Dead Celebrity Alert

A female singer was found dead in her house in southern Seoul, Sunday, with the exact cause of her death remaining unknown. …

Eom, who released her debut album “The Story of 12 Love” last year, had worked as a flight attendant for more than a year. She started singing professionally following a recommendation from an entertainment agent who was on a flight she was working on.

Her agent said Eom suffered from depression and anthropophobia — a pathological fear of people — last year after her debut was not as successful as she hoped. They said she had started working on her second album two months ago. … Read full obituary

On what should have been one of the happiest days of their musical careers, Fort Collins band Tickle Me Pink was mourning the loss of one of its own.

Tuesday morning TMP bassist Johnny Schou, 22, was found dead of unknown causes at the band’s Fort Collins home just hours before the group was to appear at a Denver in-store event celebrating Tuesday’s release of its major-label debut CD, “Madeline.” …

An autopsy Tuesday was inconclusive, and there was no obvious cause of death, said Larimer County Chief Deputy Coroner Diane Fairman. Further examination, including toxicology and microbiology tests, will be necessary, but it could be weeks before a cause of death is known.

Those in the Colorado music scene were stunned and saddened by the loss. … Read full obituary

April 16, 1964 - June 14, 2008

Few bands demonstrated that jazz is no longer an exclusively American art form better than the trio led by the Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson. Mixing sparkling and virtuoso performances of jazz standards by the likes of Thelonious Monk with programmes of entirely original material, EST (as the trio were known) blurred the boundaries between jazz and both rock and classical music. They were widely regarded as Europe’s leading contemporary jazz group. Performances were brilliantly tailored to their audiences so that deeply-felt romantic ballads had the grey heads nodding in approval at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham whereas their gritty urban funk propelled by the drumming of Magnus Öström, with howling electronic bass effects from Dan Berglund, turned the Miles Davis Hall at Montreux into a teeming, sweaty mosh-pit for 18 to 25-year-olds.

At the heart of everything they did was Svensson’s piano playing…

The band had just finished recording its twelfth album, Leucocyte, and were about to begin an international tour encompassing this summer’s Edinburgh and Brecon jazz festivals. Svensson was scuba diving with a group in the Stockholm archipelago when he was found severely injured on the seabed. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. … Read full obituary

March 19, 1913 - February 14, 2008

Country and Western singer and entertainer dubbed ‘Australia’s first cowboy’, who became the world’s oldest recording artist

Smoky Dawson was one of Australia’s most enduringly popular entertainers. He was a western singer before it was coupled with country and was dubbed Australia’s first cowboy. He went on to become the world’s oldest recording artist. He made his first record, I’m a Happy Go Lucky Cowhand, in 1941 and his last, Homestead of My Dreams, in 2005, when he was 92, although a DVD featuring new performances was completed just before his death. … Read full obituary

Hugh Jarrett’s distinctive bass voice imbued Elvis Presley classics with unparalleled richness.

Mr. Jarrett, a member of the famed Jordanaires quartet, sang backup for Mr. Presley on “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Love Me Tender,” “All Shook Up,” “Jailhouse Rock” and “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.”

Mr. Jarrett and the Jordanaires recorded 50 albums with Mr. Presley. He toured with the king of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s and in 1970 and acted in his movies. He was part of Mr. Presley’s famous waist-up appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1956. A skinny, beaming Mr. Jarrett wearing a plaid sport coat can be seen just over and behind Mr. Presley’s left shoulder, hand-clapping, finger-snapping and swaying to the music. … Read full obituary

December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008

“I don’t sound like nobody!” was Bo Diddley’s maxim in the 1950s, but over the decades dozens have tried to sound like him. Often imitated but not always acknowledged, the influence of the Bo Diddley beat — driving and relentless like the chant of a chain gang — is heard clearest and most famously on the Rolling Stones’ Not Fade Away. But that sound, which Bo Diddley called his “tradesman’s knock”, is just as discernible on U2’s Desire, or versions of the garage classic I Want Candy recorded by the Strangeloves and Bow Wow Wow two decades apart, or on George Michael’s Faith.

Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry aside, arguably none of the first generation of American rock’n’rollers had a greater impact on the subsequent course of popular music. Along with Berry, Diddley was also one of the first black performers to “cross over” and enjoy success in the predominantly white pop chart of the time. Among the classic singles to his name, all driven by the primitive but irresistible beat he likened to a freight train, were Diddy Wah Diddy, Who Do You Love?, Mona, You Can’t Judge a Book by Looking at its Cover, Road Runner and Say Man. The latter gave him his biggest American hit, but he also had a huge influence on the British beat boom of the 1960s. In addition to the Rolling Stones, those who covered his songs included the Kinks, the Animals, Manfred Mann and the Yardbirds, while the Pretty Things named themselves after one of his songs. … Read full obituary

Alexander “Sandy” Courage, an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and composer who created the otherworldly theme for the classic “Star Trek” TV show … died May 15 at the Sunrise assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades…

Over a decades-long career, Courage collaborated on dozens of movies and orchestrated some of the greatest musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, including “My Fair Lady,” “Hello, Dolly!” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Gigi,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

But his most famous work is undoubtedly the “Star Trek” theme, which he composed, arranged and conducted in a week in 1965. …

He and Lionel Newman shared Academy Award nominations for their adapted scores for 1964’s “The Pleasure Seekers” and 1967’s “Doctor Dolittle.”

A friend and colleague of movie composers John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, he also provided the orchestration for such movies as “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Jurassic Park,” “Basic Instinct” and “The Mummy” and supplied arrangements for the Boston Pops while Williams was conductor in the 1980s and early 1990s. … Read full obituary

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Jim Hager, one of the Hager Twins who satirized country life with cornball one-liners on TV’s “Hee Haw,” died in Nashville, the show’s producer said Friday. He was 66.

Hager was at a coffee shop when he collapsed Thursday, Sam Lovullo said. He said he had been told that by Jon Hager, the surviving twin. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he had been taken, gave no details on the cause of death.

The twins, who were also guitarists and drummers, rose to national fame as original cast members of the TV show in 1969. With its mixture of music and country-flavored humor, the show was a huge hit. … Read full obituary

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Paul Davis, a singer and songwriter whose soft rock hit “I Go Crazy” stayed on the charts for months after its release in 1977, died Tuesday. He was 60.

Davis died of a heart attack at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, the city where he grew up, cousin James Edwards said.

Davis’ other popular hits included “65 Love Affair;” “You’re Still New To Me,” a country duet with Marie Osmond; and “Ride ‘Em Cowboy.” … Read full obituary

Al Wilson, the soul singer and songwriter who had a number of 1970s hits including “Show and Tell,” has died. He was 68.

Wilson died Monday of kidney failure at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana [California], according to his son, Tony Wilson of Yucaipa. …

In 1966, he was spotted by manager Marc Gordon, who introduced him to singer Johnny Rivers, who signed him to his Soul City label. Wilson’s first single, “The Snake” in 1968, was a hit and was followed by “Do What You Gotta Do.” … Read full obituary

Actor, writer and musician Gordon Clyde was known to radio listeners for his satircal and topical piano and song spots on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Woman’s Hour. He also had his own weekly show on the BBC World Service.

Television viewers knew him best as the interviewer on the long running Dick Emery Show and throughout the 1960s he was one of Play School’s most popular childrens presenters. …

He later became involved with corporate presentations and his other television appearances included The Morecambe and Wise Show, No Hiding Place, and Are You Being Served?

During his career he wrote for many comedians such as Ronnie Corbett, Phil Silvers, Harry Secombe and Joan Turner. …

Gordon Clyde, actor, writer and musician, was born on May 22, 1933. He died on January 26, 2008, aged 75 … Read full obituary

Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band’s sound on hits from “Hungry Heart” through “The Rising,” died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen’s official Web site.

According to published reports, Federici last performed with Springsteen and the band March 20, appearing during portions of a show in Indianapolis, Indiana. …

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band. … Read full obituary

[Bob Kames was] … the man credited with the modern-day version of “Dance Little Bird,” better known as “The Chicken Dance.” He operated his Bob Kames Wonderful World of Music stores here for 42 years. He performed professionally, including a stint with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. He produced his own television specials and recorded more than 70 albums.

Kames, who had struggled with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, died Wednesday [April 9, 2008] of prostate cancer. He was 82. …

In 1949, he composed a pop tune, calling it, “You Are My One True Love,” based on a Polish folk song. … It was picked up by London Records in England, becoming a huge hit. …

Kames went on to make his “Happy Organ” and other albums. In 1966, he produced his first television show, “The Bob Kames Family Room,” and other specials followed over the next 17 years. …

As for that “Chicken Dance,” even a self-promoter like Kames couldn’t quite believe how it caught on. … Read full obituary

DALLAS, Ga. — Police are investigating the apparent suicide of a former drummer for Michigan rocker Ted Nugent.

Corporal Brandon Gurley with the Paulding County Sheriff’s department says 59-year-old Clifford Davies was found dead from a gunshot wound in his suburban Atlanta home Sunday. …

Reed Beaver, who owns Equametric Studio in Marietta where Davies was a chief engineer, confirmed Davies was a drummer for Nugent and played on his trademark recording “Cat Scratch Fever.”

Beaver says Davies called him Saturday “extremely distraught” over medical bills. … Read full story

Found dead in an Atlanta hotel room today, April 15, 2008. No obituary links so far but you can read his bio here:

“I love playing the guitar,” Sean Costello is prone to say. “As a kid I was definitely obsessive over the instrument,” the twenty-five year-old explains, “and for years I felt I could express myself better through the guitar with my own voice. But right now I’m equally driven towards writing songs and expanding my vocal direction,” he adds.

Costello was born in Philadelphia in 1979 and moved with his family to Atlanta at the age of 9. Soon after, he picked up the guitar. By 14 he had won the Memphis Blues Society’s talent award and was already on the road with his own band. In 1996, the 17 year-old released his first album, Call The Cops. Real Blues Magazine called it “an explosive debut.” Around this time Costello joined up with fellow blues guitarist Susan Tedeschi, touring with her and laying down some exuberant lead guitar work on her Gold-certified Tone-Cool debut Just Won’t Burn. … Read full bio