As a songwriter, Johnny Mandel is best known for the haunting love song, “The Shadow Of Your Smile.” As a composer, his movie and TV themes, including the Theme From M*A*S*H* are imprinted in the soundtracks of our lives. And as a player, he enriched performances and recordings by everyone from Count Basie to Sinatra, Streisand and Quincy Jones. Johnny Mandel—a mortal man, an immortal musician—left us in June 2020.
It was the jazz equivalent of a movie star getting discovered in a coffee shop when 19-year-old Steve Grossman caught the ear of Miles Davis at the Village Vanguard in 1969. Then a sophomore at Juilliard, Grossman was recruited to replace Wayne Shorter on tenor sax in Davis’s influential fusion band of the ‘70s. From there he became the leading light of a generation of sax players, making landmark records before relocating to Italy and becoming a legend in Europe and Latin America. His return to the States was quietly cut short by a cardiac event in August of 2020. Steve Grossman. His death at age 69 was untimely, but his life force is timeless.
In most every major city, you can find musicians just about everywhere you look…some in clubs, restaurants, theaters, schools, music stores…and others, simply “busking” on the streets – performing just for tips from appreciative passersby. In Syracuse, New York, Elijah “Eli” Harris, Jr. was a busker for many, many years. He was a fixture in the community. Everybody knew and loved him. Music was his life. Sadly, Eli’s music career ended suddenly, when he tragically died in April 2020.
At five foot three inches, Jimmy Heath was a towering figure in 20th century jazz. Nicknamed “Little Bird” for his early alto sax sound that owed a debt to Charlie Parker, he would go on to play tenor on more than a hundred landmark records. As a bandleader, he recruited a young John Coltrane. As a sideman and songwriter, he worked with Art Pepper, Gil Evans, Chet Baker and Miles Davis – leaving behind such timeless songs as “Body and Soul” and “Gingerbread Boy.” Jimmy Heath was small in stature, but he cast a long shadow when he left us in January 2020.
“Sweet Pea” Atkinson was a passionate – yet highly underrated – soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the lead singer for the band “Was (Not Was)”…a band that stirred strains of jazz, country, metal, funk and disco into a stew all its own. They had a run of hits in the 1980s, including this one, a dance club staple…”Walk The Dinosaur.” Sweet Pea once walked with dinosaurs. Now he walks with angels.
For a man who made it sound so easy, Bill Withers worked hard. After leaving the Navy as a young man, he worked in factories and driving a milk truck before a chance encounter with Lou Rawls inspired him to buy a guitar. The songs he was soon producing were instantly iconic, playing alongside Carole King, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder on every car radio and dorm room turntable throughout the 70s. By the 80s, he was discouraged by the pervasive racism of the industry and, never a seeker of the spotlight, he walked away–leaving behind a legacy of songs that will forever speak for themselves.
Name a bass player who has a gift for crafting unforgettable melodies, a genius for crisp arrangements and the soul of a storyteller. If you guessed Paul McCartney or Sting, you’d be close. Though Adam Schlesinger never achieved the household fame of those other guys, his songs belong in the same league. Most famous for “Stacy’s Mom,” recorded by his band Fountains of Wayne and for the equally catchy title song of the Tom Hanks film “That Thing You Do,” Schlesinger was also the unsung hero behind at least 3 different bands and a legendary composer for film and TV. Just 52 when COVID took him from us, Adam Schlesinger is gone too soon but his hooks will never quit.
They started as an instrumental jazz band on the New York scene in the sixties. And it was that instrumental training that gave Kool and the Gang a sound that was simultaneously tight and loose. Ronald Bell was at the heart of that sound. A self-taught player with a golden ear, he was the writer, producer and arranger behind many of the group’s timeless tunes: Jungle Boogie, Celebration, Cherish, and of course, Hollywood Swinging.
Lyle Mays was a highly accomplished pianist, composer, arranger and orchestrator. He was also co-founder of the legendary multi-Grammy Award winning Pat Metheny Group.
Wallace Roney was a lifelong student of jazz. From the age of five when he first heard Miles Davis, Roney’s path was clear. At twelve, he auditioned for Clark Terry and was soon being schooled by Dizzy Gillespie. At fifteen he sat in with Art Blakey. A few years later, Blakey hired Roney to replace Wynton Marsalis. At 23, Miles Davis gifted him a trumpet. But his true gift would always be his own. Wallace Roney—he left us too young, at 59. But his music is timeless.