Jazz pianist, producer an...ith cancer

Jazz pianist, songwriter and producer Don Blackman has been hospitalised with stage four cancer.

The news was confirmed by his daughter Irene on Twitter last night, who asked fans to “please pray for us”. Although Twitter is awash with people posting “Don Blackman R.I.P.”, including posts by Deee-lite’s Lady Miss Kier and Lalah Hathaway, the news – to our knowledge – has yet to be confirmed by his family or a representative. Stage Four cancer means that the cancer has spread to various parts of the human body.

As well as a solo artist in his own right, releasing a self-titled album in 1982 that featured the hit ‘Heart’s Desire’, Blackman played with acts like Parliament / Funkadelic, Roy Ayers, Janet Jackson, Sting, Earth, Wind and Fire and more.

R.I.P.

Damn that's sad news.. He was a baaaaad man!

RIP brother.

...Heart's Desire (Live - 2011)

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

Irene's Twitter message confirming her father's death: https://twitter.com/irene...0102846465

theAudience said:

...Heart's Desire (Live - 2011)

Thanks for posting this. Those shows felt really recent.

R.I.P. Sympathies to his family.

U and and musical gift will be missed.

R.I.P. Donald Blackman

RIP

All I know about him was learned here at Org Academy, sad news to hear. Be at peace brother, Jamaica Queens made you a King.

SUCH a loss. I was a HUGE fan of ANYthing the man played on.

R.I.P. , man

Great musician and even cooler braids R.I.P

Sad, sad day. R.I.P.

Peace to Don and all his close ones

TD3 said:

I've seen him improvise with the band this classic. The crowd requested for the song and he replied that he had not rehearsed it. So slowly they started to search for the chords and the rhythm, and in no time they had the groove together. Wonderful concert atmospere which he and the band created, which will be much missed.

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One of my musical guiding lights...Rest in Peace, Don....

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Twennynine - Morning Sunrise

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paligap said:

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One of my musical guiding lights...Rest in Peace, Don....

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Twennynine - Morning Sunrise

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Thanks for helping me hear his album early on. It became a fave, and I eventually found a copy.

God DAMMITT this guy was good. Bears repeating. Those who ain't hip (motha jumpah)..GET SOME.

Cinny said:

paligap said:

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One of my musical guiding lights...Rest in Peace, Don....

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Twennynine

Thanks for helping me hear his album early on. It became a fave, and I eventually found a copy.

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Great album, yes! One of Lenny/Twenny's projects I bought first. When noticing Don on the cover, I was like: "...Who's this cat with the braids and cane?..."

Then I noticed Don's name as composer for Tom Browne's "Forever Now". A few years after that I joined a band and the drummer had Don's album in his collection.

I heard it at his home and was immediately like: "...I gotta find a copy of this!...". The drummer once had a soldier on free duty at his house, who browsed through

his collection, and when noticing Don's album, he said: "...Man, that's deep...". Don's album also got my attention for other musicians on there, such as bassist Barry "Sunjohn"

Johnson (Nova, Twennyine, Jeffrey Osborne, Chic), guitarists Eddie "EPM" Martinez and Steve "City" Horton, drummer Dennis "Washington" Chambers...

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"Morning Sunrise" and the "Best Of Friends" title track are 2 of my fave album tracks. "Peanut Butter" is a great party track.

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Here another version of "Best Of Friends". I think it's a differently mixed single edit, without Don's magical piano intro.

The video durance is actually not 6:44, as the youtuber has it posted there.

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Below a collage from Dennis Chambers' myspace page. You can see in the collage the moment where Don is holding up his album (as it was just released),

with on his side Dennis, P-Funk bassist Rodney "Skeet" Curtis, and 2 other fellas.

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(Note: spacing between my text blocks is still not working)

[Edited 4/13/13 4:34am]

JamFanHot said: Those who ain't hip (motha jumpah)..GET SOME.

Yeah, Desire "Deezie" White is rhyming deep in that joint. bought the 45 on ebay sometime.

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Still wanna cop the single which Expansion Records in the UK reissued. Dig the logo which the label cutomized and resembles GRP.

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donblackman.jpg 1.005×1.034 pixels

Shango said:

JamFanHot said: Those who ain't hip (motha jumpah)..GET SOME.

Yeah, Desire "Deezie" White is rhyming deep in that joint. bought the 45 on ebay sometime.

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Still wanna cop the single which Expansion Records in the UK reissued. Dig the logo which the label cutomized and resembles GRP.

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donblackman.jpg 1.005×1.034 pixels

Thanks for all the great photos-as always, Shango!

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Shango said:

Still wanna cop the single which Expansion Records in the UK reissued. Dig the logo which the label cutomized and resembles GRP.

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Ooh I didn't know they put this out in 2010 (or I forgot). Would love this 45 in my collection!

paligap said:

Shango said:

Thanks for all the great photos-as always, Shango!

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Cheers and you're welcome man! It's great to see an autographed front cover of the late Don's album, and it looks like Miss Sylvia St. James is standing in the back of the second photo.

Cinny said:

Shango said:

Still wanna cop the single which Expansion Records in the UK reissued. Dig the logo which the label cutomized and resembles GRP.

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Ooh I didn't know they put this out in 2010 (or I forgot). Would love this 45 in my collection!

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Right on man! Yeah, Expansion did a cool job with that reissue. Don's album was also reissued by Expansion on cd, and vinyl copies of the album have been reissued by Arista (either by the US or European company department).

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Another track which I shortly noticed after hearing the 1982 album. From Lenny White's album "Streamline" with Don as writer and lead singer, plus one of the very first appearances on record by Marcus Miller.

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Speaking of Don's tunes, remember this Blackman track, from Sylvia St James' Magic album? It's like the proto-version of his later classic, "Holding You, Loving You"...

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Sylvia St James - So I Say To You

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paligap said:

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Speaking of Don's tunes, remember this Blackman track, from Sylvia St James' Magic album? It's like the proto-version of his later classic, "Holding You, Loving You"...

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Sylvia St James - So I Say To You

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Yes, absolutely! I've heard "So I Say To You" before, and now that you've compared the resembling themes in each song is great to notice! Mellow and moody piano fills floating through Sylvia's melody, and her voice has a strong mid range.

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I also like Don's live version of "Listen"

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[Edited 4/17/13 16:26pm]