Jazz Great Dearie Dead at 82

'Stormy Weather' great broke ground for African Americans

(NEWSER) - Lena Horne, the legendary singer who broke new ground for African-Americans in Hollywood, has died at the age of 92. Best known for the song "Stormy Weather," the jazz vocalist won accolades as a cabaret and Broadway performer. Horne got her start in 1933 as a teenage chorus girl at the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem; she was such a sensation that she later became the first African-American signed to long-term Hollywood contract, the LA Times reports. More»

Jazz world mourns veteran saxophonist

(NEWSER) - Beloved jazzman James Moody has died in San Diego at the age of 85. The saxophonist, flutist, band leader, and composer had a distinguished career in jazz that began in Dizzy Gillespie's band just after World War II and lasted well into the 21st century. Moody, famed for his versatility, dexterity, and ebullient stage persona, died after a 10-month battle with pancreatic cancer, reports the San Diego Tribune. More»

His theory influenced Miles Davis, John Coltrane

(NEWSER) - Jazz innovator George Russell died at 86 yesterday in Boston of Alzheimer’s complications, the Globe reports. Russell developed a jazz theory that played a key role on landmark records like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Russell’s theory “gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things,” Davis said. More»

(NEWSER) - Grammy-winning jazz giant Freddie Hubbard died today in Sherman Oaks, Calif., a month after having a heart attack, the AP reports. He was 70. Revered among trumpet players, Hubbard collaborated with legends like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins as he established a blazing, hard-bop style that influenced a generation. "His playing is exuberant," said Wynton Marsalis, who admired Hubbard's "big sound" and "sense of rhythm and time." More»

Adventurous instrumentalist and composer Jimmy Giuffre was a '50s jazz hero

(NEWSER) - The iconoclastic clarinetist and composer Jimmy Giuffre died Thursday, two days before what would have been his 87th birthday, the New York Times reports. The Texas-born jazz legend's 50-year career took him from big-band hits with Woody Herman to minimalist trios, with a stint playing in mess halls as a GI in WWII. Giuffre's experimental, blues-infused styling made him a leading figure in the '50s "cool jazz" scene. More»