2021b - Jazz musicians felled by coronavirus -- Chapter 5 (updated 12-30-21)

Here is part five of our chronological listing of jazz-related COVID-19 deaths from the novel coronavirus, updated as we receive them. This segment begins with deaths in July 2021. Chapter 4 lists deaths in the first half of the year.  Parts one, two and three contain 2020's 63 known losses.Our profound sympathies to their families, friends and fans as we remember their musical legacies.

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  South African singer-songwriter Steve Kekana died July 1 in a Johannesburg hospital. He was 62. After losing his eyesight at age 5, Kekana developed his love for singing while attending a school for the blind. He recorded more than 40 albums in Mbaqanga, jazz and R&B styles between 1977 and 2018.
• Indonesian jazz guitarist and educator Beben Jazz died July 5 in Bekasi, West Java. He was 54. Beben Supendi Mulyana, aka Beben Jazz, also sang and played trumpet. He was a founder of Jakarta’s Kemayoran Jazz Community.
• Singer and songwriter Tsepo Tshola died July 15 at a hospital in Teyateyaneng in his native Lesotho, a mountain kingdom that is surrounded by South Africa. He was 67. Also known as the “Village Pope,” Tshola came to prominence with the jazz group Sankomota, which he co-founded and co-led with the late Frank Leepa in the late 1970s. He launched his solo career in 2002. He performed for more than 40 years, primarily in Lesotho, South Africa and Europe.
• South African pianist and educator Andre Petersen died July 22 age 43. He was the only African musician out of 68 pianists to compete in 2011's Concours de Piano-Jazz Martial Solal Competition in Paris. Johannesburg-based Petersen’s international recording and performance credits include working with Stefon Harris, Reggie Washington, Dave Liebman, Marcus Strickland, the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra and Norwegian avant-garde band Soyr. 
• Paris-born guitarist, singer and producer Jacob Desvarieux died July 30 in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadaloupe. He was 66. Desvarieux co-founded the  zouk band Kassav’, which played a mix of jazz, Caribbean folk, rumba, soukous, discos and funk that was popular in the 1980s in the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. The band performed at several international jazz festivals. 
• Polynesian-born jazz guitarist Daniel Temaeva Benoit died August 9 at age 69 in Tahiti. Starting in the 1980s, self-taught musician Benoit and his lifelong friend Michel Poroi performed frequently in island venues.
• Washington DC-based drummer and bandleader Howard “KingFish” Franklin Jr., died August 18. He was 51. The hard-swinging drummer was given the nickname “KingFish” by his late mentor, Calvin Jones. Singer-pianist Shirley Horn’s drummer, Steve Williams, called him “Fishstix.” Over the years, he worked with a wide variety of jazz greats. 
• Multi-instrumentalist Isaac Mkukupa, considered to be the father of jazz in Malawi, died August 22 in Nottingham, England. He was 78. He moved from Africa to the UK in 2009. In a career stretching back to at least the early 1970s, Mkukupa played bass, guitar, trombone and trumpet. 
• Nashville session drummer and educator Kenny Malone died August 26 at age 83. While best known for his extensive work with top country and folk artists since the 1970s, Malone’s work brought him into every acoustic genre. He recorded with Ray Charles and Bela Fleck, among others. He was an instructor at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. During his 14 years in the US Navy, he played in the Navy Band in Washington DC and headed the percussion department at the School of Music for the Navy, Army and Marines. 
• Cuban pianist, composer, singer and bandleader Adalberto Álvarez died September 1 at age 72 at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine in Havana. Nicknamed “El Caballero del Son,” Álvarez was one of the most important figures in Cuban music in recent decades. He led the “Son 14” orchestra for five years before founding “Adalberto Álvarez y su son,” a group with which he made his mark on Cuban and Latin music, in 1984 He recorded about 20 albums. 
• Sousaphonist Bennie Pete, leader and founding member of the Hot 8 Brass Band, died September 6 in New Orleans. He was 42. 
• Cuban singer Ela Calvo died September 7 at age 89. She was known as “The Lady of the Cuban song.” She was a star of Havana’s Tropicana cabaret, where she shared the stage with Luis Carbonell, Elena Burke and the Los Meme Quartet. Her career, which began in the late 1950s, included work on radio, television and nightclubs. She recorded with Andrés Echevarría’s jazz orchestra. 
• Banjoist, guitarist and bandleader Ken Salvo died September 15 in Venice FL at age 74. A Dixieland jazz specialist, Salvo was a member of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks for more than a decade. The band won a Grammy for their work on the soundtrack of the hit HBO show Boardwalk Empire. After moving to Florida several years ago, he formed his own trad outfit, Ken Salvo’s N’awlins Jazz Band, and played in other ensembles.  
• Singer and actress Julia Nixon died September 29 in a Raleigh NC hospital. She was 66. She performed at Washington DC-area clubs and in musical theater for 40 years, blending jazz, gospel and R&B with ease at Mr. Henry’s Supper Club, Blues Alley and other venues.  In 1983, Nixon succeeded Jennifer Holliday in the lead role in the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls." 
• Conguero Tony Menjivar died October 5 in San Francisco. He was 62. He was a fixture in the band MALO, which blended Latino, rock, jazz and blues into its sound. Menjivar also worked in other jazz and Latin jazz contexts over the years, including appearances with the Latin Kings All-Stars and singer Jamie Davis. He also co-founded a Christian Latin rock band named Bueno! 
• French bassist Claude Mouton died October 9 in Ile de France. He was 66. After studying with Jean-François Jenny Clarke, he worked with Jackie McLean, Mal Waldron, Michel Grallier and René Urtreger. He was a sideman on several manouche (gypsy jazz) albums, including Raphaël Faÿs' Swing Guitar tribute to Django Reinhardt. 
• Tony Falco, proprietor of the Hudson Valley NY jazz club The Falcon, died October 28 after a six-month battle with COVID-19 complications. He was 65. At Falco's insistence, the club never charged a cover. In the early 2000s, Falco presented salon-like concerts in a space behind his home in Marlboro, 70 miles north of New York City. In 2005, he bought a 19^th century former button factory, transforming it into a two-stage venue with rotating art exhibits, the Avalon Archives Museum of Rock & Roll, two restaurants, and a network of trails and decks overlooking Marlboro Falls.   
• Singer Kurt Reichenbach died November 4 in Los Angeles. He was 68. He also was an actor and graphic designer. He was the son of jazz drummer Bill Reichenbach Sr. He was the brother of trombonist Bill Reichenbach Jr., who often accompanied him in concert and on recordings.

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  Barry Harris, 2001
  

  Broadcaster, photographer and jazz historian Dennis Owsley died November 26. He was 78. Owsley hosted a weekly jazz show on St. Louis Public Radio for more than three decades, retiring in 2019. A 1986 radio documentary led to his book “City of Gabriels — The Jazz History of St. Louis 1895-1973.” He died at Banner Boswell Medical Center in Sun City AZ.
  
• Pianist, composer and educator Barry Harris died December 8 at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J. He was 91. Harris' codification of the fundamentals of bebop in the 1950s were the backbone of his teaching. His weekly jazz workshops were a fixture in New York City beginning in the 1970s, including a five-year run from 1982-87 at the Jazz Cultural Theater, which he co-founded. The Detroit native was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1989. 
• Steel pans innovator, drummer and composer Anthony “Muff-Man” Williams died December 21 in Port-au-Prince, Trinidad. He was 90. He was the bandleader, pan-tuner and arranger of the Pan Am North Stars, and was considered one of the most important figures in the development of the modern steel orchestra. He also toured with boogie-woogie and ragtime pianist Winifred Atwell. 
• Italian acoustic guitarist and educator Paolo Giordano died December 29 in Pescara, his hometown. He was 59.The innovative player was the first musician in ltaly to experiment with tapping and advanced percussive techniques on the acoustic guitar. He performed and/or recorded with a variety of players over the years, including singer Patti Cathcart of Tuck and Patti, bassist Michael Manring, percussionists Alex Acuña and Michael Spiro, and guitarists Frank Gambale and Ralph Towner.

Here are links to the chronology: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.

A sad milestone....

Today brought news of at least the 100th jazz-related death from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. 

Singer and songwriter Tsepo Tshola died today (July 15) at a hospital in Teyateyaneng in his native Lesotho, a mountain kingdom that is surrounded by South Africa. He was 67. He performed for more than 40 years, primarily in Lesotho, South Africa and Europe. 

 I have a few more details in Chapter 4 of my COVID log.  

Tshola's was the 100th such death that I have been able  to document. I fear there may have been more, because not all obits or death notices list a cause.

Here are links to the chronology: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.

The thirst for live jazz performances is back

Thursday night, July 8, saw another full house at The Barrel Room at Twisted Vine Bistro in downtown Fort Myers for the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto Quartet. It was the band's fifth week back at the rathskeller-style room after a 15-month lull because of the pandemic.

Lew Del Gatto, Tony Vigilante

The band is top-notch, featuring trumpeter Miller, tenor saxophonist Del Gatto, bassist Brandon Robertson and drummer Tony Vigilante. On this night, they had one guest musician sit in for most of the evening: Terumasa Hino.

Newport beckons (updated)

Nothing tells me more that the pandemic’s extended jazz pause is over than the arrival later this month of the 2021 edition of the Newport Jazz Festival. There was none in 2020, a tough year for musicians and live-music fans alike across North America and around the globe.

Virtually all festivals and in-person concerts were cancelled after mid-March, giving rise to a steady output of streamed performances from venues (with audiences), or in a lot of cases, from musicians’ living rooms, stoops, driveways, or socially distanced spaces in public parks.

But Newport is back, albeit with health protocols in place, and only 60 percent capacity allowed at Fort Adams State Park overlooking Newport Harbor and the graceful span of the Sen. Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge in the distance. The attendance limit means the fort can accommodate 6,000 jazz fans, compared to years when 10,000 was a sellout. And there will be just two stages compared to the four in a normal festival year.

Back to The Barrel Room

What a night it was in downtown Fort Myers FL. Thursday evening, June 17, was just the second time back on stage at The Barrel Room at Twisted Vine Bistro for the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto Quartet.

Dan Miller, Brandon Robertson

Lew Del Gatto

The band has been featured at the venue every Thursday night for the past five years – except for a 15-month pandemic lull that ended last week. Thanks to vaccinations, a mask or two spotted in the full house, and a need to return to jazz normalcy, the regulars were enthusiastic and the band responded in kind. And, as always, there were a few surprises. You can never be sure who will sit in with the quartet, which features Miller on trumpet, Saturday Night Live alumn Del Gatto on tenor sax, bassist Brandon Robertson and hard-swinging drummer Tony Vigilante.

The winding road back to jazz normalcy (updated Aug 17)

The journey back to jazz festivals performed to live audiences has many different approaches. No matter which on-ramp you choose, normalcy, as we know it after the extended pandemic pause, appears to be a year away.

Let’s look at some of the ways that festivals organizations, working with government health officials, are bringing their events back this season. Most have reduced capacity, fewer stages, fewer artists, and shorter hours than in the past. Social distancing and other good-health protocols are the norm in most cases.

A Year Off? You'd Never Know It.

The Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra capped its socially-distanced 2020-21 season at Artis-Naples on Wednesday, May 12 with a concert that featured singer Denise Donatelli. With strong support from the venue’s resident jazz sextet (with an added special guest), it showcased the Los Angeles-based singer’s superb no-frills vocal artistry.

Denise Donatelli

“Thanks for bringing me to Naples. Thanks for getting me out of the house,” Donatelli told the band and the masked audience scattered throughout Hayes Hall. This was her first live concert gig in more than a year, but there was no rust in evidence. None at all.

Donatelli sings in service to the song and the lyrics. No vocal gymnastics. No needless scatting. None of the artifice or theatrics sometimes found in the cabaret world. This is a good thing. Her timing, her phrasing and her innate sense of swing were on full display and fit hand-in-glove with the band’s instrumental support.

Donatelli, Hart, Del Gatto

The NPJO includes tenor saxophonist and artistic director Lew Del Gatto, trumpeter Dan Miller, violinist Glenn Basham, pianist Jerry Stawski, bassist Kevin Mauldin and drummer Mike Harvey. For this performance, because several of Donatelli’s recent recordings have included a guitarist, they were joined by John Hart. A New York jazz scene mainstay for several decades with extensive experience backing singers, Hart is now a guitar lecturer at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. He fit right in with this high-powered band.

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Taking a closer look at CDs by Greg Abate, Gabriel Alegria, Bruce Brown, and The 14 Jazz Orchestra....

La Lucha plus one

Ona Kirei

 

 

The last time La Lucha played Port Charlotte FL, on June 14, 2019, the Tampa Bay-area jazz trio tore up the house, so to speak, at JD's Bistro. Since then, the restaurant has changed ownership and its name, but its commitment to music excellence continues.

On Thursday, May 6, La Lucha returned to the venue, now the Grill at 1951, with a special guest in tow. Pianist John O'Leary. bassist Alejandro Arenas and drummer Mark Feinman were joined by Barcelona-born singer Ona Kirei. She works with La Lucha on a semi-regular basis - either as a group, or in collaboration with individual members as the need arises.

Their simpatico was on full display through a wide range of jazz and Latin jazz material.

Glimmers of hope, turning a corner

This 2021 edition of Jazz Appreciation Month underscored the notion that we can’t take the music or its makers for granted. Especially after the past year: clubs shuttered temporarily or permanently, or forced to present music to their supporters virtually via webcasts because of limited or no live audiences. Musicians without steady gigs or, in some cases, any gigs for over a year. Or others performing from their living rooms, stoops, driveways and public parks to keep their chops – and sanity – hoping for support from real or virtual tip jars. The tragic number of jazz musicians and industry figures felled by COVID-19 reached at least 90 and still counting.

But there are glimmers of hope, of turning the corner. Some concerts and restaurant gigs have returned with a clear focus on social distancing, masks and other pandemic protocols. 

One of those good news stories occurred this past weekend in Savannah GA, when the city’s premier venue, Good Times Jazz Bar & Restaurant, reopened after a total shutdown that lasted more than 12 months.

Owners Stephen and Danielle Moore opened Good Times in 2017. It offered dining and live Tuesday through Sunday nights, plus a gospel brunch on Sundays. That was before COVID-19 struck. Rather than risk any viral impact on guests, employees or their relatives, executive chef and jazz fan Joe Randall locked the doors of the downtown venue on busy West Broughton Street in late March 2020.

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Taking a closer look at CDs by Roderick Harper, Fred Hersch, Lisa Hilton, Dan Moretti, Omar Sosa and Veronica Swift ….

The worldly art of jazz

Pianist (and abstract painter) Bill Buchman brought his Art of Jazz Quintet to Venice FL on Wednesday, March 10 for a concert that touched on many of the global influences that have become central to jazz. From its inception, the genre has absorbed – and welcomed – elements of other styles, and turned that musical melting pot into a rich gumbo.

Bill Buchman

His band for this socially distanced, outdoor concert at Plantation Golf & Country Club included Rick Aaron on flute, Rob Fors on bass, Chuck Parr on drums and Gerardo Velez on congas. The event was sponsored by Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota as part of its 25^th anniversary season.

A hard-swinging reminder that Woody evolved with the times

The Stardust Memories Big Band paid tribute to the musical legacy of clarinetist and bandleader Woody Herman on Tuesday, March 2 at Riverside Park in Bonita Springs FL. For this evening, and the prior night at Cambier Park in neighboring Naples, bandleader Craig Christman turned the reins over to baritone saxophonist Mike Brignola, who joined the band this season.

Stardust Memories Big Band in Bonita Springs

The highly regarded bari player was an integral member of Woody's band from 1981 until the leader's death in 1987. Since then, Fort Lauderdale--based Brignola has served as road manager and personnel director for the Woody Herman Orchestra under the leadership of tenor saxophonist Frank Tiberi.

His concert mix resulted in a hard-swinging reminder that Woody Herman evolved with the times over his band's 50-year run. Brignola had a lot from which to choose.Herman and his outfit recorded about 875 tunes between the late 1930s and his death in 1987.