jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 12/29/2020 - Special Edition: In Memoriam 2020

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If I was white, do you know how huge I'd be? If I was white, I'd be able to sit on top of the White House! Is this interest remix not displaying correctly? | View it in your browser. Pop Smoke at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 30, 2019. (Arik McArthur/Getty Images) Tuesday - December 29, 2020 Tue - 12/29/20 "If I was white, do you know how huge I'd be? If I was white, I'd be able to sit on top of the White House!" -  Little Richard rantnrave:// They rapped, they hollered, they roared. They thrashed, they finger-tapped, they drummed drummed drummed. They wrote 'em. They sang 'em. Today we pay tribute to the musical lives lost in this year of incalculable loss, and we remember the songs and sounds and ideas and energy they left behind. The 27 stories below chronicle some of the most notable passings in a year unlike any other. But there were, tragically, so many more. For further remembrance, here's our alphabetical list of more than 600 music-related deaths in 2020 and a MusicSET on at least 70 artists and industry figures lost to the coronavirus. May they all rest in peace, and may their music help us heal—and dance the nights away—in 2021. - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator eruption The New York Times Little Richard Wasn't Conceited. He Was Underappreciated by Wesley Morris After his career in music, the rock 'n' roll innovator took up the task of maintaining his legacy -- because nobody else was going to do it. Slate Eddie Van Halen Broke the Guitar Solo by Jack Hamilton How was anyone else supposed to follow this guy? The Ringer Pop Smoke Should've Been New York's Next Great Rapper by Danny Schwartz Fourteen months—that is the exact length of Pop Smoke's career, which began in Canarsie, Brooklyn, at the tail end of 2018, when he uploaded his first song to the internet, and ended in tragedy when intruders broke into the home he was renting in Hollywood Hills and shot him dead. He was 20 years old. Tidal Florian Schneider & Tony Allen's Trans-Global Beat Expressions by Piotr Orlov Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider and Afrobeat originator Tony Allen's stories are perpetually intertwined, a postscript to one late-20th-century chapter of collective rhythm making. The New Yorker Bill Withers Was Always There if You Needed Him by Hua Hsu Withers sounded effortless when he sang, ambling into his verses, unhurried. You just had to catch up, or slow down. The Buffalo News Exit the Warrior: Rush's Neil Peart, 1952-2020 by Jeff Miers Peart's lyrics were my friend, my shield, my armor, my inspiration, my thin ray of light shining through the dense foliage of enforced conformity. I felt like he had my back. NPR Music John Prine's Songs Saw The Whole Of Us by Ann Powers The music of this quintessential Nashville songwriter and lifelong independent spirit makes room for the wide range of emotions that careen through people as they stumble and dance through life. The Atlantic McCoy Tyner's Simple, Revolutionary Sound by David A. Graham Walk into any jazz room, anywhere on Earth, on any night, and you'll probably hear a keyboardist copping McCoy Tyner's licks and tricks. The Tennessean Kenny Rogers, a charismatic and husky-voiced country music legend, dies at 81 by Juli Thanki The country crossover star was known for recording enduring classics like "The Gambler," "Lucille" and "Islands in the Stream." Tidal The Courageous Humility of Charley Pride by Brian Mansfield How country's first Black superstar broke barriers while thriving in the genre's commercial mainstream. spanish fly The Washington Post Toots Hibbert helped give reggae its name, its sound and its enduring grace by Chris Richards During "Funky Kingston" — that golden-hot sunbeam of a song that Toots and the Maytals first dropped in 1973 — the word "reggae" becomes a sort of hyper-noun: a person, a place and a thing. The New York Times Adam Schlesinger's 30 Essential Songs by Rob Tannenbaum Hear tracks from Fountains of Wayne, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and more - plus a tune written about the power-pop dynamo, who died of the coronavirus at 52. The Guardian Riley Gale: the death of thrash metal's great idealist is a terrible loss by Harry Sword The frontman of Power Trip, who has died aged 34, mixed philosophy, economics and genuine empathy into a searingly potent vision for a better world. American Songwriter Justin Townes Earle: Remembered Too Soon by Holly Gleason Listening to Justin Earle, you didn't feel so alone in your alone. Someone else had been there, his songs suggested, and knew the pain; but also lived to tell, to conjure these soft melodies, these words to let you know you'd make it. Only somehow, Justin never quite got to the other side. Los Angeles Times I was 7, gay and an outcast. Helen Reddy's songs were a lifeline by Charles Isherwood The women who populated many of Helen Reddy's hit songs were outcasts and pariahs. A writer, then a young boy, found solace in them. The Washington Post Ennio Morricone wrote the perfect soundtrack for a time when we miss movies more than ever by Ann Hornaday The plaintive, lyrical opening measures of the score for the 1988 film "Cinema Paradiso" have become one of the most immediately recognizable themes in the history of movie music, instantly conjuring nostalgia, romance, longing, lost innocence. From nine simple notes, a welter of potent, bittersweet emotions. And that wasn't even Ennio Morricone's most familiar work.  Pitchfork Remembering Gang of Four's Andy Gill, Who Ripped Punk to Shreds by Simon Reynolds He made the marriage of music and politics essential. The Guardian Kool and the Gang's Ronald 'Khalis' Bell: a musical chameleon and disco giant by Alexis Petridis He got his start at 13 alongside Richie Havens, but it was in the ever-changing group that he made his mark. His legacy pulses through pop. Los Angeles Times 10 inspired, singularly eclectic productions by Hal Willner, music's hippest curator by Jody Rosen The mixtapes and mash-ups created by producer Hal Willner, who died from COVID-19, were testaments to erudition, taste and a thirst for adventure. NPR Jimmy Cobb, The Pulse Of 'Kind Of Blue,' Dies At 91 by Natalie Weiner He was the last surviving member of what's often called Miles Davis' First Great Sextet. NPR Music Betty Wright Packed A Career's Worth Of Music Into Her Youthful First Act by Oliver Wang In 1966, Betty Wright dropped by the offices of Deep City, a Miami label located in the back of Johnny's Records in her home neighborhood of Liberty City. She had been recently discovered by artist, songwriter and producer Clarence Reid, who wanted Deep City co-founder Willie Clarke to take a listen to Wright's singing chops. The New York Times Tony Rice, Bluegrass Innovator With a Guitar Pick, Dies at 69 by Bill Friskics-Warren The nimble king of flatpicking had enormous influence on a host of prominent musicians. And he could sing, too, until he could no longer. The Commercial Appeal Gospel music giant, Stax Records star Rance Allen dead at 71 by Bob Mehr The eight-time Grammy nominee gew up in the shadow of Motown, recorded for Stax and was influenced by Chuck Berry, but his songs were always a deeply profound and fervent expression of his religious faith.  NPR Music Remembering Fleetwood Mac Founder Peter Green, The Soulful Voice Of British Blues by Tom Cole The guitarist and singer, whose distinctive guitar and soulful voice propelled the band's early success, died over the weekend at the age of 73. The Tennessean Charlie Daniels, 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' singer, famed fiddler and outspoken star, dies at 83 by Dave Paulson and Matthew Leimkuehler Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame who sang "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," recorded with Bob Dylan and was a vocal supporter of U.S. veterans, died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83. The Quietus Remembering Krzysztof Penderecki 1933-2020 by James Martin Musician and writer James Martin remembers the Polish conductor and composer, while celebrating his entire career - not just the early, highly praised work - as evidence of someone who wished to remain in tune with his times and not just repeat himself. The Quietus Limits Of Transgression: Remembering Genesis P-Orridge by Luke Turner Genesis P-Orridge was seen by many as a counter-cultural 'icon'. In the wake of their death this weekend, Luke Turner looks back at their radical life and argues that to see it honestly, the full story of their abusive behaviour needs to be told. MUSIC OF THE DAY YouTube "Trans-Europe Express" Kraftwerk "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" — @JasonHirschhorn REDEF, Inc. NY - LA - EVERYWHERE redef.com YOU DON'T GET IT? 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