Veteran R&B singer Tyrone Davis dead at 66

Updated at 22:52 on February 9, 2005, EST.

CHICAGO (AP) - Veteran rhythm-blues singer Tyrone Davis died Wednesday, four months after he had a stroke that left him in a coma, his business partner said.

He was 66. Davis was taken to hospital in September and was undergoing rehabilitation at a suburban Chicago nursing home at the time of his death, Leo Graham said.

Davis began his career in the 1960s and his baritone voice and warm and romantic singing style made him popular in the 1970s. He was best known for the hits Can I Change My Mind and Turn Back the Hands of Time for the Dakar label.

Davis moved to Columbia Records in 1976, where he recorded several hits, including Give It Up (Turn It Loose) and the ballad In the Mood.

As his popularity faded in the 1980s, he was released by Columbia, though he continued to record. He was promoting his latest release when he had the stroke, Graham said.

Born in Greenville, Miss., Davis came under the influence of blues legends Bobby (Blue) Bland, Little Milton and Otis Clay. He sang at clubs in Chicago before landing his first recording contract.

The Canadian Press, 2005

Sad Sad news RIP Tyrone the man was a true Soul Legend and epitomised the sound of Chicago.

I also heard on another list that Jimmy Smith passed away this week.

John

Sad Sad news RIP Tyrone the man was a true Soul Legend and epitomised the sound of Chicago.

I also heard on another list that Jimmy Smith passed away this week.

John

link

Iheard that somewhere but from an unreliable source so ?

Sad Sad news RIP Tyrone the man was a true Soul Legend and epitomised the sound of Chicago.

I also heard on another list that Jimmy Smith passed away this week.

John

link

From Reuters

Jazz organ pioneer Jimmy Smith dies

Organist Jimmy Smith, who helped change the sound of jazz by almost single-handedly introducing the soulful electric riffs of the Hammond B-3 organ, has died at age 79 at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

A spokeswoman for the Concord record label said Smith died of natural causes on Tuesday.

Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on December 8, 1925, Smith ruled the Hammond B-3 in the 1950s and 1960s and blended jazz, blues, R&B, bebop and even gospel into an exciting stew that became known as "soul jazz" - an idiom that produced many imitators, followers and fans.

"Anyone who plays the organ is a direct descendant of Jimmy Smith. It's like Adam and Eve - you always remind someone of Jimmy Smith," jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco said in an interview with Reuters last year.

"He was the big pioneer, not only of the organ but musically. He was doing things that (John) Coltrane did in the '60s, but he did them back in '56 and '57," he added.

Paired with jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery in the 1960s, Smith first made his mark as a soloist on Blue Note Records where, as one critic noted, he turned the Hammond B-3 organ "into a down and dirty orchestra".

Among his best known albums on Blue Note were The Sermon! Back at the Chicken Shack, Midnight Special, Home Cookin', and Prayer Meetin'.

The pipe organ had been used in jazz in the 1930s by such famous players as Fats Waller but it was obviously too big and too heavy to be lugged into jazz clubs.

Smith was able to take his electric B-3 on the road and created a jazz trio of organ, drums and either guitar or saxophone.

Smith himself provided the bass lines by using the organ's foot pedals.

-Reuters

I love Tyrones music, another great loss to soul music............RIP

Sad news. Anyone who's ever collected obscure seventies soul will appreciate what a colossal influence Tyrone Davis had on an entire generation of singers in the states. When he was good he was absolutely brilliant.