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James Gadson performs during the Playing for Change - We are One Benefit concert at The Mayan on October 3, 2017 in Los Angeles.
FYI
Obituaries: Legendary Drummer James Gadson, Montreal Gazette Music Critic John Griffin
This week we also acknowledge the passing of former E Street Band singer and violinist Suki Lahav.
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John Griffin, former music and film critic at The Montreal Gazette, died on March 21, at age 76.
Griffin was born in Montreal and, in 1964, his family moved to England, where he attended college in Berkshire. They returned to Montreal in 1967 after Griffin and his three sisters had been exposed to the Swinging Sixties in England, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Enrolled at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, he wrote poetry for the university’s literary magazine, The Mitre, and sang lead vocals in a folk-jazz band called Sybilance. After graduating in 1971, he moved back to Montreal and got his first job in arts journalism, compiling listings for a cultural magazine. When high-profile rock critic Juan Rodriguez left The Gazette in 1980, Griffin was hired as his permanent replacement. He stayed on at the paper for more than 30 years.
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Griffin’s interest in the arts continued after he moved to the Eastern Townships in the mid-2010s. He was a co-organizer of the resurrected Festival du Film de Knowlton, starting in 2018, and, post-pandemic, he wrote about the arts for Tempo Lac-Brome, a monthly community newspaper.
In an extensive obituary in The Gazette, former editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan noted that "the longtime music and film journalist, exuded an intoxicating mix of charm, gentlemanly manners and ineffable cool.
"John Griffin was hired by The Gazette as a music critic, covering everything from local pop, rock and folk to major touring rock acts between 1980 and 1988. He transitioned to the film beat for the next 22 years until he resigned in 2010, although he continued to write regularly for the newspaper as a freelancer until late 2013."Griffin was a critic at a time when print journalism was in its heyday, and readers looked to local critics for guidance and insight. He had joined a stable of other formidable wordsmiths who helped set the cultural agenda in Montreal.
"Griffin’s reputation was anchored not only by his wide-ranging knowledge but his writing, a combination of hipness, wit and poetry, often delivered under tight time pressure. This is a line from his deadline review of an Antonio Carlos Jobim concert at the 1986 Montreal International Jazz Festival: 'If chiffon has a sound, that sound is samba.'"
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"On the other end of the musical spectrum was his gimlet-eyed 1986 assessment of the heavy metal band Motörhead: 'Motörhead wore leather and studs and wrapped ammunition belts around their waists; they had long hair, bad skin and were either drunk, chasing skirt or writing songs about blood, violence (and) the Apocalypse. … Their shows regularly jammed the noise meter at 126 decibels, which has the same effect on your head as a slaughterhouse stun gun has on a 4,000-pound steer.'"
"Griffin’s movie reviews were equally incandescent; he coined terms like 'Euro-nudity' to describe a certain laissez-faire visual approach, and he raved — and ranted — about everything from slapstick Hollywood comedies like The Naked Gun to the introspective works of Léa Pool.
"But Griffin was more than a cultural arbiter during his three-decade career at The Gazette. The 1980s and early 1990s were a time in journalism for which the term 'bon vivant' could have been coined. You could find John on the club scene night after night, exuding an intoxicating mix of non-oleaginous charm, gentlemanly manners and ineffable cool."
Family, friends and many Montreal music and film notables paid tribute to Griffin on social media after his passing.
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Griffin's nephew, David MacIntyre, followed in his footsteps by becoming a music journalist. His homage posted on Facebook reads, in part: "Last weekend, I suddenly lost my uncle, John Griffin. I had just seen him three weeks ago for his 76th birthday. But I didn’t just lose my uncle and godfather — I’ve lost one of my best friends and most towering influences in life, someone I loved like a second father.
"I owe so much to him. Me becoming a music writer was inspired in part by watching him do it from afar thanks to his 30 years at the Montreal Gazette. His hilariously insightful perspective on music, and the ways in which he articulated that, rubbed off on me in unquantifiable ways. I wouldn’t be the writer, journalist or music nerd I am today without him. Full stop. But above all things, he was just my uncle. So many memories throughout my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood involve him in some form or another."
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Veteran music publicist and former musician Glenda Rush posted this on Facebook: "Rest in Peace John Griffin, you will always be the coolest of the cools, and beloved by all of us; what an honour when you wrote about us, and when we saw you at our shows with Hugh Ball and The Martinis. An ‘80’s girl couldn’t have felt more like a superstar, because of you."
Longtime Montreal musician Patrick Hutchinson (Bare Bones) sent this tribute to Billboard Canada: "John Griffin was a good and passionate music critic, one who was genuinely supportive but also called things as he heard them. He generally hit several shows a night, and was equally enthusiastic or critical whether they were touring acts or local bands scuffling in the bars."
On Facebook, Montreal filmmaker and journalist Albert Nerenberg posted a tribute that reads, in part: "Very sad to learn of the passing of John Griffin, longtime Montreal Gazette film and rock critic, and a cultural force in his own right. I knew him both professionally and personally. As a critic, he could be fierce but fair—and when he loved something, he made sure you knew it. And when he didn’t… same.
"He was fun-loving, jubilant, and in many ways an old-school journalism character. A great writer, he was also a champion of Montreal culture. As a friend, he had a remarkable quality: a deep enthusiasm for other people’s lives. He always wanted to know what you were up to and how you were doing and what was next. He himself was always up to something, including founding a film festival in the Eastern Townships. In many ways, he was the perhaps the last of the Montreal Boulevardiers. He will be sorely missed."
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A celebration of Griffin’s life will be held in Knowlton in late May or early June. No further details have been announced.
David Wiffen, a renowned Ottawa singer-songwriter, died on April 5, at age 84.
A close musical associate of Bruce Cockburn, Wiffen is best-known for writing the much-covered "Driving Wheel." Billboard Canada is collecting tributes from his peers and an extensive obituary will appear in this space next week.
International
James Gadson, a legendary American drummer who backed such stars as Diana Ross, Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye, died on April 2, at age 86.
Gadson’s wife, Barbara, confirmed his passing to Rolling Stone, noting that he had recently faced health challenges, including a surgery and a fall that injured his back.
A Billboard obituary reports that "Gadson became one of the defining funk, soul, and disco drummers of the 1970s, providing the beats on classics such as Withers’ 'Lean on Me' and 'Use Me,' The Jackson 5’s 'Dancing Machine' and Ross’ 'Love Hangover.' During that decade, he also played on Gaye’s 'I Want You,' Thelma Houston’s 'Don’t Leave Me This Way' and Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band’s 'Express Yourself.''"
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"Most grooves, especially for dance music, are very simple,” Gadson told Modern Drummer in 2007. “Even so, to learn them, you have to slow them down. A lot of times we do all these rudimental things to see how fast we can play. I think you have to slow it all down and simplify it. Then you can kind of feel whether it’s danceable or not.”
Billboard adds that "as a highly in-demand session player, Gadson also recorded with the Temptations, Leonard Cohen, Bobby Womack, B.B. King, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, Herbie Hancock, Paul McCartney, D’Angelo, Beck, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey and Harry Styles."
"Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Gadson grew up in a musical family. As a teenager, he sang doo-wop with a group called the Carpets and later discovered funk music while stationed in Louisiana with the Air Force. After leaving the service, he joined his brother’s band, playing keyboards and singing, while also teaching himself to play the drums.
Gadson later began playing drums with Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and recorded several albums. He also served as a drummer at various times for artists touring through Kansas City, including Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Jimmy Reed, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.
Numerous artists paid tribute to Gadson following his passing, including Beck, Ray Parker Jr. and Questlove. On Instagram, Beck posted that “My heart is heavy at the passing of my old friend the legendary drummer James Gadson,. He played drums on many of my records over the decades, from Midnite Vultures on and has been a significant part of the sound of so many of my songs. I feel fortunate to have known this gentle giant of a man who was such a musical force and left his mark on so much classic music, from Bill Withers to 'I Will Survive.”
Questlove, writing on Instagram, noted that “Some drummers are soulful. Some drummers are funky. Some drummer are a rockin. Some drummers are swinging——but NO drummer has impacted the art of breakbeat drummer (danceable drums) like James Gadson.”
Suki (Tzrua) Lahav, an Israeli musician, vocalist, songwriter, writer and poet who played in an early version of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died on April 1 at age 74, after battling cancer.
On his official Facebook page, Springsteen posted this tribute: "Here on E Street, we’re heartbroken over the passing of Suki Lahav. Her angelic voice shone on '4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)' and her beautiful violin brought great drama to the 'Jungleland' intro. She also blessed our stage with her beauty and grace in our early touring days. She was a wonderful friend, may she rest with the angels. Bruce Springsteen."
In an extensive obituary, Times of Israel reports that "Lahav, who won the ACUM (Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel) lifetime achievement award in 2011, wrote material for the classic 1975 album End of the Orange Season by the Shalom Hanoch-Ariel Zilber band Tamouz, and lyrics for songs performed by leading Israeli artists, including Rita (her 1990 Eurovision song contest entry), Yehudit Ravitz, Rami Kleinstein and Yehuda Poliker. Lahav also wrote screenplays (Kesher Dam) and novels (Andre’s Wooden Clogs, The Swamp Queen Does the Tango).
"Born on Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar in 1951, Lahav was known outside Israel, however, as Springsteen’s violinist from late 1974 to early 1975 — playing 38 gigs with the E Street Band, adding poignancy on stage to ballads like the sparse 'Lost in the Flood' from Springsteen’s debut album, the sprawling 'Incident on 57th Street' from his second, and the take-a-chance-on-me saga that became 'Thunder Road' from his then-unreleased breakthrough third album, Born to Run."
Times of Israel notes that "Lahav’s improbable connection to Springsteen, stemmed from the fact that her first husband, Louis, was the sound engineer at a New York studio, 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, favored by Springsteen’s early ’70s manager Mike Appel. At work on his second album there, Springsteen had hired a church children’s choir for a song called '4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), but they didn’t show. 'And I was around. And I had this high, pure, clear voice. So that was my first time,' said Lahav – singing, uncredited, on the track that appears on the album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle."
"Lahav’s time with Springsteen ended as Born to Run was being recorded. Springsteen and Mike Appel fell out, new manager Jon Landau took over, and 'we were really Mike’s people,' she said. She returned to Israel and started the next part of her life."
In an interview, Lahav once described Springsteen as “a lovely man.” While she said she hadn’t seen him since 1976, she “of course” still listened to those early albums. “It’s not the main thing in my life, ” she said, “but it’s a part of me that will never fade.”
This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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