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Boogie Woogie jazz man Omar Sharriff dead
Jan 9, 2012, 20:22 GMT
New York - Legendary blues musician Omar Sharriff has died at the age of 73 in his hometown of Marshall, Texas, local radio station KSLA reported Monday.
Sharriff, whose real name was Dave Alexander, died from a gunshot wound in his apartment, with most indications pointing to a suicide.
Alexander, who was also known as the Boogie Woogie Man of Marshall, was famous for his piano mastery of the boogie woogie style which originated in Marshall.
The jazz pianist had only returned to the town where he grew up in March this year, after citizens there banded together to get him an apartment, decades after he left the town in 1955 to escape racial discrimination.
'He was named one of the very best blues piano players ever, and I will say this, I don't think there is another living man who shared the stage with as many legendary performers as he did,' music historian Jack Canson told the Texas Review Journal. 'He played with them all.'
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