Leaving Earth This Past Week: Musicians Dick Asher, Don Buchwald, Duke Fakir, John Mayall, Evelyn Thomas, Jerry Miller, Sandy Posey, Jerry Fuller, Pinche Peach, and Happy Traum // Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths

Photo: John Mayall | So many of our beloved musicians took wings and left us this past week that I’ve condensed their obituaries into a few paragraphs. But I’ve also provided you with URLs so that you could read more on their lives and how their music now provides great memories.

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Dick Asher became widely known to the general public through Frederic Dannen’s 1990 book, Hit Men: Power Brokers And Fast Money Inside The Music Business, which chronicled Asher’s music industry career, particularly focusing on his tenure as Deputy President of Columbia Records between 1979 and 1983, his corporate and personal battles with controversial label president Walter Yetnikoff, and Asher’s attempts in the early 1980s to expose and defeat the growing influence of a cabal of independent record promotion agents known as “The Network”.

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Asher rapidly gained a reputation for his honesty, integrity, loyalty, thoroughness and able business administration. In 1970 he was appointed Vice President of Capitol Records’ east coast division, but the move was not a successful one for Asher (Dannen described it as “a disaster”) and in 1971 Asher gratefully accepted Columbia president Clive Davis’s offer to return to CBS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Asher

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Don Buchwald Dies: Founder Of Don Buchwald & Associates And Howard Stern’s Longtime Agent Was 88

By Patrick Hipes, Erik Pedersen | Don Buchwald, who founded his eponymous Hollywood talent agency Don Buchwald & Associates in 1977 and counted Howard Stern among his many clients, died Monday of natural causes. He was 88.

Buchwald passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

He got the nickname “Superagent” from Stern and is mentioned often — but rarely heard — on SiriusXM‘s The Howard Stern Show. “I’m not a particularly boastful person,” he told The New York Times in a 2018 interview.
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The privately held agency is headquartered in its own building on East 44th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues in Midtown Manhattan, with the L.A. HQ on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile.

The Buchwald client list has included Kathleen Turner, Ralph Macchio and Ali MacGraw, and among its recent signees are Djimon Hounsou, Chris Parnell, Adam Goldberg, Reno Wilson and Billy Ray Cyrus.
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https://deadline.com/2024/07/don-buchwald-dead-howard-stern-agent-1236019008/

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Abdul Kareem “Duke” Fakir (December 26, 1935 – July 22, 2024) was an American singer. He was a founding member of Motown quartet the Four Tops from 1953 until shortly before his death in 2024.

Fakir was born on December 26, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a factory worker who came from what is now Bangladesh. His mother was African American, of Ethiopian descent. Fakir attended Detroit’s Pershing High School, where he played basketball and football, and ran track. He first met fellow band member Levi Stubbs through neighborhood football games; at that time he was not aware Stubbs was a singer. Later, attending a variety show featuring the Lucky Millinder band, the band announced a talented young singer whom Fakir recognized as the boy he played football with. They became closer friends and Stubbs even traveled with Fakir to his sporting events, where they enjoyed singing and engaging teammates in sing-alongs.

With their shared love of singing, they tried working with a few other singers, then decided to ask Lawrence Payton and Renaldo “Obie” Benson. They invited Payton and Benson to join them at a party hosted by the Shahrazads, a local “it girl” club. When invited by the girls to sing, they decided Stubbs would take the lead and they would back him up. The group and party-goers enjoyed their sound so much, that they decided to begin rehearsing together. They originally gave themselves the name “The Four Aims”, to describe their goals of achieving something great. But at their first recording session with Chess Records in Chicago, they were reminded that the Ames Brothers was a very popular singing quartet, and it was suggested that they change their own name to avoid confusion. After some discussion, their musical director Maurice King suggested the name the Four Tops, to go along with their original goal of shooting for the stars and reaching the top.
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They are listed at number 77 in Billboard magazine “Top 100 Artists Of All Time”. . . .

By 2008, the other three Tops had died; Fakir controlled the Four Tops intellectual properties and was responsible for assembling the touring version of the band that would carry on the group’s legacy. He had stated an intention never to retire and indeed continued to tour with the group until less than a month before his death. Shortly before his death, he named Michael Brock as his successor.

Fakir lived in the Palmer Park section of Detroit with his second wife. As of 2024, he had seven children (one of these having preceded him in death), thirteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
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As a member of the Four Tops, Fakir was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997, was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and was included in the Billboard magazine Top 100 Recording Artists of All Time. The group was inducted into National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2013.

Fakir died of heart failure at his Detroit home, on July 22, 2024, at the age of 88.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Fakir

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John Brumwell Mayall OBE (29 November 1933 – 22 July 2024) was an English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians. A singer, guitarist, harmonica player, and keyboardist, he had a career that spanned nearly seven decades, remaining an active musician until his death aged 90. Mayall has often been referred to as the “godfather of the British blues”, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.

Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, on 29 November 1933, John Brumwell Mayall grew up in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. He was the son of Murray Mayall, a guitarist who played in local pubs.

From an early age he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Lead Belly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the piano, guitar, and harmonica.
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Mayall was sent to Korea as part of his national service, and during a period of leave bought his first electric guitar in Japan. Back in England, he enrolled at Manchester College of Art and started playing with a semi-professional band, the Powerhouse Four. After graduation, he obtained a job as an art designer, but continued to play with local musicians. In 1963, he opted for a full-time musical career and moved to London. His previous craft would be put to good use in the designing of covers for many of his coming albums.
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In late 1963, with his band, which was now called the Bluesbreakers, Mayall started playing at the Marquee Club. The line-up was Mayall, Ward, John McVie on bass and guitarist Bernie Watson, formerly of Cyril Davies and the R&B All-Stars. The next spring Mayall obtained his first recording date with producer Ian Samwell. The band, with Martin Hart at the drums, recorded two tracks: “Crawling Up a Hill” and “Mr. James”. Shortly after, Hughie Flint replaced Hart and Roger Dean took the guitar from Bernie Watson. This line-up backed John Lee Hooker on his British tour in 1964.
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In April 1965, former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton replaced Roger Dean and John Mayall’s career entered a decisive phase.
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Mayall began living in the US part time in the late 1960s, living there full time by the early 1970s. A brush fire destroyed his house in Laurel Canyon in 1979. Mayall lost 2,000 hours of video-taped movies, 16th century antiques, a pornography collection dating from the 1800s, and his diaries written over 25 years.

Mayall was married twice and had six children and six grandchildren. His second wife, Maggie Mayall, is an American blues performer; since the early 1980s, she has taken part in the management of her husband’s career. They married in 1982, and divorced in 2011.

Mayall died at his home in California on 22 July 2024, at the age of 90.

Honours and recognition
In 2005, Mayall was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 Birthday Honours.

Mayall was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.

He is often referred to as the “godfather of the British blues”.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mayall

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Ellen Lucille “Evelyn” Thomas (August 22, 1953 – July 21, 2024) was an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the hi-NRG dance hits “High Energy”, “Masquerade”, “Standing at the Crossroads”, “Reflections”, and “Weak Spot”.

Thomas was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 22, 1953. Although best known worldwide for her 1980s hi-NRG club hits, Thomas recorded and performed disco, Eurobeat, R&B, and dance music songs in the 1980s. She was discovered by British producer Ian Levine, who was in the United States in 1975 scouting for gospel and soul singers he could promote in the UK. The two recorded several tracks which resulted in a contract with 20th Century Records.

Thomas scored a chart hit with her first single, reaching the UK top 30 in 1976 with the single “Weak Spot”, co-written by Levine and Paul David Wilson. A follow-up single, “Doomsday”, entered the UK charts twice, and Levine and Thomas would continue their association for quite some time. She signed to US label Casablanca Records for her first album release, I Wanna Make It on My Own, released in 1978. With Casablanca doing little to promote the LP, she switched to AVI Records for the double A-side 12-inch single “Have a Little Faith in Me” / “No Time to Turn Around” which prompted the label to release it as an LP, backed with Rick Gianatos’ extended remixes of her 1976 tracks “My Head’s in the Stars” and “Love’s Not Just an Illusion”.

By 1984, Levine had re-established himself as a producer and asked Thomas to come to London to record a new track “High Energy”. Just a few weeks after it was released, it became a chart hit in Europe, peaking at number one in Germany and at number five in the UK. The song was her only Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 85, although three additional songs hit the Billboard dance chart.
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Thomas died on July 21, 2024, at the age of 70. Her death was acknowledged by Levine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Thomas

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Jerry Miller (July 10, 1943 – July 20, 2024) was an American songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. He performed as a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band. He was also a founding member of the 1960s San Francisco band Moby Grape, which continues to perform occasionally. Rolling Stone included Miller at number 68 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and Moby Grape’s album Moby Grape at number 124 from listed 500 greatest albums of all time. Miller’s longtime (since the early 1960s) guitar was a Gibson L-5 CES Florentine guitar which he called “Beulah”.

Miller was born in Tacoma, Washington on July 10, 1943. He attended Lincoln High School in Tacoma through the mid-1960’s.

His career began in the late 1950s, playing and recording with popular Northwest dance-rock bands including the Elegants and the Frantics. He contributed guitar work to an early version of the hit record “I Fought the Law” by The Bobby Fuller Four, and toured with Bobby Fuller in his predecessor group to The Bobby Fuller Four.

While both were playing locally in Seattle, prior to becoming internationally famous, Jerry Miller befriended Jimi Hendrix. Along with Larry Coryell, who was developing his reputation as a guitarist while attending the University of Washington in Seattle, they would regularly get together to watch touring bands visiting the Seattle area. One particular club was the Spanish Castle, in Des Moines, Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma. The later Hendrix song, “Spanish Castle Magic”, was based on his experiences with fellow guitarists at the Spanish Castle in Des Moines.
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In January 2009, Miller lost almost all of his personal possessions and career memorabilia to flood damage. Included in the loss were numerous concert tapes and photographs of Miller with musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Robert Plant. Local Tacoma musicians held two benefit concerts to assist Miller financially.

Miller died in Tacoma on July 20, 2024, at the age of 81.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Miller

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Sandy Posey (Sandra Lou Posey) (June 18, 1944 – July 20, 2024) was an American popular singer who enjoyed success in the 1960s with singles such as her 1966 recording of Martha Sharp’s compositions “Born a Woman” and “Single Girl”. She was often described as a country singer, although, like Skeeter Davis (to whom she has been frequently compared), her output varied. Later in her career, the term “countrypolitan”, associated with the “Nashville sound”, was sometimes applied. Posey had four hit singles in the United States, three of which peaked at number 12 on the Hot 100.
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. . . she took part in recording sessions across the Deep South, including sessions produced by Lincoln “Chips” Moman for Elvis Presley and on Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” (a number one hit in the US in 1966). Other singers whom she backed included Joe Tex, Bobby Goldsboro and Tommy Roe.
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On February 4, 1969, Posey married James “Billy” Buchanan Robinson Jr. The couple had one daughter, but they later divorced. Posey later married Wade Cummins. She died from complications of dementia at her home in Lebanon, Tennessee, on July 20, 2024, at the age of 80.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Posey

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Jerry Fuller (November 19, 1938 – July 18, 2024) was an American songwriter, singer, and record producer. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas on November 19, 1938, to a musical family. He and his brother Bill performed as a duo in their home state, recording for the local Lin label, before Jerry branched out on his own and began writing his own material. In 1959, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and secured a performing contract with Challenge Records. His rockabilly version of “Tennessee Waltz” made No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned him an invitation to appear on American Bandstand.

In 1961, he wrote “Travelin’ Man” which was originally intended for Sam Cooke. Ricky Nelson recorded it instead and the record sold six million copies worldwide. Fuller wrote 11 of Nelson’s recordings, including the US Top 10 hits “A Wonder Like You”, “Young World”, and “It’s Up to You”.

Fuller toured as a featured singer with The Champs, whose other members included Glen Campbell, Jimmy Seals, and Dash Crofts, before a period in the U.S. Army. On his return in 1963, Challenge / Four Star moved him to New York City to run its east coast operation. There he discovered a garage band, The Knickerbockers, and produced their 1965 hit “Lies” (Can No. 11)
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Fuller and his wife Annette had two children. He died from lung cancer at his home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, on July 18, 2024, at the age of 85.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Fuller

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Pinche Peach / Brujeria (band) | Brujeria is an American extreme metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1989. The band has Spanish lyrics with topics such as Satanism, anti-Christianity, sex, immigration, narcotics smuggling, and politics. Brujeria portrays Mexican imagery, with several members being Hispanic and Latino Americans, while the band’s name stands for brujería (Spanish for “witchcraft”).

Brujeria alumni include Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares and drummer Raymond Herrera, as well as Billy Gould, Nicholas Barker, Jeff Walker and Shane Embury. They perform under pseudonyms and portray themselves as a Latino band consisting of drug lords, concealing their identities due to being wanted by the FBI. In videos and photographs of the band, they are shown wearing bandanas, balaclavas, serapes, and are often shown wielding machetes.

Pinche Peach died of heart failure on July 17, 2024, at the age of 57.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinche_Peach

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Happy Traum: Harry Peter “Happy” Traum (May 9, 1938 – July 17, 2024) was an American folk musician who started playing around Washington Square in the late 1950s. He became a stalwart of the Greenwich Village music scene of the 1960s and the Woodstock music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.

Traum was born on May 9, 1938 in the Bronx, New York City, to parents who were of German Jewish heritage (on his father’s side) and English and Dutch heritage (on his mother’s side). “Happy” was a family nickname. He attended New York City’s competitive High School of Music & Art. As a teenager, Traum frequented the folk music gatherings at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. He received his bachelor’s degree at New York University.

Traum first appeared on record at a historic session in late 1962 when a group of young folk musicians, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Peter LaFarge, and The Freedom Singers, gathered in the studio at Folkways Records to record an album called Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1. With his group, The New World Singers, Traum cut the first version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” to be released (early 1963). Traum also sang a duet with Dylan, who performed under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt, on his anti-war song “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”. These tracks were re-released in August 2000 by Smithsonian Folkways as part of a boxed set, The Best of Broadside 1962 – 1988: Anthems from the American Underground. Later that year, The New World Singers, which featured Traum, Bob Cohen, and Gil Turner, recorded an album for Atlantic Records, with liner notes by Dylan. The album featured the first recording of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”.
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Traum died on July 17, 2024, at the age of 86.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Traum

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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS

Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or if you want to discuss, call the old numbers at 800-273-TALK or 800-273-8255 for English and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.

Slash’s (Saul Hudson) announced the death of his step-daughter Lucy Bleu-Knight, 25. The New York Post said an autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause. Lucy-Bleu was the beloved daughter of Meegan Hodges and Mark Knight, stepdaughter of Samantha Somers Knight and Slash, sister of Scarlet Knight, stepsister of London and Cash Hudson. She passed peacefully in Los Angeles, CA on July 19, 2024.

Her final social media post, apparently pre-scheduled, appeared on her Instagram account after her death.

“Whether I made you feel excluded, manipulated/ controlled you, told you to quit your day job from the comfort of being financially supported by my parents, or drowned real issues in toxic positivity-I am sorry,” said the message on Knight’s account.

“Countless missed opportunities and connections due to a disgustingly big ego, insecure heart and fear of being vulnerable. May my soul learn to evolve from my poor job at being Lucy-Bleu. Peace.”

https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2024/07/23/slash-stepdaughter-lucy-bleu-knight-dies/1661721734407/

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If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com

July 2024
25: Pascal Danel, 80, French pop singer (“Kilimandjaro”) and composer.

24: Shafin Ahmed, 63, Bangladeshi singer-songwriter (Miles), heart and kidney failure; Antonio Cabán Vale, 81, Puerto Rican guitarist, singer, and composer; Bill Crook, Canadian musician (Spiritbox, Living With Lions); Anna Nshanyan, 90, Armenian opera singer.

23: Dick Asher, 92, American lawyer and record executive; Ekaterina Shklyaeva, 86, Russian singer (Buranovskiye Babushki).

22: Jerzy Artysz, 93, Polish opera singer and music teacher; Don Buchwald, 88, American talent agent; Duke Fakir, 88, American Hall of Fame singer (Four Tops), heart failure; Elena Mauti Nunziata, 77, Italian opera singer; John Mayall, 90, English Hall of Fame musician (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) and songwriter (“I’m Your Witchdoctor”, “Crawling Up a Hill”).

21: Kim Min-ki, 73, South Korean singer-songwriter (“Morning Dew”) and playwright, stomach cancer; Eugene Sârbu, 73, Romanian classical violinist; Evelyn Thomas, 70, American singer (“High Energy”).

20: János Csányi, 92, Hungarian opera singer and actor (The Testament of Aga Koppanyi, Hungarians, Do not Panic, Major Kardos); Gladys de Moctezuma, 96, Salvadoran soprano; Jerry Miller, 81, American musician (Moby Grape, The Rhythm Dukes) and songwriter; Sandy Posey, 80, American singer (“Single Girl”, “Born a Woman”, “I Take It Back”), complications from dementia.

19: Toumani Diabaté, 58, Malian kora* player; Raul Sepper, 73, Estonian musician.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(instrument)
The kora is a stringed instrument used extensively in West Africa. A kora typically has 21 strings, which are played by plucking with the fingers. It combines features of the lute and harp (but looks sort of like a banjo!)

18: Jerry Fuller, 85, American songwriter (“Young Girl”, “Travelin’ Man”, “Show and Tell”), lung cancer; Bernard Lortat-Jacob, 83, French ethnomusicologist and ethnologist; Fresia Saavedra, 90, Ecuadorian teacher and singer-songwriter, kidney and liver failure.

17: Giancarlo Guardabassi, 86, Italian disc jockey, singer and radio host; Alcides Lanza, 95, Argentine-born Canadian composer; Pinche Peach, 57, American death metal vocalist (Brujeria), heart failure; Happy Traum, 86, American folk singer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2024

Photo: John Mayall