By WM. FERGUSON
Let me suggest that you spend a few moments with this most-excellent, if somewhat sad, video of the music of the great artists who graced our lives and passed away this past year. I admit to having played it a few times. Thanks to each of them for the memories.
Welcome to the fifth annual installment of The Music They Made, a sound collage featuring the musicians who died in the past year. As in past versions, a few (entirely coincidental and random) themes emerged in the mix for 2012. We find a statistically improbable number of divas (Whitney, Etta, Donna, Chavela), two of the greatest soul bassists ever to record — and more sitar than you would expect, all of it sounding as fresh as the day it was played. The artists were young and old, famous and belatedly famous. You can play the full versions of the songs sampled above on Spotify.
Previous The Music They Made tributes: 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008
Wm. Ferguson is an editor at the magazine.