Deaths elsewhere

Updated: June 10, 2012 - 9:37 PM

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Pete Cosey, 68, a guitarist who played on many blues and R&B records in the 1960s but who became best known for his work in Miles Davis' electric band of 1973-75, contributing a sound drenched in distortion and punctuated by the wah-wah pedal, died May 30 in Chicago.

The cause was complications of surgery, said his daughter, Mariama Cosey.

Cosey was working in Chicago nightclubs in the mid-1960s when he was hired by Chess Records, which was trying to emulate Motown by forming a studio band of its own. As a member of that ensemble, Cosey played on Fontella Bass' Top 10 hit "Rescue Me" and on Chess sessions by Etta James, Little Milton and others. He also played on Motown records by the Four Tops and the Marvelettes.

Cosey's best-known work for Chess was on Muddy Waters' album "Electric Mud" (1968) and Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' Wolf Album" (1969). In later years, he appeared on Herbie Hancock's 1983 album, "Future Shock." He formed a band in 2001 called Children of Agharta with other members of the mid-'70s Davis group.

NEW YORK TIMES