re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

Jack DeJohnette, (August 9, 1942 – October 26, 2025)the jazz drummer celebrated as one of the genre’s true greats – who worked with stars including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Charles Lloyd – has died aged 83. A press representative for ECM, the record label that released many of his recordings, confirmed the news, while his personal assistant added that he died from congestive heart failure.

Able to bring dynamic, highly musical playing to open-minded free jazz, R&B-leaning instrumental grooves and everything in between, DeJohnette is perhaps best known as the drummer in Davis’s fusion period, contributing to albums such as Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson and On the Corner. He was also celebrated as a regular sideman and bandleader on elegant, progressive fusion releases from ECM in the 1980s.

DeJohnette was born in Chicago in 1942 and played piano from the age of five or six, as he remembered, continuing the instrument alongside the drums which he picked up in his early teens. “Piano and drums are part of the percussion family,” he later said. “There’s no separation: learning one thing feeds the other.”

He started out singing doo-wop in a vocal group and playing rock’n’roll, but was gradually drawn towards jazz, and from the late 1950s had his own trio. He guested with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, fraternised with the city’s avant-garde names such as Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, and sat in for a waylaid Elvin Jones in John Coltrane’s band when they played in Chicago: “A really great, physical and spiritual experience,” DeJohnette said of the latter gig.

Time with pianist Bill Evans led him to the edge of Davis’s band at the end of the 1960s, as Davis was bringing in electric instrumentation and forging beyond the boundaries of post-bop. When drummer Tony Williams left, DeJohnette was called up. “I think playing with Miles, with Dave Holland, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter was a very exciting period,” DeJohnette said of a band that produced Bitches Brew, Big Fun and a series of acclaimed live LPs. “We always couldn’t wait to get on the bandstand to see what kind of mischief we could get into.”

Davis would have his band work up monumental grooves, starting with DeJohnette: “I’d start something and if it was OK he wouldn’t say anything and it would continue, then he’d cue each instrument in and get something going. When it would start percolating, then Miles would then play a solo over that and then let it roll, let it roll until he felt it had been exhausted.”

LINK

quote:

---

Todd Snider, a singer-songwriter who had been a leading light of the Americana music scene for three decades, captivating fans with songs like “Alright Guy,” has died at age 59, it was announced Saturday morning.

---

quote:

---

Among the many artists who championed Snider was Jimmy Buffett, who signed the singer to his Margaritaville label, with a debut album produced by Tony Brown and Mike Utley, “Songs for the Daily Planet,” coming out in 1994. The album included Snider’s first airplay success, “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” which impacted the album-rock chart.

After leaving Margaritaville and detours with Island and MCA, Snider was signed to John Prine’s label, Oh Boy Records, releasing his fourth album, the Paul Kennedy-produced “Happy to Be Here,” for the imprint in 2000. He realized what many considered his greatest success with the album “East Nashville Skyline” in 2004.

In 2006, on the heels of the album “The Devil You Know,” Snider was nominated for artist of the year at the Americana Honors & Awards.

He launched his own label, Aimless, in 2008 with the EP “Peace Queer,” which went to No. 1 on the Americana airplay chart.

Snider was known to fans of the Adult Swim animated series “Squidbillies” for his frequent appearances in season 5, including playing both Lobster Freak and himself and singing the show’s theme song in one episode.

In 2014, through De Capo, he published a memoir, “I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like: Mostly True Tall Tales.” A book about his work, “East Nashville Skyline: The Songwriting Legacy of Todd Snider,” was published by Texas A&M University Press earlier this year.

His most recent full-length album was the acclaimed “First Agnostic Church of Hope and Love,” issued in 2021. It debuted at No. 36 on Billboard’s album sales chart and was described by Rolling Stone as “a raw portrait of a world-class songwriter processing calamity and chaos in real time.”

---

Gutted... RIP Mani from the Stone Roses!


RIP

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies, aged 81



Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, has died at the age of 81.
A star since the 1960s, he helped to bring the sound of Jamaica to a global audience through hits such as Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want.
His lead role as a gun-toting rebel in the 1972 crime drama The Harder They Come is a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema, and was attributed as the movie that brought reggae to America.
Cliff's wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death via a statement on Instagram.
Blessed with a sweet, mellifluous voice, he began singing at his local church at the age of six.
He was inspired to write his own material when he heard ska pioneer Derrick Morgan on the radio - and asked his woodwork teacher how one might go about composing their own song.
“He told me, ‘You just write it!’“ he told Mojo magazine.
”So I went ahead and… wrote a song called I Need A Fiancée, another called Sob Sob and I made a guitar out of bamboo to accompany myself.”
By the time he was 14, he'd moved to Kingston and adopted the surname Cliff to express the heights he intended on reaching.
He recorded a handful of singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his own composition, Hurricane Hattie.
In 1965, he relocated to London to work with Island Records - later the home of Bob Marley - but the label's attempts to make his sound palatable to rock audiences were initially unsuccessful.
He eventually struck gold with the 1969 single Wonderful World, Beautiful People - an upbeat, feelgood anthem; and the more politically-charged Vietnam, which Bob Dylan called "the best protest song ever written".
Its lyric tells the story of a young soldier who writes from the war, promising his mother he'll be home soon; only for her to receive a telegram the next day, informing her of his death.
Cliff reflected on the song in 1986, telling reggae archivist Roger Steffens: "The essence of my music is struggle. What gives it the icing is the hope of love."
The musician became an international star with The Harder They Come, expressly written for the movie of the same name, in which he played Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica's corrupt music industry.
"The film opened the door for Jamaica," Cliff recalled. "It said, 'This is where this music comes from.'"
BBC Sounds: Witness - Jimmy Cliff on The Harder They Come
BBC 6 Music: The First Time with Jimmy Cliff
Cliff contributed four songs to the soundtrack, including the gospel hymn Many Rivers To Cross, which reflected his early days as a struggling artist in the UK.
"I was still in my teens," he later recalled. "I came full of vigour: I'm going to make it, I'm going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones."
"And it wasn't really going like that, I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling, with work, life, my identity. I couldn't find my place. Frustration fuelled the song."
Instead, the film and its soundtrack won him international acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine even named it one of their top 500 albums of all time.
During the 1980s, he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on their Dirty Work album, and he returned to the US charts in 1993 with his cover of I Can See Clearly Now, from the soundtrack for Cool Runnings, which followed the escapades of Jamaica's bobsled team.
His other recordings included the Grammy Award-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012), a nostalgic return to form.
Cliff entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, calling it "a great thrill and an honour".
Inducting him, Fugees star Wyclef Jean said he'd been inspired by Cliff's success as a young boy growing up in Haiti.
"When we saw Jimmy Cliff, we saw ourselves," he said.
Cliff continued to tour late into his life, playing Glastonbury's legends slot in 2003; and winning over a new generation of fans at the 2010 Coachella Festival.
His contributions to Jamaican music and culture were recognised in October 2003 when he was awarded the country's prestigious Order of Merit.
But the singer said his connection to fans was more important than any of the other honours bestowed upon him.
Speaking to US radio station NPR in 2012, he reflected: "When someone comes up to me and says, 'I was a dropout in school and I heard your song You Can Get It If You Really Want, and that song made me go back to school, and now I am a teacher and I use your song with my students' - that, for me, is a big success."
The musician became an international star with The Harder They Come, expressly written for the movie of the same name, in which he played Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica's corrupt music industry.
"The film opened the door for Jamaica," Cliff recalled. "It said, 'This is where this music comes from.'"
BBC Sounds: Witness - Jimmy Cliff on The Harder They Come
BBC 6 Music: The First Time with Jimmy Cliff
Cliff contributed four songs to the soundtrack, including the gospel hymn Many Rivers To Cross, which reflected his early days as a struggling artist in the UK.
"I was still in my teens," he later recalled. "I came full of vigour: I'm going to make it, I'm going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones."
"And it wasn't really going like that, I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling, with work, life, my identity. I couldn't find my place. Frustration fuelled the song."
Instead, the film and its soundtrack won him international acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine even named it one of their top 500 albums of all time.
During the 1980s, he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on their Dirty Work album, and he returned to the US charts in 1993 with his cover of I Can See Clearly Now, from the soundtrack for Cool Runnings, which followed the escapades of Jamaica's bobsled team.
His other recordings included the Grammy Award-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012), a nostalgic return to form.
Cliff entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, calling it "a great thrill and an honour".
Inducting him, Fugees star Wyclef Jean said he'd been inspired by Cliff's success as a young boy growing up in Haiti.
"When we saw Jimmy Cliff, we saw ourselves," he said.
Cliff continued to tour late into his life, playing Glastonbury's legends slot in 2003; and winning over a new generation of fans at the 2010 Coachella Festival.
His contributions to Jamaican music and culture were recognised in October 2003 when he was awarded the country's prestigious Order of Merit.
But the singer said his connection to fans was more important than any of the other honours bestowed upon him.
Speaking to US radio station NPR in 2012, he reflected: "When someone comes up to me and says, 'I was a dropout in school and I heard your song You Can Get It If You Really Want, and that song made me go back to school, and now I am a teacher and I use your song with my students' - that, for me, is a big success."
LINK

A prince and a great man has fallen.

A quiet giant in music

Sad news.

One of my music regrets was not going to see him live, solo, at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis; a basement venue with a bar in the back that holds about 300. The man could sing the hell of out of Roy or pretty much any of the greats. RIP to a great singer himself.