By Chris Willman, Variety | James Lowe, who fronted the psych-garage-pop group the Electric Prunes in the late 1960s, best known for their top 10 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night),” died May 22 at age 82 his family reported.
Following the breakup of the Electric Prunes, Lowe became an engineer and producer working with such artists as Sparks and Todd Rundgren, before leaving music behind in the early ’70s and eventually finding a second career in the world of industrial filmmaking. After a quarter-century of not doing music, he reunited the Prunes in the late ’90s and continued to perform through the end of his life.
The family did not give a cause of death, saying that Lowe “passed away on May 22, 2025, from natural causes – suddenly, yet peacefully – surrounded by family and music.”
The musician had happily acceded to a wave of nostalgia for his band that only seemed to heighten in recent years, from performing to an adoring crowd in Los Angeles at a “Nuggets” tribute show in 2023 (“I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” was the kickoff song to that classic garage-rock compilation) to recently giving retrospective interviews for a series of rock podcasts.
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Read more about Mr. Lowe here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/james-lowe-singer-for-the-electric-prunes-of-i-had-too-much-to-dream-last-night-fame-dies-at-82/
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Al Foster, Virtuoso Jazz Drummer to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, Dies at 82
By Walden Green, Pitchfork
Al Foster, the jazz drummer who played in bands led by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, among others, has died. Foster’s daughter Kierra Foster-Ba shared the news on Instagram and his longtime partner, Bonnie Rose Steinberg, told NPR that he died “from a serious illness.” He was 82.
Born in 1943 in Richmond, Virginia, Aloysius Tyrone Foster grew up in Harlem, the second oldest of five siblings. His first musical idol was bebop drummer Max Roach, whose 1955 recording of “Cherokee” inspired a 12-year-old Foster to begin practicing every day on the drum kit his father had previously gifted him. The budding musician got his first experience working as a studio musician on Blue Mitchell’s 1964 album The Thing to Do, which also featured a young Chick Corea. Foster’s big break, however, arrived a few years later, when Miles Davis saw him perform at a jazz club on New York’s Upper West Side and recruited the drummer to join his band.
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Read more about Mr. Foster’s life here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/al-foster-virtuoso-jazz-drummer-to-miles-davis-and-herbie-hancock-dies-at-82/