Dr. John in concert
From Heaven’s Guest Book on Fb, 6/09/19: Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., better known by his stage name Dr. John, died on Thursday (June 6). He was 77 years old.
New Orleans’ Grammy winning soul singer Irma Thomas remembers Dr. John for his New Orleans-style wit. “He had his own vocabulary,” she said “and it just rolled out. You had to be a New Orleanian to know what he was talking about.”
You cannot separate Dr. John from New Orleans. He’s like Louis Armstrong. He’s like a cultural ambassador,” music writer Michael Hurtt told the Associated Press in 2005. “He’s basically packaged this culture he came out of with a lot of nuances that are pretty subtle.”
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Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths…
June 2019
11: Enrico Nascimbeni, 59, Italian singer, journalist and poet, heart attack; Velvel Pasternak, 85, Canadian-born American musicologist.
10: Chuck Glaser*, 83, American country singer (Tompall & the Glaser Brothers); Ib Nørholm, 88, Danish composer and organist; Sven-David Sandström, 76, Swedish composer (Jeppe: The Cruel Comedy), cancer; Paul Sinegal, 75, American zydeco and blues guitarist and singer; Yang Yang, 44, Chinese tenor, suicide by jumping.
* Tompall & the Glaser Brothers was an American country music group composed of three brothers: Chuck Glaser (February 27, 1936 – June 10, 2019), Jim (December 16, 1937 – April 6, 2019), and Tompall Glaser (September 3, 1933 – August 13, 2013). The Glaser Brothers started singing together at country fairs and contests in and around the Spalding area when they were preteens. In 1957 the group got their big break when they appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Show and attracted the attention of several well known country stars, including Marty Robbins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompall_&_the_Glaser_Brothers
9: Bushwick Bill, 52, Jamaican-American rapper (Geto Boys), pancreatic cancer.
8: Spencer Bohren, 69, American roots guitarist, prostate cancer; Andre Matos, 47, Brazilian singer (Viper, Angra, Shaman), heart attack; Tre Da Kid, 32, American rapper, shot. (I’m really sick of putting rappers who have been shot to death in our newsletter. Please STOP, people).
7: Zhanneta Metallidi, 85, Russian composer and music educator; Serguei, 85, Brazilian rock singer-songwriter, multiple organ failure.
6: Dr. John, 77, American Hall of Fame singer-songwriter (“I Walk on Guilded Splinters”, “Right Place, Wrong Time”), heart attack.
4: Roger Covell, 88, Australian musicologist, critic and author; Mikey Dees, American rock musician (Fitz of Depression).