The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (291 page)

Though more jazz than rock musician, Elton Dean graced the work of a good number of contemporary blues-based acts in his time. A gifted saxophonist (and occasional keyboardist), Dean made the acquaintance of Long John Baldry in the fabled mid-sixties combo Bluesology. (Within this act, pianist Reg Dwight combined Dean and Baldry’s first names to create his own future persona.) Dean left the group after a year to work with The Keith Tippett Sextet – setting a precedent towards becoming something of a nomadic presence and combining this stint with the formation of the band with whom he is most remembered, Soft Machine. For the majority who knew their craft, Dean was an integral part of the classic Soft Machine line-up completed by Hugh Hopper (ex-Daevid Allen Trio – bass), Mike Ratledge (keys) and Robert Wyatt (vocals/drums). The albums upon which this line-up played,
Third
(1970) and
Fourth
(1971), are generally considered the band’s best. Before he left the band a year after, the restless Dean had already set up his own unit, Just Us, then joining the nine-piece Ninesense in 1975. Most of his last thirty years, though, were spent playing sessions with and for his wide network of jazz and rock cohorts.

Four years ahead of his death from heart and liver problems, Elton Dean was touring new versions of his greatest band, mainly under the easily identifiable names of Soft Works, Soft Machine Legacy and Soft Bounds.

See also
Long John Baldry ((July 2005)

DEAD INTERESTING!

GERRY GEORGETTIS

A truly bizarre story hit the press after 8 February 2006 - that of the mysterious (and in some ways spectacular) death of rock manager/sound engineer Gerry Georgettis. Having been sold what he considered an overpriced Ford Escape SUV by the North Dade Metro dealership in Florida, an irate Georgettis ‘returned’ the vehicle by driving it through the showroom’s windows on a busy Saturday afternoon. With considerable damage already done, the former Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction tour manager then proceeded to pour gasoline over the offending auto before setting it - and most of the other cars on display - ablaze. In front of stunned onlookers, many cars were destroyed (including a rare Ford GT Heritage). The calm Georgettis estimated to have caused over $1 million worth of damage by the time he was apprehended in the street by police. Georgettis posted the $1,500 bail and seemed to regret his actions almost immediately; he even called a chat show to dissuade radio listeners who were by now hailing him as a consumers’ folk hero.

This already dramatic story took a turn for the tragic some days later. Those who knew Georgettis (including Raymond F Marin, the mayor of North Miami Beach, for whom he ran a performing arts centre until his resignation that week) voiced shock and surprise at his behaviour, but the next event suggested that he’d probably been less than responsible for his actions that day. Some hours into a United Airlines flight between Washington and Los Angeles, the body of Gerry Georgettis was found hanged in a toilet after passengers suggested that he’d been occupying it for too long. Said his best friend and former protégé, musician Billy Yeager, ‘I don’t know anyone more stable than Gerry. He was not depressed’.

Friday 10

Jay Dee

(James Yancy - Detroit, Michigan, 7 February 1974)

Slum Village

(Various acts)

Jay Dee was revered by many as one of hip-hop’s most tireless talents. As producer and MC, the musician seemed to have constant projects at his desk, right up until his untimely death aged just thirty-two.

With a family background that steeped the enthusiastic youngster in music (his mother sang opera), Jay Dee mastered keyboard, cello, trumpet, violin and drums before forming his group Slum Village with pals T3 (R L Altman) and Baatin (Titus Glover) while still at high school in the Conant Gardens area of Detroit. By the early nineties, Dee was rubbing shoulders with the thrusting new breed of MCs and impressing established music business names such as Amp Fiddler (a former associate of George Clinton). The latter oversaw the formation of 1st Down – a second project, with rapper Phat Kat (Ronnie Watts), that had Jay Dee on production duties. Although this project folded after one single, it cemented Dee’s reputation behind the desk, a status that was to land him remixing stints with a roster of serious talent including Janet Jackson, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. (With the latter, Jay Dee became part of The Ummah, Tribe’s own production unit.) Slum Village was still an ongoing concern, however, and the group issued its first major label release
Fantastic Volume II
for GoodVibe in 2000.

As a solo performer, Jay Dee changed his handle to J Dilla in order to avoid confusion with Jermaine Dupree, who used a similar epithet. A successful debut,
Welcome 2 Detroit
(2001) resulted in the end of Slum Village; Dee/Dilla was subsequently snapped up by MCA.

In 2003 Jay Dee learned of his illness – a seemingly deadly combination of the rare blood disease TTP and lupus. He’d just embarked upon yet another new project, Jaylib (with Californian producer Madlib), and had major shows set up to promote new solo material. Although the artist continued to play down his ill health, it became all too obvious to his fans, who witnessed Jay Dee playing live from a wheelchair during a late 2005 tour of Europe. On 7 February, he issued the solo album
Donuts
– but it was to be Jay Dee’s last work. Three days later, the musician was dead from a suspected cardiac arrest. His extraordinary output – via a wide variety of guises – continues to be issued posthumously.

One of Jay Dee’s early cohorts was D12’s Proof, who survived him by just two months (gApril 2006).

Tuesday 14

Lynden David Hall

(Wandsworth, London, 7 May 1974)

‘He was one of the biggest talents of his time - and ahead of his time in many ways.’

Trevor Nelson, BBC Radio 1 DJ

In 1998 Lynden David Hall appeared to be a major new star in the waiting, effortlessly snapping up a prestigious MOBO award for Best Newcomer, another from
Blues & Soul
magazine and charting his debut album
Medicine 4 My Pain
– upon which he played most of the instruments. Now, though, the record’s title seems grimly prophetic.

It took a series of remixes before Hall’s first record started to pick up interest, but – with a UK Top Twenty placing for the reissued single ‘Sexy Cinderella’ (1998) – the disc was a staple on black mainstream radio, guaranteeing silver status and sales for its 2000 follow-up,
The Other Side.
A complete breakthrough to regular chart success did not materialise for the singer, however (his third album found an outlet only via an independent label), though Hall retained sellout status for his live performances and even bagged himself the role of wedding singer in the 2003 British rom-com
Love Actually,
in which he performed ‘All You Need is Love’.

It was shortly after this that Lynden David Hall was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the rare cancer that was to claim his life on Valentine’s Day 2006. Two months after his death, singers performed at the Lynden’s Wish benefit to raise awareness for the condition, with all proceeds going to the charity.

Friday 17

Bill Cowsill

(Middletown, Rhode Island, 9 January 1948)

The Cowsills

(The Blue Shadows)

(Various acts)

The ongoing tragicomic tale of The Cowsills continued with the death of former lead singer Bill Cowsill, just one day ahead of a memorial service for his recently deceased brother Barry
(
September 2005).

Cowsill was still a teenager when his family’s band began the transition from wholesome novelty to serious unit-shifters, with the MGM pop anthem ‘The Rain, the Park and Other Things’ (1967 – Billboard number two, Cash Box number one). For a couple of years, the group found itself on every magazine cover and talk show as ‘Cowsillmania’ swept the US. In the end, though, the group were victims of their own success. A projected television series (in the wake of
The Monkees)
fell through when it transpired Columbia Pictures wanted to recast the group as it saw fit. With the entire group then usurped by
The Partridge Family,
an acrimonious 1971 split dissolved The Cowsills (in some cases, more than just professionally). For Bill, there was brief light shed by his momentary short listing as live replacement for Beach Boy Brian Wilson – though ultimately this went the same way as the series. A solo album
Nervous Breakthrough
similarly failed to change his fortunes.