R.I.P CELEBRITY DEATHS(NON WRESTLING) 2017

[jimsteel]

Jon Hendricks, a jazz singer and songwriter who became famous in the 1950s with the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross by putting lyrics to well-known jazz instrumentals and turning them into vocal tours de force, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 96.

His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his daughter Aria Hendricks.

Although he was a gifted vocal improviser in his own right, Mr. Hendricks was best known for adding words to the improvisations of others.

He took pieces recorded by jazz ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Horace Silver Quintet and, using their titles as points of departure, created intricate narratives and tongue-in-cheek philosophical treatises that matched both the melody lines and the serpentine contours of the instrumental solos, note for note and inflection for inflection.

Mr. Hendricks did not invent this practice, known as vocalese — most jazz historians credit the singer Eddie Jefferson with that achievement — but he became its best-known and most prolific exponent, and he turned it into a group art.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, with Mr. Hendricks as principal lyricist and ebullient onstage between-songs spokesman, introduced the concept of vocalese to a vast audience. Thanks not just to his clever lyrics but also to the group’s tight harmonies, skillful scat singing and polished showmanship, it became one of the biggest jazz success stories of the late 1950s and early ’60s.

The trio’s success extended beyond the jazz world. They appeared in upscale nightclubs and on national television in addition to the traditional round of jazz clubs and festivals. Their 1961 album “High Flying” won a Grammy Award for best performance by a vocal group. At a time when rock ’n’ roll was taking over the airwaves, the group’s good-natured humor and show-business panache helped persuade listeners that jazz could be an entertaining experience rather than a daunting one.

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Not everyone was impressed. The critic Martin Williams wrote that Mr. Hendricks’s “trivial” lyrics tended to make jazz seem like “pretty light stuff.” In contrast, his fellow critic Leonard Feather christened Mr. Hendricks “the poet laureate of modern jazz” and said his writing showed “a talent bordering on genius.”

Mr. Hendricks himself shied away from describing himself as a poet, and not all his lyrics hold up well on their own, divorced from the music. But at his best he could put words to improvised solos that captured the musicality of their source material while adding a verbal vitality of their own.

[TTX]

Jim Nabors passes.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jim-nabors-dead-gomer-pyle-andy-griffith-show-star-was-87-1008103

[jimsteel]

Da,m the Grim Reaper continues to take celebrities this year

[topdollar]

I always looked forward to Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again In Indiana" before the Indy 500. RIP

[lucifer]

Pat DiNizio, singer-songwriter from the criminally underrated Smithereens dies at 62 😢

[markyhitch]

UK TV personality Keith Chegwin died recently aged 60.

[jimsteel]

Keely Smith, the iconic jazz and pop vocalist who achieved success as both a solo artist and with her musical partnership with first husband Louis Prima, died on Dec. 16 in Palm Springs.

She was 89.

The singer was “under physicians’ care at the time of her passing from apparent heart failure,” according to publicist Bob Merlis.

Smith was a Grammy-winning talent who gained much attention when as a teenager she got the job as the “girl singer” in Prima’s band in 1948.

She married Prima in 1953 and achieved success together throughout the entertainment business, starring in stage, television and movies and releasing hit records.

They’d win a Grammy in 1959 — the first year the awards were handed out — for best pop vocal performance by a duo or group for their smash “That Old Black Magic,” which remained on the charts for 18 weeks.

Prima and Smith had two children, Toni Prima and Luanne Prima, both of whom survive their mother. Louis Prima died in 1978.

[jimsteel]

Bugs Bunny animator Bob Givens has passed away.

Givens, who drew the first official design for the Looney Tunes icon, died at the age of 99 after an undisclosed illness. His daughter Mariana Givens informed family and friends of his health on Facebook, saying his condition had "changed" and that he was "resting peacefully on Pallative care at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank" on December 13. She then posted on December 14 that he had passed away

Givens previously worked for Disney, specifically the Walt Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, before moving over to Warner Bros. He would work alongside animators Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, which would lead to Avery asking him to look over a design of a new character, a rabbit who's look was "too cute" in previous attempts.

Givens then created what became the official design for Bugs Bunny in 1940, appearing first in the animated film A Wild Hare. That same film also included the iconic phrase "What's up, Doc? which ha since become synonymous with the character.

Givens would leave the company after being drafted in World War II, but would then return in the 1950s. He would also go on to work on Tom And Jerry, as well as a stint at Hanna-Barbera. Later he would join the reformed Warner Bros. Animation studio on projects like The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, and more.

[TTX]

RIP to all of them.

[jimsteel]

Heather North -- the long-running voice of Daphne Blake in the classic cartoon, "Scooby-Doo" -- has died.

The actress passed away late last month. A report says she died at her home in Studio City following a long illness. Heather first voiced the famous character in the second season's premiere in 1970. She went on to voice Daphne all the way through 2003.

Heather also had roles in "Days of Our Lives," The Barefoot Executive," "Mr. Novak," and "The Fugitive." She was married to H. Wesley Kenney, the Emmy-winning producer whom she met on "Days of Our Lives." Kenney died in 2015.

She was 71.