Alex Marquess – Local Blues Harp Player – Not to be Forgotten
Our Blues Community lost a wonderful young man and young father who loved the blues. He played harmonica at many of the local jams. Alex Marquess was a wonderful young man taken all too soon.
Dan Treanor, our Dean of Colorado Blues, had these beautiful words about Alex- “The older you get, the more you realize how precious life is. A long time ago, Randall, myself and the Sultans of Cool were hosting a weekly blues jam at Oskar Blues in Lyons. One night a man appeared with a tall, shy young guy in tow. They introduced themselves and wanted to know if the young guy could get up and jam. He had just started playing the harp. I said of course and that was the night I met Alex Marquess. He was only 13 years old. Over the years Alex and his family became our friends. I watched him grow into a fine young man. Always humble, always kind. He became a very good harp player, but more importantly a very good man. We went to his wedding, the day he married beautiful Sara. We rejoiced in the birth of his daughter. Now my friend is gone. My heart goes out to his family and his friends. Alex will truly be missed. I miss him already. Life is precious, embrace it, love those around you with all your heart. In the words of a good friend….”you better love me when I’m here, you’re going to miss me when I’m gone”…. Rest easy my friend, we’ll see you on the other side.” Dan’s words echo the feelings of our entire Blues Community.
The company that Alex’s father works for – Littler Mendelson – has made a generous donation in Alex’s name to the CBS Blues In The School program, so that Alex’s talent and musical creativity will inspire other young talent in the music he loved so much.
Alex, you will always be a member of the Colorado Blues Society and never forgotten. Alex joins JD Kelley as an In Memoriam CBS Member.
http://www.coblues.org
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Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), better known by his stage name Lonnie Mack, was an American rock, blues, and country singer-guitarist. As a featured artist, his recording career spanned the period from 1963 to 1990. He remained active as a performer into the early 2000s.
Mack played a major role in transforming the hubcap guitar into a lead voice in rock music. Best known for his 1963 instrumentals, “Memphis” and “Wham!”, he has been called a rock-guitar “pioneer” and a “ground-breaker” in lead guitar soloing. In these, and several other early guitar instrumentals, “he attacked the strings with fast, aggressive single-string phrasing and a seamless rhythm style”. These tunes are said to have formed the leading edge of the virtuoso “blues rock” lead guitar genre.
According to Guitar World magazine, Mack’s early solos influenced every major rock-guitar soloist from the 1960s through the 1980s, from “Clapton to Allman to Vaughan” and “from Nugent to Bloomfield”. Guitarists who have named Mack as a major influence include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Dickie Betts, Ray Benson, Bootsy Collins and Ted Nugent.
Mack is also considered one of the finer “blue-eyed soul” singers of his era.
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In 2000, Mack appeared as a guest artist on the album Franktown Blues, by the sons of blues legend Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. He provided guitar solos on two cuts, “She’s Got The Key” and “Jammin’ For James”.
He continued to tour in both America and Europe until 2004. Over the next few years, he appeared at a handful of benefit concerts and special events. On November 15, 2008, he was a featured performer at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s thirteenth annual Music Masters Tribute Concert, soloing on “Wham!” in tribute to special guest, electric-guitar pioneer Les Paul. In 2009, it was reported that he spontaneously took the stage at his favorite Tennessee country roadhouse and “proceeded to officially tear the roof off the place” with a borrowed guitar. On June 5–6, 2010, he played at an invitation-only reunion concert with the surviving members of his original band. It was his final performance.
In 2011, he was working on a memoir and engaged in a songwriting collaboration with award-winning country and blues tunesmith Bobby Boyd. Also in 2011, he released some informally recorded compositions on his website, including the acoustic blues single “The Times Ain’t Right”.
In 2012, Guitarist Travis Wammack asked Mack to join him on a tour to be billed as “Double Mack Attack”. Mack declined, stating that he could no longer play his Flying V due to his physical limitations. Lonnie Mack died of natural causes at Centennial Medical Center in Smithville, Tennessee, on April 21, 2016.
Read his whole extensive biography here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Mack
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Billy Paul (born Paul Williams; December 1, 1934 – April 24, 2016), was a Grammy Award-winning American soul singer, known for his 1972 number-one single, “Me and Mrs. Jones”, as well as the 1973 album and single “War of the Gods” which blends his more conventional pop, soul and funk styles with electronic and psychedelic influences.
He was one of the many artists associated with the Philadelphia soul sound created by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell. Paul was identified by his diverse vocal style which ranged from mellow and soulful to low and raspy. Questlove of the Roots equated Paul to Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, calling him “one of the criminally unmentioned proprietors of socially conscious post-revolution ’60s civil rights music”.
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“Me and Mrs. Jones” and international fame
With each album, Gamble and Huff were moving closer to realizing the sound they envisioned for Paul and with the 1972 LP 360 Degrees of Billy Paul and the single “Me and Mrs. Jones” they achieved it. Both the album and song received commercial and critical recognition.
“Me and Mrs. Jones” was a No. 1 hit for the last three weeks of 1972, selling two million copies (platinum single status), and went on to win Paul a Grammy Award. The gold album and platinum single broke the artist on world charts, including the United Kingdom where the single entered the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart reaching number 12 in early 1973.[12] In the years since then, the song has been covered numerous times, most notably by the Dramatics in 1974, Freddie Jackson in 1992 and Michael Bublé in 2007. Paul recalled the Grammy win and the song’s overall success: “Oh man! I was up against Ray Charles, I was up against Curtis Mayfield, I was up against Isaac Hayes. I was in the Wilberforce University in Ohio, I had to go do a homecoming – my wife and her mother went. And when I see Ringo Starr call my name, I said Ohhh… Yeah… The most sobering thing is to have a number one record across the whole entire world in all languages. It’s a masterpiece, it’s a classic.”
The song was PIR’s first No. 1. In addition, the label was enjoying considerable success with their other artists including the O’Jays and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Paul remembered the atmosphere at the label: “It was like a family full of music. It was like music round the clock, you know.”
Read Mr. Paul’s extensive biography here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Paul
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Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016), known as Prince, was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. He was a musical innovator and known for his eclectic work, flamboyant stage presence, extravagant dress and makeup, and wide vocal range. His music integrates a wide variety of styles, including funk, rock, R&B, soul, psychedelia, and pop. He sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award for [the soundtrack for] the film Purple Rain. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year of his eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked Prince at number 27 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)
[The loss of Prince is devastating and the news has been filled with his death for days so we only offer a short note on him here. Our deepest respect and honor for the man who changed the face of music and performance forever. Prince, who was unmarried at the time of his death, is survived by one full sister and several half-siblings.]
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
April 2016
25: Mei Baojiu, 82, Chinese Peking opera artist, bronchospasm; Wolfgang Rohde (de), 66, German musician, cancer.
24: Jan Henrik Kayser (no), 83, Norwegian pianist; Billy Paul, 81, American R&B singer (“Me and Mrs. Jones”), pancreatic cancer; Papa Wemba, 66, Congolese singer, seizure.
23: Vjatšeslav Kobrin, 58, Russian guitarist and songwriter; Bill Sevesi, 92, Tongan-born New Zealand musician.
22: Ojars Grinbergs, 73, Latvian singer; Jory Prum, 41, American audio engineer and video game developer (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Brütal Legend), traffic collision.
21: Lonnie Mack, 74, American singer-guitarist (The Wham of that Memphis Man); Prince, 57, American musician (“Purple Rain”, “Little Red Corvette”) and actor, Oscar (1984) and Grammy (1984, 1986, 2004, 2007) winner.
20: Luis Katigbak, 41, Filipino writer and music critic, complications from diabetes; Attila Özdemiroglu, 73, Turkish composer, lung cancer.
19: Lord Tanamo, 81, Jamaican ska and mento musician; Richard Lyons, 57, American musician (Negativland), nodular melanoma; Pete Zorn, 65, American musician (Steeleye Span, Richard Thompson, The Albion Band), cancer.