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R.I.P.

Started by Mikey, November 18, 2011, 05:21:19 AM

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Mikey

Mark "Moogy" Klingman RIP

In other Todd  Rundgren/Utopia related news we sadly to announce the passing of Utopia's original keyboard man Moogy Klingman. Moogy passed away on Tuesday 15th November from "an aggressive form of cancer". Our thoughts are with his family and friends...

Mark "Moogy" Klingman has been a part of rock 'n' roll history for more than four decades. As a loyal sideman to Todd Rundgren on some of his most celebrated albums, Moogy tackled a wide variety of piano, organ, and synth parts on classics like "Hello It's Me," "Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel," "Utopia Theme," and "The Ikon." As a founding member of Utopia, he was at the forefront of progressive rock, with a style deeply rooted in funk, boogie-woogie, and jazz. He co-wrote Bette Midler's signature song "Friends" and produced her album Songs for the New Depression, which featured her duet with Bob Dylan, "Buckets of Rain." Klingman has never stopped playing all over New York City, but a recent diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer has given him a new outlook on life and a supercharge of energy. In February, the original lineup of Utopia reunited for two sold-out shows at the Highline Ballroom in New York to raise funds for his treatments. Klingman was overwhelmed with emotion, playing with musicians he had not seen in 30 years. He credits music as a major part of his recovery.

Quote from: "Keyboard Magazine"How did you get the nickname "Moogy?"

My real name is Mark, and my original nickname was Marky. My little sister used to mispronounce it, and that's how I ended up with Moogy. It's coincidental that I ended up playing the Moog synthesizer in Utopia.

What made you decide to play piano?

I saw the movie Rhapsody in Blue, and of course, the opening music was George Gershwin's composition of the same name. The next day I started playing piano. Utopia's song "Freak Parade" was based on Rhapsody in Blue. Two of my biggest influences are Gershwin and Aaron Copland.

There are similarities in the way you and Todd write on the piano. How did that happen?

We were both listening to a lot of Laura Nyro when we were 18 and 19; specifically, we both learned a lot from listening to her album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. We went on to influence each other greatly.

Who are some of your piano influences?

Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Keith Jarrett, who I studied with.

What were some of the classic keyboards you used in Utopia?

The Fender Rhodes, Minimoog, Univox Mini-Korg, a Hammond L-100 organ, Sound City Piano, an RMI Keyboard Computer and Rock-Si- Chord, a Clavinet, and a Yamaha Grand in the studio.

How did you prepare for the Utopia reunion shows?

We rehearsed ten times without Todd and three hours with Todd. I think it came out rather well.

How did it feel playing the long sets?

Music eliminates all the pain from the battle with "the big C." Music is a real pain reliever. Music is magical. I've been going through operations and treatments, and I felt no pain onstage. It was a real rebirth, but it's a shame that it had to take the form of a fundraiser for me.

What's next for you?

More Utopia shows, I hope. I have a band called the Peacenicks that plays a few times a month, and now I'll be doing some shows with the Utopia Brothers, which includes John Seigler and Kevin Ellman. I have to play a lot because I don't know how long I have left in this world. Ultimately, if I can hang around for a few more years it would be amazing. But if I go soon, I have to say that it was a miracle that I could do these shows, and every show will be a miracle.
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Mikey

Keef Hartley RIP

Drummer and bandleader Keef Hartley sadly passed away on 26th November 2011. He was 67. Noted for his work with The Artwoods and John Mayall and a member of Dog Soldier. Keef also formed the Keef Hartley Band, releasing five albums on the Deram label between 1969 and 1972. Our condolences to his family and friends.
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E.S.

Always sad when our muso friends pass away. :cry:

Mikey

Quote from: "E.S."Always sad when our muso friends pass away. :cry:

Which is why I thought I'd create this thread, a tiny tribute to them
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Mikey

Bob Weston RIP

Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Weston passed away on Tuesday 3rd January 2012. The cause of death is said to be a gastrointestinal haemorrhage and it is belived he died quietly in his sleep. Along with Fleewood Mac,John worked with Long John Baldry, Graham Bond, Murray Head, Sandy Denny and Danny Kirwan (Fleewood Mac).


Larry 'Rhino' Reinhardt RIP

Iron Butterfly guitarist and co-founder of '70s rock group Captain Beyond, Larry 'Rhino' Reinhardt, died on 2nd January 2012.
"He was one of the true American classic rock guitar players, like Michael Monarch of Steppenwolf and Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad."
Reinhardt joined Iron Butterfly in 1969, after they released 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vidda.' Following their break-up two years later, he formed Captain Beyond and released three charting albums including 'Sufficiently Breathless' in 1973. After the group's five year run, he continued to play reunion shows with both bands while working on other projects like Rhino and the Posse. That group released what would be his final album, 'Back in the Day' in 2011.
Early in his career, Reinhardt played with Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley before that pair went on to form the Allman Brothers Band. Friends and family members are planning a remembrance for Rhino in the near future.
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fitzy

Nice part of the forum,and a wonderful idea!Watched a programme about Fleetwood Mac,s very chequered lineage recently!R.I.P Bob Weston.

Mikey

AMAZING GUITARISTS REMEMBER ONE OF THEIR OWN
THIS NEWS BROUGHT TO YOU BY VH1'S DAVE BASNER

On December 4th, blues legend Hubert Sumlin passed away at the age of 80 and later this month, some big names in music who he influenced will pay tribute to him at a memorial concert in New York. The show, which takes place on February 24th at the historic Apollo Theater, will include performances by Eric Clapton, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Derek Trucks and Dr. John, and there are rumors that Keith Richards, Robert Randolph, Buddy Guy and other amazing talents will surprise the audience with sets as well. The event raises money for the Jazz Foundation of America and you can learn more at ApolloTheater.org.
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Mikey

Unfortunately this sad news only came in today.

Brett Douglas Stranne, 52, a popular Marin musician lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, passing away on Thanksgiving Day 2011. Stranne has worked as church music director at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Novato. Known in the rock music industry as Bret Douglas, he was lead vocalist in Cairo, a band that has released three progressive-rock albums.

Bret was married with two college-age children, he lived in Novato, CA.
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Mikey

Davy Jones R.I.P.

Davy Jones, by long-held public consensus the handsomest and most popular of the Monkees, the collectively young, longhaired, wildly famous and preternaturally buoyant pop group of the 1960s and afterward, died on Wednesday in Indiantown, Fla. He was 66. The apparent cause was a heart attack, his publicist, Helen Kensick, said. Created in 1966, the Monkees comprised Mr. Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. The group sold millions of records. Its recording of "Daydream Believer," by John Stewart, became a No. 1 single, as did its recording of "Last Train to Clarksville," by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and its cover of Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer." Though the Monkees officially lasted only until the early '70s, they reconvened sporadically for decades. For much of that time Mr. Jones also toured as a solo singer-songwriter; among his last performances was one on Feb. 18 at B. B. King Blues Club & Grill in Manhattan. For all the Monkees' chart-topping acclaim, the group never pretended to be anything other than what it was: a smoke-and-mirrors incarnation of a pop group reminiscent of that mop-topped one from Liverpool, created for a benignly psychedelic American TV sitcom. Broadcast on NBC, "The Monkees" lasted just two seasons, from September 1966 to March 1968, and featured Messrs. Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork as members of a freewheeling, fun-loving, beach-house-dwelling, up-and-coming pop group. The show won two Emmys in 1967: for outstanding comedy series and, to the director James Frawley, for outstanding directorial achievement in comedy. To this day, its theme song is hard-wired into the baby-boomer brain:

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees,
and people say we monkey around.
But we're too busy singing
to put anybody down.

While the four did much of their own singing, they were relatively unbusy playing. Though each played an instrument — growing more proficient with time — most of the instrumentals on their albums were supplied by studio musicians. (On one album, "Headquarters," released in 1967, the Monkees played their instruments themselves.) The group's critical reception was not unsurpassed. In 1967, in an article about one of the Monkees' relatively rare live concerts of the period, at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, The New York Times said:
"Frequently during the performance, sound that resembled the lowing of a sick cow hovered over the stadium. This turned out to be one of those horns often heard at Shea Stadium during baseball games. It didn't seem to hurt the musical evening."
But the critics could not dim the profuse enthusiasm of fans, who were overwhelmingly young, female and shrieking — tweeners before the word was applied to that demographic. This adulation (and in later years nostalgia) kept the Monkees going, in various incarnations, on and off for decades. Last year three-quarters of the group, absent Mr. Nesmith, briefly toured Britain and the United States before cutting the tour short because of unspecified internal dissension. The group's frontman and the only actual Englishman of the four, Mr. Jones was inclined to elicit the loudest shrieks of all. An index of his appeal was his guest appearance on a memorable episode of "The Brady Bunch" from 1971 entitled "Getting Davy Jones." In it, Mr. Jones, playing himself, saves Marcia, the family's eldest daughter, from social ruin by attending her prom. Television and the stage were actually Mr. Jones's original vocations.
David Thomas Jones was born on Dec. 30, 1945, in Manchester, England. A child actor, he appeared on "Coronation Street," the British soap opera that went on the air in 1960 and is still running, and in the police drama "Z Cars." After his mother's death when he was a teenager, he abandoned acting. Slight of build — he stood not much more than 5 feet tall in his prime — he began to train as a jockey. Lured back into the theater a few years later, he played the Artful Dodger in the West End musical "Oliver!" When the production moved to Broadway in 1963, he reprised the role (billed as David Jones), earning a Tony nomination as best featured actor in a musical. Appearing with the cast of "Oliver!" on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Mr. Jones had a transformative moment. After the cast sang, he heard wild cheering. But alas it was not for them: it was for the Beatles, also booked on the show that day. "I thought: Is that what happens when you're a pop singer?" Mr. Jones told The Palm Beach Post in 2004. "I want to be part of that!" His work on Broadway led to guest roles on a few mid-'60s television shows, including "Ben Casey" and "The Farmer's Daughter." He was signed to a contract with Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems Television, which produced "The Monkees." Mr. Jones, who had homes in Hollywood, Fla., and Beavertown, Pa., spent his later years touring; acting occasionally on television shows like "My Two Dads" and "Boy Meets World"; raising horses; and recording, including the well-received solo album "Just Me" (2001), which featured his original songs. Whatever Monkeedom still attached to him (and it was considerable) did not dismay him. "People ask me if I ever get sick of playing 'Daydream Believer' or whatever," he told The Chicago Daily Herald, a suburban newspaper, in 2006. "But I don't look at it that way. Do they ask if Tony Bennett is tired of 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'?" Mr. Jones's first marriage, to Linda Haines, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Anita Pollinger. His survivors include his third wife, Jessica Pacheco; two daughters from his first marriage, Talia Jones and Sarah McFadden; two daughters from his second marriage, Jessica Cramar and Annabel Jones; three sisters, Hazel Wilkinson, Lynda Moore and Beryl Leigh; and three grandchildren. The other three members of the Monkees also survive. Perhaps Mr. Jones's most enduring legacy takes the form of a name. The name belongs to another English musician, who burst on the scene some years after the Monkees. This man, too, had been born David Jones. But thanks to the Monkees' renown, he knew he would have to adopt another name entirely if he was to have the hope of a career.

So he called himself David Bowie.
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Mikey

GUITARIST RONNIE MONTROSE PASSES AWAY

Montrose's official web site has been updated with the following message:

"A few months ago, we held a surprise party for Ronnie Montrose's 64th birthday. He gave an impromptu speech, and told us that after a long life, filled with joy and hardship, he didn't take any of our love for granted. "He passed today. He'd battled cancer, and staved off old age for long enough. And true to form, he chose his own exit the way he chose his own life. We miss him already, but we're glad to have shared with him while we could." In a September 2011 interview with North County Times, Montrose revealed that he didn't pick up his guitar for two years following his cancer diagnosis. "I had prostate cancer that, for me, was debilitating," he said. "I didn't touch a guitar for two years, but when I realized I was seeing the light at the end of the recovery tunnel and was going to live pain-free, I realized again that it was a fun little instrument to play." He added, "I've blocked all my health issues out of my mind. That's a portion of my life that I'm done with. Now, I can't wait for every day to come so I can wake up and plug in. I'm up there entertaining myself and my playing is stronger than ever, because my excitement is back." Ronnie Montrose always followed his heart. Ever anxious to take his music to the next level, in 1979 he founded the trailblazing band GAMMA, a group whose trio of ahead-of-their-time albums were an explosion of guitar and synthesizer pyrotechnics anchored by a bluesy edge. Between and beyond these band forays, Montrose the player devoted himself to exploring instrumental guitar music on landmark albums like "Open Fire" and "The Speed Of Sound". Fans periodically clamored for another taste of the original MONTROSE power trio format, but he wouldn't revisit MONTROSE — that huge, heavy sound; those rich, pealing riffs — until the time came when he could do it with total conviction.
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rogerg

Open Fire has been one of my favorites for years. lots of miles traveled with that in the 8-track.  sad news.

Mikey

DOOBIE BROTHER MICHAEL HOSSACK PASSES AWAY, AGE 65

Sad news from the Doobie Brothers as their longtime drummer Michael Hossack died Monday at his home in Dubois, Wyoming after a long battle with cancer. He was 65. The band issued the following: His family was by his side. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and loved ones. We will miss him greatly."Mike was a one-of-a kind guy and a long-time member of the Doobie Brothers. He was a fighter and fought the big battle with cancer and he was a close personal friend of mine and I speak for Mike's family and the entire band when I say he will be greatly missed." -Bruce Cohn (Manager) "Mike has always been a part of my musical life and the life of the Doobie Brothers; from our earliest singles, like 'China Grove' and 'Blackwater' to our most recent single 'Brighter Day. He was an incredible musician, a studio quality drummer. The last few years, he was brave and determined to keep on playing in the face of ill health, and I will always admire him for that. He was a terrific dad and family man, and we will all miss him." -Tom Johnston (Vocals/Guitars) "When my kids were little, they used to call him 'Big Mike,' because to them he was such a big guy. But to me and those who knew him, he had an even a bigger heart. We were friends for 43 years and we shared some wonderful adventures together, times I will never forget. Thanks for all those wonderful memories Mike, and all the great music. We love you." -Patrick Simmons (Vocals/Guitars)
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fitzy

Sad news,loved playing Long Train Running and China Grove as a kid in cover bands.R.I.P.... :(

Mikey

Was considering a separate thread for Jim

Jim Marshall dies aged 88

Known as 'the Father of Loud', Jim Marshall changed rock'n'roll with his brand of affordable guitar amplifiers
The man who gave rock one of its key visual and sonic props has died. Jim Marshall, known as "The Father of Loud" for inventing the Marshall amplifier, was 88 years old.

Marshall was a drummer and drum teacher who used his earnings to set up a music shop in west London in 1960. Among his customers were the likes of Ritchie Blackmore and Pete Townshend, and it was through talking to them that Marshall realised there was a gap in the market for a guitar amplifier cheaper than the American-made models popular at the time. When, at Townshend's request, a Marshall 1959 amplifier head was teamed with a cabinet, the "Marshall stack" was born, becoming the defining feature in rock bands' backlines for generations to come.

Virtually every major guitarist has used Marshall amps at one time or another, and giant arrays of Marshall cabs – often suggested to be empty boxes, with no actual amplification purposes – have become key stage props for generations of metal bands, especially.

Among the musicians paying their respects to the late innovator was former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who tweeted: "The news of Jim Marshall passing is deeply saddening. R & R will never be the same w/out him. But, his amps will live on FOREVER!"

American blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa also showed his appreciation on Twitter: "A very sad day for the Marshall family. My thoughts and prayers go out to Paul and his family. Rest in Peace Jim Marshall OBE."
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JimD

It is amazing that, as musicians worship iconic music making brands like Roland and Korg and Fender and Gibson from far-off shores, there was good old Marshall amps over in Milton Keynes being well and truly the cornerstone of rock.  It's quite mind boggling to think of just how much music Marshall have been responsible for.
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