another one gone

[the duke]

Motown drummer Uriel Jones dies at 74

DETROIT (AP) Uriel Jones, a drummer whose versatile, passionate beat fueled classic Motown hits, has died following complications from a heart attack. He was 74.

Jones who died Tuesday, according to sister-in-law Leslie Coleman was part of the Funk Brothers, the house band on Motown recordings.

He played on numerous tracks, including "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" performed by the Temptations, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin, and versions of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Paul Riser, a Motown arranger-musician, said Jones had a distinctive, driving sound that drew inspiration from his days as a boxer. Yet, Riser said, Jones also could play with restraint when the song called for it.

"There was a pulse in his playing ... that nobody else had," said Riser, who co-wrote "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted." "He loved music for the sake of music. He loved when it came out good and he hated when it came out bad."

Riser said Jones often played with the surviving Funk Brothers, who were the focus of an acclaimed 2002 documentary film called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." That film brought the players belated recognition in the wider world that largely escaped them in Motown's 1960s and early '70s heyday.

Riser said he spoke last week with Jones, who was excited about "getting busy again" since being hospitalized with an early February heart attack.

"He expressed to me he missed his first Funk Brothers gig (last month)," Riser said. "I could sense the disappointment in his voice. There was an energy he exuded to get back in the band and get going again."

Jones was one of many Motown musicians who went to the former studio in the Motown Historical Museum on Jan. 12 to help kick off a year of festivities marking the label's 50th anniversary.

Abdul "Duke" Fakir, the lone surviving original member of the Four Tops, used the occasion to praise Jones and his fellow Funk Brothers.

"When they'd finish a song, we, the Four Tops, had a nice phrase," Fakir said. "We'd say, `Wow, another red carpet to ride on.'"

In an interview with The Associated Press after the ceremony, Jones said the cramped studio where most of Motown's early songs were created deserved as much credit as the players.

"This room is alive," he said. "As far as the musicians are concerned ... we had to have eye contact with one another because we fed off one another. The place just created its own sound."

Coleman described her brother-in-law who's survived by his wife, June, and three children as a man of humor and humility.

"He was a father to the fatherless, a brother to the brotherless," she said. "He had a love for people."

[geo1903]

From The Jams US Tour's just been cancelled due to Bruce Foxtons missus losing her battle against cancer.

When will we stop funding fucking wars and get this monster sorted.

PAT FOXTON DIES

Pat Foxton, former employee of EMI and CBS/Sony, and wife of The Jam's Bruce Foxton, has died during a course of intensive treatment for cancer in Tel Aviv.

Foxton began her career in the music industry when she joined EMI-owned United Artists/Liberty Records as a press officer back in 1979, working with the likes of Don MacLean and Gerry Rafferty. She moved to CBS Records in 1981, and during nine years with the company worked with artists such as Michael Jackson, Abba, The Pet Shop Boys, Wham, Dead Or Alive and The Stranglers.

Foxton, nee Stead, married Bruce Foxton in 1984, and it was only a few years later, in 1989, that she was initially diagnosed with cancer. She left CBS Records, by that time owned by Sony, and devoted her time to working with charities and encouraged music celebrities such as George Michael and Mariah Carey to support the causes she was concerned with.

Paul Russell, who was chairman of CBS Records during Foxton's time there, told Music Week: "She had poise, charm and was extremely gracious. Old fashioned words, but fundamental if you are going to get your own way without ever raising your voice - which Pat never did. Pat Foxton had the full deck. She looked like a model, married a rock star, never flaunted it and was just extraordinarily hard working and brilliant at her job. She had a sense of humor that demanded intelligence to appreciate. She could wind me round her little finger and I never admit to that lightly.

He continued: "Her family's support has been totally extraordinary but not unexpected. I am just so sad that this amazing woman who fought so inspirationally for her life has now left a vacuum that can only be filled by our reverence for her courage and humility. I am very proud to have called her a friend".