Monday, December 24, 2007



Jazz great, Oscar Peterson has died. His early talent and speedy fingers made him one of the world's best known jazz pianists, He died December 23, 2007 at age 82.
His death was confirmed by Neweduk Funeral Home in Mississauga, the Toronto suburb where he lived. He reportedly died of kidney failure. The exact time of death is not known. The hospital and police refused to comment. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported that he died on Sunday, 23 December.


During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio, The Oscar Peterson Trio, with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s.

Peterson's impressive collection of awards include all of Canada's highest honors, such as the Order of Canada, as well as a Lifetime Grammy (1997) and a spot in the International Jazz Hall of Fame.


His growing stature was reflected in the admiration of his peers. Duke Ellington referred to him as "Maharajah of the keyboard," while Count Basie once said "Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard."

In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said "one of the bright lights of jazz has gone out."

"He was a regular on the French stage, where the public adored his luminous style," Sarkozy said. "It is a great loss for us."

Jazz pianist Marian McPartland called Peterson "the finest technician that I have seen."

McPartland said she first met Peterson when she and her husband, jazz cornetist Jimmy McPartland, opened for him at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto in the 1940s.

"From that point on we became such goods friends, and he was always wonderful to me and I have always felt very close to him," she said. "I played at his tribute concert at Carnegie Hall earlier this year and performed 'Tenderly,' which was always my favorite piece of his."

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born in the poor St. Antoine district of Montreal on Aug. 15, 1925, one of five children of Daniel Peterson, a West Indian immigrant, and the former Olivia John, whom Daniel had met in Montreal. Daniel Peterson, who worked as a sleeping-car porter on the Canadian Pacific Railway, had taught himself how to play the organ before he landed in Halifax, N.S., in 1917. Mr. Peterson’s mother, who also had roots in the Caribbean, encouraged Oscar to study music.


Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in a poor neighborhood southwest of Montreal, Peterson obtained a passion for music from his father. Daniel Peterson, a railway porter and self-taught musician, bestowed his love of music to his five children, offering them a means to escape from poverty.

Oscar Peterson learned to play trumpet and piano at a young age, but after a bout with tuberculosis had to concentrate on the latter.

He became a teen sensation in his native Canada, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But he got his real break as a surprise guest at Carnegie Hall in 1949, after which he began touring the United States and Europe.

He quickly made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso, often compared to piano great Art Tatum, his childhood idol, for his speed and technical skill.

He was also influenced by Nat King Cole, whose Nat King Cole Trio album he considered "a complete musical thesaurus for any aspiring Jazz pianist."

Peterson never stopped calling Canada home despite his growing international reputation. But at times he felt slighted here, where he was occasionally mistaken for a football player, standing at 6 foot 3 and more than 250 pounds.



In 2005 he became the first living person other than a reigning monarch to obtain a commemorative stamp in Canada, where he is jazz royalty, with streets, squares, concert halls and schools named after him.

Peterson suffered a stroke in 1993 that weakened his left hand, but not his passion or drive for music. Within a year he was back on tour, recording "Side By Side" with Itzhak Perlman.

As he grew older, Peterson kept playing and touring, despite worsening arthritis and difficulties walking.

"A jazz player is an instant composer," Peterson once said in a CBC interview, while conceding jazz did not have the mass appeal of other musical genres. "You have to think about it, it's an intellectual form," he said.




(Oscar Peterson, Ella Fiztgerald, Roy Eldridge, and Max Roach)In an undated photo, Oscar shines among the stars of Jazz.

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Friday, December 21, 2007


Rest In Piece Ike Turner. Jesus Loves You.
Ike Turner was remembered in a Home Going Musical Service in Gardena, California on 21 December 2007. Ike's funeral was part memorial service, part rock concert. The nearly three-hour remembrance at Greater Bethany Community Church City of Refuge in Gardena featured Turner's eight-piece band, the Kings of Rhythm, which performed rollicking renditions of some of the musician's greatest hits, including "Nutbush City Limits" and "Proud Mary." The songs brought the crowd of hundreds to its feet.

"Daddy wouldn't want any of us crying," said Turner's daughter, Mia Turner. "He would want us to throw a party."

Among those eulogizing Turner, who died Dec. 13 at age 76, were music producer Phil Spector and rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard, who described his friend as "one of the greatest musicians I have ever met in my life."

Little Richard said that Turner's breakthrough rock 'n' roll hit, "Rocket 88," "shook my soul."

"I took that same introduction and made `Good Golly, Miss Molly,'" he said. "I took that same thing and made a huge hit."

Ike Turner was responsible for a string of hits throughout his career, including 1959's "A Fool in Love" and 1970's "Take You Higher," but his musical legacy was forever tarnished by his image as the drug-addicted, brutally abusive former husband of Tina Turner, who did not attend Friday's funeral. When Ike Turner died, a spokeswoman for Tina said she hadn't had contact with him in 35 years and would not comment.

Ike Turner knew that his personal problems threatened to overshadow his musical accomplishments, said Rob Johnson, producer of Turner's Grammy-winning 2001 album "Here and Now."

"He understood, as a very sensitive artist, the challenge that would be involved in stepping up and moving forward and reinitiating the contribution of his genius, of his music, and giving that gift that God gave him back to society," he said. "How much courage that took for him. It could have been real simple to sit under a rock and let life go by, but he didn't accept that."

Many speakers alluded to Turner's personal woes, though none directly addressed his history of drug and domestic abuse.

"Stop holding this mess — whatever it is — against this man. Even Jesus forgives," said Little Richard, 75, who was once a minister in the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Ike Turner's Widow Begs Tina Turner To Forgive him.: "He Was A Human Being"
The widow of late star Ike Turner has begged his first wife Tina to forgive him - because he "helped" her during their marriage. Rocker Ike died at his San Marcos, California home, aged 76, but Tina refused to pay tribute to the star. But Ike's widow Jeanette Turner hopes Tina can now forgive her former partner, who she brands "a good human being".

She says, "I know that she was hurt. But there's something called forgiveness and I know Ike really forgave himself, which is really hard to do.

"I'm not defending what he did. I'm not saying he didn't do what he did when he was with Tina or me. But he was a human being. And being all of that, he's still a child-like person - pure and a good person always willing to help people.

"He was a human being and he helped Tina... he helped a lot of people.




Phil Spector, who produced Turner's song "River Deep, Mountain High," said, "There was only one Ike, and I learned more from Ike than any professors I know."

He went on to say that Turner was "demonized and vilified" by his ex-wife, Tina Turner. He called the 1993 film "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on her autobiography, a "piece of trash movie," inspiring applause from some mourners.

"Ike made Tina the jewel she was," said Phil Spector, who stood trial for murder earlier this year for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. A judge declared a mistrial in September after jurors failed to reach a verdict.

Spector also accused Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg of "demonizing" Turner on their talk shows.
Of Turner's 17 months in jail for a drug conviction in 1989, Spector said, "He was sent to prison for no other reason than he was a Black man in America."
Each speech was punctuated with performances by Turner's band, the crowd rising to its feet again and again to sing and dance along.

Concert promoter Charlie Dutton, Turner's friend and colleague for 40 years, called him "the most talented musical person to ever live on earth.""He doesn't get his just dues for what he really did," Dutton said.

Other speakers included Ike Turner Jr., who brought his father's two Grammy Awards on stage.

"He made billions and billions and billions of people happy," he said. "He had the best life."

The service began with a photo montage from throughout Turner's life set to his song "Jesus Loves Me," which features the refrain "I'm a bad boy, but Jesus loves me anyway."



The service concluded with scores of mourners gathering near Turner's casket, which sat beneath a guitar-shaped wreath made of white flowers.

A 10-piece horn-and-drum ensemble played as mourners left the church.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007



Who was the real Ike Turner? It was not the drug crazed wife beater that some Hollywood scriptwriter dreamed up. It is truly unfortunate that several generations of movie goers have accepted the Hollywood version as the real Ike Turner. Hollywood movies are not made to educate but only to entertain and to make money. The film “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” starring Lawrence Fishburn is about as accurate a portrayal of the real life Ike Turner as Fat Albert is of Bill Cosby. I do not condone, downplay or ignore abusive behavior but it would be a shame to allow the media to diminish the tremendous contributions that Ike Turner made to music history. His achievements have been tremendously overshadowed by a few negative incidents in a life of otherwise great accomplishments.

I like Ike. Ike Turner, that is. I loved Ike. Ike Turner one of rock's critical architects died Wednesday, 12 December 2007 at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.



Born Ike Wister Turner (Nov 5, 1931-Dec 12, 2007) he was an American musician, bandleader, talent scout and record producer, best known for his work with his former wife Tina Turner as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo. Spanning a career that lasted half a century, Ike's repertoire included blues, soul, rock and funk. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2001 was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.



Many sources state Turner's real name to be "Izear Luster Turner, Jr." however, in his autobiography Takin' Back My Name, it is stated as "Ike Wister Turner." In the book, Turner explains about this confusion. His father, Izear Luster Turner, was a minister for the local church. Turner had thought he was named Izear Luster Turner, Jr. after his father, until he found out that his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner while applying for his first passport. Turner died at 76 years old at his home in San Marcos, California, near San Diego.
Chief Investigator at the Medical Examiner's Office in San Diego rules Ike Turner's death was "accidental".
The cause of death for Mr. Turner was hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema with other contributing factors, such as, cocaine toxicity , Paul Parker, the chief investigator at the medical examiner's office, said in a statement 16 January.

Parker concluded that Turner's death would be ruled accidental, although an official announcement has not been made.


He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi , to Beatrice Cushenberry and Izear Luster Turner. Ike got his first taste of pleasing an audience at the age of eight working at the local Clarksdale radio station, WROX, located in the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. A man in charge of the station put Turner to work as he watched the record turntables.


He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for "Risin' With the Blues."

Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar. His music career began in earnest in the late-1940s where he formed a group whom he christened The Kings of Rhythm. In 1951, the band recorded what historians have debated as "the first rock and roll record" with "Rocket 88", listed on the charts as Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats. Brenston was both the band's saxophonist and the leading vocalist of the song and Turner was the original writer though credits initially stated that Brenston had written it also. The song was one of the first examples of guitar distortion, which happened by accident when one of the amplifiers dropped before the recording.



Ike and the Kings of Rhythm settled into local fame in St. Louis where the band locally recorded for a St. Louis label and even appeared on local television shows. Throughout this early period, Turner became a recording scout and A&R man for independent record companies including Sun Records - where "Rocket 88" was recorded at, helping the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and Otis Rush get signed. He also became a sideman playing guitar for these blues acts and more. Musically, Turner was known for his hard-hitting guitar style. He was known to put the whammy bar of his Fender Stratocaster to frequent use.

Turner met the 18-year-old Anna Mae Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced woman the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Her stage persona was highlighted by short skirts and stiletto heels that made her legs her most visible asset. But despite the glamorous image, she still sang with the grit and fervor of a rock singer with a twist of soul.
The pair would have two sons. They also produced a string of hits. The first, "A Fool In Love," was a top R&B song in 1959, and others followed, including "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Over the years they're genre-defying sound would make them favorites on the rock 'n' roll scene, as they opened for acts like the Rolling Stones.

The densely layered hit "River Deep, Mountain High" was one of producer Phil Spector's proudest creations. A rousing version of "Proud Mary," a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group.

Accolades for his early and later work continues to come in, and Turner managed to garner a comfortable income as his songs were sampled by a variety of rap acts.
"You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem, you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody — anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn't been in print about what I've done or what I've contributed until now," Turner said.

Mr. John Q. Public can be forgiven for thinking that Ike Turner was a wife-beating drug dealer who made his name riding on the skirt-tails of Tina Turner. That is totally wrong. He was there at the birth of Rock'n'Roll and was playing with his whammy when Hendrix was still with his mammy.
As a youngster Ike had soaked up the delta blues and while still in his teens formed the Kings of Rhythm with Jackie Brenston and Raymond Hill and worked with Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williamson II. On March 5, 1951, he helped make history at the Sun studios in Memphis when the Kings of Rhythm recorded what many consider to be the first ever Rock'n'Roll record, Rocket 88. Ike led the band and played some sparkling piano, letting Jackie Brenston take the vocals and the plaudits.
For the rest of the decade Ike worked as arranger/talent scout/guitarist etc. for a myriad of labels. Clients who benefited include Billy "The Kid" Emerson, Howlin' Wolf (Ike plays piano on How Many More Years), Billy Gayles (Just One More Time - superb) and virtually anyone who ventured out of northern Mississippi. His importance can't be overlooked. If in doubt, have a quick listen to his guitar on Johnny O'Neal's Ugly Woman cut in the summer of '53 but unreleased at the time - the only reason being that the hot summer sun must have played some tricks on ole' Sam's head.


In 1954 he relocated to St Louis and assumed the same role he'd had in Memphis. In 1959 he met Anna Mae Bullock and a new chapter in his life began. She became his wife and Tina Turner and their work together as Ike & Tina Turner saw them sky-rocket to new heights with hot and raunchy R&B. Since their divorce Ike has been pretty much cast aside by the industry, but had recently shown signs of finding some of the old magic. He had been active on stage and in the recording studio, and just as importantly, his contribution to rock music is starting to be appreciated.
Chief Investigator at the Medical Examiner's Office in San Diego rules Ike Turner's death was "accidental".
The cause of death for Mr. Turner was hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema with other contributing factors, such as, cocaine toxicity , Paul Parker, the chief investigator at the medical examiner's office, said in a statement 16 January.

Parker concluded that Turner's death would be ruled accidental, although an official announcement has not been made.

I will always like Ike.

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