Photo: Jean Knight | By Sara Cline, AP | Jean Knight, a New Orleans-born soul singer known for her 1971 hit “Mr. Big Stuff,” has died at 80. Family, friends, fans and veterans of the music world mourned the loss of the Grammy-nominated singer who was considered a musical powerhouse and an integral part of New Orleans’ cultural legacy.
Knight died Wednesday of natural causes in Tampa, Florida, where she was living, said family representative Mona Giamanco. She confirmed the death to The Associated Press on Monday afternoon.
“Jean Knight’s legacy is not just a musical one; it is a testament to the enduring love between an artist, her hometown and the fans who adored her,” the singer’s family said in a statement.
https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-singer-jean-knight-big-stuff-8fbcf952b4a87cc1099f58984ad0e83d
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George ‘Funky’ Brown, Whose Uplifting Drums Held Down Kool & the Gang, Dead at 74
By Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone | (Includes a video) George Brown, the co-founder, drummer, and songwriter for Kool & the Gang, died Thursday, Nov. 16, after a battle with cancer. He was 74.
A rep for Kool & the Gang confirmed Brown’s death in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. Brown’s family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Lung Cancer Society of America in his honor.
Aptly nicknamed “Funky,” Brown not only provided the backbeat to Kool & the Gang’s many indelible funk and disco era hits but also helped write them. Brown’s co-writing credits include favorites like “Ladies Night,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Celebration,” “Summer Madness,” and “Too Hot.”
And as much as those songs remain party classics, Brown’s drumming has remained a frequent presence in music thanks to the myriad Kool & the Gang samples across pop and hip-hop. Artists who’ve plucked those grooves include Jay-Z, Madonna, Nas, N.W.A. the Killers, Janet Jackson, the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Brown grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, and as he said in a 2015 interview with the Red Bull Music Academy, his “internal rhythm” was apparent early in his childhood: “I used to take butter knives and play on things,” he recalled. “Then I went down to a music store on Newark Avenue in Jersey City and took a $3 lesson from a gentleman who used to play with the Shirelles. He said, ‘Hey man, you’re a natural!’”
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“You want to see people happy, and you want to be successful with it,” Brown said in that NPR interview. “And you want to help create a culture, a world culture, where people come together with that music. That music is bringing people together and making this one-world culture greater than it was before. And when you do music that’s happy music, that’s what it does. It brings people to the clubs to have a good time. And that’s what we do. We say our prayer before we leave, and we say, let’s go make some people happy.”
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Read the full inspiring story here:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kool-and-the-gang-drummer-george-brown-dead-1234885847/
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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
If you are thinking of committing suicide, please think of how much it will hurt your family and friends. Warning Signs of Suicide – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 and 888-628-9454 for Spanish. Learn the signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide.
There were several other musicians of note who passed these last couple of weeks but space kept us from honoring them. If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
November 2023
28: Queenzy Cheng, 37, Malaysian actress and singer; John Colianni, 61, American jazz pianist; Dedema, 76, Chinese singer; Lanny Gordin, 72, Brazilian instrumentalist and composer.
27: Mohamed Bousmaha, 34–35, Algerian singer, traffic collision; Amine La Colombe, Algerian musician, traffic collision.
26: Brian Godding, 78, Welsh jazz rock guitarist (Blossom Toes, Centipede); Rafal Rekosiewicz, 75, Polish musician, lyricist and music producer; Geordie Walker, 64, English guitarist (Killing Joke) and songwriter (“Love Like Blood”, “Eighties”), complications from a stroke.
25: Julio Anderson, 74, Chilean bass guitarist (Los Jaivas); Robert Hart Baker, 69, American classical conductor and music director; Les Maguire, 81, English musician (Gerry and the Pacemakers); Akzhol Meirbekov, 73, Kazakh singer (Dos Mukasan); Yngvar Numme, 79, Norwegian singer (Dizzie Tunes) and actor; B. Sasikumar, 74, Indian violinist.
24: Douglas Ahlstedt, 78, American operatic tenor (Metropolitan Opera); Jukka Haavisto, 93, Finnish musician; Shizuka Ijuin, 73, Japanese writer and lyricist; Morten Omlid, 62, Norwegian blues guitarist.
22: Jean Knight, 80, American singer (“Mr. Big Stuff”); Phil Quartararo, 67, American music industry executive; Margareta Ridderstedt, 72, Swedish opera singer and actress (Aida); Jim Salestrom, 67, American singer-songwriter.
21: Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, 58, German conductor, scholar, and music publicist, heart attack; Horacio Malvicino, 94, Argentine jazz and tango guitarist and composer.
20: Mars Williams, 68, American saxophonist (The Waitresses, The Psychedelic Furs, Liquid Soul), ampullary cancer.
19: Ninie Doniah, 56, Malagasy singer and composer; Catherine Christer Hennix, 75, Swedish musician, poet and philosopher; Colette Maze, 109, French classical pianist; Carlton Pearson, 70, American minister and gospel singer, subject of Come Sunday, prostate cancer; Sara Tavares, 45, Portuguese singer, brain tumor.
18: David Del Tredici, 86, American composer.
17: Christiane Bervoets, 75, Belgian singer (“Eviva España”); Seóirse Bodley, 90, Irish composer; Charlie Dominici, 72, American singer (Dream Theater, Dominici). Claude Kahn, 88, French pianist.
16: George “Funky” Brown, 74, American Hall of Fame drummer (Kool & the Gang) and songwriter (“Ladies’ Night”, “Celebration”), lung cancer; Peter Solley, 75, English musician (Fox) and record producer; Thành Ðu?c, 89, Vietnamese actor and singer.
15: Sandy Farina, 68, American singer-songwriter and actress (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); P. K. Narayanan Nambiar, 96, Indian musician; Oladips, 28, Nigerian rapper; Karl Tremblay, 47, Canadian folk singer (Les Cowboys Fringants), prostate cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2023
‘Mr. Big Stuff’ Singer Jean Knight Dies // George ‘Funky’ Brown of Kool & the Gang Dies 74 // Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths
