BIRTHDAYS
1948     "Skip" Alan, bass, b. London, England, UK, USA
1949     Frank Beard, drums, b. Frankston, TX, USA. Membr group: 'Z.Z. Top', a blues/rock trio formed by Beard in 1970, with guitarist Billy Gibbons, and bassist Dusty Hill.
1952     Nancy Blake, team of Norman and Nancy Blake
1939     Wilma Burgess, C&W vocals, b. Orlando, FL, USA
1910     Carmine Coppola, Composer, conductor, arranger and flutist, b. New York, NY, USA , d. April 26, 1991, Northridge, California, USA. Educated at New York's 'Manhattan School of Music' (BA, MA), he subsequently earned his Master's degree in music from New York's 'Juilliard School of Music'. From 1934 to 1936, he was principal flutist for New York's Radio City Music Hall orchestra, and from 1936 to 1941, was a member of the Detroit Symphony. During 1942 to 1948 he was a member of the NBC Synmphony Orchestra, then under the leadership of Arturo Toscannini. During 1948 to 1956, worked both as a staff arranger for Radio City Music Hall and also conducted (1948 to 1955) the 'Brooklyn Academy of Music's' opera orchestra. . It is interesting to recall that he was the flutist in the orchestra, under Winston Sharples, for 'Famous Studios' cartoons. For the Broadway stages, he was music director for "Once Upon a Mattress" and the touring companies of "Kismet" and "La Plume de Ma Tante". Carmine, the father of August Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola and Talia Shire, won an Oscar, and so there are now three generations of Oscar winners in the Coppola family: Carmine, his son Francis Ford Coppola, his grandson Nicolas Cage and his granddaughter Sofia Coppola. ( The 2nd family to do this, the first family was the Hustons - Walter Huston, Anjelica Huston, and John Huston.
1961     Kelley Deal, guitarist. Member: 'The Breeders.' (twin sisters)
1961     Kim Deal, bassist. née: Kimberly Ann Deal. Member: 'The Breeders.'
1940     Joey Dee, leader, b. Passaic, NY, USA. né: Joe DiNicola. Joey and his and band 'The Starlighters' rose to fame as part of the early 1960s 'twist' dance craze. Their 1961 recording of "The Peppermint Twist" was a huge hit. The tune was named for the venue in which they were working at the time, 'The Peppermint Lounge', a small grungy 'joint' that - after the tune became a hit - began to attract Socialites, who could be seen nightly gyrating the lower part of their bodies in time with the music. Three of the band members -Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish and Eddie Brigati - later became a part of the Young Rascals. (It is said that, in 1966, Jimi Hendrix briefly played with the Starlighters.)
1950     Lynsey de Paul, vocals, b. Great Britain.
1903     Jimmy Dudley, alto-Sax, clarinet, b. Hattiesburg, MS, USA. By age 13, he was playing the violin, and joined the Bert Bailey band. It was Bailey who got him to switch to reeds. Dudley was soon gigging in Milwaukee, WI, and in Detroit, MI, playing with leaders such as Charlie Creath and Eli Rice. A musician friend, Billy Minor, managed to get Dudley into 'McKinney's Cotton Pickers', where he played alongside Coleman Hawkins, and others.. In 1934 Dudley, began leading his own group, in Milwaukee at local clubs and broadcasts (not wishing to tour). In 1942, he worked as a sideman, this time with Bernie Young. When WW II ended, Dudley again began playing in various Milwaukee venues such as the Elbow Room and Thelma's Back Door. He died in the early 1970s
1910     Edwin Duhon, accordion, b. Youngsville, LA, USA. d. Feb. 26, 2006, Westlake, LA, USA. Age: 95. Duhon, who learned to play guitar as a teenager, began playing music with fiddler Luderin Darbone (born January 14, 1913, Evangeline, LA, USA), when they were neighbors in Hackberry, a remote oil field settlement in southwest Louisiana. As a child, Darbone had learned to play the violin from a correspondence course ordered for him by his mother. In 1933, during the great Economic Depression, they formed their band, the 'Hackberry Ramblers'. Interestingly, 70 years later, Duhon and Darbone were still making the good times roll with their lively blend of Cajun, Western Swing, and Gulf Coast dance music. Originally an acoustic trio -- two guitars and a fiddle -- the 'Hackberry Ramblers' were soon playing in dance halls throughout southwest Louisiana, and doing Monday morning remote radio broadcasts from a hotel in Lake Charles. Duhon first played acoustic guitar, but went on to play electric guitar, piano, double bass, harmonica, and accordion at various times. After nine months of this, Duhon got married and left the group to take a job working in the oil fields. The Hackberry Ramblers became known for bringing two innovations to the music of south Louisiana, blending Cajun repertoire with 'Western Swing' and Country songs, and introducing electronic amplification to local dance halls. Over the decades, dozens of sidemen appeared with the band, but Duhon, a multi-instrumentalist who played accordion exclusively from the 1990s on (as well as singing in French and English), and Darbone, the band's fiddler, remained the core of the Hackberry Ramblers. Late-in-life, these men reached heights undreamed of when they were playing rural dance halls in the 1930s: a Grammy-nominated album, European concerts, and appearances on ''MTV Live" and the Grand Ole Opry. In 2002, Duhon and Darbone received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington. The next year, Arhoolie Records released an anthology of some of the band's music recorded between 1935 and 1950. In 2003, the group flew to Paris, France, for a 'Hackberry Ramblers' performance at a Cajun-zydeco festival in Burgundy, France.
1926     Manny Duran, Trumpet, b. Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA. In 1956, he moved to New York city, where he briefly worked with jazz pianist Al Haig, His next job was a waiter at Café Behemia, a local Jazz club.. The first week that he worked at the club, he was invited to sit in with Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis. . In 1957, Puerto Rico-born Noro Morales hired him to play with his band, and Duran's career as a Latin musician began. In the 1950s and 1960s. he recorded with such Jazz stars as Dizzy Gillespie and Kai Winding, and worked with such Latin artists as Ray Barretto and Mario Bauza & His Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. He spent a decade with Cuban-born vocalist/maracas player Machito's band. Currently (2007), Duran continues to perform with 'Afro Bop', a Latin jazz septet that he formed in the late 1990s.
1904     Freddie Fisher, leader, Lourdes, Iowa, USA d. March 28, 1967, Aspen, CO, USA (Cardiac Arrest) In reporting on Fisher's 100th anniversary, Aspen Times reporter,Su Lum, in his column for June 9, 2004, observed:
      I have a hard time wrapping my mind around Freddie Fisher's upcoming 100th birthday. He
      was 63 when he died in 1967, and looked to me about 100 years old at the time, but now
       I'm four years older than he was then - gads. One thing I'm certain about is that if
      Freddie had lived to be 100 (something I wouldn't wish on anyone), he would have hated
      almost everything that has ;happened to Aspen. He might have liked the pooper-scooper
      and leash laws, but it was late-night barking that got his dander up regarding dogs
      - that and the early morning ringing of the Catholic bells. "Those G-----n bells!!!"
      he wrote to the local priest via a letter to the editor, "You ring 'em too loud and
      too early. It's too early to get up... and too late to go back to sleep and you win
      again. It's enough to make an atheist out of anybody." But Freddie would have hated
       what really killed Aspen, which was not specifically the condos or the trophy homes,
      the exclusive chain stores or the high-end hotels, but the PRETENTION. Aspen used to
      be the least pretentious place on the planet, which is the charm that drew many
      of us to it. Now it is the most pretentious place on the planet. The irony of this
      celebration of Freddie Fisher is that he wouldn't last a minute in this town today.
      Freddie was a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking drinker who looked like he had been fished
      out of the town dump he frequented, and had a fix-it (junk) shop taking up half a
      block of Main Street, where Asie and Gusto now stand. Aspen's most revered citizen
      was a guy of which it was said, "You could take him anywhere and be ashamed of him."
      Freddie Fisher was a brilliant musician and letter writer of keen wit and insight,
       but he was also a messy vitality kind of man whose reply to a dowager who asked
      how someone as disgusting as he could have such a beautiful daughter was,
      "Well, lady, I didn't do it with my face!"
1944     Gunther Gabriel, vocals, b. Germany.
1926     "Brother" Dave Gardner, C&W vocals/drums/comedy, b. Jackson, TN, USA.
1930     Johnny Glasel, Cornet, b. New York NY, USA. In the mid-1940s he was already playing jazz gigs with reedman and bandleader Bob Wilbur. In the early 1950s, after graduating from the Yale School of Music, Glasel worked with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and also played in several chamber music groups. Perhaps his most famous modern jazz recording is " Into the Hot " by Gil Evans. Glasel continues to play on pop and vocal music sessions, although much of his work is uncredited. He did help on both John Denver and Astrud Gilberto recordings.
1928     Robert "Bob" Gordon, sax, b. St. Louis, MO, USA, d. Aug. 28, 1955, Los Angeles, CA, USA,
1918     Irene Higginbotham, songwriter, b. Worcester, MA, USA
1934     James "Pookie" Hudson, vocalist. Was lead singer of 'The Spaniels', the 1950's "doo-wop" group.
1935     Jack Hudson, vocals, b. USA
1969     Dan Lavery, bassist. Member: 'Tonic'
1931     Bonnie Lee, vocals, b. Bunkie, LA, USA
1933     Nils Lindberg, Piano/Composer, b. Uppsala, Sweden
1920     Sheldon "Shelly" Manne, Drums, b. New York, NY, USA, d. Sept. 26, 1984, USA
1899     Kaiser Marshall, Drums, b. Savannah, GA, USA. d. Jan. 3, 1948, USA.
1912     Lajos Martiny, Piano/Leader, b. Budapest, Hungary. d. Sept. 14, 1985.
1947     Dr. Portia Maultsby, teacher/composer/pianist/ethnomusicologist, b. Orlando, FL, USA Portia's interests are in both African-American music and black American music, particularly rhythm and blues. In 1974, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Director—Archives of African American Music and Culture, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA, and a Professor of Folklore, Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, College of Arts and Sciences
1944     Turk Mauro, tenor and baritone sax, vocals, b. New York, NY, USA. né: Mauro Turso. A child of a musical family, his father, Dominick Turso, performed with local swing bands, and the youngster would follow his father around at gigs. At 14, he began to play the alto saxophone, and joined the musician's union only one year later. He has since gone on to a very troubled career.
1969     "Smilin'" Jay McDowell, guitar/upright bass, b. Bedford, IN, USA. Member: "BR5-49"
1923     Johnson "Fat Cat" McRee, producer/vocals d. Jan. 30, 1990, USA
1969     "Smilin' Jay" Michael McDowell
1953     Mark Nauseef, Drums, b. Ithaca, NY, USA.
1929     Lennie Niehaus, alto sax, composer, arranger, b. St. Louis, Missouri, USA
1911     Bill Norris aka: Bill Rand, piano, b. USA. d. March 12, 2001, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Age: 90. Curiously, this pianist is not well remembered today. He was billed as 'Bill Rand', when he held the longest piano 'single's act' in Las Vegas history, playing over 4 years at the world famous Horseshoe Club. During that time he accompanied such stars as the Kim Sisters, Liberace, Mickey Rooney, comedian Red Buttons, Canadian singer Giselle MacKenzie, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his 'Charlie McCarthy', Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy, and many others. Earlier in his career, he worked with the Benny Strong Orchestra, then playing in the world famous "Cocoanut Grove" room at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. "Le Figaro," a Paris newspaper, described him as a great success after he performed at 12 concerts in Paris, France. Bill was equally at home playing Dixieland, Ragtime, Musical comedy, and recorded his own Boogie-Woogie twice in Los Angeles, CA.
1967     Dion Parson, Drums, b. St.Thomas, Virgin Islands
1939     Bernard "Pretty", Purdie, Jazz/Rock Drums, b. Elkton, IL, USA.
1960     Phil Riddle, drums, b. Danville, VA, USA. Member: 'Bluzblasters'
1954     John Riley, Drums, b. Aberdeen, MD, USA
1965     Joey Santiago, guitarist né: Joseph Alberto Santiago Member: The Pixies.
1964     Antti Sarpila, saxophones, clarinet, piano, arranger, composer, b. Helsinki, Finland. As a child, Antti was encouraged in his music study by his father, himself an amateur saxophone player. From this beginning, Sarpila has become one of the few internationally known jazz musicians from Finland. At the 1980 Pori (Finland) festival he met Bob Wilber, a disciple of the legendary New Orleans reedsman Sidney Bechet. It was a seminal moment in Antti's career, and certainly explains Sarpila's dedication to Dixieland, Swing and the classic Jazz of the 1950s- 60s. He has made over 20 albums. A listing of the many stars with whom he has played reads like a "Who's Who" of Jazz, and includes such stars as Zoot Simms, Wynton Marsalis, vibist Severi Pyysalo, vocalist Johanna Iivanainen, trumpeter Doc Cheatham, Wild Bill Davison, Buddy DeFranco, Vic Dickenson, Jon Faddis, Panama Francis, Terry Gibbs, Al Grey, Bob Haggart, Scott Hamilton, Jake Hanna, John Henrics, Milt Hinton, Linda Hopkins, Peanuts Hucko, Lillette Jenkins, Thad Jones, Roger Kelloway, Dave McKenna, Wynton Marsalis, Red Mitchell, Joe Newman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Scott Robinson, Marshal Royal, Zoot Sims, Dick Wellstood, Frank Wess, Joe Wilder, Phil Woods, Trummy Young, and Glenn Zottola. Antti leads both a swing band (Antti Sarpila Swing Band,) and a classic jazz band, and performs with several symphony orchestras and other big bands. He has guested with such world famous orchestras as Count Basie Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, and Dutch Swing College Band. In 1997 he won the Finnish Georgie Award. During his career, Antti has performed on numerous jazz festivals and concerts all over Europe, USA and as far as in Australia.
1920     Hazel Scott, Piano/Vocal, b. Port of Spain, Trinidad. d. Oct. 2, 1981. This lovely lady was a good pianist and vocalist and a contemporary of another fine vocalist - Maxine Sullivan (The Loch Lomond Lady) - both of whom were mostly active in the New York City area. Beginning at just age 8, Scott began her studies of classical piano at New York City's famed Juilliard School of Music. In the 1930s, she was a very popular performer in various clubs on New York's 52nd Street (Swing Street), In 1936, she had her own radio show, and in 1938, appeared in a Broadway musical. In the late 1930s and early '40s, she became a well known New York city cabaret performer, working aT both the downtown and uptown branches of Cafe Society, and other venues. Also during the '40s, she appeared in the film "Rhapsody in Blue", and four others. In the '50s, she had her own television show. Scott had married Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a highly controversial New York Congressman. The marriage ended in a divorce, no doubt helped by the extraordinary heat of a nationwide obsession with Powell's behavior, activities, and political influence. While basically a pianist, successfully blending Jazz and Classical influences, she was also an underrated vocalist. In addition, she composed some songs including "Love Comes Softly" and "Nightmare Blues."
1945     Isaac Scott, guitar, b. Pine Bluff, AR, USA
1904     Clarence "Pine Top", Smith, Piano/Vocal, b. Troy, AL, USA. d. March 15, 1929, USA. "Pinetop" is credited as the creator of, and the first to record, "Boogie Woogie" music. In later years, Tommy Dorsey had a big band instrumental hit called "TD's Boogie", which was actually "Pine Tops Boogie".
1913     Risa Stevens, opera singer. née: Rise Steenberg. (Well, on occasion she did sing some semi-Pop tunes)
1936     Jud Strunk, C&W singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, b. Jamestown, NY, USA.
1956     Jamaaladeen Tacuma , Electric Bass, b. Hempstead, NY, USA.
1969     Assif Tsahar, tenor sax
1929     Maurice Vander (Schueren), Piano, b. Paris, France né: Maurice Vander-Schueren
1952     Donnie Van Zandt, vocals/guitar. Member: '38 Special '
         Notable Events occuring this date include:
1956.    Frankie Trumbauer, saxophone died in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. (b. May 30, 1901, Carbondale, Illinois, USA). His association with Bix Beiderbecke is legendary.
1964.    J. Glover Compton, piano, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 80
1964.    Ace Harris, piano, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 54
1964.    Charles Christian, trombonist, died. (b. 1885) CAUTION Do not confuse with guitarist Charlie Christian (b. July 29, 1916 - d. March 2, 1942)
1969.    Eugene W. Jones, drums, died in New Orleans, LA, USA. Age: 33
1976.    Folke Eriksberg, guitarist, died in Sweden. (b. Oct. 27, 1910, Sweden)
1982.    Al Rinker, singer, died in Burbank, California, USA. (b. Dec. 20, 1907, Tekoa, Washington, USA) Rinker was songstress Mildred Bailey's brother
1984.    Olli Hame, bassist, died in Finland. ( b. May 19, 1924, Helsinki, Finland)
1985.    Joe Val, C&W songwriter/multi-instrumentalist died. Age: 58
1990.    Clyde McCoy leader, trumpet, died in Memphis, TN, USA. ( b. Dec. 29, 1903, Ashland, KY, USA )
1995.    Lovelace Watkins, vocals, died in Las Vegas, NV, USA. Age: 57
1999.   Henri Francois Chaix, pianist/leader/arranger, died (Coronary Arrest, b. Feb. 21, 1925, Genève (Genève-ville), Switzerland
         Songs Recorded/Released this date include:
1924   "By The Waters of The Minnetonka", - Paul Whiteman Orch.
1924   "Scissor Grinder Joe", - Gene Rodemich Orch.
1926   "Hush A Bye Baby", - Bob Haring's Colonial Club Orch.
1927   "The Old Gypsy", - Sam Lanin and his A &P Gypsies.
1937   "I Ain't Got Nobody", - Fats Waller (piano)
1938   "Flat Foot Floogie", - Hudson-DeLange Orch.
1938   "Maybe", - The Inkspots. (It got up to No. 2 on the Pop Charts.)
1940   "Steel Guitar Hula", - Hank Penny's Radio Cowboys
1948   "My Happiness", - Ella Fitzgerald voc
1948   "Maybe You'll Be There", - Gordon Jenkins Orch w/vocal chorus.
1966   "Paperback Writer", - Beatles
1977   "Higher & Higher (Your Love has Lifted Me"), - Rita Coolidge
1977   "You And Me", - Alice Cooper
1977   "I'm In You", - Peter Frampton
1977   "Whatcha Gonna Do?", - Pablo Cruise
1988   "Hands To Heaven", - Breathe
1988   "Hold On To The Nights", - Richard Marx
1988   "Rush Hour", - Jane Wiedlin