RIP Wayne Smith

Via Jamaica Observer: "Singer Wayne Smith, whose computerised song Under Mi Sleng Teng revolutionised reggae, has died. Smith’s son, Tidel Smith, told the Jamaica Observer that his father died yesterday at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

He was 48 years old. He said Smith was admitted to KPH Friday after complaining of stomach pains. His health improved on Sunday but yesterday it deteriorated and he died shortly after noon.

An autopsy will be done to determine the cause of death. Originally from Waterhouse, Smith started his career in 1980 with producer Lloyd ‘King Jammys’ James who produced Under Mi Sleng Teng four years later.

Under Mi Sleng Teng was orchestrated by Smith and musician Noel Daley on an inexpensive Casio keyboard. It was first played at dances on James’ sound system and got such strong response that James released the song in late 1984.

The ‘riddim’ of the same name produced numerous hit songs, including Pumpkin Belly by singer Tenor Saw.
Under Mi Sleng Teng was a trailblazer, triggering dancehall’s digital age.

It was Smith’s biggest hit, though he enjoyed more chart success with songs like Ain’t No Meaning In Saying Goodbye and Come Along.

Smith, who operated the Sleng Teng label, is survived by his mother, May Coley, five children, three grandchildren, and five brothers and sisters."

RIP Ronny Jordan

Jazz guitarist Ronny Jordan has died, aged 51. I was just recently listening to his collaboration with DJ Krush, picked it up at Real Groovy a week back. Sad news....

Obit from Phil Alexander at Mojo

"When Ronny Jordan turned professional in 1985, jazz guitar was not in the ascendancy. While the Acid Jazz label and scene had turned the spotlight on aspects of the classic Blue Note and Verve catalogues, few had revisited the work of seminal players such as Grant Green, Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery. Jordan, who was born in London on November 29, 1962, however was in thrall to these players and helped turn the spotlight back on them as his playing came to the attention of a wider audience.

Jordan first made his mark with the release of his debut album, 1992’s The Antidote, on Island Records – the label that had signed and supported fellow British jazz musicians Courtney Pine and Andy Sheppard a few years earlier. The record was defined by a modern, lithe version of Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue classic, So What.

Jordan came to further prominence when he appeared on Gangstarr leader Guru’s groundbreaking Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 album in 1993. Fusing hip-hop with jazz instrumentation, the album became a cult classic in the UK and placed Jordan in the company of such players as Donald Byrd, Branford Marsalis, Roy Ayers and Lonnie Liston Smith. It also spawned the UK Top 30 hit, No Time To Play, which featured Jordan alongside singer DC Lee.

Jordan’s fine phrasing on No Time To Play helped propel it into the UK Top 30.

As a solo artist, Jordan would continue to enjoy an impressive career that spanned a further eight studio albums as well as working with artists as diverse as Mos Def, DJ Krush, Pieces Of A Dream and Jonathan Butler.

His death was confirmed by his family on Tuesday, January 14 when his brother and sister set up a Facebook page in remembrance of Ronny. Their statement reads as follows:

Dear Friends, Family and Well Wishers

It is with our deep regret that Ronny Jordan has recently passed away. We are still coming to terms with the loss of our brother.

We are taking steps to manage Ronny’s personal affairs and so we ask if you could kindly bear with us as we deal with his matters in the background. We appreciate that Ronny has got many fans around the world and so we ask that you keep an eye out for further announcements in relation to his funeral arrangements.

In the meantime, tributes to Ronny can be left on this FB page.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

With every blessings and love..

Rickey and Denise
Brother and Sister

RIP Bob Gillett

 The Brew featuring  Doug Jerebine, Bob Gillett (2nd left), Tommy Ferguson,
John 'Yuk' Harrison and Graeme Willoughby.

Musician Bob Gillett has passed away - Audioculture say via Twitter: "Very sad to see the passing of the great saxman, producer and arranger Bob Gillett, who passed away this morning on Waiheke."

From Newstalk ZB: "American-born jazzman Bob Gillett, who was recognised as a giant of the New Zealand jazz scene, has died at his home on Waiheke Island this morning.

The saxophonist, bandleader, arranger and record producer arrived in Auckland in 1962, having led an 18-piece army band in Europe during the war and a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra for two years.; and immediately made an impression on the local music scene, influencing such people as Bernie Allen, Claude Papesch, Alan Broadbent, and Mike Nock.

Mr Gillett formed his own radio band, was a musical director for some of the early TV pop shows, and produced Ray Columbus and others in the recording studio.

In 1972 Bob Gillett returned to the States for a holiday but encountered visa problems on trying to return to New Zealand and did not come back for 20 years. Gillett was 88."

Via sergent.com.au.. "The Brew are recognised as being New Zealand's first 'Underground' band. They were started in 1967 by Bob Gillett, who had decided to form a band capable of playing a new kind of music, unlike anything that was currently being played. Bob had originally come from Santa Ana, California and arrived in New Zealand around 1960. After playing many jazz gigs he decided to form his own band.

Bob recruited Doug Jerebine, who was keen to experiment with new sounds and equipment [prior to this Gillett employed Jerebine to work with his 18-piece New Zealand Broadcasting Service band, backing some of the top pop singers in the country - source].

Doug was a guitar wizard and had previously played with the Embers. Andy Shackleton of the Premiers was originally recruited to play drums, but never made it past rehearsals, before being replaced by Charles Gray and Puni came in on bass, having arrived in Auckland as a member of the Invaders. Tommy Ferguson wanted to be part of the experiment as the vocalist. There were no rules, they just wanted to create a sound that was not rock, pop, blues or jazz.

They were approached by the Tea Council to record a jingle to promote Tea to the teens. The council had been trying for months to succeed with their promotions, but had been unsuccessful. This association was where their name was derived from - the Brew. Rather than write a jingle they recorded the old standard "Tea For Two". At the same time they recorded "Bengal Tiger" [with Ray Woolf on vocals]. This single, in 1967, was the only release for the group.

On the strength of this single they secured the residency job at the new Picasso nightclub. Gray left and was replaced by Graeme Willoughby, who had begun his career as a member of the Truetones. The Truetones also having Eddie Low and Teddy Toi as members. Solomon also left and was replaced by John 'Yuk' Harrison on bass. With Gillett's influence, Jerebine started playing Sitar in the band.

About halfway through the band's life, John 'Yuk' Harrison left, to be replaced by Harvey Mann. Harvey was dissatisfied with the direction that the Underdogs were going and he wanted to be with the group he thought was the ultimate band at the time. Other musicians to pass through the group were drummers Jon Drinkwater, Ian Thompson from the Dark Ages and the Underdogs, as well as Bruno Lawrence.

After Tommy Ferguson left the Brew, the reformed line-up consisted of Bob Gillett on drums and percussion, Doug Jerebine on bass guitar, Harvey Mann on lead guitar (with a regular body and a bass neck), and Archie Bowie, from the Magee St line-up of the Underdogs, on vocals and harp. Archie stayed for about nine months and was replaced by another singer, Murray Grindley, also from the Underdogs.

Tommy Ferguson had previously been with the Astrobeats in 1965. They released a single called "Jenka Rock". He went solo after the Brew and released two singles during 1968 and 1969, "9 Miles From Nowhere"/"Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" and "Something Bad On My Mind"/"Shoot 'Em Up Baby".

Bob Gillett later formed a band called Breeze in 1971, which included Sonny Day, Dave Shepherd, Steve Wilson and Brett Neilsen. He later ended up in Space Farm."

In 2007, Radio NZ got Keith Newman to talk to Gillett for Musical Chairs, sadly this piece is no longer online Now back online, listen here...

Newman says Gillett started out in big bands touring with Stan Kenton and Anita O'Day, and played with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

"Bob Gillett produced and arranged for the likes of the Rumour and Ray Columbus, formed The Brew and was a member of the Underdogs.

Bob Gillett blew a mean sax and bought with him a host of musical influences from be bop to classical when he arrived in New Zealand from the USA in 1960. 

A band leader and arranger, Gillett took the reins of the broadcasting service big band, inspiring them and a host of other local rock and pop musicians to put some soul into the kiwi sound. 

Music reporter Keith Newman visited Bob Gillett at his home on Waiheke Island for Radio New Zealand National's New Zealand Music profile show Musical Chairs. March 2007."

When Jerebine returned to playing live in New Zealand a few years back, he used Bob's son Miles as his drummer. 

The Brew - at Audioculture.

RIP Karel Van Bergen (The Features)

Confirmed by Simon Grigg (via Twitter) "Cantankerous bugger, but often warm and wise. I'll miss you heaps Karel Van Bergen. RIP". He passed away in Munich, Germany, on August 28th, 2013.

Van Bergen was a member of acclaimed Auckland 1980s post-punk band The Features, alongside Jed Town, James Pinker and Chris Orange.

back cover of Features debut single

From Audioculture's story on The Features: "Drawing from the likes of Public Image Ltd, Wire, the emerging New York no-wave movement and Town's passion for late period Beatles, The Features offered a far more experimental and jagged sound than most of their peers and were instantly popular, drawing strong crowds at Liberty Stage, XS Café, the Rock HQ and the assorted hall gigs that were increasingly regular weekend events in the city...

... In late September, 1980, Jed Town left for Sydney, thus effectively ending the band, however four songs from the Harlequin sessions were mixed by James Pinker and Simon Grigg. These were issued as the numbered limited edtion The Perfect Features Exposed 12-inch EP in December. Town returned for the release of the record but soon returned to Sydney.

Van Bergen and Pinker followed Town across the Tasman early in the new year. In Sydney, James Pinker played with SPK (Van Bergen would tour the US with them); Town would form Fetus Productions, initially with Van Bergen, Pinker and others, and later ICU.

In the UK from 1982, James Pinker was a member of Dead Can Dance and played with The Jesus And Mary Chain.

Karel Van Bergen was later in The Band Of Holy Joy in the UK (with former Proud Scum member John 'Atrocity' Jenkins), recording several albums for Rough Trade, then moving to Germany in the 2000s. He passed away in Munich on August 28th, 2013.

Despite their brief lifespan and handful of releases, The Features are repeatedly named as a primary influence by many acts that followed them, breaking down, as they did, the barriers that had been constructed by the first and second waves of New Zealand punk."

Chris Orange, Karel Van Bergen, Jed Town, James Pinker. Photo by Peter Cathro

From Amplifier: "Auckland punk band who in their brief time on the scene managed to get to number 32 on the singles chart and have their video to Secret (a twisted version of The Beatles' Do You Want to Know a Secret) banned because it featured the group throwing bodies off Grafton Bridge onto the motorway.

Their single City Scenes/Secret/Police Wheels was recorded at Mascot Studios for $1100 and sold about 1000 copies over three or four weeks. City Scenes was featured on the [1993 reissue of] 1980 punk compilation AK79."

RIP Diamond Lil (Marcus Craig)

Via Newstalk ZB, also confirmed in today's Sunday Star Times by David Hartnell... "It's been revealed that Auckland cabaret and variety artist Marcus Craig, who worked on stage and television as drag queen Diamond Lil, died in Australia last Saturday.

His passing at the age of 73 has been confirmed by long-time friend Kevin Hodges, appointed by the coroner in Queensland to act for Mr Craig in the absence of any known next of kin.

The outrageously camp befeathered and bejewelled Diamond Lil was a fixture at the Ace of Clubs in Auckland during the 1970s and 80s.

In recent years he suffered from poor health and passed away from a heart complication caused by his diabetes. Mr Hodges says Mr Craig was increasingly immobile recently.

Marcus Craig had been a featured player in the New Zealand TV series The Spotlight, and was in other programmes as well."

The liner notes below are from my copy of Diamond Lil's 1976 album Listen! Listen!, written by Ace of Clubs owner Phil Warren....

Prime Minister Rob Muldoon and his wife Thea, with Diamond Lil

Top pic, Diamond Lil performing with Fred Dagg (John Clarke)

LP front and back covers. Released on Ace Records, cat no LIL 001

Added 26 August, published originally on GayNZ.com, dated 24 August.

[GayNZ Editor's note: The following brief sketch of Marcus' life was provided through associates in Queensland It appears that when he died he was out of contact with any New Zealand relations and the person attending to his estate is eager to contact any NZ kin or friends. In the first instance email, in confidence: news@gaynz.com.]

Marcus Craig was born as David Lennard, in Adelaide, Australia, in 1940. The son of an Aussie railwayman and an English actress mother, he was brought up in the South Australian village of Naracoorte. His father served in the South Pacific with the AIF during WW2 and returned unscathed, only to die in a railway accident a year later. His mother toured with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in Brisbane and his maternal grandmother was a pianist for silent movies and his grandfather once sang with Dame Clara Butt.

As a child David learned piano, sang as a boy soprano and acted in school dramas. As a teenager, working in an Adelaide music store, he decided to become an actor.

“A girlfriend persuaded me top take the part of a wedding guest in an amateur show. I went reluctantly but on the night of the first dress rehearsal I went out in front of the lights and it hit me – pow!”

With the Adelaide based Flinders Revue Company he played Tony in The Boy Friend, Timothy in Salad Days and Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie as well as revue. He played for several years in Adelaide’s own Old King’s Music Hall.

He appeared in three Skippy television programs, played a barman in the Mick Jagger movie, Ned Kelly, worked on various television series and was an out of breath athlete in the Ryan O’Neal film, The Games.

Here’s a quote from critic Bute Hewes on the occasion of the opening of William Forbes-Hamilton’s Victorian Music Hall at the Star Hotel in November 1971.

“Then of course there was Mr Marcus Craig, queening it over everybody and upstaging his fellow artists atrociously. As an unloved pantomime fairy, fat and fourtyish, he brought the house down. As a dainty diminutive red-coated soldier, he was straight out of the military camp. Mr Marcus Craig could take his performance to any Victorian music hall anywhere in the world.”

By November the show had moved to Auckland’s Inter-Continental Hotel and run up 500 performances.

By 1974 Marcus had withdrawn from the Music Hall and joined Edye Parker’s Troupe at Oliver’s Restaurant in a floor show based on the film Cabaret.

He moved to New Zealand by accident in 1974, stopping on his way to London for a few weeks and ending up working with the Mercury, Central and Independent theaters.

His most memorable theatrical experience was an Auckland opening night playing the part of Shakespeare in Bernard Shaw’s “Dark Lady of the Sonnets.”

“Right at the opening the buckle in my trousers went and I had to go through the performance clutching at my waist to keep my trousers up.”

In 1975 he developed his Diamond Lil character and was performing at Phil Warren’s Ace of Clubs nightspot at the back of the Civic Theatre.

"I don’t play the character of Diamond Lil as a woman, I play it as a male, dressed up as a woman, sending the character up. I don’t treat it for real. That is different from a female impersonator endeavoring to appear like a woman. I even use my hairy chest as part of my send up. When one writer described me as a‘drag queen of Music Hall’, I was furious. In the ‘Diamond Lil’ show I play one brief male role (The Pink Shadow) and assume the femme comedy characterisation for the rest of the show.”

At one time Marcus was considered as a replacement for John Clarke when Clarke left TV2 to move to Australia. In 1976 he recorded a live LP, Diamond Lil live at the Ace of Clubs. His live recording of Gumboots with John Clarke made the NZ Top Twenty.

Marcus received a VAC Scroll of Honour in 1978 and in 1981 won the Benny and the Shure Golden Microphone. He served on the VAC committee in 1978, 1981-83 and was President in 1991.

He suffered ill-health in recent times. His blood circulation to his legs was operated on in 2011. He was currently living in Brisbane at the time of his death. His health over the last four or five years was in steep decline with diabetes as the root cause of most of it.

RIP Edwin Linder

Edwin Linder: Photo via NZHerald

Usually when I pull together an obituary post, it's for someone music-related. Today is different.

In the city I live in - Auckland, which is New Zealand's biggest city for you overseas readers - there's about 120 people living homeless on the streets in the city centre. Edwin Linder was one of them.

Last Wednesday he was viciously beaten up, and died in hospital last Saturday, from his injuries. He was 42 years old.

No one deserves to be treated like that, even those at the bottom rung of society's ladder. It makes me incredibly sad that something like this can happen in my city.

Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson said the assault on the man was horrific. "He is known to the mission. We all find it incredibly difficult when someone that we know is assaulted."

His funeral was held yesterday at St Matthews Church, next door to the Auckland City Mission, and was attended by many of his fellow street dwellers.

The NZ Herald reports that "...Edwin's friends from the homeless community stood at the back of the church, some with heads bowed, others dressed for the occasion with an ill-fitting suit jacket or mismatched shirt and tie...

Edwin's mother's introduction was met with hellos and kia oras from members of the congregation.

"When I woke up this morning I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get up and face every mother's worst nightmare." Edwin was different, even as a child, she said. "He always marched to the beat of his own drum. He lived his life the way he wanted to and we just had to accept that."

Her eulogy was followed by the latecomer with his loaf of bread and bag of flowers. "You were a street poet," he said to the congregation, recollecting their time on the street together. "Nobody should ever have attacked you," he said, before placing a cup of flowers - gathered from his travels - on top of Edwin's coffin.

A businessman called Mike then took his turn to pay his respects. He said he had known Edwin for three years. "He used to park himself outside my business on 87 Queen St. He was a bloody good guy.

"Whether I gave him $1 or $30 his reaction was always the same; 'Yeea!'."

Mike said one day after giving Edwin a $20 or $50 note, he cautioned Edwin not to spend the money on booze, drugs, or women.

Edwin's reply was he would then spend the money on a rope to hang himself with. "Because without booze, drugs or women - what's the point."

A rousing rendition of Ka Mate marked the end of the ceremony as Edwin's family carried a simple pine casket out into the waiting hearse. Mourners each took their turn to say goodbye, placing daffodils onto the coffin. "Kia ora cuz, see ya later."


A 17 year old youth has been charged over the assault with Police expecting to lay more serious charges.

RIP George Duke

NPR: George Duke, Legendary Jazz Keyboardist, Dies

Here's how NPR's Felix Contreras describes him:
"He was also a very successful record producer who worked with folks like Gladys Knight, The Pointer Sisters, Anita Baker, Rachelle Ferrell.

"As an instrumentalist he started by working with Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. But he made his mark in the jazz fusion vein, most notably with fellow fusion musicians Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham. He had a series of respected fusion albums going back to the late 1970's.

"From the mid '60s, he also worked as a member of Frank Zappa's recording and touring band. Most recently he had been a big draw at jazz fests around the world that catered to the mix of R&B and jazz artists."


Duke was 67. His wife Corine, passed away , from cancer, a year ago. Time reports that "A representative for Duke said the performer died Monday night in Los Angeles. Duke was being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia."


Wax Poetics featured Duke on their cover for issue 46, and have posted up the interview from that issue online, as a tribute... read it here

" After a legendary but short stints with Frank Zappa's band and then drummer Billy Cobham, George Duke forged a new path and ruled the R&B charts with eccentric funk...

What is your earliest musical memory?

George Duke: Probably the single most important thing that I remember was a Duke Ellington concert that my mom took me to when I was four years old. For whatever reason, it really stuck in my mind, and I knew right then and there that that’s what I wanted to do—that I wanted to play music. I mean, I don’t even know what songs he played. I just kind of remember how he was dressed, the way he spoke—he had that kind of thing where he was saying words like “hip,” “jive,” stuff like that.

So, okay, so he sounds like guys in the neighborhood with the lingo of the day, but at the same time he was speaking very properly. He was doing something with his hands, which I found out later was directing. It was just interesting to me. And of course when I grew up, you didn’t see any Black people on TV.

Other than the pastor at the church that I was going to, he was the only guy outside of my community that I saw doing something that made me say, “Hey, this is cool. I want to do this.” And there was all kinds of people watching him: Whites, Blacks, everything. And so I said, “There’s something about this.”