Died On This Date (April 9, 2008) Ozzie Cadena / Savoy Records Producer
themusicsover Ozzie Cadena
September 26, 1924 – April 9, 2008
Ozzie Cadena was born in Oklahoma City in 1924, but soon moved to Newark, New Jersey with his family. After he served in WWII, Cadena enrolled in a New York music school where he studied the bass and piano. His first music job was on a jazz radio show back in Newark. It was there that he was hired by the legendary Savoy label to work as an in-house producer. During his eight years at Savoy, Cadena worked on recordings by the likes of Cal Tjader, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Esther Phillips, John Lee Hooker and many more. In the years after he left Savoy, he spent time at Prestige, Blue Note and Fantasy Records. Cadena moved his family to Hermosa Beach, California in the mid-‘70s and continued to work with the music he loved, mostly booking and promoting shows at jazz clubs around Los Angeles, including the legendary Lighthouse, known as one of the flashpoints of West Coast Jazz. Ozzie Cadena suffered a stroke in 2007 and passed away of pneumonia on April 9, 2008 at the age of 83.
Malcolm McLaren was a trendsetting English fashion store proprietor who became internationally famous as the manager of the New York Dolls and Sex Pistols. During the early ’70s, McLaren opened a clothing store on London’s trendy King’s Road. In no time, it became a favorite destination for the area’s young rock crowd. While making buying trips to New York, he met up with the New York Dolls and soon began creating their stage costumes. He eventually took over management duties. By the middle of the decade, McLaren was managing the Sex Pistols, initially due to their sense of outrageous fashion rather than their musical abilities. The partnership would quickly evolve into what many credit as being the flash point of punk rock. After the band’s disintegration, McLaren worked with Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow. He also had a moderately successful recording career of his own. His “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch” were hits in the UK and US. McLaren continued to stay in the public eye, at least in the UK, well into the 2000s with various projects. Malcolm McLaren died of cancer on April 8, 2010. He was 64.
Laura Nyro was not only a well-respected performer, she penned numerous classic songs that became major hits for others. In just a matter of two years, she wrote such hits as “Wedding Bell Blues” (the 5th Dimension), “And When I Die” (Blood, Sweat & Tears), “Eli’s Coming” (Three Dog Night), and “Stoney End” (Barbra Streisand) among others. Nyro spent her career feeling uncomfortable about the celebrity part of pop music so she kept a low profile and retired a couple of times. Nyro passed away from ovarian cancer on April 8, 1997 at the age of 49.
Scotland born Tam Paton was the manager and main mouthpiece for 70s pop sensations, the Bay City Rollers. Paton helped develop a squeaky clean image for the band by claiming for instance, that the guys preferred milk over alcohol. “Rollermania” exploded around the world thanks to such hits as “Saturday Night” and “Shang-a-lang.” The band fired Paton in 1979 afterwhich he went on to earn millions in real estate. In 2003, Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn announced that Paton, who was openly gay, raped him while on tour in 1977. The allegations though never doubted were never proven true. Paton was convicted of sex and drug related offenses in later years. He died as a result of an apparent heart attack on April 8, 2009.