FROM THE VAULTS

James Victor "Jimmy" Scott (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014), also known as "Little" Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist

famous for his unusually high countertenor voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs.

After a series of successes in the 1940s and 1950s, Scott's career faltered by the early 1960s. He slid into obscurity before launching

a well-received comeback in the 1990s. His unusual singing voice was due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at the age of 37, he grew another eight inches to the height of five feet seven inches. The condition prevented him from reaching puberty, leaving him with a high, undeveloped voice.

One of ten children, James Victor Scott was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 17, 1925 .He was only 12 years old when he became known as a singer around Cleveland . While in his teens a Comedian saw the potential in Jimmy, he was Tim McCoy from Akron. Whenever Tim got a “gig” around Northeast Ohio, he would take Jimmy along with him on the bill. Jimmy would sing at different clubs, they would sneak him out before the cops arrived, because he was

not only under age, but looked even younger than his actual years. Later Jimmy produced the Summer Festivals, a group of talented youngsters, like his friend jazz baritone singer Jimmy Reed and dancer Barbara Taylor that would put on shows all around the area.

Jimmy joined Lionel Hampton’s Band in 1948, where he discovered the vibraphone and the strings, of which Jimmy said “helped him to learn the beauty of the song” and encouraged him to sing. Lionel was a mentor to Jimmy and the one who tagged him with the stage name, “Little Jimmy Scott”, at the time he was 23, only 4’11,” thin, and very young looking. Jimmy said it was a gimmick for Lionel’s show, but it wasn’t too many years later that you started hearing more singers take their cue from Jimmy’s stage name and call themselves Little So & So.

“Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” recorded at Scott’s second session with Hampton, gave the singer his first and only chart hit, placing at No. 6 on Billboard’s list of R&B jukebox platters. The labels of some Decca 78s mistakenly credited Irma Curry,

Hampton’s female vocalist at the time, but many fans knew better, especially women, who swooned at Scott’s every deliciously split syllable during his year on the road with Hampton.

Scott’s hit and three other songs were recorded with the Hampton orchestra, along with early Fifties solo sides for the Coral and Brunswick labels. The singer spent long periods away from the microphone. He worked for a time as a hotel shipping clerk and as a caretaker for his ailing father.

Jimmy met Estelle “Caldonia” Young in the early 1940′s; she took J

immy on her road show as the featured singer. Caldonia became almost a surrogate mother to Jimmy, having lost his own mother at age 13. “Caldonia’s Revue” traveled the southern circuit to the east, they put up their own stages in the rural areas. Caldonia took Jimmy along with her to do a special performance at Gamby’s in Baltimore in 1945, where he met up with his friend Redd Foxx who was also appearing at Gamby’s. They went over to the Royal Theater to see Joe Louis.

Redd and Joe told Jimmy he should be in New York performing instead of traveling around to those small towns.

They convinced him he could make it on his own, the way he sang. So they talked to Ralph Cooper who called up Nipsy Russell, the

M.C. at the Baby Grand in Harlem and arranged for Jimmy to get a one week booking. Jimmy sang that one week and they kept him on for 3 more months! Billie Holiday would show up nightly while in town to listen to Jimmy. Doc Pomus was in the audience during that first week and wanted to meet this amazing singer, Jimmy said “sure” and they became fast friends.

Scott and Doc Pomus friendship lasted over 45 years. Jimmy sang at Doc’s funeral in 1991. It was there that record label owner

Seymour Stein heard Jimmy sing and practically signed him on the spot, thus the beginning of Jimmy’s re-emergence as a singer with his Grammy nominated comeback album “All The Way.” At age 67 he began to tour the world, where he was introduced to new appreciative audiences and legions of new young fans. Now, the press refers to him with reverence as the Golden Voice of Jazz, the Legendary Jimmy Scott.

After a long climb, things were really looking up for Jimmy Scott. He established a dedicated international audience through triumphant tours of Europe and Japan and was the featured subject of a Bravo Profiles television special, and of an in-depth biography by award-winning author David Ritz (Faith in Time: The Jazz Life of Jimmy Scott, from Da Capo Press 2002).

In 2012, he joined the 11th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers. He died on June 12, 2014, aged 88 in his sleep at his home in Las Vegas, of cardiac arrest. (Info mainly Blue Note Jazz Festival.com)

Seems that thr Prostopleer mp3 player have a few problems , so hopefully they will sort it out in less than a few weeks as normal! If not it's back to Zippyshare. It seems you can still download the mp3but unfortunately it doesn't play on the blog.

Owens "Boomer" Castleman (July 18, 1945 – September 1, 2015), better known by his stage name Boomer Castleman, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Best known as the co-writer of several songs with Michael Martin Murphey, Castleman also made his mark as a producer, guitar innovator and record-label entrepreneur.

He was born Owens Boomer Castleman in Farm Branch, Texa in

1945. His musical career began in high school. His first collaborator was the then-unknown John Denver, with whom he toured on the folk circuit. He moved to Los Angeles where he was a regular at Randy Sparks’ Ledbetters folk club. He also formed a band called The Survivors with future Monkees star Michael Nesmith.

After The Monkees became a sensation in 1966, Castleman teamed up with Michael Martin Murphey (under the guise as Travis Lewis) as the folk-pop duo The Lewis & Clarke Expedition and signed with The Monkees’ label, Colgems Records. They recorded a pop album in 1967 for Colgems, the label that released The Monkees. The band was said to have gotten the deal with Colgems through Murphey's, Castleman's, and bassist John London's associations

with Michael Nesmith. After the Monkees, the duo was the label’s main act in 1967 and managed a US Top 100 single with ‘I Feel Good (I Feel Bad)’, one of their four singles for the label.

The Monkees recorded the duo’s “(What Am I Doin’) Hangin’ Round” and featured it on three of their TV show’s episodes in 1967-68. Castleman and Murphey co-starred in their own TV pilot titled The Kowboys in 1969, but a series was not put into production.

Castleman became widely known in instrumental circles for

inventing the Palm Pedal in 1968. This device allows guitar players to emulate steel-guitar sounds. It is now marketed as the Bigsby Palm Pedal.

After their breakup as a singing duo, Boomer Castleman and Michael Martin Murphey continued to collaborate as writers. They co-wrote several of the songs on Murphey’s 1972 LP Geronimo’s Cadillac, including “Boy From the Country,” “You Can Only Say So Much” and “Blood Brothers.”

In 1975, Boomer Castleman scored a mid-sized pop hit with his self-composed “Judy Mae.” Two years later, he co-produced the Meri Wilson novelty hit “Telephone Man,” and cowrote most of the songs on her subsequent album.

He relocated to Nashville in the 1970s. As a guitarist, he has

backed Tammy Wynette, David Alan Coe, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, George Hamilton IV, Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, Dave Dudley, Big Al Downing, Johnny Rodriguez and Tom Jones, either on stage or in recording sessions. He also recorded as a studio backup vocalist.

As a record producer, Boomer Castleman worked with Ronnie Prophet, Mike Alan Ward, Bobby David, Kim Morrison, Rodney Lay and others. Also in Music City, he formed BNA Records and recorded a 1981 revival of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” for the imprint in 1981. Alan Jackson topped the charts with the song in 1994. Castleman sold BNA to BMG/RCA in 1993.

Other labels he headed included Legend, DeltaDisc and Amria. His other Nashville solo singles included “Holes in His Hands” and ”Personal Notes.” Personable and outgoing, he continued to perform and tour as an artist even after his cancer diagnosis. He was particularly popular as an entertainer in Texas.

Boomer Castleman died of cancer in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday, September 1, 2015, at the age of 70.

(Info edited from various sources mainly musicrow.com)

Clifton Luther "Cliff" Jackson (July 19, 1902, Washington, D.C. - May 24, 1970, New York City) was an American jazz stride pianist.

Nick Rongetti (left) and Cliff Jackson (right) on the uprights.

One of the most powerful stride pianists, Cliff Jackson never became all that famous in the jazz world despite his talent. In 1923, he moved to New York, where he played with Lionel Howard's Musical Aces in 1924, and freelanced. Jackson recorded, in 1927, with Bob Fuller and Elmer Snowden, and then formed a big band (the Krazy Kats) that made some exuberant recordings in 1930, including "Horse Feathers" and "The Terror." After that band broke up, Jackson mostly worked as a soloist in New York clubs.

During this time he also accompanied singers such as Viola McCoy, Lena Wilson, Sara Martin, and Clara Smith. He recorded with Sidney Bechet during 1940-1941; cut some solos and Dixieland sides for Black & White (1944-1945); made three solos for Disc (1945); led a band for a Swingville session (1961); and recorded solo for Black Lion, Ri-Disc, Jazzology, and Master Jazz (1969).

As shown by many of his 1944-1945 solo piano recordings, such as "Limehouse Blues", Cliff Jackson was certainly one of the most powerful stride piano masters. His style was also marked by a very interesting contrapuntal-like bass work. His many left hand techniques are found explained in detail in Riccardo Scivales's

method Jazz Piano: The Left Hand (Bedford Hills, New York: Ekay Music, 2005).

Neither forerunner, nor obsolete, he played with a deep respect of harmony and melody, with a great swing. His strong pulse on the left hand can be recognized among thousands, by his way of doubling basses.

As house pianist at Cafe Society from 1943-51 he was a great success; he also toured with Eddie Condon in 1946. He also played with Garvin Bushell (1950), J.C. Higginbotham (1960), and Joe Thomas (1962). Cliff Jackson is also documented in 1966 playing at a festival (on Jazzology) with his wife, Maxine Sullivan.

He died of heart failure in his Bronx home on May 24, 1970, age 67. The previous night, he was performing at the RX Club in New York. (Info mainly edited from Wikipedia & All Music)

Sleepy LaBeef (b. Thomas Paulsley LaBeff, July 20, 1935, Smackover, Arkansas) is a first-generation American rocker whose music has never lost its edge and unbridled passion. Sleepy performs a wide variety of American Roots music, including

country blues, gospel, fifties rock and roll and bluegrass.

Sleepy LaBeef became the ultimate rockabilly survivor, his live performances retaining the same raw power as he approached his eighth decade that they had in the years when he was among the music's pioneers. He was born Thomas Paulsley LaBeff in Smackover, AR. The 6'7" singer has heavily lidded eyes which make him appear half-asleep, hence his nickname. He was raised on a melon farm and grew up hearing both country and blues music. LaBeef moved to Houston at age 18, working at several odd jobs before beginning to sing gospel music on local radio shows. Soon he was working with a band of his own at local bars, and he appeared on the Houston Jamboree and Louisiana Hayride radio programs.

The new rockabilly style fit his blazing voice perfectly, and in the late '50s he recorded about a dozen sides in that style for various labels. His first single, "I'm Through," was released in 1957 on

Starday. Sometimes he was billed as Tommy LaBeff or Sleepy LaBeff. LaBeef moved to Nashville in 1964 and soon was signed to Columbia. In the 1960s he recorded mostly straight country music. His sixth single for the label, "Every Day," provided LaBeef with his chart debut in 1968, and after moving to Shelby Singleton's Plantation label in 1969, he hit the Top 20 with his version of "Blackland Farmer," Frankie Miller's heartfelt ode to the soil.

The late '60s also saw the towering baritone's film debut in the bizarre Southern drive-in horror musical The Exotic Ones; LaBeef played a swamp monster.LaBeef moved to Sun Records in the mid-'70s after Singleton acquired that original institution of rockabilly,

and there he reconnected with his rockabilly roots. Singles such as "Thunder Road,""There Ain't Much After Taxes," and "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" saw little chart action but helped form the beginnings of the LaBeef legend as his indefatigable touring exposed audiences to his wildman energy.

LaBeef remains more popular in Europe than in the U.S. and appeared at England's Wembley Festival twice. Among his U.S. fans was soul-music historian Peter Guralnick, who saw LaBeef perform in Massachusetts in 1977 and praised his performances in a widely read article. That plus the general revival of rockabilly around 1980 at the hands of such groups as the Stray Cats paved the way for the emergence of Sleepy LaBeef, rockabilly revivalist.

He signed to Rounder in 1981 and released It Ain't What You Eat (It's the Way How You Chew It) in the U.S. and in Europe. The live album Nothin' but the Truth gave CD buyers a taste of the booming vocals and slashing guitar that had made LaBeef a prime club attraction. LaBeef returned to regular recording in the mid-'90s, releasing several more albums on Rounder: Strange Things Happening (1994) and I'll Never Lay My Guitar Down (1996) contained a variety of country and blues tunes and revealed the depth of LaBeef's musical experiences. Four years later, he issued Tomorrow Never Comes, which featured guest vocals from Maria Muldaur.

Compilations of the numerous unissued tracks from earlier in

LaBeef's career began to surface in the early 2000s, and by that time Sleepy was nothing less than a rockabilly legend.

Despite having to undergo heart surgery in 2003, LaBeef still maintains an active touring schedule into the twenty-first century. In January 2012, LaBeef traveled to Nashville to record a film a live concert and record in historic RCA Studio B, all produced by noted bassist Dave Pomeroy. A documentary/concert DVD,Sleepy LaBeef Rides Again and soundtrack CD was released on April 22, 2013 by Earwave Records.

As significant as his recording career has been, it is the live Sleepy LaBeef that is important. Today, at 81, Sleepy still performs and plays with such energy that people a third of his age are annihilated when they attempt to keep up with him. LaBeef was the twenty-fifth inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

(info mainly All Music Guide)

Plas John Johnson Jr. (born July 21, 1931) is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme".

Born in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, he and his pianist brother Ray first recorded as the Johnson Brothers in New Orleans in the late

1940s, and Plas then toured with R&B singer Charles Brown. After army service, he moved to Los Angeles and began session recordings as a full-time musician, backing artists such as B.B. King and Johnny Otis as well as scores of other R&B performers. An early supporter was Maxwell Davis, who hired him to take over his own parts so that he could concentrate on producing sessions for the Modern record label.

Recruited by Capitol Records in the mid-1950s, Johnson also played on innumerable records by Peggy Lee, Nat "King" Cole, Glen Gray, Frank Sinatra and others. He remained a leading session player for almost twenty years, averaging two sessions a day and playing everything from movie soundtracks to rock and roll singles,

by such artists as Ricky Nelson and Bobby Vee. He played on many of the Beach Boys’ records, and was an integral part of a number of instrumental groups that existed in name only, such as B. Bumble and the Stingers and The Pets.

Maybe you haven’t heard of him, but you certainly have heard him. How about these: Shuffle In the Gravel by Young Jessie; Stranded In The Jungle by The Cadets; Girl Of My Dreams by Jesse Belvin; Searchin’ by The Coasters; Rockin’ Robin by Bobby Day; Bony Moronie by Larry Williams; Teenage Heaven by Eddie Cochran; Say Mama by Gene Vincent; and a myriad of tracks by Duane Eddy, Ernie Fields, The Piltdown Men, Sandy Nelson, The Ernie Freeman Combo, Johnny Otis, The Marketts, The Routers, The Olympics, and Don & Dewey. And that’s just scraping the surface of the output of Plas Johnson, LA session man extraordinaire.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was a regular member of Henry Mancini's studio orchestra and in 1963 he recorded the Pink Panther theme. Another solo for a well-known television series was on The Odd Couple's theme music. Johnson was also used by Motown, and played on hits by Marvin Gaye, the Supremes and others. Johnson also played on sessions for Nancy Sinatra.

Johnson can be heard on the 1963 album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the

Jerome Kern Songbook", recorded with the esteemed arranger Nelson Riddle. His sax is also heard on two of the other great Ella Fitzgerald songbooks - The Harold Arlen Songbook and The Johnny Mercer Songbook.

In 1964, Johnson was the featured performer on "Blue Martini" ( Ava Records ), a concept album by John Neel. It was a groundbreaking album, with the saxophone being the lead "voice" surrounded by a full string section. This jazz/classical hybrid contains some of Johnson's best and most innovative playing, with the standout being "Bury Me Blue".

In 1970, he joined the studio band for "The Merv Griffin Show" and also played with a number of jazz and swing bands of the period. He continues to record and perform, particularly at jazz festivals.

Johnson currently performs on silverplated Yamaha tenor saxophone. He uses a very open (150/0 SMS) Berg Larsen goldplated bronze mouthpiece and Rico Plasticover 1.5 or 2 baritone sax reeds, a setup that enables him to produce his very distinctive and instantly recognizable sound.

(Info mainly Wikipedia)

Gary Stites (born July 23, 1940) is an American pop singer who enjoyed brief success in the late 1950s.

Gary was born on July 23, 1940 in Denver, Colorado. He attended Wheat Ridge High School and worked in his father’s Gulf service station. When he turned 15 his musical career started with the

group “The Rocking Rhythm Kings” at the Grubstake Saloon in Denver. The only other local group were “Del Toro & The Rockers” Some of both band members decided to join together resulting in “Gary Stites & The Satellites”. The group were popular at the local teen dances, sock hops and beer joints.

The local program director at KIMN radio was a friend of record label owner Joe Carlton in New York, and got Gary to sing “Lonely For You” to him over the phone. This resulted in a contract.

Gary recorded for Carlton Records, the same record company that fellow label mate Jack Scott recorded for. On April 13, 1959 he charted his biggest hit, “Lonely For You”. The record climbed the Hot 100 to #24 and had a 14 week stay on the pop chart. “Lonely

For You” had an arrangement similar to Conway Twitty’s hit “It's Only Make Believe”.

His follow-up single, "Starry Eyed", peaked at No. 77 later that same year. It would hit the No. 1 spot in the UK for Michael Holliday. Stites released a full-length album “Lonely For You” issued in mono and stereo editions, on Carlton Records in 1960, but it was his only LP.

In addition to the hit title track, the album contains his minor hits also the flip side of "Lonely for You" ("Shine That Ring") and a cover of Faye Adams' 1953 R&B chart-topper, "Shake a Hand." Stites proves himself adept at teen ballads ("Don't Wanna Say Goodbye"), rockers ("Chicken Shack"), and call-and-response party records ("Hey, Hey"). He is a

competent singer with a voice vaguely similar to Johnny Tillotson.

In February of 1960 Gary charted his last Hot 100 record, the old R&B favorite, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”. It was his highest charting hit since “Lonely For You”, making it to #47 and remaining on the Hot 100 for 9 weeks. That would be his last record to reach the Hot 100 chart. There are some artists that you feel are only going to have one hit and that’s it, but Gary Stites was one artist that really should have had a better chart history than that of a One-Hit Wonder

In the sixties, Stites started his own record label, Living Legend, where he produced obscure groups like the Birdwatchers, the Gents Five and Tommy Strand and the Upper Hand, all without success. He dropped out of the music business in the seventies and switched to work in horse racing. Stites wasn’t heard from again until 1998 when his cassette "The Old Racetracker” was recorded under the singular name Cloud, saluting his first love – horse racing.

Collectors with a fondness for the early-'60s "teen sound" will appreciate Stites' well-executed recordings and formulaic songs,

but it would be a stretch to argue that he created anything out of the ordinary. The Carlton tapes have been lost, so any reissues of Stites' material will be mastered from vinyl. Buyers beware of a poor-quality "gray market" bootlrg CD, also titled Lonely for You, that contains 30 scratchy disc dubs containing more or less his complete recorded output.

(Info at first was sparse but I have managed to get a decent amount to edit for this bio after trawling through numerous sources – too many to mention.)

Here’s a rare film clip of Gary Stites singing Starry Eyed from 1959.

Margaret Germano, better known as Peggy Mann (September 27*, 1919 – summer 1988), was an American Big Band singer who was prominent in the 1930s and 1940s.

Now virtually forgotten, but certainly deserving of reappraisal, is Peggy Mann. Born Margaret Germano in Yonkers New York in

1919, Peggy was a prominent big band vocalist of the late 1930s - early 1940s. A noted beauty and prodigy child dancer, she turned to singing instead, replacing Bea Wain in Ben Pollack's orchestra.

She also worked with Henry Halstead, Ben Pollack and Enoch Light in the late 30s, and sang with Larry Clinton, Goodman, McKinley and violinist Teddy Powell who formed his first big band in 1938. She also worked with Gene Krupa in the early 40s before she left to

work as a soloist. A review in Billboard magazine referred to her "captivating manner that has made her a favourite song stylist."

She sang with the Pollack band just after its prime, but was on recordings such as ‘I’m In My Glory’, ‘If It’s The Last Thing I Do’ and ‘You Made Me Love You’. With Clinton she appeared on several recordings, including ‘Because Of You’, ‘You’ll Never Know’ and ‘Isn’t It Time To Fall In Love’. For Teddy Powell’s sweet band she duetted with Dick Judge on the hit, ‘Goodbye, Mama (I’m Off To Yokohama)’ and also sang on ‘Somebody’s Thinking Of You Tonight’ and ‘Be Careful, It’s My Heart’.

Peggy Mann also recorded with Russ Case (‘Crying For Joy’), Tommy Dorsey (‘Bill’), the Benny Goodman Quintet (‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’) and under her own name (‘Changeable’ and ‘When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful’). Mann was a replacement singer for Joan Edwards on the radio version of Your

Hit Parade.

On November 1st, 1946, Peggy signed a two year contract as the featured vocalist on the Saturday night "Hit Parade" program. But if there was ever a crowning moment in Peggy's career, it came only a couple weeks later. That's when Peggy had the opportunity to sing with one of the biggest stars of not only the 1940s, but of all time. It was at this time that Peggy met Frank Sinatra and was invited to perform on the Frank Sinatra Radio Show in the last two months of 1946 and for a short time into the New Year. With Peggy having the opportunity to sing with "Old Blue Eyes", this could be the break she needed. What is sad about this short time that the two spent together, is that only

one of their duet recordings, "Embraceable You", from November 26th, 1946 is known to exists.

It's not exactly known why Peggy left Frank's show a couple of months later except that she did have many other offers on the table. And being the go-getter that Peggy was, she tried everything including teaming up with the legendary pianist Eddie Heywood in 1947. Together they recorded three songs that were possibly her finest to date. Performing with Eddie Heywood gave Peggy a chance to have a band compliment her singing instead of the other way around. And with a top notch production facility being used, it was a match made in heaven. These three tracks recorded are probably the rarest to find today in the USA.

One of the gigs Peggy soon landed was 1950's ABC broadcast of "Name the Movie" where she hosted with tenor Clark Dennis. She then went on to host a television show with Del Courtney on KPIX Television in San Francisco. Peggy also hosted the "Peggy Mann Show" for six months on ABC.

She retired from the music business in the early 50s, but during 1957, our little songbird had shown up one more time. We were able to hear Peggy in what may have been her finest two songs ever recorded. "The Man I Love" and "Someone To Watch Over Me".Hollywood Records released "Music For Going Steady" featuring Vic Damone and Peggy Mann with the Ted Dale Orchestra. No other recording has ever surfaced after this one. Peggy being the private person that she was, quietly slipped away
from showbiz.

For the next 30 plus years, Peggy lived away from the bright lights and entertained her family at many of their gatherings. Her family can still remember how Peggy would sit around the piano and sing "The Man I Love" which would be quite fitting since this was one of the finest songs she ever recorded. During this time, Peggy's star may have disappeared from the public eye, but it was her loving family who kept her still perched upon a pedestal, and to them, back then as she still is today....she was their star. Sadly though, in the summer of 1988, Peggy quietly passed away.

(* some sources give her birthdate as 24th July. Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG & The Peggy Mann Tribute Page @ facebook )

Walter Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor three times and is tied with Jack Nicholson for the most Academy Award wins for a male actor.

Walter Andrew Brennan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. He attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying

engineering. While in school, Brennan became interested in acting, and began to perform in vaudeville. While working as a bank clerk, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a private with the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in France during World War I. Following the war, he moved to Guatemala and raised pineapples, before settling in Los Angeles. During the 1920s, he became involved in the real estate market, where he made a fortune. Unfortunately, he lost most of his money when the market took a sudden downturn due to the Great Depression.

Finding himself broke, he began taking extra parts in 1929 and then bit parts in as many films as he could and also worked as a stunt

man. In the 1930s, he began appearing in higher-quality films and received more substantial roles as his talent was recognized. This culminated with his receiving the very first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Swan Bostrom in the period film Come and Get It (1936). Two years later he portrayed town drunk and accused murderer Muff Potter in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

He would win it twice more in the decade, and be nominated for a fourth. His range was enormous. He could play sophisticated businessmen, con artists, local yokels, cowhands and military officers with apparent equal ease. Throughout his career, Brennan was frequently called upon to play characters considerably older

than he was in real life. The loss of many teeth in a 1932 accident, rapidly thinning hair, thin build, and gravelly voice all made him seem older than he really was. He used these physical features to great effect. In many of his film roles, Brennan wore dentures; in Northwest Passage—a film set in the late 18th century, when most people had bad teeth—he wore a special dental prosthesis which made him appear to have rotting and broken teeth.

Director Jean Renoir gave the character actor a leading role in 1941: Brennan played the top-billed lead in Swamp Water. During

that same year in the film Sergeant York, he played a sympathetic preacher and dry goods store owner who advised the title character played by Gary Cooper. Though he was hardly ever cast as the villain, notable exceptions were his roles as Old Man Clanton in the 1946 film My Darling Clementine opposite Henry Fonda, the 1962 Cinerama production How the West Was Won as the murderous Colonel Jeb Hawkins, and as Judge Roy Bean in The Westerner, for which he won his third best supporting actor Academy Award, in 1940.

Brennan appeared in several other movies and television programs, usually, as an eccentric "old timer" or "prospector". Prior to the launching of The Real McCoys, Brennan appeared as himself as a musical judge in the 1953-1954 ABC series Jukebox Jury. He also made a few recordings, the most popular being "Old Rivers" about

an eccentric but much-beloved farmer; it was released as a single in 1962 by Liberty Records with "The Epic Ride Of John H. Glenn" on the flip side, and peaked at number 5 in the U.S. Billboard charts.

Unlike many actors, Brennan's career never really went into decline. As the years went on, he was able to find work in dozens of high quality films, and later television appearances throughout the 1950s and 60s. As he grew older, he simply became a more familiar, almost comforting film figure whose performances continued to endear him to new generations of fans. In all, he would appear in more than 230 film and television

roles in a career spanning nearly five decades.

For his contribution to the television industry, Walter Brennan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6501 Hollywood Blvd. In 1970, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his photograph adorns a wall.

He died in 1974 of emphysema, a beloved figure in movies and TV, the target of countless comic impressionists, and one of the best and most prolific actors of his time. (Info edited from Wikipedia & IMDB)

Buddy Clark (July 26, 1912 - October 1, 1949) was an American popular singer of the 1930s and 1940s. In the late 1940s, after his return from service in World War II, his career blossomed and he became one of the nation's top crooners. He died in a plane crash in 1949.

Clark was born Samuel Goldberg to Jewish parents in Dorchester,

Massachusetts. At first he was headed for a career in law at Northeastern University in Boston, but soon turned to what he really loved which was singing which he had been doing on local radio. He made his Big Band singing debut in 1932 as a tenor, with Gus Arnheim's orchestra, but was not successful. Singing baritone, he gained wider notice in 1934, with Benny Goodman on the Let's Dance radio program. In 1936 he began performing on the show Your Hit Parade, and remained until 1938. In the mid-1930s he signed with Vocalion Records, having a top-20 hit with "Spring Is Here". He continued recording, appearing in movies, and dubbing other actors' voices until he entered the military, but did not have another hit until the late 1940s.

Meanwhile Buddy Clark continued to be a large presence on network radio with "Here's To Romance" with the orchestra of

David Broekman on NBC Blue beginning in 1942. That year Clark had a small role in the movie musical comedy "Seven Days Leave" which starred Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. Soon Buddy did his part for Uncle Sam and the United States entering the armed forces. After his discharge at wars end he returned to network radio with a starring role on "The Contented Hour" sponsored by Carnation with Jo Stafford and the orchestras of Victor Young and then Percy Faith. Later radio appearances included "The Spike Jones Show" for CBS in 1947, and "The Chesterfield Supper Club" for NBC in 1949. Meanwhile Buddy had been signed by Columbia Records in 1947 for whom he had charted as a featured vocalist ten years before.

In 1946 he signed with Columbia Records and scored his biggest hit with the song "Linda" recorded in November of that year, but hitting its peak in the following spring. "Linda" was written especially for the six-year-old daughter of a show business lawyer,

named, Lee Eastman, whose client, songwriter Jack Lawrence, wrote the song at Lee’s request. Upon reaching adulthood, Linda became famous as a photographer and a musician as a member of Wings, the 1970s band headed by her husband, former Beatle Paul McCartney.

1947 also saw hits for Clark with such titles as "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" (from the musical Finian's Rainbow), which made the Top Ten, "Peg O' My Heart", "An Apple Blossom Wedding", and "I'll Dance at Your Wedding". The following year he had another major hit with "Love Somebody" (a duet with Doris Day, selling a million and reaching #1 on the charts) and nine more chart hits, and extended his success into 1949 with a number of hits, both solo and duetting with Day and Dinah Shore. A month after his death, his recording of "A Dreamer's Holiday" hit the charts.

On Saturday, October 1, 1949, hours after the 37-year-old had completed a Club Fifteen broadcast on CBS Radio with The Andrews Sisters—subbing for ailing host Dick Haymes. Clark's last radio broadcast found him in very high spirits, clowning with Maxene, LaVerne, and Patty Andrews. He joined them for a comical rendition of "Baby Face," during which Buddy amused the CBS studio audience, as well as the famous swing trio of sisters, with his spot-on Al Jolson impression.

Clark joined five friends in renting a small plane to attend a Stanford vs. Michigan State college football game. On the way back to Los Angeles after the game, the plane ran out of fuel, lost altitude, and crashed on Beverly Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

Clark survived the initial crash by being thrown from the plane, but died hours later in a hospital from his injuries, the only one on the plane to have perished. And so one of the great stars of the post war years had lost his life. In those short two and a half years, Clark had placed twenty three records on the best seller lists, ten of which cracked the top ten, and three of which were number one records. An unexpected and tragic death had robbed America of one of its most talented and enduring singing stars.

For his contributions to the music industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. (Info edited from Wikipedia & Interlude Era)

Isabelle Aubret (born 27 July 1938) is a French singer. She permanently pays tribute to the greatest artists and her repertoire is worth the best anthologies of classic French music.

A promising gymnast as a child, she won the French national championships in 1952 but, by her late teens, she had turned her attention to singing. Discovered by the music director of a local

radio station, she was recruited as featured vocalist to a Le Havre orchestra and, in 1960, she won a singing competition at the Paris Olympia. There she came under the wing of the hall's director, Bruno Coquatrix, who secured her a cabaret spot in the Pigalle.

Aubret released her debut single in 1961, "Nous les Amoureux" -- the following year, French vocalist Jean-Claude Pascal would win the Eurovision Song Contest (for Luxembourg) with the same song. Aubret herself entered France's domestic Eurovision qualifiers for the first time that same year, when she finished second. The following year, however, her performance of "Un Premier Amour" was victorious, both nationally and on the international stage.

A tour with singer Jean Ferrat (who wrote her hit "Deux Enfants au Soliel") brought Aubret further attention, as did several high-profile shows with Sacha Distel. She was also support act at Jacques Brel's legendary Olympia shows in March 1963; her career came to a

shattering halt, however, when she was involved in a serious car accident. She would be laid up for much of the next three years, but both Ferrat and Brel ensured she would not be forgotten.

Ferrat wrote her a new song, "C'Est Beau la Vie," which she recorded despite being totally incapacitated at the time, while Brel gifted her with the lifetime rights to one of her favorite songs of his, "La Fanette." In 1965, still convalescing, Aubret made a heroic return to the stage, opening for Salvatore Adamo at the Olympia, but it was 1968 before she was truly back in action, when she returned to Eurovision and finished in third

place with "La Source."

She toured throughout the remainder of the 1960s and, in 1970, she returned to the domestic Eurovision qualifiers when she performed a duet with Daniel Bératta on the runner-up "Olivier Olivia." But she was clearly on her way down in the public eye, a victim of both changing musical tastes and her own avowedly left-wing politics. Singles "The Partisan" and "Casa Forte" were scarcely promoted, and she was all but blackballed from national TV.

A new album in 1973, Le Soleil Est dans une Orange, marked the beginning of her rehabilitation, and in 1976 she was back in the Eurovision qualifiers, performing "Je Te Connais Déjà." Four years later, Japanese fans voted her the World's Best Singer, while her

albums Berceuse pour une Femme (1977) and Une Vie (1979) were both major successes.

Tragedy struck again in 1981 when Aubret broke both legs while rehearsing a trapeze act with boxer Jean-Claude Bouttier. Although she continued recording sporadically, and even returned to Eurovision one last time, performing "France France" in the 1983 qualifying contest, it would be 1984 before she released another album, Le Monde Chante, and 1986 before she could return to the road.

This period also saw the release of the compilation Isabelle Aubret Chante Jacques Brel. Her political past was forgotten now, and French media finally embraced her. Released in 1985, the single "1789" was a success, while the album Vague à l'Homme was universally praised for its patronage of rising songwriters Romain

Didier, Danielle Messia, and Allain Leprest. The latter also opened for her when she appeared at the Olympia in 1987 for her first Paris shows since the early '70s.

She marked the bicentenary of the French revolution with the album 1989, while the 1990s opened with another acclaimed long-player, a collection of English-language jazz standards, In Love. This was followed by what many regard as her finest album yet, a 1992 collection devoted to the work of French poet Louis Aragon. Another release that same year, Coup de Coeur, brought together Aubret's interpretations of some of her favorite French songwriters -- Brel and Ferrat, of course, but also Serge

Gainsbourg, Francis Cabrel, Charles Trenet, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Henri Salvador, and Guy Béart. And she crowned the year by accepting the Légion d'Honneur award from French president Mitterrand.

The hit album C'Est le Bonheur was released in 1993, while 1996 brought a live show dedicated (like the earlier album) wholly to the works of Louis Aragon. A boxed compilation of albums dedicated to Aragon, Brel, and Ferrat followed, before 1998 saw her tour France (and Quebec) with a new stage show, this time built exclusively around Brel. She saw out the 20th century with a new album dedicated to songs about Paris and is still active singing and releasing albums. (Info Dave Thompson)

Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television.

He was educated in Antioch, California, and left following graduation from the old Riverview High School. He obtaned his MA degree from the San Jose College.

Carmen Dragon began his musical career as an arranger with Meredith Willson's orchestra. He was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Tomorrow (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950). With Morris Stoloff, he shared the 1944 Oscar for the popular Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin. He made a popular orchestral arrangement of "America the Beautiful" and also re-arranged it for symphonic band.

Carmen Dragon conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra (which he conducted for ten years), and they performed on The Standard School Broadcast, broadcast on NBC in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970’s.

The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now the Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. He also conducted the Capitol Symphony orchestras, and he composed, conducted and arranged for a number of American radio and television programs (including the Standard School Broadcast in 1949). He also conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestrac, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and several British television series, and he was a guest conductor for a number of American symphony orchestras. He joined ASCAP in 1950.

Carmen Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for Capitol Records during the 1950’s with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Some of these recordings have been reissued by EMI on CD. Dragon appeared as himself briefly at the end of the 1979 film The In-Laws, conducting the fictitious Paramus Philharmonic.

Carmen Dragon’s accomplishments include: Oscar winner

(Cover Girl, 1944); Emmy winner (Christmas television special, 1964); Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (5,000 hours of radio broadcasts); Music Educator (Standard School Broadcast - a national music education program broadcast directly into elementary classrooms); Orchestrator Extraordinaire (Internationally acclaimed for his unique, lush style); Conductor/Music Director (20 years with the prestigious Glendale Symphony Orchestra and orchestras world- wide); Recording Artist (featured on over 39 recordings with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Capitol Symphony); Film Composer (over 30 films including Cover Girl and the 1950's cult classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The Antioch Unified School District named one of its new elementary schools in his honor. Carmen Dragon Elementary School opened in September 2004.

Of the legacies left behind by Carmen Dragon, the most accessible are the many wonderful orchestrations of pops and light classics available for rental through Carmen Dragon Music Library.

Dragon's lush arrangements are appreciated by conductors and musicians for their rich musical content and diversity of style, and every audience enjoys his unique way of expressing emotion through music.

His children: Son, Daryl Dragon of the 1970s pop music duo The Captain & Tennille; Daughter, Carmen E. Dragon (died July 11, 2010), classical worldwide harpist; Son, Dennis Dragon, drummer for the popular surf band Surf Punks; also produced much of The Captain & Tennille's music; Daughter, Kathryn Dragon Henn, Manager of Mr. Dragon's Orchestral Pops Rental Library. He was father-in-law of Toni Tennille.

Carmen Dragon died of cancer, aged 69, in a Santa Monica, California hospital, on March 28, 1984.

(Info edited from Carmen Dragon Website; Wikipedia & IMDB)

Ole Erling was born Erling Axel Olsen on July 29th 1938 in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark. Although he grew up in a musical home, it was not immediately apparent that Erling, the youngest of three brothers, would have a career as a professional

musician. He worked for a period as a caretaker, and then trained as an electrician.

He was once called in to the "Hammondhuset" in the Stroget in Copenhagen (a store specialising in organs), to repair a light. He heard the sound of the "Hammond" organ being played by a skilled musician, and suddenly decided that he would like to learn. Erling bought a "Hohner" organ from an orchestra in Italy which had run out of money, and were selling their instruments.

After a period of practice, he began performing at weddings and

other religious events, and eventually became a 'banquet' musician (in Danish, a "suppe-steg-og-is-musiker"). He took a stage name, Ole Erling, and in 1968 received an engagement at the Hotel Marina (by now he was playing an American "Baldwin" organ). His career gained further momentum when he began self-funding the release of gramophone records, cassettes and tape reels filled with 'fun music', as well as containing more lively repertoire. He then set up his own record label ('Populær Musik', later 'PM Musik'), and achieved some chart success, which progressed his career further.

Here's " How Deep Is Your Love" from above album

However, in the early 1980s interest in organ music was waning in Denmark, and his career slowed almost to a stop. Erling returned to the music scene after buying one of the new "Wersi" organs, happily coinciding with resurgence in interest in organ music, and for several years he played at the Langeland Festival.

In 2015, he sold his record company, and drastically reduced his concert appearances, though he still occasionally released new CDs, though they were now available only online. As an expert in making music with computers, Erling also became a fixture at the annual "Umbraco" developer conference in Copenhagen. Ole Erling died in Smørum on February 20th 2016, aged 77. (Info da.Wikipedia & IMDB)

From the 70´s. A Danish documentary about great Danish organ stars. Ole Erling & Peter Erling.

Benny Featherstone (July 30, 1912 –April 06, 1977) is considered "one of the most fascinating and gifted musicians in the history of Australian jazz". Once described as "Australia's Louis Armstrong. He was the first notable Australian jazz improviser who mastered many instruments - trumpet, trombone, clarinet and piano. But most of all he was an excellent drummer.

His family moved to Melbourne c.1918 where Benny attended Melbourne Grammar and played trombone with the school orchestra and its Footwarmers band (1926-1927). He was the drummer with Joe Watson and His Green Mill/Wentworth Hotel Orchestra (1929-1931) and recorded with them and the Beachcombers (1930).

Here's Joe Watson & His Green Mill Orchestra : You're The Cream In My Coffee, Recorded in Melbourne 1929.

Musicians: Joe Watson George Dobson t, Don Binney tb, Arthur Morton Les Paine as cl, Tiny McMahon ts cl, George McWhinney p, Tris Hill bj, Vic Woods bb, Benny Featherstone d, Jack O'Hagan v.

During 1931-1933 he worked with bands led by Maurice Guttridge, Les Raphael, Ern Pettifer, Geoff Smith and the 3DB Radio studio band. He went to England in mid 1933 where he heard and met Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and played a short

engagement at the Silver Slipper Club. On his return to Melbourne he joined Art Chapman’s New Embassy Band and led a group at Rex Cabaret (which included Frank Coughlan).

He went to Sydney in late 1934 to front Ben Featherstone’s Famous Band for a twelve-month residency at the Manhattan Club/Cabaret but returned home when the club went bankrupt after eight weeks. Led the Commodore Cabaret band and was with Art Chapman’s orchestra at Wattle Palais until reforming his band in late 1935. From mid 1937 he worked with popular dance, swing and show bands including those led by Harold Wray, Charles Rutherford, Bob Tough, Don Rankin, Mick

Walker, Bob White, Bill O’Flynn, Mickey Powell and Claude Carnell.

He contributed to the legendary Fawkner Park Kiosk jam sessions on weekends and led his own swing quartet, sextet, Six Stars of Swing and Dixielanders (with Roger Bell and Pixie Roberts). He joined the merchant navy in late 1943, played in American Servicemen’s clubs in Queensland, was in Oakland USA on VP Day (15 August 1945), then disappeared from the music scene, became a shipping clerk (1958-1975) and was inactive musically except for occasional jam sessions at parties and a Bob Clemens’ Downbeat Town Hall Concert in 1954.

He became reclusive in his later years and died in Melbourne 6^th April 1977.

(Info and photos very scarce, but managed to find this article by Ernst Grossman from Jazzline)

Roy Fredrick Bargy (July 31, 1894 – January 16, 1974) was an American composer and pianist.

Roy Frederick Bargy was born in Newaygo, Michigan on July 31,

1894 but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. When he was five years old, he started taking piano lessons which lasted until he was 17. Aspiring to the concert stage, he soon realized that unless he could study in

Europe he wouldn't be able to break into the tight classical music world in America. The musical establishment until after the Second World War didn't permit American artists access to the concert halls and operatic stages unless they had extensive training abroad.

Rebuffed from his chosen career, Roy hung around the District in Toledo listening to such black pianists as Johnny Walters and Luckey Roberts. Like many another teenage prodigy, he soon got jobs playing piano and organ after school at the local movie houses. For school dances he organized his own orchestra.

Roy's 1917 draft card shows him listed as a musician playing for a Toledo country club. He ended up being enlisted for five months of 1918, serving in the Army in Central Officer's Training School in

Georgia, and was honorably discharged at the end of November. In a Music Trade Review article of September 13, 1919, it was noted that: "Mr. Bargy was in an officers' training camp when the Germans resigned, and while in the service was a great organizer of bands and orchestras among the soldiers. He has played in many parts of the country and wherever he has appeared his true musicianship has been appreciated."

Bargy's first professional break came in 1919 when he auditioned for manager Charley Straight at the Imperial Player Rolls company. He began by recording his own piano novelties and arranging popular songs. He was chosen by Imperial to challenge QRS's new star of novelty piano, Zez Confrey, who had a similar background in the classics and who a year earlier began to create syncopated novelties. While Roy was hired to compete with Confrey, he was in no way imitating him, and although his compositions didn't meet the fantastic popularity Confrey's did, they were equal in inventiveness.

Bargy (the pianist) leading the Benson Orchestra 1922

In 1920, while working for Imperial, Straight introduced Roy to Edgar Benson, a booking agent who had formed a band to record for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Benson was impressed with Roy's musicianship and hired him as pianist, arranger and musical director of the dance orchestra. Roy recorded six piano solos (mostly in the novelty ragtime style) of interest during 1922-24 that, along with his 11 piano rolls, were reissued on a Folkways LP. His best-known composition is "Pianoflage."

The Victor recordings established Bargy as a triple-threat talent and provided him with the means to secure his services in similar capacities for such distinguished dance bands as those led by composer-saxophonist Isham Jones. Roy then began a twelve-year association with the greatest dance orchestra, Paul Whiteman's, in 1928 where his "legitimate" technique allowed him to play both credible jazz and classical solos such as "Rhapsody In Blue."In 1928 he was the first pianist to record George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (in an arrangement by Ferde Grofé). Bargy eventually became second in command within the band and continued to work with Whiteman until 1940.

In 1940 Bargy was very active in radio as a conductor. He led bands for the studio orchestras of Lanny Ross, Xavier Cugat and

Gerry Moore.In 1943 he became Jimmy Durante's musical director.. He is known for his work on All Star Revue (1950), The Jimmy Durante Show (1954) and The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950).

There was a brief reunion of Roy with Paul Whiteman in 1953 when the two played along with others in a travelling revue. An ad for them in Reno in July, 1953, shows the "King of Jazz" on the same bill as the "Piano Extraordinary" of Bargy along with some teen-aged musical acts from Whiteman's television show. Unfortunately, performing became more difficult for Roy in the mid-to-late-1950s due to the onset of arthritis, so appearances by Bargy with Whiteman or Durante diminished throughout the decade. One of their last performances together was for Durante's Fiftieth Anniversary in Show Business special, broadcast in full colour on NBC Television on August 9, 1961.

Both Jimmy and Roy retired in 1963 with Roy spending most of his time playing golf, a sport also enjoyed by Zez Confrey. Roy died at his home in Vista, California on January 16, 1974. Although Bargy left behind only a few compositions, his contributions to recorded jazz are considerable but hard to measure because he left his imprint in so many places.

(Info various, mainly edited from www ragtime.ru)

Ronnie Kemper (b. 1 August 1907, Missoula, Montana, USA, d. 16 February 1997, Sacramento, California, USA) was a big band singer and pianist known for his recording of "Cecilia."

A native Californian, Kemper developed as a musician in high school and in 1930 joined the dance band of Dick Jurgens. The band regularly played Chicago's Aragon Ballroom and the Catalina Casino. Kemper also sang with Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights and appeared with them in the 1941 movie "Pot O'Gold."

Recorded January 23, 1940, Ronnie Kemper's best-remembered vocal with the Jurgens band is a somewhat over-the-top performance, perhaps partially inspired by the stylized delivery of 'Whispering' Jack Smith, who had initially helped popularize this tune back in 1926.

He used this reputation to piece together his first dance band in San Francisco with vocalist Ruth Russell. The most notable musical sideman was Claude Gordon, who would later form a dance band in his own right. Original compositions were written for the purpose, including ‘It’s A Hundred To One (I’m In Love)’, ‘Knit One - Purl Two’, ‘The Doodlebug Song’ and ‘What You Gonna Do With Somebody Else’, though their theme tune remained ‘Cecilia’, which always garnered a rapturous reception from audiences.

Ronnie Kemper & Bandleader, Horace Heidt

Kemper also recorded "I'm a Little Teapot."

However, Horace Heidt was reluctant to free Kemper from his contract with him, which stipulated that his musicians could only be released if America was attacked during World War II. Luckily for Kemper, a Japanese submarine made a token effort at bombarding Brookings, Oregon, in the summer of 1942 and thus facilitated Kemper’s freedom.

Kemper took up the cudgels and began touring in earnest, but his career ended prematurely when he was, ironically, called into the services himself. After the war ended he chose not to pursue his band leading career.

The singer also had a radio show based in Los Angeles and hosted "Kemper's Kapers" on Channel 13. He played for many years at San Francisco's Domino Club and organized "Kemper Clambake" variety shows for that city's Press Club. He later performed in Sacramento and on cruise ships. Kemper led a drive in the mid-1980s to place a historical plaque at the site of the former Rendezvous Ballroom in Newport Beach.

He died On Feb 16, 1997 in Sacramento of a heart attack.

(Info edited from Los Angeles Times & AMG)

Doris Kenner-Jackson (August 2, 1941 in Goldsboro, North Carolina – February 4, 2000) was a member (and occasional lead singer) of the Shirelles.

Addie, Beverly, Doris & Shirley

Doris Kenner-Jackson, known publicly by her maiden name of Doris Coley, was one of the quartet who enjoyed a run of million-sellers in America between 1959 and 1965, and transformed popular music. With Addie "Micki" Harris, Beverly Lee and Shirley Owens, she formed the group that became the Shirelles for a high school talent show in 1957. There, as the Poquelles, they sang I Met Him On A Sunday - the song that was to be their first single.

Coley was born in the southern state of North Carolina but, like many black families, her parents moved north and she was brought up in Passaic, New Jersey. A classmate, Mary Jane Greenberg, told her music-business mother about the group's school appearance and Flo rence Greenberg became their manager, signing them to Scepter/Wand, her record label.

Shirley, Beverly, Doris & Addie

With their name now changed again, from the Honeytones, the Shirelles first million-seller was a bal lad, Tonight's The Night, but it was swiftly followed by the groundbreaking Will You Love Me. The Shirelles became a major influence on the young white British music scene of the early 1960s, where any musician clued in to mod culture was looking towards soul and r&b, and listening to a clutch of black female vocal groups: the Shirelles, Crystals, Chiffons and Marvelettes. Nowhere was this influence more noticeable than on the white female singers of the day, particularly Dusty Springfield, whose early records are homage to these groups.

Shirley, Addie, Beverly & Doris

Coley, Harris, Lee and Owens were leading exponents of "uptown r&b", so named because it came out of New York, rather than the southern states. In the 1950s, the city saw a blossoming of independent, black-run labels and black venues, like Harlem's Apollo and the Brooklyn Fox. New York also boasted the Brill Building music factory, where young white songwriting teams - including Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Gerry Goffin and Carole King - put out thoughtful teenage love songs which were snapped up by the black groups.

Goffin and King provided the Shirelles with Will You Love Me, though it was transformed by Luther Dixon's production, overlaying an r&b rhythm section with lush mellow string arrangements behind the slightly nasal voices of the group.

With Greenberg and Dixon, the Shirelles had three more million-sellers: Baby It's You, Everybody Loves A Lover and Dedicated To The One I Love. The last, originally written by Lowman Pauling for his group the Five Royales, featured Doris Coley on lead, and also gave the white Californian group, the Mamas and Papas, a hit in 1967.

Shirelles & Luther Dixon

The Shirelles toured America and Europe through the 1960s, with Coley billed as Doris Kenner after her first marriage. But, by mid-decade - like many of the original girl groups - they had been superseded by the more sophisticated Motown female sound epitomised by the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas. In 1968, Coley left the group to concentrate on her family - Doris had re-married and was now Doris Jackson - but she returned in 1975 when the Shirelles were playing the oldies circuit.

The last recorded performance of The Shirelles was in 1996 at their old high school. Doris performed with two other members of the Shirelles, Beverly Lee of Passaic and Shirley Alston Reeves (born Shirley Owens) of Hillside. The fourth Shirelle, Addie "Mickie" Harris, died in 1982. "God, it feels good to be here," Jackson said during that performance, which

ended in a shower of flowers, proclamations, honorary diplomas, and a standing ovation. None of the four students graduated with their class of 1958, but they earned diplomas later. The following night, the Shirelles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Manhattan.

Despite her two-year fight with breast cancer, she was entertaining audiences until a few weeks before her death. At the age of 58, Doris Kenner-Jackson died on February 4, 2000, at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento, CA.

(Info edited, mainly from the Guardian obit)

Marilyn Maxwell (August 3, 1921 – March 20, 1972), born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell, was an American actress and entertainer. A sex symbol of the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared in several radio programs and films as a curvaceous, platinum-haired, sparkling-eyed leading lady and entertained the troops during World War II

and the Korean War on USO tours with Bob Hope. She was often called "the other Marilyn", and like Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Maxwell had an equally short and tragic life.

Maxwell was born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell on August 3, 1921. Her parents tried to get her in show business at a young age, and she was trained as a dancer as early as age 3. Miss Maxwell's show business career began when she was a child under the tutelage of her piano-teacher mother, Mrs. Harry E. Maxwell of Clarinda. After leaving Clarinda when Marilyn was five, Mrs. Maxwell toured the country as an accompanist. Harry Maxwell died in 1950 at Tabor, where he farmed. Mrs. Maxwell died in 1951. Miss Maxwell missed the funerals of both her parents because she was on USO tours for American servicemen around the world.

Maxwell started her professional entertaining career as a radio singer while still a teenager before signing with MGM in 1942 as a contract player. The head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, insisted she change the "Marvel" part of her real name. She dropped her first name and kept the middle. During the 1940s, she also appeared with Bing Crosby on his "Kraft Music Hall" radio program. Maxwell never made it really big in Hollywood but some of her film roles included Lost in a Harem (1944), Champion (1949), The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958). The Christmas carol classic "Silver Bells" made its debut in The Lemon Drop Kid, sung by Maxwell and Hope.

Here's "Tess's Torch Song" from above album.

On television, Maxwell appeared twice as a singer in the second season (1955–1956) of NBC's The Jimmy Durante Show. On May 16, 1957, she guest starred on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the 1961-1962 television season,

Maxwell played Grace Sherwood, owner of the diner on ABC's 26-episode Bus Stop, a drama about travellers passing through the fictitious town of Sunrise, Colorado.

She married MGM actor John Conte in 1944 in The Little Church Around the Corner in New York City; they divorced two years later. Her second marriage to restaurateur Anders McIntyre lasted one year. Her third marriage to writer/producer Jerry Davis produced a son, Matthew who was born on April 26, 1956. They divorced after six years of marriage.

According to Arthur Marx's Bob Hope biography "The Secret Life of Bob Hope," Marilyn Maxwell had a long term affair with

Marilyn and Bob Hope

comedian Bob Hope. He gave her constant work in the 1940s and 1950s on radio as well as touring with him on his many USO shows. The affair with Maxwell was so open that the Hollywood community routinely referred to her as "Mrs. Bob Hope." Also during this time it was reported that Marilyn had an affair with singer Frank Sinatra. The affair was briefly touched upon in the television movie "Sinatra" in 1992.

Despite finding love in all the wrong places, Maxwell was widely loved among her friends. A close friend of Rock Hudson, she helped closet his homosexuality by making frequent public

appearances with him and teasing reporters about how their relationship was "only a friendship."

By the 1960s, alcohol had taken its toll on Maxwell's career and looks. At her lowest point in 1967 she was discovered to be performing in a burlesque show as a stripper in Queens, New York. On March 20, 1972, Maxwell's 15-year-old son arrived home from school and found her dead at the age of fifty of an apparent heart attack, after she had been treated for hypertension and pulmonary disease. Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Jack Benny were honorary pallbearers at her funeral. Hope gave a memorable eulogy, and Rock Hudson looked after her son during the funeral and years afterward.

(Info mainly bio from David Lobosco @ greatentertainersarchives.blogspot)

Louis Armstrong (4 August 1901* – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo and Pops, was an American jazz musician. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose inspired, improvised soloing was the main influence for a fundamental change in jazz, shifting its focus from collective melodic playing, often arranged in one way or another, to the solo player and improvised soloing. One

of the most famous jazz musicians of the 20th century, he first achieved fame as a cornet player, later on switching to trumpet, but toward the end of his career he was best known as a vocalist and became one of the most influential jazz singers.

Perhaps if he hadn’t fired that borrowed pistol into the air to celebrate New Year's 1913, Armstrong might have never been a professional musician at all. The frightened 12-year-old boy was arrested by a very annoyed police officer and sent to the New Orleans Coloured Waifs' Home for Boys to ponder his infamy. Fortunately for Louis, and the musical world as well, he fell under the influence of Peter Davis, the home’s musical instructor. Davis recognized the talent in the young black boy. He taught him singing, percussion and, finally, the trumpet.

Fortune turned her back on him at first. Louis Daniel Armstrong

was born on August 4, 1901, in the Storyville District of New Orleans. It was a rough and tumble neighbourhood, populated by street toughs and so crowded that one could barely find standing room. His father was a labourer who abandoned the family soon after Louis’ birth. His mother was a part-time prostitute.

Young Louis was desperately poor. His only way to earn a living -- other than stealing, which he never resorted to -- was to sing on street corners for nickels. The gun incident in 1913, and his subsequent incarceration, made Louis determined to wiggle from the grasp of poverty.

Louis Armstrong, King Oliver , Lil Hardin

Louis was released from the boy’s home when he was 14. He worked at any honest job that would provide food for his aching belly. At night, he haunted the dive bars that dotted the Storyville District, listening to the jazz bands that were just coming into prominence. His favourite musician was Joe “King” Oliver with the Kid Ory Band.

Oliver took a liking to the friendly, earnest young man and became his mentor as Peter Davis had done a few years before. By the age of 17, Armstrong and his horn sat with several of the numerous bands that played New Orleans.

In 1919, Armstrong was so deft that he moved to St. Louis to join Fate Marable’s band. It was an exciting two years for young Louis because Marable’s band played on paddle wheelers owned by the Streckfus Mississippi Boat Lines. The young musician spent most of his time playing the river and playing to appreciative riverboat passengers.

In the meantime Louis’ mentor, King Oliver, left Kid Ory and had formed his own ensemble. After Oliver moved to Chicago, Louis returned to New Orleans and replaced him in Kid Ory’s Band. Three years later, with speakeasies booming in the Windy City, Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his Creole Jazz Band. It was there that Armstrong fell in love with, and married, Lillian Hardin, Oliver’s pianist.

By the middle 1920s, Louis Armstrong’s star was rapidly rising. He formed a band called the “Hot Five” and cut his first records for Okeh in 1925, including the famous rendition of “St. Louis Blues” with Bessie Smith. The Hot Five -- later the Hot Seven -- existed for three years, but never played a live date. Rather it was formed for recording purposes only. In the meantime, Armstrong continued playing in other bands.

Louis Armstrong's Hot Five

By 1929, Louis Armstrong was becoming a very big jazz star. Now he had his own performance group -- Louis Armstrong and the Stompers. He also toured with the show “Hot Chocolates”. But small bands were on their way out. It was the 1930s and swing was in vogue. That meant bands had to be larger. Armstrong moved to

Los Angeles and organized a group called Louis Armstrong and his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra. But he was unwilling to settle in one place. He and Lillian Hardin had divorced so he was footloose.

Armstrong travelled to Chicago where he organized a touring band. Their first stop was New Orleans. His friends from the old days remembered him well and welcomed him with open arms, but elements of the white population greeted the conquering hero with less enthusiasm. Armstrong got a bitter taste of racism when a white radio announcer refused to announce his name on the air in connection with a free concert -- simply because he was black.

Nevertheless, Armstrong’s touring band was an immense success.

Not only did he extensively tour the United States, but Europe as well. When he returned in 1935, he hired Joe Glaser as his manager. Glazer remained until Armstrong’s death in 1971.

By the end of World War II, swing music was on its way out and bands, again, became smaller. At a Town Hall concert in New York, he introduced the six piece group that he would use off and on for the rest of his life -- the All Stars. They complimented his style perfectly.

In the 1950s, Armstrong teamed up with other singers to make recordings -- Bing Crosby, Louis Jordan and Gary Crosby. Then in 1957, he made some tracks with Ella Fitzgerald, backed up by the Oscar Peterson trio. While working with Peterson, Armstrong took to opportunity to record his first big hit to feature his famous throaty voice -- “Mack The Knife”. Other hits followed -- “Hello, Dolly” and “What A Wonderful World”. His popularity had now reached its zenith. Armstrong toured the

world as an unofficial goodwill ambassador for America. Then his health began to fail him.

For the last three years of his life he was in and out of the hospital, but he continued recording and performing until July 6, 1971 when he died in his sleep at home in Queens, New York. With Louis Armstrong’s death, jazz had lost its greatest master.

*Armstrong said he was not sure exactly when he was born, but celebrated his birthday on July 4. He usually gave the year as 1900 when speaking in public (although he used 1901 on his Social Security and other papers filed with the government). Using Roman Catholic Church documents from when his grandmother took him to be baptized, New Orleans music researcher Tad Jones established Armstong’s actual date of birth as August 4, 1901. With various other collaborative evidence, this date is now accepted by Armstrong scholars. (info mainly from mnmn.essortment.com)

Willie Nix (August 6, 1922 – July 8, 1991) was an American Chicago blues singer and drummer, active in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, in the 1940s and 1950s.

Willie Nix came out of the rural South with a great beat and a way with lyrics that made him something of a topical urban poet. Despite recordings for RPM and Sun, and then Chance in Chicago, he never advanced beyond the ranks of the also-rans in the quest

for blues success, in either Memphis or Chicago; however, if anyone ever deserved to do better based on the evidence that's left behind, it was Willie Nix.

Born in Memphis, as a child he learned to tap dance, later working as a teenager as part dancer, part comedian, with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. This led to work in various variety shows in the 1940s, and Nix later became a part of the blues scene that grew up around Beale Street. His

musical work saw him appear on local radio with Robert Lockwood Jr., and work alongside Willie Love, Joe Willie Wilkins and Sonny Boy Williamson II, billed as the Four Aces, who toured the Deep South.

Nix joined B.B. King and Joe Hill Louis for appearances on Memphis radio, and worked with The Beale Streeters during the late '40s. He made his first records in Memphis for RPM in 1951, and cut sides for Chess Records' Checker offshoot in 1952. Nix wrote the songs "Nervous Wreck" and "Try Me One More Time", and reworked others such as Catfish Blues and Curtis Jones' Lonesome Bedroom Blues.

Sam Philips signed him up as "the Memphis Blues Boy" for Sun in early 1953, as a singing drummer with a band, and he later cut sides for Art Sheridan's Chance label in Chicago. He worked with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Johnny Shines, and Memphis Slim during the mid '50s, but at the end of the decade was back in Memphis, and did a short stretch in prison late in the decade. In the late 1950s Nix was briefly a member of Willie Cobbs' band.

The next twenty years saw Nix perform sporadically, and as his

health declined, his behaviour became more eccentric. He did not record again, although his mid-1950s work is held in high regard for his lyrical dexterity and compelling beat.

Nix never saw any success as a recording artist, and never stayed with one label long enough to record anything resembling an album's worth of material. His work appears on various label compilations, however, and is distinctive for his driving beat and his extraordinary cleverness with lyrics, especially the Chance sides.

Nix died in Leland, Mississippi, in 1991. (Info edited from AMG & Wikipedia)

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