Various Artists: Mick Simmons
Learned this evening (April 30) that musician, writer, dancer, painter, gardener Mick Simmons died in his sleep Monday night at his and his wife's home in Rocky Mount. He was a great and perplexing soul whose talents and contributions were many. He had lived in New York City in the late 1980s and was friends with hip hop figures and DJs from that era. Closer to his Virginia home, he loved to wander through fiddlers conventions flat-footing to whatever grabbed his ear. His percussion was featured on five Klang-related releases: the "United Supreme Council" LP from the Pelt/Rake ensemble, with which he performed several times; Pelt's "New Delhi Blues" on the "Techoed" album; Pelt's "For Michael Hannahs" album, on which he played on "Goodwin Ferry Sunrise" (right hand pic below, taken by Mikel Dimmick, is from a performance of that song in Floyd, Va., in 1997 probably); the Spiral Joy Band's "Lullabies for Jeff Dean" in a live recording of Mick's only appearance with the band; and on the Umlauted Roman Numeral V compilation with his band Petey & the Hellcats, a "country & eastern" ensemble with which he played for 20 or so years. We're going to miss you, Mick. We already miss you.
