Latest news with #EverybodyLovestheSunshine
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gene Hackman's Wife Betsy Died At Least One Week Before Him; He Survived in Home Alone With Advanced Alzheimer's Until His Death
Gene Hackman died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributory factor, officials in New Mexico announced on Friday, and survived in the home he shared with his wife, Betsy Hackman, for a week after she died in their living room of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a severe respiratory illness caused by viruses transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents, officials said. Hackman, a two-time Academy Award winner whose Hollywood career spanned four decades and classical pianist Betsy Hackman were found Feb. 26 in separate rooms of their home during a wellness check; neither showed signs of external trauma, police said, but Hackman's pacemaker had sent its last record on Feb. 17, suggesting he had been dead for at least one week before his body was discovered slumped over in a mud room off the kitchen. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at the time that he didn't believe there was foul play in the deaths of the couple, who had spent more than 30 years together in the house on Old Sunset Trail Road. More from The Hollywood Reporter Robert Pattinson Reveals Why He "Can't Watch Horror Movies Anymore" Roy Ayers, Jazz-Funk Musician Behind 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine,' Dies at 84 Felicia Minei Behr, 'All My Children,' 'Ryan's Hope' and 'As the World Turns' Producer, Dies at 82 Gene Hackman's autopsy showed signs of advanced Alzheimer's disease and officials indicated that he may not have known that his wife had died while he survived in their house for at least a week. Officials said it's difficult to know the legendary actor's mental state before his wife's death but said that he was in very poor health and there was no food in his stomach. He was not dehydrated at the time of his death. At a Friday press conference at the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office, Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner at the Office of the Medical Investigator, announced the findings of autopsies performed on both Hackmans, who had been married for 30 years and enjoyed a private life in Santa Fe following Gene Hackman's iconic Hollywood career. Jarrell said that the autopsy examination of Gene Hackman's body, showed severe heart disease, including evidence of multiple surgical procedures involving the heart as well as evidence of prior heart attacks. The actor's autopsy also showed severe changes to his kidneys due to chronic high blood pressure. An examination of the brain, showed advanced Alzheimer's disease, as well as blood vessel changes in the brain, secondary to chronic high blood pressure, Jarrell told reporters on Friday. At least a week prior to Gene Hackman's death, Betsy Hackman died of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, which is a severe respiratory illness caused by hantaviruses, a family of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents. Symptoms of Hantavirus typically appear one to eight weeks after exposure and early symptoms may resemble the flu. The disease can progress rapidly, leading to severe respiratory distress, low blood pressure, and organ failure. On Feb. 11, Betsy Hackman was seen at a CVS and at a pet food store, Sheriff Mendoza told reporters and emails on her computer are unopened after that date. 'There was no additional outgoing communication from her or known activity after Feb. 11, 2025 cell phone information,' he said. 'We're working with state police to get the information from those phones, but our investigation shows that all the last known communication and activity…' More to come. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
The Guardian
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Roy Ayers obituary
When Ruby Ayers, a piano teacher, took her five-year-old son Roy to a concert by the Lionel Hampton Big Band in California in 1945, the boy showed so much enthusiasm for the performance that Hampton presented him with his pair of vibe mallets. Roy Ayers, who has died aged 84, would go on to blaze a trail as a vibraphonist, composer, singer and producer. A genre-bending pioneer of hard bop, funk, neo-soul and acid jazz, Ayers was most famous for his feel-good track Everybody Loves the Sunshine, from the 1976 album of the same name. He told the Guardian that the song was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York on, naturally, a warm summer's day. Among those who feature are Debbie Darby (credited as 'Chicas') on vocals and Philip Woo on piano, electric piano and synthesiser. Woo explained that Ayers did not like to work from charts or scores, with the song based around a single chord that the band in the studio then developed. While it was never released as a single, Everybody Loves the Sunshine's warm, jazz-soul sound has won it numerous admirers over the past 50 years. As well as being sampled hundreds of times, by artists including Dr Dre and Mary J Blige, the track has also been covered by musicians ranging from D'Angelo to Jamie Cullen. Perhaps the sheer simplicity of the song's structure explains its appeal to such a variety of musicians. The hazy chords set up a steady state condition that allows the performer room for manoeuvre. D'Angelo covered the song in sweaty desire; Cullen's Live in Ibiza version is as light and moreish as your favourite ice-cream; the Robert Glasper Experiment cover is edgy, an exercise in deconstruction. Other notable versions include the electronica-infused track from the DJ Cam Quartet and the modern jazz take of trumpeter Takuya Kuroda. Ayers was born in the South Park (later South Central) district of Los Angeles, and grew up on Vermont Avenue amid the widely admired Central Avenue jazz scene during the 1940s and 50s, which attracted luminaries such as Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus. His father, Roy Ayers Sr, worked as a parking attendant and played the trombone. His mother, Ruby, was a piano player and teacher. He attended Thomas Jefferson high school, sang in the church choir, and played steel guitar and piano in a local band called the Latin Lyrics. He studied music theory at Los Angeles City College, but left before completing his studies to tour as a vibraphone – or vibes – sideman. His first album, West Coast Vibes (1963), was produced by the British jazz musician and journalist Leonard Feather. He then teamed up with the flautist Herbie Mann, who produced the 'groove' based sound of Virgo Vibes (1967) and Stoned Soul Picnic (1968). Relocating to New York at the start of the 1970s, Ayers formed the jazz-funk ensemble Roy Ayers Ubiquity, recruiting a roster of around 14 musicians. At this time he composed and performed the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Coffy (1973), starring Pam Grier as a vigilante nurse. The Everybody Loves the Sunshine album was released under the Ubiquity rubric, reaching No 51 on the US Billboard charts, but making no impact on the UK charts. His 1978 single Get On Up, Get On Down, however, reached No 41 in the UK. He also scored chart success with Don't Stop the Feeling (1979), which got to No 32 on the US RnB chart and 56 in the UK. The track was featured on the album No Stranger to Love, whose title track was sampled separately by MF Doom and Jill Scott. Ayers was a regular performer at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London during the 80s and his shows there were captured on live albums. Other live recordings include Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1972) and Live from West Port Jazz Festival Hamburg (1999). Ayers played at the Glastonbury festival five times, with his last appearance there in 2019. A tour of Nigeria with Fela Kuti in 1979, and a resulting album, Music of Many Colours (1980), was just one of many fruitful collaborations. Ayers also performed on Whitney Houston's Love Will Save the Day (1988); with Rick James on Double Trouble (1992); and with Tyler, the Creator on Cherry Bomb (2015). A soul-funk album, Roy Ayers JID002 (2020), was the brainchild of the producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The latter was a member of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, who had sampled Ayers' Running Away on their track Descriptions of a Fool (1989), and Roy Ayers Ubiquity's 1974 song Feel Like Makin' Love on Keep It Rollin', from their 1993 Midnight Marauders album. Ayers also collaborated with Erykah Badu on the singer's second album, Mama's Gun (2000). The pair recorded a new version of Everybody Loves the Sunshine for what would be Ayers' final studio album, Mahogany Vibe (2004). 'If I didn't have music I wouldn't even want to be here,' Ayers told the Los Angeles Times. 'It's like an escape when there is no escape.' Ayers married Argerie in 1973. She survives him, as do their children, Mtume and Ayana, a son, Nabil, from a relationship with Louise Braufman, and a granddaughter. Roy Edward Ayers Jr, musician and band leader, born 10 September 1940; died 4 March 2025
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs Accused of Forced Labor in Superseding Indictment
In a bolstered version of an indictment, prosecutors accuse Sean 'Diddy' Combs of obligating employees, one of whom he forced to have sex with him, to work long hours under the threat of physical, financial and reputational harm. The indictment, issued on Thursday, doesn't contain new charges or victims but instead expands upon allegations over the method of the alleged enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the help of his various businesses. More from The Hollywood Reporter Mercury Records Taps Tyler Arnold as Chairman and CEO, Ben Adelson as President and COO Roy Ayers, Jazz-Funk Musician Behind 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine,' Dies at 84 Two People Charged With Stealing 900 Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tickets, Selling Them for $600,000 In a statement, Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Combs, denied the allegations. 'He looks forward to his day in court when it will become clear that he has never forced anyone to engage in sexual acts against their will,' he said. 'Many former employees stand by his side, prepared to attest to the dedication, hard work, and inspiration they experienced while helping build groundbreaking, award-winning businesses.' The revised indictment represents an attempt by prosecutors to strengthen their case by detailing new accusations in the alleged racketeering conspiracy. It adds to another superseding indictment issued against Combs in January that specified that there were three victims that the rap mogul allegedly forced to engage in commercial sex acts. The charges involve claims that he arranged forced sexual encounters with women, allegedly manipulating them into participating in 'highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers,' who were often flown in across state lines and internationally. According to the new indictment, Combs maintained control over workers at his various businesses. He 'caused these employees to believe they would be harmed — including by losing their jobs — if they did not comply with his demands.' The indictment adds, 'With respect to one employee, Combs used physical force, psychological harm, financial harm, and reputational harm, and/or threats of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts' with him. Combs will be arraigned on the new charges next week. He remains in custody at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with his trial scheduled to start May 5. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
Washington Post
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Everybody vibed with Roy Ayers
There's a kind of hip, laid-back, feel-good mood that we call 'vibing.' The vibraphone isn't the source of that slang term, but the instrument has a strong claim on epitomizing it anyway. Its metallic, resonant sound is so inherently cool and mellow that even its lightning-fast virtuosos — mainly in jazz, where the vibes most often appear — sound more chilled-out than they really are. Roy Ayers, who died March 4 at 84, understood this perhaps better than any other vibraphonist. He had the chops to run rings around many of his peers, and he did just that as a sideman on some of the hardest-grooving soul jazz of the 1960s. But when he broke through in the '70s as a name artist and as a crossover jazz-funk hitmaker, it was as the metaphoric ice cube in a hot drink. In doing so, Ayers taught us all how to vibe. You can hear it in his breakthrough record, the soundtrack to the 1973 blaxploitation classic 'Coffy.' All the requirements for blazing-hot funk to break out are there in the movie's theme: energetic drums, slippery bass, percussive guitar and horns. Yet there sits Ayers, putting tranquil chords into the rhythmic accents, keeping the whole thing at a simmer rather than a boil. (Even his solo, which carries a lot of oomph, goes down with the cool sensation of a rainfall.) As Ayers's star rose, so did the cool in his music; the simmer went down. By the time of his signature hit, 1976's 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine,' he had mastered it so thoroughly that the song didn't need a vibraphone solo: Even the instrument's accents are barely noticeable, washed out in the mix by guitar and Fender Rhodes. Yet the mellowness they brought to Ayers's music is the whole ballgame. And look how Ayers described the atmosphere surrounding the tune's creation: 'The sun was down, but the vibe in the studio was really nice,' he told the Guardian in 2017. 'Pure vibes.' He knew what he and his instrument represented when they came together. It translated easily to Ayers's other landmark tunes, such as 1976's 'Searching' — which even restored the burning horns that 'Sunshine' stripped out but achieved a similarly chill result. The next year's 'Running Away' brought Ayers a genuine dance club hit, the kind that merited a longer version on a 12-inch record. Those are the versions where we really expect the song's kinetic energy to throttle up to 11. Instead, though, the big feature of 'Running Away's' extended mix is … a vibraphone solo. It plays right into the groove, offering a lyrical complement to the propulsive rhythm. But make no mistake: It's a coolant, and it feels like one. Ayers tapped into a tremendous power when he put the chill-out into funk and dance music. There's a reason that version of him became a musical and cultural force. His recordings are part of the foundation of contemporary R&B and hip-hop. The likes of Jay-Z, a Tribe Called Quest, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott have all woven samples of Ayers's tracks into their own. 'Sunshine' alone is a cottage industry; 'Searching' isn't far behind. When the jazz-rap pioneer Guru wanted to create that vibe, he bypassed the samples and got the man himself. Ayers appeared on the seminal 1993 hip-hop album 'Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1' and subsequently toured with Guru. In all cases, Ayers's presence comes with a mission to turn the temperature of the music down — to create a vibe. Ayers's vibe was one that never ceased to be relevant. In 2018 he even landed the gig that's become the signifier of musical-cultural relevance in the United States: an NPR Tiny Desk concert. Then 77 years old, Ayers was flanked by a much younger trio of jazz-, funk- and hip-hop-schooled musicians. In his hands, though, they were slowed-down, relaxed, riding a gentle groove. They were vibing.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Yahoo
St. Tammany Parish coroner requests help in identifying 40-year-old remains
ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. (WGNO) — The St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office has asked for the public's help to identify remains found decades ago. According Dr. Christopher Tape, in October 1984, skeletal remains were found by hunters on the bank of the West Pearl River near the Louisiana and Mississippi state line. Coroner's office officials stated their attempts to identify the individual have been unsuccessful with the different methods of advanced technology. Two motorcyclists involved in fatal crash on Lafourche Parish highway 'Every decedent deserves an identity,' Tape said An analysis was done by the DNA Lab in 2019 and uploaded to the national Combined DNA Identification System and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System but made no match. An anthropological examination revealed the remains were a man, possibly mixed race, and between 18 and 40 years old, according to experts. They add that the man had possibly been dead for 10 before the remains were discovered which estimates his death to be between 1940 to 1975. The LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Lab in 2023 made a forensic sketch of the individual with an estimation of his hairline and complexion. Two wounded in separate shootings around New Orleans Cold Case Investigator Chris Knoblauch said he believes the man was from Mississippi. 'Cases may grow 'cold' but they are never 'closed' until we know the name of the person. His life mattered, and it didn't stop mattering when he died. I hope someone may recognize the computer-aided likeness and contact us,' said Tape. Anyone with information on the case can call the Coroner's Office at Tammany Parish coroner requests help in identifying 40-year-old remains DA: Suspects in Sam Nordquist killing treated him 'like a dog,' forced children to take part in torture Roy Ayers,'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' musician, passes away at 84 Hozier to perform in New Orleans this fall Trump says he'll delay tariffs on Mexican products covered by free trade deal Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
