Rick Laird was an Irish bassist working in jazz and best-known for his work with Mahavishnu Orchestra.
He is featured on the oft-sampled “You Know You Know” (1971, above) by Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Tag Archives: 1941
RIP Bertrand Tavernier (1941 – 2021)
Bertrand Tavernier is known for such films as Death Watch (1980), a French science fiction film in which Romy Schneider plays a dying woman whose death is recorded on national television in an ongoing soap opera of morbid reality television.
RIP Jessica Walter (1941 – 2021)
Jessica Walter was an American actress best known for Play Misty for Me (1971) in which she was Evelyn Draper, an obsessed female fan of a radio disc jockey played by Clint Eastwood.
RIP Milford Graves (1941 – 2021)
Milford Graves was an American musician and artist known for such albums as Nommo (1967), an album featured in the “Top Ten Free Jazz Underground” (1995), a list by Thurston Moore.
RIP Chick Corea (1941 – 2021)
Chick Corea was a legendary American composer working in jazz, mainly playing keyboards.
He is a celebrated name in jazz fusion, but he never actively appeared on my radar.
So, I give you “Was Dog a Doughnut?” (1977) by Cat Stevens on which Chick plays keyboards. This did came to my attention in the period when I was researching late 20th century nightclub music.
RIP Michael Apted (1941 – 2021)
Michael Apted is a British director famous for a body of diverse films.
I give you Up (1964 – today).
The Up Series is a series of documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old.
So far the documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49 years (one episode every seven years).
The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child’s social class predetermines their future.
RIP Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020)
Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of Strata-East Records.
Strata-East Records first gained notoriety outside the world of jazz after the British label Soul Jazz Records put out three anthologies of their recordings in the 1994-1997 period.
I give you “Travelin’ Man” (1974) in its first version.
Has anyone besides me noticed the likeness to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes?
RIP Bunny Lee (1941 – 2020)
Bunny Lee was a Jamaican record producer and one of the major forces in the Jamaican music industry, producing hits throughout his long career.
His song “Wet Dream”, interpreted by Max Romeo, became popular in 1968 despite being banned on the BBC; and Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby” would be covered by the Rolling Stones.
Lee also produced the perennial riddim “My Conversation”.
The compilation ‘If Deejay Was Your Trade’ (1994), which was the debut release of the reggae compilation label Blood and Fire, consists of a selection of his productions from the period 1974-1977.
The documentary ‘I Am The Gorgon – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and the Roots of Reggae’ is in full on YouTube.
RIP Itaru Oki (1941 – 2020)
Itaru Oki was a Japanese jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist.
He was part of the French Opération Rhino collective and as such appeared on the famous Nurse with Wound list.
RIP André Stordeur (1941 – 2020)
André Stordeur was a Belgian musician.
To be honest, I’d never heard of Stordeur.
He did the soundtrack to Office Baroque (1977) but that’s not on YouTube.
There is, however, a fine selection of his recordings by Sub Rosa Records on YouTube.
Once again it is clear that electronic popular music (Telex) and electronic art music (Stordeur) are miles apart. That there is no overlap in audience nor in historiography between the likes of art music electronic music practitioners such as Stordeur and counterparts such as Telex who work in the popular idiom.