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Country Joe McDonald at Woodstock 1969
FYI
Obituaries: Woodstock Star Country Joe McDonald, Canadian Jazz Author Jack Chambers
This week we also acknowledge the passing of British blues boom architect Mike Vernon and blues guitar veteran Roy Bookbinder.
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Jack (John Kenneth) Chambers, a Canadian professor and author who wrote acclaimed biographies of Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, died on March 2, at the age of 87.
According to his official obituary, "Jack left us on the eve of a lunar eclipse, 'round midnight, March 2, 2026, fighting to the end after a short bout with cancer."
Born in Grimsby, Ontario, Chambers attended university in Windsor and Kingston, earning his MA in English from Queens University. After teaching high school, he earned a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Alberta. In 1970, he became a professor of Linguistics at University of Toronto. Over the next 52 years, he taught Sociolinguistics and Dialectology, adding to the fields and publishing about Canadian raising, uptalk, swearing, among many other topics.
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Chambers' obituary notes that "Jack spent many summers in his basement writing the formidable Miles Davis biography, Milestones, much to his children's chagrin as that was also the TV room. Later, they renovated so he could continue writing in that basement.
"In the last nine months after getting a stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Jack enjoyed a most productive time, writing two books on Duke Ellington (one forthcoming), giving talks as part of the Duke Ellington Society, writing an article for the LRC on Catcher in the Rye, and starting a memoir that he continued to reconceptualize in his final days.
"All his life, Jack was a diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, loved a deadline, a drink, a game of euchre, and that his kids and grandkids could play, talk and argue with him about sports and the arts. Jack was the curmudgeon with the good advice, the squabbling husband converted to caregiver for his wife, and a true social intellect. He will be remembered for his accomplishments, warmth, and wit."
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A fellow renowned Toronto author of jazz biographies, Mark Miller, paid tribute to Chambers on Facebook. His post, in part, reads: "Jack was a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Toronto for many years — indeed, its head from 1986 to 1990 — and completed several respected books and countless articles in that field.
"His 'parallel vocation,' as he described writing about jazz, drew similar approbation — Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998), Bouncin' With Bartok: The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik (2008), A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man in the Music (2025) and the forthcoming Ellington the Composer: Caught in the Act. His CV for linguistics and jazz together runs to no fewer than 41 pages."
You can access that CV here.
"Jack was the senior member of a group of journalists, academics and musicians in Toronto who shared an interest in writing about jazz and who would meet every now and then for dinner, drinks and, of course, disputation. Jack brought to our gatherings the same quiet, knowing authority that characterized his writing. As news of his death circulated privately last night, he was lauded by one of our number as 'a rare and generous spirit.' I can only concur. Respect."
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Donations may be made here to the Jack Chambers Undergraduate Linguistics Award, via the Dept of Linguistics at University of Toronto. A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, March 10, at 2 pm, with a reception to follow. Details here. All are welcome.
International
Country Joe (Joseph Allen) McDonald, an American folk-rock singer-songwriter and activist best known for a triumphant performance at Woodstock, died on March 7, at age 84. He had been living with Parkinson's.
McDonald rose to fame as leader of the band Country Joe and The Fish. A Billboard obituary notes that "the group blended politically charged lyrics with psychedelic rock and became closely associated with the anti-war movement of the era. McDonald’s most enduring composition, 'I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,' became a rallying cry for Vietnam War protesters."
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"The song reached global notoriety during McDonald’s solo appearance at the 1969 Woodstock festival, where he led the crowd through the now-famous 'Fish Cheer,' a call-and-response chant that encouraged hundreds of thousands of attendees to spell out an expletive before launching into the anti-war anthem."
Born in Washington, D.C., McDonald grew up in El Monte, California, where he played trombone with dance bands on the weekends. He joined the Navy as a teenager — serving from 1959 to 1962 — before returning to L.A. to attend state college. He moved to the Bay area in 1965, where he co-founded Country Joe and the Fish with guitarist Barry Melton in Berkeley.
McDonald once explained the group's origins this way: “I moved to Berkeley in the summer of 1965, after the Free Speech Movement. So I came up here from southern California and got miraculously tapped into the folk music thing that was happening here at that time. I met Barry Melton at the University of California folk festival, and we hit it off. I started playing a few of my songs, and he played lead guitar. We were originally a duo."
After growing in size, Country Joe & The Fish and signed to Vanguard Records, group releasing their debut album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, in 1967. It featured some protest songs, as did a quickly released second album, I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die, out in Nov. 1967. Its title track firmly established the band as key figures in the anti-war movement.
Billboard reports that "two of the band’s albums reached the top 40 of the Billboard 200 during the late 1960s, cementing their place in the era’s rock landscape even as peers like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead achieved broader commercial success."
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The group played the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and then their Woodstock appearance boosted their profile. After the band dissolved in the 1970s, McDonald continued recording and performing as a solo artist, releasing dozens of albums across folk, rock and politically themed songwriting. His 1986 album Vietnam Experience revisited the cultural impact of the war that had defined much of his early work. Fifty years after writing his signature song in 1965, he sang it at an anti-nuclear protest at Livermore Laboratory on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
In a 2016 interview with Bay area newspaper The Street Spirit, McDonald reflected that "As an activist, I like to give a voice and to support people and movements that don’t have mainstream support and visibility. And I realize that my name has a certain notoriety and that my presence can be a morale-booster.”
Mike (Michael William Hugh) Vernon, an English record producer and label founder considered a prime architect of the '60s British blues boom, died on March 2, age 81.
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In a statement, his family reports that "It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Mike Vernon. To the world, he was a passionate champion of the blues and a legendary record producer who helped shape so much incredible music. But to us, he was also our dad, a brother, an uncle, a grandpa and partner — our steady guide, our storyteller, and our biggest supporter. We will miss him beyond words, but his music, his spirit, and his love will stay with us always.”
In its tribute, the Bluesactu.com website notes that "To understand the trajectory of rock and blues music in the United Kingdom—and by extension, the world – one must understand the impact of Mike Vernon. Working largely out of Decca Records’ West Hampstead studios in the mid-1960s, Vernon was not just a producer; he was a gatekeeper who recognised the raw potential in young British musicians obsessively studying American blues records."
"His most monumental contribution to music history came in 1966 when he produced Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton for John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. The album, affectionately known as the 'Beano' album due to Clapton reading a Beano comic on the cover, is widely credited with establishing the sound of British blues-rock. Vernon’s production captured a thunderous, distorted guitar sound that set a new benchmark for rock music."
In 1965, Vernon and his brother Richard founded the independent record label Blue Horizon, and it quickly became a crucial imprint for blues in the U.K.. Mike Vernon signed and produced the early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, led by the late guitarist Peter Green, and they hit paydirt via the million-selling instrumental hit “Albatross,” which reached number one in the U.K. in 1968.
Bluesactu notes that "The label’s roster was a 'who’s who' of blues legends, including Chicken Shack (featuring Christine McVie), Rory Gallagher, Ten Years After, and Savoy Brown. Notably, Vernon also used his label to champion original American blues artists, releasing records by legends such as Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, and Lazy Lester, often backing them with British musicians to create a unique trans-Atlantic sound.
Another career achievement for Vernon was his production of the debut album by a then-unknown David Bowie for Deram Records in 1967. Though not a commercial success, it helped launch the budding superstar.
In the 1970s, Vernon produced the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, achieving international success with the hit “Hocus Pocus.” Other production clients included Level 42, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Bloodstone.
n 1971, Mike and Richard Vernon opened Chipping Norton Recording Studios as the in-house studio for the Blue Horizon label. The studio became a commercial enterprise and operated until 1999, recording many hit singles including "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty, "In the Army Now" by Status Quo, "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers, "Perfect" by Fairground Attraction, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" by Canadian band Cutting Crew and "Eighteen with a Bullet" by Pete Wingfield.
Duran Duran recorded most of their debut album Duran Duran (1981) with Colin Thurston as producer at that studio, and Radiohead recorded their 1993 debut album, Pablo Honey, including their debut single "Creep," there.
After moving to Spain around 2000, Vernon largely retired from the industry, but in 2010, he returned to production, working with modern blues artists such as Oli Brown, Dani Wilde and Sari Schorr.
Vernon was also active as a singer. He was a member of Olympic Runners (1974–1979) and acted as producer for them, and he also sang bass for and produced Rocky Sharpe and the Replays (1979–1983). Vernon later fronted his own rhythm and blues outfit, Mike Vernon & The Mighty Combo, touring and recording an album (2018's Beyond The Blue Horizon) with them that reflected his love for the music of the 1940s and 50s.
Mike Vernon was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge Award in 2013 for his unique contribution to music. Vernon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to music.
Roy Alan Bookbinder, a renowned American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, died on March 3, at age 82.
A student and friend of the Reverend Gary Davis, he was equally at home with blues and ragtime. He was known to shift from open tunings to slide arrangements to original compositions, with both traditional and self-styled licks. His storytelling was another characteristic that made his style unique.
Born in Queens, New York City, he was known professionally as Roy Book Binder. After graduating high school, he joined the Navy and undertook a tour of duty in Europe, buying his first guitar at a military base in Italy.
Upon returning to New York, he befriended his blues guitar hero, Dave Van Ronk, becoming his student and later his chauffeur and tour companion. His time on the road with Davis inspired much of Book Binder's work.
By the mid- to late 1960s, Book Binder was recording for both Kicking Mule and Blue Goose Records. In 1969, he toured England with Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Homesick James. Another influence was bluesman Pink Anderson, and Book Binder named his first album, Travelin' Man, after one of the songs he learned from Anderson.
In 1973, he partnered with the fiddler Fats Kaplin. They recorded Git Fiddle Shuffle in 1973, performed together for three years, playing numerous concerts and recording a second album, Ragtime Millionaire, in 1977. After this partnership dissolved, Book Binder began touring the country, living in a motor home, and concentrating on live performances.
Dubbed "a guitar-picking hillbilly bluesman," Book Binder released 12 albums and performed at most major blues and folk festivals in the U.S. and Europe, including Merlefest. He appeared regularly on Nashville Now and is listed in Blues Who's Who, by the music historian Sheldon Harris.
A veteran guitar instructor, Book Binder taught at the Fur Peace Ranch with Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane) and others. There, he demonstrated songs, turnarounds, chord variations, right-hand methods, and many of his own adaptations and unique approaches to the blues.
His album Hillbilly Blues Cats (Rounder) was named as one of the ten most essential acoustic guitar albums of 1992. His final album, In Concert Road Songs And Stories, came out in 2017.
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