FROM THE VAULTS

Frank Chacksfield (9 May 1914 – 9 June 1995) was an English pianist, organist, composer and conductor of popular light orchestral easy listening music, who had great success in Britain and internationally in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Francis Charles Chacksfield was born in Battle, East Sussex, and as a child learned to play piano and organ. He appeared at Hastings Music Festivals by the time he was 14, and then became deputy church organist at Salehurst. After working for a short period in a solicitor's office he decided on a career in music, and by the late 1930s, led a small band at Tonbridge in Kent. At the beginning of World War II, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and, following a radio broadcast as a pianist, was posted to ENSA at Salisbury where he became the arranger for Stars in Battledress, an armed forces

entertainment troupe, and shared an office with comedian Charlie Chester.

After the war, he worked with Chester and on BBC Radio as an arranger and conductor. He also worked as musical director for both Henry Hall and Geraldo, and began recording under his own name in 1951 as "Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths". In early 1953, he had his first top ten hit, "Little Red Monkey", on the Parlophone label. This was a novelty recording featuring Jack Jordan on the clavioline, and reportedly the first record featuring an electronic instrument to feature on the UK pop chart.

He signed a recording contract with Decca Records in 1953, and formed a 40-piece orchestra with a large string section, the "Singing Strings". His first record release for Decca, Charlie Chaplin's theme for his film Limelight, won him a gold disc in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, where it reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, and won him the NME award as 'Record of the Year'. It spent eight weeks at No. 2 (an all-time UK chart

record), and in all thirteen weeks in the top five chart positions, without dislodging Frankie Laine's, "I Believe". His next 78 single, "Ebb Tide", became the first British instrumental recording to reach No. 1 in some American charts,[which?] providing a second gold disc, and he was voted the most promising new orchestra of the year in the US.

He became one of Britain's best known orchestra leaders internationally, and is estimated to have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. His material was "mood music", similar to that of Mantovani, including ballads, waltzes, and film themes. In 1954,he began presenting a series on BBC TV, which continued occasionally until the early 1960s. Chacksfield was responsible for

the musical arrangement of the first UK entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 1957; "All" by Patricia Bredin. He continued to write music, release singles and albums through the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared regularly on BBC radio.

He continued to record occasionally until the 1990s, from the 1970s primarily on the Phase 4 label. He also developed business interests in publishing and recorded for Starborne Productions, a company supplying "canned music" for use by easy listening radio stations and others. Many of these recordings were made commercially available in 2007. His last album was Thanks for the Memories (Academy Award Winners 1934–55), released in 1991. Chacksfield died in Kent in 1995, after having suffered for several years from Parkinson's disease. (Info edited from Wikipedia)

Pee Wee Hunt (May 10, 1907, Mt. Healthy, Ohio – June 22, 1979 in Plymouth, Massachusetts), born Walter Gerhardt Hunt, was a jazz trombonist, vocalist and band leader.

Pee Wee came from a musical family, his father played violin and his mother played banjo. Hunt started playing banjo in his teen years and went to Ohio State for collage. During this time Pee Wee

started playing with local bands and started playing the trombone. The trombone became his passion, and he started playing with Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in 1928. A year later he joined Glen Gray's Orange Blossoms, a Detroit band that eventually became known as the Casa Loma Orchestra.

Pee Wee was a heavily featured member of that band for many years, providing not only a solid line in trombone choruses but also a large portion of likeable vocals. Hunt eventually left the Casa Loma in 1943, and became a Hollywood radio disc jockey for a while before spending the closing period of the war as a member of the Merchant Marine.

In 1946 he returned to the west coast music scene, forming his own Dixieland outfit and playing the Hollywood Palladium, where audience reaction to his pure hokum version of "Twelfth Street Rag" was so enthusiastic that Hunt decided to record the number at one of the band's Capitol Records sessions. The result was a hit that

topped the US charts for eight weeks in 1948.

Five years later, Hunt was in the charts again with a corn ball version of "Oh!", an evergreen song from 1919. Like "Twelfth Street Rag" it became a million-seller and charted for nearly six months. This proved to be Hunt's last major record and the trombonist dropped from the limelight, but still continued playing his happy music.

At age 72, Hunt died after a long illness in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where his Casa Loma partner Glen Gray also lived. (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Beryl Audley Bryden (11 May 1920 – 14 July 1998) was an English jazz singer, who played with Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan. Ella Fitzgerald once said of Bryden that she was "Britain's queen of the blues". A stalwart of the jazz recording scene who in almost five decades recorded in excess of 120 different titles with over forty bands and musicians in more than a

dozen countries.

Beryl Audrey Bryden was born in Norwich, the only child of Amos and Elsie Bryden. Her love of jazz music began in her teenage years and she joined the local branch of the National Rhythm Club movement at the age of seventeen and became the Norwich club’s secretary by 1941. On a visit to London she heard black musicians playing at the Jigs Club in Soho, which was to have a profound influence on the course of her life.

In 1942 Beryl moved to Cambridge, where she ran the city’s Rhythm Club and began singing Billie Holiday’s songs. At the end of the war she moved to London determined to become part of the jazz world. She sang semi-professionally and met and worked with Humphrey Lyttleton, Clinton Maxwell, George Webb, Cy Laurie

and John Haim’s Jelly Roll Kings, and made her recording début in 1948 with the trumpeter Freddy Randall. She sang early songs by Bessie Smith and accompanied herself on a metal washboard.

In May 1949 Bryden formed Beryl’s Back-Room Boys, with whom she broadcast before joining the trumpeter Mike Daniels as commpère and singer at his Delta Jazz Club in Soho. It was there, in 1952, that she met the French clarinettist Maxime Saury; he engaged her to sing with his band at the Vieux Colombier in Paris, which was her first professional engagement. It was in Paris that she befriended notable American expatriates, among them the trumpeter Bill Coleman, the singer

Billie Holiday, and the pianist Mary Lou Williams, with whom she recorded.

As European re-creations of pre-war traditional jazz grew in popularity in the 1950s, Bryden sang and recorded with the trombonist Chris Barber and played the washboard with his guitarist Lonnie Donegan; their record of Rock Island Line (1956) sold 2 million copies and entered the British and United States hit parades.

She later graduated to the Monty Sunshine jazz band, where she covered Bessie Smith ("Young Woman's Blues", "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)") and long-term favourite "Coney Island Washboard Blues", which demonstrated her washboard technique.

Here's a solo effort on the Columbia label from 1962 with accompaniment directed by Ken Jones.

She continued to travel in Europe, where she worked with the Dutch Swing College Band and then, as the ‘trad boom’ became big business in Britain, was heard with the genre’s more sophisticated representatives such as the trumpeter Alex Welsh.

Bryden did not make her American debut until the 1970s, although in the years to follow she toured the U.S. on a regular basis, appearing both as a solo performer and in tandem with jazz players like Pete Allen; while abroad, she also recorded the 1975 LP Way Down Yonder in New Orleans. She also became the only British female jazz musician to be awarded the freedom of the City of New Orleans.

Bryden announced her retirement during the early 1980s, but she continued appearing live on a regular basis for years to follow. She played with the Metropolitan Jazz Band, Digby Fairweather and her own Blue Boys. Beryl was a larger-than-life figure who dressed in zebra-striped gowns, wore sculptured blonde wigs, and played a star-spangled washboard.

Though her repertoire was from the lighter side of jazz she earned respect for her sincerity and interest in authenticity. She travelled widely and practised her hobbies of photography and deep-sea diving, she lived for many years at 166 Gloucester Terrace, Paddington, London.

Her last recording session was to take place in Holland in March 1997 alongside her old mate, Nat Gonella, after which her health began to fail and sadly on the 14th July 1998, Beryl died from lymphatic cancer at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, aged 78. (Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG & mainly norfolkwomeninhistory.com)

Below is a clip taken on the 21st June 1997, at The Kings Head in Swinton Street, London and this is probably the last time that Beryl appeared in 'public'. The event was a 50th Anniversary reunion of John Haim's Jellyroll Kings, with which Beryl sometimes sang. She was accompanied here by Alan Wickham trumpet, Cy Laurie clarinet, Ray Foxley piano and John Westwood drums.

Carolyn Ann Franklin (May 13, 1944 – April 25, 1988) was an American singer–songwriter.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she was the younger sister of Erma Franklin, Aretha Franklin, and the daughter of the Reverend C.L. Franklin. A talented singer and songwriter she wrote both

music for her and her sisters, as well as singing backup for them. At a young age Franklin became interested in music through her father's church, and she began to play the piano and sing.

The family moved to Buffalo, New York, and then finally to Detroit, Michigan, where she grew up with her brother and sisters. In 1963 and 1964 she got a break when she cut some demos in the style of late night super club for singer Lloyd Price's Double L Record Label. The demos were released in 1970 on the album, "The First Time I Cried." Franklin then released her album, "Baby Dynamite" (1969), and "Chain Reaction" (1970). The albums didn't become huge successes for Franklin, but the album did have the minor hits 'It's True I'm Gonna Miss You,' and 'All I Want To Be Is Your Woman.' In 1973, she released her next album, "I'd Rather Be Lonely," and her final album, "If You Want Me," in 1976.

During the next few years she wrote more songs for her sister Aretha including, As Long As You Are There, ''Save Me,''Ain't No Way,' and 'I Was Made For You.' In the 1980s, she continued her music career, she appeared in the film, "The Blues
Brothers" (1980), helped her sister Aretha on her second album,

"One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, in 1987, recorded for her Family at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and appeared as a background vocalist on British singer Paul King's 1987 album, 'Joy.'

In early 1988, while working at getting her B.A. in music from the Marygrove College (which she did shortly before her death) she was diagnosed with cancer. Carolyn died of breast cancer at Aretha's Scenic Court home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on April 25, 1988, at the age of 43. Like other deceased family members she is interred at Detroit's historic Woodlawn Cemetery on North Woodward Avenue. (Info edited from Wikipedia & findagrave,com)

Charlie Gracie (born Charles Anthony Graci on May 14, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American rock pioneer and singer. His father encouraged him to play the guitar. Charlie's musical career started at the very early age of 14 when he appeared on the Paul Whiteman television show.

Gracie performed at weddings, local restaurants, and parties, and on local radio and television. He also won many regional talent contests. The little money and prizes he received were turned over to his mother to help support the family.

The owner of Cadillac Records heard one of Charlie's early radio performances, contacted the young musician and signed him to a contract. This association yielded the single, Boogie Woogie Blues backed with I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter. The record led to Charlie's first appearance on Bob Horn's "American Bandstand" television program. (This was four years before Dick Clark became the host)

After cutting two more singles for Cadillac, Charlie moved on to 20th Century Records, a subsidiary of Gotham, where he put out another four sides, including Wildwood Boogie. The discs he made embraced a wide variety of styles: jump blues, gospel, and country boogie with the influences of Big Joe Turner, B.B. King, Louis Jordan, Roy Acuff, and Hank Williams. Between 1951-53, Charlie Gracie was experimenting with many types of music, years before many rock heroes had ever set foot inside a recording studio.

By 1956, Philadelphia had given birth to the new Cameo record label. Its founders, in search of a strong talent signed Charlie later that year. With a $600 budget, this new union went into the studio

to record a single that would forever change their lives. The record, Butterfly backed with Ninety Nine Ways became a monster hit, reaching the number one position all across America. Charlie received a gold disc for the two million plus sales and became the first native Philadelphia rock star to achieve international success. Other substantial sellers followed: Fabulous, Wandering Eyes, and Cool Baby. The financial success of these hits bankrolled the Cameo label, which became a dominant force in the recording industry for several years.

Charlie's personal appearances grew until he performed and headlined some of the biggest venues of that time: Alan Freed's rock and roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount, The Ed Sullivan Show, Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" and the 500 Club in

Atlantic City. He appeared in the 1957 film Jamboree, and toured with the likes of Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and his close friend, Eddie Cochran.

Charlie became only the second American, guitar-toting rock and roller to bring this new art form to the British concert stage. His two extensive tours in 1957 and 58 were a whirlwind, topped off by headlining the Palladium and the Hippodrome in London. He played to packed houses and drew rave reviews. In the audiences, among Charlie's fans and admirers, were future rock greats: Graham Nash, members of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker and Van Morrison. These performers and many other well-known acts have credited Charlie as an influence. George Harrison referred to Charlie's guitar technique as "brilliant" in a March 1996 interview with Billboard Magazine; Paul McCartney invited Charlie to the premiere party of his 1999 release which paid tribute to the early pioneers of rock music.

Charlie found himself somewhat miscast at Cameo. He moved on to other labels such as Coral, Roulette, Felsted, and Diamond, performing more of the R&B he preferred. Even if success slowed, Charlie continued to perform in clubs, theaters, and resorts, from the 60's through the 90's. He still enjoys a loyal following in Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands. Charlie is a devoted family man, has been married for more than 40 years to his first and only wife, Joan. They have two children, a son and a daughter.

Charlie Gracie's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. (Info last.fm)

Richard Edward "Eddy" Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records.

Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his

mother played guitar. As a boy Arnold helped on the farm, which later gained him his nickname—the Tennessee Plowboy. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar for school functions and events. He quit before graduation to help with the farm work, but continued performing, often arriving on a mule with his guitar hung on his back. Arnold also worked part-time as an assistant at a mortuary.

In 1934, at age 16, Arnold debuted musically on WTJS-AM in Jackson, Tennessee and obtained a job there during 1937. He performed at local nightclubs and was a permanent performer for the station. During 1938, he was hired by WMPS-AM in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was one of its most popular performers. He soon quit for KWK-AM in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by a brief stint at WHAS-AM in Louisville, Kentucky.

He performed for WSM-AM on the Grand Ole Opry during 1943

as a solo artist. In 1944, Arnold signed a contract with RCA Victor, with manager Colonel Tom Parker, who later managed Elvis Presley. Arnold's first single was little noticed, but the next, "Each Minute Seems a Million Years", scored No. 5 on the country charts during 1945. Its success began a decade of unprecedented chart performance; Arnold's next 57 singles all scored the Top Ten, including 19 number one scoring successes.

In 1946, Arnold scored his first major success with "That's How Much I Love You". In 1948, he had five successful songs on the charts simultaneously. That year he had nine songs score the top

10; five of these scored No. 1 and scored No. 1 for 40 of the year's 52 weeks. With Parker's management, Arnold continued to dominate, with 13 of the 20 best-scoring country music songs of 1947–1948. He became the host of Mutual Radio's Purina-sponsored segment of the Opry and of Mutual’s Checkerboard Jamboree.. Recorded radio programs increased Arnold’s popularity, as did the CBS Radio series Hometown Reunion with the Duke of Paducah. Arnold quit the Opry during 1948, and his Hometown Reunion briefly broadcasted in competition with the Opry on Saturday nights. In 1949 and 1950, he performed in the Columbia movies Feudin’ Rhythm and Hoedown.

Arnold began working for television in the early 1950s, hosting The Eddy Arnold Show. The summer program was broadcast successively by all three television networks, replacing the Perry Como and Dinah Shore programs. He also performed as a guest and a guest host on the ABC-TV show Ozark Jubilee from 1955

–60. Arnold featured in the syndicated Eddy Arnold Time from 1955 to 1957. From 1960 to 1961, he hosted NBC-TV's Today on the Farm.

With the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s, Arnold's record sales declined, though he and fellow RCA Victor recording artist Jim Reeves had a greater audience with popular-sounding string-laced arrangements. Arnold annoyed many people of the country music establishment by recording with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra at RCA's studios in New York. The pop-oriented arrangements of "The Cattle Call" and "The Richest Man (in the World)", however, helped to expand his appeal beyond its country music base. This

style, pioneered by Reeves and Arnold, became known as the "Nashville Sound". During 1953, Arnold and Tom Parker had a dispute, and Arnold dismissed him. From 1954 to 1963, Arnold's performances were managed by Joe Csida; during 1964 Csida was replaced by Jerry Purcell.

Arnold embarked on a second career that brought his music to a more diverse audience. In the summer of 1965, he had his first Number One country song in ten years, What's He Doing in My World and struck gold again six months later with the song that would become his most well-known Make the World Go Away accompanied by pianist Floyd Cramer on piano and featuring the Anita Kerr Singers. As a result, Arnold's rendition became an international success.

Bill Walker's orchestra arrangements provided the lush background for 16 continuous successes sung by Arnold in the late 1960s.

Arnold performed with symphony orchestras in New York City, Las Vegas and Hollywood. He performed in Carnegie Hall for two concerts, and in the Coconut Grove in Las Vegas. During 1966, Arnold was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the youngest performer to receive the honour. The following year Arnold was voted the first-ever awarded Country Music Association's Entertainer Of The Year. Two years later, Arnold released an autobiography named It's A Long Way From Chester County.

Having been with RCA Victor since his debut during 1944, Arnold

left the company in 1973 for MGM Records, for which he recorded four albums, which included several top 40 successes. He returned to RCA in 1976.

During the 1980s, Arnold declared himself semi-retired; however, he continued recording. In 1984, the Academy of Country Music awarded Arnold its Pioneer Award. His next album, You Don't Miss A Thing wasn't released until 1991. Arnold performed road tours for several more years. By 1992, he had sold nearly 85 million records, and had a total of 145 weeks of No. 1 songs, more than any other singer.

In 1996, RCA issued an album of Arnold's main successes since 1944 as part of its 'Essential' series. Arnold, then 76 years old, retired from active singing, though he still performed occasionally.

On May 16, 1999, the day after his 81st birthday, he announced his final retirement during a concert at the Hotel Orleans in Las Vegas. That same year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted the recording of "Make The World Go Away" into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, Arnold received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and later that year, released a final album for RCA entitled After All These Years.

Eddy Arnold died from natural causes at 5:00 a.m. Central Time on May 8, 2008 in a nursing home in Nashville, exactly one week before his 90th birthday. His wife of 66 years, Sally Gayhart Arnold, had preceded him in death by two months. (Info edited from Last.fm)

Laura Lee Owens McBride (b. Laura Frances Owens, 16 May 1920, Bridport, Oklahoma, USA, d. 25 January 1989, Bryan, Texas, USA.)

McBride first sang with her sister Dolpha Jane as Joy And Jane on their father Tex Owens’ radio programme on KMBC Kansas City, Missouri, in the mid-30s. She then formed her own group Laura Lee And Her Ranger Buddies. After an early marriage to the Texas Ranger’s guitarist Herb Kratoska and a stint with the Oklahoma Wranglers she was hired by Bob Wills and joined the Texas Playboys at the end of 1943. She became not only the first female vocalist with Wills but, in fact, the first featured woman singer of western swing music. She devoted her life to the genre and became affectionately known as the Queen of Western Swing.

Laura Lee poses with Bob Wills (center) and Tommy Duncan

She recorded with Wills on Armed Forces Radio Transcriptions in 1943/4. Also as Wills’s Playgirl she appeared in three movies, two with Russell Hayden and a third entitled “Melody Master, the story of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.” In January 1945 the Playboys and Laura Lee recorded in Hollywood on the Columbia labeland made radio and television appearances.

She married Wills’s guitarist Cameron Hill and when Hill entered the army in 1945, she relocated to Houston, Texas and joined Dickie McBride’s band. A year later she married McBride.

Following their marriage the McBrides worked mostly outside Houston; they made tours with Bob Wills and worked in California in 1948 – 1950. It was during 1950 she recorded with Wills what was to become her signature tune, ‘I Betcha My Heart I Love You’. Although the McBrides usually recorded as a team (for Decca, MGM and several smaller labels) they continued to record separately on independent labels such as Dafton, Ayo and Freedom.

Laura Lee continued to appear in Hollywood films, making thirteen movies with Gene Autry. As popular radio, TV and dance performers in Houston throughout the 50’s they performed and recorded sporadically. Laura Lee continued to perform with her husband’s band as well as work in real estate and manage a restaurant. She appeared in shows with Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Hank Thompson and Tex Ritter. After her husband died she worked with Ernest Tubb for eight years. In the late 70s, McBride made some appearances with surviving members of Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys at various functions.

She was inducted into the Sacramento Western Swing Hall of fame in October 1987. She died in Bryan, Texas after a long battle with cancer in 1989. (Info edited from AMG and mainly bio by Kevin Coffey, The Encyclopaedia Of Country Music)

Penny DeHaven (born Charlotte DeHaven; May 17, 1948 – February 23, 2014) was an American country and gospel music singer and actress. At the beginning of her career, she recorded as Penny Starr.

Country entertainer Penny DeHaven was born in Winchester, Virginia. She sang and performed on local shows as a child, but

moved to WWVA's Wheeling Jamboree during the mid-'60s after high school. Using the stage name Penny Starr, she became a favourite and recorded "A Grain of Salt" for the Band Box label in late 1966. The single placed modestly the following year.

After spending two years in Wheeling, she moved to Nashville to sign with Imperial in 1969. Two of her recordings hit the Country Top 40 that year: "Mama Lou" and "Down in the Boondocks."

Changing labels to United Artists, Penny DeHaven's biggest hit came in 1970 when "Land Mark Tavern" a duet with Del Reeves, hit number 20. Though DeHaven never re-entered the Top 40 again -- "The First Love" and "Don't Change on Me" came closest in

1971 -- she continued to record for United Artists and later Mercury, Starcrest, and Main Street.

DeHaven’s other singles included country remakes of such pop hits as Billy Joe Royal’s "Down in the Boondocks" (1969), The Beatles’ "I Feel Fine" (1970), The Everly Brothers’ "Crying in the Rain" (with Reeves, 1972), and Marvin Gaye’s "I'll Be Doggone" (1974). Her albums included 1972’s Penny DeHaven and 2011’s gospel collection A Penny Saved.

As an actress, she made two guest appearances on the long-running CBS-TV/syndicated TV show Hee Haw in 1972-73. She also appeared in the movies Travelling Light, Country Music Story, the 1973 horror movie Valley of Blood, and the 1974 short-lived TV series Funny Farm.

Following a 1979 conversion, she largely concentrated on Gospel music, though she did continue her country performances. She appeared in several films in the early '80s, and sang "Bayou Lullaby" for the soundtrack to 1980's Bronco Billy. DeHaven also guested on the Grand Ole Opry several times. Penny died after a long battle with cancer in Atlanta, Georgia on 23 February 2014; she was 65 years old. (Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG)

Kai Chresten Winding (May 18, 1922–May 6, 1983) was a popular Danish born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.

Winding was born in Aarhus, Denmark. In 1934 his family immigrated to the United States. He graduated in 1940 from Stuyvesant High School in New York City. His career as a

professional trombonist began in 1940 with Shorty Allen's band. Subsequently, he played with Sonny Dunham and Alvino Rey, until he entered the United States Coast Guard during World War II.

After the war, Winding joined Benny Goodman's band, and later moved on to Stan Kenton's orchestra. Winding participated in the first of the Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949, appearing on 4 of the 12 tracks (while Johnson appears on the other eight, having participated on the other two sessions). He also participated in some early bop sessions, played with Tadd Dameron (1948-1949), and was on one of the Miles Davis' nonet's famous recording sessions.

After playing with the big bands of Charlie Ventura and Benny Goodman, he formed a quintet with J.J. Johnson (1954-1956); the two trombonists (who sounded nearly identical at the time) had occasional reunions after going their separate ways. At the urging of producer Ozzie Cadena, he joined forces with Johnson to produce a highly successful series of trombone duet recordings, which were initially on Savoy Records and then on the Columbia Records label. While at Columbia, Kai experimented with different instrumentation in brass ensembles and also used a trombonium on at least one album that featured a trombone octet. Winding also arranged and/or composed many of the tracks he and Johnson recorded.

Winding led a four-trombone septet off and on through the latter half of the 1950s and into the '60s, was music director for the Playboy clubs in New York. During the 1960s, Kai had a long stint at Verve Records and under producer Creed Taylor made some of his most memorable jazz-pop albums. His best known recording from this period is "More", the theme from the movie Mondo Cane.

This hit was arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman. The recording featured, what is probably the first American recording of the French electronic music instrument, the Ondioline, which

was played on "More" by Frenchman Jean Jacques Perrey. Guitarist Vinnie Bell was also on the session, and remembers distinctly that Perrey was the player of the Ondioline, although Winding publicly took credit for it.

While at Verve, Kai further experimented with various ensembles, made solo albums, and even an album of country music with the Anita Kerr Singers. In the late 1960s, Kai followed Creed Taylor to his new recording label at A&M/CTI and made at least two more albums with Johnson.

During 1971-1972 Kai worked with the Giants of Jazz; an all-star group with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, and Thelonious Monk. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kai recorded for a number of independent record labels. During this time, he continued to give clinics, play jazz concerts and even reunited with Johnson for a live concert in Japan. He also wrote instructional jazz trombone books that included transcribed solos. Winding was featured at the 1982 Kool Jazz Festival in one of his last appearances in New York

Although he recorded frequently both as a leader and a sideman throughout his career, most of Winding's sessions are not currently available on CD.

Winding died of a heart attack in St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers on May 6, 1983 after being hospitalized for the treatment of a brain tumour. He was survived at the time by his wife, accomplished painter Eschwan Winding. (Info various, mainly from Wikipedia & AMG)

Jazz Giants - Tivoli Copenhagen – 1971 Thelonius Monk, piano - Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet - Kai Winding, trombone - Sonny Stitt, sax - Al McKibbon, bass - Art Blakey, drums.

Elizabeth Mary "Betty" Driver, MBE (20 May 1920 – 15 October 2011) was an English actress and singer, best known for her role as Betty Williams (previously Betty Turpin) on the British soap opera, Coronation Street from 1969 to 2011, appearing in more than 2,800 episodes. She was made an MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Elizabeth Mary Driver was born in Leicester on 20 March 1920, the older of two daughters born to Federick Driver and his wife Nell. At the age of two the family moved to Manchester and Nell
turned her long term hobby as concert pianist into a profession. Betty was pushed into a life on the boards by her star-struck mother, joining the Terence Byron Repertory Company at the age of nine and turning professional at the age of 10 in a touring production of Mixed Bathing. and at 14 both landed her first film role and trod the London boards.

Betty appeared in George Formby's Boots Boots in which she had a few lines of dialogue and a big production number in which she sang and tap danced with Formby. Sadly, these scenes ended up being cut from the film on the orders of Formby's domineering wife, Beryl who also danced in the film and did not want to be upstaged by a sweet child.

At the tender age of 12 Betty moved into radio where she sang with the famous bandleader Harry Hall. She was spotted while performing in a revue at the Prince Of Wales Theatre by Archie Pitt (former husband of Gracie Fields) and his brother Bert Aza. They quickly signed her up and Bert became her agent and put her in a leading role in the hit show Mr Tower of London. Film director Basil Dean, after seeing her in Jimmy Hunters Brighton Follies, cast her in the 1938 film Penny Paradise. This was followed by Let's Be Famous and Facing

The Music.

During World War II she entertained the troops with the ENSA organisation and teamed up with bandleader Henry Hall, singing in his radio show Henry Hall's Guest Night on and off for seven years. She also had her own show A Date With Betty. She became a forces’ sweetheart, with the RAF naming a Spitfire after her.

In the 1930's and 40's, Betty became a major recording artist with hit songs including The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes, Macnamara's Band, Pick The Petals Of A Daisy, Jubilee Baby and September In The Rain..

However, behind the scenes all was not well. On the orders of her mother she was ruining her voice. To sound like Gracie Fields she had to sing at a much higher register than she was comfortable with, then in her 20s she started fainting on stage. Her mother would throw water over her to bring her round but as her voice

grew ever more painful Driver had a nervous breakdown. Helped by Henry Hall she managed to keep performing but her singing voice eventually gave out for good.

Soon Betty travelled to Australia where she performed her own show and her career took her to Cyprus, Malta and the Middle East. On her return to England she appeared in various Ealing comedies.

In 1953, aged 33, she married the South African singer Wally Peterson whom she had met four years earlier on the set of her television show, a variety vehicle called The Betty Driver Show. The marriage was a disaster. Wally turned out to be as domineering

as her mother then a pregnancy ended in miscarriage and a hysterectomy. Finally she gave up her career and followed Wally back to South Africa where he turned out to be an inveterate womaniser.

After seven years of marriage and penniless she left him and returned to the UK. Back in Britain her career flourished. She appeared in Ealing comedies and in 1964 auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street. She didn’t get it but she did get a part in the Street spin-off Pardon The Expression alongside Arthur Lowe.

During a stunt she damaged her hip. Although she recovered she went off with her sister Freda to run a pub in Derbyshire. In 1969, however, she auditioned for the role of Betty Turpin, a part she would play for 40 years.

In the New Year's Honours List for 2000, Betty was awarded an MBE - one of only a handful of cast members to receive the award.

Driver lived with and cared for her sister Freda until Freda's death in December 2008. On 11 May 2011, Driver was rushed to hospital, suffering from pneumonia. She died on 15 October, aged 91, after around six weeks in hospital. (Info edited mainly from www.corrie.net & Express obit)

Dennis Day (May 21, 1916 – June 22, 1988) born Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty, was an American singer, radio, television and film personality and comedian of Irish descent.

Dennis was christened Owen Patrick McNulty on May 21, 1917 in Bronx, New York, the son of an Ireland-born stationary engineer. The strength and promise of his lilting tenor was first discovered while performing with his glee club at St. Patrick's Cathedral High

School. Graduating from Manhattan College, he first had designs on a law career and starting singing in order to earn money for tuition. By himself, he recorded "I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak" and distributed the song out to various radio producers, one of whom presented it to Mary Livingston, Benny's wife.

She was so taken that she insisted he be considered for her husband's popular radio show "The Jack Benny Show". When the show's then-tenor Kenny Baker objected to being a featherbrained foil to Benny on the show and gave notice, Dennis auditioned and won a regular spot, and the idea of law school became a thing of the past. Making his debut on the Benny show on October 8, 1939, Dennis' innocent-eyed teenager (he was actually 21 at the time) often drew more laughs than Benny himself in their rapport together. His career was interrupted by World War II when he served with the Navy. He was discharged in 1946.

Dennis legally adopted his professional name in 1944 against his family's wishes. The strict Irish-Catholic married Peggy Almquist in 1948 and the couple had ten children (six daughters, four sons). Dennis and his family settled in Los Angeles where he became an honorary mayor of Mandeville Canyon. He and his wife also owned an antique shop in Santa Monica for a time.

His cherry-cheeked, wide-eyed charm delighted scores of radio fans and the fame Dennis received from the show drew invitations to other radio programs, and eventually his own radio show "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day" in 1946. Here he played (naturally) a naive soda jerk. But he never left Benny, staying true-blue to the

Dennis & Jack Benny

comedian when The Jack Benny Program (1950) transferred to TV and became an institution for a decade and a half. Dennis also showed great flair as a mimic, impersonating a number of illustrious stars such as Ronald Colman, Jimmy Durante and James Stewart on the Benny program. Dubbed "America's Favourite Irish Tenor", The Dennis Day Show (1952) took life just two years after the Benny program went on the air. It enjoyed two seasons on TV before it was cancelled.
Dennis also appeared in support of Benny on film. Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), marked Dennis' movie debut and in it he sang "My Kind of Country." Other sporadic filming emphasizing his vocal prowess were for the most part "B"-level musical

entertainment. These included Sleepy Lagoon (1943), Music in Manhattan (1944), I'll Get By (1950), Golden Girl (1951), The Girl Next Door (1953), and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) . For the soundtrack of My Wild Irish Rose (1947), a biopic about Chauncey Olcott, Day provided the singing voice to the acting of Dennis Morgan.
Despite these agreeable outings, he never came close to becoming a musical film star perhaps because he was too identified with his cheery, naive image on radio and TV. Once he finished The Girl Next Door (1953) which again starred Ms. Haver, Dennis was nowhere to be seen on celluloid for at least another two decades. Walt Disney also welcomed Dennis' sunny tenor in his animated features The Legend of Johnny Appleseed (1948), in which Dennis sang the title song, and Melody Time (1948).

Best known for his recording of Irish tunes, including such novelty songs as "Clancy Lowered the Boom", Dennis won over the ladies with his romantic covers of such ballads as "Mam'selle,""Dear Hearts and Gentle People" and "Mona Lisa." Occasionally he was given dramatic work on TV but nothing really came of it, coming

off much better as a guest in musical variety shows. He continued to perform at conventions and fairs throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and was seen only occasionally in film and TV parts as he refused any work he deemed objectionable.

In 1987 Dennis had been diagnosed as having Lou Gehrig's disease, the common name for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a crippling nerve disorder. In April 1988 he undergone brain surgery to control internal bleeding that occurred after he fell at his home. He died on June 22, 1988 after a long illness at his Bel Air, home in California. He was 71 years old. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6646 Hollywood Boulevard. He is interred in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery. (Info mainly edited from IMDb)

Peter Nero (born Bernard Nierow, May 22, 1934, Brooklyn) is a pianist and New York native who started with jazz then moved up to symphony until the early '60s, when RCA Victor signed him and successfully promoted him into a pop music interpreter. He won the 1961 Grammy for Best New Artist. His lush orchestrated albums

continued through the early '70s, when he returned to a harder jazz format, recording with a trio.

Nierow began playing piano as child, learning the instrument quite rapidly; by the age of 11, he was playing Haydn concertos. However, he was restless and quickly grew tired of classical music, becoming infatuated with jazz as a teenager. In fact, after Nero graduated from Brooklyn College in 1956, he became a jazz pianist. However, instead of playing straight jazz, he created a swinging hybrid of jazz and classical music.

Nierow didn't have much success as a performer, which meant he had to take a gig as a saloon pianist in a New York club called the Hickory House. Unsatisfied with the compromises he was making

at the club, he headed out to Las Vegas, where he didn't find much success. He returned to New York, taking a lesser job at the Hickory House. For several years, he played New York's club circuit and he recorded his first album under the name of Bernie Nerow in July 1957 under the Mode label which highlighted his technical virtuosity in the jazz genre. He then came to the attention of Stan Greeson, an executive at RCA Records.

His first major national TV success came when he was chosen to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on Paul Whiteman's TV Special. He subsequently appeared on many top variety and talk shows including 11 guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Convinced that Nierow had star potential, Greeson signed the pianist and had him change his name to Peter Nero; he also persuaded Nero to add pop songs like "Over the Rainbow" to his repertoire. His first RCA LP, "Piano Forte," was an immediate success and Nero began touring as a solo artist. That same year, he won the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Nero's popularity continued to rise throughout the early '60s; his jazzy hybrid of pop, classical, swing, and bop became one of the most popular mainstream sounds of the era. Since then, he has received another Grammy, garnered ten additional nominations and released 68 albums. Nero's early association with RCA Victor produced 23 albums in eight years."Hail the Conquering Nero" topping out at #5 on the Billboard LP chart. His subsequent move to Columbia Records resulted in a million-selling single and album – Summer of '42.

Eventually, he became the musical director of the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra, where he frequently performed classical arrangements of pop songs. Nero was founding conductor and led

the Philly Pops for 35 years until 2013.

Theatrical producer Moe Septee founded the Philly POPS in 1979 as part of an effort to rekindle Philadelphia’s struggling theater community. Grammy Award-winning pianist Peter Nero's recordings include albums with symphony orchestras: On My Own, Classical Connections and My Way. He recorded Peter Nero and Friends where he collaborated with Mel Torme, Maureen McGovern and Doc Severinsen and others. Nero's latest albums, Love Songs for a Rainy Day and More in Love, focus on romantic themes. By popular demand, four of his earlier recordings have been reissued. He also appeared on Rod Stewart's album As

Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook, Volume II.

Nero has worked with a long list of notable musicians including Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Diane Schuur, Johnny Mathis, Roger Kellaway and Elton John.

Nero's long list of honours, including six honorary doctorates, the most recent from Drexel University in 2004, and the prestigious International Society of Performing Arts Presenters Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2009 Nero was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Federation of Musicians.

He has continued to appear on the concert platform as a pianist and conductor, often with top US symphony orchestras, still blending the classical with the popular.

(Info edited from Wikipedia & Cub Koda, Rovi)

Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the aristocratic Lyttelton family.

Raised in an academic atmosphere (his father G.W. Lyttelton, the second son of the 8th Viscount Cobham, was a housemaster at Eton College), he taught himself to play a variety of instruments

including the banjulele (a hybrid of the banjo and ukulele). His prodigious talent was spotted early and he was given formal lessons on piano and, a little later, in military band drumming. Eventually, his education took him back to Eton College, this time as a pupil. He joined the school orchestra as a timpanist but after a while drifted away from the orchestra and the instrument.

At the age of 15 he discovered jazz, thanks to records by trumpeters Nat Gonella and, decisively, Louis Armstrong. By this time Lyttelton had switched to playing the mouth-organ, but, realizing the instrument's limitations, he acquired a trumpet, which he taught himself to play. Forming his own small jazz band at the college, he

developed his playing ability and his consuming interest in jazz. With the outbreak of World War II he joined the Grenadier Guards, continuing to play whenever possible.

After the war Lyttelton resumed playing, this time professionally, and in 1947 became a member of George Webb's Dixielanders. The following year he formed his own band and quickly became an important figure in the British revivalist movement (during this time he also worked as a noted cartoonist for the UK newspaper Daily Mail). In the late 40s and through to the mid-50s Lyttelton's stature in British jazz increased. Significantly, his deep interest in virtually all aspects of jazz meant that he was constantly listening

to other musicians, many of whom played different forms of the music. Although he was never to lose his admiration for Armstrong, he refused to remain rooted in the revivalist tradition.

His acceptance and absorption of music from the jazz mainstream ensured that when the trad boom fizzled out, Lyttelton continued to find an audience. In the mid-50s he added alto saxophonist Bruce Turner to his band, outraging some reactionary elements in British jazz circles, and a few years later added Tony Coe, Joe Temperley and other outstanding and forward-thinking musicians. In 1956, he had his only pop chart hit, with the Joe Meek-produced recording of "Bad Penny Blues", which was in the UK Singles Chart for six weeks.

In the early 60s Lyttelton's reputation spread far beyond the UK and he also developed another important and long-term admiration for a trumpet player, this time, the American Buck Clayton. By this time, however, Lyttelton's personal style had matured and he was very much his own man. He was also heavily involved in many areas outside the performance of music.

In 1954, he had published his first autobiographical volume and in the 60s he began to spread his writing wings as an essayist, journalist and critic. He also broadcast on radio and television, sometimes as a performer but also as a speaker and presenter. These multiple activities continued throughout the next two decades, his UK BBC Radio 2 series, The Best Of Jazz, running for 40 years. His writings included further autobiographical work and his ready wit found outlets in seemingly unlikely settings, such as his role as quiz master on the long-running radio comedy-panel

series, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (he hosted the show from 1972 until his death in 2008).

During this time Lyttelton continued to lead a band, employing first-rate musicians with whom he toured and made numerous records. He also toured and recorded with singers Helen Shapiro, Carol Kidd and Lillian Boutté. Back in the late 40s Lyttelton had recorded with Sidney Bechet and in the 70s and 80s he occasionally made albums with other American jazz.

In the early 80s Lyttelton formed his own recording company, Calligraph, and by the end of the decade numerous new albums were available. In addition to these came others, mostly on the

Dormouse label, which reissued his earlier recordings and were eagerly snapped up by fans of all ages. In the early 90s, touring with Kathy Stobart, Lyttelton showed no signs of letting up and barely acknowledged the fact that he had sailed past his 70th birthday. In 2001, his 80th year, he sessioned on Radiohead's Amnesiac and received an award at the BBC Jazz Awards, continuing to perform with undiminished flair and enthusiasm. In 2002 he recorded an album with singer Elkie Brooks, and for the next five years continued to release regular recordings with his new band.

On 18 April 2008 Jon Naismith, the producer of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, announced cancellation of the spring series owing to Humphrey Lyttelton's hospitalisation to repair an aortic aneurysm. Lyttelton postponed his operation and managed to perform on all but the last night. He died peacefully following his surgery on 25 April 2008 with his family around him.

Although he chose to spend most of his career in the UK, Lyttelton's reputation elsewhere was extremely high and thoroughly deserved. As a trumpet player and band leader, and occasional clarinettist, he ranged from echoing early jazz to near-domination of the British mainstream. For more than 50 years he succeeded in maintaining the highest musical standards, all the time conducting himself with dignity, charm and good humour.

(info edited mainly from NME)

Max Bennett (born May 24, 1928) is an American jazz bassist and session musician. He is perhaps the most recorded bass player in the world, having recorded every year for 68 years, and counting.

John Williams, Max Bennett, Howard Roberts, 1956

One of the most versatile of session bassists, Max Bennett hailed from the Midwest. He was raised in both Kansas City and the town of Oskaloosa in Iowa, and undertook his university musical studies in the latter state. In 1949, he went professional as the bassist in the Herbie Fields band, followed rapidly by gigs with players such as Georgie Auld, Terry Gibbs, and Charlie Ventura.

The stream of happening basslines was interrupted by the Army from 1951 through 1953; he was then back on the scene with Stan Kenton before settling into the stay-at-home local Los Angeles music scene. The bassist fronted his own combo during this period, and was part of a house band at the Lighthouse, a famous L.A. jazz venue.

He also began backing Peggy Lee, the first of his many associations with female vocalists, which would include Ella Fitzgerald in the late '50s and Joan Baez in the '70s. He also recorded with Charlie Mariano, Conte Candoli, Bob Cooper, Bill Holman, Stan Levey, Lou Levy, Coleman Hawkins and Jack Montrose.

Bennett was part of the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour in 1958 and rejoined his former associate Gibbs the following year. In the '50s he also began releasing sides under his own name, an area of creativity he would return to off and on through his career whenever his schedule would permit. His studio activity drew him solidly into the world of pop music, beginning in an era when hit makers often relied on studio pros to actually play the instruments heard on a record.

The best example in this case would be the Monkees, who had to battle mightily just to be allowed to touch their instruments on record. Bennett is the bassist on many of this group's best records, and also holds down the bottom end on cuts by the Partridge Family. His association with the latter group serves as one link between such bubblegum pop and the unsavoury taste of Frank Zappa.

Here's "Star Flite from above 1987 album.

Bennett was one of the studio players brought in to realize the Hot Rats project, Zappa's regular band having gotten the heave-ho only weeks before the sessions began. Bennett also showed up on later Zappa masterworks such as Chunga's Revenge. While Bennett can't rival Zappa in the sheer number of compositions he created, he has also been active as a writer and has had material recorded by west coast stalwarts such as Victor Feldman and Tom Scott.

His studio work also included bass on the Lalo Schifrin soundtrack to the 1969 film Bullitt as well as Greatest Science Fiction Hits Volumes 1-3 with Neil Norman & His Cosmic Orchestra.

Bennett continued with his own band, L.A. Express, which included Joe Sample, Larry Carlton and John Guerin, under the leadership of Tom Scott. After this band, Bennett formed his own group Freeway, and currently heads his most recent band, Private Reserve. (Info edited from AMG & Wikipedia)

Living bass legend, Max Bennett with Mike Miller on guitar and Roy Weinberger on drums take cool to a new level at TC Electronic's booth at NAMM 2012.

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was an influential pioneer and innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 67 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Walker was born in Linden,
Texas, of African-American and Cherokee descent. Walker's parents, Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, were both musicians. His stepfather, Marco Washington, taught him to play the guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin, and piano.

Walker began his career as a teenager in Dallas in the early 1900s. His mother and stepfather (a member of the Dallas String Band) were musicians, and family friend Blind Lemon Jefferson sometimes came over for dinner. Walker left school at the age of 10, and by 15 he was a professional performer on the blues circuit. Initially, he was Jefferson's protégé and would guide him around town for his gigs.

In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with Columbia Records billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone, releasing the single "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues". Oak Cliff was the community he lived in at the time and T-Bone a corruption of his middle name. Pianist Douglas Fernell played accompaniment on the record.

Walker married Vida Lee in 1935; the couple had three children. After moving to Los Angeles around 1936, he began performing regularly in the clubs along Central Avenue, then the centre of the city's jazz and blues music scene. He started as a singer and dancer with jazz and early jump-blues bands, such as Les Hite and his orchestra, but by 1940 was playing electric guitar and singing in his own small combos. His particular style of jazz-influenced blues guitar and showmanship, which included playing the guitar behind his neck and while doing the splits, brought him to the attention of Capitol Records.

Much of his output was recorded from 1946 to 1948 on Black & White Records, including his most famous song, 1947's "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)". Other notable songs he recorded during this period were "Bobby Sox Blues" (a #3 R&B hit in 1947), and "West Side Baby" (#8 on the R&B singles charts in 1948).

Throughout his career Walker worked with top-notch musicians, including trumpeter Teddy Buckner, pianist Lloyd Glenn, Billy Hadnott (bass), and tenor saxophonist Jack McVea.

Following his work with White and Black, he recorded from 1950 to 1954 for Imperial Records (backed by Dave Bartholomew). Walker's only record in the next five years was T-Bone Blues, recorded over three widely separated sessions in 1955, 1956 and 1959, and finally released by Atlantic Records in 1960.

By the early 1960s, Walker's career had slowed down, in spite of a

hyped appearance at the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 with pianist Memphis Slim and prolific writer and musician Willie Dixon, among others. However, several critically acclaimed albums followed, such as I Want a Little Girl (recorded for Delmark Records in 1968).

Walker recorded in his last years, from 1968 to 1975, for Robin Hemingway's Jitney Jane Songs music publishing company, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1971 for Good Feelin′, while signed by Polydor Records, produced by Hemingway, followed by another album produced by Hemingway: Walker's Fly Walker Airlines, which was released in 1973.

Walker's career began to wind down after he suffered a stroke in 1974. He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March 1975, at the age of 64.

Walker was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.(Info Wikipedia)

London. Nov 30th,1966. Jazz at Philharmonic are: Dizzy Gillespie, Teddy Wilson, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Moody, Benny Carter and Bob Cranshaw.

Horace Kirby "Saxie" Dowell (May 24, 1904 – July 22, 1974) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader and singer and songwriter.

The saxophonist with the nickname all other saxophonists are glad they didn't get stuck with was also extremely active as a songwriter and music publisher during his career. Surely there was an impetus to replace the stuffy sounding Horace K. Dowell he was given at

birth in Raleigh, North Carolina near the outset of the 20th century.

He became Saxie Dowell by the time he began his first major professional affiliation, also his longest, with orchestra leader Hal Kemp. The nickname most likely developed due to the fact that Horace got his first saxophone at the age of 12 and carried it with him most everywhere.

The job with Kemp actually began in the campus setting as well, Kemp himself a UNCG graduate. By 1924 the band was well into touring and recording nationally and internationally. Covering tenor and alto saxophone, clarinet and flute, Dowell was in the Kemp band for the next 15 years. Dowell composed "I Don't Care", which was recorded by Kemp for Brunswick in 1928. When the band's style changed in the early 1930s to that of a dance band, Dowell became the group's comedic vocalist.

Three Little Fishies" became a smash hit in 1939 and Dowell was embroiled in a legal dispute with the uncredited lyricists Josephine Carringer and Bernice Idins. Due to the success of the song Dowell left Kemp that same year and organized his own band which

effortlessly survived the transition into Navy life in the early '40s. In 1940 he wrote the popular song "Playmates", which was set to a plagiarized melody. During World War II he served heroically in the navy aboard the ill-fated aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV13).

Dowell's U.S. Naval Air Station Band became one of the most famous in history for staying on its set list even while the aircraft carrier the band was serving on was in the process of sinking. After the war managing not to associate band-leading with both war and sinking ships, Dowell reorganized his orchestra and got some good bookings, mostly around the Chicago area with the then 14-year-old Keely Smith as a singer He, appeared in a movie short during 1946 and made a few recordings for the Sonora label. He became a disc jockey for Chicago radio station WGN around 1949.

Saxie Dowell's song credits include "I Don't Care", "Your Magic

Kisses", "Three Little Fishies", "Playmates" ("Come Out and Play With Me"), "The Canasta Song", "Tonight I'm Thinking Of You", "All I've Got Is Me" and "Turnabout is Fair Play".

Dowell kept his group going into the '50s, but eventually got into the publishing end of the business. His own writing credits include "Three Little Fishes." He was in his late sixties, and it was also the late '60s, when doctors sent him out to Arizona for his health. He did some part-time DJ work on KTAR in Phoenix during his retirement years. He died 22 July 1974, Scottsdale, Arizona, aged 70. (Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG)

Melvin (Mel) Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio and television commercials, Blanc is best known for his work with Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation (and later for Hanna-Barbera television productions) as the voice of such iconic

characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely, and hundreds of others. Having earned the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Voices", Blanc is regarded as one of the most gifted and influential persons in his field.

American entertainer Mel Blanc, who would make his name and fortune by way of his muscular vocal chords, started out in the comparatively non-verbal world of band music. He entered radio in 1927, and within six years was co-starring with his wife on a largely adlibbed weekly program emanating from Portland, Oregon, titled Cobwebs and Nuts. Denied a huge budget, Blanc was compelled to provide most

of the character voices himself, and in so doing cultivated the skills that would bring him fame.

He made the Los Angeles radio rounds in the mid-1930s, then was hired to provide the voice for a drunken bull in the 1937 Warner Bros. "Looney Tune" Picador Porky. Taking over the voice of Porky ("Th-th-th-that's all, Folks") Pig from a genuine stammerer who knew nothing about comic timing, Blanc became a valuable member of the "Termite Terrace" cartoon staff. Before long, he created the voice of Daffy Duck, whose lisping cadence was inspired by Warner Bros. cartoon boss Leon Schlesinger.

In 1940, Blanc introduced his most enduring Warners voice -- the insouciant, carrot-chopping Bugs Bunny (ironically, Blanc was allergic to carrots). He freelanced with the MGM and Walter Lantz animation firms (creating the laugh for Woody Woodpecker at the latter studio) before signing exclusively with Warners in the early 1940s. Reasoning that his limitless character repetoire -- including Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety Pie, Pepe Le Pew, Yosemite Sam and so many others -- had made him a valuable commodity to the studio, Blanc asked for a raise. Denied this, he demanded and got screen credit -- a rarity for a cartoon voice artist of the 1940s.

Though his salary at Warners never went above $20,000 per year, Blanc was very well compensated for his prolific work on radio. He was a regular on such series as The Abbott and Costello Show and The Burns and Allen Show, and in 1946 headlined his own weekly radio sitcom. For nearly three decades, Blanc was closely associated with the radio and TV output of comedian Jack Benny, essaying such roles as the "Si-Sy-Si" Mexican, harried violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the parrot, and the sputtering Maxwell automobile.

While his voice was heard in dozens of live-action films, Blanc appeared on screen in only two pictures: Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Kiss Me Stupid (1964). Extremely busy in the world of made-for-TV cartoons during the 1950s and 1960s, Blanc added such new characterizations to his resume as Barney Rubble on The Flintstones (1960-66) and Cosmo Spacely on The Jetsons (1962).

On January 24, 1961, Blanc was involved in a near-fatal car accident, as he was going to a studio to work on a commercial. He was driving alone when his sports car collided head-on with a car driven by 18-year-old college student Arthur Rolston on Sunset Boulevard. Rolston suffered minor injuries, but Blanc was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center with a triple skull fracture that left him in a coma for two weeks, along

with sustaining fractures to both legs and the pelvis.

About two weeks after the accident, one of Blanc’s neurologists tried a different approach. Blanc was asked, “How are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny?” After a slight pause, Blanc answered, in a weak voice, “Eh... just fine, Doc. How are you?” The doctor then asked Tweety if he was there too. “I tot I taw a puddy tat,” was the reply. Blanc returned home on March 17. Four days later, Blanc filed a US$500,000 lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. His accident, one of 26 in the preceding two years at the intersection known as Dead Man's Curve, resulted in the city funding restructuring curves at the location.

Blanc began smoking cigarettes when he was 9 years old. He continued his pack-a-day habit until he was diagnosed with emphysema, which pushed him to quit at age 77. On May 19, 1989, Blanc was checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by his family when they noticed he had a bad cough while shooting a commercial; he was originally expected to recover. Blanc's health then took a turn for the worse and doctors found that he had advanced coronary artery disease.

He died on July 10 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California at the age of 81. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Blanc's will stated his desire to have the inscription on his gravestone read, "THAT'S ALL FOLKS" (the phrase was a trademark of Blanc's character Porky Pig.) (Info edited from AMG & Wikipedia)

William Joseph Mayerl known as Billy Mayerl (May 31, 1902 – March 25, 1959) was an English pianist and composer who built a career in music hall and musical theatre and became an acknowledged master of light music.

Best known for his syncopated novelty piano solos, he wrote over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees, including his best-known composition, Marigold (1927). He also ran the successful School of Syncopation for whose members he published hundreds of his own arrangements of popular songs. He also composed works for piano and orchestra, often in suites with evocative names such as the 'Aquarium Suite' (1937), comprising "Willow Moss", "Moorish Idol", "Fantail", and "Whirligig".

Mayerl was born in London. His father Joseph was an Austrian violinist; his mother Elise was Dutch, the daughter of a military bandsman. He trained as a classical pianist, but was always scandalising his teachers with his preference for stride. His fluency as a performer was honed during his teenage employment as a pianist for silent movies: six days a week, five hours a night, he improvised music to whatever he saw on the screen, using classical as well as ragtime sources.

One night in 1921, an American band, on their way to an engagement at the Savoy, docked at Southampton without a pianist, their regular man having fallen ill just before the ship sailed. They checked into the Polygon, the very hotel where Mayerl was playing that night, and strolled down to the lounge for a drink. Hearing him play, the bandleader Bert Ralton addressed him in Chandleresque style - "You play nippy, kid" - before asking him if he'd like to join them for their Savoy residency.

Mayerl never looked back. He became a fixture at the Savoy, whose ballroom attracted a fashionable crowd for late-night dancing. His own dazzling piano pieces were not ideally suited to dancing, especially as he couldn't resist hair-raisingly fast speeds, but far from resenting his cavalier attitude to their footwork, the

dancers just used to come to a halt when the going got too hot, and watch him admiringly. His solos were, in fact, a piano equivalent of Fred Astaire's solo spots: ordinary dancers would have had to clear the floor for Astaire, too.

During his years at the Savoy, the band started broadcasting on radio, and Mayerl's dazzling piano solos were a special feature. His broadcasts were eagerly awaited by many thousands of fans. One recalled listening to his radio under the bedclothes after lights out. Thus Billy performed the remarkable feat of appealing simultaneously to adults and teenagers.

After leaving the Savoy, he toured all over the world, incorporating into his shows the unusual feat of playing two pianos at once. He also started the Billy Mayerl School of Piano Playing, which he taught by correspondence, sending out tutor books with his own exercises and advice on the "syncopated piano style". His school was hugely successful, with branches and managers all over the world. Its 37,000 students included the former King Edward VIII, living in retirement as Duke of Windsor. After the second world war, Mayerl worked for the light music unit at the BBC, writing and broadcasting until 1956, three years before his death.

In May 1958, after years of steady performance, Mayerl made his last BBC broadcast on the show Desert Island Discs hosted by Roy Plomly, signing off as always with "Goodbye chaps and chapesses." This time it was really for good, and he retired from radio and recording. One more publication did appear in early 1959.

Billy Mayerl (a heavy smoker for many years) finally met his demise from a heart attack and stroke at his home in Beaconsfield, Marigold Lodge in March 1959. His novelties remain popular into the 21st century, being rediscovered by a new generation of ragtime and stride pianists.

He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in north London on 31 March 1959 and his ashes placed in the Cedar Lawn Rose Bed. His name is listed in the Book of Remembrance. (Info edited from Wikipedia and an article by Susan Tomes @ the Guardian.com)

Valaida Snow (June 2, 1904* – May 30, 1956) was an African American jazz musician and entertainer. *(Other presumed birth years are 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905, and 1907.) Billed as “Queen of the Trumpet” she appeared in some of the top theatrical productions of her day.

Valaida Snow was born into a family of musicians: Her mother

taught Valaida, her sisters Alvaida and Hattie, and her brother, Arthur Bush, how to play multiple instruments. Valaida and all her siblings became professional musicians. Valaida was taught by her mother to play cello, bass, violin, banjo, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet. It was natural for Valaida to be an entertainer: at the young age of fifteen, she was already a recognized professional singer and trumpet player.

While Valaida Snow's beauty attracted audiences, it was her incredible talent as a jazz trumpeter which truly captivated them.

She obtained the nickname, “Little Louis” due to her Louis Armstrong-like playing style. Pianist Mary Lou Williams wrote about her: “She was hitting those high C's just like Louis. She would have been a great trumpet player if she had dropped the singing and dancing, and concentrated on the trumpet”.

Valaida toured and recorded frequently in the United States, Europe and the Far East both with her own bands and other leaders' bands. During the years 1930 through 1950 Alvaida could be seen with various jazz greats: With her sister, Lavaida, a singer, she performed in the Far East with drummer Jack Carter's jazz octet. She took part in a session with Earl Hines in New York in 1933 and also performed with Count Basie, Teddy Weatheford, Willie Lewis and Fletcher Henderson at various places and times.

After headlining at the Apollo Theatre in New York, Valaida returned to Europe and the Far East to perform. Later she became addicted to morphine. World War II had begun and Valaida was arrested by the Germans for theft and misuse of drugs. She was held for 18 months between 1940 and 1942 at Wester-Faengle, a Nazi concentration camp. She was subsequently released as an exchange prisoner in unstable health. Although this imprisonment greatly affected her physical and psychological health, she resumed performing and appeared at several prestigious engagements. It was at this time that she married producer Earl Edwards.

As an actress, she debuted on Broadway in 1942 as Mandy in Eubie Blake and Noble Sissles's musical ‘Chocolate Dandies.’ Later, she appeared on Broadway in Ethel Waters' show, ‘Rhapsody in Black’

in 1934; she appeared in the London production of ‘Blackbirds’ in 1935 with Johnny Claes and also in its Paris production. She could be seen in ‘Liza’ across Europe and Russia in the 30's and was also in the Hollywood films ‘Take It from Me’ in 1937, ‘Irresistible You,’ ‘L'Alibi’ and ‘Pieges’ in 1939. Valaida Snow shocked people in the USA, with her eccentric behaviour. She travelled in an orchid coloured Mercedes, dressed in an orchid suit, her pet monkey rigged out in an orchid jacket and cap, with the chauffeur in orchid as well.

In early 1950 she records for the Derby label with the Jimmy Mundy Orchestra. The result is “Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone” and “When A Woman Loves A Man”. The record does nicely in certain areas, especially Philadelphia and St. Louis. The Derby release is her first real effort since her tragic

imprisonment and it does well. Valaida Snow embarks on a tour of the Northeast and is a particular favourite at the Monte Carlo in Pittsburgh. In the fall she is at the 845 Club in New York and is held over. In a bit of a surprise she leaves Derby Records and signs with Apollo Records late in the year.

In February of 1951 she records “Porgy” and “The More I Know About Love” for Apollo with the Bobby Smith Orchestra. She continues her many in person appearances throughout the country, and in early 1952 embarks on a true R & B tour with Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers up and down the West coast. Her records are

sporadic, and after a well attended stay at Chicago's Crown Propeller Lounge in late 1953, Valaida signs on with that city's Chess label. “I Ain't Gonna Tell” and “If You Mean It” are released by Chess. The next two years are spent mostly appearing in the musical revues that have always been the first love of Valaida Snow. A revival of “Blackbirds” is her main show and she continues to get good reviews for her performance.

It is just at this time that the final curtain descends on her, as in June of 1956 Valaida Snow dies of a cerebral haemorrhage backstage at the Palace Theater in New York. She passed away doing what she loved most, entertaining the public with her great talents.

She lived an intense life and enjoyed it, even if she bore the trouble and the tragic side that haunt many greats. She made the front page news for her glorious endeavours as well as for her downfalls. It is a continuing shame that so many people remain unaware of this extraordinary woman. (Info mainly from James Nadal)

Pete Jolly (June 5, 1932 – November 6, 2004) was an American West Coast jazz pianist and accordionist. He was well known for his performance of television themes and various movie soundtracks.

Howard Roberts with Pete Jolly

Pete Jolly was born Peter A. Ceragioli in New Haven, Connecticut. Jolly's father, also named Peter, was a superb accordion player, and he started the boy on the instrument not long after weaning. By the time Jolly was seven, his father was taking him by train to New York City once a week to take lessons from the great Joe Biviano, and when he was eight, he made his first broadcast appearance, billed as "The Boy Wonder Accordionist" on CBS Radio's "Hobby Lobby." The show's emcee messed up his name, announcing him as "Pete Jolly," but the boy liked the sound of it and used it ever after.

Jolly was raised in Phoenix, AZ, a hotbed of jazz and jazz talent at the time. One of his best friends and collaborators in Phoenix was guitarist Howard Roberts, whom he met at the age of 13. Following Roberts to Los Angeles in 1952, Jolly immediately began working with the best players on the West Coast jazz scene, including

Shorty Rogers. He moved easily into studio and session work. Besides his brilliance on the piano, he was a virtuosic accordionist.

He recorded three albums as a leader for Victor in 1956 (taking rare jazz accordion solos on a few tracks). Despite his early mastery of the accordion, Jolly's recordings with the instrument are few or anonymous. He pumps a mean squeezebox on Continental Jazz by "Les Cinqs Moderne," a Gallic version of Somerset's Hawaiian super group, The Surfmen. Among musicians in the L.A. area, though, Jolly was considered one of the best accordion players around.

His composition "Little Bird" (a minor hit on Fred Astaire's Ava label) was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1963, and he formed the Pete Jolly Trio in 1964. With the Trio and as a solo artist, he recorded several albums, one of the last of which was a 2000

collaboration with Jan Lundgren. His final album, recorded in Phoenix in May 2004 shortly before his death, was "It's a Dry Heat" with saxophonist Jerry Donato.

He also worked with other notable jazz artists, including Buddy DeFranco, Art Pepper and Red Norvo, and for many years with music arranger and director Ray Conniff as well as Herb Alpert, recording on Alpert's record label, A&M as both a sideman and a leader. He can be heard on the opening bars of Alpert's 1968 #1 hit, "This Guy's in Love." In addition to A&M Pete Jolly has recorded for Metrojazz, MGM,

Ava, Charlie Parker Records, RCA,Columbia, A&M, Atlas, Holt, and V.S.O.P. as a leader.

Jolly's music can be heard on television programs such as Get Smart, The Love Boat, I Spy, Mannix, M*A*S*H and Dallas, as well as hundreds of movie soundtracks. He recreated all of Bud Powell's playing with Charlie Parker for the Clint Eastwood movie, Bird. By day, Jolly worked in the studios; by night, with his trio. Jolly continued to perform with his trio in Los Angeles jazz clubs until shortly before being hospitalized in August 2004.

His final public performance with his trio was in Reno, Nevada, and Jolly said it was the best he had ever played; a fitting coda to a great career and great musical spirit. Together for nearly fifty years,

The Pete Jolly Trio had only one bassist, Chuck Berghofer and one drummer, Nick Martinis, something of a world record. Berghofer later said, "In all that time, Pete never once told me how to play or what to play."

Pete Jolly died in Pasadena, California, from complications of multiple myeloma in November 2004, aged 72.

It's a shame that Jolly never got the popular recognition as a soloist he deserved. His style is so sure yet so light and flowing, it belies the depth of skill behind it. There are pianists--most notoriously, Oscar Peterson--who build their style around an ability to play exceptionally fast and well. Jolly could play every bit as fast as Peterson, but always let the tune take the showcase. (Info various but mainly from Wikipedia)

Frank Chacksfield born 9 May 1914

Pee Wee Hunt born 10 May 1907

Beryl Bryden born 11 May 1920

Carolyn Franklin born 13 May 1944

Charlie Gracie born 14 May 1936

Eddy Arnold born 15 May 1918

Laura Lee McBride born 16 May 1920

Penny DeHaven born 17 May 1948

Kai Winding born 18 May 1922

Betty Driver born 20 May 1920

Dennis Day born 21 May 1916

Peter Nero born 22 May 1934

Humphrey Lyttelton born 23 May 1921

Max Bennett born 24 May 1928

T-Bone Walker born 28 May 1910

Saxie Dowell born 29 May 1904

Mel Blanc born 30 May 1908

Billy Mayerl born 31 May 1902

Valaida Snow born 2 June 1904

Pete Jolly Born 4 June 1932