Died On This Date (May 15, 2008) Bob Florence / Grammy Winning Jazz Composer
themusicsover Bob Florence
May 30, 1932 – May 15, 2008
Bob Florence was an award winning pianist and arranger whose interest in the piano started when he began taking lessons at the age of five. He also led his own Los Angeles-based big band, Limited Edition, for some 50 years. Throughout his career, he received sixteen nominations, winning one for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance in 2000. He also won two Emmys for his work as Music Director on Julie Andrews In Concert and Linda Lavin’s Linda In Wonderland. Florence passed away in his home just days before his 76th birthday.
Chuck Niles was a popular and extremely knowledgeable jazz radio disc jockey who entertained and educated Los Angeles, California music fans for the better part of 50 years. Known by such nicknames as “Mr. Jazz,” Niles could be heard throughout much of Southern California on influential jazz and blues station KKJZ for the last fourteen years of his life. After moving to Los Angeles as a young man, Niles dabbled in acting, even landing a bit part in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Throughout his long and fruitful years on the air in L.A., he worked at such stations as KHJ, KBCO (later KKGO), and eventually KLON which became KKJZ, one of the most famous jazz and blues stations in the United States. Over the years, Niles was memorialized in songs like Horace Silvers’ “The Hippest Cat In Hollywood,”