D.L. Menard born 14 April 1932

D.L. Menard (April 14, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was an American songwriter, performer, and recording artist in contemporary Cajun music. He was called the "Cajun Hank Williams".

Doris Leon, the only son of Ophy Menard and his wife, Helena Primeaux Menard, members of a farming family, was born outside Erath in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. Most musicians from deep Cajun country are raised on the traditional sounds of accordion and fiddle and keening French love songs, but DL came to the music late; he didn’t hear a Cajun band until he was 16. What he listened to first was hardcore country songs by Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and Ernest Tubb, borne on the airwaves from station XERA in Del Rio, Texas. 

When the family radio died, he had to wait for the next cotton crop to provide cash for a new battery. Hearing an uncle’s band practising, he fell in love with the guitar, ordered one from a mail-order catalogue, learned some chords, bought a better guitar, and played his first dance job with accordionist Elias Badeaux and his Louisiana Aces. Joining the band in 1952, he initially sang country songs, but in the revival of Cajun music during the 50s he started singing in French. 

                                   

In time, he also began song writing. “The band had this pretty waltz that didn’t have words to it, so I made up some.” They called it La Valse de Jolly Roger, after a dancehall where they played, recorded it in 1961 for Floyd Soileau’s Swallow label and had some local success. The following year they made another record, a rueful song about a loser’s life called La Porte en Arrière – The Back Door.

“The story came to me all at once,” DL told the Cajun historian Barry Jean Ancelet, “but I was working in a service station. It took only a few minutes to write it down, but they were stretched out over a long afternoon. I based the tune on Hank Williams’ Honky Tonk Blues, changed it some, and made up words in French. It’s about having to come in through the back door. Lots of people could identify with that.” Three days after it was released, the band played at the Jolly Roger and had to perform the song seven times. It would stay with DL for the rest of his life. His wife Lou Ella (nee Abshire), whom he married in 1951, told him that if he went on stage and didn’t sing it, it was like not going on at all. Soileau boasts that it has taken over from Jolie Blonde as the Cajun national anthem.

The Louisiana Aces disbanded in 1967, but the 1973 National Folk Festival in Washington seemed to open doors again. “After we played our last song,” DL remembered, “the people gave us a standing ovation. If you had given me a million dollars cash, I would not have felt better.” There was an Aces reunion LP in 1974, followed in 1976 by the magnificent LP Under the Green Oak Tree with two other Cajun master musicians, the fiddler Dewey Balfa and accordionist Marc Savoy. 

In the company of other folk musicians, Menard went on State Department tours of South America, the Middle East and east Asia. By then he had quit the service station and, looking for an occupation that left more time for music, had settled on chair-making. He and Lou Ella, who was skilled at caning (weaving) chair seats and backs, opened a small chair factory in Erath, and DL was now invited to folk festivals as both musician and craftsman.

In 1984 he was offered his dream session: a programme of his own and Hank Williams’ songs, accompanied by members of Williams’ Drifting Cowboys and Ricky Skaggs. “DL doesn’t imitate Hank,” Skaggs wrote in the sleeve notes to Cajun Saturday Night, “but he has that bottom-of-the-heart sincerity that Hank had, so people tend to remember Hank when DL sings.”

In the late 80s and 90s he joined fiddler Ken Smith and accordionist Eddie Lejeune to play classic Cajun songs and tunes. They were warmly received on several tours of France and the UK, made the albums Cajun Soul and Le Trio Cadien, and collaborated on DL’s 1988 album No Matter Where You At, There You Are, a characteristic mixture of Cajun tradition, Hank Williams-style honkytonk and original songs by DL such as La Pompe Du Puits (The Water Pump, literally a well pump).

In 1993, his album Le Trio Cadien was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Folk Album category. In 1994 DL received a National Heritage Fellowship award, in 2009 he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, along with Jo-El Sonnier, Doug Kershaw, and Jimmy C. Newman and in 2010 his album Happy Go Lucky secured a Grammy nomination. 

Throughout his career, Menard held performances in more than 30 countries and served as a good-will ambassador for Cajun culture. He gave his last public performance in July at an event in Erath celebrating the 55th anniversary of The Back Door. Menard, and his wife Lou Ella, had seven children, leading to 17 grandchildren, and 27 great-grandchildren. Lou Ella died in 2011. DL died at age 85 on July 27, 2017, in Scott, Louisiana.

(Edited from Guardian obit by Tony Rusell & Wikipedia) 

Wade Ray born 13 April 1913

Wade Ray (April 13, 1913– November 11, 1998) was an American Western Swing fiddler and vocalist. His bands, the Wade Ray Five, Wade Ray And His Ozark Mountain Boys, etc., included musicians such as Kenneth Carllile and Curly Chalker.

Fiddler Wade Ray made his name playing traditional country and Western swing from a very young age but made very few recordings of his own over his lengthy career. Born Lyman Wade Ray in Evansville, Indiana, he grew up in Boynton, AR, and at age four began playing a homemade fiddle his father fashioned from a cigar box. Just a year later, he was touring the vaudeville circuit as the World's Youngest Violin Player; he also learned to play tenor banjo and remained a vaudeville regular until his 18th birthday in 1931. 

A keen collector of fiddles, Wade amassed over a hundred in a short period of time and by the time he was 18 had a collection of over a hundred. He then moved to St. Louis and spent the next 12 years as the fiddler, singer, and musical director for Pappy Cheshire's Western swing group, the National Champion Hillbillies, who performed locally as well as having a regular radio slot on station KMOX. Wade was then called to serve in the Army in 1943.

Upon his return, he joined Patsy Montana's group the Prairie Ramblers for several years, also recording with the Ozark Mountain Boys. He moved to Los Angeles in 1949, where he became a regular on The Rex Allen Show and appeared in the film Hollywood. Wade Ray has the distinction of being the first performer to play with an electric fiddle.

                                    

Wade's recording carer as a solo performer kicked off in 1949 when he signed for the Paramount label, although this association was short-lived and by 1951 he had switched to the RCA label and released a total of 23 singles from 1951 to 1957, none of which charted. In 1954 Wade cut the proto-rockabilly number "Idaho Red" which was one of the all time great road songs and still a hot favourite in clubs today. Other recordings from this period included the equally good 'It's All Your Fault' and 'Cuddle Bug'. 

He made a good living appearing regularly at the "Cow Town", a legendary western night club in Los Angeles, and played frequent gigs in various Nevada resort towns; he also appeared regularly on The Roy Rogers Show and The Ernest Tubb Show. He moved to Nashville and did session work in the mid-'60s and also recorded his first solo album, A Ray of Country Sun, for ABC-Paramount in 1966. RCA Camden released Walk Softly (And Other Country Songs) later that year, and in 1967 Ray collaborated with the likes of Homer & Jethro, Sonny Osborne, and Hargus "Pig" Robbins on Down Yonder: The Country Fiddlers. He also managed the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, 1967-1970.

He continued his session work until 1979, when he retired to Sparta, Illinois where he continued playing "for fun" and supporting the annual 'Wade Ray Fiddle Contest' which continues to this day. Wade continued playing until 1997. He performed with a local radio station's road show until health problems made it impossible, with his final performance being alongside Willie Nelson. He passed away on November 11, 1998 and was laid to rest at Ellis Grove City Cemetery, Illinois.

(Edited from AllMusic, his Is My Story & Hill-Billy Music) 

Anamari (Anna Schofield) born 1940

Anna Schofield ( aka Anamari) (born 1940 - November, 3, 2010) was an underappreciated female jazz and ballad singer, who would have remained in obscurity but for her only recording: an album from 1964 which is often overlooked.

Born Anna Schofield, in Norwich, New York, in 1940, she attended Norwich High School and the University of Toronto. Having entered university at the age of 16, she found a home in the world of performing arts and soon made her way to Greenwich Village and the life that awaited her. Like many before, she went to New York to discover a side of herself that had yet to blossom and perhaps to follow the elusive muse that drew her to a life of song and the introspective, beautiful power of music. Quoted in 1963 in an article about her music Anna said, “I’ve only begun to understand why I sing. While singing has always been important, its import grows incessantly. Now, I must sing.”

      Here's "Ballad Of The Sad Young men" from above album

                                  

It’s little surprise that only a year later, in 1964, she released her first album on the Atlantic label. Entitled Anamari, it was produced by Nesushi Ertegun, the famed co-founder of Atlantic Records and was a hauntingly unique example of jazz balladry, a courageous work in that there was no attempt to hide from the intensity of these ballads. The public respected that directness, and combined with her “total involvement in” and the “uncharged uniqueness” of her performances, her success grew. She toured the country and performed internationally, but was renowned in the jazz clubs of New York City. Particularly important gigs were held at The Village Gate and Gypsy’s and she was often accompanied by some of the most revered jazz musicians of the day, including Jim Hall, Art Framer and Clark Terry.

Norwich

In 1974, her daughter Alana was born and while continuing to sing and work, Anna focused much of her attention on raising her child, while being the go-to person for her family in Norwich and her circle of friends in New York. Always searching and learning, versed in many disciplines from electric engineering to accounting to health and nutrition, Anna was a source of wisdom, humour, family history and not-so-common sense information for many friends and loved ones. In the 1990’s she returned to Norwich to care for her mother and spent much time in the place she referred to, only half-jokingly, as Brigadoon. An inventor of specialty cocktails like the “Hot Edy,” she even titles a favourite one “the Brigadoon” in honour of her home in the valley. Anna enjoyed her herb garden and her cats and was an unbelievable whiz at crossword puzzles and impossible sudokus, but it was her love of music and of her daughter and family that guided her throughout.

Anna Schofield passed on November 3, 2010 aged 70.

Quoting from her liner notes of one of her albums, “Her performances are always marked by a dignity and originality; and perhaps the most illusive quality of all – honesty – which is a hard quality to come by in a world so predisposed to artificiality.” 

(Edited from obit @ Wilson Funeral Home)

Bonnie Nelson born 11 April 1949

Bonnie Nelson (born April 11, 1949) is a top Country singer and entertainer who left the business to become an ordained Minister.

Bonnie Nelson was born in Denver, Colorado. She attended the Douglas County High School, where she was a cheerleader, graduating in 1967. While growing up in Colorado she began performing in talent contests, stage productions and benefits. She took an interest in singing and in 1963 began appearing in small night clubs with performers Lucky Lee and Johnny Cummings. From there she went on to appear as a regular for over a year on the Rocky Mountain Jamboree, which was broadcast on radio KLAK. 

At the age of 16 she appeared at the famous Wolhurst Country Club in Colorado with Willie Hartzel and Jerry Baake. She also appeared on numerous TV specials for the “Centekor Drug Benefit,” and two live shows for "Country Western Style." In 1967 she won the World Champion Senior Girls Calf Roper title and that same year won Miss Colorado High School Queen. During that time she would appear with many national country stars and also with Colorado’s country singer/guitar player Jerry Street as well as Denver’s Band Box label recording artists Jim McGraw and Dewey Knight. In 1965 she would team up with Ralph Achilles and Frank Bruen as a trio in Nevada. While there she appeared with the Phil Harris Trio.

                                    

In 1967 she won the World Champion Senior Girls Calf Roper title and that same year won Miss Colorado High School Queen. Bonnie’s father, Roy Nelson, built the Country Palace to showcase the talents of his daughte. In 1972 Bonnie and singing partner Bob Britton and his backing band “The Playboys” won the “Pappy Dave Stone Talent Contest” sponsored by radio station KPIK in Colorado Springs. That would earn the duo the prize of appearing on Nashville’s “Grand Ole Opry on September 1st, 1972. Nashville record executive Kelso Herston  with United Artists Records (Nashville Division) was duly impressed and would sign Bonnie to a 5-year contract. 

Her first record "Got Me a Feelin " won her wide acclaim. More singles followed and then an album "Meet Bonnie Nelson." In 1975 Bonnie was inducted into the Colorado Hall of Fame by the Country Music Foundation of Colorado. She organised a fan club with nearly 900 members and became a radio spokeswoman for the International Harvester Co.  Her singing and road reports were appreciated by many truckers and night listeners all over the United States and even in Canada which gave her the nickname "The Transtar Rose". 

She was also renowned for having a bus customised by Custom Coach Industries who equipped it with all home necessities. While in Nashville Bonnie would meet and perform with a long line of artists including Del Reeves, Freddie Hart, George Morgan, Rex Allen, Bob Hope, George Strait to name a few, as well as headlining her own shows, traveling all across the US, Canada and Germany. She recorded several albums and videos during her career and enjoyed Commercial endorsements with International Trucks, The Tony Lama Boot Company and The Shure Sound Company.

From thereon, Bonnie continued to perform in various clubs, restaurants and many other venues (too numerous to mention) up to 1997 when she left country to joined the Firestorm Ministry and became an Ordained Minister. She now teaches on ground at her home church, Victory Christian Centre, Murfreesboro, Tennessee and online, where she sings and leads praise and worship. 

(Edited from kimsloans.wordpress.com, Album liner notes & Firestorm Ministry)

Rusty Wellington born 10 April 1925

Rusty Wellington (10 Apr 1925 - 7 Jan 1987) was an American Country singer whose story has been difficult to document and details are patchy, to say the least, but he made his mark in various forms and released a string of traditional Country, Honky Tonk and Rockabilly records between 1948 and 1968.

Rusty was born Douglas Bramwell Wellington in New Brunswick, Canada. Rusty fell in love with Country Music the first time he heard a guitar, and hoped to be a Country and Western singer someday. He wasted no time in fulfilling his ambition, as he was singing professionally on Radio CKAC in Montreal, Canada at the tender age of 10. In 1936 he moved with his parents to Manchester, New Hampshire. 

                                    

One day in the little town of Groveton he met one of the great singing stars Tex Ritter, who was making a personal appearance. Tex heard Rusty singing and was so enchanted by his voice that he encouraged Rusty to continue pursuing a career in the music business and took the youngster on tour when he was just 13 years old. Later, tours with Hank Williams and Hank Snow followed, as well as a radio show on a local station in Manchester. It came as no surprise to discover that William's distinctive voice and vocal style influenced Rusty's own singing on a number of recordings. 

After fighting in World War II between 1943 and 1946, Wellington tried his hand at the music business. He was now active in and around Philadelphia, where he played with other local musicians such as Dave O'Dell, Jesse Rogers, the Down Homers or the then unknown Bill Haley.  As a vocalist he developed a highly pleasing style and frequently injected a catchy yodel in his songs. It was evident that he was enthusiastic about traditional country music styles and at times veered towards bluegrass with recordings. 

In the early 1950s, Wellington got a record deal with Arcade Records, a Philadelphia label owned by Jack Howard and partly Bill Haley. His first single was released there in 1953 with Doggone It Baby, I'm in Love / Every Precious Memory; the A-side was a cover of a Carl Smith hit. More singles followed on Arcade and some of these records were also taken over by MGM Records nationally, but none of the singles proved to be a big hit.

The backing musicians on many of his recordings were often The Blue Rangers who displayed a variety of catchy steel guitar, piano and mandolin licks to enhance his confident vocals. Other groups were The Travelaires and Shorty Long Santa Fe Rangers. He also duetted with his wife Ginger. From 1955 onwards, Wellington began to include rockabilly in his repertoire, which was popularized by artists of Sun Records, especially in the southern states of the USA. Nevertheless, it was clear that Wellington continued to be influenced by country musicians such as Hank Williams. 

In 1955, a first rockabilly song, Jump Jump Honey, was written during a session, which was released in the same year. In 1957, a second session with rockabilly followed, in which cover versions of Rudy Grayzell's Ducktail and Warren Smith's Rock'n'Roll Ruby were recorded, among others, but they disappeared into Arcade's archives. Rocking Chair on the Moon, later a hit for Bill Haley, was released by MGM in November 1957.

Despite the lack of a hit, Wellington continued to perform throughout New England and joined Bill Haley's backing band, the Comets, for some time in the 1960s. He then returned to New England and subsequently had two top ten hits on the country charts. He wrote a few songs for Bill Haley, was a member of the band Duke and the Swingbillies, and made a guest appearance on Ernest Tubbs' Midnight Jamboree. Wellington spent the 1970s mainly with television appearances. For several years in the 1970's he had his own TV show, appeared on Arthur Godfrey's talent show and made an appearance on Perry Como's show and appeared regularly on the CBS show "Action in the Afternoon" out of Philadelphia. He was a great singer, songwriter, comedian, he could do it all, acquiring the nickname of "Mr. Versatile" from his many talents. 

After Wellington's daughter narrowly escaped death and the Swingbillies broke up, Wellington devoted himself to God. Even to the point of becoming an Ordained Evangelist Minister. For a time he had his own gospel show on WMTW-TV in Auburn, Maine and wrote and performed his Gospel Music at Churches throughout New England. Rusty Wellington died 7 Jan 1987, aged 61 after a few years with heart problems. He was nominated for the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame Award that same year and was inducted into the Maine CMA Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2005, he was also included in Maine's Hillbilly Heaven. A fitting tribute to a fine artist, who never lost sight of his roots.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Bryan Chalker's liner notes)

Mickey Champion born 9 April 1925

Mickey Champion (April 9, 1925 – November 24, 2014) was an American powerhouse blues singer who was a mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene. With a career spanning over five decades, she is best remembered for her powerful vocals, and for guesting alongside other prominent musical acts.

Champion was born Mildred Sallier in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunts and had her first experience as a singer at Lake Charles Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where her grandfather was a bishop. Admired for the quality and intensity of her religious singing, she became part of a vocal trio, and while in high school was heard and praised by bandleader Louis Jordan. However, Champion, upon her family's insistence, was required to turn down an offer by Jordan to join his troupe. Shortly after graduating from high school, Champion married her first husband, Norman Champion, and in 1945, the couple moved to Los Angeles. Originally working as Little Mickey Champion, she soon lead an active career in the cities bustling nightclub scene.

The marriage between Mickey and Norman Champion was brief and soon ended in divorce.  In the late 40's and 50's she was well-known for the strength of her vocals and could fill a room without the aid of a microphone. She was also a highly praised interpreter of the blues, with a voice that sustained its emotional intensity and volume into her 80s.Though she was best known to her legions of Los Angeles fans who heard her in local venues, Champion’s far-ranging career in night spots across the country included performances on the same stage with Billie Holiday in Detroit, Sarah Vaughan in Kansas City, and Duke Ellington, T-Bone Walker, Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and T-Bone Walker, to name but a few.

                                   

Her numerous other high visibility associations included a gig as the first vocalist to work with Percy Mayfield after the success of his hit “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” She also performed with Roy Milton — whom she eventually married, after the release of his 1945 hit, “R.M. Blues.”  Hooking up with Roy Milton’s Band was an opportunity in more than one way, as she recorded many singles with them for Modern, Dootone and King Records. Recorded live at Gene Norman’s Blues & Rhythm Show at the Shrine Auditorium in mid-1950, she belted out ‘He’s A Mean Man’ and ‘Lovin’ Jim’ to an estimated audience of 9000 jazz and R&B fans. On the same bill were Dinah Washington (Mickey’s idol) and Jimmy Witherspoon, with whom she recorded ‘There Ain’t Nothing Better’ later that year billed as His Gal Friday. 

Also in 1950 Mickey fronted the Nic Nacs (a renamed Robins group) and waxed ‘Found Me A Sugar Daddy’ and the seasonal ‘Gonna Have A Merry Xmas’, very much in the Little Esther & The Robins mould, for the Biharis’ RPM label. In the same period, the ballad ‘Everybody Knew It But Me’ and the Dinah Washington-inspired ‘I’ve Got It Bad’ appeared on the Modern label. As well as releasing four singles under her own name, the Biharis auditioned her for quite a few others. 

Although she recorded several sides with Milton in the mid-1950s they were only modestly successful, but she continued to pursue music for the rest of the decade, eventually retiring from performing in the 60's to focus on raising her children. For the next two decades she worked as a cook for the Los Angeles Unified School District, occasionally singing in clubs on weekends. Champion and Milton were married until Roy's death in 1983 after which she performed in the clubs around L.A. 

Champion returned to the recording studio in 2000 for the album I Am Your Living Legend! and again in 2003 for What You Want, which won her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Traditional Vocalist and Best Comeback Artist. A number of anthologies of her early sides were also released including the impressive Bam a Lam: The R&B Recordings 1950 to 1962. 

From 2009 Champion suffered a series of strokes and moved to an assisted living center. She remained at West Side Health Center in Los Angeles until she died on November 24, 2014.

(Edited from Wikipedia, L.A. Times, Ace Records & Vintage Vinyl News) 

Paul Jeffrey born 8 April 1933

Paul Jeffrey (April 8, 1933 – March 20, 2015) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and educator. He was a member of Thelonious Monk's regular group from 1970–1975, and also worked extensively with other musicians such as Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Lionel Hampton and B.B. King. He toured extensively in the U.S.A, Europe and Japan, and recorded constantly as a sideman.

Paul Henry Jeffrey was born in New York City, Jeffrey attended Kingston High School. After graduating in 1951, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in music education at Ithaca College in 1955. He spent the late 1950s touring with bands led by Illinois Jacquet, Elmo Hope, Big Maybelle, and Wynonie Harris. From 1960 to 1961, Jeffrey toured the US with B.B. King, after which he worked as a freelance musician in the New York City area and toured with bands led by Howard McGhee, Clark Terry, and Dizzy Gillespie.

                        Here's "Love Letters" from above album

                                    

Jeffrey's first studio work as a leader was in 1968, when he recorded the album Electrifying Sounds for Savoy Records. It was one of the first jazz records to feature an electronically amplified saxophone. He toured with the Count Basie Orchestra before beginning his associations with Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. He recorded with Charles Moffett (1969), then joined Count Basie briefly (1970).

Jeffrey and Monk

He first joined Monk's quartet for a multi-day run at the Frog & Nightgown club in Raleigh, North Carolina, in May 1970, then performed as a regular member of Monk's band throughout the remainder of Monk's public career, appearing with Monk throughout the US and Japan at the Village Vanguard, Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall, the Jazz Workshop, Shelly's Manne-Hole, and The Cellar Door, among other venues. 

In 1972, Jeffrey recorded “Watershed” on Mainstream Records. The band members were Paul Jeffrey on tenor sax, Thelonious Monk Jr. on drums, Richard Davis on acoustic bass, and Jack Wilkins on electric guitar. It was released in 1973. He was hired by George Wein to organize a 15-piece band for a tribute concert to Monk at Carnegie Hall in 1974; a concert at which Monk made a surprise appearance, replacing Barry Harris on the piano just as the concert was starting. In 1978 he played, conducted and wrote arrangements for Charles Mingus. He recorded with Lionel Hampton 1979, 1982).

Also in the 1970s, Jeffrey served on the music faculties at the University of Hartford, Rutgers University, Jersey City State College along with leading his own Octet consisting of Paul (Tenor Saxophone), Alex Foster (Alto Saxophone), Sam Burtis (Trombone), Artie Simmons (Trombone), Oliver Beaner (Trumpet), Jim Roberts (Piano), Mattifias Pierson (Bass) and Chuck Zeuren (Drums).

In 1983, Jeffrey joined Duke University as Artist in Residence and Director of Jazz Studies, positions he held until he retired and became Professor Emeritus in 2003. He also worked to promote jazz within the local community.  In 1985, he was appointed to the North Carolina Arts Council by Gov. Jim Martin. In addition to directing the Duke Jazz Ensemble, Jeffrey donated his time working with local high school jazz bands. 

Jeffrey’s influence as an educator extended far beyond campus. He was artistic director of the Aspen Jazz Festival, as well as for jazz clinics at the Riveria Jazz Festival in Dolo/Venice and Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. In 2000, a school of jazz music was created in his name in Cairo Montenotte near Genoa. In 2008, Jeffrey recorded a tribute to Thelonious Monk with the French label Imago records distributed by Orkhestra International, with Alessandro Collina on piano, Sebastien Adnot on bass and Laurent Sarrien on drums.

He died March 20, 2015, at his home in North Carolina after a lengthy illness, aged 81.

(Edited from Wikipedia & New Grove Dictionary of Jazz)