(Akiit.com) Sam Rivers, an internationally-known jazz musician who played with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, has died. He was 88.

Monique Rivers Williams says her father died Monday night from pneumonia. The Oklahoma native was a saxophonist, flutist and composer.
He started his career in Boston, where he performed with Herb Pomeroy’s big band in an ensemble that included future music producer Quincy Jones. In 1964, he moved to New York and was hired by Davis. He played with a diverse group of musicians there that included Gillespie, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker.

He moved to Orlando in the early 1990s and regularly played with a group of jazz musicians whose day jobs were at Walt Disney World.
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(Akiit.com) A self-described Los Angeles entertainment entrepreneur is charged in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday with bilking $7 million from a recent divorcee who is identified by law enforcement officials as the ex-wife of actor-comedian Eddie Murphy.

Troy David Stratos faces 14 charges of fraud, money laundering and obstructing justice. Stratos, 45, was arrested Tuesday and made his first appearance in Los Angeles federal court. His attorney, Walter Urban, did not return a telephone message.

The divorcee is identified in court papers as “N.M…the ex-wife of E.M.” who filed for divorce in August 2005. Three law enforcement sources told The Associated Press that the victim is Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife, Nicole Murphy, but the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the identity of the alleged victim in the case.

Court officials would not confirm that the alleged victim is the actor-comedian’s ex-wife.

Court records show Nicole Murphy sued Stratos and others last year in Los Angeles federal court and refiled the lawsuit in May in Florida state court. She filed for divorce from Eddie Murphy in August 2005.

The indictment charges that Stratos persuaded his victim to invest the proceeds of her divorce overseas, where they would earn a high rate of return. She put the proceeds into a revocable trust with Stratos in Fair Oaks, a Sacramento suburb, according to the federal indictment.

Prosecutors say Stratos never invested the money, but spent it on himself. He also opened a bank account in Florida, they say, and used portions of the money to pay the victim’s expenses while leading her to believe he was paying her expenses out of his own pocket.

Nicole Murphy’s federal lawsuit alleges she put $11 million into a trust with Stratos but he and the other defendants spent the money on themselves.
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(Akiit.com) Atlanta police say the rapper Slim Dunkin was gunned down Friday evening in a city music studio as he was preparing to record a video.

Police Maj. Keith Meadows said the rapper, whose real name is Mario Hamilton, was fatally shot in the chest after getting into an argument with another individual. He was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Meadows told The Associated Press late Friday that police have not been able to identify the shooter. He said investigators have been interviewing those who were inside the studio. He said as many as 20 people were inside the small office-type building at the time of the shooting, which took place around 5:30 p.m., but they were in different places.

Police have not recovered the handgun that was used. Investigators remained at the scene late Friday evening.

“Right now we’re just trying to….identify who may have seen what, really just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together,” Meadows said. “It seems everybody witnessed something very different. We’re just trying to go back and make sense of everything.”

Slim Dunkin had appeared on a number of songs with the rapper Waka Flocka Flame. The website Mtv.com reported that the Brick Squad Monopoly rapper was on a solo track and had recently released a 20-track mix tape that featured Gucci Mane, Roscoe Dash and Pastor Troy.
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(Akiit.com) Soul singer Howard Tate has died in his New Jersey apartment a decade after a career resurrection that followed years of tragedy and obscurity.

A spokesman for the Burlington County medical examiner says Tate was 72 when he died Friday in Burlington City.

Tate was born in Macon, Ga., and grew up in Philadelphia.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s he had three top 20 R&B hits, including “Get It While You Can,” written by his longtime producer Jerry Ragovoy and made more famous by Janis Joplin.
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(Akiit.com) Adele scored six Grammy nominations on Wednesday, including for record, song and album of the year, but the owner of the 2011′s best-selling album with “21″ wasn’t the night’s top nominee – and that wasn’t the evening’s only surprise.

Kanye West came away with a leading seven nominations, including a bid for song of the year for his all-star song “All of the Lights.” However, the album from which it came – “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” heralded by many critics as the best album of 2010 – was not in the best album category, and all of his other nominations were relegated to the rap fields.

Other notable omissions in the top categories included country phenomenon Taylor Swift and veteran crooner Tony Bennett.

Bruno Mars and the Foo Fighters tied Adele with six nominations each, including in the album of the year category. Lil Wayne had five nods and critical-darling folky act Bon Iver scored four nominations, with two in the prestigious record and song of the year categories. But dubstep star Skrillex may have been the night’s biggest surprise, getting five nominations, including a bid for best new artist.

“It feels incredible. Me and these guys, we locked ourselves in the studio not too far from here and worked on this album, especially ‘Grenade,’” Mars said after the nominations were announced. “That’s the song we worked the hardest on. That’s like our trophy right there. Of all the songs we’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of this year, we were most proud of that one.”

The nominations were announced after the Recording Academy’s fourth annual live concert special, which aired on CBS from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The hour-long event featured key nominees like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and The Band Perry.

Even though Adele didn’t get the lion’s share of nominations, she got them where it counted: Her “21,” the mournful post-breakup album that produced smash hits like the torch ballad “Someone Like You,” was nominated for album of the year. The searing groove “Rolling in the Deep,” which spent seven weeks at No. 1 this past summer, got nominations for both record and song of the year. Only Mars got nominations in all three categories as well.

Other nominees in the Record of the Year category included Bon Iver’s ballad “Holocene;” Mars’ ballad “Grenade;” Mumford & Sons’ “The Cave” and Katy Perry’s inspirational anthem “Firework.” For Song of the Year, which honors the writers of the tune, contenders included “The Cave,” “Grenade,” “Holocene” and Lady Gaga’s “You and I.”

The best album category was as noteworthy for who was excluded as it was for who was nominated. Lady Gaga garnered her third straight nod in the category for “Born This Way,” while veteran rockers the Foo Fighters were nominated for “Wasting Light,” along with Mars’ debut album, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” and Rihanna’s steamy dance album “Loud.”
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