In Memoriam|

John Till (12/24/1945 – 9/04/2022) was a Canadian musician. Till co-founded Stratford band The Revols with Ken Kalmusky on bass, Doug “Bo” Rhodes on vocals and Jim Winkler on drums. Richard Manuel later joined on piano and vocals. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-old kids at the time, they were taken under the wing of Ronnie Hawkins, and, together and individually, they made music history in the years to come. Till played in local bands until the early 1960s when he was picked to play in Ronnie Hawkins’ band The Hawks, to replace previous members who had left to tour with Bob Dylan (see The Band). After touring with Hawkins, the members of this band moved to New York City to try to establish themselves as musicians in the larger US market, where Till became a studio musician and was doing commercial sessions and led his own group, The Full Tillt Boogie Band (“Tillt” spelled with two l’s to signify his John Till’s last name).

In 1969, Till and others from Full Tilt were hired as touring musicians for Janis Joplin’s [Kozmic Blues Band], along with the Full Tillt bass player on her Full Tillt Boogie Band, as a side project with Till’s fellow Canadian band members. However, Joplin was not happy touring with some of the members of this group, feeling some of them to be too “square”. Joplin and her management then hired Till, bass player Brad Campbell, as well as pianist Ken Pearson (from nearby Woodstock, Ontario), to fill out her new band, now called Full Tilt Boogie. The band appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and were booked on the Festival Express which toured across Canada. The group recorded their classic Pearl album, which reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts in 1971, after Joplin’s death.

After Joplin’s death, and the subsequent breakup of Full Tilt Boogie, Till played with Bobby Charles, Bob Burchill and his ensemble in the Stratford apartments. He later moved back to Stratford, Ontario, retiring from the music industry and raising his family there.

On November 5, 2020, Till and his Revols bandmate, the late bassist Ken Kalmusky, were awarded Bronze Stars from the city of Stratford for “significant contributions to the cultural or social fabric of Stratford on a national or international scale.”

In the foreword of Love, Janis, Laura Joplin’s biography of her relationship with her famous sister, Till and his Stratford born wife, Dorcas, are thanked for providing some of the material for the book.

John Till died at home in Stratford, Ontario, on September 4, 2022, at the age of 76.

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

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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS

Our music community continues to lose our talented artists – staggering loses.And another rapper is murdered. We are going to miss them so much. If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com

September 2022
5: Lars Vogt, 51, German concert pianist and conductor, cancer.

4: Gazi Mazharul Anwar, 79, Bangladeshi film director, producer and lyricist (Nil Akasher Niche, Kokhono Megh Kokhono Brishti, Meyeti Ekhon Kothay Jabe); Edward Hulewicz, 84, Polish singer and composer; Art Rosenbaum, 83, American visual artist and musician, Grammy winner (2008); Pat Stay, 36, Canadian rapper, stabbed; John Till*, 76, Canadian guitarist (Full Tilt Boogie Band).

2: Bamba Bakya, 49, Indian playback singer, cardiac arrest; Jordi Cervelló, 86, Spanish composer, pneumonia; T. V. Sankaranarayanan, 77, Indian Carnatic vocalist; Xue Fan, 87, Chinese musicologist and translator; Drummie Zeb, 62, English reggae musician (Aswad) and record producer.

1: Jack Marchal, 75, French musician, illustrator, and political activist.

August 2022
31: Sören Boström, 74, Swedish bandy player; Ted Butterman, 87, American jazz musician; Mark Shreeve, 65, British electronic music composer (Redshift) and songwriter (“Touch Me (I Want Your Body)”); Wiktor Zatwarski, 86, Polish singer and actor.

30: Ludmila Diacenco-Sulac, 73, Moldovan musician, violinist and music arranger, cancer; Alexander Skulskiy, 80, Russian conductor, music teacher and television presenter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2022

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