Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM
Saxophonist, Sonic Explorer Casey Benjamin Dies at 45
Casey Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer who stamped his distinctive sounds on the…
Educator and performer Mick Goodrick was the author of The Advancing Guitarist, a seminal text for young players.
(Photo: ECM Records)
Writer, arranger, improviser and multi-instrumentalist David Ornette Cherry in 2019
(Photo: DownBeat Archive)Keiko Okuya Jones: 1937–2022
Keiko Okuya Jones, widow of the hall-of-fame drummer and bandleader Elvin Jones, passed away Sept. 26 in the Manhattan apartment she shared with Jones for many years. She was 85.
Her death from a stroke was confirmed by her stepson Elvin Nathan Jones and drummer Alvin Queen, a longtime friend of Elvin and Keiko Jones.
Keiko Okuya was born in Nagasaki, Japan, on April 8, 1937, daughter to a father in the footwear business. She studied classical piano and was influenced by her father’s love of American jazz. In 1966, he joined with a number of similarly inspired Japanese jazz fans to help organize a drummer-led tour that featured Art Blakey, Tony Williams and Elvin Jones as headliners. On this tour, Elvin and Keiko met and fell in love.
She returned with him to New York City in early 1967. Pivoting from his years as a sideman (including five legendary years with John Coltrane) to becoming a bandleader, Jones’ career blossomed. Many friends and musicians still credit Keiko’s resolve, unflinching devotion and business acumen in helping Jones revive his career. All the while she faced disrespect in a system that still deals unkindly with women and those who speak English as a second language.
In 1971, they married and remained together until Jones’ passing in 2004. Keiko served as his business partner and personal gatekeeper, tour manager and drum technician. She is credited as composer or arranger of a few tunes he recorded (“Mr. Jones,” “The Children’s Merry-Go-Round March” and “Shinjitsu,” for example).
“I feel like my husband is still living with me since May 18th,” she said in a rare public statement at the 2004 Jazz Journalists Association Awards. “I still make him breakfast every day, and I have been a great friend of his since I met him many years ago in Japan. Carrying on for him is a mighty responsibility.”
Keiko and Elvin had no children of their own. She is survived by two stepchildren, Elvin Nathan Jones and Rose-Marie Jones, and by unnamed relatives in Japan, from whom she was estranged.
Mick Goodrick: 1945–2022
Mick Goodrick, acclaimed guitarist and jazz educator, passed away Nov. 16. He was 77. Goodrick taught at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, and he was the author of The Advancing Guitarist, a seminal text for young players.
Goodrick became interested in jazz while attending a Stan Kenton Band Camp. He went to Berklee, toured with Gary Burton, then returned to Berklee to settle into a career in education.
Some of his students included John Scofield, Mike Stern, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Lage Lund.
As a performer, Goodrick worked with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Jack DeJohnette and Steve Swallow.
His death was said to be a result of Parkinson’s Disease.
David Ornette Cherry: 1958–2022
David Ornette Cherry, the pianist/multi-instrumentalist son of Don Cherry, passed away after an asthma attack on Nov. 20 in his London hotel following a performance. He was 64.
Cherry grew up in Watts, California, and took up music at an early age. He was born the same year Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry recorded their first album, Something Else. The ambient music streaming through his childhood was generated by the early collaborations of his father with Coleman and the musicians who visited his parents’ Mariposa Avenue home in Los Angeles. He took up music seriously and began performing with his father at the age of 16.
A writer, arranger and improviser, Cherry won the 2003 ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music.
His influences came from jazz, classical, African and world music, as well as from playing with some of the greatest jazz artists in history. He also trained young musicians in world music, theory and piano.
Mark R. Feldman: 1940–2022
Mark R. Feldman, M.D., founder of Reservoir Records, passed away on Dec. 6 in New York after a short illness. He was 82.
Feldman was born Oct. 9, 1940, in Kingston, New York, graduating from University of Buffalo and Faculte de Medecine at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
Feldman was a true connoisseur of jazz. His love of the genre began as a teenager, and his knowledge became encyclopedic. He began producing records in the early 1980s and garnered three Grammy nominations under the Uptown Records label. He founded Reservoir Music in 1987 and recorded 97 titles that have been admired globally. DB
Benjamin possessed a fluid, round sound on the alto saxophone, and he was often most recognizable by the layers of electronic effects that he put onto the instrument.
Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM
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