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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 10th, 2024, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently.
This week, the Reaper and I premiere some new changes for the show. Our Headliner, Steve Albini, becomes the first producer to make our stage. We’ll open with a track from the last surviving member of a rock group that’s being inducted to the Hall of Fame this October. We’ve got double-shots all the way down, heading Down Under for our Main Stage, then debuting our Beach Party stage in Jamaica, followed by a trip to our Festival Stage in Brazil, back home to America for the Country Bunker and Jazz Cellar, then to Italy for our other new stage, Locale Musicale.
Get ready to expand your musical horizons on this global jam session from the great beyond. Let’s kick things off with our Opening Act.
Opening Act:
[08 May 2024] Dennis Thompson, 75, American Hall of Fame drummer (MC5), complications from a heart attack.
Earlier this year we lost lead singer Wayne Kramer from the Detroit proto-punk band MC5. That makes our next artist, drummer Dennis Thompson, who died on May 8th, as the final member of the group to cross over. Thompson was still in the hospital recovering from a heart attack when he got word last month that MC5 would finally be inducted this October into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here’s MC5 with “Looking at You.”
MC5 – Looking at You
Headliner:
[07 May 2024] Steve Albini, 61, American musician (Big Black, Shellac) and record producer (In Utero), heart attack.
This week’s headliner, Steve Albini, was a post-hardcore musician with the bands Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac. But he’s best known for producing thousands of records, most notably, Nirvana’s In Utero album. And probably second-best known for his disses of the recording industry, digital music, and certain prog rock bands. I mean, he once called Steely Dan a “SNL warm-up band.” He was also a very successful professional poker player who never used drugs and alcohol. Steve Albini died of a heart attack on May 7th. Here’s his original mix of Nirvana’s “All Apologies.”
Nirvana – All Apologies (Original Steve Albini 1993 Mix)
Main Stage:
[05 May 2024] Willie Hona, 70, New Zealand Hall of Fame musician (Herbs), pancreatic cancer.
This week, our Main Stage takes us Down Under. First up, we have Willie Hona, a singer for the New Zealand band Herbs in the mid-1980s. Hona was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame in 2012. Sadly, he passed on May 5th after a battle with pancreatic cancer. This is Herbs, featuring Willie Hona on vocals, with “Slice of Heaven.”
Herbs – Slice Of Heaven
[07 May 2024] Ignatius Jones, 66–67, Australian-Filipino singer (Jimmy and the Boys, Pardon Me Boys) and journalist.
While KISS and Alice Cooper were pushing shock-rock to American audiences in the late 1970s, our next singer, Ignatius Jones, who died on May 7th, was pushing it to Australian audiences in his band, Jimmy & the Boys. With Jones as singer/contortionist and keyboardist William O’Riordan in drag as Joylene Thornbird Hairmouth, they were considered one of Australia’s most popular live acts, culminating in this 1981 top ten single, “They Won’t Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me.”
Jimmy & the Boys – They Won’t Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me
Beach Party:
[21 Apr 2024] Harold “Bobby” Davis, 77, Jamaican singer (The Sensations).
Welcome to our newest stage, The Beach Party, where we highlight the music of the islands. This week, we’re off to Jamaica, where The Sensations were a vocal group which performed backing tracks on many of the reggae hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Harold “Bobby” Davis was one of the four permanent members of the group. He left us on April 21st. Here are the Sensations, backing up Yvonne Baker on “Let Me In.”
The Sensations – Let Me In (feat. Yvonne Baker)
[20 Apr 2024] Tony Tuff, 69, Jamaican reggae singer (The African Brothers).
Born Winston Anthony Morris, our next Jamaican singer had a career as Tony Tuff, lead singer of the 70s reggae band African Brothers, before embarking on a successful solo career in the 80s. Tuff disappears in the 90s but returned in the 2000s with new music and collaborations with Jah Shaka. Tony Tuff joined the hereafter on April 20th. This is African Brothers with “Righteous Kingdom.”
African Brothers – Righteous Kingdom
Festival Stage:
[27 Apr 2024] Maria Feliciana [pt], 77, Brazilian singer.
I don’t think we’ve ever had an artist as tall as Shaquille O’Neal on our program, and I know for certain we’ve never had a 7-foot-3-inch woman perform. You’re in for a treat, as Brazil’s Maria Feliciana, who passed away on April 27th, was not only for a time the tallest living woman in the world, she was also a beloved singer and national basketball star. Here she is performing “Tudo É Só Vitória,” or “Everything is Just Victory.”
Miss Maria Feliciana – Tudo É Só Vitória
[26 Apr 2024] Anderson Leonardo [pt], 51, Brazilian singer (Molejo), cancer.
Our next Brazilian performer is Anderson Leonardo, singer for the group Molejo, who passed from cancer on April 26th. The group performs pagoda music, a form of samba, and was quite popular in the 1990s. Leonardo, however, was dogged by controversy due to accusations of rape and sexual harassment in the 2020s, which he denied. Here is Molejo performing “Cilada” or “Trap.”
Molejo – Cilada
Country Bunker:
[06 May 2024] Wayland Holyfield, 82, American songwriter (“Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me)“, “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer“, “You’re My Best Friend“).
In the Bunker on May 6th we welcomed to the hereafter Arkansas’ Wayland Holyfield, a songwriter with over 40 top forty and 14 number one hits to his credit, including Johnny Russell’s “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue-Ribbon Beer,” Don Williams’ “You’re My Best Friend,” and Anne Murray’s “Could I Have This Dance.” But I’m going to play for you a song he wrote for the Arkansas sesquicentennial and played for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, this is “Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me).”
The Country Music Crew – Arkansas (You Run Deep in Me)
[03 May 2024] Jim Mills, 57, American banjo player (Kentucky Thunder), heart attack.
Next, we have an expert on pre-World-War-II banjos who played with Ricky Skaggs’ band Kentucky Thunder for fourteen years, Jim Mills, who died on May 3rd. Mills is the GOAT of bluegrass banjo, winning player of the year six times, more than any other player. He’s also won six Grammy awards. Then he stopped performing and recording in 2010 to focus on his rare banjo business. Here is Jim Mills with Kentucky Thunder on “Wayward to Hayward.”
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder – Wayward to Hayward
Jazz Cellar:
[06 May 2024] Bill Holman, 96, American jazz composer and saxophonist.
Our oldest performer in the Reaper’s Rotation this week is American jazz saxophonist Bill Holman, who joined the gig eternal on May 6th at the age on 96. Holman won three Grammy awards during his career, worked with Stan Kenton and wrote for Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, and Count Basie. He soon became synonymous with the West Coast jazz scene of the 50s and television productions of the 60s with a list of credits far too long to recount here. Here he is with his own big band on the track “The Man I Love.”
Bill Holman – The Man I Love
[02 May 2024] John Pisano, 93, American jazz guitarist.
Next up, we have an American jazz guitarist who worked with a diverse set of artists including Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes, Ryan Adams, Peggy Lee, Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Sam Cooke, Diana Krall, Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, Joe Pass, and the Manhattan Transfer. This is John Pisano, who left us on May 2nd at the age of 93, with “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.”
John Pisano – Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye
Locale Musicale:
[08 May 2024] Giovanna Marini, 87, Italian singer-songwriter.
Buon Giorno! Welcome to our other newest stage, Locale Musicale, featuring the music of Italy. Christening the stage we have Giovanna Marini, who met her maker on May 8th. She was an ardent communist during the 1960s and sang folk music to express her political ideas. Here she is along with another protest artist of the period, Paolo Pietrangeli, with “Valle Guilia.”
Paolo Pietrangeli, Giovanna Marini – Valle Guilia
[27 Apr 2024] Louiselle, 77, Italian singer.
We close this week with the mononymously known Italian singer, Louiselle, who died on April 27th. She was born Maria Luisa Catricalà and was popular throughout the 1960s and 70s, making her debut at the Sanremo Festival 1965 a year after she was signed to RCA Italiana. Here she is performing “Andiamo a mietere il grano,” translated as “Let’s go harvest the wheat.”
Louiselle – Andiamo a mietere il grano
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 10th, 2024. Join us here next week as we chronicle the latest musicians, singers, and songwriters to join the Great Gig in the Sky. Catch up on every year of Rest in Playlist back to 2016 on Spotify and RadicalRuss.com. For Rest in Playlist, I’m “Radical” Russ Belville reminding you to seize the day, it may be your last.
