Wayman Tisdale

Unlike most sports figures who ventured into music during the 1990s and gravitated toward rap, Wayman Tisdale channeled his efforts into contemporary jazz on his 1995 debut Power Forward, issued by the Motown imprint MoJazz. An All-American at the University of Oklahoma, a Phoenix Suns player, and a 1984 Olympic basketball gold medalist, Tisdale also handled bass duties for his Fifth Quarter Band. After inking with MoJazz that same year and delivering Power Forward, he followed with the sophomore set In the Zone in 1996. Decisions arrived two years afterward, and Face to Face surfaced at the start of 2001. The gospel project Presents 21 Days appeared in 2003, succeeded the next year by Hang Time. His seventh album, Way Up!, arrived in 2006 and included contributions from Bob James, Dave Koz, and George Duke. Although a bone-cancer diagnosis came in 2007, Tisdale regained enough strength to issue his eighth collection, Rebound, in 2008, which contained a rendition of Barry White’s “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” with Toby Keith supplying vocals. Tisdale died on May 15, 2009, at age 44 following a two-year struggle with the disease.