retired from the music industry. Gardner continued to perform and record throughout the 1960s and 1970s, releasing a string of singles on various labels including Jubilee, Verve, and Tru-Glo-Town. In the early 1970s, he recorded with Jeanette "Baby" Washington, and their recording on the Master 5 label of "Forever", a minor hit in 1963 for the Marvelettes, reached number 30 on the R&B chart in 1973. Death Gardner continued to work as a jazz musician, and had been part of the management of the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts in Philadelphia since 1985, serving as executive director. Lovett Hines, the current Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts, was at the hospital when Gardner died, playing the artist's music. "And I just held the telephone to his ear on YouTube," Hines said. "And you could see his reaction with his eyes moving and moving his hand. So he responded to the music, and I'm glad that was the last thing he heard." Gardner died on September 4, 2018 at age 87. Discography Albums The Don Gardner Trio featuring Jimmy Smith and Bill Davis (recorded 1955, issued 1963) Need Your Lovin' (Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford, 1962) The Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford Quintet in Sweden (1965) The Exciting Jimmy Smith with the Don Gardner Trio (1969) Lay a Little Lovin' on Me (Baby Washington & Don Gardner, 1973) Very Best of Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford (1999) As guest artist Patrick Stanfield Jones - A Heart and an Open Road'' (2010) Chart singles References Notes References External links Don Gardner discography via soulfulkindamusic.net 1931 births 2018 deaths American rhythm and blues singers Jubilee Records artists Fire Records artists Musicians from Philadelphia Singers from Pennsylvania 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male musicians