Deaths of note from around the world:
Ed Cassidy, 89: Drummer whose musical background influenced the jazz-tinged sound of the band Spirit, which emerged in the late 1960s as one of the West Coast’s premier rock groups. He had played with such jazz greats as Dexter Gordon and Chet Baker before teaming with Randy California, his guitar-playing stepson, to form Spirit. Died Thursday of cancer in San Jose, Calif.