Author: Michael Rugel

Piano great Omar Shariff died on January 8th of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. He reportedly had been living in severe pain from cardiac and circulation problems. Shariff had recently relocated back to his hometown of Marshall, Texas after several decades on the West Coast. His Texas blues roots could be heard in everything he played. Marshall bills itself as the birthplace of  boogie-woogie piano and Shariff had returned to become an artist-in-residence and the town’s musical ambassador. Shariff was equally adept at playing jazz and R&B. He was the type of musician that could sit in with absolutely any band…

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