BIRTHDAYS
1943     Barbara Acklin, R&B/Pop vocals/songwriter, b. Oakland, CA, USA. Perhaps her best release: "Love Makes A Woman". Barbara is the product of a musical family. Her grandmother was Blues singer Asa Eskridge, and her cousin was keyboardist/arranger/saxophone/composer Monk Higgins (né: Milton Bland. b. Oct, 3, 1936, Menifee, AR, USA, d. July 3, 1986, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Notes on Monk Higgins:
Monk obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in music, from Arkansas State University, and continued with advanced studies, at the Chicago School of Music. He spent the first few years of his career teaching at various schools. In early 1962, he began to record and had such releases as "Gotta Be Funky"' (1972, Charted No. 105)", "Mr. Lucky", " Who Dun It? (1967, Charted No. 117)", and "Black Fox". Among the vocalists who have used his works are Nina Simone, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Betty Everett, Howlin' Wolf, Blue Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Tyrone Davis, Gene Harris, and many others.
Next, Higgins moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and launched out into Radio and Television commercials. He won both the prestigious 'American Advertising Federation', and the 'Hollywood Radio and Television Society International Broadcasting Awards' for the "World's Best Broadcast Advertisement." In Hollywood, he recorded the musical score for the American International Pictures release, "Sheba Baby" (starred Pam Grier). For United Artist Records, he worked as a recording artist, conductor, arranger and composer. And, he worked for 'Chess Records', 'One-derful Records' and as producer/arranger at Wally Roker and Associates.
1916     Sven Asmussen, Violin, b. Copenhagen, Denmark, d.
1934     William "Willie Bobo" Correa, Percussion, b. New York, NY, USA. d. Sept. 15, 1983, USA.
1915     Lee Castle, Leader/Trumpet, b. New York, NY, USA. d. Nov. 16, 1990, Hollywood, FL, USA. né: Aniello Castaldo. At the beginning of the Swing era, and while still a teenager, he was already working with such bands as Joe Haymes, Artie Shaw and Red Norvo. In 1937, he joined the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, and also studied music with Dorsey's father. Leaving Dorsey, and before the 1930s ended, he had worked with Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden, led his own unsuccessful band, rejoined Artie Shaw after which he then played in Will Bradley's band. In 1942, now using the name Lee Castle, he once again tried his luck at bandleading, but still no luck. In the late 1940s and early '50s, he made periodic attempts to lead his own band, all to no avail, in between which he worked with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and the Dorsey Brothers. He was the first chair trumpet in Jimmy Dorsey's band when Jimmy died in 1957. Lee took over as leader, and finally found some measure of success. Castle continued to lead the Jimmy Dorsey band into the mid-80s.
1905     Edmund Cohanier, Clarinet/sax, b. Talloires, France, d.
1958     Tony Conway, guitar, b. Newbury, Berkshire, England. Member group: 'Mood Six', their original lineup included Phil Ward, Tony Conway, Andy Godfrey, Guy Morley, Paul Shurey, and Simon Smith.
1945     General Crook, (soul) vocals/songwriter/arranger, b. Mound Bayou, MS, USA. rné General Columbus Crook Jr.
1911     Jim Denny, (C&W), A&R/music publisher, b. Silver Point, TN, USA, d. August 27 1963. In 1953, famed C&W vocalist, Webb Pierce, and 'Grand Ole Opry' manager Jim Denny formed, Cedarwood Music, a Nashville, TN, music publishing company. They later invested in radio stations together (which activity was looked down on by the 'Grand Ole Opry').
1946     Pierre Dorge, Electric Guitar/Composer, b. Copenhagen, Denmark
1923     Bill Douglass, Drums, b. Los Angeles, CA, USA. d. Dec. 20, 1994, USA.
1939     John Fahey, guitar, b. Tacoma Park, MD, USA.
1930     Jesse Fortune, vocalist, b. Chicago, IL, USA.
1942     Bobby Foster, vocals, b. Tchula, MS, USA
1958     Jim Fungaroli, steel guitarist, b. Harrisonburg, PA, USA. Member: "Cactus Brothers". See: 'Johnny M. Tulucci' entry on our Feb 25 calendar page for more information on the "Cactus Brothers'.
1932     Donald Rafael Garrett, Bass/bass clarinet/clarinet/flute/vocal, b. El Dorado, AR, (but raised in Chicago,IL), USA. d. August 17, 1989, USA. AKA: Rafael Garrett. Perhaps best known his work with John Coltrane, although he collaborated with a great number of free jazz musicians and improvisers during the 1960s and '70s. In high school, he studied clarinet and bass under Captain Walter Dyett. From the late '50s into the early '60s, Garrett worked with Muhal Richard Abrams as a member of Abrams' 'Experimental Band'. In the early '60s, he played, and recorded, hard bop with Ira Sullivan, Eddie Harris, Dewey Redman, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. In the mid-'60s, Garrett relocated to San Francisco and formed a band with multi-reedist Gerald Oshita and drummer Oliver Johnson called the 'Sound Circus'. He remained on the West Coast until the early '70s and -- in addition to working with jazz greats like Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Sanders, and others. He and wife/collaborator Zusaan Kali Fasteau -- a pianist, flutist, and cellist -- formed the 'Sea Ensemble' in 1971, and the following year, embarked on a world tour that covered many countries during the the next several years. The pair's travels were partially funded through Garrett's skill at bamboo-flute making, while Fasteau gave lessons on the shakuhachi. Over the years, Garrett also worked with such musicians as Jean-Luc Ponty, Billy Bang, Sonny Stitt, Frank Wright, Joe Henderson, Beaver Harris, and 'Butch' Morris. Garrett also studied Turkish music, and some of his work is available on the Ankara recordings reissued by Fasteau's label 'Flying Note'.
1939     Charles Gayle, tenor-soprano sax, bass clarinet, violin, viola, piano, vocal, b. Buffalo, NY, USA.
1957     Phil Gould, drums. Member group: 'Level 42'
1930     Marty Grosz, Acoustic Guitar/banjo/vocal/arranger, b. Berlin, Germany. His family emigrated to America when Marty was only 3 years old. He grew up in New York city where he attended the local grade schools and then Columbia University. At the age of eight, he was strumming a ukelele . A few years later, out went the uke, and in came a guitar, after he had heard a record highlighting guitarist Bernard Addison's shuffle-beat behind Roy Eldridge's trumpet. In 1950, formed an orchestra with co-leader, with Dick Wellstood, which included the veteran New Orleans bassist, 'Pops' Foster. These were his first recordings. In 1954, relocated to Chicago beginning a twenty-year residency during which he played with many of that town's jazz stars including Albert Ammons, Floyd O'Brien, Art Hodes, and Jim Lannigan. In 1957 and 1959 he led his own sessions for Riverside and Audio Fidelity label. During 1975-1979, he was a part of the 'Soprano Summit'. Subsequently, Grosz freelanced and played with Dick Sudhalter, Joe Muryani, and with Dick Wellstood in the 'Classic Jazz Quartet'. Still later, he led a quartet, the Orphan Newsboys, that included Bobby Gordon, Peter Ecklund, and bassist Greg Cohen. Over his career, Grosz has made featured appearances at Carnegie Hall and at New York City's prestigious '92nd St. Y' concerts. His guitar has been heard on Public Radio's 'A Prairie Home Companion', NBC's 'Today Show.' and 'Fresh Air' with Terry Gross. Currently (2003), Marty resides in a suburb of New York city.
1921     Thomas O. "Tommy" Gwaltney, Clarinet/vibraphone, b. Norfolk, VA, USA. d Feb 11, 2003, Virginia Beach, VA, USA. Tommu originally studied with Ernie Caceres and Peanuts Hucko. While suffering from a temporary lung ailment, he taught himself to play the vibes. In 1960, Tommy and Buck Clayton recorded an album, "Goin' To Kansas City". In the mid-1960s, he founded a Jazz club in Washington DC, -Blues Alley. Among the stars with whom he worked are Charlie Byrd, Bobby Hackett, Billy Butterfield and others.
1927     Don Helms, C&W vocals/steel guitar, Member: The Drifting Cowboys
1940     Guillermo Hernandez, music writer (a UCLA Spanish professor), b. San Luis Potosi, Mexico, d. July 16, 2006, Mexico City, Mexico (Coronary Arrest). Hernandez, was a leading authority on the "corrido" - a Mexican ballad tradition that dates back over two centuries — and an expert on Chicano literature. Hernandez's passion for the "corrido" was ignited while he was still a student at UC Berkeley He was consulting on "Chulas Fronteras," a 1976 film documentary about music on the Texas-Mexico border. One of the filmmakers was Chris Strachwitz, owner of the folk-music label 'Arhoolie Records' and keeper of an immense collection of commercially recorded Mexican and Tex-Mex music. Strachwitz invited Hernandez into his archives, which held over 100,000 individual performances spanning almost 100 years. The collection covered many styles, including the corrido, which began as an oral tradition that continues today in Mexican villages. Frequently in waltz time, the songs often chronicle events with pathos and satire, accompanied by accordions and 12-string bass guitars. Strachwitz later said.".....(Hernandez) became totally fascinated that this material was being recorded so long ago, and he became a champion for the literature of the poor people who are generally not represented in academia, because they don't write books or dissertations; they just make up these incredible songs." Before his demise, Hernandez had published an article in the Chicano studies journal 'Aztlan' that documented his decades-long search for the author of a classic and widely imitated 1928 recording, "El Contrabando de El Paso" ("The El Paso Contraband"). This prisoner's lament is important to the history of the corrido, because so many artists learned the form from it. Just who had written the words to this old Corrido had been "one of the great mysteries of the corrido". By searching through old prison records. Hernandez was able to identify the accidental lyricist: Gabriel Jara, a smuggler caught with 90 gallons of homemade liquor who shared his tale via U.S. mail with a singer on the outside. Many nineteenth-century corridos are still being sung, and Mexicans and Mexican Americans continue to compose new corridos. Popular musicians who use the "corrido" form include 'Los Tigres del Norte' and the late singer 'Selena'. Today (2006), as then, corridos function as a kind of "musical newspaper" of the poor and oppressed. (Note: Corridos do not have refrains or choruses; rather, the lyrics (usually just 4 line stanzas) move the listener through the narrative quickly and without digression. Often composed within a short musical range of less than a single octave, "corridos" thus enable even less vocally gifted performers to sing at high volume. Singers are often accompanied by guitar or the bajo sexto, a twelve-string guitar popular in Texas and New Mexico.)
1943     Donnie Iris, vocals/guitar, b. Beaver Falls, PA, USA.
1942     Brian Jones, vocals/leader, Cheltenham, England, UK, d. July 3, 1969, Hartfield, England, UK. né: Lewis Brian Hopkins-Jones. Founder of perhaps the most successful Rock and Roll band of all time, - 'The Rolling Stones'.
1907     Max Jones, Writer, b. London, England, d. August 1,1993, age 86. né: Ronald Maxwell Jones.
1857     Gustave Kerker, composer, b. Herford, Westphalia, Germany d. June 29, 1923, New York, NY, USA.
1957     Jabu Khanyile, guitar, vocals (but best known as front man of the group 'Bayete'), b. Mofolo, Soweto, South Africa, d. Nov. 12, 2006, Soweto, South Africa (complications from diabetes and prostate cancer). Interestingly, this South African musician's early influences included Salif Keita, Johnny Nash and Jimmy Cliff. His mother passed away early in Khanyile's life, and he was raised by his father (a miner). With existence a constant struggle, and with little support, Khanyile was unable to finish high school. Khanyile's elder brother John (a member of a group called 'Editions', that had released several popular singles), eventually bought Jabu a guitar, after allowing him to come along to various Editions gigs. Jabu would also often get behind the drumkit at Editions gigs. In time, Khanyile taught himself enough guitar to be able to busk for a living. When Editions broke up, Khanyile re-formed the band, keeping the name, but using younger musicians. However, the political climate led to various band members fleeing the country or going into hiding. Khanyile once again recruited a new set of musicians, and recorded "Izinyembezi" to general acclaim. When this band also fell apart, Khanyile then joined the 'Movers', a group that made a single hit, "Inhlonipho", before dissolving. Jabu played with different bands for a decade before finally securing a job as a drummer in the band 'Bayete', a brass-driven outfit with its heart firmly in African territory and a somewhat politicized attitude. In 1987, they had a hit with a recording (Jabu was lead singer) of Miriam Makeba's song, "Mbombela",and went on to make another hit single in 1990. Despite a third best seller - a version of the old "Mbube" - the group disbanded in 1993. Once again Jabu Khanyile was forced to form a new band with only the original keyboard player remaining. The band was comprised of keyboards, horns, guitar, bass, (Jabu on) drums and two female backing singers, Khanyo Maphumelo and Khululiwe Sithole, Khayile was helped in selecting the musicians by Thapelo Khomo, keyboard player with Stimela (famous for backing Paul Simon on his Graceland album). Khomo also produced "Mmalo-We", Bayete's international debut, and co-wrote several of the songs with Khayile. In 1996 the band became internationally renowned following an appearance at the Royal Gala evening for Nelson Mandela in the UK. Khanyile's trademark was the royal East African fly whisk he always carried and his colorful Masai costume and headband. He was a strong defender of African music on the international stage and played with other great musicians from the continent such as Youssou N'Dour and Papa Wemba.
1967     Marcus Lillington, Arranger/Vocals. b. London, England. Member group: 'Breathe', consisted of lead singer David Glasper, guitarist Marcus Lillington, drummer Ian "Spike" Spice, and bass guitarist Michael "Mick" Delahunty. (childhood friends attending the Yately school in London, England)
1972     Danny McCormack, guitar/keyboard, b. England. Member group: 'The Wildhearts'
1905     Louis Metcalf, Trumpet, b. Webster Groves, MO, d. 1981
1904     Norman Moran, trumpet, b. New York (Brooklyn), NY, USA, d. April 6, 1979, Manhasset, LI, NY, USA. (né: Norman Joseph Moran). Played with Gray Gordon, Jimmy Durante, and others. His brother, Leo Norman played lead trombone with the Hal Kemp Orchestra.
1915     Zero Mostel, actor/vocals, d. Sept. 8, 1977. né: Samuel Joel Mostel. Basically an actor, but included here for his wonderful vocal "If I Were A Rich Man" from the play/film "Fiddler on the Roof".
1910     Josef Myrow, composer, d. Dec. 24, 1987
1948     Bernadette Peters, actress/vocals (Broadway Stage)
1945     Ronnie Rosman, vocals. Member group: 'Tommy James & the Shondells'
1940     Marty Sanders, guitar. Member group: 'Jay & the Americans'
1940     Joe South, guitar/singer-songwriter, b. Atlanta, GA, USA. né: Joe Souter. Among his compositions are: "Rose Garden", and "Down in the Boondocks". Perhaps his best recalled release: "Games People Play"
1957     Ian Stanley, keyboard/Songwriter. Member group: 'Tears For Fears'
1946     Richard Sussman, keyboards,
1947     Alan Taylor, vocals, b. Halifax, Yorkshire, England. Member group: 'The Casuals'
1952     Joseph Torregano, Clarinet, b. New Orleans, LA, USA.
1951     Roseanna Vitro, vocals
1923     Audrey Williams, (C&W) vocals, b. Banks, AL, USA.
1897     Bill Williams, guitar, b. Richmond, VA, USA
1957     Cindy Wilson, vocals, b. Athens, GA, USA. Member group: 'B-52s'
1875     Rida Johnson Young, librettist/lyricist, b. Baltimore, MD, USA. d. May 8, 1926, Stamford, CT, USA (breast cancer).

         Notable Events occuring this date include:
1930.    Ted Lewis Orchestra recorded "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Columbia).
1962.    Walter "Papoose" Nelson, guitar, died in New York, NY, USA.
1968.    Frankie Lymon, vocals, died in New York (Harlem), NY, USA. Age: 25 Member: 'The Teenagers'
1968.    Juanita Hall, vocals/actress, died in Bay Shore, L.I., NY, USA. Age: 65
1971.    Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, 'Grand Ole Opry star', died Louisville, KY, USA.
1977.    Bettye Miller, piano, died in Kansas City, MO, USA. Age: 49
1988.    Edith North Johnson, vocals/piano, died in St. Louis, MO, USA. Age: 85
1988.    Walter "Shane" Kimble, tenor sax, died in New Orleans, LA, USA. Age: 49
1989.    Dean Stoneman of the Stoneman Family died in Lanham, Maryland, USA (lung problem). The twin brothers, Gene and Dean (b. 1931) performed for a time in the Maryland area as the Stoneman Brothers, until Dean formed his 'Vintage Bluegrass' band. Both were members of the famed Stoneman family of Country entertainers.
1989.    Billy Moore, piano/arranger, died in Copenhagen, Denmark. Age: 71. Member: 'Delta Rhythm Boys'
1990.    G. P. ("GP") Jackson, guitar, died in Kansas City, MO, USA. Age: 69
1990.    Russell Jacquet, trumpet, died in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Age: 72
1991.    Willie Love, vocals, died in Nashville, TN, USA. Age: 65. Member: 'Fairfield Four'
1992.    Sylvia "Queen" Embry, bass, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 50
1994.    Skippy Williams, tenor sax, died in New York, NY, USA. Age: 77
1996.    Ace Wallace, guitar, died in St. Louis, MO, USA. Age: 70
1998.    Celine Dions "My Heart Will Go On" hit #1 in the U.S. Charts.
2000.    Gary Boggs, C&W sessions steel guitarist, died. Age: 59. Boggs had backed such stars as George Jones, Connie Smith and Vern Gosdin, among others.

         Songs Recorded/Released this date include:
      1946    "Day By Day", Frank Sinatra
      1947    "Anniversary Song", Dinah Shore
      1970    "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", Edison Lighthouse
      1970    "Easy Come, Easy Go", Bobby Sherman
      1981    "Morning Train (Nine To Five)", Sheena Easton
      1981    "While You See A Chance", Steve Winwood
      1987    "Midnight Blue", Lou Gramm