Last night I was sort of half-listening to the Olympics and doing some online research when Mom asked, "What is that music?" One of the Russian women gymnasts was using a very familiar piece: Ferrante and Teicher's gloriously over-the-top duet piano version of "Main Theme from EXODUS" as her floor ex music.

I mentioned this over at the messageboard where I post, and learned from a fellow F&T fan that Louis Teicher passed away last week at the age of 83.



He is survived by his wife and children as well as his partner Arthur Ferrante; they met when both were students at Juillard in the 1940s. Their Wiki bio says they sort of backed into pop music; they intended to do classical, but in the end wound up doing both.

Then yesterday came news of the death at age 65 of Isaac Hayes, best known as the composer and vocalist of that 1970s hit "Theme from SHAFT".



Hayes was a native of the blackland-dirt cotton country of West Tennessee, from which have come a number of great blues, soul and rock musicians. Even among them he was unique: the essence of cool, with that awesome rumble of a voice. In his later years he was best known to younger generations as the voice of Chef on the cartoon SOUTH PARK.

Can you dig it?

Oh, yes, Mr. Hayes, we could.

May you both rest in peace. The world's a little less musical than it was before.