New Orleans — Lionel Batiste, the vocalist, bass drummer and assistant leader of the Treme Brass Band, has died. He was 81.
Fans of the HBO series "Treme" (truh-may) may not have known Batiste by name, but they often saw him close up. He was the skinny guy with the big drum in the band, one of the acts regularly featured on the show.
Family and others close to Batiste were with him when he died Sunday at the Ochsner Health System's hospital just outside New Orleans, said Batiste's daughter, Karen Williams.
Batiste, known as "Uncle Lionel," had been ill for about a month, said band leader Benny Jones Sr. He said Batiste had been with the band since it was formed in 1995, but had played bass drum since childhood.
Batiste used his drum to stay afloat in the floods after Hurricane Katrina, Clarinetist Michael White said.
"The water kept rising," White said.
Fans of the HBO series "Treme" (truh-may) may not have known Batiste by name, but they often saw him close up. He was the skinny guy with the big drum in the band, one of the acts regularly featured on the show.
Family and others close to Batiste were with him when he died Sunday at the Ochsner Health System's hospital just outside New Orleans, said Batiste's daughter, Karen Williams.
Batiste, known as "Uncle Lionel," had been ill for about a month, said band leader Benny Jones Sr. He said Batiste had been with the band since it was formed in 1995, but had played bass drum since childhood.
Batiste used his drum to stay afloat in the floods after Hurricane Katrina, Clarinetist Michael White said.
"The water kept rising," White said.
- 7/9/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
"Uncle" Lionel Batiste, the longtime bass drummer for Treme Brass Band, and a fixture for 70 years in the New Orleans jazz scene, died Sunday morning after battling cancer for only a few months. He was 81. Batiste was an icon for many local musicians, and with his signature sunglasses, wristwatch worn on his hand as opposed to his wrist, and an omnipresent kazoo, he moved to the beat of his own bass drum. Batiste was diagnosed with cancer in April, according to New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune. While Batiste rose to fame slowly with the Treme Brass
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- 7/8/2012
- by Jane Kellogg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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