Jacky Milliet died November 10th; he was 92. The Swiss clarinetist had albums on Evasion, Vogue, and Disques Office and as a member of The New Ragtime Band worked with Bill Coleman, Benny Waters, Mezz Mezzrow, Albert Nicholas, Claude Luter, Barney Bigard and others. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Lou Donaldson died November 9th at age 98. The alto saxophonist and 2013 NEA Jazz Master was a Blue Note mainstay, with well over two dozen albums between 1952-63 and then 1967-74, alongside stints for Argo/Cadet, Cotillion, Muse, Timeless and Milestone, alongside one-offs for several labels, plus sideman work since the early ‘50s with Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Gene Ammons and Jimmy Smith and later guest spots with Red Garland, Mose Allison and Ximo Tebar. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Jim Gaines died November 9th at 83. Among the recording engineer’s many credits were albums by Turk Murphy, Wally Rose, George Duke, Eddie Henderson, and The Neville Brothers. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Quincy Jones died November 3rd at 91 years of age. Prior to his decades as one of the most revered and influential producers in music history, the trumpeter came up in the ’50s with Lionel Hampton, Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce and Dizzy Gillespie, soon leading his own bands for dates on Prestige, ABC-Paramount, Mercury, Verve, Mainstream. RCA Victor, A&M and other labels, overseeing sessions by Billy Eckstine, Helen Merrill, Julius Watkins, Dinah Washington, Terry Gibbs, Shirley Horn, Sarah Vaughan, The Three Sounds, Roland Kirk, Louis Armstrong, George Benson, Ernie Watts, Nancy Wilson, Miles Davis, George Duke and Stanley Clarke, composing music for numerous films and television programs and having his tunes recorded by dozens of artists. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal died October 28th; he was 91. The Cuban trumpeter was a founding member of the ‘90s group Buena Vista Social Club but had credits since the ‘60s with Orquesta Cubana De Música Moderna, Emiliano Salvador, Pablo Milanés, Rolando Baró, Afro-Cuban All Stars, ¡Cubanismo! and others. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Thomas Gramuglia died October 26th at 74. The producer owned Hindsight Records, which has released restored archival recordings by Count Basie, Bunny Berigan, Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller, Buddy Morrow, Russ Morgan, Artie Shaw, Charlie Spivak, Claude Thornhill and others. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Don Heap died October 11th. The Australian bassist had credits with Don Ewell, Dick Hughes, Roger Janes, Paul Martin, Swing Street Orchestra, George Washingmachine, Tom Baker, Ian Cooper, Geoff Bull, Dan Barrett and others. – by Andrey Henkin via jazzpassing.com
Dr. Eli Newberger has passed away at 83.
Dr. Eli Newberger, a traditional jazz tubist and notable medical professional, passed away on October 24th, he was 83 years old. Pressed into playing tuba in sixth grade, by grade eight he was in a Dixieland band. After completing a degree at Julliard he entered Yale for music theory and soon was playing with the Tin Rainbow Jazz Band. He met his wife Carolyn, a Sarah Lawrence student, on a blind date. As newlyweds, they became resident directors of Yale’s International House for foreign students from 1963-66. The International Feetwarmers played in the basement, they became the nucleus of the Black Eagles Jazz Band, of which Eli would be a co-founder, first on piano, and then after they became the New Black Eagles in 1971, his tuba. He stayed with the band until 2001 as they created a distinct sound across 40 albums and countless festival appearances. He switched his major to medicine, as he told one interviewer, because “I knew that if I went into medicine, I somehow would always be able to play music.” After Yale the Newbergers spent two years in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) for the Peace Corps, with a daughter who was just five weeks old when they
