Progressive Supranuclear Palsy illustration
Ponty Bone (October 9, 1939 – July 13, 2018) was an American accordionist who led his 1980s band, the Squeezetones, to international popularity over a twenty-year period.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Bone began studying accordion when he was five years old. Later, he also learned to play trumpet. Ponty attended Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Early in his career Bone was a member of the Joe Ely Band. By the mid-1980s, Ponty Bone had formed his own band, Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones. The group’s early style ranged through Russian gypsy dances, reggae-blues, Tex-Mex polkas and Cajun boogie. In 1987, the group made an appearance on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, as part of a “Squeezebox Special” episode, with Queen Ida and Santiago Jiménez Jr. Longtime Squeezetones bassist Wash Hamilton died in early 2008.
With his band, Ponty has shared the stage with such artists as The Clash, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, King Flaco Jiménez, Linda Ronstadt and Ronnie Lane.
Bone’s album Fantasize (on the Loud House label) has been described as drawing from Tex-Mex, rock, blues, R&B, zydeco, and Caribbean music to create a whole new style.
Bone died of progressive supranuclear palsy on 13 July 2018. He was 78.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponty_Bone
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Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP; or the Steele–Richardson–Olszewski syndrome, after the doctors who described it in 1963) is a degenerative disease involving the gradual deterioration and death of specific volumes of the brain. Males and females are affected approximately equally and there is no racial, geographical or occupational predilection. Approximately six people per 100,000 population have PSP. It has been described as a tauopathy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_supranuclear_palsy
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
July 2018
17: Bullumba Landestoy, 93, Dominican pianist and composer.
16: Jaime Guardia, 85, Peruvian charango* player, composer and musicologist.
15: Theryl DeClouet, 66, American jazz-funk singer (Galactic); Stan Lewis, 91, American record label owner (Jewel Records).
13: Ponty Bone, 78, American accordionist, progressive supranuclear palsy; K. Rani, 75, Indian playback singer.
10: Greg Bonham, 69, Australian singer, heart attack; Ye Lwin, 70, Burmese guitarist and peace activist, liver cancer.
http://www.wikipedia.com
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, which probably originated in the Quechua and Aymara populations in post-Colombian times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish during colonialization. The instrument is widespread throughout the Andean regions of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, where it is a popular musical instrument which exists in many variant forms.
About 66 cm [26 inches] long, the charango was traditionally made with the shell from the back of an armadillo (quirquincho, mulita), but also it can be made of wood, which some believe to be a better resonator. Wood is more commonly used in modern instruments. Charangos for children may also be made from calabash. Many contemporary charangos are now made with different types of wood. It typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each, but many other variations exist.
The charango was primarily played in traditional Andean music, but is more and more frequently being used by other Latin American musicians. A charango player is called a charanguista.