[quote]Pinetop Perkins, the boogie-woogie piano player who worked in Muddy Waters’s last great band and was among the last surviving members of the first generation of Delta bluesmen, died on Monday at his home in Austin, Tex. He was 97…
From his days in the groups of Waters and the slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk to the vigorous solo career he fashioned over the last 20 years, Mr. Perkins’s accomplishments were numerous and considerable. His longevity as a performer was remarkable — all the more so considering his fondness for cigarettes and alcohol; by his own account he began smoking at age 9 and didn’t quit drinking until he was 82. Few people working in any popular art form have been as prolific in the ninth and tenth decades of their lives.
A sideman for most of his career, Mr. Perkins did not release an album under his own name until his 75th year. From then until his death he made more than a dozen records on which he was the leader. His 2008 album, “Pinetop Perkins & Friends” (Telarc), included contributions from admirers like B. B. King and Eric Clapton. His last album, released in 2010, was “Joined at the Hip” (Telarc), a collaboration with the harmonica player Willie Big Eyes Smith.
Mr. Perkins’s durability was born of the resilience and self-reliance he developed as a child growing up on a plantation in Honey Island, Miss., in the years leading up to the Great Depression.
“I grew up hard,” he said in a 2008 interview with No Depression, the American roots music magazine. “I picked cotton and plowed with the mule and fixed the cars and played with the guitar and the piano.”
“What I learned I learned on my own,” he continued. “I didn’t have much school. Three years…”[/quote]
She wasn’t famous, but I think she deserves a mention here. In my mind, she died a hero.
[quote]Taylor Anderson spent more than two years overseas, fulfilling her longtime dream to live in Japan, immerse herself in Asian culture and befriend new people.
Anderson’s body was found 10 days after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the coastal city where she taught English. The 24-year-old woman was last seen riding her bike away from an elementary school after making sure students were safe following the earthquake.[/quote]
[quote]Geraldine A. Ferraro, who earned a place in history in 1984 as the first woman to run on a major party national ticket for vice president, has died. She was 75-years-old…
Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro earned a place in history as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a [U.S.] major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket. Mondale chose her to run with him against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush…[/quote]
Just saw a strange typo in the Tulsa paper. Mexican composer Daniel Catandies while working on new opera tulsaworld.com/news/article. … rss_lnk=11
I was trying to understand it for a long time.
Oh, I thought the above post would be about Grete Waitz, who won the first marathon she ever ran – the NY Marathon – in a world record time, then went on to win it 8 more times, in addition to scores of other marathon wins, world championships and olympic medals.
Ooph! Tim Hetherington, co-producer of the brilliant documentary on a group of US soldiers in a forward fire base in Afghanistan, Restrepo. Also covered many other conflicts.
