For a lot of people, jazz is just a stereotype -- a nebulous free-form art that comedians (or any of us, really) will parody without ever knowing what it's really about. Just hit some keys and scat a few syllables: jazz! And there are certainly performers who embrace the improvisational liberties offered by jazz so enthusiastically that they endanger their accessibility to mainstream audiences. However, Dave Brubeck was not only accessible but popular. His defining quartet, which toured and recorded together for 10 years (1958-1967), created the first million-selling jazz album, Time Out, in 1959 -- the same year that Miles Davis released Kind of Blue and Charles Mingus put out Mingus Ah Um (all on the same label, by the way).

Brubeck's accessibility was not the result of catering to the marketplace, but grew out of a confluence of public interest in "difficult" music and artists (Brubeck, Davis, and Mingus among them) who had been working in jazz for decades and had simultaneously matured as recording artists.

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R.I.P. Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck, the Bay Area-born jazz pianist who left an indelible artistic and commercial mark on the music, has died. He was 91.

Brubeck passed away Wednesday morning in Norwalk, Conn., of heart failure, according to news reports. He was on the way to a regular appointment with his cardiologist. Thursday would have been Brubeck's 92nd birthday.

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Club Six, R.I.P.

San Francisco's downtown club scene just got a little emptier: After 14 years of hosting hip-hop, dancehall, reggae, and house music -- and even some live bands -- Club Six, at 60 Sixth St., has just announced its immediate closure.

Via Eater SF, we hear that owner Angel Cruz sent out a note to the club's email list announcing the big end. A message went up on Facebook an hour ago:

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Matthew Africa, RIP

We're just getting word via Facebook and other sources that beloved local hip-hop DJ Matthew Africa tragically passed away this Monday in a car accident. He was 40.

His sister, Julia Africa, posted the following on Facebook:

My brother, Matthew Africa, was killed in a car accident on Monday afternoon. He and his beloved wife, Ha Le, were returning from a trip to Yosemite when their car collided with a big rig on a highway near Modesto. They tell us he died instantly; miraculously, she survived with multiple fractures. His absence is unbearable. Please keep our families in your thoughts and prayers.

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Scott McKenzie, who famously sang the the iconic, ubiquitous, and now hopelessly cliched Summer of Love anthem "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" died Saturday in Los Angeles, according to the AP. He was 73.

McKenzie suffered from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system, and had been receiving on-and-off hospital care since 2010, the AP reports.

He was best known for performing a song that was actually written by John Phillips, the brilliant and troubled songwriter behind the Mamas and the Papas. McKenzie's rendition of "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" was released May 13, 1967 -- just prior to the city's famous Summer of Love, when hippies and would-be hippies flocked to the city to experience its radical counterculture. It was an instant hit, selling 7 million copies worldwide, and became arguably the most famous song about San Francisco. The song, the city, and the promising early days of the hippie movement were forever linked.

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Outpourings of grief and gratitude flooded the Internet yesterday after news broke that No Use For A Name frontman and underground Bay Area hero, Tony Sly, had passed away suddenly at the age of 41. As a key member of the pop-punk scene since the heyday of the 1990s, Sly had been a long-respected and much-loved figure in his community and beyond.

"He was an incredibly talented musician and a really wonderful guy," says Dominic Davi, ex-bassist for Bay Area pop-punk mainstays like Tsunami Bomb and Love Equals Death. "Touring with No Use For A Name was a fantastic experience, and it's heartbreaking to know that yet another gifted artist would be taken from the world so young."   More »

Fat Wreck Chords

R.I.P. Tony Sly

See also:

* Remembering Tony Sly: Bands, Fans, and Friends Mourn No Use For a Name Singer's Passing

Sad news in the Bay Area punk scene today: Tony Sly, the singer and guitarist for San Jose pop-punk outfit No Use For a Name, passed away this morning, according to his record label, S.F.'s Fat Wreck Chords. Sly was only 41.

"One of my dearest friends and favorite song writers has gone way too soon," wrote label head and NOFX frontman Fat Mike. "Tony, you will be greatly missed."

The cause of Sly's death was not immediately clear.

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via Exclaim

Tim Mooney

Tim Mooney, a drummer and producer who played with noted S.F. bands American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon, died Thursday, June 13, according to his family. He was 53.

Mooney played in Bay Area punk bands Sleepers, Toiling Midgets, and Negative Trend before joining S.F.'s American Music Club in the early 1990s. There, along with drumming, Mooney helped compose the band's artistically adventurous but dim-hued Americana. Although Mooney remained in S.F. when the band moved to L.A., he later produced AMC's 2004 comeback album, Love Songs for Patriots. Singer and songwriter Mark Eitzel posted this about Mooney's passing:

I haven't seen Tim for a few years now but that still didn't lessen the impact of his passing. He was the drummer of AMC for many years. He was absolutely instrumental in whatever sound we had. His style was absolutely unique and as an artist no one could match what he did. He was a good friend to so many people and will be missed. What an absolute loss. I wish all the best to his wife Jude and his daughter Dixie. I have spent all day in a fog thinking about him.

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Nikki and Jeff Davis

By ALEE KARIM

Heavy hearts weigh down the Bay Area music community this week as it reels from the tragic loss of Jeff Davis (known to his community and friends as Jef Leppard) in a fatal motorcycle accident last Sunday, June 10. At 6:41 p.m., Davis and his wife, Nikki, were struck by a grey Audi at the intersection of 30th Avenue and Fulton St. in San Francisco. Mr. Davis was pinned under the Audi, and his wife, the passenger on the motorcycle, was ejected from her seat. Jef Leppard was pronounced dead on arrival at San Francisco General Hospital. He was 39. Nikki sustained critical injuries and remains in ICU as of this writing.

Jeff Davis was an alum of Bay Area metal bands Voetsek and STFU, among others. From his beginnings as a musician, he evolved into the role of an accomplished audio engineer, helping to realize sonic visions for local bands including Aerial Ruin, whose Erik Moggridge had this to say on Davis' behalf:

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