Producer Arif Mardin Dead at 74

We just got word that Arif Mardin — the Atlantic Records producer and arranger who worked with artists including the Young Rascals, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, the Bee-Gees, David Bowie and Norah Jones — died in New York yesterday of prostate cancer. He was 74. Mardin was the arranger of Aretha's classic Lady Soul, among other records; in recent years he was best known for producing Jones' 2003 smash Come Away With Me.