Singing legend Etta James dies at 73

By Todd Leopold

Etta James has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73. 

Photo: Getty Images

(CNN) - Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as “The Wallflower,” “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” and the wedding favorite “At Last,” has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.

She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said.

She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.

” This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends and fans around the world,” De Leon said. “She was a true original who could sing it all – her music defied category.

“I worked with Etta for over 30 years. She was my friend and I will miss her always.”

The powerhouse singer, known as “Miss Peaches,” lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking “The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)” – an “answer record” to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me, Annie” – to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess Records in 1960 and had a string of R&B and pop hits, many with lush string arrangements. After a mid-decade fade, she re-emerged in 1967 with a more hard-edged, soulful sound.

Throughout her career, James overcame a heroin addiction, opened for the Rolling Stones, won six Grammys and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her ups and downs – including a number of health problems – she maintained an optimistic attitude.

“Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don’t know what I’m sorry about,” she told CNN’s Denise Quan in 2002. “I don’t!”

Through it all, she was a spitfire beloved by contemporaries and young up-and-comers.

“Etta James is unmanageable, and I’m the closest thing she’s ever had to a manager,” Lupe DeLeon, her manager of 30-plus years, told CNN in admiration.

British songstress Adele named James as one of her favorite singers, along with Aretha Franklin.

“If you were to look up the word singer in the dictionary, you’d see their names,” Adele said in an interview.

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a teen mother and unknown father. (She suspected her father was the pool player Minnesota Fats.)

Her birth mother initially took little responsibility and James was raised by a series of people, notably a pair of boardinghouse owners. But she was recognized from a young age for her booming voice, showcased in a South Central Los Angeles church.

In 1950, her mother took her to San Francisco, where James formed a group called the Peaches. Singer Johnny Otis, best known for “Willie and the Hand Jive,” discovered her and had her sing a song he wrote using Ballard’s tune as a model. “The Wallflower,” with responses from “Louie Louie” songwriter Richard Berry, made James an R&B star.

Her signing to Chess introduced her to a broader audience, as the record label’s co-owner, Leonard Chess, believed she should do pop hits. Among her recordings were “Stormy Weather,” the Lena Horne classic originally from 1933; “A Sunday Kind of Love,” which dates from 1946; and most notably, “At Last,” a 1941 number that was originally a hit for Glenn Miller.

James’ version of “At Last” starts out with swooning strings and the singer enters with confident gusto, dazzlingly maintaining a mood of joy and romance. Though the song failed to make the Top 40 upon its 1961 release – though it did hit the R&B Top 10 – its emotional punch has long made it a favorite at weddings.

James’ career suffered in the mid-’60s when the British Invasion took over the pop charts and as she fought some personal demons. But she got a boost when she started recording at Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 

Her hits included the brassy “Tell Mama” and the raw “I’d Rather Go Blind,” the latter later notably covered by Rod Stewart.

She entered rehab in the 1970s for her drug problem but re-established herself with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After another stint in rehab – this time at the Betty Ford Clinic – she made a comeback album, “Seven Year Itch,” in 1988.

James mastered a range of styles – from R&B and soul to jazz and blues – but she was always one step behind the popular genre of the day, said Michael Coyle, a Colgate University professor who has written about jazz and R&B and reviews records for Cadence Magazine.

“She never really got her moment in the sun,” Coyle said.

But James soldiered on, and by the end of her life she had made so much meaningful music that she was considered a living legend. “By the mid-’90s, she’s survived so long that people start to look up to her,” Coyle said.

James was portrayed by pop star Beyonce in the 2008 film “Cadillac Records,” about Chess. After Beyonce sang “At Last” at one of President Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural balls, James lashed out: “I can’t stand Beyonce. She had no business up there singing my song that I’ve been singing forever.” She later told the New York Daily News she was joking.

Earlier this year, news reports revealed that the singer’s estate was being contested in a legal struggle between her husband, Artis Mills, and son Donto James. (Donto and her other son, Sametto, both played in her band.)

Over the years, James had her share of health problems. In the late 1990s she reportedly weighed more than 400 pounds and required a scooter to get around. In 2003 she had gastric bypass surgery and dropped more than half the weight, according to People magazine.

However, until her latest issues, James maintained a steady touring schedule and appeared full of energy even when sitting down – as she sometimes did on stage, due to bad knees and her weight battles.

Even while sitting down, James gave it her all on stage, singing as though possessed, caressing every note like a long-lost love. If that seemed a little much to critics, well, the legendary singer had a show to put on, she told Quan.

“They said that Etta James is still vulgar,” she said in the 2002 interview. “I said, ‘Oh, how dare ‘em say I’m still real vulgar! I’m vulgar because I dance in the chair?’ What would they want me to do? Want me to just be still or something like that?

“I gotta do something.”

First published at CNN Entertainment, December 11, 2012

Dave Brubeck: Take Five jazz pianist dies

Brubeck in 2010. His most famous recording was Take Five

Pioneering jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck has died, aged 91.

The musician, whose recordings included Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk, was once designated a "living legend" by the US Library of Congress.

He died on Wednesday morning in hospital in Connecticut, his manager Russell Gloyd told the Chicago Tribune Newspaper.

The musician, who toured with the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald would have turned 92 on Thursday.

Mr Gloyd said Brubeck died of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius.

Neil Portnow from The Recording Academy called Brubeck "an iconic jazz and classical pianist" and "a great legend".

He said the musician "showed that jazz could be artistically challenging yet accessible to large audiences".

Jazz standard

Brubeck enjoyed phenomenal success with The Dave Brubeck Quartet in the 1950s and '60s, selling millions of albums.

Their 1959 album, Time Out, was significant for its use of uncommon, complex time signatures - influenced by the pianist's classical training.

The record spawned Take Five, the biggest-selling jazz single of all time - and used as the theme tune to several TV programmes throughout the years, including Channel 4's Secret Life of Machines, and NBC's Today programme.

It was, however, the one track on the album not written by Brubeck himself, having been composed by his long-time saxophonist Paul Desmond.

The song was a staple of the band's live set for the rest of their careers, with each musician leaving the stage one at a time after their respective solos, until only drummer Joe Morello was left.

Although Brubeck disbanded the quartet in 1967 to enable him to concentrate on composing, they reconvened regularly until Desmond's death in 1977.

The musician had several other touring bands over the years, and three of his five sons would regularly join him in concert in the 1970s.

Alyn Shipton, presenter of Jazz Record Requests on BBC Radio 3 paid tribute to Brubeck saying he "proved to the world that jazz could swing as effectively with five beats to the bar as with four".

He added: "It was always a joy to see him, and he was full of life and vitality even in old age."

Shipton called him "truly one of the most influential musical figures not only in jazz but in music in the 20th Century."

Cowhand

Born in California, Brubeck's mother was a keen pianist, and the musician later joked that he had been introduced to the instrument while still in the womb

.

She was his tutor in his formative years, during which time the family moved to a cattle ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

He worked alongside his father, describing himself as a "cowboy," and originally intended to become a vet, before weekend jobs playing piano in local nightclubs convinced him to study music.

A future cover star of Time Magazine, it was his teacher, the French composer Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to turn to jazz.

He went on to compose some 250 jazz pieces and songs. He also wrote music for ballet (Points of Jazz), orchestral works (Elementals), oratorios (The Light in the Wilderness) and other sacred music.

His jazz opera Cannery Row Suite premiered in Monterey , California in 2006, and he co-wrote a new orchestral work Ansel Adams: America - which saluted the celebrated artist - in 2009.

Famed for his experiments with harmonies, he is considered one of the most influential composers in modern jazz, helping to expand the horizons of the genre.

He also proved to be an influence on musicians outside the jazz sphere. Billy Joel once said that what the Beatles' seminal Sergeant Pepper album was to most other rock musicians, Take Five was to him.

In France, Brubeck was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1990. His home country gave him the National Medal of Arts in 1994, and two years later he was awarded a Grammy for lifetime achievement.

Brubeck continued to compose, play and record in his later years. His final release was the 2007 solo piano album Indian Summer.

"When you start out with goals - mine were to play polytonally and polyrhythmically - you never exhaust that," he told The Associated Press in 1995.

"I started doing that in the 1940s. It's still a challenge to discover what can be done with just those two elements."

The musician is survived by his wife, Iola; four sons and a daughter; and his grandchildren.

First published at BBC News, December 5, 2012

The rocket man wows with hits and glitz

Thursday November 15, 2012

Elton John aboard the piano at Canberra Stadium, Bruce. Photo: Melissa Adams

by Stephanie Anderson

There's nothing understated about Elton John, and his performance at Canberra Stadium on Wednesday was no exception.

Taking the stage in a sequined blue suit emblazoned with the word ''fantastic'', the 65-year-old singer took fans through a number of favourites including Benny and the Jets, Tiny Dancer and Believe.

Accompanied by his band and occasionally the crowd, Sir Elton sang and joked with the audience.

''Last time I was here, you had more rain than you had for the last 45 years,'' he said. He also spoke about playing to the 80,000 strong crowd in New York following 9/11.

''None of us who played there will ever forget it,'' he said.

Fans gathered from as far as Western Australia and Queensland to listen to the legendary musician as he celebrated the 40-year anniversary of his single Rocket Man.

Concert-goers also took the opportunity to get in costume. Among the expected 12,000 audience members were numerous fans adorned in sequined jackets, glittery glasses and multicoloured tuxedoes.

Support act Croatian cello duo Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic. Photo courtesy Loudwire

Wednesday's performance also included guest acts, including Croatian cello duo Stjepan Hauser and Luka Šulić, who kicked off with crowd-pleasing covers of Michael Jackson, Nirvana and AC/DC, later joining Elton's band for the entire concert.

The tour continues in Sydney on Thursday and Friday before heading to Launceston next week.

First published at The Canberra Times, November 15, 2012

Clive Dunn, Dad's Army actor, dies aged 92

Actor Clive Dunn, best known for his role as Lance Corporal "Jonesy" Jones in Dad's Army, has died aged 92.

He died in Portugal on Tuesday from complications following an operation.

Dunn - whose famous catchphrases included "Don't panic, don't panic" and "They don't like it up 'em" - became a recording star in 1971 when his record, Grandad, reached number one.

Frank Williams, who played the Vicar on Dad's Army, said he was always "great fun" to be around.

"Of course he was so much younger than the part he played," he told BBC Radio Four. "It's very difficult to think of him as an old man really.

Dunn's autobiography, Permission to Speak, was titled after one of Jonesy's catchphrases.
Photo courtesy news.com.au

"But he was a wonderful person to work with - great sense of humour, always fun, a great joy really."

Born in London in January 1920, Dunn studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

He made his first forays into acting in the 1930s, appearing alongside Will Hay in Boys Will Be Boys in 1935 and Good Morning Boys in 1937.

His acting career was interrupted by World War II, during which he spent four years as a German prisoner.

The actor would later say that Dad's Army, which ran from 1968 to 1977, was his revenge on his former captors.

The much-loved show featured the exploits of a Home Guard platoon formed to protect the seaside village of Walmington-on-Sea from possible German attack during World War II.

Co-star Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike, said: "You never left Clive's presence from working without a smile on your face, and so inevitably working always was fun - not necessarily hysterical, but just fun.

"A word Clive used a lot was nice, 'I've had a very nice time thank you', 'did you have a nice time?'. And he wanted everybody else to have a nice time as well."

As well as Dad's Army, Dunn also appeared in such TV shows as Bootsie and Snudge, My Old Man and Grandad.

His last screen credit came playing the Shakespearean clown Verges in a 1984 TV version of Much Ado About Nothing.

He spent his last three decades in Portugal, where he occupied himself as an artist painting portraits, landscapes and seascapes until his sight failed.

Dunn, who was awarded an OBE in 1975, spent much of his acting life playing characters older than himself.

Even at 19 he played a doddery old man in a production of JM Barrie's play Mary Rose.

Comedian Roy Hudd starred with him in pantomime Cinderella in Bournemouth, in which Dunn played the Baron.

"We had a marvellous time, he was in a world of his own Clive, he was so eccentric," remembered Hudd.

"He never really, really knew his lines terribly well, but what he said not even knowing his lines was funny. Funnier probably than the lines we ever gave him to say."

Dunn was also a regular on Michael Bentine's madcap sketch show It's a Square World.

"It was one of the things Clive was so brilliant at," added Hudd.

"He played all sorts of characters and strange things. I remember him playing a bird in a tree and he was brilliant because he spoke like a bird, he moved like a bird. He was a terrifically offbeat actor, when you got Clive you got value for money."

Dunn's agent, Peter Charlesworth, said he would be "sorely missed" and that his death was "a real loss to the acting profession".

Dunn's final interview appeared in the most recent issue of The Oldie, external magazine, which made him its cover star.

Writer Paul Bailey travelled to Dunn's cottage in Portugal in early September in order to speak to him.

He told BBC News the 92-year old was "almost completely blind and hard of hearing" but still loved "a good joke and a glass of wine".

"I asked him a fairly silly question: 'What is it like to be 92?'" he said. "He replied, 'The same as it was to be 91'."

Mr Bailey said Dunn was "very stoic" when talking about his time as a PoW during the war. "He joked about it in a very English, self-deprecating way."

Speaking to the actor in his artist's studio, Mr Bailey said Dunn's great sadness was that his failing eyesight meant he could no longer indulge in his passion for painting.

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has also paid tribute, saying he was "saddened to hear of the death of Clive Dunn, the immortal Corporal Jones from Dad's Army".

Referring to Dunn's hit song Grandad, Father Ted writer Graham Linehan: "I love that he recorded this, then lived another 41 years."

"I had assumed that because he looked 85 at 40 that Clive Dunn was immortal," remarked comedian David Baddiel on his feed.

Tony Pritchard said Dunn had attended various conventions organised with the society and was "immensely popular" with its members.

"I met him many times over the years," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire. "He was just a nice chap. He always had a joke to tell and was full of humour."

Dunn is survived by his wife Priscilla Morgan and their two daughters, Jessica and Polly.

First published at BBC News, November 8, 2012