In Memoriam - Page 16

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that bass legend Victor Bailey has passed away from complications with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. He was 56 years old. Bailey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into a musical family. His father, Morris Bailey Jr., was a composer, arranger and saxophonist that wrote songs for R&B artists from the ’60s and ’70s...

Sad news to report today: bass legend Bob Cranshaw has passed away after battling stage 4 cancer. He was 83. Born in Evanston, Illinois in 1932, Cranshaw picked up the bass in high school. He played in several groups in his youth, eventually starting his more than a 50-year musical relationship with saxophonist Sonny Rollins in 1959. He became a...

Sad news to report today: bass builder Tim Cloonan has passed away. The Philadelphia-based luthier owned and operated Callowhill Guitars, creating basses for some of the world’s top players including Tim Lefebvre, Dywane “Mononeon” Thomas, Owen Biddle, Derrick Hodge, Steve Jenkins, and more. Cloonan was a guitar player that saw the need for better bass care. “I’m a guitar player...

Bassist Preston Hubbard, who held down the low end for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, has passed away. He was 63 years old. Hubbard was born in Providence, Rhode Island and picked up the bass at 14 years old. He joined Roomful of Blues as a young man, where he was part of the first backing band for the Blues Brothers. In...

Original Booker T. & the M.G.’s bassist Lewie Steinberg has passed away after a battle with cancer. He was 82 years old. Steinberg was born in 1933 in Memphis, Tennessee. While many people associate Donald “Duck” Dunn with the M.G.’s, Steinberg was the group’s first bassist and recorded on the first two albums: Green Onions and Soul Dressing. He was...

Bassist Rob Wasserman, who played alongside some of the world’s greatest musicians, has passed away from an undisclosed illness. He was 64 years old. Wasserman began as a violinist, switching to bass as a teenager. He studied bass at the San Francisco Conservatory as well as composition with John Adams. His early career included stints with Van Morrison, Oingo Boingo...

Brian Rading, who laid down the low end for Canada’s Five Man Electrical Band, has passed away after fighting throat cancer. He was 69 years old. Rading co-founded the band in 1963 in Ottawa. Originally called The Staccatos, the group changed their name after a handful of albums on Capitol Records of Canada. Rading was instrumental in choosing the name...

Nashville session bass ace Mike Chapman has passed away after battling an aggressive form of cancer. He was 63 years old. Chapman was an absolute staple of country music. Born in Alabama, he began his career playing in nightclubs “6 nights a week, 5 sets a night for the biggest part of a decade,” his biography states. He decided to...

Sad news to report today: Ohio Players bassist Marshall “Rock” Jones has passed away after battling cancer and recently suffering a stroke. He was 75 years old. Jones was a founding member of the Ohio Players precursor band The Ohio Untouchables in 1959, though he left after getting in a fistfight 1964. Another shakeup led to Jones rejoining in 1970....

Double bassist Jane Little, who was the longest tenured orchestra member in the world, passed away on May 14th doing what she loved: playing bass. In a bittersweet twist of fate, the 87-year-old collapsed during an encore performance with the Atlanta Symphony during the song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Little served in the orchestra for over seven decades....

The bass world is grieving as double bassist and composer Johnterryl “Terry” Plumeri was murdered in his Florida home this week in what police believe was part of a string of burglaries. He was 71 years old. Plumeri began music at the age of 10. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City under the tutelage...

Joe Skyward, born Joe Howard, has died after a two-year fight with cancer. He was 57. The former Posies and Sunny Day Real Estate bassist’s passing was announced on the Posies Facebook page. “Joe Skyward, aka Joe Bass, left us last night,” the post read. “He had been fighting cancer for the last 2 years. Positive to the end, he...