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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Maureen O'Donnell

Reginald W. ‘Sonny’ Burke, Smokey Robinson’s longtime pianist, arranger, dead at 76

Smokey Robinson Motown Ray Parker Jr Mark Davis Verdine White Los Angeles
Reginald Waymond “Sonny” Burke, a musical prodigy from Beale grade school and Tilden Technical High School, worked on hundreds of sessions, records, soundtracks and projects and spent more than 30 years as a pianist, arranger and conductor for Smokey Robinson. (Susan J. McDonald)

In the 1970s, Chicago keyboardist Sonny Burke headed to California for a few days of recording sessions with the Jackson Five.

But the bookings kept coming. They never stopped.

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