Photo: David Crosby | By Sam Armstrong, Yahoo/uDiscover Music | Singer-songwriter and guitarist David Crosby, a founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died at 81 years. Crosby’s unique place in rock history is reflected in his two-time induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with both of those seminal groups. CSN frequently expanded into a four-piece format with fellow rock totem Neil Young.
In a statement to Variety, his wife wrote: “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us.
“His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”
Love for Crosby from his distinguished friends and admirers poured from social media. “Missing you already, Croz. Love to Jan…,” wrote James Taylor. “I don’t know what to say other than I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby,” said Brian Wilson. “David was an unbelievable talent – such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person.” A message on The Beatles’ accounts said: “We’re remembering David for his sense of humor, angelic harmonies, and his humanity. Rest in peace.”
Graham Nash wrote on Facebook: “It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed. I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.
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CSN were then joined by [Neil] Young, and although relationships within the group were often fractious, they went on to create 1970’s Deja Vu. Crosby frequently and famously struggled with ongoing drug issues which would later lead to his incarceration. He began a career in his own name in 1971, when the much-admired If I Could Only Remember My Name peaked at No.12 in the US. It featured performances from Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, and members of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Santana. His three studio collaborations with Nash as a duo in the 1970s all went gold in the US.
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Go here to read more of Mr. Crosby’s biography:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/david-crosby-dies-age-81-232404865.html
uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.
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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
January 2023
23: Carol Sloane, 85, American jazz singer; Top Topham*, 75, English guitarist (The Yardbirds).
* Anthony Topham (7/03/1947 – 1/23/2023) was an English musician and visual artist who was best known as a blues guitarist and also for being the first lead guitarist of The Yardbirds. Topham left the band before they achieved mainstream popularity and was replaced by Eric Clapton, the first of three lead guitarists from the Yardbirds to gain an international reputation (the other two being Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Topham
22: Easley Blackwood Jr., 89, American composer (Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media), pianist, and professor; Lin Brehmer, 68, American disc jockey and radio personality (WXRT), prostate cancer; Zhanna Pliyeva, 73, Georgian composer and pianist; Nikos Xanthopoulos, 88, Greek actor and singer, heart disease.
21: B.G., the Prince of Rap, 57, American rapper and Eurodance artist (“The Colour of My Dreams”, “Can We Get Enough?”).
20: Jerry Blavat, 82, American DJ and radio presenter, complications from myasthenia gravis; Stella Chiweshe, 76, Zimbabwean mbira* player; Loïc Guguen, French dramatic baritone; Michaela Paetsch, 61, American violinist.
19: Vera Votintseva, 56, Russian singer-songwriter.
18: David Crosby, 81, American Hall of Fame singer (The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) and songwriter (“Guinnevere”); Clytus Gottwald, 97, German composer, conductor and musicologist; Victor Rasgado, 63, Mexican pianist and composer; Gary Smith, American record producer; Marcel Zanini, 99, Turkish-born French jazz musician.
17: Van Conner, 55, American bass guitarist (Screaming Trees), pneumonia; T.J. deBlois, 38, American drummer (A Life Once Lost); Manana Doijashvili, 75, Georgian pianist; Leon Dubinsky, 81, Canadian actor (Life Classes, Pit Pony), theatre director and composer (“Rise Again”); Renée Geyer, 69, Australian singer (“Say I Love You”, “Heading in the Right Direction”, “Stares and Whispers”), complications from hip surgery; Larry Morris, 75, New Zealand Hall of Fame singer (Larry’s Rebels); Richard Oesterreicher, 90, Austrian guitarist and conductor.
* Mbira (m-BEER-uh) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left forefinger. Musicologists classify it as a lamellaphone, part of the plucked idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The “Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe” was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
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Joseph H. Howard and Babatunde Olatunji have both suggested that mbira (and other metal lamellaphones) are thoroughly African, being found only in areas populated by Africans or their descendants. Similar instruments were reported to be used in Okpuje, Nsukka area of the south eastern part of Nigeria in the early 1900s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2023
Photo: David Crosby (from his Facebook page)
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialDavidCrosby/photos/
Two-Time Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Inductee David Crosby Dies At 81 // Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths
