Rock & Roll Heaven

Stax recording artist and member of Hall of Fame group, Booker T. and the  M.G.’s ,died while tour in Tokyo, Japan.  The Memphis born was 70 years old.

Apart from being a member of Booker T and The M. G.’s and the original bass player for The Blues Brothers, some of the hits he was responsible for the bottom end are:  Dock of The Bay, Respect, I’ve Been loving You Too Long by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour and Sam and Dave’s Hold On, I’m Coming.

He formed his first band with guitar great Steve Cropper who was on tour in Japan with Duck when he passed. The band was called the Royal Spades which became The Mar-Keys. When Cropper left the band to become a session musician, Dunn followed and they became the house band at Stax.

He was a bass player's bass player and influenced many with his style and steadiness. Bass player George Gardos, co-writer on Mountain’s For Yasgurs Farm was saddened and said “He was my lifetime best bass player influence, Simple, Solid, Soulful, the 3 essences of great bass playing. Hard to believe... RIP.

RIP Duck Dunn, heaven‘s band just got a little funkier!

Submitted by Cashbox Canada

A post on the Beastie Boys website reads, "It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam "MCA" Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer."

In 2009, Yauch revealed in a video posted online that he was being treated for cancer in a parotid gland and a lymph node. He had since undergone surgery and radiation therapy, and was pursuing alternative treatment, including a vegan diet. It was reported in early 2011 that the rapper was cancer free, but he was quick to take to the Beastie Boys website and refute the reports.
Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys in 1979. The group started out as a hardcore punk band but later turned to rap and rock and became the lineup of Yauch, Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad Roc" Horowitz (later, "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz would join in). They burst onto the music scene in 1986 with the seminal album Licensed to Ill, which spawned the classic hit "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)."

Yauch sat out the Beastie Boys' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, and his treatments delayed the release of the group's most recent album, Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2, which was eventually released in April, 2011.

SUBMITTED BY CASHBOX CANADA

TORONTO – Billy Bryans, the Juno Award winning artist, died peacefully in Toronto today at the age of 63 after a long battle with cancer.

A drummer, producer, promoter and DJ, Bryans was best known as a founder of the Parachute Club and one of the writers of its hit song “Rise Up.” He helped to change the sound of Canadian music by bridging cultures in a career that spanned four decades and crossed many musical genres.

Born in Montreal, where he was a member of ’60s beat group MG & the Escorts, Bryans moved to Toronto and immersed himself in the local blues scene, playing in various groups and co-producing Downchild Blues Band’s hit song “Flip, Flop and Fly.”

He became a key figure of Toronto’s Queen Street scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s, performing in new wave acts like The Government and producing records for groups as diverse as rockabilly’s the Bop Cats and jazz-jug revivalists the Original Sloth Band.

While working at Daniel Lanois’ Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton as the producer-drummer for the Time Twins, Bryans proved himself a catalyst: his otherworldly recordings of the avant-pop duo attracted the interest of Brian Eno, who ultimately became Lanois’ production partner for U2.

The Canadian music scene lost one of its most influential figures over the weekend with the death of Steve Kirman, founder of Steve's Music Store. Kirman is the Steve of Steve's Music, a music store chain that opened in Montreal in 1965, expanded to include Toronto and Ottawa, and today is considered indispensable for music equipment in each city.

For decades, his stores have been a popular gathering place for a city musician and his shop in Montreal on St-Antoine and Clark now takes up almost the entire block.

At all three stores, the phones were ringing off the hook, with musicians from all over the world wanting to pass along their condolences. "He's seen many of these clients go on to major fame, he's seen many of these clients go on to different parts of the world and still have extremely fond memories of Steve," said Sheldon Sazant, the shop's general manager and an employee for 34 years.

Ironically, for a man who loved the music business, Kirman didn't play an instrument, although he could tune a guitar. The joke was his favourite instrument was his cash register.