TMZ spotted what's left of Ron Lester on his way out of Subway last night -- where he admitted the subs give him the "worst gas." Imagine what Indian food does to his system...
More info
Saturday, 30 August 2008
"Varsity Blues" Billy Bob Whips Out His Foot Long
You power not recognize him without a bottle of syrup and a pig, simply the guy rope giving Jared a run for his Subway money in Beverly Hills last night used to be Billy Bob from "Varsity Blues" -- before he dropped 315 pounds!
TMZ spotted what's left of Ron Lester on his way out of Subway last night -- where he admitted the subs give him the "worst gas." Imagine what Indian food does to his system...
More info
TMZ spotted what's left of Ron Lester on his way out of Subway last night -- where he admitted the subs give him the "worst gas." Imagine what Indian food does to his system...
More info
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Metabolic Insight To Illuminate Causes Of Iron Imbalance
�New insight into key players in iron metabolism has yielded a novel tool for distinguishing among root causes of iron overload or deficiency in humans, the researchers report card in the August take of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. While the body inevitably iron to produce hb, a substance in red ink blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen, too much iron toilet build up and eventually damage organs.
The equilibrium of branding iron in mammals is controlled by a liver-produced endocrine called hepcidin and the iron transporting receptor ferroportin, researchers knew. Hepcidin binds ferroportin to stimulate its break dispirited, thereby lowering iron export. Too much hepcidin results in anaemia; too slight and the body doesn't rid itself of sufficiency iron. (The most common human disease of iron overload is hereditary hemochromotosis, which affects about five-spot out of 1000 Caucasians in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.)
Now, researchers have identified the critical hepcidin-binding domain (HBD) on ferroportin. By placing that binding website on a bead, they now have a very specific method for sleuthing hepcidin levels in human blood.
"We've identified the hepcidin-binding site," said Jerry Kaplan of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. "It will grant the diagnosis of underlying inflammation to distinguish diseases of iron metabolism that stem from hepcidin versus those with other causes."
Hepcidin was first known not for its effects on smoothing iron but for its disinfectant action, explained Kaplan and his co-worker Diane Ward, also of the University of Utah. The liver produces more of the hormone in response to inflammatory cytokines as a defense mechanism. Because microorganisms need smoothing iron, increases in hepcidin that lead to a refuse in ferroportin and iron are believed to be antimicrobial, he explained.
In addition to zeroing in on the hepcidin-binding site in the new study, Kaplan and Ward showed that their HBD assay can readily detect variations in serum hepcidin levels due to mutations in genes known to impress hepcidin levels as well as mutations in former genes involved in iron metabolism.
While other tests for hepicidin have been developed, the new assay is alone in that it specifically identifies the hormone's biologically active form. Due to the remarkable degree of evolutionary preservation of the binding website, the new assay could also be used in other vertebrates, from oxen to fish, they aforesaid.
" This quiz narrows it down to [active hepcidin]," Ward added. "It commode help us divine the effects of inflammation on body iron stores."
The researchers made another unexpected discovery. Human hepcidin binds ferroportin at 37? Celsius, but not at 4?. The reason, they establish, is that the hepcidin from humans changes its conformation at low temperatures.
Most mammals never catch that inhuman, so the physiological relevancy wasn't clear. But, the researchers wondered what it might bastardly for other, cold-blooded vertebrates like fish that nates live in very inhuman waters.
They found that the hepcidin of zebrafish continued to bind at low temperatures, despite the fact that the hepcidin-binding domain of the fish was nearly identical to that from humans. The same was true of brown trout collected in the eye of the Utah wintertime, along with Alaskan nine-spine sticklebacks and a toad, they bear witness. The difference between mammals and the fish seems to lie in a portion of the hepcidin structure outside of the binding domain.
Their studies led to another evolutionary insight. Most mammals experience just one hepcidin gene, but fish have multiple, earlier studies had shown. One of the fish hepcidins is a full-length, "mature" hepcidin, while the others ar smaller versions. They now show that the full-length hepcidin of fish has little germicide power against E. coli. Together with earlier evidence, the outcome suggest that mammalian hepcidin has both iron regulative and antimicrobic activity, patch fish hepcidin genes have evolved to separate these two functions, they aforesaid.
The researchers include Ivana De Domenico, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Elizabeta Nemeth, University of California, Los Angeles, CA ; Jenifer M. Nelson, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; John D. Phillips, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Richard S. Ajioka, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Michael S. Kay, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; James P. Kushner, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Tomas Ganz, University of California, Los Angeles, CA ; Diane M. Ward, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; and Jerry Kaplan, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
Cell Press
More info
The equilibrium of branding iron in mammals is controlled by a liver-produced endocrine called hepcidin and the iron transporting receptor ferroportin, researchers knew. Hepcidin binds ferroportin to stimulate its break dispirited, thereby lowering iron export. Too much hepcidin results in anaemia; too slight and the body doesn't rid itself of sufficiency iron. (The most common human disease of iron overload is hereditary hemochromotosis, which affects about five-spot out of 1000 Caucasians in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.)
Now, researchers have identified the critical hepcidin-binding domain (HBD) on ferroportin. By placing that binding website on a bead, they now have a very specific method for sleuthing hepcidin levels in human blood.
"We've identified the hepcidin-binding site," said Jerry Kaplan of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. "It will grant the diagnosis of underlying inflammation to distinguish diseases of iron metabolism that stem from hepcidin versus those with other causes."
Hepcidin was first known not for its effects on smoothing iron but for its disinfectant action, explained Kaplan and his co-worker Diane Ward, also of the University of Utah. The liver produces more of the hormone in response to inflammatory cytokines as a defense mechanism. Because microorganisms need smoothing iron, increases in hepcidin that lead to a refuse in ferroportin and iron are believed to be antimicrobial, he explained.
In addition to zeroing in on the hepcidin-binding site in the new study, Kaplan and Ward showed that their HBD assay can readily detect variations in serum hepcidin levels due to mutations in genes known to impress hepcidin levels as well as mutations in former genes involved in iron metabolism.
While other tests for hepicidin have been developed, the new assay is alone in that it specifically identifies the hormone's biologically active form. Due to the remarkable degree of evolutionary preservation of the binding website, the new assay could also be used in other vertebrates, from oxen to fish, they aforesaid.
" This quiz narrows it down to [active hepcidin]," Ward added. "It commode help us divine the effects of inflammation on body iron stores."
The researchers made another unexpected discovery. Human hepcidin binds ferroportin at 37? Celsius, but not at 4?. The reason, they establish, is that the hepcidin from humans changes its conformation at low temperatures.
Most mammals never catch that inhuman, so the physiological relevancy wasn't clear. But, the researchers wondered what it might bastardly for other, cold-blooded vertebrates like fish that nates live in very inhuman waters.
They found that the hepcidin of zebrafish continued to bind at low temperatures, despite the fact that the hepcidin-binding domain of the fish was nearly identical to that from humans. The same was true of brown trout collected in the eye of the Utah wintertime, along with Alaskan nine-spine sticklebacks and a toad, they bear witness. The difference between mammals and the fish seems to lie in a portion of the hepcidin structure outside of the binding domain.
Their studies led to another evolutionary insight. Most mammals experience just one hepcidin gene, but fish have multiple, earlier studies had shown. One of the fish hepcidins is a full-length, "mature" hepcidin, while the others ar smaller versions. They now show that the full-length hepcidin of fish has little germicide power against E. coli. Together with earlier evidence, the outcome suggest that mammalian hepcidin has both iron regulative and antimicrobic activity, patch fish hepcidin genes have evolved to separate these two functions, they aforesaid.
The researchers include Ivana De Domenico, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Elizabeta Nemeth, University of California, Los Angeles, CA ; Jenifer M. Nelson, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; John D. Phillips, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Richard S. Ajioka, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Michael S. Kay, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; James P. Kushner, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Tomas Ganz, University of California, Los Angeles, CA ; Diane M. Ward, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; and Jerry Kaplan, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
Cell Press
More info
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Britney Spears - Federline Is Father Of The Year
BRITNEY SPEARS's ex-husband KEVIN FEDERLINE has been crowned Father of the Year for the second time in six months.
The latest honour is bestowed upon the dancer-turned-rapper by Las Vegas club Prive - and the honour will be handed out when Federline hosts a party there on 13 June (08), two days before Father's Day.
He was previously given the title by Details magazine last November (07).
Federline currently enjoys custody of his two sons with Spears, Sean Preston, two and Jayden James, one.
See Also
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Larter loves her �juicy� butt
Actress Ali Larter reveals she once had to have her thighs duct-taped before a photo shoot because �they were a little too round,� usmagazine.com reports.
Larter, 32, also recalled, in an interview with Allure, another instance when she was shooting a movie on location and the filmmakers noticed she had put on a few pounds.
�The faxes went out from the producers and the director to my agents, to my manager, to call me and ask me to lose weight,� Larter says. �I just remember sitting in my trailer hysterically crying from the embarrassment I felt about myself, my body � and that no one could talk to me directly.�
Now Larter has found the perfect balance. �When I�m in really good shape, I like my butt. It�s juicy.�
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Thursday, 12 June 2008
Sex Tape In R. Kelly Trial 'not Fake', Fake', Claims Forensic Expert
A forensic expert has verified the legitimacy of a sex tape at the centre of singer R. KELLY's child pornography trial, insisting it was not a fake.
The troubled R+B star is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a 13-year-old girl and is currently standing trial on 14 counts of child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Kelly's defence team has previously claimed the singer could have been digitally "morphed" into the video footage using special effects.
But, during his testimony at a Chicago, Illinois court on Thursday (29May08), FBI forensic video expert George Skaluae told the jury that after examining the film, he found it to show "real people in a real environment".
Skaluae went on to tell the court that he had previously been asked to look at the tape, after it had been retrieved by the Chicago Police Department in 2002.
He explained that he'd found the tape to be "a copy, several generations away from the original".
A number of hidden "switch points" indicated the tape had been duplicated at least three times, resulting in the deteriorated quality, he said.
Skaluae added that it would have been "very difficult and time consuming" for someone to digitally alter the tape to show Kelly in the footage.
He told the court: "If it is not done well then it is going to be detectable.
"Sometimes we look at effects in movies and laugh and say, 'That doesn't look too good'. Those may have taken months or years."
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography and maintains the man in the tape is not him. The alleged victim, now 23, has also denied she is the girl in the footage.
The trial continues.
The troubled R+B star is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a 13-year-old girl and is currently standing trial on 14 counts of child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Kelly's defence team has previously claimed the singer could have been digitally "morphed" into the video footage using special effects.
But, during his testimony at a Chicago, Illinois court on Thursday (29May08), FBI forensic video expert George Skaluae told the jury that after examining the film, he found it to show "real people in a real environment".
Skaluae went on to tell the court that he had previously been asked to look at the tape, after it had been retrieved by the Chicago Police Department in 2002.
He explained that he'd found the tape to be "a copy, several generations away from the original".
A number of hidden "switch points" indicated the tape had been duplicated at least three times, resulting in the deteriorated quality, he said.
Skaluae added that it would have been "very difficult and time consuming" for someone to digitally alter the tape to show Kelly in the footage.
He told the court: "If it is not done well then it is going to be detectable.
"Sometimes we look at effects in movies and laugh and say, 'That doesn't look too good'. Those may have taken months or years."
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography and maintains the man in the tape is not him. The alleged victim, now 23, has also denied she is the girl in the footage.
The trial continues.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Andy Roddick engaged to swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker
Andy Roddick is engaged to swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, according to a statement on his official website.
“We are thrilled to announce that Andy and Brooklyn Decker are engaged to be married,” the statement read.
The tennis player, 25, proposed to 20-year-old Decker — a model who has appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition — in early March.
“The couple wanted to tell their family and close friends first but good news travels fast,” according to the statement. “By the time Andy arrived in Miami for the Sony Ericsson Open, the tournament was bustling with the news.”
The two � who met in NYC last year � have yet to set a date.
“With their hectic travel schedules, Andy and Brooklyn plan to enjoy their engagement,” the statement read.
See Also
Thursday, 5 June 2008
November Novelet
Artist: November Novelet
Genre(s):
Industrial
Discography:
From Heaven On Earth
Year: 1999
Tracks: 11
More Satanic Heroes (Single)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 4
Sopranos have SAG Awards hat-trick
The stars of 'The Sopranos' were the big winners in the TV categories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in the US at the weekend.
James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were named Best Actor and Actress in a Drama Series respectively while the cast of 'The Sopranos' won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award.
There were two awards for '30 Rock' with stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey named Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series respectively.
The cast of the US series 'The Office' won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series award.
Kevin Kline won Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for 'As You Like It' with Queen Latifah named Best Actress for 'Life Support'.
The stunt team on '24' won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series.
For more on the Screen Actors Guild Awards, click here.
James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were named Best Actor and Actress in a Drama Series respectively while the cast of 'The Sopranos' won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award.
There were two awards for '30 Rock' with stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey named Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series respectively.
The cast of the US series 'The Office' won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series award.
Kevin Kline won Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for 'As You Like It' with Queen Latifah named Best Actress for 'Life Support'.
The stunt team on '24' won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series.
For more on the Screen Actors Guild Awards, click here.
Anti-smoking clips aimed at teens
To run before feature films this summer
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health plans to run 15-second anti-smoking trailers prior to movie screenings during the summer that are targeted at teens.
The big screen messages are a result of a department study that showed exposure to smoking in film has a direct impact on a teen’s likelihood to start smoking, particularly for Latinos, Asian and Pacific Islanders youth.
The new messages will be unveiled next week at in Hollywood.
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Pink and Carey Hart set to divorce
Singer Pink and motocross racer Carey Hart are reportedly set to divorce after two years of marriage.
According to People magazine, the singer's publicist Michele Schweitzer confirmed the news, saying: "Pink and Carey Hart have separated."
"This decision was made by best friends with a huge amount of love and respect for one another. While the marriage is over, their friendship has never been stronger."
The couple married in January 2006 in Costa Rica after Pink proposed to Hart while he was competing in a race.
According to People magazine, the singer's publicist Michele Schweitzer confirmed the news, saying: "Pink and Carey Hart have separated."
"This decision was made by best friends with a huge amount of love and respect for one another. While the marriage is over, their friendship has never been stronger."
The couple married in January 2006 in Costa Rica after Pink proposed to Hart while he was competing in a race.
Zoot Sims with Jimmy Rowles
Artist: Zoot Sims with Jimmy Rowles
Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
I Wish I Were Twins
Year: 1998
Tracks: 7
If I'm Lucky
Year: 1992
Tracks: 8
Warm Tenor
Year: 1990
Tracks: 8
Tarantula A.D.
No 322: Magic Wands
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
The lineup: Chris Valentine (guitars) and Dexy Valentine (vocals).
The background: We've had a spate of blues-rockin' White Stripes-alikes, even ones trying to throw us off the scent like the all-male Black Keys and all-female the Pack AD, and now we're about to see hordes of duos going for some of that boy-girl Ting Tings action. Pin Me Down's forthcoming Cryptic is one such male-female electro-pop release, and Black Magic by Magic Wands is another. Opening with a memorable fuzzed-up guitar riff that provides the slight melody line, it proceeds along a half-traditional instrumental, half-programmed path, with electronic handclaps providing rhythmic markers as Dexy Valentine intones with the deathless cool of a pop Nico or a nu-rave Debbie Harry about the mystical allure of how's-yer-father.
So who are they, this Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg of glacial, guitar-driven, budget synth-pop who regularly appear onstage with a 5ft stuffed lion for company? They might share a surname but we're not sure if they share a bed - they're certainly not siblings unless they're test-tube orphans, because they didn't meet until 2007, when Chris became addicted to a song he'd found on MySpace by Dexy called Teenage Love that wasn't as platonic as it sounds, with its hardly coquettish rhyming couplet: "This teenage love has got me stuck / Come over now so we can fuck." He got in touch, and they started talking all night on the phone like the titular horny adolescents, writing songs for each other and mailing each other gifts such as toy lions, old records, handwritten poems and a glowing heart lamp which must have cost a fortune in postage and packaging.
But money was the last thing on Chris's mind as he drove 2,000 miles to LA where Dexy was living in an old bed and breakfast in the Hollywood Hills, to help his future paramour pack up her old Mercedes Benz for a trip across the country. Arriving in Nashville, the pair, both former punk rockers, began recording under the name Magic Wands, which they chose because one of Dexy's favourite things sent by Chris during his manic gift-posting spree was a black and white stick with paranormal properties - you might even say it was a magic wand. For fun they began recording songs, the first being one Chris wrote for Dexy called Kiss Me Dead which sounded like Nancy Sinatra fronting the Jesus and Mary Chain or maybe a dream Alan McGee might have once had in which Bananarama frolicked in the studio with Kevin Shields. Since then, Magic Wands have been applying the feedback-MOR treatment to songs like Heartbreak Whirl and Starships, both of which sound like hits on a planet where intriguing, odd little pop songs can and do make the charts.
The buzz: "Occupying the area between the spaced-out vision of the Flaming Lips and Fleetwood Mac at their most emotionally fraught and melodic."
The truth: After Ting Tings, the odd-pop deluge is surely only weeks away.
Most likely to: Pull a hit out of the hat.
Least likely to: Pull a rabbit out of a hat.
What to buy: Black Magic is released on Monday by Ark.
File next to: Ting Tings, Clik Clik, Blondie, Flying Lizards.
Links: www.myspace.com/themagicwands
Tomorrow's new band: Black Affair.
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Arctic Monkeys dominate NME Awards
Arctic Monkeys have dominated the NME Music Awards again this year, picking up three gongs.
The Sheffield rockers claimed the awards for Best British Band, Best Track for 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and Best Video for 'Teddy Picker'.
The group also won the awards for Best Album and Best Band at this year's Brit Awards.
The Klaxons claimed the award for Best Album for 'Myths of the Near Future' and newcomer Kate Nash was named Best Solo Artist at the ceremony.
Amy Winehouse, who was nominated for four NME Awards, picked up just one award on the night, for Worst Dressed.
The award for Best New Band went to The Enemy, Muse picked up the Best Live Band gong and The Killers won Best International Band for the second year in a row.
Pop singer Kylie Minogue was voted Sexiest Woman, while Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty was named Hero of the Year at the awards.
Check out our NME Awards photo gallery here.
The Sheffield rockers claimed the awards for Best British Band, Best Track for 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and Best Video for 'Teddy Picker'.
The group also won the awards for Best Album and Best Band at this year's Brit Awards.
The Klaxons claimed the award for Best Album for 'Myths of the Near Future' and newcomer Kate Nash was named Best Solo Artist at the ceremony.
Amy Winehouse, who was nominated for four NME Awards, picked up just one award on the night, for Worst Dressed.
The award for Best New Band went to The Enemy, Muse picked up the Best Live Band gong and The Killers won Best International Band for the second year in a row.
Pop singer Kylie Minogue was voted Sexiest Woman, while Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty was named Hero of the Year at the awards.
Check out our NME Awards photo gallery here.
Jimmy McGriff, blues organist, dies
Jimmy McGriff, the acclaimed blues organist, who scored his first hit in the 1960s with an instrumental arrangement of "I've Got a Woman," then continued to record hard-swinging grooves that appealed to audiences across musical boundaries, died Saturday at a nursing home in New Jersey. He was 72.
The cause of death was not known but was believed to be heart failure, said his wife, Margaret McGriff. McGriff was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis many years ago.
Though sometimes described as a jazz organist, McGriff considered himself a bluesman; the blues was what he felt when he played and what distinguished his music from other greats of the organ.
"Jimmy Smith is the jazz king on the organ, but when it comes to blues, I can do things where he can't touch me," McGriff once said.
In a 2000 Times article, jazz writer Don Heckman described McGriff's concert performance with saxophonist Hank Crawford and others as "an impressive display of the depth and power of the blues."
McGriff's "rich-textured organ timbres" created "a roiling undercurrent of rhythm." Heckman wrote. "At climactic points they gathered to generate tsunami-like waves of energy before breaking off into sudden, dramatic moments of silence."
Born April 3, 1936, in Philadelphia, McGriff began playing the organ when he was still a boy. Both his parents played piano and, by age 5, McGriff was also playing. Later he learned the saxophone and the bass, but the sound of the organ captured his attention. With the encouragement of his father, he switched from piano to organ.
"He was hearing something I wasn't hearing," McGriff said in a 2006 interview posted on the website allaboutjazz.com. "He told me to play the organ, because I had that gospel thing."
From 1953 until 1956 McGriff served in the United States Army and was stationed in Korea as a military police officer. Afterward, he entered the police academy and spent two years as a police officer in Philadelphia.
McGriff trained at Juilliard and the Combe College of Music in Philadelphia and also took private lessons from Smith and another legendary organist, Richard "Groove" Holmes. The music of Count Basie, whom he met, also influenced McGriff.
"It was big band music. And I liked that big band kinda thing. That's what turned me on," McGriff said in the 2006 All About Jazz interview.
"[Basie] was the father of Harlem musicians. He wouldn't teach you nothing wrong. If you did something wrong, the changes I would play, he would just say, 'That's wrong. You don't wanna do that.' . . . I liked that."
In 1962 McGriff was at a Trenton, N.J., club playing his instrumental arrangement of Ray Charles' hit "I've Got a Woman," when a talent scout for a record company offered him a recording contract. The record was a hit and led to a contract with Sue Records.
McGriff's first album, "I've Got a Woman," included Walter Miller on guitar and Richard Easley on drums and produced another hit, "All About My Girl."
Over the years McGriff played with many musicians, including Buddy Rich's band, and founded his own supper club in Newark, N.J. Early in his career he played a Hammond B-3 organ; during the '70s he played electric keyboards; later he played a Hammond XB-3 organ.
The core of his music remained the same.
"They talk about who taught me this and who taught me that, but the basic idea of what I'm doing on the organ came from the church," McGriff said in biography posted on All About Jazz. "That's how I got it, and I just never dropped it."
In addition to his wife, McGriff is survived by two children from a previous relationship: a daughter, Holiday Hankerson, of Newark, N.J; a son, Donald Kelly, of Philadelphia; his mother, Beatrice McGriff, of Germantown, Pa.; two sisters, Jean Clark, of Amherst, Va., and Beatrice Evans of Philadelphia; a brother, Henry McGriff, of Germantown, Pa.; and three grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held June 3 at 11 a.m. the Harold O. Davis Memorial Baptist Church, 4500 N. 10th Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19140.
jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com
The cause of death was not known but was believed to be heart failure, said his wife, Margaret McGriff. McGriff was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis many years ago.
Though sometimes described as a jazz organist, McGriff considered himself a bluesman; the blues was what he felt when he played and what distinguished his music from other greats of the organ.
"Jimmy Smith is the jazz king on the organ, but when it comes to blues, I can do things where he can't touch me," McGriff once said.
In a 2000 Times article, jazz writer Don Heckman described McGriff's concert performance with saxophonist Hank Crawford and others as "an impressive display of the depth and power of the blues."
McGriff's "rich-textured organ timbres" created "a roiling undercurrent of rhythm." Heckman wrote. "At climactic points they gathered to generate tsunami-like waves of energy before breaking off into sudden, dramatic moments of silence."
Born April 3, 1936, in Philadelphia, McGriff began playing the organ when he was still a boy. Both his parents played piano and, by age 5, McGriff was also playing. Later he learned the saxophone and the bass, but the sound of the organ captured his attention. With the encouragement of his father, he switched from piano to organ.
"He was hearing something I wasn't hearing," McGriff said in a 2006 interview posted on the website allaboutjazz.com. "He told me to play the organ, because I had that gospel thing."
From 1953 until 1956 McGriff served in the United States Army and was stationed in Korea as a military police officer. Afterward, he entered the police academy and spent two years as a police officer in Philadelphia.
McGriff trained at Juilliard and the Combe College of Music in Philadelphia and also took private lessons from Smith and another legendary organist, Richard "Groove" Holmes. The music of Count Basie, whom he met, also influenced McGriff.
"It was big band music. And I liked that big band kinda thing. That's what turned me on," McGriff said in the 2006 All About Jazz interview.
"[Basie] was the father of Harlem musicians. He wouldn't teach you nothing wrong. If you did something wrong, the changes I would play, he would just say, 'That's wrong. You don't wanna do that.' . . . I liked that."
In 1962 McGriff was at a Trenton, N.J., club playing his instrumental arrangement of Ray Charles' hit "I've Got a Woman," when a talent scout for a record company offered him a recording contract. The record was a hit and led to a contract with Sue Records.
McGriff's first album, "I've Got a Woman," included Walter Miller on guitar and Richard Easley on drums and produced another hit, "All About My Girl."
Over the years McGriff played with many musicians, including Buddy Rich's band, and founded his own supper club in Newark, N.J. Early in his career he played a Hammond B-3 organ; during the '70s he played electric keyboards; later he played a Hammond XB-3 organ.
The core of his music remained the same.
"They talk about who taught me this and who taught me that, but the basic idea of what I'm doing on the organ came from the church," McGriff said in biography posted on All About Jazz. "That's how I got it, and I just never dropped it."
In addition to his wife, McGriff is survived by two children from a previous relationship: a daughter, Holiday Hankerson, of Newark, N.J; a son, Donald Kelly, of Philadelphia; his mother, Beatrice McGriff, of Germantown, Pa.; two sisters, Jean Clark, of Amherst, Va., and Beatrice Evans of Philadelphia; a brother, Henry McGriff, of Germantown, Pa.; and three grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held June 3 at 11 a.m. the Harold O. Davis Memorial Baptist Church, 4500 N. 10th Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19140.
jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com
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