January 6
Bebop lost its most exuberant voice on this date in 1993 when Dizzy Gillespie died of pancreatic cancer at 75, ending the life of the trumpeter whose puffed cheeks, bent horn, and harmonic innovations helped revolutionize jazz while his playful personality made him the music's greatest ambassador… Soul music's smoothest baritone was silenced today in 2006 when Lou Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at 72, ending the career of the vocalist whose velvet voice on "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" made him a favorite across five decades… We remember Pink Floyd's lost genius Syd Barrett on his birthday today in 1946, the troubled founder whose psychedelic vision on 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' established the band's direction before mental illness ended his involvement, his death in 2006 closing a sad chapter… British folk-rock lost its greatest voice when we remember Sandy Denny on her birthday t...
