Died On This Date (March 29, 1999) Joe Williams / Big Band Singer

Joe Williams (Born Joseph Goreed)
December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999

joe-williamsJoe Williams has been called the last great big-band singer.  His beautiful baritone has been heard alongside such greats as Lionel Hampton and Coleman Hawkins, and carried him to prominence with the Count Basie Orchestra during the ’50s.  He continued to perform and record alongside the greatest names in jazz over the next three decades, earning numerous awards including a Grammy and a star along Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.  Williams worked up until he passed away of natural causes at the age of 80.

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Joe Williams

Died On This Date (February 17, 1982) Thelonious Monk / Jazz Legend

Thelonious Monk
October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982

thelonious-monk

Thelonious Monk was a highly influential jazz pianist and composer who was one of bebop’s earliest practitioners.  Monk was just six years old when he first took to the piano, and for the most part, taught himself to play.  As a teen, he hit the road playing the organ for a traveling evangelist.  He made his recording debut with  Coleman Hawkins in 1944, leading Hawkins to champion Monk throughout the jazz world.  Over the next three decades, Monk worked with the biggest names in jazz while recording some of the genre’s most celebrated recordings.  That list includes “Round Midnight,” “Straight No Chaser,” and “Blue Monk.”  Monk all but retired from music during the mid ’70s, possibly due to his struggles with mental illness.  He reportedly suffered from schizophrenia and manic depression.  He may have also suffered brain damage after being misdiagnosed and prescribed the wrong medication.  Either way, his physical health began to deteriorate during the final decade of his life.  Thelonious Monk ultimately died of a stroke at he age of 61.

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Monk's Dream - Thelonious Monk Quartet

Died On This Date (December 28, 1952) Fletcher Henderson / Jazz Great

Fletcher Henderson
December 18, 1897 – December 28, 1952

Fletcher Henderson was a respected big band and swing jazz pianist, composer and band leader.  During a career that began in the early ’20s, Henderson lead bands that included the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Sun Ra and Benny Carter.  As a composer, his most famous song was “Gin House Blues,” which found itself recorded by Bessie Smith and Nina Simone among others.  As an arranger, he was responsible for key recordings by Benny Goodman and others.  In 1950, Fletcher Henderson suffered a stroke that left him unable to play the piano.  He passed away two years later.



Died On This Date (December 22, 1939) Ma Rainey / Blues Icon

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey
September, 1882 or April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939

Called the Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey was one of it’s earliest stars as well as one of it’s first generation to record.  She was a direct influence on Bessie Smith and no doubt, countless more.   She began her music career as a vaudeville performer at just 14.  Several years later, Smith joined that same troupe as a dancer and soon learned to sing the blues from Rainey.  In 1923, Rainey made her first recording, and over the next five years, she recorded more than 100 songs, including “C.C. Rider” (better known as “See See Rider”), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Bo Weevil Blues.”  Over the years, she was backed by such musicians as Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Fletcher Henderson.   With the music of blues’ first generation falling out of favor by the early ’30s, Rainey retired to run a couple of theaters in her hometown in 1932.  On December 22, 1939, Ma Rainey died of a heart attack.

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Ma Rainey

Died On This Date (September 8, 1960) Oscar Pettiford / Jazz Great

Oscar Pettiford
September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960

PettifordOscar Pettiford was  a virtuoso jazz double bassist and cellist who made his mark during the ’40s and ’50s.  With his mother being Choctaw and his father half Cherokee and half African American, Pettiford was likely the most famous Native American jazz musician in history.  Although most never new of his Native American lineage.  Pettiford grew up playing in the family band, first on piano, and then switching to double bass at the age of 14.  Pettiford was one of the forefathers of the be bop movement and over the course of this career worked with the likes of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Coleman Hawkins.  He is also credited for having discovered Cannonball Adderley.  Oscar Pettiford passed away on September 8, 1960.

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Oscar Pettiford