Singer-songwriter JJ Cale dead at 74 after heart attack

[cali]

Grammy award winning singer and songwriter JJ Cale, one of the most versatile musicians of his era who played everything from rock and roll to blues and jazz, has died after suffering a heart attack, his official website said on Saturday.

Cale, who was 74, won a Grammy award in 2008 for "The Road to Escondido," which he recorded with singer-songwriter Eric Clapton.


Born in Oklahoma City, Cale migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s and flourished. Rock legend Neil Young once described Cale as the best electric guitar player he had ever seen other than the late Jimmy Hendrix.

Cale's official website said he died on Friday night at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, California. There were no immediate plans for memorial services, the website said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/27/entertainment-us-usa-people-cale-idUSBRE96Q08A20130727

[dipsydoodle]

1. Picked that up from music friends on FB earleir.

Tragic.

RIP.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. Gonna miss him. May he rest in peace. Thanks for the music JJ

Biography[edit]
Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[1] He was raised in Tulsa and graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1956. Along with a number of other young Tulsa musicians, Cale moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he first worked as a studio engineer.[2] Finding little success as a recording artist, he later returned to Tulsa and was considering giving up the music business until Clapton recorded "After Midnight" in 1970. His first album, Naturally, established his style, described by Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin as a "unique hybrid of blues, folk and jazz, marked by relaxed grooves and Cale's fluid guitar and laconic vocals. His early use of drum machines and his unconventional mixes lend a distinctive and timeless quality to his work and set him apart from the pack of Americana roots-music purists."[3]

Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean-Jacques Cale". In the 2006 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Cale talks about Elmer Valentine, co-owner of the Sunset Strip nightclub Whisky à GoGo, who employed him in the mid-1960s, being the one that came up with the "JJ" moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale. Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.

His biggest U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved the song higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words to the song.[4]

Cale died on Friday, July 26, 2013, at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, California, after suffering a heart attack.[5]

more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JJ_Cale

[Brickbat]

3. Thanks for the music. Travel light.

[kentuck]

4. One of the best.

he will be missed.

[villager]

5. Well, goddamnit. Time to go play "Cajun Moon" again

[kwassa]

6. His "Naturally" album was played to death in my college dorm.

Eric Clapton got famous in his solo career for his versions of JJ Cale songs, like "After Midnight" and "Cocaine".

[GigiMommy]

7. Sadness, R.I.P. JJ Cale

Yet another great musician gone...that didn't need Auto-tune.