Herb Ellis died he was 88

Mitchell Herbert (Herb) Ellis was an American jazz guitarist died he was 88.

(August 4, 1921 - March 28, 2010[1])

Growing up on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, Ellis first heard the electric guitar performed by George Barnes on a radio program. This experience is said to have inspired him to take up the guitar. He became proficient on the instrument by the time he entered North Texas State University as a music major. Ellis majored in music, but because they did not yet have a guitar program at that time, he studied the string bass. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds, his college days were short lived. In 1941 Herb dropped out of college and toured for 6 months with a band from the University of Kansas.
In 1943 joined Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra and it was with Gray's band that he got his first recognition in the jazz magazines. After Gray's band, Ellis joined the Jimmy Dorsey band where he played some of his first recorded solos. Ellis remained with Dorsey through 1947, traveling and recording extensively, and playing in dance halls and movie palaces. Then came a turnabout that would change Ellis's career forever. Then, as pianist Lou Carter told journalist Robert Dupuis in a 1996 interview, "The Dorsey band had a six-week hole in the schedule. The three of us had played together some with the big band. John Frigo, who had already left the band, knew the owner of the Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Buffalo. We went in there and stayed six months. And that's how the group the Soft Winds were born."





The Soft Winds was fashioned after the Nat King Cole Trio. They stayed together until 1952. Herb Ellis then joined the Oscar Peterson Trio (replacing Barney Kessel), forming what Scott Yanow would later on refer to as "one of the most memorable of all the piano, guitar, and bass trios in jazz history".



Ellis became prominent after performing with the Oscar Peterson Trio from 1953 to 1958 along with pianist Peterson and bassist Ray Brown. He was a somewhat controversial member of the trio, because he was the only white person in the group in a time when racism was still very much widespread.
In addition to their great live and recorded work as the Oscar Peterson Trio, this unit served as the virtual "house rhythm section" for Norman Granz's Verve Records, supporting the likes of tenormen Ben Webster and Stan Getz, as well as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, and Sweets Edison and other jazz stalwarts. With drummer Buddy Rich, they were also the backing band for popular "comeback" albums by the duet of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
The trio were also the mainstays of Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts as they swept the jazz world, almost constantly touring the United States and Europe. Ellis left the Peterson Trio in November 1958, to be replaced not by a guitarist, but by drummer Ed Thigpen. The years of 1959 through 1960 found Ellis touring with Ella Fitzgerald.
The three provided a stirring rendition of "Tenderly" as a jazz improvisational backdrop to John Hubley's 1958 cartoon The Tender Game, Storyboard Film's version of the age-old story of boy falling head over heels for girl.^[2]
With fellow jazz guitarists Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd and Joe Pass, he created another ensemble, the Great Guitars.




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Johnny Maestro, Brooklyn Bridge Singer, Dies at 70

Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge (or simply The Brooklyn Bridge) is an American musical group, best known for their rendition of Jimmy Webb’s "The Worst That Could Happen" (1968).

(born John Mastrangelo; May 7, 1939 – March 24, 2010)

Brooklyn-born Johnny Maestro began his career in 1957 as the original lead singer of The Crests, one of the first interracial groups of the recording industry. ^{[1] [2]} Patricia VanDross, older sister to famed R&B singer Luther Vandross sang with Johnny Maestro during his tenure as lead vocalists with The Crests. After a regional hit with "My Juanita"/"Sweetest One" on the Joyce label, and two years of chart success on Coed Records with "16 Candles", "Step by Step", "The Angels Listened In", and "Trouble in Paradise", Maestro left the Crests for a solo career. Maestro was unable to reach his former chart heights with the Crests, but did have Top 40 hits with "What A Surprise" and "Model Girl" in 1961 and 1962.

By 1967, another New York group called the Del-Satins, who had made several non-charting recordings between 1959 and 1967 under their own name (and backing up Dion on his post-Belmonts recordings), were looking for a new lead singer to replace original lead Stan Ziska. Other members were brothers Fred and Tom Ferrara (baritone and bass), Les Cauchi (first tenor) and Bobby Failla (second tenor). According to Cauchi, members of the group ran into Maestro at a local gym, playing his guitar, and approached him with the offer to join the group. After initially turning them down, Maestro's manager called Cauchi and told him Maestro had changed his mind.^{[citation needed]}

In 1968, after touring locally and playing in clubs and small venues, the Del-Satins attended a "Battle of the Bands" and encountered a seven piece brass group named the Rhythm Method. Impressed with each other's skills and talents, the groups decided to try to join forces. The name supposedly came from the joke that the group would be "harder to sell than the Brooklyn Bridge".^{[citation needed]}

Johnny and the Bridge rehearsed their unusual combination of smooth vocal harmonies and full horns, and signed a recording contract with Buddha records. Their first release, a version of the Jimmy Webb song "The Worst That Could Happen" (a note-for-note cover of the version previously recorded by The 5th Dimension on the album The Magic Garden, which had not been released as a single), reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. The follow up, "Welcome Me Love", and its flip side, Blessed is the Rain — both by Tony Romeo —^[3] each reached the Top 50. A dramatic version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the controversial "Your Husband, My Wife" also reached the middle ranges of the charts. The group sold over 10 million records by 1972, including LP sales, mostly produced by Wes Farrell. Appearances on Ed Sullivan, The Della Reese Show and other programs helped to bring the group to the national stage.

After its heyday, The Brooklyn Bridge downsized to a five-man group, with the vocalists playing their own instruments. For example, Maestro could be seen on stage playing rhythm guitar, while former Rhythm Method bassist Jim Rosica picked up a vocal part. Later in the 1970s, as the Rock and Roll Revival evolved from a nostalgic fad to a respected genre, the group began to add members, retaining its core vocalists. By 1985, the group had solidified into an eight piece group, including original Del Satins Cauchi and Fred Ferrara and original Bridge member Rosica, and augmented by a horn section for special occasions. The drummer for the current line up Lou Agiesta, was the drummer for the original American touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar.

The later version of the Brooklyn Bridge released a Christmas EP in 1989 and a greatest hits compilation in 1993, re-recording Maestro's hits with The Crests. In the early 1990s, Maestro moonlighted as the background tenor on Joel Katz's studio project CD "Joel & the Dymensions" (which also featured baritone-bass Bobby Jay). In 1994, The Brooklyn Bridge recorded a 10-song a cappella CD.

Recently, the Brooklyn Bridge was featured in one of PBS's biggest fundraising events ever, "Doo Wop 50", performing both "Sixteen Candles" and "The Worst That Could Happen" (the entire program was released on VHS and DVD). In 2005, the Brooklyn Bridge released a full concert-length DVD as part of the "Pops Legends Live" series. They continue to tour and in 2004 released a CD titled "Today", featuring more re-recordings of their hits and versions of other groups' songs of the 1950s and 60's.

The Brooklyn Bridge was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame with the class of 2005.

The Brooklyn Bridge were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006. On March 31, 2009 Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge released Today Volume 2.

Johnny Maestro died on March 24, 2010 from cancer in Cape Coral, Florida at age 70.^[4]

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Chet Simmons died he was 81

Chester Robert "Chet" Simmons died he was 81. Simmons was an American sports executive, working at three different television networks sports divisions (first ABC, later becoming President of NBC Sports, and then in 1979 becoming the first President of ESPN) before becoming the first Commissioner of the United States Football League in 1982.

(July 11, 1928 – March 25, 2010)

Born in New York City on July 11, 1928, Simmons was raised in Ossining, New York and Pawtucket, Rhode Island.^[1] His love for sports began when he was a child listening to Brooklyn Dodgers games on the family car's radio.^[2] He graduated first with a bachelor's degree in broadcasting from the University of Alabama in 1950, then a Master of Science in television from Boston University.^[3] He served in the United States Coast Guard after completing his graduate studies.^[4] His first employment following his military stint was at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample.^[1]
Simmons' television broadcasting management career began in 1957 when he accepted an invitation from Edgar Scherick to join Sports Programs Inc.,^[1] which would evolve into ABC Sports four years later.^[4] Called by colleague Roone Arledge "the sanest of my office mates," Simmons played a major role in laying the groundwork for establishing ABC as American television's leading network for sports.^[1]
Simmons also worked for NBC Sports of which he was also the president at one time.
Slightly more than five weeks prior to ESPN's official launch on September 7, 1979, Simmons became its founding president and chief operating officer on July 31.^[5] He left ESPN in 1982 over differences with executives from Getty Oil, at the time the network's parent company which was losing millions of dollars a year on the venture.^[1]
Simmons was appointed the first commissioner of the United States Football League a month after its formation in 1982. Due to his background in the medium, a drawback of the hiring was that it further fueled the perception that the new circuit was a "made for television" entity. One of the USFL's first accomplishments under his watch was the signing of a two-year contract with ESPN. It was the cable network's first-ever agreement with a sports league to televise select regular-season games. The USFL also had a two-year deal with ABC, but it was consummated before Simmons' hiring.^[6][7]
The league incurred heavy financial losses in its first two campaigns. Even though he worked closely to help promote each of the franchises, Simmons increasingly came under fire from some club owners for failing to negotiate a more lucrative network television deal. Prior to the 1985 season, the contract with ESPN was renewed for three years. ABC, knowing that the USFL was moving to an autumn schedule in 1986 in direct competition with the more-established National Football League, picked up only one of its two one-year options.^[6]
Simmons resigned as USFL commissioner on January 14, 1985. He was succeeded by Harry Usher, an attorney who had served as the executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee.^[6]
Simmons resided in Savannah, Georgia from 1986 until his move to Tybee Island in the mid-1990s.^[2] He was an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, where he taught and mentored students in its Department of Sport & Entertainment Management.^[3] Simmons died of natural causes in Atlanta, Georgia on March 25, 2010.^[8]



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Dick Giordano died he was 77

Dick Giordano died he was 77. He was born Richard Joseph Giordano; ^[2]) Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then industry-leader DC Comics. As an inker, Giordano is well known for his pairings with penciler Neal Adams in a series of critically acclaimed comics featuring Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow.

(July 20, 1932[1] – March 27, 2010)

Dick Giordano was born in New York City, in the borough of Manhattan. Beginning as a freelance artist at Charlton Comics in 1952, Giordano rose to editor-in-chief by 1965.^[3] He made his first mark in the industry with Charlton, overseeing the revamping of its few existing superheroes and having his artists and writers create new such characters for what he called the company's "Action Hero" line. (Many of these artists included new talent Giordano brought on board, featuring such names as Jim Aparo, Denny O'Neil, and Steve Skeates.)^[3]

DC Comics' then-publisher Carmine Infantino hired Giordano as an editor in 1967, with Giordano also bringing over to DC many of the creators he had nurtured at Charlton.^[3] While none of his titles (such as Bat Lash and Deadman) were a commercial hit, they were critical successes.

By 1971 Giordano had left DC to partner with artist Neal Adams for their Continuity Associates studios, which served as an art packager for comic book publishers, including such companies as Giordano's former employer Charlton Comics,^[4] Marvel Comics, and the one-shot Big Apple Comix. Continuity served as the launching pad for the careers of a number of professional cartoonists, many of whom were mentored by Giordano during their time there.

As a penciller, he drew numerous Batman and Wonder Woman stories for DC, as well as the martial arts feature "Sons of the Tiger" in Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.

In 1980 new DC publisher Jenette Kahn brought Giordano back to DC.^[5] Initially the editor of the Batman titles, Giordano was named the company's new managing editor in 1981,^[6] and promoted to Vice President/Executive Editor in 1983 (a position he held until 1993).^[3] With Kahn and Paul Levitz, Giordano helped relaunch such major characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the Justice League of America, and the Teen Titans. By the end of the 1980s, they had also created the critically acclaimed, mature-audience Vertigo imprint, under initial editor Karen Berger, and began an influx of British talent such as Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

During this period, until he left the company, Giordano wrote a monthly column published in DC titles called "Meanwhile..." which (much like Marvel's "Bullpen Bulletins") featured news and information about the company and its creators. (Giordano closed each "Meanwhile..." column with the characteristic words, "Thank you and good afternoon.") Giordano also continued to ink, such as over George Pérez's pencils on the 1986 crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, and John Byrne's pencils on The Man of Steel and Action Comics.

Beginning in 1985, Giordano was in the middle of an industry-wide debate about the comics industry and creators' rights. Veteran writers Mike Friedrich, Steven Grant, and Roger Slifer all cited Giordano in particular for his hard-line stance on behalf of DC.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} This debate led in part to the 1988 drafting of the Creator's Bill of Rights.

Giordano left DC and went into semi-retirement in 1993, still doing the occasional inking job.^[12] In 1994 Giordano illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of the novel Modesty Blaise released by DC Comics (ISBN 1-56389-178-6), with creator/writer Peter O'Donnell.

In 2002, Giordano helped launch Future Comics with writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton. Future Comics closed down after only two-and-a-half years in business in 2004.

Since 2002 he has also drawn several issues of The Phantom published in Europe and Australia. In the mid-2000s, he began sitting on the board of directors of the comic industry charity A Commitment To Our Roots (ACTOR), renamed in 2006 the Hero Initiative. In 2005, F+W Publications Inc. published Drawing Comics with Dick Giordano (which he wrote and illustrated), a book in which he shares his drawing methods and techniques that he used in comics.

[edit] Personal life

Giordano was married for many years to the former Marie Trapani (sister of fellow comics artist Sal Trapani), who died from stomach cancer in 1993.^[13] Marie's death, combined with Giordano's increasing hearing loss, hastened his decision to retire from DC.^[14]

Giordano split time between homes in Florida and Connecticut.^[3]

As an artist, Giordano is best-known as an inker. His inking is particularly associated with the pencils of Neal Adams, for their run in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the titles Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics. Giordano also inked the large-format, first DC/Marvel Comics intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), over the pencils of Ross Andru. Giordano also inked Adams on the one-shot Superman vs. Muhammad Ali in 1978. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, Andru and Giordano were DC's primary cover artists, providing cover artwork for almost every title in the DC line at that time.
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Elijah Alexander has died he was 39

Former NFL linebacker Elijah Alexander has died after a nearly five-year battle with cancer. He was 39.
Medical City Hospital spokeswoman Bianca Jackson said Alexander died Wednesday night at the Dallas facility. She declined to comment on cause of death.

Alexander was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in 2005, four years after his career ended in Oakland.




The former Kansas State player spent nine seasons with four teams. After one year with Tampa Bay in 1992, Alexander spent three seasons each in Denver and Indianapolis. He made 29 starts in 30 games for Oakland during the final two years of his career in 2000-01.
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Colleen Kay Hutchins died at age 83

Colleen Kay Hutchins , a native of Salt Lake City, Utah was crowned as Brigham Young University Homecoming Queen in 1947 with Jean Romney and Myrlene Romney as her attendants. In 1952, she was crowned as Miss America. ^[1]

(May 23, 1926 – March 24, 2010)

She is the mother of former NBA player and current interim head coach of the New Jersey Nets, Kiki Vandeweghe and grandmother of 2008 US Open - Girls Singles winner Coco Vandeweghe. She resided, until her death, with her husband Ernest Vandeweghe, a native of Canada, in Indian Wells, California.

She died on March 24, 2010 in Newport Beach, California at age 83.

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Harold McGraw, Jr.died he was 92

Harold W. McGraw Jr., the former chief executive officer of McGraw-Hill Cos. who fought off a hostile takeover of the family business, has died. He was 92.

McGraw Jr. died at his home this morning, New York-based McGraw-Hill said today in a statement. He was chairman emeritus of McGraw-Hill. His son Harold “Terry” McGraw III has led the company as CEO since 1998, adding the title of chairman in 2000.

“My father was a passionate and principled leader, who led McGraw-Hill with an educator’s heart and an insistence that the underlying principles guiding the company since its founding in 1888 -- integrity, quality, value and excellence -- would endure,” McGraw III said in the statement.

McGraw-Hill, founded in 1888 by McGraw Jr.’s grandfather James H. McGraw, owns Standard & Poor’s ratings service, an education publishing business and J.D. Power and Associates. McGraw Jr. joined the company as a book sales representative in 1947 after stints in advertising and book retailing.

McGraw Jr. ran the company as CEO from 1975 to 1983 and stayed on as chairman through 1988. During his tenure, he fought off a hostile takeover attempt by American Express in 1979. He retired in 1988 at 70 after being elected chairman emeritus.

He contributed to literacy organizations and established the Business Council for Effective Literacy. He received the Literacy Award in 1990 from President George H.W. Bush in recognition of his commitment to education.

McGraw Jr. was born in New York on Jan. 10, 1918. He graduated from Princeton University in 1940 and served as a captain in the Army Air Corps in World War II. In 1940 he married Anne Per-Lee, who died in 2002.

He is survived by three children: McGraw III, Robert P. McGraw, who is on the company’s board, and Suzanne McGraw. Another son, Thomas, died in 2006. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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