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Phil Brodie Band Muso Page
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2010
MEMORIALS
" Let
us remember the great talent each possessed "
Sir
John Dankworth
September 20th 1927 ~ February 6th 2010
English jazz icon, composer, saxophonist, clarinetist and
musical arranger, Johnny Dankworth, has sadly died in King Edward VII
Hospital, London after being ill for several months. At the age of 83,
he leaves behind a close and loving family including his wife jazz singer
Cleo Laine, their son jazz bassist, Alec and their daughter, jazz singer
Jacqui.
Johnny
Dankworth was born in Woodford, Essex,
playing piano and violin from an early age, but inspired by Johnny Hodges,
he took up the alto saxophone. After winning a place at the Royal Academy
of Music aged 17, and following a short stint in the Army, he was voted
British Musician of the Year in 1949. That same year he attended the
Paris Jazz Festival, where he played with the legendary Charlie Parker.
Johnny and future his wife Cleo met in 1950, while he was auditioning
for singers with his band, the Dankworth Seven. The band performed at
the Birdland jazz club in New York and shortly afterwards shared the
stage with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for a number of concerts. They
also performed at a jazz event at New York’s Lewisohn stadium where
Louis Armstrong joined them for a set. By now, Cleo Laine's singing
was a regular feature of Dankworth's recordings and public appearances
and they married in 1958. In the 1960s, he scored such films as Saturday
Night and Sunday Morning, The Servant and Modesty Blaise and wrote the
theme tunes for The Avengers and Tomorrow's World. Recordings during
this period featured many other respected jazz names. Some were full-time
members of the Dankworth band at one time or another, like Tony Coe,
Mike Gibbs, Peter King, Dudley Moore, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler,
while others such as Dave Holland, John McLaughlin, Tubby Hayes and
Dick Morrissey were occasional participants. During this active period
of recording, the Dankworth band nevertheless found time for frequent
live appearances and radio shows, including tours in Britain and Europe
with Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan and Gerry Mulligan, and concerts and
radio performances with Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald. He and wife
Cleo founded their charity, the Wavendon Allmusic Plan, in 1969. In
the 70s and 80s, Johnny was appointed CBE in 1974, he continued his
friendship with Duke Ellington until the Dukes death in 1974, after
which he recorded an album of symphonic arrangements of many Ellington
tunes featuring another Ellingtonian trumpeter Barry Lee Hall. He also
performed with the Ellington Orchestra under the direction of Duke’s
son, Mercer Ellington. In this period Johnny recorded various symphonic
albums with Dizzy Gillespie and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
to mention a few. Other jazz musicians with whom he performed include
George Shearing, Toots Thielemans, Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Hank
Jones, Tadd Dameron, Slam Stewart, and Oscar Peterson. In 1985 he founded
the London Symphony Orchestra Summer Pops In 1993 he formed the Dankworth
Generation Band, with his son Alec. Johnny was also a fellow of the
Royal Academy of Music and received the Freedom of the City of London
in 1994. He always had an enthusiasm for jazz education, for many years
running the Allmusic summer schools at The Stables in Wavendon, a theatre
created by him and his wife, Cleo, in their back garden. Johnny was
knighted in 2006 for services to music and Sir John remained an active
composer into later life, and he wrote a jazz violin concerto for soloist
Christian Garrick to play. This work had its world premier in Nottingham
on 1 March 2008 in partnership with the Nottingham Youth Orchestra.
In October last year Sir John fell ill at the end of a US tour with
his wife, Cleo Layne. The couple cancelled a number of UK concert dates
for the following month, but Sir John did return to the concert stage
at the London Jazz Festival, playing his saxophone from his wheelchair
at the Royal Festival Hall and also played at John & Cleo's Christmas
Show on the 17 December at The Stables. On the day of Sir John's death
a pre-arranged show at The Stables bravely went ahaed. The concert which
featured performances from Dame Cleo and the couple's jazz musician
children Alec and Jacqui, along with celebrities Paul O'Grady, Prunella
Scales, Maureen Lipman, Timothy West and Victoria Wood turned the concert
into a celebration of Sir John's life. Dame Cleo did not brake the sorrowful
news to the 400 strong audience until the finale.
Kate
McGarrigle
February 6th 1946
~ January 18th 2010
Canadian singer songwriter and folk
music musician Kate McGarrigle has sadly passed away at the age
of 63 after battling cancer since the summer of 2006. She leaves behind
a loving family, two sisters Jane and her life long singing partner
sister Anna,
and a son and daughter,
both fine legacies to her, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, who like their
mother, are singers.
Kate and her sister Anna were born in Montreal, but grew up in
the Laurentian Mountain village of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Quebec.
They learnt the piano from the nuns in St. Sauveur and as schoolgirls
in the Laurentians, they heard and learned French-Canadian folk songs
from listening to the radio and early pop from the records of their
older sister Jane. They were inspired too, by the harmonizing of the
Everly Brothers. In the early 60s Kate and Anna, as the McGarrigle Sisters,
sang around the local gig scene before forming the Mountain City Four
with Peter Weldon and Jack Nissenson, a group that drew on traditional
music sources ranging from British ballads to the blues and to the Canadiana
songs of Wade Hemsworth. By the early 70s Kate had also taken up songwriting
with songs such as "Cool River", "Lying Song", "Papa
Tried To Make Me Sing", "Home, Sweet Home and Aura Lee",
"Camptown Races and Susanna, Don't You Cry", "Gentle
Annie" and "When I Was a Little Thing". She would sometimes
draw of older songs, such as writing about learning Stephen Foster works,
as in The Work Song, recorded by Maria Muldaur on her self titled album
in 1973. They attracted attention and had a big break in 1974 when Linda
Ronstadt recorded their song "Heart Like a Wheel" as the title
track for one of her albums. This led to the McGarrigle Sisters, to
record their debut album 1975 "Kate and Anna McGarrigle,"
which was chosen by Melody Maker as Best Record of the Year. Other artists
who covered the pair's songs include Emmylou Harris, Billy Bragg, Kirsty
MacColl, Judy Collins and Elvis Costello. Their albums Matapedia in
1997 and The McGarrigle Hour in 1999, both won Juno Awards. Kate wrote
and recorded over 10 albums and played countless performances with her
sister, Anna, her lifelong singing partner. In 1993, Kate was made a
Member of the Order of CanadaIn and in 1999 Kate and Anna both received
Women of Originality awards and were honoured in 2006 by SOCAN with
Lifetime Achievement awards. Kate made her last public appearance six
weeks ago at a concert with her children Rufus and Martha Wainwright
at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The
show raised £33,600 ($55,000) for the Kate McGarrigle Fund, which
she set up in 2008 to raise awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that
affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves and cartilage.
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