JAZZ BASSIST MIDDLEBROOKS DIES

JAZZ BASSIST MIDDLEBROOKS DIES

Veteran jazz star WILFRED MIDDLEBROOKS has died of heart failure. He was 74. The double bassist, who is best known for playing in singer Ella Fitzgerald's backing band, passed away at Huntingdon Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California on 13 March (08). Born into a family of musicians in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 17 July 1933, Middlebrooks left home at 15 to join a travelling vaudeville troupe. Following two years in the military, he moved to Los Angeles where he formed a band with legendary saxophonist Eric Dolphy. At 25, Middlebrooks went on tour with Fitzgerald and played on her albums including Ella Returns To Berlin and Jazz 'Round Midnight Again.