Legendary music producer Arif Mardin, (Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Bette Midler, Chaka Khan and Norah Jones), passed away on June 27 of pancreatic cancer. At the time of his death he was recording a collection of his own compositions performed by Ms. Jones, Ms. Midler, Ms. Khan, Ms. Simon and Dianne Reeves, among others, with his son, Joe Mardin, as co-producer.

Okay, this is not exactly breaking news, but I was out of town when it happened.