Carlton Jackson passes away: Beloved drummer, band leader, broadcaster icon,...
Carlton Jackson, drummer, bandleader, teacher, broadcaster and a beloved. pillar of Oregon's music community passed away over the weekend. No details at the moment. He had just turned sixty years of...
View ArticleThe Last of the True Believers: A Farewell to Nanci Griffith
The news of folk singer Nanci Griffith's death struck me like one of her songs, a gentle arrow straight to the heart. She was 68. Her management company, in keeping with her low-profile style,...
View ArticleBill Royston, Founder of Portland Jazz Festival passed away on Thursday 10/14/21
Bill Royston, strong-willed, controversial founder of the Portland Jazz Festival, always armed with prodigious taste in and understanding of music passed away on Friday, October 15, 2021. He had...
View ArticleShawn Levy : Poems inspired by obituaries./ Coffeeshop Conversations @...
Shawn Levy has a new book, not one of his show biz blockbusters, but…get the concept, poems he wrote inspired by the obituary pages of the New York Times. That’s what it says on the cover. I am...
View ArticlePortland Music Scene Mourns Musician/Technician John C. 'Chuck'...
“He had a lot of friends, and to me that is what makes a person successful” Steve BondWally’s Music Service, Washington Street in Oregon City I park in front of a squat cement building crusted with...
View ArticleSam Henry: A remembrance from a bandmate.
My first conscious brush with Sam and his music came sometime in the mid-1980s. I was a teenager living in a small town on the Oregon coast, and I was starved for music. I had recently discovered the...
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RIP Inessa Anderson: The most beautiful voice in radio passes away, three...
Former KINK host, Music Director at Portland Radio Project who also had a lively, musical blog which we also ran on OMN passed away las night. Her beloved daughter Marika wrote this today: "On...
View ArticleA Coffeeshop Conversation with Inessa from 2015
We’re taking a pause this week to remember an important and beloved part of Oregon’s music community. On March 9th Inessa Anderson passed away, three weeks after her husband Wayne also left us. She...
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Greg "Slim LIvely" Johnson, passes away. Headed up the Cascade Blues Association
Cherie posted this on Facebook today: I don’t know how to say this in an easy or any less painful way so I’m just going to say it. My love, my husband, my best friend Greg Slim Lively Johnson passed...
View ArticleRemembering Greg Johnson
The Portland Blues Community lost their #1 advocate , Greg Johnson, on March 24th. Greg had been the president of the Cascade Blues Association for several decades and helped keep Portland as one of...
View ArticleRemembering Kelly Joe Phelps
It was 1993 and I had been encouraged to go see a new talent play by several friends. His name was Kelly Joe Phelps, an acoustic blues guitar player. The noisy club he was playing at in Vancouver...
View ArticlePharoah Sanders, passes away at 81. From OMN 2010, His Backstage Backstory...
Composer/saxophonist Pharoah Sanders passed away this weekend. Here is a story about this visit to the Portland Jazz Festival from OMN, March 1, 2010 - - - - - - - - - Devin Phillips introduced Pharoah...
View ArticleEnd of the Road: Jerry Lee Lewis: Thoughts on the Killer from David Vest
The way is dark The night is long I don't care If I ever get home I'm waiting At the end of the road. Jerry Lee Lewis, the unkillable Killer, is gone. Even his death was pure show-biz, with one...
View ArticleTomas Svoboda, dead at 82: Concert honoring him plus an OMN interview from...
Composer/pianist and long-time Portlander Tomas Svoboda passed away on November 17, 2022. He had a massive stroke in 2012. According to his Wikipedia page, "His music is performed worldwide and...
View ArticleDavid Ornette Cherry passed away on November 20 / Watch an OMN video...
David Ornette Cherry, citizen of the world, multi-instrumentalist, composer, poet and friend passed away in his hotel in London following performing a concert. He said this about himself: “I have been...
View ArticleRamsey Embick remembers Anita Pointer and her sisters
I first met Anita Pointer on the third day of rehearsal for their show (The Pointer Sisters) in summer 1980 and somehow they made me feel that they were auditioning for me. Humility would be the term....
View ArticleDoug Rowell remembrance by Pat McDougall
As we all deal with this painful loss, here’s yet another [long] Doug Rowell story. Back in October I had managed to get basic tracks recorded for the 11 songs I was planning to include on my upcoming...
View ArticleWayne Shorter: A musical obituary by Christopher Woitach, Paull K. Ward and...
Wayne Shorter, prominent and influential jazz tenor saxophonist, and composer, passed away on March 2, 2023, at the age of 89, after a long, active life playing and shaping America’s great musical...
View ArticleDarcelle passes away at age 92.
Last night, on Darcelle's Facebook page came this announcement: "The family of Darcelle XV along with her cast and crew are heartbroken to announce that our beloved Darcelle (Walter W. Cole, Sr.) has...
View ArticleGordon Lightfoot, Schnitzer Auditorium, November 2010
Gordon Lightfoot died in Toronto, his birthplace, on Monday May 1, 2023; he was 84.
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