TRANSCENDING THE BLUES:
REMEMBERING EDDIE KIRKLAND
Detroit blues legend EDDIE KIRKLAND, 87, who played with the likes of John Lee Hooker and Otis Redding and had a productive solo career in his own right, was killed in an automobile accident On February 27 while doing what he did since the 1940s--‘touring the country and playing the blues.’

BUDDY JONES: THE ‘TULSA SOUND’ LOSES A PIONEER
Since the legendary Cain’s Ballroom opened in 1924, Tulsa, OK, has had a thriving local music scene. Bob Wills, who helped put Cain’s on the music map as a regular between 1935 and 1942, came back to call Tulsa home beginning in 1957. What he found then was a thriving rock ‘n’ roll scene. The Heartbreakers, with Roy Buchanan; the David Gates Band with David Gates and Leon Russell; the Starlighters, with Leon Russell and J.J. Cale, were among the groups that spawned musicians who made an impact on rock ‘n’ roll at large in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. One person who saw this history unfold before him as he drummed for many of the Tulsa bands was HARRELL C. ‘BUDDY’ JONES, who died at age 70 on February 20. Jones later became part of Leon Russell’s management and promotion team, and also co-wrote songs for and produced the Gap Band’s (founded by Tulsa’s Wilson brothers) debut album. Also, we note with sadness the passing of MARY JANE ELDREDGE, mother of The Grascals’ Terry Eldredge.

‘AS FAR AS PIANISTS GO, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ONLY ONE GEORGE SHEARING’
By David McGee
The great jazz pianist GEORGE SHEARING died of congestive heart failure on February 14, at age 91. Herewith a look back at a storied career that produced timeless music. The master himself referred to his sound as ‘doubly derivative,’ owing to its roots in the Glenn Miller sax section and from the block-chord style of Lionel Hampton’s pianist Milt Buckner. Sure sounds sweet to us.

‘THE SIMPLICITY OF A PERFECT THEME’
Remembering John Barry
Born Free. The Lion in Winter. Out of Africa. Dances With Wolves. Twelve of 15 James Bond films, including Goldfinger. Mary, Queen of Scots. Chaplin. Midnight Cowboy. The Cotton Club. Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. Robin and Marian. What all these movies, and many more, had in common was music by JOHN BARRY, a giant of film composing who won five Academy Awards for his work (two for Born Free, one each for The Lion In Winter, Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves), four Grammy Awards, and in many estimations revolutionized film music through his deep understanding of contemporary as well as classical music and finding common ground between the two in his scores. Felled by a heart attack at his Long Island home on January 30, Mr. Barry, through his towering film music, remains ever present. An appreciation.

‘WITH ALL OF IT I TRIED TO KEEP SMILING’
A Tribute to Betty Garrett
BETTY GARRETT, who died on February 12 at age 91, was a vivacious Broadway star best known for playing Frank Sinatra's sweetheart in On The Town (1949), in which she engaged Sinatra in two of the most entertaining duets he ever performed, before her career was capsized by the Hollywood blacklist controversy of the early 1950s. She rose above that to continue doing good work on the stage and on television (where a whole new generation embraced her in her role as Edna Babish De Fazion, the singing-and-dancing, five-time divorcee landlady on Laverne & Shirley), and as a teacher of musical comedy at Theatre West, the non-profit theatre she helped found in North Hollywood in 1960. A tribute to her remarkable life--and oh, those moments with Sinatra.

'The Two And Only Jane Russell'

Buxom, beautiful and talented, silver screen legend JANE RUSSELL died at her home in Santa Monica, CA, of a respiratory-related illness on February 28. She was 89. If ever a woman was at risk of being reduced to her body parts, it was Russell, who was initially subject to a level of objectification as relentless as it was breathtaking. But Russell rose above it all, surviving Howard Hughes, film censors, haughty critics--even a judge who agreed with the censors after Russell’s first film, The Outlaw, was pulled from theaters, saying her breasts ‘hung over the picture like a thunderstorm over a landscape. They were everywhere.’--to win both public and critical acclaim for her film roles opposite Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe and Bob Hope, among others. Offscreen she became a tireless advocate for adoption, helping spur the lobbying effort for the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act. A look back at a most remarkable life.

'JERRY! HELLOOOOO!
Saying Goodbye to ‘Uncle Leo’ Len Lesser

As Uncle Leo, one of television comedy’s most memorable characters, as seen on Seinfeld, LEN LESSER became everyone’s favorite overbearing but completely lovable Jewish uncle. Seinfeld marked the high point of the gifted character actor’s remarkable 60-year (which included a terrific bad man’s part with Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales), but Lesser’s own favorite role was as an acting coach at the Canterbury Avenue Elementary School in a low-income San Fernando Valley neighborhood in ALenrleta, CA.

‘I see him rounding the bases. I see him smiling. I feel the joy of his sweet, happy soul.’
Remembering Duke Snider, The Duke of Flatbush
It seems impossible that it could have been, but it was. Once upon a time, a city supported three Major League Baseball franchises in three of its five boroughs, and each of those teams boasted a centerfielder of legendary stature. One of those, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ DUKE SNIDER, passed away on February 27, a death that affected New York like no other, including Mickey Mantle’s. In a New York Times piece, Snider’s teammate Ralph Branca noted: ‘On a team of extraordinary individuals, Duke stood out. He had intelligence, integrity and wit. He played hard, and superbly, day in and day out. His long career is a model of athletic excellence.’