Pony Sherrell born circa 1924

Pony Sherrell (born circa 1924 - December 8, 1990) was an American lyricist, songwriter, singer, and performer best remembered for her work in mid-20th-century radio, film soundtracks, and Las Vegas musical reviews.

Doris & Grace Sherrell

Doris “Pony” Sherrell was one of thousands of performers that attempted the jump from screen to jukebox. Born as Doris Gislen, a first generation native New Yorker, she later adopted the stage name of Pony Sherrell. She was on stage at the age of three, and began performing with her sister Grace as the Sherrell Babes in the late 1920s. They appeared on the “Horn And Hardart Hour,” “Uncle Don’s Radio Show” and on the Loews and RKO circuits. The team eventually got its own radio show on WOR New York.

Doris in 1942

A chance encounter with “My Blue Heaven” crooner Gene Austin landed the sisters steady work, who flanked Austin throughout his early ’40s cowboy phase and eventually lead to Gene and Doris’s marriage on Thanksgiving Day 1942. By then, the thrice married Austin, his child bride, and her sister had decamped to Hollywood to pursue their celluloid dreams. The sisters spent the first half of World War II on stage, performing separate and together in various theatre troupes and nightclub acts. They got their first big break in 1944, when they starred as themselves in both Moon Over Las Vegas and Follow The Leader, alongside Austin. By 1947, the honeymoon was over. Her first marriage behind her, the lifelong brunette did something incredibly bold: She went blonde.

                                  

The following year, the pair of platinum sisters were out for the night at The Haig, a jazz club on South Kenmore in Hollywood. Appearing that evening was “English piano Wizard” Phil Moody, who’d recently migrated to the States from war-ravaged Britain. A rapport was immediately struck, but this time with Doris as the third wheel. Moody spent his evenings playing in any restaurant and lounge that would have him, and briefly he worked under the tutelage of Phil Moore at Discovery Records. But his real passion was writing and arranging music. It was his new wife Grace that suggested he partner with a lyricist, and she knew just the filly to help get him in the money.

A 1954 press kit describes how Doris Sherrell got her nickname: “She’s called ‘Pony’ for two reasons. Firstly, she’s only 5-2 and 115 pounds. Secondly, she won a beautiful legs contest and the emcee of the event said she ‘had the slender legs of a colt.’” The writing duo of Moody and Sherrell got going in earnest in 1950, and had close to 200 songs by the end of the year. An audition for Irving Mills’ American Recording Artists firm resulted in a publishing deal in 1953, and the two were immediately drafted to write music for the film So This Is Paris, starring Tony Curtis, followed by The Second Greatest Sex and Paris Follies of 1956.

In the middle of this long-delayed Hollywood fantasy, Pony set her eyes on a recording career all her own. After Jimmy Durante tracked his own version of the Moody/Sherrell original “Little People” in 1954, Coral Records paid for Pony to cut her own. Though the single failed to go anywhere, there was enough chum to attract publicity shark Tim Gayle, who issued Grace and Pony Sherrell’s “Can-Can Blues” on his Advance imprint in 1955, and would continue to rep the Moody/Sherrell/Moody tricycle well into the ’60s. A deal with Irving Gwirtz’s revived Diamond label bore two gorgeous, orchestral singles: September 1956’s “No News” b/w “Hey Angelino” and “Jungle, Ungle Um Bai” b/w “Don’t Put Off ‘Till Tomorrow.” The racy “Jungle, Ungle” never sniffed the charts, and would be the last record issued on Diamond. Dozens of other songs were composed over the next decade, including the playfully xenophobic “Tobago,” but with their sound drifting out of vogue there were few takers.

Grace & Pony Sherrell

Undeterred, Phil Moody and Pony Sherrell persisted. Under the management of club magnate Frank Sennes, the two wrote and performed steadily over the next decade at his Moulin Rouge and Desert Inn nightclubs. In 1967, with the backing of her new husband, Texas financier Jess Metcalf, Pony and Phil set up Pony Records in the Moody living room, issuing and reissuing their entire catalogue on 45 and LP over the next five years to a completely disinterested marketplace. 

Phil & Grace Moody

Phil and Grace Moody spent the bulk of the ’70s living in Las Vegas, where he performed regularly at the Stardust, Sahara, and Flamingo hotels. In 1980 the couple opened Moody’s Supper Club in Palm Springs, and Phil continued to perform off and into the late ’90s. Grace’s light went out in 2006, Phil followed in 2011. Pony Sherrell never did settle down, keeping homes in Beverly Hills, Connecticut, Palm Springs, and Manhattan. She closed out her days managing Metcalf’s vast financial empire. She died from a heart attack at her New York on December 8, 1990.

(Sourced from Bandcamp)(date of birth estimated from Sam Houston State University profile on Gene Austin)

Grady Chapman born October 1, 1929

Grady Chapman (October 1, 1929 – January 4, 2011) was best known as the American lead singer of doo wop group The Robins.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Chapman joined The Robins in 1952, singing alongside Bobby Nunn, Billy Richards, Roy Richards, Ty Terrell, and later Carl Gardner. During that time, the Robins recorded for RCA where Grady is heard leading many of the groups' classic recordings, including "How Would You Know," "Oh Why," "My Heart's The Biggest Fool," and "Ten Days In Jail." Later they recorded for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's Los Angeles–based "Spark" label, where Grady also led the Robins on "Whadaya Want" and "I Love Paris." in October 1954 Grady issued a recording on the Money label backed by the Suedes, "Don't Blooper" and "I Need You So." 

                                   

When the Robins split in late 1955, Leiber and Stoller took members Nunn and Gardner east to form the Coasters. Grady stayed with the Robins, who then signed with Gene Norman's Whippet label.  Gene had his own TV show on Los Angeles' Channel 9 and named his record label Whippet after his dog, Boris. Grady's recording "Since I First Met You" from 1957 with The Robins is included in the films Pulp Fiction and American Strays. Around March of 1957, Grady Chapman's first solo effort was issued on Geordie Hormel's Zephyr label. Zephyr, located a few doors down Sunset Boulevard from Whippet, was distributed by GNP Records (“Gene Norman Presents,” Whippet's parent company). On both sides of the record (“My Love Will Never Die” and “The Smiling Gondolier”), Chapman is backed by a female group. Despite these solo efforts, Chapman still remained a member of the Robins. He wrote "Sweet Pea" for Bob and Earl.

In the summer of 1958 there was a Grady Chapman solo released on the Knight label: “Star Light, Star Bright” and “Say You Will Be Mine.” Once again, he's backed by a female chorus on the tunes which had been recorded on his previous single. After this release, Grady Chapman parted company with the Robins and was replaced by Bobby Sheen. The last known Grady Chapman solos were released on the Mercury label: “My Life Would Be Worth Living” (with the ubiquitous female group) and “Ambush.” These were issued in September 1960. Early the following year, there was “I'll Never Question Your Love” and “This, That, 'N The Other.”

Chapman sang with The Dominoes alongside Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson and would later become a member of one of the Coasters' many spin-off groups, The Coasters Mark II, which included Bobby Nunn, Bobby Sheen, and Billy Richards, Jr. In 1977, along with Billy Guy and Jerome Evans, he sang on "Paid The Price" on Michelle Phillips' album Victim Of Romance. Chapman would also substitute for Carl Gardner a few times in the 1990s and 2000s with The Coasters. 

He still performed as Grady Chapman & The Robins with various back-up musicians, until his death, from congestive heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital, on January 4, 2011.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Marv Goldberg & Academic) 

Willie Hightower born 30 September 1940

Willie Hightower (born 30 September 1940*) is an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer.

Willie Hightower was born in Gadsden, Alabama. At six years old, he began singing in the church. By the time he was in his teens, he had formed his own 'quartet-style' Gospel group, 'The Silver Stars', patterned after his idols The Soul Stirrers. Shortly after Sam Cooke left the group and 'crossed-over' in 1957, Willie decided to do the same, and began singing in local clubs in and around Birmingham. 

He was soon noticed by legendary civil rights activist and WENN dee-jay Shelley Stewart, who was so impressed by his voice that he sent out a tape to his friend Bobby Robinson, the founder of Fire and Fury records in New York. Like most record label owners at the time, Bobby had been on the lookout for 'the next Sam Cooke' since his tragic murder in late 1964, and offered to fly Hightower up to New York to record him.

                                   

Impressed, Robinson signed Hightower in 1965. Over the next four years, Hightower cut several sides with Robinson. The first of these, "What Am I Living For," appeared in 1965 on Enjoy, and two years later "If I Had a Hammer" became Hightower's first single distributed by Capitol Records. "Because I Love You," his first 45 recorded for Capitol and produced by Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein, appeared later in 1967, but it was 1968's "It's a Miracle" that brought Hightower into the Billboard R&B Top 40 for the first time; it peaked at 33. In the wake of its success, Capitol assembled the If I Had a Hammer album, pulling largely from previously released Enjoy, Fury, and Capitol sides. "Ooh Baby How I Love You," his last single for Capitol, also appeared on the LP.

Hightower split with Robinson after the If I Had a Hammer LP and Capitol switched the singer to FAME Records in 1970. "Time Has Brought a Change" was his first single for FAME but his second 45 for the imprint, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," went to 27. One more single, "Back Road into Town," appeared in 1971 before Hightower decamped to Mercury in 1972. He released two singles for Mercury -- a cover of Freddie Hart's country hit "Easy Lovin'" and "Don't Blame Me" -- before severing ties with the label. Hightower released "Chicago, Send Her Home" on Sound Stage 7 in 1976 and that was his last release for nearly a decade. "Too Many Irons in the Fire," a single for the tiny Adventure One label, was his only released record in the 1980s, although he made some other recordings with Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch during that decade.

Hightower's '60s and '70s recordings were reissued in the 1990s and 2000s but it was the 2004 Honest Jon's/Astralwerks compilation Willie Hightower that revived interest in the singer. Music-wise the last three decades had been a lean period for Willie although he Hightower kept singing and toured with a new iteration of the Drifters for 10 years. “I wasn’t doing any recordings, just mostly personal appearances... and not so very often.”  He made his triumphant return on October the 2nd in 2015 in New Orleans at the Ponderosa Stomp festival.

It was Honest Jon's comp that started a long process that eventually culminated in Hightower reuniting with Claunch for the 2018 album Out of the Blue. Produced by Billy Lawson, an associate of Claunch, and recorded in Muscle Shoals, Out of the Blue appeared on Ace in 2018.

He later formed a family band with his five daughters, before eventually starting a real estate company. Today, he lives a quiet life at his Gadsden home.

(Edited from AllMusic, Soul Express & Rolling Stone) 

* (Some sources wrongly give 3rd September as his birthday)

Clarence Ashley born September 29, 1895

 Clarence "Tom" Ashley (September 29, 1895 – June 2, 1967) was an American musician and singer, who played the clawhammer banjo and the guitar. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. 

G.B. Grayson & Ashley

Ashley was born Clarence Earl McCurry in Bristol, Tennessee, but when Clarence was very young, he was nicknamed “Tommy Tiddy Waddy” (after a nursery rhyme) by his grandfather Enoch, and thus became known to friends and acquaintances as ‘Tom’. As he was raised by the parents of his mother, the name “McCurry” was dropped in favour of “Ashley”. From infancy, Tom was acquainted with musicians. His grandfather bought him a banjo when he was eight years old, and his mother and aunts taught him to play traditional Appalachian folk songs and ballads. He learned a number of songs and techniques from itinerant lumberjacks and railroad workers lodging at his grandfather's boarding house. In 1911, Tom joined a medicine show that happened to be passing through Mountain City. He played banjo and guitar, and performed blackface comedy. Tom would play with medicine shows every summer until the early 1940s. During winters, he organized local concerts at rural schools. He would also play for money at coal camps and rayon mills, often accompanied by influential Johnson County fiddler G. B. Grayson.

Byrd Moore & His Hotshots

Tom made his first recordings for Gennett Records during February 1928 with the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, which then consisted of Ashley on banjo or guitar, Garley Foster on harmonica, and Clarence Horton Greene on fiddle. With the help of Victor producer Ralph Peer, Ashley made several recordings with The Carolina Tar Heels, which consisted of Tom on guitar and vocals, his friend Dock Walsh on banjo, and Gwen or Garley Foster on harmonica. In 1929, Frank Walker of Columbia Records auditioned Ashley to make his first solo recordings, as well as to record with a trio called "Byrd Moore and His Hot Shots" at the Johnson City Sessions. He recorded several songs derived from English or Irish ballads that were passed down through generations in Appalachia, the best-known of which included "Coo Coo Bird" (which he learned from his mother), "House Carpenter", and "Rude and Rambling Man". Other recordings included the murder ballads "Naomi Wise", "Little Sadie", and "John Hardy", and the folk songs "Frankie Silvers" and "Greenback Dollar". An African-American influence can be heard on Ashley's renderings of "Dark Holler", "Haunted Road Blues", and "Corrina, Corrina".

                                 

During the early 1930s, Ashley again recorded with the Blue Ridge Entertainers, this time for the American Record Corporation. The final recordings from his early era were a series of duets with harmonica player Gwen Foster in 1933. The oldest known recording of the song, "House of the Rising Sun", under the title "Rising Sun Blues", was recorded  by Ashley and Foster on September 6, 1933, on the Vocalion label (02576), which he claimed he learned from his maternal grandfather. The effects of the Great Depression made money scarce throughout the early 1930s. Not only was Ashley no longer recruited to make records, it was virtually impossible to earn money playing at coal camps or on street corners. The Depression (along with government regulations) also greatly reduced the crowds that attended medicine shows. 

Ashley worked briefly as a coal miner in West Virginia, and did odd jobs back in Shouns to support his wife, Hettie, and their two children. In 1937, he established a trucking business in Mountain City that hauled furniture and crops to various cities around the region. Throughout the following decade, Ashley performed as a comedian with the Stanley Brothers. He formed a local string band, the Tennessee Merrymakers.

During the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, urban ethnomusicologists rediscovered Ashley's music. By this time, Ashley was well known among folk music enthusiasts due in large part to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), which included some of Ashley's early recordings. In 1960, Ralph Rinzler met Ashley at the Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Union Grove, North Carolina. He eventually persuaded him to start playing banjo again and to record his repertoire of songs. Over the next few years Ashley and his friends Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price played at numerous urban folk festivals, including the Chicago Folk Festival in 1962 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

Ashley continued touring the folk circuit throughout the mid-1960s. He appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York and played at dozens of venues in California. In 1966, Ashley and Reidsville, North Carolina guitarist Tex Isley toured England. On October 7, 1966, Clarence “Tom” Ashley was a leading performer at ETSU’s first annual Folk Festival. A local article published by the Elizabethton Star described Ashley as “perhaps the best known artist to appear” at the festival. This performance was one of Ashley’s final significant regional performances. A second tour of England was planned for 1967, but Ashley grew ill and discovered he had cancer before he departed. He died June 2, 1967, at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Jim Diamond born 28 September 1951

Jim Diamond (28 September 1951 – 8 October 2015) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, best known for his three top 5 hits: "I Won't Let You Down" (1982), as the lead singer of PhD; and his solo performances "I Should Have Known Better", a United Kingdom No. 1 in 1984, and "Hi Ho Silver", the theme song from Boon, which reached No. 5 on the UK singles chart in 1986.

James Aaron Diamond was born in the Bridgeton area in the East End of Glasgow in 1951. He started his music career at the age of 15 with Tony Diver's band, The Method. When aged 16, he also fronted a Glasgow band called Jade. That line-up included bassist Chris Glen who went on to play with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and Jim Lacey on lead guitar who later went on to join the Alan Bown Set. Jade played many pub, club and university gigs in London in 1969, playing at Brunel University, West London College in Cricklewood, The Pied Bull in Islington, West Hampstead Country Club, another college in Virginia Water and many more in 1969. They also supported The Move on their Scottish tour with The Stoics in the same year.

Alexis Korner then discovered Diamond, who spent the next couple of years as part of Korner's band. He provided additional and backing vocals on many of Korner's songs, most of which would appear on The Lost Album. Diamond left Korner in 1976, to form Bandit. The line-up included future AC/DC member Cliff Williams. They were soon signed up by Arista Records and released a début album, Bandit, which failed to reach the chart. But the record brought Diamond, who had written five of its songs in various styles, to wider attention and was enough to prompt the NME’s reviewer, Tony Stewart, to comment that he was “an inspired and remarkable vocalist who projects himself well, displaying not only a passion for the music but a staggering range, which he uses fully”. 

                                   

In 1979, Diamond was lead vocalist for a Japanese band called BACCO, whose debut album was Cha Cha Me. Word was spreading about Diamond and his powerfully expressive singing, and he was invited to fly to Los Angeles to form a band with the guitarist and David Bowie collaborator Earl Slick and the drummer Carmine Appice, who had been playing with Rod Stewart. The trio worked in the studio with the producer Eddie Kramer, who had collaborated with a who’s who of stars from Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin and Bowie. Before the project could come to fruition, Diamond was in demand again, returning to England to form PhD and embarking on the series of hits that sealed his reputation.

PhD

In 1981, Diamond formed PhD (Phillips, Hymas and Diamond), with pianist/keyboard player Tony Hymas and drummer Simon Phillips. They were signed by WEA Records and had a hit single with the multi-million selling "I Won't Let You Down". Then Diamond contracted hepatitis, which prevented him from touring and prompted PhD to split. In 1984, he decided to go solo and was signed to A&M Records. He had a number-one hit with "I Should Have Known Better", and was also number one in Latin America. The single, which was from his album Double Crossed (released in 1985), earned him a nomination for an Ivor Novello award. In the same year Diamond went to No 1 again with the celebrity ensemble The Crowd on You’ll Never Walk Alone, a charity record for families of the victims of the Bradford City stadium fire. In 1986 his second solo album, Desire For Freedom, delivered the No 5 hit Hi Ho Silver, a song commissioned for Boon, starring Michael Elphick, and featuring yet another of Diamond’s catchy choruses, this time set to a briskly pumping reggae beat.

In 1993 he released the album Jim Diamond, which reached No 16 on the UK charts, and went on tour performing acoustic versions of his catalogue of songs. In the late 90s he teamed up with the saxophonist Chris “Snake” Davis, renowned for his studio work with M People, George Michael, Paul McCartney and many more, and they performed as The Blue Shoes, but were later billed as Jim Diamond and Snake Davis. With the Hammond organist Paul Birchall, they also worked on Diamond’s 2005 album Souled and Healed. In 2009 he re-united with Tony Hymas to produce a third PhD album entitled Three. 

Jim Diamond's last album, City of Soul, released by Camino Records in 2011, featured among others Wet Wet Wet drummer Tommy Cunningham and Greg Kane of Hue and Cry. All proceeds from this album of soul music covers benefited the children's charity, Radio Clyde Cash for Kids.

Diamond married Christine Bailey in 1978. The couple had two children; their son Lawrence is the keyboard player of the UK indie pop group Citizens! and the former bass player of Official Secrets Act. Diamond died in his sleep on 8 October 2015, at the age of 64. According to his daughter Sara, the cause of death was a pulmonary edema.

(Edited from Wikipedia &The Guardian) 

Guido Basso born 27 September 1937

Guido Basso CM (27 September 1937 – 13 February 2023) was a Canadian jazz musician who was a member of Rob McConnell's Boss Brass big band. He was a trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, and conductor, equally proficient in jazz, pop and classical music.  

Guido Basso was born in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up in the Little Italy neighbourhood of Montreal, in an Italian-Canadian family. He began playing the trumpet at the age of nine, on which he eventually became a child prodigy after studying at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montreal. In his teens, under the name Stubby Basso, he worked in dance and show bands led by Al Nichols, Maury Kaye and others. While playing at the club El Morocco with Kaye, he was heard by American singer Vic Damone, who took him on the road in 1957–58. Basso then worked throughout North America from 1958 to 1960 with singer Pearl Bailey and the orchestra led by her husband, drummer Louis Bellson.

                    Here's "Marion's Theme" from above LP

                                   

Basso returned to Canada and settled in Toronto in 1961, instead of obtaining permanent residency in the United States and the likelihood of required enlistment in the United States Army. A full-fledged career as a studio musician ensued, parallel to which he undertook formal studies at the Royal Conservatory of Ontario. He became a first-call studio musician trumpeter and bandleader. He also took assignments as a harmonica player. Basso was music director for CBLT's Nightcap (1963–67) and for CBC-TV's Barris and Company (1968–69) and for Mallets and Brass (1969) with vibraphonist Peter Appleyard. Basso was also music director for CBC Radio's After Noon (1969–71) and led orchestras for two CBC-TV series devoted to the big band era: In the Mood (1971–72) and Bandwagon (1972–73). In 1975, he organized big band concerts at the CNE Bandshell, featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. 

One of his most outstanding performances with Amy McConnell is Portrait Of Jenny from the 1976 Jazz Album which can be heard on YouTube. He is centre stage for the eight-minute duration in an intimate statement of subtlety and lyricism. Basso performed in Toronto nightclubs and hotel lounges with his own small groups, several of which mixed jazz and Latin music. Basso was a charter member and also an important soloist with the Boss Brass, playing with the band for over twenty years. He also played in bands led by Ron Collier, Rob McConnell and Phil Nimmons. Basso was also featured in the 2009 album Norm Amadio and Friends, playing trumpet and flugelhorn accompaniments.

Basso was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1994. His citation cited him as, "an advocate of the arts and an inspiration to young musicians, he is generous with his time and talent, running workshops and clinics, and lending his name and expertise to worthy causes". He received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. Basso won the Juno Award for traditional jazz album of the year, Turn Out the Stars, in 2003. He also received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Despite his pre-eminence among Canadian jazz trumpeters, Basso was reticent to work in that idiom. Equally at home in the jazz, pop and classical fields, as an in-demand session musician he played on more than 200 albums. He once told Bill King in an interview: “I wanted to be a jazz musician but a better lifestyle won out. I have to be able to afford it to play jazz”. Nevertheless, Basso known for the lyricism of his flugelhorn work on jazz ballads, a reputation taken far afield by his recordings with the Boss Brass. He was equally capable of incisive trumpeting in the bebop style. He was credited with the theory that one attacks the trumpet and makes love to a flugelhorn.

Basso did not make his first real jazz recording under his own name until 1986, with Guido Basso. He followed that with collaborative efforts with Doug Riley (A Lazy Afternoon, 1997) and Dave Turner (Midnight Martini, 1997). Basso’s record Lost in the Stars won the 2004 Juno Award for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year. As a sideman, Basso appeared on some 30 recordings by the Boss Brass, as well as on more than 200 albums by such diverse performers as Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, Mel Tormé, Holly Cole, Gene Lees, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Ranee Lee, Lenny Solomon, and Oliver Jones. His final recording was Solstice/Equinox in 2016, with vocalist Diana Panton.

Basso was married to Kristin and had one daughter, Mia Basso Noble, who was a musician and songwriter, who died of cancer in September 2013. Basso died from natural causes in Toronto, on 13 February 2023, at age 85.

(Edited from The Canadian Encyclopedia, Jazz Journal & Wikipedia) 

Ted Greene born September 26, 1946

Theodore Greene (September 26, 1946 – July 23, 2005) was an American fingerstyle guitarist, columnist, session musician and educator based in Encino, California.

Ted was born in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sept. 26, 1946 but grew up primarily in White Plains, N.Y. where he spent most of his early musically formative years. During this time he was exposed to everything from Gershwin and show tunes at home, to rhythm & blues in the city. In 1957 at age 11 his father bought him his first guitar. Shortly afterwards he began lessons, used various guitar books and learned to read music. He was an accomplished player while still in high school, occasionally collaborating with local rock and R&B bands. He briefly studied accounting at California State University, Northridge, but dropped out to devote more time to music. 

In 1963 Ted moved back to Calif. and subsequently took a teaching position at Ernie Ball’s Guitar Shop, which after 11 years would ultimately become a private teaching practice from his home. It was during the 1960s he was a member of the rock band Natural Selection and a blues rock group called Bluesberry Jam, which included future Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra. He was a friend and collaborator with Joseph Byrd, on whose Columbia Masterworks album The American Metaphysical Circus he was featured (he also provided the whimsical name of the studio band who performed it, "The Field Hippies"). During the late 1960s and early 1970s he did commercial studio work with Byrd.

                                   

In April of 1965 Greene acquired his first Fender Telecaster, a 1953 that cost $135. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the Tele. Greene estimated that he owned 200 Telecasters at one point or another. “The versatility of the Telecaster is almost unmatched,” he said in an interview. While Telecasters held a special place in Green’s heart, he owned many other guitars, mostly Gibsons. His collection included a goldtop Les Paul, an ES-335, and a number of hollowbody archtops. He would also make occasional live appearances at clubs in the San Fernando Valley, usually playing a Fender Telecaster.

Meanwhile, Greene continued to gig around Los Angeles with various rock and blues acts. In 1967, he joined a group called Bluesberry Jam that featured future Canned Heat member Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra on drums. The group regularly played the Magic Mushroom club, as well as the larger Shrine Auditorium, where they supported such acts as the Doors, Iron Butterfly, Joe Cocker, and Alice Cooper. While Bluesberry Jam gained a following around the city, they never made it to the next level, and the band folded when de la Parra departed for Canned Heat. Sadly, no Bluesberry Jam recordings survive. However, Greene did record with psychedelic rocker Joe Byrd, including on Byrd’s 1969 album The American Metaphysical Circus.

Greene typically worked as a vocal accompanist, which he preferred because he found group settings restrictive. While he was a sought-after session musician, he derived much of his income from tutoring. He wrote several influential books on the subject of jazz guitar performance and theory: Chord Chemistry, Modern Chord Progressions: Jazz and Classical Voicings for Guitar, and the two-volume Jazz Guitar: Single Note Soloing. Published in 1971, Chord Chemistry became widely regarded as a foundational jazz guitar harmony known for its complex catalogue of chord voicings. His playing style included techniques such as harp-like arpeggios combined with gentle, tasteful neck vibrato, creating a "shimmer" to his sound. Other notable techniques included playing songs with a walking bass line with simultaneous melodies. Greene used counterpoint to improvise in a variety of styles, playing, for instance, a jazz standard such as Autumn Leaves in Baroque style. He used a large variety of chord voicings, often creating the effect of two simultaneous players.

In 1976 Greene began performing his first solo gigs, taking up a Sunday night residency at the Smoke House in Toluca Lake, California. Southern California guitarists flocked to hear the master perform. One frequent attendee was Greene’s friend and sometime student Leon White. Recalls White, “In the parking lot after the show I said to him, ‘We have to record that. You don't have to prepare anything. Just come and sit down and play.’ We ended up having that same discussion in the Smoke House parking lot for two years. He just didn’t want to do it!” Ultimately, White’s persistence won the day, and Greene went into the studio with White and friend William Perry. Over the course of roughly 10 hours spread out over two days, Greene sat alone in the studio, playing almost continuously. There was no game plan, not even a song list—just Greene playing whatever came to mind. The result was Solo Guitar, a breathtakingly beautiful set of standards played as only Ted Greene could play them. The album received near-universal praise.

Green was called on in 1977 to provide guitar tablature for three arrangements of Bix Beiderbecke's piano music for the Ry Cooder album Jazz, which Joseph Byrd arranged and produced. Greene ceased writing instructional books after 1979, though he continued teaching and learning. For the rest of his life, he coached aspiring guitarists at his home, at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, and at seminars throughout Southern California. He stopped playing solo gigs, too—reportedly because he disliked the way guitar players would scrutinize his technique and execution on the guitar rather than soaking in the music he drew from the instrument.

Greene died in his Encino El Dorado apartment of a heart attack on July 23, 2005, at age 58. Approximately 700 people attended his memorial, nearly all of them guitarists. Greene had many loves in his life: baseball cards, fast cars, and his partner Barbara Franklin. But above all else, he loved music and teaching. In 2009 Barbara Franklin wrote the biography My Life with The Chord Chemist: A Memoir of Ted Greene, Apotheosis of Solo Guitar. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Premier Guitar)