Latest music deaths

It's high time that I caught up on the musicians who have died while I have been away. The latest is Jamaican sax and trumpet player Lester Sterling at the age of 87. Lester was a founder member of the Skatalites and when the group disbanded in 1965 on the death of Don Drummond he joined Byron Lee and the Dragonaires before rejoining the Skatalites when they reformed in 1975. During the sixties he recorded several singles released in the UK on a variety of labels including Island, R & B, Doctor Bird and Unity and an album for Pama, 'Bangarang'. He continued with the Skatalites until 2014 and my photo shows him alongside bassist Lloyd Brevett at Dingwall's in 2003.

A significant death in the world of blues while I was in New Orleans was that of Chris Strachwitz, aged 91. Chris was the founder of Arhoolie records which was instrumental in recording dozens of blues and zydeco artists from 1960 onwards. His first artist was Mance Lipscomb and many others followed including Juke Boy Bonner, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Clifton Chenier. He recorded Country Joe and the Fish and in the seventies produced records by the likes of Charlie Musselwhite, Big Mama Thornton and John Delafose. He recorded many Mexican artists and later produced records by Michael Doucet and Beausoleil. For many years Arhoolie was based at Down Home Records in El Cerrito, near Berkeley, CA, which I visited in 2018.

Another blues death is that of Mississippi guitarist Bill 'Howl N Madd' Perry. Bill began singing with gospel groups in Chicago including the Clefs of Calvary and the Salem Travelers before being given the chance of singing and playing in a blues band by Little Milton. He recorded under the name Billy Easton in the sixties and appeared on Soul Train. He returned to Mississippi and formed his own band. I saw him in 2013 at the King Biscuit Festival where he played with his daughter Shy, who had recently recorded an album, and Cash McCall and also saw Bill and Cash playing on the streets of Clarksdale (pictured below)

Other recent deaths include Stu James, lead singer of the Mojos, who had a hit in 1964 with Everything's Alright.

Also guitarist Tim Bachman, who was one of the four founding members of Bachman Turner Overdrive.

A final word too for British singer/songwriter Linda Lewis. She recorded the Northern soul classic 'You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet' for Polydor in 1967 and had hits with 'Rock A Doodle Doo' and a revival of 'It's In His Kiss' in the seventies. And for Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, whose many songwriting successes included 'For Lovin' Me', 'Early Morning Rain' and 'Ribbons of Darkness'. As a singer he had a hit with 'If You Could Read My Mind' and recorded a string of successful albums in the seventies including 'Summer Side Of Life', 'Don Quixote', 'Old Dan's Records' and 'Sundown'.