Rapper Craig Mack passed away on March 12, 2018 of heart failure, at
the age of 46. He was born on May 10, 1971 in Trenton, New Jersey.
Craig began writing his own raps at
the age of 12. He started his career in 1988, under the name MC EZ, but gained
fame in 1994 with “Flava in Ya Ear,” which can be heard on television
commercials to this day. The song was nominated for best rap solo, but
unfortunately did not win.
After a couple of unsuccessful
albums, he moved on to “Christian rap” and recorded a video in this genre which
was posted on YouTube in 2016. A compilation of songs recorded by Mack between
2002 and 2006 was released in 2017, entitled “Mack World Sessions.” Neither
these endeavors nor a mixtape released in 2012 matched the success of “Flava.”
Mr. Mack is survived by a wife
and two adult children. He is known as one of the pioneers of rap, and will be
remembered fondly as such.
Superstar Dennis Edwards, formerly of the Temptations, died on
February 2, 2018, one day prior to his 75th birthday. He had
been suffering from an undisclosed illness.
Dennis began singing in his father’s
church choir in Fairfield, AL at the age of 2. The family moved to Detroit, MI
when Dennis was 10, and he eventually became choir director. As a teen, he
joined the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and his family discouraged him from listening
to and singing secular music. Nevertheless, in 1966, he was signed to Motown
and joined The Contours. In 1968, he replaced his friend David Ruffin in The
Temptations. He was on and off a part of the group through the 1980s.
Edwards sang lead on such
Temptations classics as “Cloud Nine” (1968) and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”
(1969), both of which won Grammy Awards. Edwards’s solo career included the
1984 hit “Don’t Look Any Further.” After his final departure from The
Temptations, he toured with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin, and he ultimately
joined a Temptations Review, performing old Temptations hits.
As a member of The Temptations, Edwards
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Edwards is definitely
a big part of our beloved musical history.
Garry
“Starchild” Shider, the longtime musical director of
Parliament-Funkadelic whose funky guitar work, songwriting skills, and musical
arrangements thrilled fans around the globe and earned him a spot in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, died from lung and brain cancer at age 56 on June 16,
2010. He co-wrote such songs as “One Nation Under a Groove” and “Atomic Dog.”
Due to his crossing over, an era has come to a close.
Hugh Masekela, the South
African trumpeter who became famous in the U.S. in 1968 with his rendition of “Grazing
in the Grass,” died on January 23, 2018 of prostate cancer. He was 78
years of age.
Masekela was born in South Africa on
April 4, 1939. As a child, he sang and played piano. At 14, he took up the
trumpet and eventually the cornet and flugelhorn. His music protested the South
African government and its system of apartheid. He attributed some of his
success to Miles Davis, who advised him to diversify his style of music in
order to set himself apart.
He co-founded the Jazz Epistles, the
first African jazz group to record an album. He ultimately collaborated with
world renowned musicians such as Paul Simon, Herb Alpert, Ladysmith Black
Mambazo, and Miriam Makeba, to whom he was married for a short period in the
mid-1960s.
Masekela composed “Soweto Blues” in
1977 for Makeba, to commemorate the Soweto Uprising of 1976. He composed “Bring
Him Back Home” in 1987 in honor of Nelson Mandela, to protest his continued
imprisonment. The song became an unofficial anthem.
Masekela was instrumental in the musical development for the
Broadway play, “Sarafina!” and recorded with the band Kalahari. He was featured
in the documentary film “Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony” in 2003.
He founded the Botswana
International School of Music in 1985. He was nominated for three Grammy
Awards, including a nomination for “Grazing in the Grass.”
Masekela was known as the father of African
jazz, but was also widely known as an activist and philanthropist. The world
has lost an extraordinary musician and freedom fighter.
Edwin
Hawkins of the Edwin Hawkins Singers left this life on January 15,
2018 at the age of 74. He died in Pleasanton, CA of pancreatic cancer.
Hawkins was born on August 19,
1943 in my hometown of Oakland, CA. He was a professional singer and keyboardist with his
family’s gospel choir by the age of 7. He co-founded the Northern California
State Youth Choir, which contained nearly fifty members. In 1968, the choir recorded
their first album, “Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,” on which was the international
blockbuster crossover hit “Oh Happy Day” (re-released in 1969). Hawkins was
presented a Grammy for this successful gospel / soul recording.
In addition, Hawkins was credited
with three other Grammies, consisting of 1971’s Best Soul Gospel Performance for
“Every Man Wants to Be Free”; 1978’s Best Soul Gospel Performance,
Contemporary for “Wonderful!”; and 1993’s Best Gospel Choir or Chorus
Album for Edwin Hawkins Music & Arts Seminar Mass Choir.
In 1990, Hawkins recorded a solo
project entitled “If at First You Don’t Succeed (Try Again),” which reached 89
on the R&B charts.
Hawkins was credited as the choir
master in the 1992 film, “Leap of Faith,” starring Steve Martin.
In 2007, Hawkins was inducted into
the Christian Music Hall of Fame.
Hawkins directed his gospel choir
and performed through the 1990s. He was a local star, who is still shining
brightly.
Keith Wilder of Heatwave
passed away of natural causes on October 29, 2017, at the approximate age
of 65. Keith and his brother Johnnie (of Dayton, OH), along with Rod Temperton
(England), Mario Mantese (Switzerland), Ernest Berger (Czechoslovakia), Eric
Johns (Jamaica) and Roy Carter (Britain), formed Heatwave in 1975. The group
was hugely successful until 1983, when they disbanded. They were known for
several club hits such as “The Groove Line” (1978), “Boogie Nights” (1977) and the
monstrous “Always and Forever” (1976).
Keith was singing in a band in his
native Dayton when his brother called upon him to join the Chicago Heatwave in
London. The rest, as they say, is history.
The band reconstituted in 1988 and
again in the mid-1990s, with only Keith Wilder as an original member. I guess
one could say he was drawn to the music. Keith was predeceased in death by his
brother Johnnie in 2006 and by Rod Temperton in 2016.
As much as I love music I cannot
really say I have a very favorite group, but Heatwave was certainly one of my
favorite groups in the latter half of the 1970s, definitely my favorite decade.
I and millions of other fans will love
Heatwave’s “Always and Forever” always!
Antoine
“Fats” Domino Jr., rock and roll pioneer, died at the age of 89 on
October 24, 2017, of natural causes. He was born in New Orleans, LA on February
26, 1928. His father was a well known violinist and Fats learned to play the
piano at an early age. At 19, he joined the Solid Senders, a band led by Billy
Diamond, who gave him the nickname “Fats”.
During the early years of his
career, he had at least five hit records which sold over a million copies, and ultimately
he had 35 songs on the U.S. Billboard Top 40 list. “Ain’t That a Shame” (1955)
crossed over onto the pop charts, and was covered by other artists. He in turn
covered “Blueberry Hill” (1956), which reached no. 1 on the R&B charts. It
sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Over the course of his career, he sold
more than 110 million records.
In the 1980s, Fats declared his
dislike for touring, stating that he could not get any food that he liked
anywhere else other than Louisiana. He lost everything he owned during
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and was temporarily housed in Baton Rouge and in
Harvey, LA while his home was being restored.
Fats was inducted into the Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, one of the first musicians inducted. He was
awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 1998, he was awarded the
National Medal of Arts. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him on its list
of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. January 12, 2007 was declared the
"Fats Domino Day” in New Orleans. Fats was awarded the Offbeat Magazine
Lifetime Achievement Award, also in 2007. He was inducted into the
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame. His
Medal of Arts was replaced after Katrina, as well as his lost gold records.
While visiting New Orleans in 2015,
I went to the Louisiana State Museum (formerly the Presbytère) across from
Jackson Square, wherein one of Domino’s personal pianos was housed.
In this instance, the word “legend”
doesn’t quite cover it.
