BIRTHDAYS
1966     Julian Arguelles, reeds and flute, b. Birmingham, England
1927     Cliff Ball, Double Bass/Bass Guitar, b. Fulham, London, England, UK.
1949     Eddie Bayers, drums, b. Pautaxant, MD, USA. Did you know that this Sessions drummer won the 'Academy of Country Music's' top Drummer award for five consecutive years?
1950     Barbi Benton, C&W vocals/actress, b. Sacramento, CA, USA. née: Barbara Klein. While she has released a number of excellent C&W albums, she nevertherless seems to be best recalled as a live-in playmate for Hugh M. Hefner [1969-1976], during which time she had at least two spreads in Playboy magazine, and for appearing is some "nudie" films.
1929     "Acker" Bilk, leader/Clarinet, b. Pensford, Somerset, England. né: Bernard Stanley Bilk. Nickname: "Acker" (English dialect for "friend") During the 1960s, his 11 top 50 singles, including a huge No. 1 hit, "Stranger on the Shore", made him a household name in countries around the world.
1980     Nicholas Carter, Paraguayan folk harp, b. Minnesota, USA. (raised in Paraguay) Member group: 'Backstreet Boys'
1965     Greg Cook, bass, b. Vian, OK, USA. Member group: 'Ricochet', a group formed by Heath Wright, (lead singer b. April 22, 1967, Vian, OK, USA), brothers Jeff and Junior Bryant (who had disbanded their own Texas-based band, Lariat), Greg Cook, Teddy Carr and Eddie Kilgallon.
1929     Russell H. Faith, piano/arranger, b. Horsham, PA, USA.
1977     Joseph Fatone, vocals, b. New York.(Brooklyn), NY, USA. Member group: ''N Sync'
1916     Niels Foss, Bass, b. Copenhagen, Denmark
1916     Robert "Bud" Garrett, guitar, b. Free Hall, TN, USA.
1954     John Gill, piano
1917     William Paul Gottlieb, author/photographer, b. New York (Brooklyn), NY, USA. d. April 23, 2006, Great Neck, NY, USA. (stroke) Age: 89. Although he would earn his living as an author of children's books, Bill Gottlieb will always be remembered by the music community for the wonderful photos of Jazz and Swing musicians that he took early in his career. While attending Lehigh College, he began writing a jazz column for a campus magazine. After graduation, he got a job with the advertising department of The Washington Post and soon persuaded an editor to let him write a Sunday Jazz column. When the paper decided that sending a photographer with him was too expensive, Gottlieb bought a 'Speed Graphic' camera with his own money. In 1941, he left the Post to attend the University of Maryland, where he did graduate study in economics while also teaching low-level classes. However, he also continued his sunday Post column. (Gottlieb later told interviewers that left the university when the school refused to let him teach a course on Jazz, for fear it would overly praise Black people.) In the early 1940s, he first got a U. S. Government job at the Office of Price Administration, and then, when America entered World War II, he was drafted into the Army Air Corps where he served as a photo officer. After his service discharge, Gottlieb worked as an editor and writer at 'Down Beat' magazine, while also continuing to take pictures. He also published articles and photos in 'The Record Changer', 'The Saturday Review' and 'Collier's' magazines. Gottlieb only took only a few pictures at a time because he could not afford flashbulbs and film (he wasn't paid for his photographs of the great names of Jazz). After less than a decade, he left the photography field. Then, 30 years later, after a successful career writing children's books and filmstrips, one of his good friends, Fred Bass, who owned the Strand bookstore in Manhattan, suggested the idea of a Jazz photo book. The result was "The Golden Age of Jazz" (1979). It is now in its 12th printing. Mr. Gottlieb later said that he decided to use "golden age" in the title because the 1940's were a time when almost all types of jazz, from the early New Orleans and Chicago styles to bebop, were being played simultaneously. The faces of that evanescent era were etched permanently by Mr. Gottlieb and only a handful of other photographers.
1906     'Blind Arvella' Gray, guitar, b. Somerville, TX, USA. né: Walter Dixon
1918     Bob Hilliard, lyricist, d. Feb 1, 1971
1951     Shinobu Ito, guitar/composer, b. Oiso City, Japan.
1954     Henry Johnson, guitar
1892     Luke Jordan, guitar, b. Appomattox City, VA, USA.
1944     Brian Keenan, drums, b. New York, NY, USA.
1957     Kent Kessler, Jazz bassist, b. ?Chicago, IL, USA. Among the groups with Kent has played are The Vandermark 5 (with saxophonist Mars Williams, trombonist Jeb Bishop, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Tim Mulvenna), DKV Trio (Kent Kessler, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake), and Steelwool Trio. In addition to working with sucn American Jazzmen as worked with legends that are closer to home, including Joe McPhee and Fred Anderson, he has also worked with a number of European Jazzmen such as Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg, and Dutch avant-garde saxophonist Luc Houtkamp, German Peter Brötzmann (in his Chicago Tentet), and Swedish avant-garde saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (in FJF), .
1948     Corky Laing, drums, b. Montreal, Canada. Member group: 'Mountain', a group originally co-founded by Corky and Leslie West (b. October 22, 1945 in New York (Queens, -Forest Hills), NY, USA), and also originally included producer/bassist Felix Pappalardi, drummer N.D. Smart, and keyboardist Steve Knight.
1918     Rolf Larsson, Piano, b. Linkoping, Sweden, d. May 5, 1991, Stockholm, Sweden
1922     Jack Lauderdale, label owner (Swingtime), b. San Antonio, TX, USA.
1941     Cash McCall, Gospel/Pop Guitar, b, New Madrid, MO, USA. né: Morris Dollison, Jr.
1968     Sarah McLachlan, vocals/guitar, b: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
1958     Kerry McCoy, Piano, b. Portland, OR, USA
1935     George Mgrdichian, (Virtuoso) Oud Player/(occasional) Bass. b. Phidelphia, PA, USA, d. April 30, 2006, New York, (Bronx), NY, USA. (cancer) Age:71. (pronounced: mog-ra-DEECH-ian). This son of Armenian immigrants was initially trained on the clarinet, and later taught himself to play thd oud. As a youngster, he played in local Philadelphia venues, but went on to earn his Bachelor's and then a Master's degree at New York's famed Juilliard School of Music. After his 1967 debut at New York's Town Hall, he was invited to play with the New York Philharmonic, perhaps the first time the oud shared a stage with a symphony orchestra. Very active all through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, Mgrdichian also played a prominent role in David Amram's bands of the '60s and '70s. Mgrdichian has been credited for taking the oud (aka: ud) from the cabaret stage to the concert stage. George can be heard on over sixty-five recordings and received numerous awards over the years. He was the first to bring the oud, a lute-like 11 string fretless pear-shaped instrument (with a 2000 year history), out of the belly dancing clubs and into Classical music venues like Carnegie Hall. Mgrdichian was as comfortable playing a "shalako" (happy Armenian music) meant to accompany a solo male dancer, as he was playing J. S. Bach. At one time (late '70s), he even contemplated adapting the score of the hit movie "Star Wars" for the oud. He was an early exemplar of what is now called called 'world music' (or world fusion music).
1948     Bob Moses, percussion, drums, keyboards, vocal, composer, b. New York, NY, USA.
1968     Lawrence Muggerud (DJ Muggs), vocals, b. Los Angeles, CA, USA. Member group: 'Cypress Hill', the first Latino hip-hop superstars. The original incarnation, DVX,formed in 1986 with Cuban-born brothers Sen Dog (né: Senen Reyes, b. Nov. 20, 1965) and 'Mellow Man Ace', 'Muggs' (né: Lawrence Muggerud), and 'B Real' (né: Louis Freese, b. June 2, 1970). They also achieved notoriety for their goal of legalizing marijuana.
1880     Louis "Big Eye" Nelson, clarinet, accordion, guitar, banjo and violin, b. New Orleans, LA, USA, d. August 20, 1949, New Orleans, LA, USA. (some sources say b. 1885). né: Louis Nelson DeLisle. Worked with Buddy Bolden, Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Rena, and "Jelly Roll" Morton. (CAUTION: No relation to trombonist Louis Nelson, although they sometimes played together)
1951     William Nelson Jr., bass, b. Plainfield, NJ, USA.
1917     Mert Oliver, Bass, b. Herndon, VA, USA
1936     Bill Phillips, C&W Singer-Songwriter/Guitar/Actor, b. Canton, NC, USA. né: William Clarence Phillips.
1899     Zilner Randolph, Trumpet, piano, arranger, leader, composer, b. Dermott, AR, USA. d. Feb. 2, 1994 Randolph studied music at Biddle University in North Carolina, the Kreuger Conservatory in St. Louis, MO, and the Wisconsin Conservatory in Milwaukee. He subsequently found work in some Milwaukee-based territory bands, including four years with Bernie Young. He next relocated to Chicago, IL, and - interestingly - led a number of orchestras that were fronted by other men. During March 1931 to March 1932, and parts of 1933 and 1935, his band was at times fronted by Louis Armstrong. Randolph may be heard playing trumpet in the band backing Armstrong on some of those '31-'32 recordings. In 1935, Randolph's composition "Old Man Mose" became famous when Armstrong recorded it. (The tune again became popular in the 1960s when singer Teresa Brewer had a huge hit with the song, --and the royalties were greatly appreciated by Zilner.) In 1934, Zilner also played with Carroll Dickerson and Dave Peyton, and led From 1935 - 1937. Zilneer led his "WPA Concert and Swing band", in Chicago, this time with Huey Long serving as guitarist, assistant arranger, and conductor. (WPA, Works Projects Administration, a U. S. A. governmental agency helping men to find employment during the great economic depression of the 1930s.) He was also contributing arrangements to many of the popular big bands including the Earl Hines, Woody Herman, Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington orchestra. In the 1940s, he led his own quartet. From the later 1940's on, Randolph worked primarily as a teacher although in 1951 he did record on piano. Zilner Randolph never recorded as a leader. He lived to be 95, -one of the last of the 1930s Louis Armstrong alumni. His involvement with Louis Armstrong during that 1930s brief period has insured him a place in the history of Jazz.
1944     Achim Reichel, vocals, b. Germany
1907     Bobby Sands, Tenor Saxophone, b. New York, NY, USA
1927     Ronnie Scott, Leader/Tenor Sax/Club owner, b. London, England, d. Dec 23, 1996. Age: 69
1959     Dave Sharp, guitar, b. Salford, Lancashire, England. Member group: 'The Alarm'
1933     Drink Small, guitar/vocals/songwriter, b. Bishopville (Lee County), South Carolina, USA. Speaking about himself, Drink once told an interviewer " They call me the blues Doctor 'cause I can play all the styles, bottleneck, ragtime, Piedmont Blues. I can tear them up, Chicago Blues; I am the blues Doctor."
1963     Dan Spitz, guitar, b. New York, NY, USA. Member group: 'Anthrax'
1916     Charles Henry "Baby" Tate, Blues singer/guitarist, b. Elberton, GA, USA. d. August 17, 1972, Columbia, SC, USA. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Greenville, SC, where the young Tate became friends with Bluesman "Blind Boy" Fuller, who taught him guitar and Blues singing. Later, Tate partnered with Pink Anderson for some years. In 1962, he recorded an album of traditional Blues. 10 years later, he again recorded, this time with a harmonica player named "Peg Leg" Sam.
1943     Dick Taylor, lead guitar, b. Dartford, Kent, England. Member group: 'The Pretty Things'
1934     Mac Thompson, bass, b. Holly Springs, MS, USA.
1929     John Williams, Piano, b. Windsor, VT, USA.
1945     Robert Wyatt, drums/radical political singer/songwriter, b. Bristol, England. Member group: 'Soft Machine'

         Notable Events occuring this date include:
1950.    "Kansas" Joe McCoy, guitar, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 44. Worked with 'Memphis Minnie'
1965.    Arthur Schutt, piano, arranger, composer, died
1972.    Charismatic singer/songwriter T. Texas Tyler died in Springfield, MO, USA. Age 55.
1974.    Ed Allen, trumpet, died in New York, NY, USA. Age: 76
1976.    Ray Nance, coronet/fiddle, died in New York City. Age 62.
1976.    "Skeeter" Willis, fiddle/vocals, died. Age: 58. Member: "The Willis Brothers", Formed 1932 and consisting of "Skeeter" Willis (Fiddle, Vocals, né: Charles Ray Clayton Willis, b. Coalton, Oklahoma, USA. d. Jan. 28, 1976), Guy Willis (Guitar, Vocals, MC, né: James Ulysses Willis, b. Alex, Arkansas, USA, d. April 13, 1981), and Vic Willis (Accordion, Piano, Vocals, né: John Victor Willis, b.Schulter, Oklahoma, USA. d. January 15, 1995)
1981.    Ray "Remo" Biondi, guitar/violin, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 75
1981.    Barry Kramer, publisher (Creem Magazine), died in Detroit, MI
1983.    "Sweet" Emma Barrett, piano, died in New Orleans, LA, USA. Age: 85
1984.    Al Dexter, C&W vocals, died (heart attack) in Lewisville, TX, USA. Age 78: (Best recalled release: "Pistol Packin' Mama")
1984.    Earl Taylor, C&W singer-songwriter, died. Age 54
1985.    Tommy Jarrell C&W fiddle/banjo died.
1992.    Judy Roderick, guitar, died in Grantsdale, MT, USA. Age: 49
2001.    Herb Wasserman drums, author, died (Cancer) Age: 78

         Songs Recorded/Released this date include:
       1949    Careless Hands, - Kaye, Sammy
       1956    No, Not Much!, - Four Lads
       1956    Moriat-Theme From A Three Penny Opera, - Hyman Trio, Dick
       1967    Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, - Casinos
       1967    Gimme Some Lovin', - Davis, Spencer
       1967    Beat Goes On, The, - Sonny & Cher
       1978    Thunder Island, - Ferguson, Jay
       1984    New Moon On Monday, - Duran Duran
       1984    I Want A New Drug, - Lewis, Huey & The News
       1984    Girls Just Want To Have Fun, - Lauper, Cyndi
       1989    Don't Tell Me Lies, - Breathe
       1989    Roni, - Brown, Bobby
       1989    Paradise City, - Guns N' Roses
       1989    Lost In Your Eyes, - Gibson, Debbie
       1989    My Heart Can't Tell You No, - Stewart, Rod