Syracuse bluesman Roosevelt Dean dies at 65 after long battle with cancer

Longtime Syracuse blues singer Roosevelt Dean died Saturday in his home on Midland Avenue after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Dean was inducted into the Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall of Fame in May 2008 for his deep blues voice and guitar work. He grew up in Phenix City, Ala., but moved to Syracuse in 1962.

Nancy Larraine Hoffmann said Saturday that she considered Dean a true blues treasure. "He was pretty special," said the former state senator who has long been a champion

of the blues. "When I brought (civil rights activist) Charles Evers from Mississippi to Syracuse, he was so impressed to meet Roosevelt. He told me, 'I didn't know you had blues-men like this in Syracuse."

Dean had battled cancer since 2001. He continued to perform live regularly and record in Syracuse. Seven years ago, he asked bass player Jim Pavente to join his live band. Pavente said Saturday that he recalled playing a club gig with The Hurricane Blues Band and seeing Dean walk in. "All of a sudden my guitar player asked Roosevelt to come up and sit in," Pavente said. "I said, 'Oh, my God, I'm going to be playing with Roosevelt Dean.' "

Afterward, Pavente said, Dean told him, "You can play the bass. Do you mind if I call you up?" Pavente ended up becoming Dean's band director and road manager.

"I remember playing at the Dinosaur, when he introduced the band, he said, 'My friend, Jim Pavente.' I almost had tears in my eyes. I was in with Rosey. I had made it in Syracuse. Roosevelt made everybody feel like they were special," Pavente said. "That was his gift. And he could charm an audience."

Carolyn Kelly reconnected with Dean and the blues three years ago, and thanks Dean for her musical rebirth. She had performed with Dean in the 1960s, but stopped to concentrate on her family in 1968. She came back at his urging, and recorded two CDs with Dean and his band playing behind her. Dean continued pushing her 2008 CD, "Slow Cooking on Hot," to his contacts around the country, and she's received airplay along the East Coast.

"He wanted me to be up there, and he did everything he could for me," Kelly said Saturday. "He made me get off the couch after all these years. And he wanted me to continue his legacy, and I will do that for him."

Services have not yet been set.