Motown Obituaries during 2014

[woodward]

I was watching the NBC nightly news last evening and at the end of the broadcast they showed a collage of pictures of entertainers who passed away during the past year. Many of them I never ever heard of. I was especially saddened by their failure to mention Jimmy Ruffin. That would have been a fitting tribute to this great singer.

With these thoughts in mind, I would like to compile a listing of Motown singers and/or executives who passed away last year. I can offer the following:

Anna Gordy Gaye - 1/31/2014
Bernie Yeszin - 7/8/2014 He was the Motown art director
Jimmy Ruffin - 11/17/2014

Can anyone add any others?

[johnny_raven]

Frances Nero 11/28/2014

[mysterysinger]

Joe Sample [[Crusaders) February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014

[woodward]

Joe Sample [[Crusaders) February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014

What involvement did Joe Sample have with Motown? I never heard of him and he is not mentioned in the Motown Encyclopedia.

[144man]

Jerry LaCroix of Rare Earth

[marybrewster]

What involvement did Joe Sample have with Motown? I never heard of him and he is not mentioned in the Motown Encyclopedia.

Mr. Sample is credited for playing keyboards on the Supremes "High Energy" LP.

[144man]

The death of Cornell Blakely in December 2013 has never been mentioned on SDF.

[mysterysinger]

What involvement did Joe Sample have with Motown? I never heard of him and he is not mentioned in the Motown Encyclopedia.

You're having me on right? For the record Joe Sample is mentioned many times in the Motown Encyclopedia [[a search will help you). Joe was an integral part of The Crusaders who had 4 albums released by Motown [[2 of them as The Jazz Crusaders before they dropped the "Jazz" part). Also try looking under The Crusaders for this information. I also suspect that he had a lot more involvement at Motown than he has ever been given credit for [[maybe Ralph would know more). Two of The Crusaders albums have recently been re-released on Motown by Universal in Japan [["Pass The Plate" and "Hollywood").

Also, The Jazz Crusaders recorded "Way Back Home" [[written by Wilton Felder) as an instrumental before Junior Walker recorded a version.

Incidentally, also listed under The Crusaders Motown Encyclopedia as leaving us on 4th April 2014 is Wayne Henderson.

8881

[mysterysinger]

Post Motown, of course, The Crusaders scored a big hit with "Street Life" [[written by Will Jennings and Joe Sample) featuring Randy Crawford on vocals. Joe later performed live and issued other albums with Randy Crawford. 8882

[keith_hughes]

Arranger Johnny Allen died Feb 1
Arranger Gil Askey died Apr 9
Fantastic Four singer Ralph Pruitt died Jun 13
And Golden World arranger/producer Don Davis died Jun 15

[dickiemint]

Maxine Powell

[Hotspurman]

He is mentioned in the entry for The Crusaders as well as several mentions appearing in the entries for the Jackson 5 singles - he often played keyboards on these sessions, with fellow Crusader Wilton Felder on bass.

[woodward]

Maxine Powell

Maxine died 10/14/2013.

[Hotspurman]

A couple of others not mentioned above:
Francesco DiGiacomo [[Banco) – 21 February 2014
Imamu Amiri Baraka – 9 January 2014
Charles Love [[Bloodstone) – 7 March 2014
Cees Veerman [[The Cats) – 15 March 2014
Idris Muhammad – 29 July 2014
Bobby Womack – 27 June 2014

And before anyone pulls me up on Bobby Womack, his legendary The Poet album was released in Europe on the Motown label.