Johnny St. Cyr born 17 April 1890

Johnny St. Cyr (April 17, 1890 – June 17, 1966) was an American jazz banjoist and guitarist.Born in New Orleans, John A. St. Cyr started his musical career in the early 1900’s. Johnny St. Cyr was one of the original pioneers of jazz music. 

He played with the best of them; Baby Dodds, Johnny Dodds, King Oliver, Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong.  He was the banjo player on all of the original Hot Five, and Hot Seven recordings made by Armstrong from 1925-1927.  The other Hot Seven tracks from 1928 feature banjoist Mancy Carr, and one tune with Eddie Condon.

                           

On the Hot Five recordings made in 1925, Gut Bucket Blues and Heebie Jeebies both stand out with some funky melodic banjo parts, where Cyr primarily plays a rhythmic role in the group.  

His sound is notably different from other banjo music recorded in that era, as was all the music from the infamous sessions.  Even keeping simple time playing chords, he has the perfect feel and swing for hot jazz banjo.

Johnny always played a 6 string banjo.  He got the idea of playing banjo early on before he started playing on riverboats in New Orleans.  He took the neck off of a banjo and stuck on a guitar neck that he had made himself.  It’s worth noting that Johnny St. Cyr has made some excellent recordings playing guitar as well.

Johnny St. Cyr played the banjo-guitar, more like a banjo, in one of the greatest bands of all time.  He was the banjo player in some of the greatest recordings of American music ever made. He composed the popular standard "Oriental Strut", noted for its adventurous chord sequence.

In 1930, he returned to New Orleans where he made his living outside of music but still played with local groups (including with Paul Barbarin and Alphonse Picou).

In 1955, Johnny moved to L.A. and in 1961 started playing on a riverboat, much like he had in his early days. He became leader of the Young Men from New Orleans on the boat the Mark Twain, floating around the Frontierland section of Disneyland where he played until the year he died at the General Hospital, Los Angeles on 17th June 1966. He was 76 years old.  He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, in Los Angeles. 

In 2002 he was inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Boogie Banjo Blog)

There are not many videos of Johnny St. Cyr, but enjoy this 10 minute video of Louis Armstrong visiting Johnny and Kid Ory on the boat in 1962.  

Here is a segment from "Disneyland After Dark" that aired on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on April 15th 1962.  The legendary Louis Armstrong performs on the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland.  He joins his old buddies Hot Five Kid Ory and Johnny St. Cyr.  Other musicians are Mike DeLay, trumpet, Paul 'Polo' Barnes, clarinet, Harvey Brooks, piano and Alton Redd, drums.  "Lazy River" and "Muskrat Ramble" are performed and Monette Moore joins Louis for a rousing edition of "Bourbon Street Parade."

Edie Adams born 16 April 1927

 Edie Adams (born Edith Elizabeth Enke, April 16, 1927 – October 15, 2008) was an American comedienne, actress, singer and businesswoman. She was an Emmy Award and Tony Award winner.

Born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1925 (some sources give 1927) in Kingston, Philadelphia, she initially hoped for a career in opera, and she trained as a classical singer at the Juillard School of Music before graduating from Columbia School of Drama. In 1950 she won a talent competition as Miss US Television, which led to an appearance (billed as Edith Adams) with Milton Berle on his television show.

The following year she was invited to audition as resident vocalist on a Philadelphia television series, Ernie in Kovacsland. Adams proved an admirable foil for Kovacs' innovative humour and eccentric characterisations, and she stayed with him when, re-titled The Ernie Kovacs Show, the series moved to CBS in 1952.

In 1953 she made her Broadway début as Rosalind Russell's sister in the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical hit Wonderful Town, based on the play My Sister Eileen. Adams' fresh blonde beauty was ideal for the role of baby-faced Eileen, who brings out the protective impulse in men, unlike her assured sister Ruth, played by Russell, and she had an appealing solo ballad, "A Little Bit in Love" as well as partnering Russell in the show-stopping "Ohio", in which the 
sisters express doubts about having left their small-town home for the excitement of New York.

In 1954 Adams and Kovacs eloped to Mexico City, and she returned to Broadway in 1956 to play the winsome Daisy Mae in the musical Li'l Abner, based on Al Capp's satirical comic strip about the citizens of Dogpatch. Adams shared with Peter Palmer (as Abner) the show's major ballad, "Namely You", and won a supporting actress Tony Award for her appealing performance.

In 1957, a year in which both she and Kovacs were nominated for Emmy awards for best performances in a comedy series, Adams 

played fairy godmother to Julie Andrews in Rodgers and Hammerstein's television musical Cinderella, which was reputedly watched by 107 million people.

Adams has described herself in fits of self-deprecation as a "singer who never had a record on the charts." While that may be, the evidence of her recordings show that Miss Adams had a most ingratiating way with a melody and had a keen ear for selecting out-of-the-way choices for great songs to interpret.

                             

Adams had her first major film role when cast in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) as the spurned mistress of philandering boss Fred MacMurray. She then had a prime role in arguably the funniest of the comedies co-starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Lover Come Back (1961), as the chorus girl Rebel Davis, who stars in a series of commercials for Hudson's advertising executive.

In 1962, after Adams and Kovacs attended a party at Milton Berle's home, Kovacs left to drive home (Adams was to follow in their second car), but had a fatal crash when his vehicle skidded on the wet street – Adams suggested he was probably lighting one of his constant cigars when he lost control. (Their daughter Mia also died in a car crash, in 1982.) It transpired that Kovacs owed half a million dollars in back taxes, which Adams eventually settled by taking whatever work would pay most, refusing to file for bankruptcy and declining the offer of a benefit concert suggested by friends including Berle, Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon and Dean Martin.

She played the wife of Sid Caesar in the film It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and made a strong impact as Steve McQueen's stripper girlfriend who refuses to lend him money so that his lover can have an abortion, in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), and as the wife of an unscrupulous Presidential candidate (Cliff Robertson) in The Best Man (1964). She also appeared in Las Vegas, where Groucho Marx introduced her with the comment, "There are lots of things that Edie Adams won't do, but there's nothing she can't do".

She eventually won a lengthy and bitter battle for the custody of Kovacs' two daughters from his first marriage, and when her debts were paid she began acquiring the rights to Kovacs' television shows to keep his talent alive – many of them had already been destroyed. She married twice more, briefly to the photographer Marty Mills, with whom she had a son, then to the trumpeter Pete Candoli. She continued to make occasional nightclub appearances, and took guest roles in such television series as Fantasy Island and Murder, She Wrote.

Adams died in Los Angeles, California on October 15, 2008, at age 81, from cancer and pneumonia. She was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills alongside her first husband Ernie, between her daughter, Mia, and her stepdaughter, Kippie.

(Edited from Wikipedia but mainly from Independent article by Tom Vallance)

Frank Frost born 15 April 1936

Frank Otis Frost (April 15, 1936  – October 12, 1999) was one of the foremost American Delta blues harmonica players of his generation.

Most sources state that Frost was born in 1936 in Auvergne, Jackson County, Arkansas, though researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc state Patterson, Woodruff County, in 1938. Frost began his musical career at a young age by playing the piano for his family church. At the age of 15, Frost left for St. Louis, where he became a guitarist.

He moved to St. Louis in 1951, learning how to blow harp first from Little Willie Foster and then from the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson, who took him on the road -- as a guitar player -- from 1956 to 1959. Drummer Sam Carr, a longtime Frost ally, was also part of the equation, having enticed Frost to front his combo in 1954 before hooking up with Sonny Boy.

Leaving Williamson's employ in 1959, Frost and Carr settled in Lula, Mississippi. Guitarist Jack Johnson came on board in 1962 after sitting in with the pair at the Savoy Theatre in Clarksdale. The three meshed perfectly -- enough to interest Memphis producer Sam Phillips in a short-lived back-to-the-blues campaign that same year. Hey Boss Man!, issued on Sun's Phillips International subsidiary as by Frank Frost & the Night Hawks, was a wonderful collection of uncompromising Southern blues (albeit totally out of step with the marketplace at the time).

Elvis Presley's ex-guitarist Scotty Moore produced Frost's next sessions in Nashville in 1966 for Jewel Records. Augmented by session bassist Chip Young, the trio's tight down-home ensemble work was once again seamless. "My Back Scratcher," Frost's takeoff on Slim Harpo's "Baby Scratch My Back," even dented the R&B charts on Shreveport-based Jewel for three weeks.

                             

Chicago blues fan Michael Frank sought out Frost in 1975. He located Frost, Johnson, and Carr playing inside Johnson's Clarksdale tavern, the Black Fox. Frank was mesmerized by their soundand soon formed his own record label, Earwig, to capture their raw, charismatic brand of blues. 

Released in 1979, Rockin' the Juke Joint Down, billed as by the Jelly Roll Kings (after one of the standout songs on that old Phillips International LP), showcased the trio's multifaceted approach -- echoes of R&B, soul, and even Johnny & the Hurricanes permeate their Delta-based attack.

Cigarettes and alcohol wore Frost down over the years but he waxed an Earwig album (1988's Midnight Prowler) and appeared on Atlantic's 1992 Deep Blues soundtrack -- an acclaimed film that reinforced the fact that blues still thrives deep in its Southern birthplace. Frost returned in 1996 with Keep Yourself Together.

In later years, Frost's health declined, yet he continued to play. Four days before his death, he appeared with Carr at the King Biscuit Blues, where he was brought onstage in a wheelchair during a set by Carr and given a harmonica, which he had trouble playing. Carr, said one of his band mates, had tears in his eyes as he performed. 

He died of cardiac arrest at his home in Helena, Arkansas in 1999, and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Helena. he was 63.

 (Edited from a Bill Dahhl bio @ AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Shani Wallis born 14 April 1933

Shani Wallis (born 14 April 1933) is an English-born American actress and singer of theatre, television and film, in both her native United Kingdom and in the United States. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the West End, and for the role of Nancy in the 1968 Oscar-winning film musical Oliver!.

Shani was born at Deen street in the Tottenham High Road. North London. Her parents (Jim and Ethel) owned a Delicatessen, and use to supply a lot of the restaurants and hotels in this area. In 1937 she made her first stage appearance. When in1940 when the bombing got bad in London, her father brought her and her two brothers, Jimmy and Leon, to Wymington and stayed there until the end of the war. Shani attended the village school and won a scholarship to The Wellingborough High School. The family later returned to London where Shani initially studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship.

She became one of the brighter young singing voices of her day. She made her West End musical debut at age 18 with "Call Me Madam" at the Coliseum in 1952, and immediately established herself in the role of Princess Maria, the leading ingénue. Following other starring roles in the mediocre musicals "Happy as a King" and "Wish You Were Here," she scored again in "Wonderful Town" (1955) playing a comic soubrette, and as another spirited ingénue in "Finian's Rainbow" (1958). In between were a number of musical revue shows. In 1960 she replaced Tony-winner Elizabeth Seal in the title role of "Irma La Douce" at London's Lyric Theatre. After the show closed, few offers seemed to come her way so she decided to try her luck in America.

She went about rebuilding her name on the cabaret, concert and club circuits, and added more musical roles such as "South Pacific," "The King and I" and "Bells Are Ringing" to her credits. She finally made it to Broadway in 1966, co-starring with the legendary Tessie O'Shea in "A Time For Singing," a musical version of "How Green Was My Valley." Backed by three strong numbers, she had a chance to shine in the Maureen O'Hara colleen role, but the show closed after a disappointing run of 41 performances.

A few inconsequential film roles had come her way earlier in England, including The Extra Day (1956) and Ramsbottom Rides Again (1956), not to mention a minor singing bit in Charles Chaplin's A King in New York (1957). Other than assorted variety show appearances and a televised performance supporting Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Mattress (1964), she found only a modicum of on-camera work. All the more astounding then when she nabbed the role of a lifetime as the ill-fated Nancy in the Oscar-winning picture Oliver! (1968). 

Successfully replacing the seemingly irreplaceable Georgia Brown, Shani made a durable marquee name for herself while giving her all in the rousing "Oom-pah Pah" number and putting her own indelible stamp on the show-stopping "As Long As He Needs Me," now considered her signature song. Having never played the part before, she went on to perform Nancy on the theatre stage as well.

                            

In addition to her participation in the soundtrack album from the movie "Oliver!", her recording career included several singles (released on 78 and 45 RPM) on the Philips label in England in the 1950s and 1960s, and one single released in the USA on London Records in 1963. Also, several LP records on the Kapp label in the USA in the 1960s.

Shani was seen only sporadically in films following this breakthrough for the live stage was still her first love. Over the years she has gamely performed in a number of musical staples, including "42nd Street" and "Follies," and toured with Liberace for five years during the 1980s.

Shani has also appeared in TV series such as Charlie’s Angels and Murder She Wrote, was a regular in daytime soap The Young And The Restless, and popped up in films like Terror In The Wax Museum and The Mojave Phone Booth. In September 1992 Shani came back to Bath, England for 5 weeks to appear in a play.

Since losing her husband of 48 years, actor Bernie Rich to cancer in 2016, Wallis has moved to a condo in southern California where she keeps mementoes of her career. Their daughter Rebecca, who works in pharmaceuticals, and grandchildren also live in California. Shani still keeps herself fit, proud to still be a Size Zero, and continues to sing and play piano and is working on her autobiography “It’s A Fine Life.”

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of “Oliver” Shani gave a rare public appearance when she visited the UK to give a one off show in Blackpool during June 2018, where the audience could hear her amazing stories from being on the set of Oliver to her amazing career in Hollywood & Las Vegas.

Shani's brother Leon had a record shop in Rushden but later died at Souldrop, U.K.. Her other brother Jimmy emigrated to Australia. He had eight daughters all of whom followed in their aunts footsteps and become actresses in various soaps. 

(Edited from various sources mainly a bio by Gary Brumburgh for IMDB)

Jimmy Sabater born 11 April 1936

Jimmy Sabater (April 11, 1936 – February 8, 2012) was an American musician of Puerto Rican ancestry. A three-time winner of the ACE Awards, he was a singer and timbales player. He gained international fame thanks to his work with the Joe Cuba Sextet in the 1960s and '70s, and later became the lead singer of various groups including Charlie Palmieri's Combo Gigante. His ability to sing both in English and Spanish with equal passion and soul 
earned him the title of "The Velvet Voice" of Latin music.

Sabater was born Jaime Sabater Cruz González, on 11 April, 1936 in New York City of Puerto Rican parents originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico. His neighbours in the New York “barrio” were none other than Tito Puente, Luis Cruz, Willi Bobo, Monchito Munoz and other prominent Latin musicians. In that great laboratory featuring talented artists from Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, in an atmosphere charged with the excitement of experimentation, Sabater dedicated himself to becoming a musician. He studied music, including voice and learned to play the piano and then the timbales.

A chance set of circumstances in the mid-1950s lead Sabater to join forces with another young talent on the rise in New York's Latin music scene — Joe Cuba — and Sabater became Cuba's main English-language vocalist. They played gigs in the clubs of "El Barrio", as well as upstate New York venues such as The Pines Resort.

L-R: Jimmy Sabater, Willie Garcia, Joe Cuba

From the late 1950s and into the early 1960s the Sextet recorded on the Mardi Gras label, constantly increasing their
popularity. Sabater set the standard as a Latin soul vocalist, mastering a smooth, intimate style that drew from both uptown, doo-wop street harmonies and the hushed crooning of Sinatra's ballads. His breakout hit came on "To Be With You," a bolero recorded on the Joe Cuba Sextette's 1962 album, Steppin' Out. (The song proved to be Sabater's signature tune; he even re-recorded it as a minor disco hit in 1976.)

Cuba's sextet signed with Tico Records in 1964. By showcasing the smooth vocal style of Sabater, the group had achieved tremendous fame, both in the United States and around the world. In 1966, they recorded two albums, We Must Be Doing Something Right, and Wanted Dead or Alive. …Something Right scored big because of the hit composition "El Pito (I'll Never Go Back to Georgia)". In 1967, Sabater wrote what would become the biggest hit for the Joe Cuba Sextet: "Bang Bang," a rollicking blend of R&B and Afro-Cuban rhythms that helped launch the Latin boogaloo craze of the mid/late '60s.

                           

Mr. Sabater left the group in 1977 after a falling out with Mr. Cuba, whom he accused of taking undue credit and royalties for some hit songs. From 1977 to 1981, he was the lead vocalist for Al Levy. In 1980 Sabater recorded Gusto on the Fania Records label. In 1982, he co-led "El Combo Gigante" with Charlie Palmieri until the latter's death in 1988.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Sabater also had a flourishing career as a soloist, releasing the albums The Velvet Voice of Jimmy Sabater, El Hijo de Teresa, and Solo.

On November 12, 1997, Sabater became the recipient of an award from the City of New York for his contributions to the quality of life in the city, and in appreciation of his work since 1956. He was also the recipient of the "Outstanding Musician of the Year" award from the Comptroller of the City of New York, Alan G. Hevesi.

In 1998, Sabater became the lead vocalist of the Latin Septet "Son Boricua", led by Maestro José Mangual, Jr. Their first album, called Son Boricua, was the winner of the ACE Award as best new Latin release of that year. A second, and recently, a third ACE Award were awarded for the albums Homenaje a Cortijo y Rivera and Mo!

Later albums were Clasicos 60s, released in 2002, and Fabulosos 70s, released in 2004, which included renewals of salsa classics songs, originally by Josa Manugual Jr., Eddie Palmieri and others. Actually, in 2002 Sabater recorded two versions of the classics "Mama Guela" - one with his band Son Boricua, and one as a guest singer with Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

He continued to perform until 2011 as the lead singer of Son Boricua, and resided in the Bronx until the time of his passing due to complications from heart disease February 8^th, 2012, aged 75.

(Edited mainly from Wikipedia  & NPR.Inc)

Martin Denny born 10 April 1911

Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 ‒ March 2, 2005) was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica."

Denny was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. He studied classical piano and at a young age toured South America for four and a half years in the 1930s with the Don Dean Orchestra.This tour began Denny's fascination with Latin rhythms. Denny collected a large number of ethnic instruments from all over the world, which he used to spice up his stage performances.

After serving in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, Denny returned to Los Angeles, in 1945 where he studied piano and composition under Dr. Wesley La Violette and orchestration under Arthur Lange at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. He later studied at the University of Southern California.

In January 1954, Don the Beachcomber brought Denny to Honolulu, for a two-week engagement. He stayed to form his own combo in 1955, performing under contract at the Shell Bar in the Hawaiian Village on Oahu and soon signing to Liberty Records. The original combo consisted of Augie Colon on percussion and birdcalls, Arthur Lyman on vibes, John Kramer on string bass, and Denny on piano. Lyman soon left to form his own group and future Herb Alpert sideman and Baja Marimba Band founder Julius Wechter replaced him. Harvey Ragsdale later replaced Kramer.

In 1955, the musician met his future wife, June, and married her the following year. His daughter, Christina was born a few years later. Denny described the music his combo played as "window dressing, a background". He built a collection of strange and exotic instruments with the help of several airline friends. They would bring Denny back these instruments and he would build arrangements around them. His music was a combination of ethnic styles: South Pacific, the Orient and Latin rhythms.

During an engagement at the Shell Bar, Denny discovered what would become his trademark and the birth of "exotica". The bar had a very exotic setting: a little pool of water right outside the bandstand, rocks and palm trees growing around, very quiet and relaxed. As the group played at night, Denny became aware of bullfrogs croaking. The croaking blended with the music and when the band stopped, so did the frogs. He thought it 

was a coincidence at first, but when he tried the tune again later, the same thing happened. This time, his band mates began doing all sorts of tropical bird calls as a gag. The band thought it nothing more than a joke.

The next day, someone approached Denny and asked if he would do the arrangement with the birds and frogs. He agreed. At rehearsal, he had the band do "Quiet Village “with each doing a bird call spaced apart. Denny did the frog part on a grooved cylinder and the whole thing became incorporated into the arrangement of "Quiet Village". It sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The album jacket was an influential factor guiding the fantasy of Denny's music. Denny's first dozen albums featured model Sandy Warner on the cover.

                           

The Exotica album was recorded in December 1956 and released in 1957. In 1958, Dick Clark hosted Denny on American Bandstand. "Quiet Village" reached #2 on Billboard's charts in 1959 with the Exotica album reaching #1. He rode the charts of Cashbox and Variety also. Denny had as many as three or four albums on the charts simultaneously during his career.

Although Denny only placed a few singles in the pop charts as he rode the wave of popularity of the exotica sound and interest in the new state of Hawaii, he continued to record for Liberty until 1969. He moved back to Oahu but toured in the States and appeared on a number of network television variety shows throughout the 1960s.

Denny continued to perform for decades after the initial exotica fad passed. He announced his retirement in 1985 but then reunited with Lyman, Colon, and Chang for a short club tour. In 1990, he toured Japan and recorded a live CD, Exotica 90, and soon after, he was recognized by the Hawaiian Association of Music's Hoku Award for lifetime achievement. Indeed, he survived long enough to see a revival in the mid-1990s that brought an extensive CD reissue of his original albums by Scamp Records.

He continued to perform on occasion and was a tremendous supporter of the younger generation of musicians inspired by his music. Denny's final public performance, for a tsunami fundraiser at the Hawaii School for Girls, came less than three weeks before his death.

Denny died in Honolulu on March 2, 2005, aged 93. Following a private memorial service, his ashes were scattered at sea.  (Edited mainly from Wikipedia & spaceagepop)

Sharkey Bonano born 9 April 1904

Joseph Gustaf "Sharkey" Bonano (April 9, 1904 – March 27, 1972), also known as Sharkey Banana or Sharkey Bananas, was a jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist. His musical abilities were sometimes overlooked because of his love of being an entertainer; he would often sing silly lyrics in a high raspy voice and break into dance on stage. Being only 5' 4", loud, flamboyant, cocky and

arrogant and with Cavanaugh bowler hat perched on his head, he was the ultimate showman.

Bonano was born in the Milneburg neighborhood of New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain. He grew up at Quarella’s, his brother-in-law’s dance pavilion. He was given a trumpet by Buddie Petit in 1917 and followed Petit, Joe Oliver, and Sam Morgan in brass band parades. In the early '20s, New Orleans native Sharkey Bonano played locally with the bands of Chink Martin and Freddie Newman, among others.

Sharkey learned how to read music after failing an audition in New York to replace Bix Beiderbecke in the Wolverines in 1924, but he did land a spot with pianist Jimmy Durante. The next year, he returned home to lead his own band. In 1927, he joined the famous Jean Goldkette Orchestra, which then featured Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

In 1928, he co-led the Melody Masters with Leon Prima on the steamer Greater New Orleans and later led a band at the Chez Paree near West End.After playing in California with Original Dixieland Jazz Band clarinetist Larry Shields, Bonano once again returned to New Orleans, where he stayed from 1930-1936.

 In 1936, Bonano worked with Ben Pollack before forming his own New York-based group, the Sharks of Rhythm, with which he recorded much of his finest work. Around that time, he also played sporadically with the ODJB. He spent several years in New York, where he recorded for the Brunswick label and began an association with Nick Rongetti, the owner of Nick’s in Greenwich Village, inaugurating a jazz policy there.

                     
                            

After World War II fueled by the New Orleans revival, he toured Europe, Asia, and South America, played residencies in Chicago and New York, and then was a regular on Bourbon Street in the New Orleans French Quarter, where his outgoing musical personality gained him a large following. 

On one New York stint, Arthur Rubinstein heard him play and then asked him to demonstrate his tone to the trumpet section of the new York Philharmonic. 

In 1949, he led his own groups and appeared at the Roosevelt Hotel's Blue Room and the Famous Door Bar and was active until the 1960s, when ill health forced him to retire shortly before his death on May 27, 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

(Edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & AllMusic)

12/25/58 WNTA-TV Art Ford New Orleans Jazz Party, (filmed at WDSU-TV studio, New Orleans 8/11/58)   Sharkey Bonano (t) Percy Humphrey (t) Clement Tervalon (tb) Harry Shields (cl) Alphonse Picou (cl)  Eddie Miller (ts) Armand Hug (p,v) George Guesnon (b) Alcide Pavageau (b) Sherwood Mangiapane (b) Louis Barbarin (d)