Jazz musician Fats Domino hospitalized

Monday, May 08, 2006

New Orleans (Reuters): Fats Domino, who became a symbol of survival for this year's New Orleans jazz festival, was taken to hospital, forcing him to cancel a headlining appearance at the event. Organisers of the New Orleans Jazz and and Heritage Festival did not disclose the nature of his ailments. ''It's more cautionary than anything else,'' festival producer Quint Davis told Reuters yesterday. Domino, 78, had been scheduled to close the show yesterday to mark the end of the first post-Katrina Jazzfest.

Domino, a native New Orleanian known for such classic tunes as ''Ain't That a Shame'' and ''Blueberry Hill,'' was featured on the 2006 Jazzfest poster. He was taken to hospital by ambulance last afternoon, Davis said. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina last year, Domino's whereabouts were unknown, prompting rumors that he had died in the ensuing floods. He turned up unharmed but his house in the city's Lower Ninth Ward was ruined. R&B star Lionel Richie was scheduled to perform in Domino's place.