Richard Wright was not just an integral part of Pink Floyd, but also a true innovator who found new and interesting ways to utilize keyboard and electronic based instruments into a rock band setting, as well as being a master of musical texture and flow. A true trail-blazer. Here's the story form Associated Press:

Pink Floyd member Richard Wright dies at age 65

By MEERA SELVA

LONDON (AP) — Richard Wright, a founding member of Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

The rock group's spokesman, Doug Wright, who's unrelated, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He said the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group's jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia "happenings" made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and played the keyboard.

"Rick's keyboards were an integral part of the Pink Floyd sound," said Joe Boyd, a prominent record producer who worked with Pink Floyd early in its career.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "The Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" for that album, and worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes" and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."

But tensions grew among Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of "The Wall" when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of "The Wall," and did not perform on Pink Floyd's 1983 album, "The Final Cut."

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris from the band Fashion, and released one album, "Identity," with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums "The Division Bell" and "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums "Wet Dream" (1978) and "Broken China" (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the "Live 8" charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour's solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album "On an Island" and the accompanying world tour.

Gilmour paid tribute to Wright on Monday, saying his input was often forgotten.

"He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound," he said. "I have never played with anyone quite like him." 

 
 

LeRoi Moore, the sax player for the Dave Mathew Band, died from complications stemming from an accident he had while riding an ATV at his home. He was 46.

The first I heard of something amiss with Mr. Moore was at a Dave Matthews Band show here in Florida about a month ago. Noting his conspicuous absence, I learned later that he had an accident riding an ATV and was pretty banged up.

There were reports that he was getting better, and that he was to begin a rehab regiment; apparently, some sort of complications arose (outside of the term ‘complications’, no cause of death  has been specified in any news report I’ve seen) and he expired on Tuesday.

Hats off for you, LeRoi, and rest peacefully.

 
 

The RIAA is on the prowl again, this time they have gone after the site, Muxtape. Here' the story from WebWare:

The RIAA shuts down Muxtape By Josh Lowensohn– August 18, 2008 5:08 PM PDT   Free music mixtape service Muxtape has temporarily been shut down due to pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). There's not much more information about downtime besides a small note on the front page of Muxtape.com saying that "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA."

Presumably the RIAA had gotten wise to the considerable amount of music that was being hosted and played on the service, bringing it into the same tier as some of the streaming radio services that have had to pay considerable licensing fees just to stream tracks to its users.

Back in April, my colleague Daniel Terdiman chatted with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's senior intellectual property attorney, Fred von Lohmann, who said that a site like Muxtape was only able to scrape by if it did not reach a critical mass, and if it had good legal ground both in principle and on paper. We may be only beginning to see if the latter holds true.

Update: Muxtape's blog has posted a tidbit of information about the downtime:


No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned.
Beta users of Muxtape For Bands: you are unaffected by this outage.

 
 

 
Issac Hayes was one bad....

Heres the story I picked up from the AP:

 More than 'Shaft': Hayes was goldmine of influence

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY

With its riveting orchestration, definitive guitar play and signature sensual baritone vocals, Isaac Hayes' theme song for the 1971 movie "Shaft" not only became one of pop music's iconic songs, but also the defining work of Hayes' career.

Yet the "Theme from Shaft," which would earn both Grammys and an Oscar, was just a snippet of the groundbreaking music for which Hayes — who died Sunday at age 65 — was responsible.

He penned soul classics like "Hold On I'm Comin'" for Sam & Dave, helped usher in the era of disco and was a goldmine for countless hip-hop and R&B artists who used his illustrious arrangements as the focal point for their songs decades later.

"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."

His influence also extended beyond music. His trademarked bald head, full beard and muscular frame, often adorned with a multitude of gold chains, made him a fashion trendsetter at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting blowout Afros. He was also a symbol of black pride, and an activist for civil rights.

The Rev. Al Sharpton called Hayes a "creative genius" and added, "even in his later years he never hesitated to appear for a cause or endorse something that he felt was for the good of mankind. He will be sorely missed."

Hayes also acted in movies including "Tough Guys," "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" and "Hustle & Flow." He had recently completed the movie "Soul Men," in which he played himself; the film also starred Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday after a bout with pneumonia. And a new generation of fans discovered the man behind "Shaft" when, in 1997, he became the voice of Chef on the Comedy Central show "South Park."

Hayes, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis in Memphis, Tenn., after collapsing Sunday afternoon near a treadmill in his home nearby.

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

Stanback said he was shocked to learn of the death of the singer, who was about to start work on a new record for Stax, the label Hayes helped make legendary.

In an industry filled with colorful and dynamic figures, Hayes was a standout on several levels, from his smooth baritone to his flamboyant style: It was almost as if he was made to be a musical god.

But Hayes spent the early part of his career firmly in the musical background. A self-taught musician from Covington, Tenn., he made a name for himself playing with various bands around Memphis. In 1964, he was hired by Stax Records to be a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote classic hits for Sam and Dave such as "Hold On, I'm Coming," "Soul Man," and "When Something is Wrong With My Baby." They also wrote for other Stax artists including Carla Thomas.

Hayes' work as a composer helped him secure a deal as a solo artist. His first album, "Presenting Isaac Hayes," was a poor seller, the result of an impromptu jam session. But after getting creative control, he delivered his next album, "Hot Buttered Soul" in 1969, and it made him a star.

Hayes offered something completely different to the musical world. In an era of straightened hair or Afros, Hayes was bald: "His look was just so profound," Stanback said. "He was like a superhero."

Whereas other soul crooners showed their passion through wails, Hayes delivery was calm, cool — almost subdued. He prefaced songs with "raps," and they ran longer than typical standard of three minutes: One song, a cover of Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," ran 18 minutes.

"(Radio) jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled of his songs in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."

Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit from the blaxploitation film "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree. "That was like the shot heard round the world," Hayes said in the 1999 interview. At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys. In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album "Black Moses" and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. He was also part of the historic "Wattstax" concert in riot-ravaged Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles. Besides "Shaft," Hayes composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner." He also did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis. Though his last big hits on the charts ended in the 1980s, Hayes' presence in contemporary music continued as his songs were sampled on numerous hits by rap and R&B performers, ranging from Ashanti to Public Enemy to Jay-Z. "The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence," he said. "And they'll tell you if you ask." Stanback said: "A lot of artists owe Isaac his career because a lot of music was based on his foundation." He garnered another audience and cult following with his work on "South Park." A school cook, Chef was in many ways the voice of reason in the otherwise outrageous animated social commentary, unwittingly imparting pearls of wisdom on the schoolboys who often came to him with their dilemmas; this, in spite of the fact that his foremost devotion was — true to Hayes' music and persona — being a ladies' man. In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the character as "a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'wack' category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies." But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins," he said. Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes "has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians." A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character. Hayes remained active in entertainment, even as he became a senior citizen. His Web site listed upcoming appearances and he was making plans for his Stax album. Stanback said it was to include Hayes' work on vintage tracks that he had left unfinished over the years. "We were actually getting ready to schedule a trip to Memphis to talk to Isaac," he said. Stanback called his death a tragedy. "Isaac Hayes was a wonderful human begin and his spirit will live long in the form of his music," he said.





 
 

Here’s an interesting tid-bit for Beatles fans from Reuters news. I wonder when this will be available for sale (or download, for that matter)?

                                      

Canadian snaps up newly unearthed Beatles tape

By Jeffrey Jones

A Canadian businessman had the winning bid for a newly discovered mid-1960s recording of the Beatles singing at least one previously unreleased tune and joking around during the session.

Gino Olivieri of Montreal snapped up the 1/2-hour-long reel-to-reel tape in Cameo Auctioneers' Internet sale this week for 9,800 pounds ($19,000) plus tax and other costs.

The tape, recorded in 1964, was found recently in northern England by a man who was cleaning out his father's attic.

Among the tunes is a recording of "Don't Put Me Down Like This," which was not released on any Beatles records.

It also features a number of John Lennon and Paul McCartney songs of the era as well as the lads in a rambunctious mood, Olivieri said.

"Essentially, they were hamming it up. That's really what it was," he said. "They did some songs, which were supposed to be part of an interview that was to go on BBC."

His tape represents the first part of the session and the BBC has the second part, he said.

The British network has authenticated the recording, said Olivieri, who is founder of Premier Muzik International Corp., a firm that recovers royalties for recording artists.

He was six months old when the tape was recorded.

"The tape is in immaculate condition for its age," he said.

The price seems a bargain compared with two other pieces of Beatles and Lennon memorabilia that were auctioned off last month.

They included a painted drum skin that appeared on the sleeve of the 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It sold for $1.1 million.

Lennon's handwritten lyrics for "Give Peace a Chance" fetched $834,000. The manuscript had been expected to sell for

$500,000.

"This should not have happened," Olivieri said of his tape. "This should have been way more expensive."

He has not decided how what he will do with it. Because of his business he is wary of bootleg recordings.

"We'd love to get some money for the people who actually record this, or perhaps even Sir Paul. Who knows?" Olivieri said. "But it's going to be really cool to have, that's for sure."