there were two stories about two very different musicians

in the nyt today

they both were a great influence on today's music and they both were special to me.

i didn't know estelle bennett was ill. i didn't know the pain she suffered. i DO know her music (the music of teh ronettes) was special. it got me moving and grooving. and c'mon my peeps LOOK AT THAT HAIR!

A Life of Troubles Followed a Singer’s Burst of Fame

By BEN SISARIO

She was the quiet Ronette, the one people called the prettiest, the one who was content to remain in the shadow of her younger sister, Ronnie, because even in the shadow there’s still some spotlight.

For a few years in the mid-1960s Estelle Bennett lived a girl-group fairy tale, posing for magazine covers with her fellow Ronettes and dating the likes of George Harrison and Mick Jagger. Along with her sister and their cousin Nedra Talley, she helped redefine rock ’n’ roll femininity.

The Ronettes delivered their songs’ promises of eternal puppy love in the guise of tough vamps from the streets of New York. Their heavy mascara, slit skirts and piles of teased hair suggested both sex and danger, an association revived most recently by Amy Winehouse..............
Scott Gries/Getty Images

From left, Nedra Talley, Estelle Bennett, Phil Spector and Ronnie Bennett in a Los Angeles recording studio in 1963.................
shoot, now let's watch these babes shake their moneymakers! dang - you go grrrls!


Louie Bellson, Dynamic Jazz Drummer, Dies at 84
By NATE CHINEN
Louie Bellson, a crisp and dazzling drummer who worked with many of the major figures of the swing era and a gracious entertainer who made frequent appearances at the White House and on “The Tonight Show,” died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 84 and lived in Los Angeles. His death was announced by Remo, the drum company for which he was a vice president. Matt Connors, the company’s manager for artist relations, said Mr. Bellson had been recovering from a broken hip since November.

Mr. Bellson was a dynamic, spectacular soloist known for his use of two bass drums, a technique he pioneered as a teenager and developed from a novelty into a serious mode of expression. But he wasn’t strictly a solo exhibitionist: his attentiveness and precision made him a highly successful sideman, and he was capable of extreme subtlety.

He always proudly maintained that Duke Ellington had called him the world’s greatest drummer. During his tenure with the Ellington band in the early 1950s he was often granted a long drum feature, which he attacked with relish and poise. He also wrote compositions like “The Hawk Talks” and “Skin Deep” that were regularly performed by the band. Later, in 1965, he participated in Ellington’s first Sacred Concert. ..........