American Rock Pioneer Lou Reed Dead at 71

Influential American rock musician Lou Reed, the widely acknowledged poet laureate of the dark, hard-edged genre known as punk rock, has died in New York.

Reed's agent said the 71-year-old performer, who had been in frail health in recent months, died Sunday outside of New York City of apparent complications from a recent liver transplant.

Known for his cold onstage persona and gaunt appearance, Reed's early compositions with his band, Velvet Underground, focused on New York City's darker themes of drug addiction, sexuality and violence.  Critics say his groundbreaking imagery rivaled that of 1960s icon Bob Dylan, radically expanding lyrical boundaries into themes never before explored in popular music.

Reed had only one commercial hit, the 1972 composition "Walk on the Wild Side."  Other songs popular among his followers included "Heroin," "Sweet Jane" and "All Tomorrow's Parties."

Reed would perform decades later at the White House during the Clinton administration. He also was the subject of a public broadcasting "American Masters" documentary and the recipient of a 1999 Grammy Award.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist Oscar Hijuelos Dies at 62

Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American novelist Oscar Hijuelos, best known as the author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, has died.

His wife said Hijuelos collapsed while playing tennis in New York. He was 62.

The New York-born Hijuelos captured the Cuban immigrant experience in The Mambo Kings -- the story of two Cuban brothers who move to the United States and form a band.

They gain short-lived celebrity after appearing on the real-life television comedy I Love Lucy, starring Cuban-born entertainer Desi Arnaz.

The 1989 novel won Hijuelos a Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was turned into a popular movie.

Hijuelos wrote several other novels and also his 2011 memoirs, Thoughts Without Cigarettes.

Vietnam Mourns General

by Marianne Brown

Streets are blocked off in central Hanoi and unrelated public events canceled this weekend as Vietnam mourns the death of one of its most celebrated war heroes, General Vo Nguyen Giap, who died on October 4 at the age of 102.

On Saturday, the country's most powerful politicians and military leaders led processions of mourners to honor a man considered one of modern Vietnam’s founding fathers.  Rows of soldiers in white uniforms stood at attention outside the the National Funeral Hall in central Hanoi, where the general’s body lies in state.

Over the course of the day, 175 delegations are expected to visit.

Earlier this week, tens of thousands of mourners stood in line for hours outside the general’s home, many carrying yellow daisies to pay their respects to the man dubbed Vietnam’s “red Napoleon” for his role in masterminding the battle of Dien Bien Phu, which ended French colonial rule in 1954.

Through tears, one elderly woman, who gave her name only as Thu, said Giap’s role in Vietnamese history was second only to President Ho Chi Minh.

Thu, volunteer during the war, said Giap was the greatest commander, very good at leading the country against the French and the Americans. She said thanks to him, Vietnam has peace today.

Another mourner, 84-year-old Nguyen Xuan Tu from Nghe An, says he spent 34 years in the army fighting for the North Vietnamese. When he heard about the general’s death he said he was so moved he could not cry.

As well as the battle of Dien Bien Phu, Giap is also credited as one of the tacticians behind the 1968 Tet Offensive and other major military campaigns against the United States.

However, some historians question how crucial his role in war against the Americans really was.

Lien-Hang Nguyen, associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky and author of the book "Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam," says it is inaccurate to say Giap led the war effort against the United States because he was sidelined politically by leaders in the Communist Party, Le Duan and Le Duc Tho, who felt threatened by his popularity.

"There was no way they could do away with him, but what they could do behind closed doors was marginalize him in the top party leadership, and silence him when he opposed them" Hang said.

After Dien Bien Phu, where thousands more Vietnamese troops died compared to their French adversaries, Giap became known as a tactician willing to sacrifice large numbers of soldiers in return for victory.  However, Hang said later in the war he did not want to spend as many lives and it was other leaders who were blind to the casualties.

In the early 1980s the general was removed from his position in the Ministry of Defense and the politburo, and effectively pushed out of political office by the 1990s.

Despite outliving his rivals, Giap never spoke out against the party.

Some observers have questioned whether the general did make a political statement in the end by choosing to be buried in his hometown in Quang Binh province, south of Hanoi. Many expected him to be buried alongside his war-time associates at Mai Dich military cemetery in Hanoi.

The National Funeral Hall will remain open to mourners until Saturday evening. On Sunday, a grand procession will escort the general's body to his hometown for burial.

World's Oldest Man Dies

The man recognized as the world's oldest man by Guinness World Records has died.

Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez died Friday at a nursing home in Grand Island, New York. He was 112 years old.

He was born in 1901 in the village of El Tejado do Bejar, Spain.

The self-taught musician moved to Cuba when he was a teenager with his brother and a group of friends where they worked in the sugarcane fields.

In 1920, Sanchez came to the United States through Ellis Island and eventually settled in New York's Niagara Falls area.

Sanchez's wife died in 1988. He is survived by a daughter, a son, seven grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, and five great great grandchildren.

Jazz Pianist Marian McPartland Dead at 95

by Eric Felten, Bernie Bernard

Marian McPartland, one of the best-known jazz artists in America, died August 20 in Port Washington, New York. She was 95. A musician who broke ground for women instrumentalists in the 1940s and ‘50s, she would later become best known as host of the long-running radio program “Piano Jazz.”

McPartland’s elegant approach to jazz gracefully spanned several major eras, from swing to bebop and beyond. Ms. McPartland brought the musical knowledge earned over decades playing in night-clubs to National Public Radio, where for more than 30 years she hosted “Piano Jazz,” a program that mixed conversation and performance with many of the world’s best musicians.

Born Margaret Marian Turner in Windsor, England, as a girl she took up piano. To her parents’ dismay, when she was 20 she left home to join a four-piano vaudeville act. On a tour playing for Allied troops during World War II she met American jazz trumpeter Jimmy McPartland. They married, and, after the war, moved to the United States. With her husband's encouragement, McPartland went on to lead her own small bands.

McPartland landed a steady job performing at a New York City jazz club, the Hickory House. She played there for eight years, and developed a reputation not only for her fine piano playing, but for her melodic original compositions. Her songs were recorded by singers such as Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Peggy Lee.

At first, McPartland was so nervous about her songwriting she wouldn't take the credit for her own tunes.

"Years ago, I felt very insecure about writing songs, and I wrote one at the Hickory House," she said. "Somebody said, 'That's a nice song,' so then it was O.K. for me to say that I had written it. Isn't that sick?"

Starting in the 1960s, McPartland traveled to schools around the United States, encouraging students to develop an appreciation for jazz. She would use popular songs to introduce young listeners to the many sounds of jazz.

"I'll probably pick a tune that they know, something they've all heard, like the theme of [television program] 'M.A.S.H.,' for instance. They all know that. Then I'll do it another way, maybe like jazz, blues or something slow.  And I'll go through a whole thumbnail history of jazz. I'll do some boogie-woogie and so on, and really kind of grab them with that. But as long as you know tunes that they know, I think that helps a lot."

McPartland took that approach to the airwaves in 1979. Her weekly show, “Piano Jazz” became one of the most popular programs on public radio, airing across the United States for over three decades. Each week she would engage noted musicians in casual, relaxed interviews. She would take turns with her guests playing songs, and then would perform duets with them. Both in its music and its conversations, McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” expressed the core jazz virtue of improvisation.

The National Endowment for the Arts recognized McPartland as a “Jazz Master” in 2000. Four years later she won a special Grammy Award for her lifetime achievement. She continued to perform and broadcast into her nineties.

George Duke, Jack Clement, Marilyn King

In Memoriam

Last week, three music legends died.

67-year-old jazz keyboardist George Duke lost his battle with lymphocytic leukemia on August 5.  Last month, Duke released his final album DreamWeaver, which he recorded as a tribute to his wife who died one year ago.  The album reached Number One on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart.

On August 8, 82-year-old “Cowboy” Jack Clement died at his Nashville home of liver cancer.  During his long career, Clement produced records for such artists as Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Charley Pride, Louis Armstrong, U2, and many others.  Earlier this year, it was announced that Clement is among the latest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The official induction for Clement, Kenny Rogers and Bobby Bare takes place on October 27. 

And, Marilyn King, the last surviving member of the King Sisters, died on August 7.  The King Sisters are credited with influencing generations of jazz vocal groups. They recorded some 150 records from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Remembering J.J. Cale

by Katherine Cole

Songwriter J.J. Cale was a guitarist who preferred to stay in the background and let others make hits of his songs, such as “After Midnight” and “Call Me The Breeze.”

Cale, 74, died on July 26 at a hospital in La Jolla, California. Cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

Cale was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He grew up in what he described as a vibrant, boom town. Oil had brought money to Tulsa, and workers from all over the world followed it. Their music came along, too.

“Tulsa is kind of in the middle of the United States and rhythm and blues and blues came out of Mississippi and kind of filtered up there and jazz coming out of the north, Kansas City was a big jazz hotbed in the ‘50s and late ‘40s, and Western swing, which is kind of a Country guy’s impression of swing music of, say, Glenn Miller and those kind of guys. So it was kind of a melting pot in there," Cale said. "Then rock & roll hit about 1956 or ’54, I guess. And I decided that was my kind of music.”

Influenced by all those different styles, Cale picked up a guitar and learned to play. After finishing high school, he performed in bands and began working as a recording engineer.  Cale was friendly with another Tulsa musician, Leon Russell, and the piano player soon convinced him to pack up his guitar and move to Los Angeles. In California, Cale continued working as a guitar player and made his first recordings, but they weren’t hits and he decided to return to Oklahoma.
       
In those days, Cale saw himself as a guitarist first and an engineer second. Songwriting wasn’t his career. In fact, he said, it wasn’t even something he put a lot of effort into. It was just something you had to do, if you were going to make an album.

In 1970, times were tough for Cale and he was about to give up music altogether. One night he turned on the radio and heard a song he had written, “After Midnight,” being sung by Eric Clapton. And suddenly, Cale was a hit songwriter.

“When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing." Cale said. "I was 34 years old at that time. I’d been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.”

Soon, Cale was in Nashville, cutting “Naturally”, his most successful solo album, and a disc that featured his hit single, “Crazy Mama.”

While he went on to record more than a dozen solo albums and one Grammy-winning duet CD with Eric Clapton, he saw himself as a songwriter first and a performer second. 

“What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs," Cale said. "And instead of running around Nashville or New York or Los Angeles, knocking on people’s doors and trying to get them to cut my songs, we thought that making records would get the songs out there farther and it really did. So, my records really didn’t sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.” 

Other artists covering Cale’s songs include Dionne Warwick, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, and The Band.

If you’re interested in hearing Cale sing his own songs, there is a newly-released boxed set containing five early albums. “The Road To Escondido,” his Grammy-winning blues duet album with Eric Clapton is another good choice. It’s a mix of originals and covers, including their take on the classic “Sporting Life Blues.”