![]() But he gave up hoops and moved to Wichita, where he became a regular performer on the club scene. ![]() I’ve loved a lot of great singers in my day, but Mike Finnigan, in my opinion, is the best singer to this point who has ever walked the planet.”įinnigan, who was born in Ohio, was a 6-foot-3 basketball star who was recruited in 1963 to play at KU. He just had an approach that no one else did. “There are great players and then there are people who are just touched,” said Drake Macy, a Wichita musician whose father, Ed Macy Sr., was one of Finnigan’s early Wichita band mates. … He was a beautiful, soulful, giant of a man, always gracious.” “I convinced Peter to bring Mike in on a session,” Sheldon said, “and boy did he deliver on ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,’ our cover of Stevie Wonder’s hit on Frampton’s ‘I’m in You’ album. Sheldon and Finnigan eventually became friends and Finnigan joined Frampton and h is band in a recording session. “Respected and emulated by musicians the world over, his legacy of staggering performances across his 60+ years career will stand the test of time. “Mike was one of the most powerful, virtuosic soul/gospel/blues singers and Hammond B3 players you’ll ever be blessed to hear,” the post read. The official Facebook account for Raitt, with whom Finnigan toured and recorded, posted on Thursday morning that she was “rocked to the core” by news of Finnigan’s dealth. Social media lit up with posts about Finnigan’s death on Wednesday evening, and by Thursday morning, tributes were popping up from around the country. ![]() “As a young musician growing up here in Kansas, no one was more of an influence on me - and just about every other musician I knew - than Mike Finnigan,” said Stanley Sheldon, an Ottawa native and Lawrence resident, who is best known as the bass player on Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” album. Finnigan, who was 76, had been hospitalized and was fighting kidney cancer in recent weeks. Mike Finnigan, a keyboardist and session musician who toured with Bonnie Raitt and played with Jimi Hendrix, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles, friends are reporting. ![]() A famous musician who once played basketball for the University of Kansas before launching his career in area clubs has died, and he’s being mourned not only by locals but by major music stars across the country. ![]()
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