Kid Ory born 25 December 1886

Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. 

Ory was born in 1886 to a Louisiana French-speaking family of Black Creole descent, on Woodland Plantation in Laplace, now the site of the 1811 Kid Ory Historic House. Ory started playing music with homemade instruments in his childhood, and by his teens was leading a well-regarded band in southeast Louisiana. He kept LaPlace as his base of operations because of family obligations until his twenty-first birthday, when he moved his band to New Orleans. 

Ory was a banjo player during his youth, and it is said that his ability to play the banjo helped him develop "tailgate", a particular style of playing the trombone with a rhythmic line underneath the trumpets and cornets. His use of glissando helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans Jazz. When Ory was living on Jackson Avenue, he was discovered by Buddy Bolden, playing his first new trombone, instead of an old Civil War trombone. Ory's sister said he was too young to play with Bolden. 

                                    

He moved his six-piece band to New Orleans in 1910. Ory had one of the best-known bands in New Orleans in the 1910s, hiring many of the great jazz musicians of the city, including the cornetists Joe "King" Oliver, Mutt Carey, and Louis Armstrong, who joined the band in 1919 and the clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone. 

In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles as one of several New Orleans musicians to do so at the time, and he recorded there in 1922 with a band that included Mutt Carey, the clarinetist and pianist Dink Johnson, and the string bassist Ed Garland. Garland and Carey were long-time associates who would still be playing with Ory during his 1940s comeback. While in Los Angeles, Ory and his band recorded two instrumentals, "Ory's Creole Trombone" and "Society Blues", as well as a number of songs. They were the first jazz recordings made on the West Coast by an African American jazz band from New Orleans, Louisiana. His band recorded with Nordskog Records; Ory paid Nordskog for the pressings and then sold them with his own label, "Kid Ory's Sunshine Orchestra", at Spikes Brothers Music Store in Los Angeles. 

Armstrong's Hot Five

In 1925, Ory moved to Chicago, where he was very active, working and recording with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and many others. He mentored Benny Goodman and, later, Charles Mingus. He was said to have attempted to take trombone lessons from a "German guy" who played in the Chicago symphony, but Ory was turned away after a few lessons. The Chicago symphony has three German trombonists listed as former members in 1925, Arthur Stange (principal), Arthur Gunther, and Edward Geffer. Ory was a member of the original lineup of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five which first recorded on November 12, 1925. His composition "Muskrat Ramble" was included in the Hot Five session in February 1926. 

During the Great Depression Ory retired from music and did not play again until 1943. In 1941, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jelly Roll Morton in Los Angeles, California. He ran a chicken farm in Los Angeles. The Ory band was an important force in reviving interest in New Orleans jazz, making popular 1940s radio broadcasts that began with weekly spots on The Orson Welles Almanac program (from March 15, 1944). In 1944–1945, the group made a series of recordings for the Crescent label, which was founded by Nesuhi Ertegun for the express purpose of recording Ory's band. 

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Ory and his group appeared at the Beverly Cavern in Los Angeles. In 1958, he purchased the Tin Angel nightclub in San Francisco from Peggy Tolk–Watkins, and he renamed it On-The-Levee. The nightclub closed in July 1961, and in 1962 the building was demolished due to the creation of the Embarcadero Freeway. His sidemen during this period included, In addition to Carey and Garland, the trumpeters Alvin Alcorn and Teddy Buckner; the clarinetists Darnell Howard, Jimmie Noone, Albert Nicholas, Barney Bigard, and George Probert; the pianists Buster Wilson, Cedric Haywood, and Don Ewell; and the drummer Minor Hall. All but Buckner, Probert, and Ewell were originally from New Orleans. 

Ory retired from music in 1966, and spent his last years in Hawaii, with the assistance of Trummy Young. In 1971, Ory returned to New Orleans for the final time, playing in a parade at the Jazz and Heritage Festival. Gaunt and weak from ill health, the Kid sang but played only a little, yet it was enough to satisfy his fans. Ory died of pneumonia and a heart attack on January 23, 1973 in Honolulu. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Syncopated Times)

 

Ralph Marterie born 24 December 1914

Ralph Marterie (24 December 1914 - 10 October 1978, Dayton, Ohio, USA., was a musician, arranger and one of the last of the big-band leaders who was to enjoy consistent commercial success.

Marterie was born in Accerra, near Naples, Italy and whist still a child his parents emigrated to the USA, where his father joined the orchestra of the Chicago Civic Opera. Ralph was still a teenager when he started playing trumpet with Danny Russo's Oriole Orchestra. He went on to play in local theatres and with other bands in Chicago, which was at that time the country's largest musical centre outside New York. Consequently, Marterie never had to leave the city to find work, joining the NBC staff orchestra where he played under conductors such as Percy Faith and André Kostelanetz. During World War II  

Ralph formed his very first band in Chicago, in 1946. One of his earliest engagements was at the 'Melody Mill' Ballroom, where radio airtime made the band well known through-out the Midwest. His big opportunity came when Mercury Records signed him in 1951, and gave the band a big build up. It is interesting to note that Ralph formed the band at the end of the big band era. Still, other leaders were willing to give the band-leading business a try. Ralph's new band debuted in 1951; the same year that Billy May organized his big band. The following year, 1952, saw the start of the Sauter-Finegan orchestra. In 1953 Les and Larry Elgart formed their short lived band, while, in the mid 50's Maynard Ferguson brought his band to fruition. Marterie led a US Navy band, then after the war he returned to Chicago as a leader with ABC radio.

                                    

Marterie toured with his band throughout the 1950s, appearing at Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook on the East Coast as well as The Hollywood Palladium on the West Coast. At times, Bill Walters, Janice Borla, and Lou Prano, were vocalists. They had a radio show sponsored by the Marlboro Cigarette Company. They appeared on WGN's "The Cavalcade of Bands" television show. After Mercury Records, the orchestra recorded for United Artists and for Musicor. Between 1952 and 1957 he had a number of big singles; "Pretend," a cover of Duke Ellington's "Caravan," and "Skokiaan" all made the Top Ten. 

Much of his material was precisely the kind of innocuous pop instrumental that rock & roll blew out of the water, yet Marterie was one of the first mainstream musicians to cover a rock & roll song. His cover of Bill Haley's "Crazy Man Crazy" (itself one of the first rock & roll records to make the Top 20) made number 13 in 1953. Earlier, Marterie actually had a small hit with a cover of a Woody Guthrie tune, "So Long (It's Been Good to Know Ya)." Isolated sides like "Bumble Boogie" proved that he could swing respectably when the mood took him, but Marterie generally stuck to a placid groove, despite the presence of electric guitar on sides like "Caravan."

As rock & roll gained steam, the trumpeter actually added some basic R&B motifs on "Tricky" in 1957, resulting in a Top 30 hit; the same year, "Shish-Kebab," with its twangy pre-surf guitar lines and snake charmer melody, gave him his last Top Ten hit. Marterie’s output for Mercury and later United Artists to which he moved in 1961 is remarkable considering the market for big band music was progressively shrinking throughout his career. He recorded over 60 singles including swing standards, novelties, Latin jazz and lush pop ballads that often spotlighted his trademark sound of trumpet twinned with guitar. 

Marterie was still touring with a band until his death in Dayton, where he had just played a one-nighter in October 1978. The daughters of Ralph Marterie held onto his music library and personal memorabilia for many years, but in late 2001 placed an ad in International Musician, offering more than 100 scores written for his band, in lots of 10 at $700 each. Then, in January 2005, scores and other personal items were listed on Ebay with a buy-it-now price of $2,500, then re-listed in March, with a starting price of $2,200. Other memorabilia is in the hands of private collectors. 

(Edited from Big Band Database, AllMusic & Discogs)

 

Tim Hardin born 23 December 1941

James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs "If I Were a Carpenter", "Reason to Believe", "Misty Roses" and "The Lady Came from Baltimore" were hits for other artists. 

Tim Hardin was born in Eugene, Oregon to Hal and Molly Hardin, who both had musical backgrounds. His mother was a violinist and concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and his father played bass in jazz bands in the Army and in college. While a student at South Eugene High School, Hardin first learned to play the guitar. When he was 18, he dropped out and joined the Marines, improving his guitar skills and building a repertoire of folk songs. He first tried heroin while stationed with the Marines in Southeast Asia. 

After his discharge in 1961, Hardin moved to New York City, where he briefly attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). After his dismissal for truancy, he began to focus on his musical career by performing around Greenwich Village, mostly in a blues style. In 1963, he relocated to Boston, Massachusetts where he met record producer Erik Jacobsen who got him signed to a recording contract with Columbia Records which didn't pan out and in 1964, he returned to Greenwich Village. 

After moving to Los Angeles in 1965, Hardin met actress Susan Yardley and returned to New York with her. He signed with Verve Forecast and released his first album, Tim Hardin 1, in 1966, which included "How Can We Hang On to a Dream", "Reason to Believe" and the ballad “Misty Roses" to critical acclaim and mainstream radio airplay. That same year, he played at a Saturday afternoon workshop of contemporary and protest songs at the Newport Folk Festival. 

                                   

Hardin was admired for his singing voice, described by a Los Angeles Times reviewer as "a voice which quavers between the tugs of the blues and the tender side of joy. He can sing nasty, but his forte is gentle songs whose case allows him to slip and slide through a rainbow of emotions." However, Hardin said in another interview: "I think of myself more as a singer than a songwriter and always did. It happened to be that I wrote songs. I’m a jazz singer, really, writing in a different vocabulary mode but still with a jazz feel. I don’t ever sing one song the same way. I’m an improvisational singer and player.” 

He recorded "Black Sheep Boy" in 1966, a song about his drug use and the alienation from his family. Bobby Darin, Ronnie Hawkins, Bill Staines, Joel Grey, Scott Walker, and Don McLean recorded cover versions of the song. In 1967, "Tim Hardin 2" was released which contained "If I Were a Carpenter." By this time a wide variety of artists were covering his songs and he was in demand to tour Europe and the United States. However, the quality of his work was in decline partly because of "his own combativeness in the studio, his addiction to heroin, his drinking problems and his frustration with his lack of commercial success". 

Tim Hardin was loved by the critics and admired by other performers who recorded his songs, but his extreme stage fright and addiction to heroin made him an unreliable live performer. He canceled or skipped scheduled shows, and when he did appear, he was often not fit to perform. He reputedly fell asleep on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1968 and his tour was cut short after he contracted pleurisy. 

Other albums were released including "Tim Hardin 3" and "Tim Hardin 4" and in 1969, he performed at the Woodstock Festival, re-signed with Columbia and released a single of Bobby Darin's "Simple Song of Freedom" that reached the U.S. Top 50, as well as three additional albums, "Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One" (1969), "Bird on a Wire" (1971), and "Painted Head" (1972). During the following years, he moved between England and the U.S. His heroin addiction had taken control of his life by the time his last album, "Nine," was released on GM Records in England in 1973 and released in the U.S. on Antilles Records in 1976. 

After several years in Britain, Hardin returned to the U.S. in early 1980, writing ten new songs and recording them at home for a comeback. However, on December 29, his longtime friend Ron Daniels found him dead on the floor of his Hollywood apartment at the age of 39. The police determined that there was no evidence of foul play, and it was initially believed that Hardin had died from a heart attack. The Los Angeles coroner's office later confirmed that the cause of death was an accidental heroin overdose. Hardin was interred at Twin Oaks Cemetery in Turner, Oregon. Virtually forgotten by the public, his only apparent legacy was his songs that others performed, until a tribute album in 2013 revived interest in the man behind the songs. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Bethel Woods) 

 

Billie Davis born 22 December 1945

Carol Hedges (born 22 December 1945), known professionally as Billie Davis, is an English singer who had hits in the 1960s, and is best remembered for the UK hit version of the song, "Tell Him" (1963) and "I Want You to Be My Baby" (1968). 

Mike Sarne and Billie Davis

Davis was an early proponent of many of the fashion styles for which the 1960s are remembered: bobbed hair, long boots and leather mini-skirts. She was said to have beaten the latter for "percussive effect" when recording. The biographer of the "supergroup" Cream described her as "astonishingly photogenic". 

She was born in Woking, Surrey, England and was an engineering secretary before she started her recording career. After winning a talent contest in which she was backed by Cliff Bennett's band, the Rebel Rousers, she cut some early demo records with the Tornados for record producer Joe Meek.However, her first commercial success, under impresario Robert Stigwood's guidance, was "Will I What", released in August 1962, on which she performed as a foil to Mike Sarne, rather as Wendy Richard had done on Sarne's chart-topping disc, "Come Outside". This reached number 18 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1962. 

                                    

In February 1963 Davis had her biggest success with a cover version of The Exciters' "Tell Him". Written by Bert Russell (also known as Bert Berns), this song was covered in the sixties by a number of artists, including Helen Shapiro and Alma Cogan, and was successfully revived in the late 1990s by Vonda Shepard, for the American Fox television program, Ally McBeal. Davis' recording reached number ten in the UK chart, and was followed by "He's The One", which crept into the Top 40 in May 1963. 

Billie with Jet Harris

In 1963, the year in which popular music was transformed by the rise of The Beatles, Davis left Decca records owing to financial disagreements. In September of that year she suffered a broken jaw when a chauffeur-driven limousine in which she and Jet Harris, former bass guitarist of the Shadows, were returning from a concert in Worcester, crashed in the West Midlands. Harris received head injuries that seriously affected his already troubled career. Billie suffered a broken jaw and was unable to record for four months due to having her jaw wired shut after the accident. 

In 1966, Davis paired with Keith Powell (Keith Powell and the Valets) as "Keith (Powell) and Billie (Davis)" under the Piccadilly record label. They released three singles including "Swingin' Tight", which while popular did not make the chart and the short lived pairing was dissolved. In the late 1960s, Davis returned to Decca, with former Ready Steady Go! presenter Michael Aldred as her producer. Recordings included Chip Taylor's "Angel of the Morning", in 1967, on which she was backed by, amongst others, Kiki Dee and P. P. Arnold. Arnold later recorded the song herself and had the bigger hit in 1968. Davis' final chart entry was a Northern soul version of Jon Hendricks' "I Want You to Be My Baby", originally recorded by Louis Jordan in 1952, which reached number 33 in October 1968, although sales were affected by an industrial dispute at the manufacturing plant. 

Billie married her manager Alan Davis in 1967 and left Decca in April 1971 after a stay of eight years. She continued to record into the 1980s and was popular, in particular, with audiences in the Spanish-speaking world which acquired an extensive fan base. Further commercial headway and an ever-increasing workload there and in Latin America made it prudent for Billie to decamp to Barcelona for more than a decade. On returning to London, the singer embarked on projects such as Stormy, a well-received 1998 album with guitarist Albert Lee, and stage reunions with old flame Jet Harris.   

Her 2005 album release “The Decca Years” was a retrospective collection of her recordings for Decca which awakened new interest in her singing and she received fan mail from many countries.  In 2006, she was re-united with Jet Harris for a series for concerts. In 2007, RPM Records released Whatcha Gonna Do? Singles, Rarities and Unreleased 1963-1966, which compiled Davis's releases between her two tenures with Decca, as well as "What I Will", and five unreleased tracks.

Billie has also worked on fundraising projects, in particular, with the heritage foundation, placing various blue Plaques, including John Lennon and Dusty Springfield, and raising money for various causes including the Tsunami Benefit, and poverty charities. Billie has performed at many of charity Gala's with the likes of Denny Laine, Rick Wakemen to name a few. She continue's to write and record new material. Her recent projects have gone back to early rock n roll sounds, recording and performing with the musicians from the Rockabilly scene. In 2017 she released the single Elvis Where are You? 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Billie Davis Music & Beat Magazine) 

 

Gwen McCrae born 21 December 1943

Gwen McCrae (December 21, 1943 – February 21, 2025) was an American singer, best known for her 1975 hit "Rockin' Chair". Known in the music industry as the "Queen of Rare Groove", McCrae's gospel, soul, disco and funk vocals have been heavily sampled by industry leaders in dance music. 

Gwendolyn Patricia Mosley was born in Pensacola, Florida, the youngest of five children. She and her siblings were raised by their mother after the early death of their father. Mosley began performing in local clubs as a teenager, and singing with local groups like the Lafayettes and the Independents. In 1963, she met a young sailor named George McCrae, whom she married within a week. The couple had two children together, and she had two children from other relationships. 

Gwen and George McCrae began recording as a duo; the couple got a recording contract with Henry Stone's TK Records. In 1967, singer Betty Wright helped get them signed to Stone's Alston record label. Signed to TK subsidiary Cat, as a solo artist, she found success on the U.S. R&B charts with a cover of Bobby Bland's "Lead Me On" in 1970, followed by "For Your Love". 

                                   

Following husband George's solo success with "Rock Your Baby", Gwen went on to have a major hit of her own in March 1975 with "Rockin' Chair" which reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the R&B chart. The follow-up "Love Insurance" also made the R&B chart (#16).Music critic Robert Christgau said "Rockin' Chair" is "almost as irresistibly Memphis-cum-disco-with-a-hook as hubby's 'Rock Your Baby.'" 

Gwen & George McCrae

In 1972, she recorded the song "Always on My Mind". The song was later popularized by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and the Pet Shop Boys and also covered by several other artists. After TK Records collapsed, McCrae moved to New Jersey and signed with Atlantic Records, recording two albums and saw one of her singles, "Funky Sensation", reach #22 on the R&B chart in 1981. In 1982, she had a moderate R&B hit with "Keep the Fire Burning". She continued to record and some of her earlier recordings on the UK's Northern Soul scene maintained her popularity as a live act in Europe. McCrae moved back to the United States, to Florida, recorded a one-off single for the small Black Jack label in 1984 called "Do You Know What I Mean", and then temporarily retired from the music industry. 

McCrae traveled to the UK to record a couple of singles for Rhythm King Records in 1987. She also recorded an album for a British label called Homegrown Records in 1996, titled Girlfriend's Boyfriend. She gained a strong following within the soul and rare groove scenes among record collectors and DJ’s in the UK and Europe and was crowned the Queen of Rare Groove. 

Upon returning to the U.S., she signed with the revived Goldwax label, distributed by Ichiban Records, and recorded another album, Psychic Hot Line. In 1999, the French house music duo Cassius released the single "Feeling for You", which sampled the vocals of McCrae's "All This Love That I'm Giving". It was a Top 20 hit on the UK Singles Chart. The track also appeared on Cassius' album, 1999. In 1999, her single "Funky Sensation" was sampled in the German single "Get Up," by DJ Thomilla featuring Afrob. 

In 2004, McCrae released her first gospel album. In 2008, rap DJ and producer Madlib released his album, WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip which includes the song "Gamble on Ya Boy", based on a "I Found Love" sample, from McCrae's album, Melody of Life. In 2005, McCrae teamed up with the Soulpower organization, which is also responsible for the comebacks of Marva Whitney, Lyn Collins, Martha High, Bobby Byrd and RAMP. Her collaboration with Soulpower resulted in various live performances with the Soulpower All-Stars. 

In 2007, she appeared on several songs on Sounding Rick’s “Living in the Acoustic Projects” and again on his 2009 album “Blabbermouth”. Gwen McCrae released her latest single "Now I Found Love" in December 2010, released through Plain Truth Entertainment. "Now I Found Love" was mixed and produced by Steve Sola and composed by David Seagal. In June 2012, after performing on stage in England, she had a stroke which resulted in paralysis on the left side of her body and the inability to walk. 

McCrae died at a care home in Miami on February 21, 2025, at the age of 81 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Gwen McCrae Facebook page)

 

Bobby Timmons born 19 December 1935

Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer.

Timmons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a minister. He had a sister, Eleanor. Both of his parents, and several aunts and uncles, played the piano. From an early age Timmons studied music with an uncle, Robert Habershaw, who also taught McCoy Tyner. Timmons first played at the church where his grandfather was minister; this influenced his later jazz playing. He grew up in the same area as other future musicians, including the Heath brothers (Jimmy, Percy, and Tootie) and Lee Morgan. Timmons' first professional performances were in his local area, often as a trio that included Tootie Heath on drums. After graduating from high school Timmons was awarded a scholarship to study at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. 

Timmons moved to New York in 1954. He played with Kenny Dorham in 1956, making his recording debut with the trumpeter in a live set in May of that year. He went on to play and record with Chet Baker in 1956–57 (bassist Scott LaFaro was part of this band for a time), Sonny Stitt in 1957, and Maynard Ferguson in 1957–58. He also recorded as a sideman with hornmen Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley, and Morgan. all for Blue Note Records in 1957. 

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers

Timmons became best known as a member of Art Blakey's band the Jazz Messengers, which he was first part of from July 1958 to September 1959, including for a tour of Europe. He was recruited for the Messengers by saxophonist Benny Golson, who said that "He was inventive, he could play bebop and he could play funky, he could play a lot of things, and I thought it was the element that Art needed. He hadn't had anybody quite like Bobby, who could go here or go there, rather than walking in a single corridor." By late 1958 Timmons was sharing bandmate Morgan's East Sixth Street apartment and the pair had bought a piano, allowing Timmons to practice and Morgan to work on composing.  From around the time he joined Blakey, Timmons, along with some of his fellow band members, was a heroin user.  After leaving Blakey, Timmons joined Cannonball Adderley's band, in October 1959. 

                                   

Timmons was also known as a composer during this period: The Encyclopedia of Jazz states that his compositions "Moanin', "This Here", and "Dat Dere" "helped generate the gospel-tinged 'soul jazz' style of the late '50s and early '60s."   Timmons was reported to be dissatisfied with the money he had received from "This Here", and was enticed in February 1960 into leaving Adderley and returning to Blakey's band by the offer of more pay. Timmons then appeared on further well-known albums with the drummer, including A Night in Tunisia, The Freedom Rider and The Witch Doctor. His own recording debut as sole leader was This Here Is Bobby Timmons in 1960, which contained his first versions of his best-known compositions. 

Timmons left Blakey for the second time in June 1961, encouraged by the success of his compositions, including jukebox plays of "Dat Dere", which Oscar Brown had recorded after adding lyrics Timmons then formed his own bands, initially with Ron Carter on bass and Tootie Heath on drums. In the initial stages of this trio, Timmons liked the group sounds of the trios led by Red Garland and Ahmad Jamal. According to Tootie Heath, Timmons was at the peak of his fame at that point, but was addicted to heroin, and used a lot of the money that the band was paid maintaining his habit. 

Timmons started playing vibes in the mid 960s. He occasionally played organ, but recorded only one track on that instrument – a 1964 version of "Moanin'" on From the Bottom. Recordings as a leader continued, usually as part of a trio or quartet, but, after joining Milestone Records around 1967, Timmons' album Got to Get It! featured him as part of a nonet, playing arrangements by Tom McIntosh. Timmons' career declined quickly in the 1960s, in part because of drug abuse and alcoholism. In 1968 he made his second - and final - recording for Milestone, Do You Know the Way? In the following year, he played in a quartet led by Sonny Red, with Dexter Gordon on one of the saxophonist's temporary returns to the US from Europe, and in a trio backing vocalist Etta Jones. 

Timmons continued to play in the early 1970s, mostly in small groups or in combination with other pianists, and mainly in the New York area. According to saxophonist Jimmy Heath, Timmons joined Clark Terry's big band for a tour of Europe in 1974. He was unwell and drank on the plane to Sweden, and fell while drinking at the bar before the band's first concert, in Malmö. Susceptible to blood clotting, he was flown back to the US. On March 1, 1974, he died from cirrhosis, at the age of 38, at St Vincent's Hospital in New York. 

Though many would be led to believe that he was just another tragic figure in the annals of jazz, others admire the man for his sheer volume of work, his participation and contribution with two of the best ensembles, and his influence, to whatever degree in jazz piano. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & All About Jazz) 

Here’s “Moanin' played by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Drums: Art Blakey, Trumpet: Lee Morgan, Tenor Sax: Benny Golson, Piano: Bobby Timmons, Bass: Jymie Merritt 

Sonny Red born 17 December 1932

Sylvester Kyner Jr. (December 17, 1932 – March 20, 1981), known as Sonny Red, was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist and composer associated with the hard bop idiom among other styles. 

Sylvester Kyner was born in Belzoni, Mississippit o Lottie and Jeff Kiner. Although he had four siblings he was the only family member whose last name was spelled with a “y,” as verified on his birth certificate. The first four years of his life were spent with his family in Humphreys County, Mississippi. In the spring of 1936, lack of educational opportunities and poor living conditions compelled Lottie and her five children to board a Greyhound bus and flee north to Detroit, Michigan, where they moved in with Lottie’s sister. At some point in the late 1930s, the family moved to Detroit where life was still difficult but with hard work and extreme determination, she was able to successfully raise her family. 

In the early- to mid-1940s, Sonny Red took his first saxophone lessons from William Gardner on the C melody saxophone, an instrument originally given to his sister Marie. Eventually he would trade in the C melody for a Conn New Wonder alto saxophone. From the fall of 1947 to 1952, Red attended Detroit’s Northern High School, dropping out temporarily for the 1950-1951 school year. At Northern he formed close musical relationships with Curtis Fuller, Kiane Zawadi, Donald Byrd, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers and Tommy Flanagan. Some of these relationships were formed in the concert band led by Orville Lawrence. Lawrence exposed his students to many different types of music, and encouraged them to try other instruments. Red also met and played with other teenagers in Detroit during informal jam/practice sessions at the homes of Barry Harris and Joe Brazil. 

It’s difficult to determine the source of Sylvester Kyner’s nickname, “Sonny Red,” but opinions point to “Sonny” being a common nickname for a boy growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, and “Red” referring to Sylvester’s natural red hair. For an industrial arts shop project in high school, he used a router to etch the name “Sonny Red” into a finished board. Professionally his name would be in flux. It has been noted that over the years he has also been named as Sonny Redd, Sonny Red Kyner and Sylvester "Sonny Red” Kyner. 

                                   

After graduating from high school in 1952, Sonny Red performed in many of the best jazz clubs in Detroit. He frequently gigged and sat in at Klein’s Show Bar, The Crystal Show Bar, The Twenty Grand, The World Stage, The Rouge Lounge, The Blue Bird Inn and The Mirror Ballroom. Sonny also participated in frequent jam sessions at The West End Hotel, a popular after-hours spot for musicians.

Sonny & Elena

Besides working steadily with Barry Harris, Red had a few opportunities to sit in with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Yusef Lateef and Sonny Stitt. Other early gigs included trombonist Frank Rosolino’s combo in April-May 1954 at Klein’s Show Bar, three days with Billie Holiday sometime during 1954, and Art Blakey’s group during the fall of 1954 in Philadelphia. 

Sonny Red and Elena Knox were married in February 1960. Tommy Flanagan signed the marriage license. Two years later, on June 4, 1962, their daughter Nicole Kyner was born. Red’s publishing company, established in the 1960s, was named “Nadianicole” after his two daughters.

During the late 1950s through the 1970s, Sonny Red was at his finest as a recording artist and sideman. His work with Art Blakey, Jimmy Heath, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Blue Mitchell, Barry Harris, Bobby Timmons, Howard McGhee, Yusef Lateef, Bill Hardman, Pony Poindexter, Philly Joe Jones, Curtis Fuller, Red Garland, Clifford Jordan, Tommy Flanagan, Roy Brooks, Grant Green, Elvin Jones and many others helped establish him as one of the best saxophonists in New York. 

During the early 1970s Sonny Red was very involved with the Jazzmobile program and Henry Street Settlement in New York. His teaching methods at Jazzmobile were very similar to the way he approached composition and playing: emphasis on sound, playing with feeling, the blues, and the importance of scales and theory. In 1976 Red received a $4000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete the composition and orchestration of a three-part jazz suite, entitled Cien Fuegos. One completed part exists from the suite: Song Samba, written for 17 instruments. 

Sonny’s declining health in the mid- to late 1970s brought him back to live with his mother at 233 Leicester in Detroit, though he frequently managed to return to New York for concerts. On December 9, 1979, a benefit concert was given for Red in Detroit, and the musicians and friends in attendance revealed how many people he had touched as a son, father, brother, musician and friend. Sonny died from complications of lymph node cancer in March 1981, at the age of 48. 

(Edited from Sonny Red Music)