Raeburn Flerlage Dies

 Raeburn Flerlage, who took many of the most famous pictures of artists including
Memphis Slim, Big Joe Williams, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and
hundreds more, died September 29th. He had become involved with music in the late '30s, when he began writing a music column that covered classical music, folk, jazz, and blues, and after the war he worked as a field secretary for People's Songs. Through that organization he met Folkways' Moses Asch, who brought him into record distribution, and then later took him from a burgeoning photographic career in fashion over to blues and folk. Over the course of the '60s Ray's work appeared on many numerous record covers for many labels, as well as in the pages of magazines including Ebony, Sing Out, and Downbeat. He worked closely with Pete Welding on many assignments, helping to interview artists. Although many of the portraits he took are iconic, his favorite work was in the black clubs, and particularly audience shots. His work enjoyed renewed attention in the last decade culminating with the blues photography book "Chicago Blues As Seen from the Inside: the Photographs of Raeburn Flerlage," published by ECW Press in 2000.

Alan Lomax Dies

 Folklorist Alan Lomax died July 19, 2002. He was 87. The son of noted folklorist John Lomax, Alan continued his father's work, recording and collecting blues and folk songs for the Library of Congress and helping to preserve America's rich musical heritage. When he was in his teens, Alan accompanied his father on field trips in the South. He eventually became an assistant archivist at the Library of Congress, but Alan's best work was done in the field. In 1938 he produced a series of recordings with jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton that remains one of the genre's most valuable recorded documents. A book, "Mister Jelly Roll", resulted from the project. Three years later, while searching for blues singer Robert Johnson (unbeknownst to Lomax, Johnson had died in 1938), Lomax and fellow folklorist John Work discovered and recorded bluesman Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress. Lomax went back and recorded Waters in 1942. These were Water's very first recordings. Lomax's interest in recording and documenting folk music spread beyond the United States. He did fieldwork in the Caribbean, the British Isles, and Europe and produced volumes of foreign folk music for such labels as Decca, Columbia, and Caedmon in the 1950s and 1960s. With the advent of the folk and blues revivals in the U.S. in the early '60s, Lomax got involved in producing concerts and working with folk festival organizers, along with penning The Penguin Book of American Folksongs in 1961 and Folk Song Style and Culture in 1968. Lomax also worked in radio and wrote extensively on fieldwork and folk music for journals and folk magazines, staying actively involved in the preservation of American folk music through the 1980s. In the late 1980s, Lomax produced a critically hailed documentary series called "American Patchwork", which dealt with various forms of American music. One film in the series, "The Land Where the Blues Began", dealt with how field hollers and work songs led to the origins of the blues in the Mississippi Delta. In 1993 Lomax published a blues memoir by the same name which won a National Book Award. Throughout the 90s and into the twenty-first century, Rounder records steadily worked toward reissuing a 100-CD series showcasing Lomax' most legendary field recordings.

Rosco Gordon Dies

  Rhythm 'n' Blues pioneer Rosco Gordon was found dead of natural causes at his Queens, New York, residence on July 11, 2002. A native of Memphis, born April 10, 1928, Gordon skyrocketed to fame in the early fifties with a string of hits for the Chess, RPM and Duke labels, including originals like "Booted" and "No More Doggin'." At the radio powerhouse WDIA, where Rosco played piano and sang on his popular weekly show, he made additional recordings with friends Johnny Ace, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Earl Forest, and when Sam Phillips created the Sun Records label in the mid-fifties, Rosco returned to work with his favorite producer and continued to release brisk selling singles for the growing radio market throughout that decade. In 1960 Rosco penned "Just a Little Bit," a song which has become one of a handful of standards from the R&B era. In the 80's Gordon renewed his live performance career in the New York area, while writing and recording new material at home. He released "Memphis, Tennessee," in November, 2000, on the Stony Plain label. As a result of the attention garnered by the album, Rosco was nominated for a Handy Award as "Comeback Artist of the Year."

Jimmie Lee Robinson Dies

 Jimmie Lee Robinson died Saturday, July 6th in Chicago. A Chicago native, he began playing guitar on Maxwell Street in the mid 1940s. By the late '40s he was good enough to have played behind legends Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy, among others. In the mid 1950s he was playing on local gigs with Elmore James when Little Walter recruited him into his band, where he spent the next few years.  He recorded on a couple of sessions for Chess with Little Walter, and also moonlighted with his friend Eddie Taylor on the Vee Jay label. In the late '50s Jimmie left Walter's band and joined up with Magic Sam for a while, and around this time cut a few singles of his own for the local Bandera label. In the '60s he played and or recorded with Willie Mabon, Sunnyland Slim, and Howlin' Wolf among many others, and made it over to Europe as part of the 1965 American Folk Blues Festival.  During the '70s he played part time, often with his friend Little Willie Anderson, made it over to Europe for a few more tours, and recorded sporadically, but by the '80s had almost completely abandoned his music. In 1994 he recorded "Lonely Traveller", his first full-length album for Delmark and in 2001 cut his last record, "All My Life", for APO. Over the last decade he stayed busy doing festivals and short tours, including numerous trips overseas and was very active in the fight to preserve the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood.

Long Lost Paramount 78 Discovered

 A long lost Paramount 78 by King Solomon Hill has recently been discovered in Port Washington, Wisconsin the one time headquarters of the Paramount label. The record, "Times Done Got Hard", was one of the last records ever recorded at Paramount. The record was purchased by noted record collector John Tefteller. Click here for the complete story.

Dorothy Love Coates Dies

 Dorothy Love Coates died April 11th at age 74 in her hometown of Birmingham, a nearly forgotten superstar of gospel music's golden era. Mrs. Coates wrote and recorded more than 300 songs such as "Get Away Jordan" and "That's Enough," many later recorded by other stars such as Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson and the Blackwood Brothers. She joined the church at 10 and started her own group, the Royal Gospel Singers, in her early teens. In 1947, she joined the Original Gospel Harmonettes, another Birmingham group, and became their lead singer and songwriter. Until recent years, Mrs. Coates performed with her own group of backup singers, which she had done since the Harmonettes disbanded in 1977.

Big Bad Smitty Dies

 Bluesman Big Bad Smitty (John Henry Smith) died in Jackson, Mississippi, on
April 3. He was in the hospital for treatment of complications of diabetes. Big Bad Smitty was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on February 11, 1940. In his teens he often played in Greenville with Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, and in 1966 he moved to St. Louis for the first time, and came to be associated with that city's blues scene, playing with the city's leading musicians. He made his first recordings for Johnny Vincent in Jackson in the '70s, and in the late '70s JC & E records released the album "St. Louis On A High Hill". In 1991 the Dutch label Black Magic released his critically acclaimed "Mean Disposition," and in 1997 HMG released the CD "Cold Blood". Find out more about Big Bad Smitty at: www.bluesworld.com/Smitty.html

Frank Edwards Dies

 Atlanta's senior statesman of the blues, Frank Edwards, passed away March 22nd. He was 93. Edwards was in Greenville, SC working all day in a recording session when he suffered a heart attack. Edwards had just celebrated his 93rd birthday two days before. He was born in Washington, GA and had lived in Atlanta about 65 years. He made his first recordings in 1941 cutting four sides for Okeh and two sides for Regal in 1949. In 1972 he cut "Done Some Travelin'", his only full length record, for the Trix label. He drove himself to Atlanta clubs the Northside Tavern and Blind Willie's almost every day to listen to performances and hold court. He performed occasionally all the way up to the end. Find out more about Frank Edwards at: mrfrankedwards.com