Died On This Date (November 2, 1996) Eva Cassidy / Respected Pop Singer
themusicsover Eva Cassidy
February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996
Eva Cassidy was an American guitarist and vocalist who was equally adept at interpreting jazz, blues, country, folk, and pop standards. Without much more than a cult following outside of her hometown of Washington DC, Cassidy never failed to wow audiences with her remarkable technical ability and passion with which she sang. Unfortunately, and at no fault of her own, record companies ignored her, but only because of their own confusion on how to best market her. In 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from her back, and her health seamed fine from that point on, but roughly three years later, she began feeling stiffness and pain in her hips. Further tests revealed that she was suffering from advanced stages of melanoma. Eva Cassidy was 33 when she died from the cancer on November 2, 1996. Ironically, after spending her entire adult life trying to get her music heard, it took her death to finally expose her beyond her local fan base. In the years following her passing, collections of her recordings started coming out, leading to critical praise and several charting singles in the UK. In 2005, nearly 10 years after her death, amazon.com ranked her as their 5th best-selling musician behind the Beatles, U2, Norah Jones, and Diana Krall.
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Gene Lees was a respected music critic, biographer and historian who also found success as a songwriter. Already an established journalist in his home country of Canada, Lees became the editor of Down Beat in 1959. He also wrote for the New York Times, Stereo Review, High Fidelity and the Toronto Star, to name a few. Lees wrote liner notes as well. Albums by