/ Stars that died in 2023

Monday, May 2, 2011

Shifra Lerer, Argentinian-born American Yiddish theatre actress, died from a stroke she was , 95.

Shifra Lerer  was an Argentine-born American Yiddish theater actress based in New York City died from a stroke she was , 95. Lerer appeared opposite every major Yiddish theater actor during her career, which lasted 90 years.[1][2] She was also cast in film roles, including the 1997 Woody Allen film, Deconstructing Harry.[1]
  
(August 30, 1915 – March 12, 2011)


Her father, a manager at a soap factory, had immigrated to Argentina from the Russian Empire to escape anti-Semetism and poverty through the sponsorship of philanthropist and banker, Maurice de Hirsch.[2] Lerer was born in the Santa Catalina colony[3] in Argentina on August 30, 1915.[2] Lerer was discovered in Buenos Aires by Yiddish theater legend, producer and actor Boris Thomashefsky, who was starring in the area, when she was just five[1] or eight[3] years old, at the recommendation of her sister (the actress Miryam Lerer). At ten she was participating in Yakov Botashanski's productions in a theater circle. When she was older, she studied at a Spanish-language drama school and performed for three years on the Argentinian stage. She then passed the examinations for the actors' union and became a member, playing with the star Miryam Karalova-Kambarov, then Moyshe Oysher and Florence Weiss, finally playing in serious drama roles with Zygmunt Turkov in Urteyl, Hirsh Lekert, Ivan Kruger and Di glokn-tsier fun Notr-dam (The Bell-ringer (Hunchback) of Notre Dame).[3]
She played with Yakov Ben-Ami and Bertha Kalich in Wolf's Profesor Malok, Strindberg's Der Foter, and Leyvick's Der poet is blind gevorn (The poet became blind), with Samuel (Hymie) Goldenberg in Kalmanovich's Hayntike kinder (Kids these days) and with Maurice Schwartz in Singer's Moyshe Kalb.
In 1943 she was invited by Samuel Goldberg to perform at the Parkway Theater in Brooklyn (owned by Hymie Jacobson and his brother Irving). Her first performance was in Fun Niu York keyn Berlin; she then toured concertizing at places like the Arbeter Ring, the National Yiddish Workers Union, and Camp Boyberik. In 1946 she went back to Argentina where she worked with Ben-Zion Witler at the Mitre theater and thereafter toured and performed with him (she married Witler in 1957 - he died from a brain tumor in 1961.[2]). She joined the actors' union in 1949 and played in Got, mentsh un tayvl with Mikhal Mikhalesko and Gustav Berger. In 1952 she participated in Herman Yablokoff's production of Benyomin Ressler's Onkl Sem in yisroel (Uncle Sam in Israel) in the Public Theater in New York.[3]
She ultimately decided to settle permanently in New York City.[2] Lerer worked actively in the Yiddish theater cicuit until she was 90 years old.[1]
Her second husband, Yiddish actor Michael Michalovic, died in 1987.[2] She was best friends with the late Yiddish theater actress, Mina Bern, who died in 2010.[4]
Shifra Lerer died of a stroke in Manhattan on March 12, 2011, at the age of 95.[2] She was buried in Block 67 of Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, next to her second husband, Michael Michalovic.[1][5] The cemetery's Block 67 is reserved for who worked in New York City's Yiddish theater industry.[4] Lerer was buried just rows from Boris Thomashefsky, who discovered Lerer at the age of 5 in Argentina.[4] She had no immediate survivors.[2]

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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Joe Morello, American drummer (The Dave Brubeck Quartet) died he was , 82.

Joseph Albert Morello  was a jazz drummer best known for his 12½-year stint with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk". Popular for its work on college campuses during the 1950s, Brubeck’s group reached new heights with Morello. In June 1959, Morello participated in a recording session with the quartet — completed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the bassist Eugene Wright — that yielded “Kathy’s Waltz” and “Three to Get Ready,” both of which intermingled 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures.

(July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011)

Biography

Morello suffered from partial vision from birth,[4] and devoted himself to indoor activities. At six years old he began studying the violin, going on to feature three years later as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, and again three years later.
At the age of 15 Morello met the violinist Jascha Heifetz and decided that he would never be able to equal Heifetz's "sound", so switched to drumming, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then George Lawrence Stone, author of the noted drum textbook Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Stone was so impressed with Morello's ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone.

After moving to New York City, Morello worked with numerous notable jazz musicians including Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Stan Kenton, Phil Woods, Sal Salvador, Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Art Pepper, Howard McGhee, and others. After a period playing in McPartland's trio, Morello declined invitations to join both Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey's bands, favoring a temporary two-month tour with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1955; Morello remained with Brubeck for well over a decade, only departing in 1968. Morello later became an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader whose former students include Danny Gottlieb, Max Weinberg, Phish drummer Jon Fishman, Gary Feldman, Patrick Wante, Jerry Granelli, Glenn Johnson and Rich Galichon.







Morello appeared in many Brubeck performances and contributed to over 60 albums with Brubeck. On "Take Five", he plays an imaginative drum solo maintaining the 5/4 time signature throughout. Another example of soloing in odd time signatures can be heard on "Unsquare Dance", in which he solos using only sticks without drums in 7/4 time. At the end of the track, he can be heard laughing about the "trick" ending. He also features on "Blue Rondo à la Turk", "Strange Meadow Lark", and "Pick-Up Sticks".
During his career, Morello appeared on over 120 albums, 60 of which were with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He authored several drum books, including Master Studies, published by Modern Drummer Publications, and also made instructional videos. Morello was the recipient of many awards, including Playboy magazine's best drummer award for seven years in a row, and Down Beat magazine's best drummer award five years in a row. He was elected to the Modern Drummer magazine Hall of Fame in 1988, the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 1993, and was the recipient of Hudson Music's first TIP (Teacher Integration Program) Lifetime Achievement award in June, 2010. [5]
Joe Morello died on March 12, 2011, at his home in Irvington, New Jersey. He was 82 years old. His death was announced on his website, although no cause of death was given.[6][7]

Drum method books

  • New Directions In Rhythm: Studies In 3/4 And 5/4 Time 1963
  • Off the Record: A Collection of Famous Drum Solos 1966
  • Rudimental Jazz: A Modern Application of Rudiments to the Drum Outfit 1967
  • Master Studies: Exercises For The Development Of Control And Technique Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. 1983
  • Master Studies II: More Exercises For The Development Of Control And Technique Modern Drummer Publications, Inc. 2006
  • Rudimental Jazz: A Musical Application of Rudiments to the Drumset including CD, Modern Drummer Publications’; Classics Series 2010

Videography, instructional

  • Joe Morello – Drum Method 1: The Natural approach to Technique (DVD) Hot Licks 2006
  • Joe Morello – Drum Method 2: Around the Kit (DVD) Hot Licks 2006
  • Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 1&2 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2005
  • Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 3&4 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2006
  • Joe Morello, Danny Gottlieb: Natural Drumming Lessons 5&6 (DVD) Mel Bay Publications, Inc. 2006
  • The Art of Playing with Brushes (DVD) Hudson Music LLC 2007

Discography

As leader

  • Joe Morello
  • Its About Time
  • Another Step Forward
  • Going Places
  • Morello Standard Time

As sideman

With Dave Brubeck

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John Nettleship, British teacher, inspiration for character of Severus Snape , died from cancer.he was 71,

John Lawrence Nettleship  was a British schoolteacher who taught chemistry at Wyedean School, Gloucestershire  died from cancer.he was  71, . His pupils there included Joanne Rowling, whose mother worked for some time as an assistant in his department. He has been claimed as a major inspiration for the character of Severus Snape in Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy books.

(1 August 1939 – 12 March 2011)

Life

Nettleship was born in Nottingham, and studied Chemistry at the University of Leeds in the late 1950s. He joined the Labour Party at that time, and remained an active member for the rest of his life. After leaving university, he taught in Birmingham, where he married and had three children; the marriage later ended in divorce and he remarried in the 1980s.[1]
In 1970 he began teaching at Caldicot School in Monmouthshire, Wales, moving to become Head of Science at Wyedean School in Sedbury, Gloucestershire, a few miles away, in 1974.[1] Joanne Rowling began studying at the school in September 1976, and her mother Anne worked as a technician in the Science department from 1978. Nettleship described himself in hindsight as "a short-tempered chemistry teacher with long hair...[and a] gloomy, malodorous laboratory..".[2] He was first questioned about his links to Rowling's character of Snape by journalists, saying: "I was horrified when I first found out. I knew I was a strict teacher but I didn't think I was that bad."[3] Rowling herself stated that Snape was "loosely based on a teacher I myself had".[4] After being initially unhappy about the comparison, Nettleship came to terms with the connection, and wrote a short book, Harry Potter's Chepstow, about Rowling's connections with Chepstow.[5] He also gave talks on the connections that the Chepstow, Wye Valley and Forest of Dean areas had with the Harry Potter books.[6][7]
Nettleship retired in 1997. As well as being an active member of the Labour Party, he was a member of Caerwent community council, serving as its chairman in 1991. He was instrumental in setting up Caerwent Historic Trust, becoming its secretary and researching the history of the area.[6]
He died of cancer in 2011, aged 71, after having being diagnosed in 2006. A spokeswoman for J. K. Rowling said that the author was sorry to hear of his death.[1]

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Mitchell Page, American baseball player (Oakland Athletics), and coach (St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals) died he was , 59

Mitchell Otis Page  is a former Major League Baseball player died he was , 59. He finished second to Hall of Famer Eddie Murray in American League Rookie of the Year balloting when he came up with the Oakland Athletics in 1977.

(October 15, 1951 – March 12, 2011)

Early years

Page was originally drafted out of Centennial High School in Compton, California by the A's in the fourth round of the 1970 Major League Baseball Draft, but chose instead to attend Compton Community College. After transferring to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the 1973 Major League Baseball Draft.
After clubbing 43 home runs and driving in 173 runs with a .292 batting average over two seasons in the Pirates' farm system, the A's finally acquired Page on March 15, 1977, along with Tony Armas, Doc Medich, Doug Bair, Dave Giusti and Rick Langford for Phil Garner, Chris Batton and Tommy Helms.

Oakland A's

Immediately upon joining his new club, Page assumed the job of everyday left fielder, and showed poise with a promising career ahead of him when he batted .307 with 21 home runs and 75 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics his rookie year. He collected nine first place votes to Murray's twelve to finish second in voting for the AL Rookie of the Year Award.
Page had a respectable 1978 season, batting .285 with seventeen home runs and 70 RBIs. He got into a contract dispute with A's owner Charlie Finley during Spring training 1979, and wound up getting suspended by the owner for refusing to play in exhibition games.[1] He was used as the designated hitter during the regular season as injuries had limited his range in the outfield. He produced just a .247 batting average with nine home runs and 42 RBIs in his new role.
Page batted just .146 with four home runs and thirteen RBIs in the first half of the strike shortened 1981 season. When play resumed in August, Page saw just three more at-bats for the rest of the season, spending most of his time with the triple A Tacoma Tigers. The A's won the first half of the season; Page was kept off the roster for 1981 American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals and the 1981 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.[2] Page spent most of 1982 with Tacoma and 1983 on the disabled list.

Pittsburgh Pirates

Page was released by the A's during Spring training 1984. He signed a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates shortly afterwards, and in twelve at bats, hit .333, with three walks as a pinch hitter in August. After spending all of 1985 with Pittsburgh's Triple-A affiliate in Hawaii, he was released.

Coaching career

Page returned to Tacoma as their hitting coach from 1992 through 1994, and served as first base coach for the Kansas City Royals from 1995 to 1997.
He accepted a job with the St. Louis Cardinals as hitting coach for the Memphis Redbirds in 1998. From there, he moved to minor league hitting coordinator in 1999. Midway through the 2001 season, he was promoted to the St. Louis Cardinals as hitting coach. He remained with the club through the 2004 World Series, but left the post immediately afterwards to enter an alcohol treatment facility near his Oakland, California home.[3] The Cards batted just .190 in the World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
Page returned to baseball as minor league hitting instructor for the Washington Nationals in 2005, and became the major league hitting coach in 2006.[4] He rejoined the Cardinals' organization, and began 2010 as a coach with the Quad Cities River Bandits, but left in May due to "personal reasons."[5]

Angels in the Outfield

Page played the role of the California Angels player, "Abascal," in the 1994 Disney movie Angels in the Outfield.[6]

Death

Page died in his sleep on March 12, 2011, at the age of 59. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.[7]

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Italo Pizzolante, Venezuelan musician and composer died he was , 82.

Italo Pizzolante was a Venezuelan poet, composer, musician, professor and engineer of Italian descent died he was , 82.. Author of famous songs like Motivos, Mi Puerto Cabello, among others. Pizzolante was married to Nelly Negrón.

(2 December 1928 – 12 March 2011) 

His musical vocation started at home, often during family reunions, and following his father's musical bent. Perhaps his most memorable song is Motivos, which has been performed by many artists, including, La Rondalla Venezolana, Los Panchos, Chucho Avellanet, Armando Manzanero, Alfredo Sadel, Vicente Fernández and most recently Luis Miguel. The history of this song, is quite special. Italo composed it on December 1, 1965, for a reunion of friends, was his gift to them.
Another popular song of Pizzolante's repertoire is Mi Puerto Cabello, dedicated to his native town. It was popularized in the 1960s by Felipe Pirela along with the Billos Caracas Boys. In August, 1998 the song was decreed the Official City Anthem.
He gained his first recognition by winning the First Venezuelan Music Contest of the Central University of Venezuela with the song Provincianita.
Italo represented Venezuela in 1992 at the Bolero Festival in Havana, Cuba, obtaining first prize.
He has received numerous awards and tributes of both public and private institutions including the degree of knight of the Italian Republic. In addition the Order Italo Pizzolante was created in his honor at the Puerto Cabello School of Engineering.
Other recognition includes the awards, Merit for the Work, Andrés Bello, II Class, the Naval Merit II Class and Francisco de Miranda I Class, Diego de Losada, I Class, Sol de Carabobo, and by the city of Puerto Cabello, Bartolomé Salom, Comandante en Jefe Juan Jose Flores and the sash Toma de Puerto Cabello, among others.
Also he has received tributes in Valencia, Caracas, San Felipe, Barquisimeto, Valera, San Cristóbal, Maracaibo, Calabozo, Guarenas and Cumaná.
In 2001, he received an award at the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, along with other Venezuelan musicians.
Pizzolante died on 12 March 2011 in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, at the age of 82.

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Tawfik Toubi, Israeli Arab politician, last surviving member of the first Knesset died he was , 88

Tawfik Toubi was an Israeli Arab communist politician died he was , 88.

(11 May 1922 – 12 March 2011)

Biography

Toubi was born in Haifa to an Arab Orthodox family in 1922, and was educated at the Mount Zion School in Jerusalem. He joined the Palestine Communist Party in 1941 and later was one of the founders of the League for National Liberation, which originally opposed partition of Palestine but later came to accept it, after the Soviet Union indicated that it would support partition. He was elected to the Knesset in Israel's first elections in 1949 as a member of Maki. He was re-elected in 1951, 1955, 1959 and 1961. In 1965 he was involved in a breakaway from Maki to form Rakah, and was voted back into the Knesset on the new party's list later in the same year. In 1976, he was elected secretary general of the new Hadash party, an alliance of Rakah and several other smaller left-wing and Israeli Arab parties, and was elected to the Knesset on Hadash's list in 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1988, before resigning from the Knesset in July 1990 and being replaced by Tamar Gozansky. Toubi was also publisher and editor of Arab language Communist paper "Al Ittihad".[1] He retired from the Knesset in 1990, after a 41-year tenure, and died on 12 March, 2011, at age 88.[2]

Legacy

Toubi is remembered as the exposer (along with Meir Vilner) of the Kafr Qasim massacre, and is seen by the Israeli left as a fighter against racism.[3] He is regarded as father of the 'state of all its citizens' formula, which he brought up when the Knesset debated the Basic Law in 1985. It now appears in the Meretz-Yachad platform, and is supported by the left, the post-Zionists and all the Arab MKs.[4] He is seen less favorably by the Israeli right, although he is remembered as more of a respected adversary than a militant anti-Zionist (such as Azmi Bishara).[5]

Toubi raised the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees on at least two occasions in the Knesset. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, he demanded that the inhabitants of al-Birwa be allowed to return to their homes, a request refused by David Ben-Gurion.[7] After the 1967 war, he requested of Moshe Dayan that the inhabitants of Yalo be allowed to return to this home, a request that was similarly denied.[8] Toubi was the last surviving member of the 1st Knesset, when he died in 2011.

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Jack Hardy, American singer-songwriter died from complications of lung cancer he was , 63.

John Studebaker "Jack" Hardy was an American lyrical singer–songwriter and playwright based in Greenwich Village, who was influential as a writer, performer, and mentor in the North American and European folk music scenes for decades  died from complications of lung cancer he was , 63.   . He was cited as a major influence by Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, and many others who emerged from that scene in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Hardy was the author of hundreds of songs, and toured tirelessly for almost forty years. He was also the founding editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a periodical famous within music circles for twenty years that shipped with a full album (and later, compact disc) in each issue, whose entire catalog is now part of the Smithsonian Folkways collection.
Hardy died on the morning of March 11, 2011 in Manhattan. He was 63. The cause was complications of lung cancer.

(November 23, 1947 – March 11, 2011)

Career

Jack Hardy was strongly identified with New York's Greenwich Village folk music scene. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Hardy hosted Monday-night songwriter's circles and pasta dinners at his apartment on Houston Street (pronounced "HOW-stun"), a gathering famously open to both established artists and novices. He also began a small, informal songwriters' group at The English Pub in Greenwich Village, which later became a more formal songwriters' night at the Cornelia Street Cafe in December 1977. This group would later evolve into the Songwriter's Exchange, releasing an album on Stash Records in 1980. Eventually, the group formed a cooperative, led by Hardy, and in 1981 took over the booking of the Speakeasy, which became a thriving venue for songwriters. Hardy was also the founder and first editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine in 1982. Hardy is a graduate of the Pomfret School in Connecticut and the University of Hartford.
Although more popular in Europe than in his native America for much of his career, the end of the 20th Century brought a reignited interest in his music on his native shores. Throughout, he toured tirelessly on both sides of the Atlantic. Hardy was a lyrical writer; his songs were political, although usually subtly so. His music was often tinged with a Celtic flavor, although his last few albums took on more of a country & western style. Both budget-conscious and disdainful of self-important artistic egos, Hardy recorded all of his albums (almost 15 of them, in a 40-years career) in the same manner: by rehearsing a small band and then recording the entire album "live to tape" in a period of 48 hours or less. In the last few years of his life, Hardy toured with long-time friend and fellow songwriter David Massengill as a duo called the Folk Brothers.
In songwriter circles, Hardy was as well-known as a teacher and mentor as he was as an artist. Songwriters gathered at his hallowed Houston Street apartment one night a week to play their latest (and usually unfinished) work, and to face criticism from Hardy and their gathered peers. Fueled by pasta and wine, the weekly songwriters' sessions were famous for the artistic and political conversations that flowed in them and the large number of remarkable songs that emerged from them. Jack suffered neither egos nor nerves, and when the introduction to a new song got too long and/or apologetic from a songwriter, Hardy would bark, "Shut up and sing the song." The hundreds of songwriters who frequented Hardy's apartment gatherings over the years included names both unknown and famous – among them, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Brian Rose, Richard Shindell, John Gorka, Wendy Beckerman, Richard Julian, Christian Bauman, Linda Sharar, Rod MacDonald, Lucy Kaplansky, and Christine Lavin. The weekly songwriter's session itself made it into a number of songs by Hardy alumni, including "Jack's Crows" by John Gorka, the title song of Gorka's second album, and "Boulevardiers" by Suzanne Vega. The group was also immortalized in fictional form in Christian Bauman's 2008 novel "In Hoboken," which included two chapters that took place in the Houston Street apartment, and a character named "Geoff Mason" who bore a striking (and, according to a public radio interview with Bauman, intentional) resemblance to Hardy.
While Hardy's name never achieved the level of fame of Vega, Gorka, or the many he recorded for Fast Folk (including Tracy Chapman, Lyle Lovett, David Wilcox, or The Roches), he continually built on his substantial catalog of literate, well-crafted songs.
Hardy attended college at The University of Hartford, and in 1969 – then editor of the University of Hartford's The News-Liberated Press – Hardy was arrested and convicted of libel after publishing a lewd cartoon that attacked then president Richard Nixon. Hardy was convicted and paid a $50 fine. While the conviction was later overturned on appeal, Hardy remains the only person in the history of the United States that has ever been arrested and convicted of libeling the President of the United States.[1]
Jack Hardy was predeceased by a brother, Jeff, who played bass in Jack's band and appeared on many of his recordings. Jeff Hardy, who worked as a chef for a financial services firm located in the World Trade Center, died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Discography

  • Jack Hardy (1971)
  • Early and Rare (1965–1974, vol. 1 of The Collected Works of Jack Hardy)
  • Mirror of My Madness (1976)
  • The Nameless One (1978)
  • Landmark (1982)
  • White Shoes (1982)
  • The Collected Works of Jack Hardy, Part I, Volumes 1 - 5, 1965–1983
  • The Cauldron (1984)
  • The Hunter (1987)
  • Retrospective (1990)
  • Through (1991)
  • Two of Swords (1992)
  • Civil Wars (1994)
  • Songs of Jack Hardy (tribute), Volume One: Of the White Goddess (1995)
  • The Collected Works of Jack Hardy, Part II, Volumes 6 - 10, 1984–1995
  • The Passing (1997)
  • Omens (2000)
  • Bandolier (2002)
  • Coin of the Realm: Songs for the New American Century (2004)
  • The Tinker's Coin - Celtic Anthology (2005)
  • Noir (2007)


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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...