From CMT

August 13, 2009;

Written by Chet Flippo:

Les Paul, the inventor and guitar innovator, will be remembered as a towering figure whose influence and legacy touched all of music. Paul died Thursday (Aug. 13) in White Plains, N.Y., at age 94. Cause of death was complications due to pneumonia.

Until June of this year, Paul had continued to play every Monday night at a New York City club, Iridium. He began the tradition in 1983 at Fat Tuesday’s and moved only when that jazz club closed in 1995.

Both as a master guitarist and as a technological innovator, Paul’s influence reached across music genres, from rock to country, from jazz to pop. He built what is generally regarded as the first solid-body electric guitar and created such recording techniques as multi-track recording and tape delay.

Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in 1915 in Waukesha, Wis. He learned harmonica, banjo and guitar and played in several country bands. As a child, he devised his own amplified guitar by placing a pickup from a record player into an acoustic guitar. He built a recording device using car parts and dental equipment.

In either 1940 or 1941 (the year has never been precisely pinned down), he built “The Log,” now generally regarded as the first solid body electric guitar. It was a wooden board with strings and two pickups.

He made the transition from country to jazz and moved to New York City with his trio. After military service in World War II, he began working in radio and was a musician for NBC in Los Angeles. He built a recording studio in his L.A. house and began toying with recording techniques, such as multi-tracking — so he could accompany himself on recordings.

He began using those techniques to good effect after he married Colleen Summers, then a singer with Gene Autry, changed her name to Mary Ford and began recording multi-track songs as Les Paul and Mary Ford. The multi-tracked vocals and guitar effects became increasingly complex, and they enjoyed many hits, such as “Mockingbird Hill” and “High How the Moon.” They later divorced in 1964.

In later years, the onset of arthritis forced him to teach himself new techniques of guitar playing. Years earlier, in 1948, a serious automobile accident almost destroyed his right elbow and the arm would never bend again. Paul had his doctors set the arm at an angle so he could still play guitar.

He built the first Les Paul model guitar for Gibson Musical Instruments in 1952, and the basic design of the Les Paul Standard model is the same today as it was in 1958. The company now makes detailed replicas of its Les Paul models from that era, and the original instruments are prized collector’s items. Although the guitars have often sold for much more, Gruhn Guitars, an internationally recognized dealer located in Nashville, is currently advertising a 1960 Les Paul Standard with a price tag of $250,000.

Paul later recorded delightful, intriguing music with Chet Atkins on the 1976 album, Chester & Lester, and 1978’s Chester & Lester, Guitar Monsters. Chester & Lester won them each a Grammy for best country instrumental performance. Both guitarists were heavily influenced by the gypsy jazz master Django Reinhardt. Atkins acknowledged Paul as an early influence on his guitar style, and the two men remained close friends until Atkins’ death in 2001.

In his role as head of RCA Nashville and as record producer, Atkins used Paul’s success with pop music and Paul’s musical styles as a blueprint for revamping country music into country pop in the 1960s, along with similar efforts by MCA’s Owen Bradley, Capitol’s Ken Nelson and Columbia’s Don Law.

Keith Urban, who has many Les Paul guitars in his collection, remembered Paul for all of his contributions.

“I have a mix of emotions today,” said Urban. “On one hand, I am deeply saddened at Les Paul’s passing, and on the other, a feeling of incredible gratitude and awe for his unquantifiable contribution to the world of music. His name adorns so many of the creations that I communicate through every night out here on the road. … He is also very present every time I set foot in the studio and am able to lay multiple tracks as I record, when I use echo. … The list of his inventions, in addition to his famous signature model Gibson, are extraordinary. I also feel that even in his 90s, the fact he was still playing every Monday night in New York is perhaps the most beautiful and inspiring achievement of all.”

Another Nashville guitar aficionado, Brad Paisley, said, “Let us celebrate the era of Les Paul today and the world of sound we get to experience thanks to him. What a legacy, what a life. ‘Somewhere there’s music … how high the moon.’ … Because of Les, everywhere there’s music.”

Paul’s final album, American Made, World Played was recorded in 2005 to mark his 90th birthday, with such guest stars as Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck. It won two Grammys.

He will be missed.

Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Recording Industry Association of America said Friday that it will cut back on lawsuits to combat illegal online music sharing because it has enlisted leading Internet service providers to discipline individuals it accuses of pirating copyrighted works.

The trade association said certain Internet carriers, which it did not name, have agreed in principle to impose escalating penalties on customers who ignore repeated warnings that they are breaking the law by distributing free songs. The association is negotiating for sanctions that could include the suspension or permanent termination of Internet service.

Digital rights groups rejoiced over the recording association’s announcement that it will limit its long-running campaign of legal action against individuals such as college students, who often were pressured to pay thousands of dollars to settle the lawsuits.

But the consumer groups said Internet service providers should not be cast in the role of “copyright cops” who can cut off online access based only on industry accusations that are never put to the test in court.

“In the 21st century, the idea that we’re going to ban people from the Internet based on unproven allegations is troubling,” said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Such measures could hamstring a person’s participation in school, on the job and as a citizen, he said. “Even if you’re guilty, is a ban from the Internet really an appropriate punishment?”

Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the recording association, said a process will be developed for users who feel they’ve been wrongly accused. As to penalties such as suspended access, he said, Internet providers already forbid their customers to use the service for illegal purposes. “We’re only asking them to enforce their own terms of service,” Lamy said.

Record companies and their representatives have been battling free song sharing since their 1999 lawsuit against Napster, a San Mateo company whose software made it possible to trade MP3 files between individual computers. Napster shut down its service, but new online sites such as LimeWire and Gnutella eventually took its place. The industry claims that an explosion of illicit online file sharing has undermined its profits by hurting CD sales. In 2007, U.S. album sales fell 9.5 percent from the previous year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The music trade association said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is helping the industry develop an alternative to its mass courtroom campaign by promoting its talks with Internet providers. Those companies have often found themselves in the middle of the music-sharing wars because they have been forced by subpoena to disclose the names of customers whose computers were used to swap songs online.

While the recording industry group said it will now file fewer lawsuits, it reserves the right to sue Internet users who ignore repeated warnings sent by their service providers. The group has no plans to drop lawsuits already filed. Record companies also will vigorously enforce copyright laws against Web-based sites that foster illegal music sharing, the association said.

But von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said online music swapping will simply flow into other channels, such as social networking sites. He favors new systems that make it legal to download songs, such as the iTunes service. One solution that the recording industry has shown some willingness to consider, he said, is a blanket licensing fee of a few dollars a month. Music fans would then be free to get their songs anywhere they liked, and the license proceeds would be distributed to musicians or their record labels.

E-mail Bernadette Tansey at btansey@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/19/BU2N14RGDA.DTL

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for Hendrix, found dead

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group’s last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.

Mitchell was a powerful force on the Hendrix band’s 1967 debut album “Are You Experienced?” as well as the trio’s albums “Electric Ladyland” and “Axis: Bold As Love.” He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as “Fire” and “Manic Depression.”

The Englishman had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour.

Hendrix died in 1970. Bass player Noel Redding died in 2003.

An employee at Portland’s Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell’s body.

Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy was planned.

“He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend,” said Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the Experience Hendrix Tour and Jimi Hendrix’ stepsister. “His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated.”

Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day vacation and planned to leave Wednesday.

“It was a devastating surprise,” Merlis said. “Nobody drummed like he did.”

He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared to be healthy and upbeat.

Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix — like Mitchell — and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him.

Blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is 31 and was part of the tour, said Mitchell was to the drums what Hendrix was to the guitar.

“Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock n’ roll hero,” he said.

Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose “jazz-tinged” style was influenced by Max Roach and Elvin Jones, Merlis said. The work was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week, he said.

“If Jimi Hendrix were still alive,” Merlis said, “he would have acknowledged that.”

During his career Mitchell played with the best in the business — not just Hendrix, but also Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters and others.

Mitchell was a member of a later version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience that performed the closing set of the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 — where Hendrix played a psychedelic version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the band launched into “Purple Haze.”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, Mitchell was born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, England.

Terry Stewart, chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, said Mitchell transformed his instrument from a “strictly percussive element to a lead instrument.”

“His interplay with Jimi Hendrix’s guitar on songs like ‘Fire’ is truly amazing,” Stewart said Wednesday. “Mitch Mitchell had a massive influence on rock ‘n’ roll drumming and took it to new heights.”

Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell held their first rehearsal in October 1966, according to the Hall of Fame’s Web site.

In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix “in this sleazy little club.”

“We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there,” Mitchell told the newspaper. “I suppose it worked.”

Another loss for the music world.

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer Robert Barr, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 5, 9:27 am ET

LONDON – Jimmy Carl Black, drummer, vocalist and self-anointed “Indian of the group” of Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention, has died at age 70.

Black, a native of El Paso, Texas, died Saturday of cancer in Siegsdorf, Germany, according to Roddie Gilliard, a British musician who performed with him.

Born James Inkanish Jr. on Feb. 1, 1938, Black had Cheyenne Indian ancestry through both parents. He changed his name legally to Jimmy Carl Black in 1958, adapting the name of his stepfather, Carl Black.

He was playing in the Soul Giants in Los Angeles in 1964 when the group recruited Zappa.

“He joined the band and three days later he took it over,” Black once said.

Zappa changed the group’s name and, according to Black, boasted that “if you guys learn my music, I’ll make you rich and famous.”

“He took care of half of that promise, because I’m damn sure I didn’t get rich,” Black recalled.

He credited Zappa, who died in 1993, with introducing him to modern classical music and teaching him complex rhythms.

Black appeared on Mothers albums including “Freak Out,” “Cruising with Ruben and the Jets” and “Burnt Weenie Sandwich.” He played trumpet as well as drumming on the 1968 album “We’re Only In It for the Money,” and also introduced his catchphrase: “Hi boys and girls, I’m Jimmy Carl Black, I’m the Indian of the group.”

Zappa disbanded the Mothers in 1969, and Black’s career thereafter was not lucrative. A recent remix of some of Black’s work was titled “Can I Borrow a Couple of Bucks Until the End of the Week?”

The band members were shocked when Zappa fired them.

“We all just got a phone call from him stating that he had decided to break up the band and your salary has ended as of last week. That is pretty cold,” Black said once in an interview.

Black later appeared as Lonesome Cowboy Burt in Zappa’s film “200 Motels,” and in 1980 he worked on five songs from Zappa’s “You Are What You Is.”

“I had a really good time with Frank at that time and he really treated me great. I even got paid,” Black said.

Following the breakup of the Mothers, Black formed a band named Geronimo Black after his youngest son. The band’s 1972 album was not a commercial success, and Black went to work in a doughnut shop in Anthony, Texas.

In 1980, he teamed with ex-Mothers Bunk Gardner and Don Preston in The Grandmothers, a band that broke up and reformed several times over two decades.

During one musical lull, Black formed a house-painting company in Austin, Texas, with Arthur Brown. They also made an album, “Brown, Black and Blue.”

Black moved to Italy in 1992, then to Germany in 1995, and has appeared as a singer with The Muffin Men, a Liverpool band that specialized in the music of Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

Black is survived by his wife, Monika, whom he married in 1995 following the death of his second wife; three sons and three daughters.

A fundraiser planned in London for Black will go ahead on Sunday, Gilliard said Wednesday.

___

On the Net:

Jimmy Carl Black site, http://www.jimmycarlblack.com

Just came in on the AP:

Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose “Theme From Shaft” won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.

Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.

And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show “South Park.”

“Isaac Hayes embodies everything that’s soul music,” Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression … the sound and the creativity that goes along with it.”

Hayes was about to begin work on a new album for Stax, the soul record label he helped build to legendary status. And he had recently finished work on a movie called “Soul Men” in which he played himself, starring Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday.

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes’ wife and young son and his wife’s cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff’s deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

“The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor,” Shular said.

The album “Hot Buttered Soul” made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

“Hot Buttered Soul” was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a “cool” style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with “raps,” and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

“Jocks would play it at night,” Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. “They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.”

Next came “Theme From Shaft,” a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film “Shaft” starring Richard Roundtree.

“That was like the shot heard round the world,” Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television’s 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

“The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence,” he said. “And they’ll tell you if you ask.”

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

“I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that,” he said. “I think it was a matter of timing. I didn’t know what was unfolding.”

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as “Hold On, I’m Coming” and “Soul Man.”

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album “Black Moses” and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for “Tough Guys” and “Truck Turner” besides “Shaft.” He also did the song “Two Cool Guys” on the “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” movie soundtrack in 1996. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon’s “Nick at Nite” and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including “It Could Happen to You” with Nicolas Cage, “Ninth Street” with Martin Sheen, “Reindeer Games” starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody “I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka.”

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as “a person that speaks his mind; he’s sensitive enough to care for children; he’s wise enough to not be put into the ‘wack’ category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies.”

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion.

“There is a place in this world for satire,” he said. “but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins.”

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes “has no problem — and he’s cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians.” A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole’s “Looking Back.”

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting.

___

AP writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., and Nekesa Moody in New York contributed to this story.

Mockbrawn Mastering is a new mastering service available at an extremely cheap price for musicians. For those of you that may not know what mastering is; mastering is the final process in the production of a recording before it is sent off for duplication. On any commercially available CD or album, you will find in the credits of it being “mastered” at some studio, usually not the same studio it was recorded at. Incidentally, mastering is the “sound”. Most musicians will end up spending thousands of dollars on recording equipment never realizing the “sound” is ultimately achieved during the mastering process. Mockbrawn Mastering is headed by Jesus Contreras, who is on the music faculty at Sonoma State University, where he teaches music composition, recording and music technology, directs the Walford Studio and Music Technology Resource Room, and serves as the faculty advisor for recording productions at the school.

Yes, Time is Absolute is finally available from CD Baby. It has taken a long, long time, but it is worth the wait!

Six years and four drummers later, this country folk getup still has a powerful and unique style that conveys a timeless message about the world around us.

Order of your copy of Time is Absolute

By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer

Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock ‘n’ roll whose distinctive “shave and a haircut, two bits” rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, “but it didn’t put no figures in my checkbook.”

“If you ain’t got no money, ain’t nobody calls you honey,” he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

“I don’t know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name,” he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, “Bo Diddley,” introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as “shave and a haircut, two bits.” The B side, “I’m a Man,” with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley’s Chess recordings “stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century.”

Diddley’s other major songs included, “Say Man,” “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover,” “Shave and a Haircut,” “Uncle John,” “Who Do You Love?” and “The Mule.”

Diddley’s influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song “Not Fade Away.”

The Rolling Stones’ bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the U.S. with their version of “I’m a Man.”

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.

“He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic,” E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley’s style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn’t entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.

“I don’t like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it,” he said. “I don’t have any idols I copied after.”

“They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there,” he said.

Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

“Seventy ain’t nothing but a damn number,” he told The Associated Press in 1999. “I’m writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain’t quit yet.”

Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

“I am owed. I’ve never got paid,” he said. “A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun.”

In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, “Jungle Music.” It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term “rock ‘n’ roll.”

Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, “Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat.”

Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the “Bo Knows” ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson’s guitar skills, Diddley turned to the camera and said, “He don’t know Diddley.”

“I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked,” Diddley said. “I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube.”

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother’s cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.

When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.

By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago’s Maxwell Street.

“I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don’t have the same impact that I had,” he said.

Man arrested in Texas for trying to cash $360 billion check 

Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious — perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off.

Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

Fuller said his girlfriend’s mother gave him the check to start a record business. But bank employees who contacted the account’s owner said the woman told them she did not give him permission to take or cash the check.

In addition to the forgery count, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana. Officers reported finding less than two ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets.

Just off the AP News: 

By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer

Fri Dec 7, 7:06 PM ET

Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most important and controversialpostwar composers who helped shape a new understanding of sound through electronic compositions, died at his home in western Germany. He was 79. Stockhausen, who gained fame through his avant-garde works in the 1960s and ’70s and later composed works for huge theaters and other projects, died in the town of Kuerten on Wednesday, his publisher, the Stockhausen Verlag, said Friday. No cause of death was given. At La Scala, the famed Milan opera house, conductor Daniel Barenboim said Stockhausen “will have an influence on music history.” “The force of his music will be very much missed,” Barenboim said. Stockhausen’s electronic compositions were a radical departure from musical tradition and incorporated influences as varied as psychology, the visual arts and the acoustics of a particular concert hall. He was considered by some an eccentric member of the European musical elite and by others a courageous pioneer in the field of new music. Rock and pop musicians such as John Lennon, Frank Zappa and David Bowie have cited him as an influence, and he is also credited with having influenced techno music. So taken were the Beatles by Stockhausen’s music, they asked permission to use his photo on the cover of the 1967 album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” He appears fifth from the left in the back row. Not everyone’s admiration was so great. British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the London Symphony Orchestra, was famously quoted as answering a question of whether he had ever conducted any Stockhausen by saying, “No, but I believe I once trod in some.” Stockhausen sparked controversy in 2001 when he described the Sept. 11 attack on the United States as “the greatest work of art one can imagine.” The composer, who made the comment during a news conference in the northern German city of Hamburg, where several of the suicide pilots had lived, later apologized but insisted he had been misquoted. Stockhausen was born in the village of Moedrath near Cologne in western Germany on Aug. 22, 1928. His father was killed in World War II and his mother also died, leaving him orphaned as a teenager. After completing his studies in musicology, philosophy and German literature at the University of Cologne, he studied under composer Olivier Messiaen in 1952-53 in Paris, where he also met his French contemporary Pierre Boulez. In 1966-67, he served as a guest professor for composition at the University of California at Davis. In 1971, he was appointed professor of composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Cologne. That same year, his work “Hymnen” debuted in a performance by the New York Philharmonic. Stockhausen wrote 362 individually performable works, according to his publisher, including more than 140 of electronic or electro-acoustic music, and brought out more than 100 albums. In one of his lager-scale operas, “Licht,” Stockhausen tried to capture all of the facets of the world with sound and noises and set them in relation to the human spirit, speech, smells and colors. The piece, which took 25 years to compose, is an enormous sonic representation of the seven days of the week. So large is the work’s scope that multiple scenes needed to depict Thursday alone last four hours. “Licht” is to be performed in its entirety for the first time next year at the European Center for the Arts Hellerau in Dresden, Germany. The composer is survived by six children from two marriages. The funeral service will be Dec. 13 in the Waldfriedhof cemetery in Kuerten, near Cologne. A commemorative concert is to be held at the Suelztalhalle in Kuerten, his publisher said, but details had not been announced. “Stockhausen always said that GOD gave birth to him and calls him home … for love is stronger than death,” read the release on the publisher’s Web site.On the Net: http://www.stockhausen.org