Valley of Life | Online Memorial Blog

David “Fathead” Newman, a legendary jazz saxophone player who played with the Ray Charles Band for 12 years passed away on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at the age of 75. Newman had a very successful solo career in addition to his collaborations with such jazz greats as Aretha Franklin, Aaron Neville and Herbie Mann.  He was nominated for a 1990 Grammy Award for his participation with Art Blakely and Dr. John. 

Newman succumbed to pancreatic cancer in a Kingston, New York Hospital.

Enjoy this great video of David playing Hard Times on the Alto Sax.

Photo Courtesy of AllAboutJazz.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Obituaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.