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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, September 29th, 2023, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. The Reaper took it a bit easy this week, so we’ve got artists from the entire month of September to catch up on, including singers from Austria, Israel, and Cuba, a bassist, a trumpeter, and a flautist from the USA, and musicians from Australia and Austin, Texas. You’ll also hear from our headliner, the lead vocalist from the 60s group The Association. 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:
[22 Sep 2023] Mike Henderson, 70, American singer-songwriter (“Broken Halos”, “Starting Over”) and musician (The SteelDrivers).
Our Opening act is an American singer-songwriter who played in The Bel Airs, The Roosters, and The Kingsnakes; wrote hits for The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Chicks, and Trisha Yearwood; and recorded five solo albums before co-founding The SteelDrivers in 2008. His name is Mike Henderson, and he left for the great beyond on September 22nd at the age of 70. This is The SteelDrivers with “Where Rainbows Never Die.”
The SteelDrivers – Where Rainbows Never Die
Headliner:
[23 Sep 2023] Terry Kirkman, 83, American musician (The Association) and songwriter (“Cherish”, “Everything That Touches You”), heart failure.
Our Headliner this week is Terry Kirkman, age 83, who joined the everlasting jam session on September 23rd. Kirkman is a member of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame for his singing lead with the 60s pop group The Association, which rose to fame on the hit single, “Along Comes Mary.” But Kirkman also wrote many of the group’s tunes, including this huge hit called “Cherish.”
The Association – Cherish (Album Version)
Main Stage:
[15 Sep 2023] Paul Woseen, 56, Australian musician (The Screaming Jets) and songwriter (“Helping Hand”).
On our Main Stage this week we head Down Under for an Australian band called The Screaming Jets, which had their greatest chart impact in the early 1990s. Paul Woseen was the bass player who joined the group Sudden Impact in 1988, which became The Screaming Jets in 1989. Woseen passed on September 15th and was just 56 years old. Here is The Screaming Jets with a track Woseen wrote called “Helping Hand.”
The Screaming Jets – Helping Hand
International Stage:
[22 Sep 2023] Peter Horton, 82, Austrian guitarist, composer and singer (Eurovision Song Contest 1967).
Joining us on the International Stage this week we feature a contestant on the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest who went on to record 25 albums in his native Austria. Peter Horton, born Peter Muller, passed away from Parkinson’s disease on September 22nd 3 days after his 82nd birthday. Here he is from 1971 with his German cover of the Simon & Garfunkel classic, “Mrs. Robinson.”
Peter Horton – Mrs. Robinson
[11 Sep 2023] Dedi Graucher, 62, Israeli singer, cancer.
Next up we have Dedi Graucher, who joined the choir invisible on September 11th at the age of 62. Groucher was an Orthodox Jewish singer who began his career in the 70s and 80s singing backup for Mordechai Ben David, and then began recording his own material in the 90s and 2000s. This is his track called “Tipol.”
Dedi Graucher – Tipol
[22 Sep 2023] Olga Chorens, 99, Cuban singer and actress.
Our oldest performer in the Reaper’s Rotation this week was born in 1924. 99-year-old Olga Chorens passed on September 22nd and became popular as a singer and TV host in Cuba in the 1950s. When Castro took over, Chorens and her husband, her TV co-host Tony Alvarez, fled to Mexico, and later lived in Puerto Rico, Miami, New York, and Spain. Here she is singing “Mis Noches Sin Ti.”
Olga Chorens – Mis Noches Sin Ti
The Amphitheater:
[22 Sep 2023] Alejandro Meerapfel, 54, Argentine operatic baritone, heart attack.
We open up The Amphitheater this week with a touch of the dramatic. Argentinian baritone Alejandro Meerapfel was taken by the Grim Reaper on September 22nd, suffering a heart attack right in the middle of performing an opera as the voice of God. Now THAT is an entrance! Meerapfel was only 54 years old. Here he is performing “Benché severo ed immutabil fato.”
Alejandro Meerapfel – L’Orfeo, SV 318, Act 4 No. 2, Benché severo ed immutabil fato
[14 Sep 2023] Robert Tree Cody, 72, American musician.
Now for a different kind of Amphitheater we turn to the adopted son of actor Iron Eyes Cody, the Italian American famous for portraying the Native American who sheds a tear in a famous 1970s pollution commercial. His son Robert Tree Cody, however, was of Dakota and Maricopa heritage and an enrolled Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian, named “Tree” for his 6’9” height. He died on September 14th at age 72 and was a Lifetime Achievement Award winner from the Native American Music Awards. Here he is playing his native flute on “Lakota Love Story.”
Robert Tree Cody – Lakota Love Story
[07 Sep 2023] Margherita Rinaldi, 88, Italian lyric soprano.
Closing the Amphitheater, we welcome 88-year-old Margherita Rinaldi, an Italian soprano who made her mark in the 1960s and 70s. She retired in 1981, tutoring other up-and-coming young singers as a voice coach in Florence. Here she is singing “Believe Me.”
Margherita Rinaldi – Believe Me
Jazz Cellar:
[27 Aug 2023] Brian McBride, 53, American musician (Stars of the Lid, Bell Gardens).
We’re going to get real mellow this week in the Jazz Cellar with our opener, Brian McBride, who joined the everlasting session on August 27th at the age of 53. McBride was known as half the Austin, Texas, ambient music duo Stars of the Lid. Here they are with the track, “Dungtitled.”
Stars of the Lid – Dungtitled
[06 Sep 2023] Richard Davis, 93, American jazz bassist.
Next up we have a jazz bassist who also recorded with such pop artists as Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen, classical conductors like Igor Stravisnsky and Leonard Bernstein, and jazz greats Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal. Richard Davis died at age 93 on September 6th. Here he is with Elvin Jones on the tune “Raunchy Rita.”
Elvin Jones & Richard Davis – Raunchy Rita
[21 Sep 2023] Robert W. Smith, 64, American trumpeter and composer, complications from heart surgery.
We close the Jazz Cellar with a little scholastic appreciation. Many musicians, like me, would have never followed through on our love of music if it weren’t for patient music teachers in schools all over the world. Robert W. Smith was a trumpeter and the director of bands at Troy State University in Alabama. He went on to work with Warner Brothers publications, where he guest conducted bands around the world. He died on September 21st at the age of 64. Here he is conducting the 2013 Illinois Honors Band on Steve Reineke’s “Celebration Fanfare.”
Robert W. Smith – Celebration Fanfare
Encore:
[23 Sep 2023] Terry Kirkman, 83, American musician (The Association) and songwriter (“Cherish”, “Everything That Touches You”), heart failure.
For our first encore, we welcome back Terry Kirkman, whose early career had him working with greats like Frank Zappa, with whom he played coffeehouses from 1959-1961; and Cass Elliott and David Crosby in 1963 in a group called The Inner Tubes. Here’s another one of the songs Kirkman wrote for The Association called “Everything That Touches You.”
The Association – Everything That Touches You (Album Version)
[22 Sep 2023] Mike Henderson, 70, American singer-songwriter (“Broken Halos”, “Starting Over”) and musician (The SteelDrivers).
We end this episode with an encore from Mike Henderson, the songwriter. Henderson’s group, The SteelDrivers, also had a member named Chris Stapleton. Stapleton, of course, has become a massive star in his solo career, partially due to his continued collaboration with Mike Henderson, who wrote a number of songs for Stapleton, including this massive hit, “Broken Halos.”
Chris Stapleton – Broken Halos
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, September 29th, 2023. Join us here next week for a tribute to the latest artists to cross over to eternity. 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.
