arranger and instructor, Longo directed the New York Cutting-edge Jazz Ensemble, which he established in 1998 He continued to carry out music till almost the end of his life.
Wallace Roney’s death this past week at 59, hit the international jazz household particularly hard because it came as he was building upon an already powerful credibility as a trumpeter, bandleader and composer. Together with Marsalis’ two older children, Branford and Wynton, Roney was considered a popular member of the so-called “young lions” at or near their 20 s in the 1980 s who were out to recover acoustic jazz music’s once prominent place in the American mainstream.
With his smoky blue tone, slippery timing and cagey dynamics, Roney was perceived at the beginning as little bit more than a Miles Davis clone. Indeed, the generally truculent Davis enthusiastically stated Roney his protégé Those listening better, however, would hear other impacts, from Clark Terry to Freddie Hubbard, infiltrating Roney’s playing. Over decades, Roney’s voice would attain a gritty dexterity and pensive romanticism that belonged to him and him alone. His intelligent and sometimes shocking negotiations between jazz’s past and present indicated a future of higher splendors– now shockingly, painfully made inaccessible by pandemic.
No one understands the length of time this coronavirus siege will last, or who else we might lose. One can hope that the areas left open by these artists’ deaths will be inhabited over time not just with fresh new voices, but with a larger, much deeper gratitude of how jazz supports and nurtures numerous lives at when– possibly even your own, if you let it.
https://covid19globalcases.com/covid-19-is-wrecking-the-music-world/
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