Margo Guyan born September 20, 1937

Margo Guryan (September 20, 1937 – November 8, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter. 

Born in a New York suburb, Guryan began her musical path as a child, taking up the study of piano in the first grade and continuing through high school and into Boston University. She studied classical music, though she was attracted to certain kinds of pop music, particularly jazz, which she had fallen in love with in high school. Never a fan of performing, Guryan switched from her piano curriculum, for which she would have had to complete a senior recital, to composition in her sophomore year at Boston. 

Her pop and jazz compositions began garnering immediate attention. Chris Connor became the first artist to record one of her songs, "Moon Ride," which she released on Atlantic in 1957. The summer after she graduated from college, Guryan spent three weeks at the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts, where Ornette Coleman and Gary McFarland were fellow students and the teaching staff included Bill Evans, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Max Roach, and Gunther Schuller. Lewis and Schuller signed her to MJQ Music once the session was completed and gave her the assignment of turning Coleman's "Lonely Woman" into a vocal version.

Jazz singer Chris Connor recorded her song "Moon Ride" in 1958, while Guryan was still at university, and in 1962, Ms. Connor had recorded "Lonely Woman" with Guryan's lyrics. Another early recording of her work was by Harry Belafonte, who recorded "I'm On My Way to Saturday" for The Many Moods of Belafonte (1962). She attended the Lenox School of Jazz in 1959, where she met and worked with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, and was taught by Bill Evans, Max Roach, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, John Lewis and Gunther Schuller, among others. 

She was one of two women admitted to the program that year. Following this, Lewis and Schuller signed her to MJQ Music. She was primarily a jazz musician in this period, married to jazz trombonist and pianist Bob Brookmeyer and writing lyrics for jazz pieces by composers including John Lewis, Ornette Coleman and Arif Mardin. Songs of this period, with her lyrics, were recorded by Chris Connor, Freda Payne, Nancy Harrow and Alice Babs, among others.

                                   

Until the mid-'60s, Guryan had focused largely on classical and jazz, but it was her friend Dave Frishburg who introduced her to a pop record that changed her life: the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." She soon began listening to any pop and rock music she could get her hands on and altered her own song writing tendencies accordingly. After working up a catalogue of her own originals, jazz producer Creed Taylor sent Guryan to Columbia's publishing company, April-Blackwood, and manager David Rosner (her eventual husband) was sufficiently impressed enough to help her record an album. Take a Picture appeared on Bell Records in 1968, by which time Spanky & Our Gang had already recorded a hit version of one of the songs, "Sunday Morning." The album earned positive reviews, but wider attention was sacrificed to her performing aversion.

As a songwriter, though, it was a thoroughly productive period for Guryan. Claudine Longet, Jackie DeShannon, and Astrud Gilberto all released versions of "Think of Rain" (while Dion and an impressed Harry Nilsson also recorded unreleased versions). "Sunday Morning" was also a hit for Oliver, and it was recorded by Julie London, Bobbie Gentry, and Glen Campbell, among others. Her songs were placed with London, Carmen McCrae, the Lennon Sisters, and Mama Cass Elliot.  Guryan continued composing through the end of the '60s and into the '70s. Although she preferred writing songs that others could record and perform, in 1968 Margo recorded and released an album entitled "Take a Picture". Although the success of this record back then was limited, it has since become a much sought-after collector’s item, so much that original pressings of the "Take a Picture" LP have been spotted being sold on e-Bay for as much as $190 each!

She moved with her husband to Los Angeles and tried to stay current by writing a several topical songs -- she even tried her hand at disco for a single effort -- but her personal connection with the music had begun to wane, and she turned to producing other artists. Gradually she began to study and practice classical music again with Howard Richman, the teacher she had initially found for her stepson. She, in turn, became a teacher, and took up composing again in the '90s as a teaching aid for her students. By the end of the decade, interest in her 1968 album had come full-circle, garnering raves among pop aficionados, not only in the United States but also in Japan, England, and Europe. Meanwhile a new generation of artists began embracing her songs including Saint Etienne, Linus of Hollywood, and the Wondermints. An archival release called 25 Demos was released by Franklin/Oglio in 2001 with a slightly expanded U.K. version, Thoughts, appearing a bit later on the RPM label.

Sessions for a possible new record commenced in the mid-2000s, though 2006's "16 Words" was the only track to see release. An instrumental recording of Guryan performing The Chopsticks Variations was issued in 2009, and over the next decade additional versions of her demo anthology were released including Burger Records' 27 Demos (2014) and Modern Harmonic's 29 Demos (2016). Margo Guryan died at her home in Los Angeles on November 8, 2021, at the age of 84. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Paul Siebel born September 19, 1937

Paul Siebel (September 19, 1937 – April 5, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Paul Karl Siebel was  born in Buffalo, New York. His father, Karl, was a farmer and restaurateur. His mother, Dorothy (Hosmer) Siebel, was a homemaker and seamstress. Paul studied classical violin as a child and later became proficient at the guitar. 

After attending what is now the University at Buffalo, he served in the Army in Europe before beginning to perform on the folk circuit in Buffalo. When he moved to New York City, he supported himself by working in a baby carriage factory in Brooklyn.

After serving in the military, Siebel began playing folk clubs, eventually moving to Greenwich Village in 1962, where he where he eventually played his first professional gig in 1965, playing traditional songs in a coffee house. An article in The New York Times on February 14, 1970, written by Mike Jahn, described Siebel as "a folk singer with a country and western bias, a 32‐year‐old native of Buffalo and musically a product of the Greenwich Village folk scene" and said that he "sings in high nasal and hillbilly manner, rather like Bob Dylan's singing in his early days". Referring to his songs as "uncomplicated country and folk songs, with occasional thoughts about such things as suburban living and raising children". Typical of his songs were “Bride 1945" and "My Town". At The Bitter End, he played acoustic guitar and was backed by David Bromberg, Don Brooks, Jeff Gutcheon and Gary White.

                                                            

               

In 1969, Elektra Records became aware of a collection of songs Siebel made with David Bromberg and signed him to record Woodsmoke and Oranges (1970) and Jack-Knife Gypsy (1971). He is best known for other artists' cover versions of his songs, most notably "Louise". Other frequently covered Siebel songs include "Spanish Johnny" (which was originally a poem written by Willa Cather in 1917 and expanded upon by Siebel), "Long Afternoons," "Any Day Woman," "Nashville Again," "She Made Me Lose My Blues," "Then Came the Children" and "Pinto Pony". 

Among some of the artists who covered his songs were David Bromberg, Willy DeVille, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kate Wolf, Mary McCaslin, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Rick Roberts and Leo Kottke; but Siebel remained mostly unknown to the larger public.  After 1971, his song writing production stopped. Siebel became depressed and developed drug problems. Now and then his name came up in interviews with other artists. Kris Kristofferson tips his hat to Siebel in his song "The Pilgrim". Siebel played McCabe's Guitar Shop in 1978, which was considered a comeback, and appeared on a 1977 release, Music From Mud Acres, with a cover of the Hank Williams song "Weary Blues".

Siebel made his home on Maryland's Eastern Shore in the 1990s. In 1996, folk magazine Dirty Linen tracked him down and talked with the then 58-year-old who was baking bread for a living. Siebel looked back on the difficult time of his depression. "I wasn't moving," he said. "I wasn't going forward with it and I was finding that, well, it was bumming me out. It got to a point of where I was disliking going out there and not coming up with new material. I was too uncomfortable knowing that I was gonna have to go off stage and meet people who were gonna ask me that question. 

And I couldn't blame them. When they said, 'When are you gonna come out with the third album and have you written more songs?' and to come up with a negative night after night was something that I was becoming very uncomfortable with, to a point of either go forward with this or stop. And I stopped." After leaving his job as a bread baker for a restaurant and a county park worker in Maryland.

Siebel died in hospice care in Centreville, Maryland from complications of pulmonary fibrosis on April 5, 2022. He was 84.

(Edited from Wikipedia & New York Times) 

Pia Beck born 18 September 1925

Pia Beck (18 September 1925 – 26 November 2009) was a Dutch jazz pianist and singer. She was one of the most popular entertainers in the Netherlands during the 1950s and achieved international success in Europe and the United States. She had an allure that transcended her homeland and with her carefully sculpted platinum blonde quiff, her glitter jackets and blouses, her love of sports cars and the smile chiselled on her face, jazz pianist Pia Beck had a glamour that you hardly saw here in the Netherlands, especially in the fifties, when she was at the height of her fame.

Pieternella Beck was born into a middle-class family in The Hague. She was the daughter of Floor Beck, a merchant and procuration holder, and Johanna Westerbaan. From an early age she displayed musical talent and later claimed that she could play several instruments as a child. Beck eventually focused on the piano. Attempts at formal musical training were unsuccessful; according to Beck, her teacher, the later conductor Bernard Haitink, dismissed her because of her 'unique gypsy talent' and advised her to pursue her music elsewhere.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945), Beck performed with the female vocal group the Samoa Girls. After the Second World War, she joined the Miller Sextet as a pianist and singer. With this ensemble she toured Europe, performed for American soldiers in Germany, and spent six months entertaining Dutch troops in the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1949 Beck left the Miller Sextet and formed her own trio. Throughout the 1950s she performed across the Netherlands, particularly at the venue De Vliegende Hollander in Scheveningen. 

                                   

Her repertoire consisted mainly of boogie-woogie and jazz standards, alongside German and French songs. Her first major hit was Pia's Boogie. Beck regularly toured Europe and from 1952 she also travelled to the United States, where she enjoyed a certain popularity during the fifties. She performed her boogie-woogie and the songs from the Great American Songbook in famous jazz clubs such as Birdland (New York), The Blue Note (Chicago) and Crazy Horse (Hollywood). She was now so famous that all the Dutch newspapers reported on her departure, and wrote again relieved when she had set foot in the Netherlands again. She was also the first Dutch artist for whom a fan club was founded, which was a rare phenomenon in the fifties. She played with many well-known artists and to her considerable pride she even made it to Time Magazine in 1956, which gave her the title 'The Flying Dutchess'. 

Pia reached the height of her popularity in Europe in the 1950's and 1960's, particularly through her interpretations and unique phrasing of standards like 'Dancing on the Ceiling' and George Shearing's 'Lullaby of Birdland'. On several of her recordings from that period, she was accompanied by noted American jazz musicians, such as Milt Hinton and Barry Galbraith. Fine, mythical stories could be told about Pia in America. How Billie Holiday in her twilight years, jealously threw a bottle at her head. How Sarah Vaughan shoved a birthday cake in her face. Although unable to read music she could still play boogie woogie, jazz, rock'n roll or blues. Oscar Peterson was so impressed he called her the best female jazz pianist in the world. She also played for General Eisenhower, fashion kings, intellectuals and the English royal family.

Pia & Marga

Despite appearances in Las Vegas in the early 1960s, she never permanently established herself in the American music scene, which she attributed partly to homesickness for the Netherlands. From the mid-1960s Beck's popularity declined as boogie-woogie fell out of fashion. Around 1965 she moved to Torremolinos in southern Spain, where she lived with her partner Marga Samsonowski and helped raise Marga's children. Beck largely withdrew from public performance and ran various businesses, including a piano bar and a radio programme. Following that she worked in real estate and wrote travel books about the Costa del Sol.

In the mid-1970s she made a successful comeback in the Netherlands, attracting an older, nostalgic audience. Beck was widely regarded as a flamboyant and charismatic performer, noted for her distinctive piano style, stage presence, and ability to connect with audiences. Although she achieved international recognition, her later success was largely nostalgic. In 1977 Beck drew public attention by participating in protests against American anti-gay activist Anita Bryant. In 1982 her life story was published under the title The Pia Beck Story.

In the autumn of 2000, Pia Beck celebrated her 75th birthday and also her 60th anniversary as an artist during a large-scale gala in the Royal Theatre in The Hague. Beck continued to perform until 2003 when she retired at the age of 78. In the end, she even got rid of her piano, although that was officially because the instrument suffered from the drought of the Spanish climate. Beck remained in Churriana near Torremolinos, where she died on 26 November 2009, aged 84, several months after the death of her partner Marga Samsonowski. According to a friend the cause of death was heart failure.

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Hague Municipal Archives & Huygens Institute) 

St. Clair Pinckney born September 17, 1930

 

St. Clair Pinckney Jr. (September 17, 1930 – February 1, 1999), often nickname "Pink," was an American tenor and baritone saxophonist and flautist, best known for his long-standing collaboration with James Brown. 

Not much is known about St. Clair Pinckney's early years from his birth in Charleston, West Virginia, even then there are two possible dates given. One is January 1st and the other is September 17,1930. I've gone with September as it seems to be more widely used. The World Of Sax states "his journey as a saxophonist began with classical training, which provided a solid foundation for his later explorations in jazz and funk", but does not elaborate as to when and where. His earliest mention is in 1962, when he became a charter member of The J.B.'s, backing James Brown across several decades. 

Recognized as the oldest member of the group—often distinguished by a patch of grey hair—he remained in Brown's band for virtually its entire existence until health issues forced him to step down shortly before his death in 1999.  He performed as both a sideman and session musician on seminal funk and soul recordings, including Grits & Soul (1964), Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud (1969), Sex Machine (1970), Hot Pants (1971), and The Payback (1973).

                                  

With a rich, robust tenor sound, Pinckney was a solid, calm and dependable character, the kind of cement that held a band together through knowing the leader's ways and how best to survive them.  When he briefly stepped away from James Brown during band line-up changes in the early 1970s, he recorded with former bandmates in Maceo & All The King's Men before returning to Brown's roster. His collaboration with James Brown was not limited to the band alone. Pinckney also featured as a session musician on several of Brown’s studio recordings, adding depth and vitality to the tracks with his expressive saxophone playing. His contributions to songs like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good)” played a significant role in shaping the sound of soul and funk music.

In addition to his work with Brown, Pinckney released solo jazz-funk projects late in his career via Ichiban Records, including the albums Do You Like It (1987) and Private Stock (1989), alongside singles like "Summer Breeze" and "As We Lay". During his later years Pinckney ha been suffering from Emphysema and his last recording was in October 1998 for the Jabo Starks and Clyde Stublefields album Born To Groove. Although he was very ill and on oxygen 24 hours a day they managed to roll St. Clair in his wheelchair into Audioarts Recording Studio and capture a wonderful flute solo he titled "Dynaflo." 

'Pink' died due to complication of Emphysema disease 1st February 1999 (aged 68). His funeral at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia was attended by a large contingent of orchestra members, J.B's and Soul Generals. James Brown spoke warmly of the musician and man. He was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens, South Fulton, Fulton County, Georgia, USA.

Although St. Clair Pinckney is gone, his music will live on, deeply embedded in the tight horn voicing of James Brown and JBs songs like "I Feel Good," "Cold Sweat," "I've Got The Feeling," "The Big Payback," "Pass The Peas" and his own original, "Hot Pants Road."

(Scant information edited from a Fred Wesley article, Wikipedia, The Life of James Brown & The World of Sax)

Janis Paige born September 16, 1922

Janis Paige (September 16, 1922 – June 2, 2024) was an American actress and singer. With a career spanning nearly 60 years, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood who shone in films and numerous television shows.

Paige was born Donna Mae Tjaden in Tacoma, Washington state. Her parents, George and Hazel, separated when she was four, a year before she started singing in public in local amateur shows. After graduating from high school, Donna and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she was soon spotted by a Warner Bros talent scout and given a contract, adopting Janis Paige as her stage name. Paige’s film career started with a walk on part in Hollywood Canteen (1944) after which Warner Bros, cast her mainly as the heroine’s best friend or as the flirtatious “other woman”, often linked with the humorous character actor Jack Carson.

Among the films for the duo were Romance on the High Seas (1948), Day’s debut feature, in which Paige played Elvira Kent, and a few light-hearted musical comedies teaming Carson and the tenor Dennis Morgan (Warners’ answer to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby), namely Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946), The Time, The Place and the Girl (1946) and One Sunday Afternoon (1948). She also played the part of innocent Sally Athelny, who contrasted with the worldly waitress Mildred Rogers (Eleanor Parker) in Of Human Bondage (1946), the second film version of the Somerset Maugham novel. In a change of tone were two westerns, Cheyenne (1947), starring Morgan and Jane Wyman, in which Paige was a saloon girl, and The Younger Brothers (1949), as the nasty ring leader of a gang of outlaws.

                                  

Paige was dissatisfied with the quality of her roles and the pictures, and after seven years this prompted her to leave Warner Bros. However, Paige’s initial acting persona was soon to change. Her greatest triumph came in the Richard Adler/Jerry Ross Tony award-winning Broadway musical The Pajama Game in 1954. Paige created the role of “Babe” Williams, the spirited leader of the union grievance committee at the Sleep Tite pajama factory, vigorously belting out the numbers I’m Not at All in Love, Small Talk and There Once Was a Man. It is likely that her fame would have widened even more had she reprised the role of Babe in the 1957 film version of the Pajama Game. Initially, Warner Bros wanted to transfer the entire stage company to the screen, with the proviso that one of the two leads had to be a well-known movie star. Unfortunately for Paige, the studio offered her role to Doris Day when Frank Sinatra turned down the male lead, which was taken by the relatively unknown John Raitt.

As compensation for losing out to Day on The Pajama Game movie, Paige was third-billed (under Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse) in Rouben Mamoulian’s film version of the Cole Porter hit Broadway musical Silk Stockings, released in 1957. In it, Paige, as a seductive Hollywood film star, genially takes off Esther Williams, MGM’s swimming sensation, periodically hitting the side of her head as if to get water out of her ears. Paige delivers three self-mocking show-stopping numbers, in one of which, Stereophonic Sound, she dances with Astaire. The other numbers are Josephine, a song from a putative vulgar musical based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Satin and Silk, which eulogises the importance of the right underwear. Paige was given a star in the Motion Picture section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard on February 9, 1960.

Astaire & Paige in Silk Stockings

After Silk Stockings, Paige made rare visits to the big screen. The few exceptions were Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960), in which she wittily portrayed a Broadway star who makes a play for an acerbic theatre critic (David Niven), much to the chagrin of his wife (Day); and The Caretakers (1963), set in a psychiatric hospital run by an over-the-top Joan Crawford. By then, Paige’s long television career was well under way. She had her own sitcom, It’s Always Jan (1955-56), and became a very familiar face for a further six decades, appearing in almost any series one cares to name.

Janis Paige in Mame

Her singing voice and vibrant personality were perfectly suited when she replaced Angela Lansbury on Broadway in Mame in 1968, and toured in shows including Gypsy, Applause, Annie Get Your Gun and Guys and Dolls. In the 1970's she was seen in Columbo, Banacek, Police Story, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hawaii Five-O, Charlies Angels & The Rockford Files to name but a few. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was seen on several soap operas, including Capitol (1987, as Sam Clegg's first wife, Laureen), General Hospital (1989–1990, as Katharine Delafield's flashy Aunt Iona, a lady counterfeiter), and Santa Barbara (1990–1993, replacing Dame Judith Anderson as matriarch Minx Lockridge). Her last film appearance was in the 1994 thriller "Natural Causes". Her last television appearance was in a 2001 episode of the legal drama series Family Law.

She was married three times and divorced twice. Her third husband, the lyricist Ray Gilbert, died in 1976. Paige turned 100 on September 16, 2022, and died at her Los Angeles home on June 2, 2024, at the age of 101.

(Edited from Ronald Bergan Guardian obit & Wikipedia) 

Johnny Sparrow born November 13, 1919.

Johnny Sparrow (November 13, 1919 - April 24, 1990) was an American tenor saxophonist and bandleader active primarily during the 1940s and 1950s, bridging the gap between trad jazz, bebop, jump blues, and early R&B/rock 'n' roll.  

Not much is known about John P. Sparrow's early years  from his birth in Grenada in the West Indies or his relocation to the US mainland. Some sources suggest he originated from the American South or Southwest (possibly Texas). No account can be found as to his career in jazz until early 1944 when he took over Charlie Parker's seat during Jay McShann's Orchestra's residency at the Club Plantation in Los Angeles. He played with them through the spring of that year. unfortunately, the group didn't get to record during this period, and its work has survived best in the form of armed forces radio broadcasts. The band finally broke up in May of 1944 when McShann was drafted.

                                  

Sparrow then played with Louis Armstrong's band in 1946 and 1947, and got to record with the group as well. From Armstrong's band, Sparrow spent two years with Lionel Hampton's ensemble, where he was frequently showcased alongside saxophonist Morris Lane. In 1947, he appeared in Billie Holiday's famous performance at Carnegie Hall (February 8). Sparrow left Hampton in 1949 to form his own band, Johnny Sparrow & His Bows and Arrows, and took the nickname "Mad Sax Man. " They recorded for a pair of small New York-based labels, Melford and National, of which the National sides were far more numerous and successful. Their biggest early success was "Sparrow's Flight," which charted in 1950. 

In 1951, the group moved its base to Philadelphia, maintaining a regular residency at Club 421. During the spring of 1952, they were signed to the Philadelphia-based Gotham Records. At that time, the group consisted of Sparrow on tenor sax, Eugene Burrell (drums), Thomas Moultrie (bass), and Thomas Holloway (piano), later expanding to include flute, trombone, baritone sax, and vibraphone.  Their up-tempo jump instrumentals (such as "Boudoir Boogie", "Jump Steady", and "Paradise Rock") were featured on Alan Freed's influential WINS radio show in New York as early predecessors to rock 'n' roll.  

After his Gotham contract ended in 1953 and a brief, largely unreleased 1954 session for RCA, interest in the band had declined, records were no longer sold and it broke up, and with it, Johnny Sparrow disappeared from the music scene and faded into history. Nothing was heard about him for thirty six years until according to a few sources, he died on April 24, 1990 in Baltimore, Maryland.

(Reference - AllMusic & GeoCities)

Bill Berry born September 14, 1930

Bill Berry (September 14, 1930 – November 13, 2002)was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist, best known for playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the early-1960s, and for leading his own big band.

Born William Richard Berry in Benton Harbor, Michigan, he was the son of a bass player in a touring dance band. He spent his early years traveling with his parents. From the age of five, he took piano lessons at his parents' home in South Bend, Indiana. In high school in Cincinnati, he switched to trumpet and after graduating in 1947, he went out on the road for three years, playing one-nighters throughout the Midwest in a band led by Don Strickland. “All the bands had sleeper buses because they didn’t pay enough to afford hotels,” Berry recalled. “We used to check in once a week on Mondays, just to take a bath.”

                                  

After playing in Air Force bands for four years while stationed in Texas and Iceland in the early ‘50s, Berry studied at the Cincinnati College of Music, then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before landing a job playing with Woody Herman. In 1960, he joined Maynard Ferguson’s band. While playing with Ferguson’s band at Birdland in New York City in 1961, Berry recalled in a 1997 interview with The New York Times, “this guy came into the club almost every night where we were playing and kept asking me, ‘Don’t you think you should meet Ellington?’ And I’d say, ‘Everybody should meet Ellington.’ Berry finally accompanied the man to the Apollo Theater, where he met Ellington. As Berry climbed down a narrow, winding wrought-iron stairway from the dressing room, he recalled, “This guy stops me and asks me if I can go out with the band later that week. It turned out to be the band manager, and the guy I was with turned out to be Duke’s press agent.”

He became one of the Duke Ellington orchestra's first white members. As Berry recalled, “I went through all the civil-rights era with Ellington. None of the bands were integrated except Maynard’s. Berry once described his old boss as “the only guy I ever met that I knew right off the bat was a genius.” “Duke Ellington changed my whole life,” Berry told The Times last year. “He changed my outlook about everything, and not just music.” After his working with Ellington, he played with The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and led his own big band in New York. It featured other former Ellington sidemen over the years, and was described as one of “the definitive interpreters of Duke Ellington’s music.”

In 1965, he began his 15-year association with the “Merv Griffin Show” band and ghosted the trumpet playing for Frank Sinatra in the 1966 film A Man Called Adam. He formed his own big band, the New York Band, in 1970. After the Griffin show moved to the West Coast a year later, Berry re-formed his ensemble as Bill Berry and the L.A. Band, which he continued to lead on a part-time basis for the next 30 years. Jack Nimitz, a baritone saxophonist in his band, said "He knew how to get what he wanted out of the band in a very relaxed way — nice and easy, no shouting." 

In the 1980s, Berry visited Japan regularly with Benny Carter and made well-received solo tours in Britain. He had by then permanently adopted the cornet because it suited his use of plunger mutes and was more his size. Among the most successful of his own recordings was Shortcake (Concord, 1978), an album of jazz for small group in the Ellington style; he appeared on many albums by other musicians, including Rosemary Clooney (Everything's Coming Up Rosie), Scott Hamilton (Scott Hamilton Is a Good Wind Who Is Blowing Us No Ill), Jake Hanna (Live at Concord), and Coleman Hawkins (Wrapped Tight). In 1981, Berry began a seven-year stint as musical director of the Monterey Jazz Festival. He taught at Californian schools and colleges and at the same time began directing the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All Star Band. 

Heart bypass surgery in 1995 did not slow Berry down. He continued to travel as a soloist several times a year to Britain, Europe and Japan, as well as playing locally and doing studio work. From 1991 to 2000, he served as musical director and his wife produced the annual International Jazz Party, which brought Japanese and American musicians together for a one-night performance in Monterey and three in Los Angeles. 

His yearlong battle with cancer didn’t prevent him from taking the latest student all-stars on a tour of Japan in August or from conducting them in September at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He succumbed to the disease on Nov. 13, 2002 at the UCLA Medical Center. He was 72 years old.

(Edited from Wikipedia & L.A. Times)