Sarah Streeter (January 31, 1953 – June 13, 2015), better
known by her stage name Big Time Sarah, was an American blues singer. A rousing
vocalist and dynamic entertainer, she was among the more enterprising
contemporary blues performers who built a solid reputation worldwide with
regular tours in the U.S. and abroad.
She was born in Coldwater, Mississippi, and raised in
Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of alcoholic parents and sought
community in a local church, developing her musical talent in its gospel
choir. At age 14, she began singing
blues at the Morgan's Lounge Club. Sarah started sitting-in from the late ’60s
with Louis and Dave Myers, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Magic Slim and Johnny Bernard.
It was during 1976 that after hearing Sunnyland Slim in a
club, Sarah went to him for advice about her singing which resulted in her touring
with his band. It also led to her first solo release, a single on his record label,
Airway Records. She also toured Europe annually from 1978 – 1982 with pianist
Erwin Helfer and since then on her own. She gained her nickname, "Big Time
Sarah,” from a wish she had early in her career.
When she began touring in the mid-1970s, Streeter was
convinced she would make the "big time," becoming a blues sensation
by delivering a million-selling album and then a film star. Dubbed "The Shaker" for her
trademark moving and shaking as she strutted across the stage, Streeter became
renowned for giving audiences a performance ranging from the sentimental to the
sexy. She was a featured performer at many clubs such as B.L.U.E.S., Kingston
Mines, and Buddy Mulligan's and appeared at several blues festivals. She teamed
with Zora Young and Bonnie Lee in 'Blues with the Girls', Sarah toured Europe
in 1982 and recorded an album in Paris, France.
She formed the Big Time Express in 1989, and made her
Delmark label debut, Lay It on 'Em Girls, in 1993. Blues in the Year One-D-One
arrived in 1996, followed by A Million of You in 2001 all for Delmark Records.
Sarah and her band toured internationally blending risqué blues, soul, funk and
jazz.
Streeter received an W.C. Handy Award nominations, for
Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year, in 2002 and 2003.She has played at
the Chicago Blues Festival, 2002 and 2008, the Efes Pilsener Blues Festival,
Moscow, Russia, in 2005, the legendary San Francisco Blues Festival, 2002,
Monterey Jazz Festival, 2002 and Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, 2001. Sarah
worked many clubs in the Chicago area and often lent her vocal and fundraising
talents to benefits for needy musicians and the homeless.
Unfortunately, recurring health problems forced this
eminently spectacular artist to take it easy. Big Time Sarah died on June 13,
2015, aged 62, from heart complications in a Chicago-area nursing home. She was
buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, Alsip, Cook County, Illinois.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Sunnyland Slim liner notes, Last fm,
Sooze Blues Jazz and AllMusic)
David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989),
nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His
sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his
virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the dominant style of jazz trumpet
innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as
one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of
bebop.
Eldridge was born on the North Side of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, to parents Alexander, a wagon teamster, and Blanche, a gifted
pianist with a talent for reproducing music by ear, a trait that Eldridge
claimed to have inherited from her. Eldridge began playing the piano at the age
of five and took up the drums at the age of six, taking lessons and playing
locally.
When Roy began to play drums in his brother's band, Joe soon convinced
him to pick up the trumpet. It was not until the death of their mother, when
Roy was eleven, and his father's subsequent remarriage that Roy began practicing
more rigorously, locking himself in his room for hours, and particularly honing
the instrument's upper register. From an early age, Roy lacked proficiency at
sight-reading, a gap in his musical education that would affect him for much of
his early career, but he could replicate melodies by ear very effectively.
Eldridge started out playing trumpet and drums in carnival
and circus bands. With the Nighthawk Syncopators he received a bit of attention
by playing a note-for-note re-creation of Coleman Hawkins' tenor solo on
"The Stampede." Inspired by the dynamic playing of Jabbo Smith
(Eldridge would not discover Louis Armstrong for a few years), Eldridge played
with some territory bands including Zack Whyte and Speed Webb and in New York
(where he arrive in 1931) he worked with Elmer Snowden (who nicknamed him
"Little Jazz"), McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and most importantly Teddy
Hill (1935).
Eldridge's recorded solos with Hill, backing Billie Holiday
and with Fletcher Henderson (including his 1936 hit "Christopher
Columbus") gained a great deal of attention. In 1937 he appeared with his
octet (which included brother Joe on alto) at the Three Deuces Club in Chicago
and recorded some outstanding selections as a leader including "Heckler's
Hop" and "Wabash Stomp." By 1939 Eldridge had a larger group
playing at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York. With the decline of Bunny Berigan
and the increasing predictability of Louis Armstrong, Eldridge was arguably the
top trumpeter in jazz during this era.
Roy with Anita O'Day
During 1941-1942 Eldridge sparked Gene Krupa's Orchestra,
recording classic versions of "Rockin' Chair" and "After You've
Gone" and interacting with Anita O'Day on "Let Me Off Uptown."
The difficulties of traveling with a White band during a racist period hurt
him, as did some of the incidents that occurred during his stay with Artie Shaw
(1944-1945) but the music during both stints was quite memorable. Eldridge can
be seen in several "soundies" (short promotional film devoted to
single songs) of this era by the Krupa band, often in association with O'Day,
including "Let Me Off Uptown" and "Thanks for the Boogie
Ride."
Roy with Gene Krupa
He is also very prominent in the band's appearance in Howard
Hawks' Ball of Fire, in an extended performance of "Drum Boogie"
mimed by Barbara Stanwyck, taking a long trumpet solo which was filmed
soon after Eldridge joined the band in late April of 1941, and "Drum
Boogie" was a song that Eldridge co-wrote with Krupa. Eldridge had a
short-lived big band of his own, toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and then
had a bit of an identity crisis when he realized that his playing was not as
modern as the beboppers. A successful stay in France during 1950-1951 restored his
confidence when he realized that being original was more important than being
up-to-date.
Eldridge recorded steadily for Norman Granz in the '50s, was
one of the stars of JATP (where he battled Charlie Shavers and Dizzy
Gillespie), and by 1956, was often teamed with Coleman Hawkins in a quintet;
their 1957 appearance at Newport was quite memorable. The '60s were tougher as
recording opportunities and work became rarer. Eldridge had brief and unhappy
stints with Count Basie's Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald (feeling unnecessary in
both contexts) but was leading his own group by the end of the decade. He spent
much of the '70s playing regularly at Ryan's and recording for Pablo and,
although his range had shrunk a bit, Eldridge's competitive spirit was still
very much intact.
After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up
playing the trumpet. He did however occasionally play the piano and can be
heard as late as 1986 in an edition of Marian McPartland's "Piano
Jazz" He died at the age of 78 at the Franklin General Hospital in Valley
Stream, New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola.
Dave Young (born January 29, 1940) is a Canadian double
bassist.
David Anthony Young was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
He began studying the guitar and violin when he was 10 years old, but a turn of
events at his first gig (a university dance band) compelled him to pick up the
bass. He was educated as both a jazz and a classical player and after attending
the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 1960s, Young
returned to Canada and embarked on a remarkably diverse and distinguished
professional career.
He was a member of the Lenny Breau Quartet in live
performance and recording for five years from 1961 to 1966. Dave Young’s
professional relationship with jazz giant Oscar Peterson spanned three decades
during which he played in the Oscar Peterson Trio in appearances all over the
world up until Peterson’s death. Young is equally comfortable with symphonic
work and acoustic jazz. As classical artist, he was the principal Double
Bassist for a number of years with the Edmonton and Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestras as well as with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a jazz artist, he has collaborated with the genre’s
brightest luminaries including Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Joe
Williams, Oliver Jones, Lenny Breau, Rob McConnell, Phil Dwyer, Michel Lambert,
John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Tommy Flanagan, Ellis Marsalis, Barry Harris, Kenny
Barron, Cyrus Chestnut, Cedar Walton, Peter Appleyard, Harry “Sweets” Edison,
Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones, Nat Adderly, Gary Burton, Barney Kessel, Ed Bickert,
Ranee Lee, Marcus Belgrave, Don Thompson, and James Moody.
Young regularly toured with clarinetist James Campbell and
pianist Gene Di Novi in a program of “Classical Fusion” that melds the
classical and jazz worlds. He also performed a “dueling basses” repertoire of
classical works with Toronto Symphony bassist Joel Quarrington, often billed as
the "Two Bass Hit". Perhaps one of Dave Young’s most loved and popular
musical combinations is his own Quintet, an ensemble firmly rooted in the
be-bop tradition, and focusing on the material of Horace Silver and Charles
Mingus. In 2003, Young was in residence at the Music Department of St. Francis
Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, conducting bass master classes
and performing.
Here’s “Celia” from above album.
In the fall of 2009, Young released, Mean What You Say ,an
independently release album produced by bassist Robert Occhipinti and featuring
Robi Botos, Frank Botos, and Kevin Turcotte. Also that year, Dave performed as
part of a 16-piece orchestra accompanying award-winning choreographer Twyla
Tharp’s latest Broadway-bound dance work: “Come Fly With Me” – The Music of
Frank Sinatra.
In 2011, Young released Aspects of Oscar with his quintet
featuring Kevin Turcotte, Reg Schwager, Robi Botos and Terry Clarke. A prolific
composer and bandleader, Young is a Juno Award winner and 10-time nominee. A
noted educator, he was a professor at the University of Toronto and has
mentored many of Canada’s finest bassists. For his contributions to the world
of music, Young was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006.
Young has countless other awards under his belt, including
the IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) Award for “Outstanding
Service to Jazz.” He is a seven-time Jazz Report winner, a six-time National
Jazz Award winner, and was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree
from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2017. In 2020, Dave concluded his 30-year
tenure as a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Jazz department and has
continued to share his wisdom with students and jazz fans through workshops. In
September 2021, Dave was featured on two segments as part of
JazzComposersPresent.com out of Washington, DC, which is led by Dan Jamieson.
Dave continues to spend his time performing throughout
Toronto on a regular basis, as well as recording with his various groups. Dave
frequently performed in Detroit alongside Spencer Barefield and Dave Murray at
Dirty Dog Jazz Café and Cliff Bell’s, as well as the Detroit Jazz Festival.
Throughout his many tours within the United States, Dave has performed to
sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, The Blue Note,
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, Yoshi’s Oakland, and Birdland Jazz Club.
Along with consistent performing, Dave has released numerous
albums since 1975. His latest album, ‘Mantra,’ from 2021 features well-known
musicians Kevin Turcotte, Reg Schwager, Brian Dickinson, Perry White, and Terry
Clarke.
Edited from (Canadian Jazz Archive, Celine Peterson
Productions & Tiff 50)
Larry Brasso ( January 28, 1936 – August 26, 1984) was a Country
and Cajun vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter who fronted his own band, Larry
Brasso & The Rhythmaires.
Brasso was actually born James Larry Brasseaux in the tiny
town of Henry (Vermillion Parish), just outside of Abbeville. By age 10, he was playing guitar and by 13,
he was forming his first band. As he got older, he began playing in local clubs
in south Louisiana and then they headed to Texas to spread their country music
for some three years. In 1963, he was back in Louisiana to start his first
venture into television, producing his own Saturday afternoon “Larry Brasso
Show,” which was eventually syndicated into 10 CBS TV markets all around the
state. The music show included not just country, but Cajun and French music as
well.
Unlike in today’s world, with everyone knowing how to
pronounce “Geaux,” obviously, his television producer suggested he change the
end of his last name from ’eaux’ to ‘o.’ He grew up speaking French and already
sang French songs as a young boy. He was just as comfortable singing in English
but always with a Louisiana tilt. He also formed the “Larry Brasso and the
Rhythmaires” band, which he led for nearly 30 years. Later on, it included his
son Keith Brasseaux.
The band toured solo, as well as opening for some major country
acts, one of which was Loretta Lynn. He was not quite 30 years old when he
recorded his first record on Lafayette-based La Louisiane labeI in 1965 with
“Just around the Corner from the Blues” and “You’re only in Love.” A year later in 1966, Baton Rouge record
producer S.J. Montalbano a.k.a. “Sam Montel” brought Brasso into his recording
studio, for first of three records and an album. His first 45 rpm release was a
pair of cover songs, “Gonna Find Me Someone To Love” and “Big Mistake.”
It was released on the ‘Montel-Michelle’ label. He followed
that up in July of 1966 with his classic “These Empty Arms,” written by Johnny
Troy, who also wrote two other songs for Brasso. The flip-side was “I Just
Can’t Live (If you’re Really Gone).” Then in late October of 1966, Montel released
a 12-track LP by Brasso entitled, ‘Country Music Louisiana Style.’ One of the
tracks included his version of “One More Glass Of Wine,” written by Abbeville
native Robert Guidry, better known as “Bobby Charles.”
Montel released Brasso’s cover on a single in late April of
1967, with “Big City” on the flip side. Later in 1967, Brasso made two
recordings at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans and released on
his ‘White Cliffs’ label. In 1969, he had his first self-written songs recorded
and released on both the Nashville-based ‘One-Way’ label, as well as the
Cincinnati-based ‘King’ label, with “Wait for the Heartache” and “You’re Going to
Get What’s Coming for You.” He also had
another released on ‘One-Way,’ which was pressed at the Ville Platte plant.
In the 1970’s, he had four releases on Floyd Soileau’s Ville
Platte-based ‘Jin’ label. Brasso had his
own TV show on KADN Channel 15 in Lafayette in the early 1980’s. Brasso continued to perform up until his
death, which was by a heart attack in Henry, Louisiana, on August 26, 1984, He
was just 48……His son Keith, who died in
2007, was just 47 and his son, Larry Brasseaux Jr. died at the age of 36.
Kate Wolf ( January 27, 1942 – December 10, 1986) was an
American folk singer and songwriter. Though her career was relatively short,
she had a significant impact on the folk music scene.
Kate Wolf was born Kathryn Louise Allen in San Francisco to
John Fred Allen and Ernestine Ruth Allen, née Endicott . She began studying
piano at 4 but quit at 16 because of her shyness. She spent her early childhood
in Oregon and Michigan, before returning home to Berkeley. During their senior
year (1959–60) at Berkeley High School, Kathy Allen and her friend Marian
Auerbach (now Shapiro) sang folk songs at the Berkeley High School Talent Shows
(1957 and 1960). At age 19 she first met Saul Wolf, an architecture student at
UC Berkeley; they married two years later. They had two children, born in 1964
and 1967.
The Wildwood Flower
In 1969 she became part of the Big Sur music community and
developed rapidly as a guitarist and songwriter, influenced by such friends as
Gil "Jellyroll" Turner and George Schroder. In 1971, she parted from
Saul Wolf on good terms and moved to Sonoma County. There she formed her first
band, The Wildwood Flower, with Don Coffin, whom she later married. The
Wildwood Flower played all sorts of community benefits, and Kate became
interested in radio. She began a show on KVRE called Uncommon Country, and
later moved to KSRO and hosted the Sonoma County Singers Circle. These County
music shows brought her new recognition, and she was offered funding for an
album.
Her first album, Back Roads, released in 1976 on her own label,
Owl Records, was recorded in a living room with the band Wildwood Flower, and
was "remarkably well done." Kate's national touring began in 1977
with trips throughout the Midwest and Northwest. Her long- time friend Bruce
"Utah" Phillips helped plan a tour back East where she played
concerts and performed at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Kate's love for
Canadian folk music brought her even greater recognition as she performed at
the popular festivals in Calgary, Winnepeg, and Vancouver. Closer to home, Kate
organized the successful Santa Rosa Folk Festival.
Here's “Early Morning Melody” from above LP
In 1979, she separated from Don Coffin, and the Wildwood
Flower folded, but guitarist and mandolin player Nina Gerber became her
accompanist for the rest of her career. Her best-known compositions include
"Here in California", "Love Still Remains", "Across
the Great Divide", "Unfinished Life", “Green Eyes” and
"Give Yourself to Love". She recorded six albums as a solo artist.In
the Eighties, Kate continued to tour throughout the United States. Although her
popularity grew, her concerts never lost their intimacy.
Kate's fourth album, Close to You, was released in 1981.
This record like Safe at Anchor, featured only original compositions. In 1982
Kate married again, this time to Terry Fowler, the owner of a natural foods
distribution company. She continued to perform both at concerts and at benefits
for groups such as SEVA, No Nukes, and Big Mountain. In 1983 she toured the
Southwest with the Academy Award winning documentary film The Four Corners: A
National Sacrifice Area? As her popularity grew, so did critical recognition,
and twice she was nominated for best folk singer at the San Francisco Bay Area
Music Awards (Bammies)
Late in 1983, following the release of Give Yourself to
Love, Kate decided to take a year off from performing to spend more time with
her family, but itt wasn’t long before she began performing again. She appeared
on American Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion in late 1984, and made
frequent trips to the East Coast, especially the Washington D.C. area. After
touring the Northwest in early 1985, she began working on her next album,
Poet's Heart. Mid-1985 saw her back on A Prairie Home Companion, this time in
San Francisco.
In the fall, Kate embarked on her final tour. She spent two
weeks on the East Coast playing from Boston to Florida, and then flew to the
Midwest and toured through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. After performing
around Texas, Kate came home and played the last leg of her tour through
Southern California. Poet's Heart, also co-produced and arranged by Bill
Griffin, was released the following January, and was awarded NAIRD's "Best
Folk Album of 1986."
It was during April that Kate was diagnosed with acute
leukemia and underwent chemotherapy. In September, she had a bone marrow
transplant, but complications from the operation destroyed her immune system
and she never recovered.
She died in December 1986, at age 44. She is buried at a
small church cemetery in Goodyears Bar, California. In 1987, she was elected to the NAIRD
Independent Music Hall of Fame, also the World Folk Music Association
established the Kate Wolf Award to honor her memory.
Deon Jackson (January 26, 1946 – April 18, 2014) was an
American soul singer and songwriter.
Jackson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. He
studied clarinet and drums as a child, and while in Ann Arbor High School he
formed his own vocal group, concurrently performing in area talent shows as a
solo act and composing his own original material. While performing one of those
songs at a high-school concert, Jackson was discovered by producer Ollie
McLaughlin, who'd previously launched the career of soul diva Barbara Lewis;
McLaughlin soon produced Jackson's debut single, 1962's self-penned "You
Said You Love Me."
The record was a Detroit-area hit, as was its follow-up,
"Come Back Home," but neither earned any national recognition.
Jackson spent the next two years relentlessly touring the Southeast Michigan
school dance and nightclub circuit, resurfacing on record in 1965 with the
smooth soul classic "Love Makes the World Go Round" -- issued on
McLaughlin's nascent Carla label; the single was popularized locally by CKLW
personality Robin Seymour and became a nationwide smash, falling just shy of
the pop Top Ten. An LP of the same name was issued on Atco in 1966, and that
spring Jackson returned with a minor hit, 1966's "Love Takes a Long Time
Growing.
After two final Carla efforts -- the 1968 singles "I
Can't Go On" and "You Gotta Love." Jackson then landed at Shout for
the following year's "I'll Always Love you," after which he faded from view, living and performing in
the Chicago area. He is often referred to as a "one hit wonder".
However, in the UK he is well known and respected on the Northern soul scene,
where his records and unissued recordings are still played to this day. UK
artist Kiki Dee had a minor US hit in 1971 with her cover of "Love Makes
the World Go Round."
Rumors of post-1960s sessions remained unconfirmed, and in
the years to follow, Jackson largely made his living touring the Chicago
cocktail lounge circuit, later becoming a teacher and counselor in the school
district of Wheaton, Illinois with special needs students. In 1989, Jackson
married Kim Jackson. Afterward, Jackson faded into obscurity and began a second
career when he was 54 in the year 2000 as a student supervisor at Wheaton
Warrenville South High School in Wheeling, Illinois. He also taught students
piano.
After having a brain hemorrhage at his home, Jackson died at the
Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, on April 18, 2014,
at the age of 68. Although as a singer/songwriter he never fulfilled the
enormous creative and commercial promise of his mid-'60s material, his peak
output remains much adored.
Donzella Petty-John, known professionally as Nella Dodds
(born January 25, 1950) is an American soul singer and actress, whose records are
popular on the Northern soul scene.
Nella was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, on the mouth of
the Susquehanna River, where she and her younger brother were brought up
surrounded by music. Her father played piano and always had a jazz band around
the house. Inevitably Nella cut her singing teeth in the church choir, but her
age was barely in double figures when she was singing in public with her uncle.
He had a singing group in Philadelphia and asked Nella and her father to listen
to them at a recording studio.
After the session her father asked the studio boss Frank
Virtue if Nella could sing in the recording studio so that he could hear what
she sounded like, so she did. Unknown to her, Frank had told producer Jimmy
Bishop about Nella’s voice and the following week she was asked to do an
audition for him. He was so impressed with her singing that he became her manager
and was signed up for New York’s Wand record label via a production with
Philadelphia’s Dyno-Dynamic Productions -essentially the precursor of what
would eventually evolve into classic 1970s ‘Philly Sound’.
This company was owned by Weldon McDougall of doo wop vocal
group the Larks, Jimmy Bishop, Luther Randolph, and Johnny Stiles, Dodds
recorded with the accompaniment of the Larks' backup band. Although her debut
single, "Come See About Me," reached number 74 on the Billboard
charts, it was obscured after the tune was covered by the Supremes. Dodds'
second release, "Finders Keepers," written by Kenny Gamble, just
barely broke into the Top 100.
Nella became a recording celebrity at the age of 14 years
old, whilst still in junior high school. In the early years of her career, she
only did live shows on weekends due to being at school & her mother would
chaperone her on all her gigs. She sang in supper clubs in Philadelphia, Washington,
Detroit and Cleveland. The combination of her unusual, highly beguiling voice,
some excellent songs and corking dance grooves as Nelly Dodds have charmed
collectors of Northern Soul and girl groups up to the present day. Nella should
also have had several major hits, rather than just the two fair to middling
ones that she did have.
Nella was still performing as a 17 year old in 1967, but by
the time that Philadelphia usurped Detroit as the epicenter of commercial Soul
music and she left her music career to raise a family during the 1970s, '80s,
and early '90s. Dodds increasingly turned to religion and recorded a yet to be
released gospel album in the late '90s.
She also received acting training from The Zarro Acting
Academy, Norfolk, Virginia. She received additional training with Sylvia Harman
of The Actor's Place in Virginia Beach, Virginia where she focused on The
Meisner Technique as well as with Tom Logan, national and international
director and acting coach, of Los Angeles, California.
Kent Soul Records released an album titled “This Is A Girl's
Life" which included all 12 tracks released as singles plus an additional
three that were not released at the time. The tracks were leased by New York's
Wand label between 1964 and 1966 and released as a CD.
All in all, Nella was a very much underrated singer who
deserved more than she got. Happily she's still around, (as Donzella Berry) and
combines singing with her acting career. She has appeared in Sweet Good Fortune
– as Thelma Little (2006) and Evan Almighty – as a Congressperson (2007) and was
totally thrilled that her early recordings are at last enshrined on compact
disc for soul lovers of all ages.
(Edited from All Music, Wikipedia, CD liner notes &
Soulsource)
Warren Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an
American rock singer and songwriter.
Warren William Zevon was born in Chicago, he moved with his
family to California as a child, and though he described his father as a
gangster and gambler, William Zevon took his parental responsibilities
seriously enough to sign his son up for formal tuition in classical piano. He
even got to know Igor Stravinsky, then living in the Hollywood Hills.
Despite his lifelong interest in classical music, Warren's
first professional involvement was as one half of the boy-girl pop duo, Lyme
and Cybelle. He recorded the little-noticed album Wanted Dead Or Alive (1969),
but it was signing to Asylum records in the mid- 1970s that lit the blue touch
paper on his career. He sent a couple of years in the early 1970s touring as
the Everly Brothers’ pianist/bandleader. His Asylum debut, Warren Zevon (1976),
bristled with west coast rock deities - including Glenn Frey and Don Henley, of
the Eagles, and Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, from Fleetwood Mac.
On board as producer was Jackson Browne, who became one of
Zevon's closest friends and also produced his follow-up album, Excitable Boy
(1978), another batch of powerful and alarming songs, outlining the career of a
murderous rapist in the title tune and including his only hit single,
Werewolves Of London. Excitable Boy hit the American top 10, but despite
several covers of his songs by Linda Ronstadt, Zevon's work was too dark and
perverse for mainstream tastes. But his career was temporarily set back by
alcoholism. While 1980's Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School also made the top
20, it signalled the end of its author's period of commercial visibility.
Not that this made his music any less fascinating. Stand In
The Fire (1980) was a live album of rare ferocity, while the title song of The
Envoy rings as true today as it did 20 years ago - "Nuclear arms in the
Middle East/ Israel's attacking the Iraqis . . . Looks like another threat to
world peace/ For the envoy." Zevon's tenure with Asylum lapsed, and the
superb Sentimental Hygiene album (1987) came out on Virgin records. The cast of
guest stars alone confirmed Zevon's status as the connoisseur's delight, with
Neil Young, Bob Dylan and members of R.E.M. and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers
queueing up to participate. The disc was arguably his finest, ranging from plaintive
ballads and the boxer's yarn, Boom Boom Mancini, to the caustic Detox Mansion,
a song inspired by the 25 years of alcoholism he had recently managed to
curtail.
Viewing his commercial invisibility philosophically, Zevon
continued to make albums that probed, challenged and laughed in the face of
political correctness. Any record collection ought to contain copies of Mr Bad
Example, Mutineer, Life'll Kill Ya or My Ride's Here, this latter featuring
Warren's best buddies Hunter S Thompson, novelist Carl Hiaasen and David
Letterman. The compilation album I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (1996) is an
excellent survey of his best work.
Shortly before playing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival
in 2002, he started feeling dizzy and developed a chronic cough. After a period
of suffering with pain and shortness of breath, Zevon was encouraged by his
dentist to see a physician; he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a
cancer (usually caused by exposure to asbestos) that affects the pleura, a thin
membrane around the lungs and chest lining. Zevon was deeply shaken by the news
and began drinking again after 17 years of sobriety.
News of his illness galvanised Zevon into a late burst of
creativity. Refusing treatments he believed might incapacitate him, he began to
write many songs which began to pour out of him, and with the blessing of Danny
Goldberg, boss of his latest record label Artemis, he recorded his last album,
The Wind. Many of the great names in American rock 'n' roll turned out to lend
a hand, with Bruce Springsteen giving a loose and rowdy performance on Disorder
In The House, while Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, the Eagles and
actor and songwriter Billy Bob Thornton all clocked in for the sessions.
Zevon died of mesothelioma on September 7, 2003, aged 56, at
his home in Los Angeles. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered
into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles. Browne, who described what Zevon did
as song-noir, commented: "He had a very stern moral disposition as well as
a willingness to take on this berserk persona. I once tried to introduce him to
an audience as 'the Ernest Hemingway of the 12-string guitar'. Afterwards, he
said, 'No, no - Charles Bronson'."
(Edited from Adam Sweeting obit @ the Guardian & Wikipedia)
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