Donald Blackman was born in Queens, New York, USA, on September 1st 1953, and his neighbour as a child was the jazz saxophonist Charles McPherson. While still a teenager, he joined McPherson's ensemble, along with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. At the beginning of the 1970s, he played with 'Parliament/Funkadelic', 'Earth, Wind and Fire', and Roy Ayers, before becoming a member of Lenny White's group 'Twennynine', for whom he penned songs such as "Peanut Butter" and "Morning Sunrise".
He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982, and also worked as a session musician, appearing on albums by Kurtis Blow ("Kingdom Blow"), Bernard Wright, 'Najee', David Sanborn, Lenny White, Roy Ayers, Sting ("Brand New Day"), 'World Saxophone Quartet', Janet Jackson ("That's the Way Love Goes - Remix") and Wayman Tisdale.
On television, Blackman scored and wrote music for commercials, TV shows, and movies, appearing on Fox Network's "New York Undercover", producing and writing the theme song for Nickelodeon's show "Gullah Gullah Island", as well as producing songs for the MTV Network movie "Joe's Apartment". Don Blackman died aged 59 on April 11th 2013, after being hospitalised with stage four cancer. http://www.factmag.com/2013/04/11/jazz-pianist-don-blackman-hospitalised-with-stage-four-cancer/
3 Comments (since 16 Apr 2013)
rest_in_peace
Donald Blackman was born in Queens, New York, USA, on September 1st 1953, and his neighbour as a child was the jazz saxophonist Charles McPherson. While still a teenager, he joined McPherson's ensemble, along with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. At the beginning of the 1970s, he played with 'Parliament/Funkadelic', 'Earth, Wind and Fire', and Roy Ayers, before becoming a member of Lenny White's group 'Twennynine', for whom he penned songs such as "Peanut Butter" and "Morning Sunrise".
rest_in_peace
He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982, and also worked as a session musician, appearing on albums by Kurtis Blow ("Kingdom Blow"), Bernard Wright, 'Najee', David Sanborn, Lenny White, Roy Ayers, Sting ("Brand New Day"), 'World Saxophone Quartet', Janet Jackson ("That's the Way Love Goes - Remix") and Wayman Tisdale.
rest_in_peace
On television, Blackman scored and wrote music for commercials, TV shows, and movies, appearing on Fox Network's "New York Undercover", producing and writing the theme song for Nickelodeon's show "Gullah Gullah Island", as well as producing songs for the MTV Network movie "Joe's Apartment". Don Blackman died aged 59 on April 11th 2013, after being hospitalised with stage four cancer. http://www.factmag.com/2013/04/11/jazz-pianist-don-blackman-hospitalised-with-stage-four-cancer/