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The First Lady Of Brazilian Jazz, Leny Andrade, Is Dead At 80

"(She) was a percussive, samba-driven improviser, an interpreter as worldly-wise as Edith Piaf and a consummate nightclub artist. With a thick, husky voice seasoned by cigarette smoke and late hours, Andrade sang torridly of love; she could also swing as hard as any American jazz singer." - NPR

The Last Of The Original World War II Monuments Men, Richard Barancik, Is Dead At 98

"For three months after the end of the war, Mr. Barancik, then a 21-year-old private first class, assisted in the operations of a unit known as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section … whose mission to safeguard the artistic patrimony of Europe amid the destruction and plunder." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Sinéad O’Connor Is Dead At 56

"Recognizable by her shaved head and elfin features, O'Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame … but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music." - AP

French Horn Player Born With No Arms Makes His Proms Debut

He won the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Award in 2016, has recorded several acclaimed albums (including his 2013 debut Reveries and a 2019 performance of Mozart’s horn concertos with the Camerata Salzburg); and had a two-year residency with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. - The Guardian

Kevin Spacey Found Not Guilty Of Sexual Assault In London

"Kevin Spacey was acquitted of sexual assault on Wednesday after the Oscar winner’s star turn as a witness in his own defense spared him a possible prison term and gave him a shot at a career comeback." The verdict arrived on his 64th birthday. - AP

Sonny Rollins, Omnivore

To be able to make creativity and invention sound “natural,” one needs an avid, almost greedy urge to absorb anything—and everything—that is out there. - The Nation

President Biden Will Establish National Monument To Emmett Till And Mamie Till-Mobley

"The new monument will be established across three locations in Illinois and Mississippi in an effort to protect places that tell Till's story, as well as reflect the activism of his mother, who was instrumental in keeping the story of Till's murder alive." - NPR

End Of An Era: Yoko Ono Moves Out Of The Dakota And NYC

After a half century Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978. For many, it signals that yet another link to old New York — the one filled with grit and glamour, run by artists and musicians — is missing. - The New York Times

Master Of The Universe: An Epic NYer Profile Of Larry Gagosian

Traditionally, the model for dealers has been to bet on raw talents, and support these artists until work by some of them sells well enough to cover the bets made on all the others. Under the mega-gallery model that Gagosian pioneered, the top dealers don’t even bother with nascent artists. - The New Yorker

Josephine Chaplin, Actor And Daughter Of Charlie, Has Died At 74

"A longtime resident of Paris, Chaplin did most of her acting in French features, among them Nuits rouges (1974) and À l’ombre d’un été (1976). According to IMDb, her last credit came in the 1994 film Ciudad Baja, starring Mike Connors." - The Hollywood Reporter

Joao Donato, Innovative Bossa Nova And Fusion Composer, Has Died At 88

Donato "was in the coterie of Rio de Janeiro musicians — among them Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and the guitarist Luiz Bonfá — who developed the subtle swing and harmonic sophistication of bossa nova in the mid-1950s. But Mr. Donato didn’t confine himself to any genre." - The New York Times

Tony Bennett, 96

"Few entertainers have had such a remarkable second act. He had his first top-selling hit in 1951 with 'Because of You,' then topped the charts again more than 60 years later, collaborating with Lady Gaga to become the oldest person ever to have a No. 1 album." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, The First Great Theorist Of Bullshit, Is Dead At 94

"(His) fresh ideas about the human will were overshadowed in the broader culture by his analysis of a kind of dishonesty that he found worse than lying — an analysis presented in a bluntly titled surprise best seller, On Bullshit." - The New York Times

Harriet Choice, A Pioneering Female Jazz Journalist, Is Dead At 82

"Thousands of people knew Harriet Rosenfeld Choice by the words she wrote for this newspaper, decades worth of her enthusiastic and influential coverage of the jazz scene, which compelled her to be one of the founders in 1969 of the Jazz Institute of Chicago." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)

Is This The Voice Of The Elusive Banksy?

Someone has dug out a 2005 interview on NPR's All Things Considered. Host: "We assume that you are who you say you are, but how can we be sure?" Banksy(?): "Oh, you have no guarantee of that at all — this could be a better prankster than I was." - CNN

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