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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, December 1st, 2023, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. I took the week off for Thanksgiving, but the Reaper kept up to his regular harvesting of souls. In addition to taking one of the best people and one of the worst people in politics, our show this week features a funky one-hit wonder and a legendary funky drummer from America, musicians from Ireland, Wales, and England, a trip to South America, and our oldest musician yet on Rest in Playlist. 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 Nov 2023] Jean Knight, 80, American singer (“Mr. Big Stuff“).
Jean Audrey Caliste was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 26, 1943. She began singing in the 1960s and adopted the stage name Jean Knight. In 1970 she recorded this tune, which was shopped around to several record labels but never released. But when King Floyd hit with “Groove Me” in 1971, a producer at Stax Records remembered Jean Knight’s tune and released it. “Mr. Big Stuff” became a huge hit, hitting #2 on the Hot 100 and earning a Grammy nomination she lost to Aretha Franklin.
Jean Knight – Mr. Big Stuff
Headliner:
[30 Nov 2023] Shane MacGowan, 65, Irish singer (The Pogues, Shane MacGowan and the Popes) and songwriter (“Fairytale of New York“).
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan was born Christmas Day in 1957 in Kent, England, to Irish parents. He was the founder of the Celtic Punk band The Pogues in 1982, which went on to have great commercial success. But MacGowan’s battles with drugs and alcohol led to a split from the Pogues in the 1990s. This is The Pogues with the Christmas classic, “Fairytale of New York,” which MacGowan performed with Kirsty MacColl.
The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York
Main Stage:
[16 Nov 2023] George “Funky” Brown, 74, American Hall of Fame drummer (Kool & the Gang) and songwriter (“Ladies’ Night“, “Celebration“), lung cancer.
There were two founding members of Hall of Fame funk band Kool & the Gang who played with the band continuously since its founding in 1964, and now Robert “Kool” Bell is the only one left. George “Funky” Brown was the drummer for the Gang. He also co-wrote two of the band’s biggest hits, the #1 smash “Celebration,” and this track that topped out at #8, “Ladies Night.”
Kool & the Gang – Ladies Night (single version)
[20 Nov 2023] Mars Williams, 68, American saxophonist (The Waitresses, The Psychedelic Furs, Liquid Soul), ampullary cancer.
Next up, a saxophonist who played most of his career with the Psychedelic Furs, Mars Williams. He also performed with Billy Idol, the Power Station, and Billy Squier. But I will always have a fondness for the sax solo he performed on his first hit record with an Eighties New Wave Band called The Waitresses, a song called “I Know What Boys Like.”
The Waitresses – I Know What Boys Like
[17 Nov 2023] Charlie Dominici, 72, American singer (Franke & the Knockouts, Dream Theater, Dominici).
Closing the Main Stage we have Charlie Dominici. He was an American singer who first appeared as a background vocalist for the Eighties pop band Franke & the Knockouts. He was then the second vocalist for the prog metal band Dream Theater, and later went on to front his own prog metal group Dominici. Here is Dream Theater with “Status Seeker.”
Dream Theater – Status Seeker
In the News:
[19 Nov 2023] Rosalynn Carter, 96, American mental health activist, first lady of the United States (1977–1981), and of Georgia (1971–1975), complications from dementia.
The nation mourned the passing this week of former First Lady of Georgia, and the United States, Rosalynn Carter, who passed away at the age of 96 with her husband of 77 years, former president Jimmy Carter by her side. She’s the first First Lady of my Gen X memory.
[25 Nov 2023] Marty Krofft, 86, Canadian puppeteer (H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters), kidney failure.
Also, this week we lost another icon of my childhood, Marty Krofft, the Canadian puppeteer behind Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost, and, of course, the second-most marijuana-suggestive children’s character next to Puff the Magic Dragon, H.R. Pufnstuf.
Les Szarvas & Paul Simon – H.R. Pufnstuf
[29 Nov 2023] Henry Kissinger, 100, German-born American diplomat and politician, national security advisor (1969–1975) and secretary of state (1973–1977), Nobel Prize laureate (1973).
I told the Grim Reaper that if he was going to take two good souls like Rosalynn Carter and Marty Kroft, he needed to make up for it by taking an evil bastard. On that note, former US Secretary of State and unrepentant unpunished war criminal Henry Kissinger is dead at the too-late age of 100, having outlived the 20,000 US soldiers and millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians who needlessly died thanks to his efforts to get Richard Nixon elected.
Monty Python – Henry Kissinger
International Stage:
[26 Nov 2023] Brian Godding, 78, Welsh jazz rock guitarist (Blossom Toes, Centipede).
The UK takes over the International Stage, starting with Brian Godding, a Welsh jazz guitarist compared to Allan Holdsworth, John Etheridge and John McLaughlin. He made his mark with the bands Blossom Toes and Centipede, the former a psychedelic band from the late 1960s and the latter a massive 50-member prog rock big band. Here is Blossom Toes with “Look At Me I’m You.”
Blossom Toes – Look At Me I’m You
[26 Nov 2023] Geordie Walker, 64, English guitarist (Killing Joke) and songwriter (“Love Like Blood“, “Eighties“), complications from a stroke.
Next, we have an English guitarist named Geordie Walker, who hit with the post-punk Eighties band Killing Joke. Walker tuned his guitar a full step lower, in D rather than E, which gave him a deep thick sound not common among Eighties guitarists. Here’s a track from Killing Joke that Walker wrote, appropriately titled “Eighties.”
Killing Joke – Eighties
[16 Nov 2023] Peter Solley, 75, English musician (Fox, Procol Harum) and record producer (“What I Like About You“).
Closing the International Stage is another Englishman, Peter Solley, who went on to become a producer of hits like “What I Like About You” by the Romantics. He began his career in the band Paladin, then played with SNAFU, then Fox, before joining the prog rock group Procul Harum, with which he appeared on the album Something Magic. Here’s “Skating on Thin Ice” from that album.
Procol Harum – Skating On Thin Ice
The Jazz Cellar:
[28 Nov 2023] John Colianni, 61, American jazz pianist.
John Colianni – Blue and Sentimental
John Colianni was an American jazz pianist who began lessons at age 14 after being enthralled at a concert by Duke Ellington. He went on to play for Lionel Hampton’s Big Band and perform with Woody Allen’s Ragtime & Funeral Orchestra, jazz vocalist Mel Tormé, and guitarist Les Paul. This is from his solo work, entitled “Blue and Sentimental.”
[19 Nov 2023] Colette Maze, 109, French classical pianist.
This week we feature the oldest performer yet on any Rest in Playlist, a French classical pianist who was born in 1914. Colette Maze began playing piano at age 5 just after World War I ended. After World War II, she married and continued playing piano in private. It wasn’t until she was 90 years old in 2004 that her son convinced her to record an album. Just this year, she released her seventh album, making her potentially the oldest recording artist ever. Here she is performing “Milonga del Angel.”
Astor Piazzolla, Colette Maze – Milonga del Angel
Festival Stage:
[28 Nov 2023] Lanny Gordin [pt], 72, Brazilian instrumentalist and composer.
Lanny Gordin was born in China, lived in Israel as a child, but made his life in São Paolo, Brazil. He was a composer and played guitar and bass in numerous groups and as a solo performer. He first recorded in 1968 and made many albums through the 1970s, until his schizophrenia and drug use ostracized him from the Brazilian recording industry in the 1980s and 1990s. Here he is with Kaoll performing “Hipnosis.”
Kaoll & Lanny Gordin – Hipnosis
[25 Nov 2023] Julio Anderson [es], 74, Chilean bass guitarist (Los Jaivas).
Now we head to the other side of South America for Chilean bass guitarist Julio Anderson, whose primary career was medical doctor. For one year, 1975, he was the bassist for the band Los Jaivas, returning only in 1997 to perform a few concerts with the group. Here they are with “Sube A Nacer Conmigo Hermano.”
Los Jaivas – Sube A Nacer Conmigo Hermano
[19 Nov 2023] Sara Tavares, 45, Portuguese singer, brain tumour.
Let’s close across the Atlantic with Sara Tavares, A Portuguese singer who catapulted to fame at age 16 on a television singing contest by performing Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time.” She then went on to perform in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 8th. Here’s music from her 2017 album Fitxadu called “Ter Peito E Espaço.”
Sara Tavares – Ter Peito E Espaço
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, December 1st, 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.
