Remembrances

Reggie "Combat Jack" Ossé attends the Spotify Mogul launch party in May 2017. The hip-hop personality has passed away at the age of 48.

Music & Culture

Reggie 'Combat Jack' Ossé, Hip-Hop Journalist And Podcaster, Dies At 48

8:34pm December 20, 2017

by Sidney Madden

Entertainment lawyer-turned-hip-hop podcaster Reggie Ossé started his interview show, The Combat Jack Show, on a lark, but it turned into an essential document of rap in the Internet age. He was 48.

Sports

Negro Leagues' Mamie 'Peanut' Johnson Dies At Age 82

8:17am December 20, 2017

Johnson was the last surviving woman to play Major League Baseball in the Negro Leagues. She was recruited to play for Indianapolis' Clowns after being denied a chance with an all-white women's team.

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Music & Culture

A Look Back At 4 Jazz Luminaries Who Died In 2017

1:39pm December 19, 2017

by Kevin Whitehead

Kevin Whitehead remembers alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, pianist Geri Allen, guitarist John Abercrombie and singer Jon Hendricks. Each "helped shape jazz after the upheavals of the 1960s," he says.

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Music & Culture

Remembering Keely Smith, Musical Partner To Her Husband, Louis Prima

5:21pm December 18, 2017

Singer Keely Smith died on Saturday after a long bout of ill health. She was best known for her work with band leader Louis Prima in the 50s and 60s, and for their hit, "That Old Black Magic."

Music & Culture

Chicago Jazz Pianist Willie Pickens Is Remembered For Performing And Teaching

6:42pm December 17, 2017

by Ray Suarez

Chicago jazz piano legend Willie Pickens died this past week at age 86. Fellow musicians remember him as a talented musician and mentor to generations of jazz students.

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Arts

The Legacy Of Surfer And Filmmaker Bruce Brown

4:47pm December 14, 2017

Surfer and filmmaker Bruce Brown, who is best known for the movie Endless Summer, passed away earlier this week. NPR's Kelly McEvers speaks with Matt Holzman of KRCW's The Document about the filmmaker's legacy.

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The immortal film poster for The Endless Summer, which you may recognize from New York's Museum of Modern Art, not to mention college dorm room walls across the country.

Remembering Bruce Brown, Whose Search For The Perfect Break Redefined Surfing

5:57pm December 13, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

Brown, who died Sunday at the age of 80, revolutionized how the world viewed the sport with The Endless Summer. But first, he had to struggle to get his beloved movie seen.

Remembering Smithereens' Songwriter And Lead Singer Pat DiNizio

2:23pm December 13, 2017

DiNizio, who died Tuesday, told Fresh Air in 1988 that his music was influenced by the songs he grew up listening to on AM radio in the 1960s. The Smithereens formed in Carteret, NJ, in 1980.

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San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. He's seen here with his wife, Anita Lee, at a NASA event earlier this month.

National

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Dies At Age 65

12:07pm December 12, 2017

by Bill Chappell

Mayor Ed Lee was not known to be ill; he died at a San Francisco hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Politics & Government

Edwin Lee, San Francisco's First Asian-American Mayor, Dies At 65

8:28am December 12, 2017

by Scott Shafer

Mayor Edwin Lee was not known to be ill; he reportedly died at a San Francisco hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Lee had been in office since 2012.

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