Mickey Champion born 9 April 1925

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

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

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

                                   

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul Jeffrey born 8 April 1933

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

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

                        Here's "Love Letters" from above album

                                    

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

Jeffrey and Monk

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Edited from Wikipedia & New Grove Dictionary of Jazz) 

Freddie Hubbard born 7 April 1938

Freddie Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop.

Frederick Dewayne Hubbard was born in Indianapolis, the youngest of six children. His mother and sister played the piano, and several siblings played other instruments or sang. Young Freddie played the tonette and mellophone, then the trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, French horn, sousaphone and tuba - notably studying with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's first trumpeter Max Woodbury at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music.

The Indianapolis jazz scene was a vigorous one in the early 1950s, and he was soon playing with one of its most famous jazz families - the Montgomery brothers, including in Wes Montgomery one of jazz's greatest guitarists. Following his move to New York in 1958, Hubbard's melodic invention and cool exuberance brought him work with Miles Davis drummer Philly Joe Jones,  (1958-9, 1961) with the saxophonist Sonny Rollins (1959), and  and composer Quincy Jones, with whom he toured Europe (1960-61)and he was soon winning awards from the prestigious jazz magazine Down Beat.

                                   

Barely into his 20s, the young trumpeter sprang to the front of the line of first-choice sidemen. He seemed comfortable with everything from big-band music to the emerging free jazz. Although he always sounded like a bebopper at heart, his technique and unerring ear allowed him to veer in and out of orthodox tonality. 

On June 19, 1960, Hubbard made his first record as a leader, Open Sesame, at the beginning of his contract with Blue Note Records, with saxophonist Tina Brooks, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Clifford Jarvis. Six days later he returned the favour to Brooks and recorded with him on True Blue. Hubbard featured on many of the early 1960s landmark recordings and participated in such radically experimental session as those for Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (1961) and John Coltrane's Ascension albums, but was criticized for his overly conventional playing.

In 1961 he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but left in 1964 to lead his own group. He also played as sideman with Max Roach (1965-6). Hubbard was invariably compared with Brown, and since Brown had died young in a car accident, he was inevitably treated as Brown's natural heir. He was also bound to be perceived as a Davis rival, but though Hubbard outstripped Davis for technique, he lacked the older man's creative breadth, collaborative instincts and sense of jazz's place in a wider world of modern art. However, from 1966 Hubbard worked principally with his own quintets and quartets, though he made a tour of the USA with Herbie Hancock's group V.S.O.P. in 1977 (with former Davis sidemen Hancock, Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams), recapturing the acoustic sound and one-touch ensemble conversations of the great mid-1960s Davis quintet at a time when the original creator had moved to electric jazz-funk.

His most constant sideman was Kenny Barron, who played in his groups of the late 1960's (with Louis Hayes), early 1970's (with Hayes and Junior Cook), and early 1980's (with Buster Williams and Al Fosrte). Hubbard spent much of the 1970s playing a less ambiguous and mysterious version of Davis's own chart-chasing, pop-influenced electric jazz, recording extensively for the commercially-oriented CTI label. 

Albums including First Light, Straight Life (both of which won Grammys) and Red Clay, made between 1970 and 1971, were generally well-received by the cognoscenti, but their successors were increasingly pop and disco-oriented, with Hubbard's former improvisational vivacity being replaced by such repetitive mannerisms as whirring trills and ostentatious high-note eruptions that made many of his solos in that style indistinguishable from each other. By the time he returned to more lyrical acoustic jazz, the world had moved on and younger players - Marsalis in particular - were making something fresh of it. But Hubbard made some elegant and musical recordings in returning to his roots in the 1980s and spent his last years trying to rebuild his musical resources and his reputation.

Hubbard played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1980 and in 1989 (with Bobby Hutcherson). He and Woody Shaw recorded two albums as co-leaders for Blue Note and played live concerts together from 1985 to 1987. In 1987, he was a co-leader with Benny Golson on the Stardust album. In 1988, he again teamed up with Blakey at an engagement in the Netherlands, from which came Feel the Wind.[4] In 1988, Hubbard played with Elton John, contributing trumpet and flugelhorn and trumpet solos on the track "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two)" for John's Reg Strikes Back album. In 1990, he appeared in Japan headlining an American-Japanese concert package.

Following a long setback of health problems and a serious lip injury in 1992 when he subsequently developed an infection, Hubbard was again playing and recording occasionally, even if not at the level he set for himself during his earlier career. His best records ranked with the finest in his field.Hubbard received a jazz masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006. He shifted to the less demanding flugelhorn, and worked sporadically on bar and nightclub gigs, often organised by his arranger, producer, fellow-trumpeter and manager David Weiss, who led the New Jazz Composers' Octet, with which Hubbard was to make his last recording On The Real Side. The album was recorded in 2007 in Englewood, NJ to celebrate his 70th birthday in 2008 and released on the Times Square label in the same year as his milestone birthday and his subsequent death in the winter.

On December 29, 2008, Hubbard died in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, from complications caused by a heart attack he suffered on November 26.

(Edited from The Guardian, New Grove Dictionary of Jazz & Wikipedia) 

June Stearns born 5 April 1939

June Stearns (born 5 April 1939) is an American female Country singer.

During the late 60’s and early 70’s, June Stearns could be considered to be one of the ladies-in-waiting for the Country Queen crown. However, she had a career that went back much further. Born Agnes June Stearns in Albany, Kentucky, but raised in Franklin, Indiana in a prominent local musical family, she learned guitar and was singing locally in her early teens. Spotted by Charlie Gore she sang a few times on n his TV show. 

June with Roy Acuff

June landed a job with WLW’s Midwestern Hayride in Cincinnati, immediately on leaving high school in 1957. She stayed with the Hayride until 1958. In 1960, she wrote to Roy Acuff, enclosing a photograph with her sister under which she wrote, "I’m the one with the guitar." Almost certainly, Roy would have heard about her work on the Midwestern Hayride. To June’s surprise, she became a member of Mr. Roy’s"Smoky Mountain Gang." She stayed with the group until 1965, appearing on the Grand Ole Opry and on live dates.

                                   

While appearing with Acuff, June also took time out to appear at the Louisiana Hayride in 1963. In July 1965, she was involved in the car crash that caused serious injuries to Acuff and several of his band members. She luckily escaped with a broken ankle but the incident unnerved her and she never returned to the group. She can be considered the last regular "Smoky Mountain Girl." 

June released some singles on Starday from 1963 with Gene Martin and then she signed to Columbia in 1967. 

After a couple of singles, June got together with Lefty Frizzell as Agnes & Orville, in 1968, releasing one single, Have I Ever Been Untrue/If You’ve Got the Money (I’ve Got the Time).

Her first solo single after this, Empty House, reached the Country Top 50. She followed up that year with Where He Stops Nobody Knows, which only went Top 60. Immediately, Columbia released Jackson Ain’t a Very Big Town, a duo with Johnny Duncan, which just failed to reach the Top 20 at the end of 1968 and became her biggest hit. That year, she was voted third "Most Promising Female Artist" by Cash Box. 1969 was June’s final year with Columbia and although she charted four times, her most successful entrants were Walking Midnight Road and Drifting Too Far From Your Arms, both of which went Top 60. The following year, June moved to Decca, where she scored with Tyin’ Strings (Top 50, 1970) and Sweet Baby on My Mind and Your Kind of Lovin’ (both Top 60, 1971). Since then, June has faded from the public limelight and the music scene.

Post Script. I could find no more news regarding June after her last single in 1972, that is until I noticed on the Rate Your Music web site that she released an album "Many Sides of Country" during 2009 also that same year a few videos were posted on YouTube of June singing Crazy Arms and Kansas City at Larry's Grand Ole Garage country music jam in Madison, Tennessee. 

The atmosphere at the Grand Ole Garage isn't the best for acoustics on jam nights as it is open mike and everyone participates by playing along.  Unrehearsed and everyone gets to play, so there are often more players than should be.  But, all the pickers are having a great time and June is such a warm heart she gives it her all.. Also in a 2021 on a radio interview with Scott Wikle on his show My Kind Of Country June shared some new songs for a future album.

(Edited from Rocky 52, Discogs & YouTube) 

Danny Thompson born 4 April 1940

Danny Thompson (4 April 1939 – 23 September 2025) was an English multi-instrumentalist, best known as a double bassist. During a long musical career he played with a large variety of other musicians.

Born Daniel Henry Edward Thompson in Teignmouth, Devon, England, he was named after a favourite song of his parents, 'Danny Boy'. His father, a miner, joined the Royal Navy at the start of World War II and was lost in action as a submariner. When Thompson was aged six the family moved to London and he was brought up in the working-class area of Battersea. At school he played competitive football and was a junior for Chelsea, the team he would support for the rest of his life, and was also a competent boxer. While at school he learnt guitar, mandolin, trumpet and trombone before settling on the double bass as his instrument of choice. Having left school and home aged 15, Thompson earned a living playing bass in Soho strip clubs. After a year, he began working the American airbase circuit. Aged 18, he was arrested for failing to turn up for national service, and three days before being sent to Winchester barracks, married his girlfriend, Daphne Davis. He was then posted to Penang, Malaysia, for two years, where, against orders, he became involved with the local music scene.

                      Here's "Idle Monday" from above album

                                   

He was discharged in 1963 and resumed playing double bass. Returning to England in 1963 he took a job backing the American singer Roy Orbison – playing electric bass for the only time in his life – on a UK tour while watching headliners the Beatles kick off Beatlemania. In 1964 he spent £5 on buying his acoustic bass, Victoria – which he used his entire career – before joining Korner’s Blues Incorporated. In 1964 he spent £5, to be paid in instalments of five shillings a week, on a double bass at Foote's bass shop in Brewer St, Soho, London, which he used for his entire career. The instrument had been painted brown, but wear and tear revealed it to be an original, and valuable, French Gand, made in 1865. As the instrument was from the Victorian era he named it "Victoria". Working Soho clubs and US airbases in the 60s, he built a name as a capable bassist and did varied session work, often three sessions in a day, ranged from working with Marianne Faithfull to the theme tune of Thunderbirds, and "most nights he could be found playing in jazz clubs and in 1964 he joined Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, replacing future Cream bassist Jack Bruce.

Alexis Korner

As a band leader, Korner brought together a wealth of young British talent, including Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton and Brian Jones, and his stewardship led to Thompson engaging with many rising stars at Korner’s Marquee club base. He became the bassist of choice of jazz musicians such as John McLaughlin and Tubby Hayes, and folk artists such as Davey Graham. In 1967, Thompson and the drummer Terry Cox, also from Blues Incorporated, joined the guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and vocalist Jacqui McShee, to complete the line-up of Pentangle.

Pentangle

 While initially branded a “folk” band, Pentangle employed jazz and classical elements as they reimagined traditional songs, with Thompson playing an important part in that experimentation . The various members having established their names in the Soho folk and rock scene, the band’s first public concert, at the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, was a huge success, as was their debut album, The Pentangle, released the following year. Their 1969 album, Basket of Light, was even bigger commercially, containing the hit single Light Flight, used as the theme for a BBC TV drama, Take Three Girls. It was not the first theme tune for Thompson, who, having realised that recording sessions were more financially rewarding than playing live.

After Pentangle split in 1972, Thompson chose not to join another group, but to concentrate on playing sessions – the record producer Joe Boyd having already paired him with Drake for Five Leaves Left, did the same with Martyn and Solid Air. Thompson and Martyn were kindred spirits, heavy drinkers who delighted in displays of disruptive, drunken behaviour while touring. Alcoholism would affect both men and led to a notable drop-off in session work for Thompson. However, in the late 70s, Thompson sobered up, and the reverence his recordings with Drake and Martyn were now held in eventually found him again in demand as a session player.In the early 1980s he worked with documentary film-maker Roy Deverell to compose music for two of his award-winning films, Echo of the Wild and A Passion to Protect, about John Aspinall's work with endangered mammals.In the mid-80s David Sylvian, Bush, Talk Talk, The The, Everything But the Girl, Coxon and Skin all employed him for his lyrical playing.

In 1987 Thompson released his debut solo album, Whatever, to critical acclaim and recorded five more low-key solo jazz albums over the next quarter century. In 1990 he converted to Islam and adopted the Muslim name Hamza. He also married his partner Sylvia. While he had his own album releases, Thompson was predominantly a session musician contributing to other artists' recordings and tours. He worked with John Martyn and with Richard Thompson on Mirror Blue (1994), The Old Kit Bag (2003) and the concert DVD release Richard Thompson Live in Austin Texas (2001), (from the Austin City Limits televised concerts). Between 1995 and 2013 he was a member of the house band in five of the six series of the BBC/RTE Transatlantic Sessions. Thompson underwent major heart surgery in 1998, during which he suffered a stroke. Three months after his operation he organised an all-star charity concert in Sarajevo and he continued performing until ill health forced him to slow down several years ago.

Thompson received a Lifetime achievement award in the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. He acquired a second double bass in 2007 for use when travelling overseas. After several years of "rock'n'roll" touring with John Martyn, he bought a 16th century manor house and 27 acres of land in Suffolk and took up horse-riding and bird-watching. On 8 June 2024 Thompson performed at the Royal Albert Hall London as part of Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson's 75th birthday celebration. Than aged 85, he contributed to an acoustic section which featured a guest appearance from Ralph McTell, with Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil on fiddle and John Etheridge of Soft Machine on guitar. Reported by Uncut magazine, Kate Bush recalled, "You never just worked with Danny. You also worked with his double bass he called Victoria. The two of them were joined at the hip and together they were the most fascinating storytellers – earthy and of the wild."

Thompson lived in Clopton, Suffolk, during the late 1970s and early 1980s with his wife, Daphne, and son Dan (Danny Junior), who became the drummer with Hawkwind (1985–88). Early in the 1980s he moved back to London. 

Thompson died at his home in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on 23 September 2025, at the age of 86. 

(Edited from Garth Cartwrights obit @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)

Scott LaFaro born 3 April 1936

Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 – July 6, 1961) was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro broke new ground on the instrument, developing a countermelodic style of accompaniment rather than playing traditional walking basslines, as well as virtuosity that was practically unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Despite his short career and death at the age of 25, he remains one of the most influential jazz bassists, and was ranked number 16 on Bass Player magazine's top 100 bass players of all time.

LaFaro was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a big band musician. He was five when his family moved to Geneva, New York. He started playing piano in elementary school, bass clarinet in middle school, and tenor saxophone when he entered high school. He took up double bass at 18 before entering college because learning a string instrument was required of music education majors. After three months at Ithaca College, he concentrated on double bass. He played in groups at the College Spa and Joe's Restaurant on State Street in downtown Ithaca.

Beginning in 1955, he was a member of the Buddy Morrow big band. He left that organization to work in Los Angeles. LaFaro spent most of his days practicing his instrument. He practiced from sheet music for the higher-pitched clarinet to improve his facility with the upper register for bass. Fellow bassist Red Mitchell taught him how to pluck strings with both the index and middle fingers independently. He joined Chet Baker' group (1956-7). For much of 1958, LaFaro was with pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman's band, also recording with Hampton Hawes.

                        Here's "Onilosor" from above album.

                                  

LaFaro started his professional career playing a German-made Mittenwald double bass, but it was stolen in the spring of 1958.Shortly after, he acquired a bass made in 1825 in Concord, New Hampshire, by Abraham Prescott. The top of the instrument is a three-piece plate of slab-cut fir; the back is a two-piece plate of moderately flamed maple with an ebony inlay at the center joint; the sides are made of matching maple. It has rolled corners on the bottom and very sloped shoulders on the top, making it easier to get in and out of thumb position. LaFaro continued to play this bass until his death.

Bill Evans said of LaFaro's Prescott bass: "It had a marvellous sustaining and resonating quality. He would be playing in the hotel room and hit a quadruple stop that was a harmonious sound, and then set the bass on its side and it seemed the sound just rang and rang for so long."

After playing briefly in Chicago with Ira Sullivan he accompanied Sonny Rollins and Harold Land in San Fransisco, then with Barney Kessel and played in a group at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California. In 1959, after working with bandleader Stan Kenton, vibraphonist Cal Tjader, and clarinettist Benny Goodman, LaFaro returned east and joined Bill Evans, who had recently left the Miles Davis Sextet. 

With Evans and drummer Paul Motian he developed the counter-melodic style that would come to characterize his playing. Evans, LaFaro, and Motian were committed to the idea of three equal voices in the trio, working together for a singular musical idea and often without any musician explicitly keeping time. By late 1960, LaFaro was in demand as a bassist.

1961 was LaFaro's busiest year, juggling the projects of Getz, Evans, and Ornette. He replaced Charlie Haden as Ornette Coleman's bassist in January 1961. For a time, Haden and LaFaro shared an apartment. He also played in Stan Getz's band between jobs with the Bill Evans trio. Around this time, he received a greeting card from Miles Davis that suggested Davis wanted to hire him. In June 1961, the Bill Evans trio began two weeks of performances at the Village Vanguard in New York City. The trio attracted attention for its style. The last day was recorded for two albums, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, which are considered among the finest live jazz recordings.

On July 3, he played Newport with Stan Getz; it would be the final performance of Scott LaFaro. On July 5 he visited his mother in Geneva, and stayed until it was very late. He was invited to spend the night, but said no; he had to get back to New York. In the early hours of July 6, Frank Ottley and Scott LaFaro died when Scott’s car left the road, hit a tree, and caught fire. This happened in Seneca, New York, on U.S. Route 20 between Geneva and Canandaigua. According to Paul Motian, the death of LaFaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief," "in a state of shock," and "like a ghost." Obsessively, he played "I Loves You, Porgy," a tune that had become synonymous with him and LaFaro. Evans stopped performing for several months.

Evans said that LaFaro had been "one of the most, if not the most outstanding talents in jazz." Legendary bassist Ray Brown added, "This was one of the most talented youngsters I've seen come up in a long time. For his age, he really had it covered. ... It's a shame, really a shame. It's going to set the instrument back ten years." Motian noted, "We were supposed to make a record date as the Miles Davis Trio, it was all set up, and then Scott got killed and the whole thing got forgotten."LaFaro's departure was sudden, violent, and unexpected, but his influence had already begun, and its spell would hold sway over jazz bassists for decades to come.

In 2008, Bill Evans's final bassist, Marc Johnson, played LaFaro's restored bass on an Evans tribute album recorded by Johnson's wife, Eliane Elias, titled Something for You: Eliane Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans. On March 5, 2014, the City Council of Geneva, New York approved making April 3 Scott LaFaro Day. On April 4, 2014, a ceremony to rename a downtown street Scott LaFaro Drive took place.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Jazz Improv Magazine & New Grove Dictionary of Jazz) 

Serge Gainsbourg born 2 April 1928

Serge Gainsbourg (2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director, notorious for his voracious appetite for alcohol, cigarettes, and women, his scandalous, taboo-shattering output made him a legend in Europe but only a cult figure in America, where his lone hit "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus" stalled on the pop charts -- fittingly enough -- at number 69.  Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.

Born Lucien Ginzberg in Paris, his parents were Russian Jews who fled to France following the events of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. Soon he was tapped to join the cast of the musical Milord L'Arsoille, where he reluctantly assumed a singing role; self-conscious about his rather homely appearance, Gainsbourg initially wanted only to carve out a niche as a composer and producer, not as a performer.

In 1945, Gainsbourg's father enrolled him in Beaux-Arts de Paris, a prestigious art school. Serge later transferred to the Académie de Montmartre, where he met his first wife, Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky, the daughter of Russian aristocrats and a part-time model. Serge and Lize were married on November 3, 1951, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1957. By 1958 he made his recording debut with the album Du Chant a la Une; while strong efforts like 1961's L'Etonnant Serge Gainsbourg and 1964's Gainsbourg Confidentiel followed, his jazz-inflected solo work performed poorly on the charts, although compositions for vocalists ranging from Petula Clark to Juliette Greco to Dionne Warwick proved much more successful.

                                 

Gainsbourg married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi, with whom he had two children: a daughter named Natacha and a son, Paul. He divorced Béatrice in February 1966. 

In the late '60s, he befriended the actress Brigitte Bardot, and later became her lover; with Bardot as his muse, Gainsbourg's lushly arranged music suddenly became erotic and delirious, and together, they performed a series of duets, including "Bonnie and Clyde," "Harley Davidson," and "Comic Strip" celebrating pop culture icons.

Gainsbourg's affair with Bardot was brief, but its effects were irrevocable: after he became involved with constant companion Jane Birkin, they recorded the 1969 duet "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus," a song he originally penned for Bardot complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many corners of the globe, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe, and grew in stature to become an underground classic later covered by performers ranging from Donna Summer to Ray Conniff.

Serge with Jane Birkin

Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark, complex song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work, which grew more esoteric, inflammatory, and outrageous with each passing release. Although Gainsbourg never again reached the commercial success of his late-'60s peak, he remained an imposing and controversial figure throughout Europe, where he was both vilified and celebrated for his shocking behaviour, which included burning 500 francs on a live television broadcast and recording a reggae version of the sacred "La Marseillaise." 

Money to burn

Along with his pop music oeuvre, Gainsbourg scored a number of films, and also directed and appeared in a handful of features, most notably 1976's Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus, which starred Birkin and Andy Warhol mainstay Joe Dallesandro. Having previously turned down the offer to score the popular softcore pornography film Emmanuelle (1974), he agreed to do so for one of its sequels Goodbye Emmanuelle in 1977. Jane Birkin left Gainsbourg in 1980, but the two remained close, with Gainsbourg becoming the godfather of Birkin and Jacques Doillon's daughter Lou and writing her next three albums. Gainsbourg's final reggae recording, Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles (1981), was recorded at Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas. Bob Marley, husband to The I Threes singer Rita Marley, was reportedly furious when he discovered that Gainsbourg had made his wife Rita sing erotic lyrics.

Gainsbourg posed in drag for the cover of 1984's Love on the Beat, a collection of songs about male hustlers, and made sexual advances towards Whitney Houston on a live TV broadcast. He also created a furore with the single "Lemon Incest," a duet with his daughter, the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. His 1986 film Charlotte for Ever further expanded on the themes found in "Lemon Incest". He starred in the film alongside Charlotte as a widowed, alcoholic father living with his daughter. An album of the same name by Charlotte was also written by Gainsbourg. His sixteenth and final studio album, You're Under Arrest (1987), largely retained a funky new wave sound of Love on the Beat, but also introduced hip hop elements.

In December 1988, while a judge at a film festival in Val d'Isère, he was extremely intoxicated at a local theatre where he was to do a presentation only to stagger offstage and collapse in a nearby seat. Subsequent years saw his health deteriorate, undergoing liver surgery in April 1989. In his ill health, he retired to a private apartment in Vézelay in July 1990, where he would spend six months.

Gainsbourg, who smoked five packs of unfiltered Gitanes cigarettes a day, died from a heart attack at his home on 2 March 1991, aged 62. He was buried in the Jewish section of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. His funeral brought Paris to a standstill, and French President François Mitterrand said of him, "He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire... He elevated the song to the level of art." Gainsbourg's home at the well-known address rue de Verneuil is still covered in graffiti and poems.

(Info edited from All Music & Wikipedia)