BIRTHDAYS
1936     Buddy Ace, vocals, b. Jasper, TX, USA
1903     Joseph "Josse" Aerts, Drums, b. Antwerp, Belgium, d. Sept. 9, 1973, Koerbergen, Belgium. Played with Charles Remue; Gus Deloof; and Eddie Tower.
1920     Annisteen Allen, vocal, b. Champaign, IL, USA, (raised in Toledo, OH), d. Aug. 10, 1992, New York (Harlem), NY, USA. née: Ernestine Letitia Allen. Her earliest influence was Ella Fitzgerald singing, and she grew up excelling in both Pop ballads and the Blues. She was discovered by Louis Jordan who recommended her to Lucky Millinder, and she began her career touring with Millinder. Subsequently, she toured with "Big John" Greer and Wynonie Harris. From 1945 - '46, she was recorded for the 'Queen' label as 'Annisteen Allen & Her Home Town Boys' (featuring members of the Millinder band recording out of contract). She didn't record again under her own name until 1951. She was also recorded by Decca Records and RCA-Victor Records, scoring such R&B hits as "More, More, More", "Let It Roll", "Moanin' The Blues" and "I'll Never Be Free". She recorded as a solo for King Records (1951-53), Capitol Records (1954-55) and Decca (1956-57), and ended the decade recording singles for smaller labels such as 'Todd', 'Warwick' and 'Wig Records'. In 1953, Federal's parent, the 'King' label released, "�Baby I'm Doing It" (Apollo Records sued King for copyright infringement). In 1954, she was dropped by King, and signed with the Capitol label, and later toured with 'Joe Morris and His Blues Cavalcade', as well as with "The Orioles". In 1955, Allen's hit release "Fujiyama Mama"," was quickly covered by singers Eileen Barton and later by Wanda Jackson. Before retiring from the music business in 1961, she cut a much acclaimed album with the 'King Curtis Band' for the 'Tru-Sound' label.
1927     Mose John Allison, Jr., Piano/singer-songwriter, b. Tippo, MS, USA. Played with Al Cohn; Zoot Sims; Gerry Mulligan; Stan Getz
1955     Dave Alvin, (Alternative Country/Rock) Guitar/Vocals, b. Downey, CA, USA.
1928     Ernestine Irene Anderson, Vocal, b. Houston, TX. Has worked with the Capp/Pierce Juggernaut, Ray Brown, Lionel Hampton, Monty Alexander, Hank Jones, Rolf Ericson, Harry Arnold, Russell Jacquet, Johnny Otis, Gigi Gryce.
1929     LaVern Baker, vocalist, d. March 10, 1997, Age: 67; née: Delores Williams. R&B and Gospel singer. Influential in the 1950s before her career flagged in the '60s. She became very popular again in the 1980s. Among her best selling disks were "Tweedlee Dee", "Jim Dandy" and "I Cried A Tear".
1913     Ivy Benson, Alto Sax/Piano/Vocals/Leader, Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK, d. May 6, 1993, Clacton-on-Sea, UK. age 79. worked with: Edna Croudson; Teddy Joyce; Hylda Baker, among others.
1923     John "Willie" Cook, Trumpet, b. Tangipahoa, LA, USA (raised in East Chicago, IL, USA). d. Sept. 22, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden,. Worked with Duke Ellington, Jay McShann, Earl "Fatha" Hinds, Jimmy Lunceford, B.B. King, and Dizzy Gillespie. First studied the violin as a child, and switched to trumpet in teens when he joined the King Perry band. In the early 1940s, he replaced Charlie Parker in Jay McShann's band (making his first recordings with McShann). In 1951, he played with Duke Ellington. In the late 1970s, Cook was working with Count Basie. In 1982, after touring in Sweden, Cook decided to make Sweden his home country. He died in Stockholm, at age 75.
1895     Carroll Dickerson, violin/leader, b: Chicago, IL, d: Oct. 9, 1957, Chicago, IL, USA. worked with: Louis Armstrong; Joe "King" Oliver, and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band
1953     Marshall Crenshaw, (Rockabilly) vocals/guitarist, b. Detroit, MI, USA.
1946     Chris Dreja, vocals, b. Surbiton, UK. Member: 'The Yardbirds'
1953     Kahil El Zabar, percussion
1938     Narvel Felts, C&W singer-songwriter/guitarist, b. MO, USA.
1925     Hubert Fol, Alto Sax/Leader, b. Paris, France. Hubert is the brother of pianist Raymond Fol.
1930     Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland, guitar, b. Cowpens, SC, USA. d. Dec. 27, 2004, Orange Park, FL, USA. (Staph Infection). Garland began playing the guitar at just age 6, and was performing on radio by age 12. At age 14, he was in a Spartanburg, SC, music shop when Paul Howard, bandleader of the 'Arkansas Cotton Pickers', heard young Hank playing. Although Howard took the youngster to Nashville, child labor laws prevented Garland from playing with Howard until he was 16 years old. At age 19, Garland had his first big hit "Sugar Foot Rag". Hank was the quintessential Nashvill studio guitarist. His detailed sessions logbook is a true 'Who's Who' of Country Music stars - Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, Brenda Lee, Ray Price, Web Pierce, Kitty Wells, Porter Wagner, Hand Snow, Conway Twitty, Boots Randolph, Bobby Helms, and Hank Williams, to name just a few. In 1954, Hank, and his close friend Billy Byrd, invented a short neck guitar for the Gibson Guitar Company, which became known as the "Byrdland" model (a contraction of parts of their names). From 1957 to 1961, Garland worked with Elvis Presley. In 1960, Garland recorded "Jazz Winds From a New Direction", which he claimed was the very first Jazz album done in Nashville, TN. He was playing on the soundtrack for the movie Follow That Dream, when (on Sept. 1961) his 1959 Chevrolet Nomad station wagon crashed near Springfield, TN. The crash impact threw Garland completely out of the car and left him in a coma lasting for some months. That coma, combined with a series of 100 shock treatments, left him just a shadow of his former self. Hank's brother, Billy, has always maintained that the crash was no accident, but rather an attempted "hit" by someone in the Nashville music business. In the four decades after the tragic accident that almost killed him, Garland spent the final years of his life fighting ill health, trying to pry royalties out of record companies, and talking with Hollywood about a movie based on his life.
1953     Deborah Henson-Conant, Electric harp/Blues/Latin/Scat/and Stories, b. Stockton, California, USA . Perhaps the music critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it best. "She dresses like a showgirl, plays the pants off the harp and tells tall tales with the ease of a stand-up comic. Imagine a talkative Harpo Marx in a mini-skirt and you begin to get the picture."
1966     Anke (Birke) Helfrich, (Jazz) pianist/composer, b. Horb a.N., Germany.
1936     Jack Keller, lyricist, b. New York (Brooklyn), NY, USA, d. April 1, 2005, Nashville, TN, USA (Leukemia). Keller, the son of a musician, got his big break when he joined Aldon Music, Don Kirschner's Brill Building (New York city) publishing company. There, he joined a group of other young pop songwriters then working for Aldon, including Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and Howard Greenfield. In 1960, Keller and Greenfield wrote "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own," both No. 1 hits for sisnger Connie Francis and "Venus in Blue Jeans", a big hit for Jimmy Clanton. The TV work led Keller to the Monkees, getting producer credit on their TV theme song and first album. Keller and Greenfield kept on composing after Aldon was purchased by the TV production company 'Screen Gems', and they wrote the theme song for the shows "Bewitched" and "Gidget." "Bewitched", originally played as an instrumental at the shows opening, included the words:
    "Bewitched, Bewitched, you have me in your spell
    Bewitched, Bewitched, you know your craft so well
    "Before I knew what you were doing, I looked into your eyes
    That brand of woo that you were doing, took me by surprise
    You witch, you witch, one thing that's for sure
    That stuff you pitch just hasn't got a cure
    My heart was under lock and key, but somehow it got unhitched
    I never thought my heart could be had
    But now I'm caught and I'm kinda glad.
    to be "Bewitched, Bewitched"
1934     David Lastie, tenor sax, b. New Orleans, LA, USA.
1932     Alan "Al" Levitt, Drums, b. New York, NY, USA. d. Nov. 28, 1994 Paris, France. Age: 62 (Stroke). For the last 20 years of his life, Levitt was based in France. As a young man, he studied with the pianist Lennie Tristano and in 1952 began playing professionally with Charles Mingus and Stan Getz. In 1956, he moved to the Netherlands, in 1957 to Paris, and in 1958 back to the United States, where he remained until 1966, playing with Jackie MacLean and Lionel Hampton. With Hampton;s band, he toured Europe and Asia several times. In the early 1970's he played with Konitz and Zoot Sims, and in 1975 he returned to Paris. During his time in Europe, he performed with most of the leading French jazz musicians, including Martial Solal, Barney Wilen and Stephane Grappelli.
1929     Lloyd Mayers, Piano/organ, b. New York, NY, USA.
1966     Lisa Kaye McCarter, C&W vocals, b. Sevierville, TN, USA. Member: "The McCarters"
1966     Teresa Faye McCarter, C&W vocals, b. Sevierville, TN, USA. Member: "The McCarters"
1962     James Morrison, Multi-instrumentalist, b. Boorowa, Australia. A true prodigy, he plays the trombone, euphonium, flugel horn, tuba, saxophones, and piano (he has the ability to trade fours with himself on trumpet and trombone). He has appeared at all the major European festivals (Montreaux, North Sea, Pori, Nice and Bern), and has worked with such stars as fellow Australian Red Rodney, Cab Calloway, 'Dizzy' Gillespie, Woody Shaw, George Benson, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Ray Brown and Wynton Marsalis, among many others. Among his compositions, he wrote the opening fanfare for the 2000 Olympic Games. In addition to performing at the world's most famous Jazz clubs, such as the 'Blue Note' and the 'Village Vanguard' in New York, the 'New Morning' in Paris and 'Ronnie Scott's' in London, there have also been Royal command performances for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for U.S. Presidents Bush and Clinton at Parliament House in Australia, and for Princess Anne at the Royal Albert hall and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. But wait, we're not through yet. There's his association with the great Lalo Schifrin and the 1993 "Jazz Meets the Symphony" project with the London Symphony Orchestra. He is the inventor of an electronic 'digital' trumpet. To amuse himself in his spare time, Morrison does stunt flying, climbs mountains, and drives a racing car.
1948     Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson, Trumpet/Composer, b. Smithville, TX, USA.
1947     Brad Lee Sexton, bass, b. SC, USA. Member: 'Lil' Charlie', and the 'Nightcats'
1922     Tak Shindo, composer, b. Sacramento, CA, USA.
1944     Chris Smither, guitar, b. Miami, FL, USA.
1926     Irvin Stokes, Trumpet, b. Greensboro, NC, USA
1918     Louise Tobin, vocalist, sang with Benny Goodman, Harry James (his first wife, and Ziggy Elman bands.
1933     Marlene VerPlanck, vocals, b. Newark, New Jersey, USA. née: Marlene Pampinella. Marlene is married to trombonist Billy VerPlanck
1917     Ellerton Oswald "Sonny" White, Piano, b. Panama City, Canal Zone, d. April 28, 1971
1911     Richard "Dick" Wilson, Tenor Sax, b. Mount Vernon, NY, USA. d. Nov. 24, 1941. Played in Andy Kirk Band for six years before his death.
          Notable Events on this date include:
1929.    Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy orchestra recorded "Froggy Bottom" in Kansas City.
1945.    Jerome Kern, composer, died in New York, NY, USA
1956.    Victor Young, composer, arranger, leader, died in Desert Hot Springs, CA, USA.
1960.    Ellabelle Davis, (gospel) vocals, died in New Rochelle, NY, USA. Age: 53
1966.    "Texas Jim" Robertson, C&W singer/actor, died. Age: 57
1972.    Berry Oakley, bass, died in Macon, GA, USA. Age: 24. Worked with the Allman Brothers.
1975.    Bill Sanford, piano/arranger, died in New York, NY, USA. Worked with 'The Ravens' vocal group.
1982.    Gösta Törner, trumpet, died in Stockholm, Sweden
1982.    Larry Jones, drums, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 29
1986.    Marky Markowitz, trumpet, died
1989.    Sarah Levingston, vocals, died in Oakland, CA, USA. Age: 40
1993.    Erskine Hawkins, trumpet, died in Willingboro, NJ, USA. Age: 79
1995.    Kenneth Goldstein, producer(Bluesville), died in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Age: 68
1995.    Dewey P. Williams, vocals/sacred harp, died in Ozark, AL, USA. Age: 97
2000.    Isadore Granoff died in his sleep at age 99. This Ukrainian immigrant began giving violin lessons as a teen-ager, and eventually built Philadelphia's famed 'Granoff School of Music'. Granoff taught Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and others during more than a half-century career. Some of his students became prominent players of classical music, Jazz, Swing, big band and Latin sounds. Granoff sold the school in 1970
          Songs Recorded/Released this date include:
     1949 "Mule Train", Bing Crosby
     1957 "You Send Me", Teresa Brewer
     1957 "Rock & Roll Music", Chuck Berry
     1957 "Peggy Sue", Buddy Holly
     1957 "I'm Available", Margie Rayburn
     1972 "Funny Face", Donna Fargo
     1972 "Clair", Gilbert O'Sullivan
     1972 "Rockin' Pneumonia-Boogie Woogie Flu", - Johnny Rivers
     1972 "I'm Stone In Love With You", Stylistics
     1978 "My Life", Billy Joel
     1978 "Y.M.C.A.", Village People
     1978 "Hold The Line", Toto
     1989 "Another Day In Paradise", Phil Collins
     1989 "Love Song", Tesla
     1989 "Pump Up The Jam", Technotronic