Melvin Sparks, American jazz and soul guitarist, died from a heart attack he was , 64.

Melvin Sparks  was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist died from a heart attack he was , 64.. He recorded a number of albums for Prestige Records, later recording for Savant Records. He appeared on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.

(March 22, 1946 – March 15, 2011 )

Sparks was born in Houston, Texas and raised in a musical family. He received his first guitar at age 11. Sparks began working in the rhythm and blues genre as a high school student, first with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, and then with the Upsetters, a touring band formed by Little Richard, which also backed Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.^[2]

Sparks moved to New York City and worked as a session musician for Blue Note and Prestige Records. As part of the burgeoning soul-jazz scene of the late 1960s and early '70s, Sparks often backed organists like Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Charles Earland. Sparks released his debut album, Sparks!, for Prestige in 1970.^[2]
He was seen on Northeastern television commercials as the voice of Price Chopper's House of BBQ advertising campaign.^[3]
Sparks died on March 15, 2011, at age 64, at his home in Mount Vernon, New York. He had diabetes and high blood pressure.^[2]

Discography

[edit] As leader

• Sparks! (Prestige), 1970
• Akilah! (Prestige), 1971
• Spark Plug (Prestige), 1971
• Texas Twister (Eastbound), 1972
• '75 (Westbound), 1974
• Sparkling (Muse), 1981
• I'm a Gittar Player (Cannonball), 1997
• What You Hear Is What You Get (Nectar), 2001
• It Is What It Is (Savant), 2004
• This Is It! (Savant), 2005
• Groove on Up (Savant), 2005

As sideman

With Henry "Pucho" Brown

• Jungle Strut (Lexington), 1993
• Rip a Dip (Milestone), 1995

With Rusty Bryant

• Soul Liberation (Prestige), 1970

With Hank Crawford

• Indigo Blue (Milestone), 1983
• Down on the Deuce (Milestone), 1984
• Roadside Symphony (Milestone), 1985
• Night Beat (Milestone), 1988
• South Central (Milestone), 1992
• Tight (Milestone), 1996
• After Dark (Milestone), 1998
• Crunch Time (Milestone), 1998
• The World of H.C. (Milestone), 2000

With Dennis Day

• All Things in Time (D-Day Media), 2008

With Joey DeFrancesco

• All in the Family (Highnote), 1998
• Plays Sinatra His Way (Highnote), 1998
• Hip Cake Walk (Highnote), 2000

With Lou Donaldson

• Hot Dog (Blue Note), 1969
• Everything I Play Is Funky (Blue Note), 1969
• The Scorpion (Cadet, 1970)
• Cosmos (Blue Note, 1971)

With Charles Earland

• Black Talk! (Prestige), 1969
• Slammin' and Jammin' (Savant), 1997
• Cookin' with the Mighty Burner (Highnote), 1997

With Ceasar Frazier

• Hail Ceasar! (Eastbound), 1972

With Red Holloway

• Coast to Coast (Milestone), 2003

With Plas Johnson

• Keep That Groove Going! (Milestone), 2000

With Etta Jones

• If You Could See Me Now (Muse), 1978

With Charles Kynard

• Wa-tu-wa-zui (Prestige), 1970

With Ron Levy

• Zim Zam Zoom: Acid Blues on B-3 (Bullseye Blues), 1996
• Voodoo Boogaloo (Levtronic), 2005

With Johnny Lytle

• Good Vibes (Muse), 1981
• Happy Ground (Muse), 1989

With Jack McDuff

• Do It Now (Atlantic), 1966
• Double-Barelled Soul (Atlantic), 1967

With Jimmy McGriff

• Countdown (Milestone), 1983
• State of the Art (Milestone), 1985
• Blue to the Bone (Milestone), 1988
• McGriff Avenue (Milestone), 2001

With Idris Muhammad

• Black Rhythm Revolution (Prestige), 1970
• Peace and Rhythm Suite (Prestige), 1971

With John Patton

• Soul Connection (Nilva), 1983

With Houston Person

• The Nearness of You (Muse), 1977
• Heavy Juice (Muse), 1982
• We Owe It All for Love (Baseline), 1988

With Sonny Phillips

• Black Magic (Prestige), 1970
• Black on Black (Prestige), 1970

With Bernard Purdie

• In Tokyo (Lexington), 1993

With Alvin Queen

• Lenox and Seventh (Black and Blue), 1985

With Rhoda Scott

• Very Saxy (Night and Day), 2004

With Lonnie Smith

• Think! (Blue Note), 1968
• Turning Point (Blue Note), 1969

With Leon Spencer

• Sneak Preview (Prestige), 1970
• Louisiana Slim (Prestige), 1971
• Bad Walkin' Woman (Prestige), 1972

With Dakota Staton

• A Packet of Love Letters (Highnote), 1996

With Tom "T Bone" Stinson

• On Fire (Golden Zebra), 2004

With Sonny Stitt

• Turn It On (Prestige), 1971

With Leon Thomas

• Bluesband (Portrait), 1988

With Reuben Wilson

• Blue Mode (Blue Note), 1969
• The Cisco Kid (Groove Merchant)
• Down with It (Cannonball), 1998
• Fun House (Savant), 2004

With Jimmy Witherspoon

• The Blues Is Now (Verve), 1967

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Todd Cerney, American country musician and producer,died from cancer he was , 57.

Todd Cerney was an American songwriter and musician died from cancer he was , 57..

(August 8, 1953 – March 14, 2011) 


He composed "Good Morning Beautiful", a 2002 five-week country number one (Billboard) hit for Steve Holy (co-written with Zack Lyle); "The Blues Is My Business" (co-written with Kevin Bowe), part of Etta James' 2003 Grammy Award winning album "Let's Roll"; and "I'll Still Be Loving You", a 1987 country number one (Billboard) hit for Restless Heart (co-written with Pam Rose, Mary Ann Kennedy, and Pat Bunch). He and his co-writers were nominated for a Grammy Award for "I'll Still Be Loving You".^[2] The song won the 1988 award for "ASCAP Country Song of the Year".
Cerney was born in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Zanesville High School in Zanesville, Ohio in 1971. He began his song-writing career after moving to Nashville, where he initially worked at Buzz Cason's Creative Workshop as an audio engineer. Some of the earliest artists to record his songs include Brush Arbor ("Don't Play That Song Again"), Steve Carlisle ("I'll Fall in Love Again") and Levon Helm ("Blue House of Broken Hearts").
Cerney became known as the "Rock Doctor" after co-writing songs with members of various bands including Cheap Trick, Eddie Money, Loverboy and Bad English. Popular artists to record his compositions include Aretha Franklin (with the Four Tops) "If Ever A Love There Was" (part of the soundtrack for the film "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" - the song hit the top 40 in both the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts (Billboard)), John Anderson's "Till I Get Used to the Pain" and Ty Herndon's "No Mercy", which peaked at #26 on the Billboard Country Music charts.
Cerney played guitar, mandolin, harmonica, keyboards and sang lead and backing vocals with various artists including the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and Thom Shepherd & the Nashville Songwriters Band. He also worked with three former members of the soft-rock band Bread, forming 'Toast' during the mid-1990's, recording a number of songs for an album release that remained unfinished.

Death

Cerney died in Nashville, Tennessee on March 14, 2011 from melanoma, a disease with which he had first been diagnosed with in November 2010, following a brain seizure. He was 57 years old.^[3][4]

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Leslie Collier, British virologist died he was , 90.

Leslie Harold Collier  was a scientist responsible for developing a freeze-drying method to produce a more heat stable smallpox vaccine in the late 1940s  died he was , 90.. Collier added a key component, peptone, a soluble protein, to the process. This protected the virus, enabling the production of a heat-stable vaccine in powdered form. Previously, smallpox vaccines would become ineffective after 1–2 days at ambient temperature.
The development of his vaccine production method played a large role in enabling the World Health Organization to initiate its global smallpox eradication campaign in 1967.3

(February 9, 1921 – 14 March 2011)

Publications

Collier was a co-editor of the eighth edition and editor-in-chief of the five-volume ninth edition of the “microbiologist’s bible”, Topley and Wilson’s Principles of Bacteriology and Immunity (now Topley and Wilson’s Microbiology and Microbial Infections), which won the Society of Authors’ 1998 award in the advanced edited book category.
He was also joint editor of Developments in Antiviral Chemotherapy (1980).
He was a co-author of Human Virology (1993).^[6]
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Eduard Gushchin, Russian Olympic bronze medal-winning (1968) athlete died he was , 70.

Eduard Viktorovich Gushchinwas a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the shot put. His career was highlighted by an Olympic bronze medal in 1968 and he was also a two-time national champion. He was a distinctive athlete in that he always competed while wearing dark-rimmed spectacles.

  (July 27, 1940 – March 14, 2011)


Gushchin was born in Motygino, Motyginsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, and he trained at VSS Trud in Moscow Oblast,^[3] gaining honours as a Master of Sports of the USSR, International Class.^[1] He made his international debut for the Soviet Union in 1965 at that year's Summer Universiade and he was the bronze medallist in the shot put, an event which was won by 1964 Olympic runner-up Randy Matson.^[4] He threw 18.23 m in the qualifying rounds of the 1966 European Athletics Championships, but did not perform as well in the final, ending the competition in 12th place.^[2] The following year he competed at the 1967 European Indoor Games and claimed the silver medal with a throw of 18.96 m, finishing second only to the reigning USSR champion Nikolay Karasyov.^[5]
He reached the peak of his career in 1968, beginning with a national shot put title outdoors with a put of 19.60 m.^[6] This brought him selection for the event at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. At the competition he broke the Soviet record with his first throw of the final, recording 20.09 m to become the first man from the USSR to clear the twenty-metre mark. This feat brought him the Olympic bronze medal behind Americans Matson and George Woods. After this he did not reach the same distances, managing only sixth place at the 1969 European Athletics Championships.^[2] He took a second Soviet shot put national title in 1970.^[6]
Following the end of his shot putting career, he worked in the athletics department of the USSR Sports Committee and also as a physiotherapist. He died on March 14, 2011 in Moscow at the age of 70.^[2]

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Big Jack Johnson, American guitarist and blues singer died he was , 70.

Big Jack Johnson  was an American electric blues musician died he was , 70..

(July 30, 1940 – March 14, 2011) 

Biography

Johnson was born in Lambert, Mississippi. His father was a local musician playing both blues and country ditties at local functions. At the age of 13, Johnson junior was playing guitar with his father's band. By 18, Johnson followed B.B. King's electrified lead. His break came when he sat in with Frank Frost and Sam Carr at the Savoy Theatre in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The trio were seldom apart for the next 15 years, recording for Phillips International and Jewel Records with Frost as the bandleader.^[3]
In 1979, Rockin' the Juke Joint Down, was released (as by the Jelly Roll Kings) and marked Johnson's first recordings as a singer. Johnson's subsequent 1987 album for Earwig Music, The Oil Man, included his recording of "Catfish Blues."^[3] He has recorded both solo and as a member of the blues groups the Jelly Roll Kings^[2] and Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers (with poet/musician Dick Lourie).
He performed and wrote "Jack's Blues" and performed "Catfish Medley" with Samuel L. Jackson on the Black Snake Moan, film soundtrack.^[4] Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home?, his ambitious 1990 set for Earwig, found him tackling issues as varied as AIDS, wife abuse, and Chinese blues musicians.^[3]
Johnson died from an undisclosed illness on March 14, 2011. According to family members, he had struggled with health issues in his final years, worsening to the point that there were erroneous reports of his death several times in the weeks prior to his death.

Partial discography

• The Oil Man (1987)
• Rooster Blues (1987)
• Daddy, When Is Mama Comin' Home (1991)
• We Got to Stop This Killin' (1996)
• Live in Chicago (1997)
• All the Way Back* (1998)
• Live In Chicago* (1998)
• Roots Stew* (2000)
• The Memphis Barbecue Sessions (2002)
• Black Snake Moan (2007)

Source:^[5]

Filmography

• The Jewish Cowboys (2003) (TV)
• Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads (1992)

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Giora Leshem, Israeli poet and publisher died he was , 71.

Giora Leshem (born Moshe Giora Rotstein;)  was an award-winning Israeli poet and translator and one of the founders of the Keshev poetry publishing house. At the time of his death, Keshev was the largest independent book publisher in Israel.

(3 February 1940–14 March 2011)

Education and experience

Leshem was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate Palestine. He studied chemistry and biology at Bar-Ilan University, and then statistics and physics at Columbia University in New York. In addition, he studied computer operating systems at IBM. He taught at the Kfar Silver Youth Village and also at the Ort Educational Institute. He also participated in the development of medical software applications. He was a proofreader for the Davar newspaper and an editor and translator for the Al HaMishmar newspaper.

Literary career

Leshem has published five books of poetry (the latest of which, הנה ימים באים, Behold, The Days Are Coming was published by Keshev in 2007) and two books connected with the subjects of literature and poetry. He has also translated many books of poetry, prose and analysis, including William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which he translated twice, in 1968 for the Eked Publishing House and 30 years later for Keshev. In 1989, he edited the Rav Kol anthology, which was published with the assistance of the Israeli Authors Associations. In 1992, together with Moshe Dor and Barbara Goldberg, he was the editor of an anthology of Israeli poetry that was translated to English and published under the title, The Stones Remember, which won the Witter Bynner Foundation Award in the United States and was selected by Choice Magazine in Australia as an "Outstanding Academic Book" in l993.
In 1997, Leshem was one of the founders of the Keshev Poetry Publishing House, together with poets Raffi Weichart and Moshe Dor. The publishing house focuses on quality original and translated poetry. Leshem stopped his activities in the publishing house in 2008. In addition, Leshem was general secretary of the Hebrew Authors Association from 1986–87 and won a variety of awards for his creations, among which are the Bernstein Prize (3 times), the ACUM Poetry Prize (twice), the Golden Feather Award, and the Prime Minister's Award in 1985 and in 2003.

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G. Alan Marlatt, American professor, died from kidney failure he was , 69

Gordon Alan Marlatt, Ph.D.  was Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington and Director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at that institution died from kidney failure he was , 69. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1941, he received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Indiana University in 1968. After serving on the faculties of the University of British Columbia (1968-1969) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1969-1972), he joined the University of Washington faculty in the fall of 1972. He conducted pioneering research in three areas: harm reduction, brief interventions, and relapse prevention.

(November 26, 1941 – March 14, 2011)
 
In 1996, Dr. Marlatt was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). He served as the President of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors from 1983-1984; President of the Section for the Development of Clinical Psychology as an Experimental-Behavioral Science of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association), 1985-1986; and President of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, 1991-1992.
Marlatt's books include Alcoholism: New Directions in Behavioral Research and Treatment (1978), Relapse Prevention: Maintenance strategies in the treatment of addictive behaviors (1985, 2005), Assessment of Addictive Behaviors (1985; 2005), Addictive Behaviors Across the Lifespan (1993), Harm Reduction: Pragmatic Strategies for Managing High-Risk Behaviors (1998), Changing Addictive Behavior (1999), and Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) Manual (1999), The Tao of Sobriety: Helping You to Recover from Alcohol and Drug Addiction (2002), and Therapist's Guide to Evidence-Based Relapse Prevention (2007). In addition, he published over 200 book chapters and journal articles and served on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Addictive Behaviors, and Journal of Studies on Alcohol.
Marlatt received continuous funding for his research from a variety of agencies including the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 1990, Marlatt was awarded The Jellinek Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to knowledge in the field of alcohol studies from the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism. In 2001, he was given the Innovators in Combating Substance Abuse Award by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and in 2004 he received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism. He received the Distinguished Psychologist award for Professional Contribution to Knowledge from the Washington State Psychological Association in 1990 and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology in 2000.
Marlatt died on March 14, 2011 of kidney failure in Seattle, Washington.

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