Chris Albertson has died (plus new NY Times obituary) edit

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/obituaries/chris-albertson-dead.html is a full and helpful obituary

Key details: found dead on 2019-04-24

“Columbia, with Chris Albertson heading up the project, has done a herculean job on the Bessie Smith reissues,” he wrote, noting that the strong sales for the first four sets had shown that “what started out as sort of a foundation altruistic project, a musical-archaeological dig into the works of a blues singer who died 34 years ago, has become a thriving investment.”

“Bessie” was quickly acknowledged as the definitive Bessie Smith biography. Reviewing it in The Los Angeles Times, the jazz critic Leonard Feather called it “the most devastating, provocative and enlightening work of its kind ever contributed to the annals of jazz literature.”

Bikestats (talk) 21:43, 9 May 2019 (UTC)Reply