quote:
Dennis 'Machine Gun' Thompson, the founding MC5 drummer and the last surviving original member of the pioneering proto-punk group, died Wednesday, The Detroit Free Press reported. He was 75.

Thompson’s death comes just a few months after the February death of his MC5 bandmate, guitarist Wayne Kramer, and the April death of John Sinclair, the group’s manager.

quote:
Thompson met his future MC5 bandmates in high school in the early Sixties, and the group came of age and cut their teeth in the thick of Detroit’s garage rock heyday.

The MC5 rose to prominence playing left-wing rallies in Detroit and cut their classic debut, the live album Kick Out the Jams, in October 1968. After that, the band released just two studio albums, 1970’s Back in the USA and 1971’s High Times, before breaking up in 1972. The group’s acrimonious split was fueled in part by differing political visions, money, and clashes with Sinclair, but Thompson also acknowledged that his struggles with heroin addiction were a factor as well.

quote:
Kramer, in an 2017 interview posthumously published this year in Spin, called Thompson “one of the most formidable percussionists,” adding: “He was the guy who was able to put a lot of thinking together on the drums that no one else had put together, you know? He listened to Sun Ra and Elvin Jones. He listened to Charlie Watts, Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell. He was able to put these things together in a way that no one else had done before, and to take it further than certainly rock drummers had ever taken it. He had the ability to play outside of time, which was just genius in my opinion".

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Posted by bleeng

The Woodlands

Member since Apr 2013

4084 posts

Posted on 5/13/24 at 1:47 pm to Kafka

David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 — May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but had been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school and was a session musician long before its release. He was active as a session musician, playing on several albums by various artists (see Discography).

One of the most commercially successful American saxophonists to earn prominence since the 1980s, Sanborn was described by critic Scott Yanow as "the most influential saxophonist on pop, R&B, and crossover players of the past 20 years." He is often identified with radio-friendly smooth jazz, but expressed a disinclination for the genre and his association with it.

Sanborn performed with blues musicians Albert King and Little Milton at the age of 14.He continued playing blues when he joined Paul Butterfield blues band in 1967.

Sanborn recorded on four Butterfield albums as a horn section member and soloist from 1967 to 1971. In the early morning of Monday, August 18, 1969, Sanborn appeared as a member of the band at the Woodstock Music Festival at Bethel, NY.

In 1972 Sanborn played on the track "Tuesday Heartbreak" on the Stevie Wonder album Talking Book. His work in 1975 with David Bowie on Young Americans and on the James Taylor recording of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" on the album Gorilla further brought to prominence his alto saxophone voice in popular music.

In the mid-70s Sanborn became active in the popular jazz fusion scene by joining the Brecker Brothers band where he became influenced by Michael Brecker, and it was with the brothers that he recorded his first solo album, Taking Off, nowadays regarded as something of a jazz/funk classic.

He has been a highly regarded session player since the late 1960s, playing with an array of well-known artists, such as James Brown, Bryan Ferry, Michael Stanley, Eric Clapton, Bobby Charles, Cat Stevens, Roger Daltrey, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Jaco Pastorius, the Brecker Brothers, Michael Franks, Kenny Loggins, Casiopea, Players Association, David Bowie, Todd Rundgren, Bruce Springsteen, Little Feat, Tommy Bolin, Bob James, James Taylor, Al Jarreau, Pure Prairie League, Kenny G, Loudon Wainwright III, George Benson, Joe Beck, Donny Hathaway, Elton John, Gil Evans, Carly Simon, Guru, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, Kenny Garrett, Roger Waters, Steely Dan, Ween, the Eagles, Grateful Dead, Nena, Hikaru Utada, The Rolling Stones, Ian Hunter, and Toto.