Click to Listen to the Rest in Playlist
INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 17th, 2024, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently.
This week we feature two recording artists who played on just about every record with everybody, starring our headliner, saxophonist David Sanborn. We head back to the islands with two Jamaican Brits at the Beach Party. Then we go full English with an early rockabilly act and a new wave act in the British Invasion. We debut our new stage for playback and all Indian subcontinent music in Bollywood. Then it’s back to the Jazz Cellar for some European artists before we close Down Under with some rockers in the Mosh Pit.
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] John Barbata, 79, American rock drummer (The Turtles, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship).
You’d think you’d know the name of a drummer who played on hits for Linda Ronstadt, Ry Cooder, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Johnny Rivers, John Sebastian, The Everly Brothers, and The Byrds. But like many a session musician, John Barbata, who passed on May 8th, made music you love in relative obscurity. He first hit the charts in 1963 on the West Coast in a surf band called The Sentinels, but it was in 1967 that he made it to #1 on the charts with The Turtles, playing that distinctive snare drum on “Happy Together.”
The Turtles – Happy Together
Headliner:
[12 May 2024] David Sanborn, 78, American alto saxophonist (Young Americans) and television host (Night Music), six-time Grammy winner, prostate cancer.
While most session musicians toil in obscurity, a few break out to become popular ambassadors for their instrument, and none so exemplifies that label as alto saxophonist and six-time Grammy winner David Sanborn, who left us on May 12th. Listing Sanborn’s recording credits would take us the rest of this program, so I’m going to stop talking and just play for you one of his most iconic recordings with one of the legends whose death inspired this program, Mr. David Bowie, this is David Sanborn on sax with “Young Americans.”
David Bowie – Young Americans
Beach Party:
[14 May 2024] Jimmy James, 83, Jamaican-British singer (“Now Is the Time“, “I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me“).
Opening up the Beach Party this week we have Jimmy James, a Jamaican-British singer who joined the hereafter on May 14th. James and his band, an evolving lineup of over four dozen musicians called the Vagabonds, played as support for the Who, Sonny & Cher, Rod Stewart, and the Rolling Stones. It was in 1976 when they had their greatest success, reaching #5 on the UK charts with this hit, “Now is the Time.”
Jimmy & the Vagabonds – Now is the Time
[08 May 2024] Conrad Kelly, 65, Jamaican-born British drummer (Steel Pulse).
Steel Pulse is a band out of England that had as one of its drummers our next artist, Jamaican-born Conrad Kelly, who joined the gig eternal on May 8th. Kelly played with the band from 1994 to 2006, appearing on two albums and four singles. He also performed as a percussionist for UB40, filling in for their percussionist when he was too ill to tour. Here is Kelly performing on the Steel Pulse 1996 cover of the Van Morrison classic, “Brown Eyed Girl.”
Steel Pulse – Brown Eyed Girl
British Invasion:
[15 May 2024] John Hawken, 84, English keyboardist (The Nashville Teens, Renaissance, Strawbs), melanoma.
Like many of the English youth of the 1950s, our next artist, keyboardist John Hawken was a big fan of early American rock’n’roll and its roots, Black blues music. He formed a band in 1960 called the Cruisers Rock Combo that in 1962 was renamed The Nashville Teens. They took a blues tune written and recorded in 1960 by North Carolina bluesman John D. Loudermilk and in 1964 turned it into this #6 UK and #14 US Chart hit called “Tobacco Road.”
The Nashville Teens – Tobacco Road
[25 Mar 2024] Chris Cross, 71, English musician (Ultravox, Tiger Lily) and songwriter (“Vienna“).
There’s Christopher Cross, the ‘80s yacht rock crooner, there’s Kriss Kross, the backward-dressing ‘90s teen rappers, and then there’s our next artist, Chris Cross, the bass guitarist for the ‘80s new wave band Ultravox, who expired on March 25th. Cross also dabbled in music video directing and then left music altogether in 1989 to become a psychotherapist, until reviving Ultravox in 2009. Here’s their 1981 track that spent four weeks at #2 on the UK Charts, this is the Cross-written single “Vienna.”
Ultravox – Vienna
Bollywood:
[01 May 2024] Uma Ramanan, 69, Indian playback singer.
We inaugurate our Bollywood stage with a playback singer who was active from 1976 to 2005, performing in over 6,000 live concerts and dozens of films, Uma Ramanan, who departed on May 1st, was heard in two or more Bollywood films every year from 1980 to 1995. Here she is performing one of her hits with Deepak Chakarvarthy called “Poongathave Thaal.”
Deepak Chakarvarthy, Uma Ramanan – Poongathave Thaal
[07 Apr 2024] Antonette Mendes, 79, Indian singer, actress (Amchem Noxib, Nirmon, Mohabbat Zindagi Hai), and playwright.
Next, we have an actress, theater director, and playwright who also made her mark as a singer until her death on April 7th. Antonette Mendes was born in Mumbai back when it was Bombay in British India, making her stage debut at age 15. She was well known for her work in Indian musical theater, winning a Lifetime Contribution Award in 2009. Here is Antonette Mendes with Joseph Rodrigues performing “Kaido.”
Joseph Rodrigues, Antonette Mendes – Kaido
Jazz Cellar:
[13 May 2024] Christian Escoudé, 76, French Gypsy jazz guitarist.
Christian Escoudé, Francis Lockwood – Gypsy Swing
Off to France we go where we find a jazz guitarist of Romani descent named Christian Escoudé, who reached the Pearly Gates on May 13th. Escoudé was taught guitar by his father, who counted Django Reinhardt as his influence. Escoudé would later go on to win the Prix Django Reinhardt award from l’Académie du Jazz in 1976. Here he is performing with Francis Lockwood on “Gypsy Swing.”
[07 May 2024] Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, 88, Polish jazz musician, composer and arranger.
Now we feature a Polish tenor and baritone saxophonist who had been the host of Europe’s longest-running jazz radio program since 1970. Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski is credited with over two dozen albums recorded from 1956 to 2014, and was also a successful composer and arranger. Here, he appears as a featured artist with the group Eabs on a tune called “A Farewell to Mother Earth.”
Eabs – A Farewell To Mother Earth (Feat. Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski)
Mosh Pit:
[09 May 2024] Fred Noonan, Australian drummer (Six Ft Hick), cancer.
We’ve got a double shot from Down Under for this week’s Mosh Pit, starting with Fred Noonan, drummer for the mid-90s swamp-punk band Six Ft Hick. Before that, Noonan’s earliest band was the 80s outfit Public Execution, which supported the Dead Kennedy’s tour of Australia. Noonan died from cancer on May 9th. Here is Six Ft Hick with “White Light, Wet Heat.”
Six Ft Hick – White Light, Wet Heat
[16 Apr 2024] Gavin Webb, 77, Australian rock bassist (The Master’s Apprentices), cancer.
We rewind a couple of decades to a mid-60s pop band that evolved into an early-70s prog band. Gavin Webb was the bassist for the group, The Master’s Apprentices, who passed away on April 16th. Webb played in the early pop incarnation from 1964–68, then joined the revival act from 2014 through his death. Here’s The Master’s Apprentices from 1967 with their #9 Australia Chart hit, “Living in a Child’s Dream.”
The Master’s Apprentices – Living in a Child’s Dream
Encore:
[08 May 2024] John Barbata, 79, American rock drummer (The Turtles, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship).
We welcome back our opener, session drummer John Barbata to the stage. After hitting #1 with The Turtles in 1967, Barbata made it to #14 with Crosby Stills Nash & Young on their protest song, “Ohio,” and again hit #14 with Stephen Stills in early 1971 on “Love the One You’re With.” But his longest work was from 1972 to 1978 with Jefferson Airplane, then Jefferson Starship, when he appeared on their highest charting single, the #3 hit, “Miracles.”
Jefferson Starship – Miracles (single version)
[12 May 2024] David Sanborn, 78, American alto saxophonist (Young Americans) and television host (Night Music), six-time Grammy winner, prostate cancer.
And finally, a return to the stage from our Headliner, David Sanborn, who just may be the only Grammy winning saxophonist to host a late night talk show, the two seasons of Night Music sponsored by Michelob beer that ran from 1988 to 1990. Again, there are so many artists Sanborn provided iconic sax solos to that we could have programmed an entire tribute show with them. Here’s one of my favorites on James Taylor’s cover of “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You).”
James Taylor – How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, May 17th, 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.
