Robbie Robertson born 5 July 1943

Jaime Royal Robertson OC (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the guitarist and primary songwriter of The Band from its inception until 1978, after which time he enjoyed a lengthy solo career. 

Jamie Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of Rosemarie (nee Chrysler), known as Dolly, and James Robertson, both workers at a Toronto metal-plating factory. Dolly, of Mohawk and Cayuga descent, had been raised on the Six Nations Indian reserve, where her son heard the campfire stories that, he later said, would shape his songwriting. When he was in his teens, and his parents had separated, his mother divulged the identity of his biological father: a professional gambler named Alexander Klegerman, who had been killed in a road accident. The 20-year-old Dolly was pregnant with her son when she married Jim Robertson in 1942. 

Guitar lessons from the age of nine led to his first electric instrument, a Christmas present when he was 13, and a year later he was playing in his first bands. His professional apprenticeship began at the age of 16, playing bars and clubs in Canada and the American south with the Hawks, the backing band for the extrovert American rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. The Hawks had been joined by Helm, Danko, Manuel and an organist named Garth Hudson by the time Robertson played a memorably scorching lead part on Hawkins’s recording of Bo Diddley’s Who Do You Love?. 

In 1964 the band left the singer to strike out on their own. The Stones That I Throw, a Robertson song released under the name Levon and the Hawks, had the beginnings of an original sound. But in 1966 it was Robertson who encouraged them to join Dylan on a tumultuous world tour that exposed them to the fury of fans enraged by the singer’s espousal of electric instruments. After Dylan retreated to Woodstock, in rural upstate New York, Robertson and the others joined him to work on songs that became known as the Basement Tapes, plundering a variety of archaic idioms. Big Pink was the large wooden house in whose basement they rehearsed the 11 songs that became their own first album, four of them written by Robertson. 

                                   

Big Pink was followed in 1969 by a second album, recorded in Los Angeles, called simply The Band (and known to many, thanks to the sepia hue of its cover, as the brown album). The inclusion of such seemingly ageless and finely detailed Robertson songs as King Harvest (Has Surely Come) and The Unfaithful Servant convinced many that this was their masterpiece, while live performances underlined the qualities that set them apart. 

The Band dissolved on Thanksgiving Day 1976 following an all-star concert filmed by director Martin Scorsese and later released as The Last Waltz. The project marked the beginning of Robertson's long affiliation with Scorsese, as well as an interest in dramatic acting; in 1980, Robertson produced and starred in Carny, co-starring Jodie Foster and Gary Busey. Also in 1980, he composed the score to Scorsese's brilliant Raging Bull, and continued to confine his musical activity to the film medium for the next several years, later working with Scorsese on the acerbic 1983 satire The King of Comedy and 1986's The Color of Money, the sequel to The Hustler. 

Finally, in 1987, Robertson released his self-titled solo debut, which included guest appearances from onetime Band-mates Danko and Hudson as well as U2, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, and Gil Evans. Storyville, a conceptual piece steeped in the sounds and imagery of a famed area of New Orleans, followed in 1991. In 1994, Robertson returned to his roots, teaming with the Native American group the Red Road Ensemble for Music for the Native Americans, a collection of songs composed for a television documentary series. Contact from the Underworld of Redboy followed in 1998. 

Robertson remained close to Scorsese. He composed, consulted on, and produced soundtracks for Casino and The Departed, and acted as executive music director on Gangs of New York. He also contributed original music to Shutter Island. Robertson returned to recording with How to Become Clairvoyant on the 429 Records imprint in 2011. The album featured guest appearances by Clapton, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor, Robert Randolph, Tom Morello, and Angela McCluskey, and entered the Billboard charts at 13. Five years later, Robertson published his memoir, Testimony, releasing a career-spanning compilation of the same name to accompany the book. 

In 2019, Robertson released Sinematic, a record inspired by his work in motion pictures. Fittingly, its first single -- a duet with Van Morrison called "I Heard You Paint Houses" -- was featured in The Irishman, a gangster epic directed by Robertson's old friend Scorsese. He also wrote music for Scorsese's 2023 release Killers of the Flower Moon. It would prove to be Robertson's last major project.

Robertson died in his Los Angeles home on August 9, 2023, at the age of 80, after a year-long battle with prostate cancer. His manager, Jared Levine, reported that Robertson "was surrounded by his family at the time of his death". He asked for donations to the Six Nations of the Grand River in lieu of flowers.             (Edited from AllMusic. The Guardian & Wikipedia)

Duncan Lamont born 4 July 1931

Duncan Lamont (4 July 1931 – 2 July 2019) was a saxophonist, composer and bandleader active for many years in London's Soho jazz scene. His soundtracks include the music to the 1970s children's television animation series Mr Benn. 

Lamont was born in Greenock, the son of a shipyard worker. He began learning the trumpet at the age of seven because “it was the cheapest instrument I could get – it cost 30 shillings”. He started playing with local dance bands while still at school. After a time working in the shipyards, Lamont moved to London to play with Kenny Graham's Afro Cubists and (switching to tenor saxophone) with the Johnny Keating band in 1957. In 1958 he toured the US with Vic Lewis. During the 1960s he became a member of the Johnny Scott Quintet. 

For several decades Lamont worked as a freelance musician (on flute and clarinet as well as saxophone), based around Archer Street in Soho and playing in the surrounding jazz clubs. He often performed with British bands accompanying American vocalists, including Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee and (for 19 seasons) with Frank Sinatra. He also played with touring bandleaders such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Henry Mancini. Lamont led his own band for 11 years. He worked on recording and performing projects with Kenny Wheeler for many decades, including on Wheeler's 1974 album Song for Someone. 

Lamont was a prolific composer of concert works, library music, television music and songs. The Young Person's Guide to the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, composed for a BBC broadcast in 1979, provides a jazz orchestra alternative to Benjamin Britten's classical variations, also for orchestra and narrator. The Sherlock Holmes Suite was commissioned by the City of London to commemorate the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in The Strand magazine, and featured his friend and collaborator Spike Milligan as narrator. It was recorded for the BBC in 1989. 

                            Here’s “Desinfinado” from above LP

                                    

Two books of Duncan’s songs have been performed and recorded by the cream of singers. Blossom Dearie, Mark Murphy, Sandra King, Norma Winstone, Elaine Delmar, Marlene Verplank, Daryl Sherman, Joyce Breach, Richard Rodney Bennett, Natalie Cole and Frank Holder. Cleo Laine ended her Carnegie Hall show with his Not You Again. A CD of his songs by Nancy Marano was released in 1995. Frank Holder also recorded a set of the songs in the mid-1990s.   

He has earned the respect of some of the most important people in music as a player, writer, arranger and composer, including Benny Carter, Johnny Mandel, Marty Paich & Claire Fisher. Lamont began to record orchestral music for the KPM and Bruton music libraries in the 1970s. He became part of the library music recording group WASP, along with Steve Gray on piano, Brian Bennett on drums, Dave Richmond on bass and Clive Hicks on guitar. His music for television included the theme tunes for the BBC television children's animation series Mr Benn (using the name Don Warren) and Spot.

Lamont met his wife, the vocalist Bridget Harrison, when he moved to London in the early 1950s. She died in 2005. They had two sons: Duncan Junior and Ross. Duncan Lamont Junior is also a saxophonist and bandleader.  In May 2019 just over four weeks before he died, Lamont returned to the town of his birth, Greenock, to perform a homecoming gig with singers Esther Bennett and Daniela Clynes. His son Duncan Lamont Jr. stated, "There was real sense of everything having come full circle." 

Duncan Lamont died two days short of his 88th birthday on 2 July 2019.   (Edited from Wikipedia, Duncan Lamont website)

Here’s a clip of Sarah Moule singing a song by Duncan Lamont called 'Stark Reality' with Simon Wallace on piano and Duncan on tenor sax. Duncan's song 'I Told You So' was included on Natalie Cole's Verve debut, 'Ask A Woman Who Knows' in 2002.

 

Ronnell Bright born 3 July 1930

Ronnell Lovelace Bright (July 3, 1930 – August 12, 2021) was an American jazz pianist. He was one of the most sought-after piano accompanists in jazz. Not many pianists could match his sensitivity or taste in chords behind a singer. Over the years, Ronnell backed Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Doris Day and nearly any other singer who comes to mind. His strong skills as a songwriter and composer led to collaborations with Johnny Mercer, Paul Francis Webster, Sammy Cahn and others. Among the dozens of jazz artists who have recorded his songs are Horace Silver, Stanley Turrentine, Dexter Gordon and Johnny Hartman. 

Ronnell was born and grew up in  Chicago. His father was a preacher and his mother was a former schoolteacher. He had three sisters and a brother. His sister, Della Bright, was a singer in a vocal trio called the Rhythm Debs. They sang with Fletcher Henderson whenever he came to Chicago. Fletcher used to come over to their house and chart out the vocal arrangements and rehearse the trio on their old upright piano. 

Bright started to play this piano at an early age and when he was 5 years old his parents started him on piano lessons with  piano teacher, Jeanne Fletcher who taught him classical music. When he was 8, he was called a child prodigy and. would give recitals at theaters downtown, and teachers would bring their favorite students to hear him play. He won a piano competition when he was nine years old. In 1944, he played with the Chicago Youth Piano Symphony Orchestra. 

In 1948, he enlisted in the Navy and played in the band on an aircraft carrier, which toured the Caribbean. On board was singer Julius LaRosa. They used to have music programs on board where Ronnell would play piano and Julius sang. They became great friends. In 1949, Ronnell left the navy but had to remain in the reserves for four years. 

                         Here’s “Sail ‘Em” from above album.

                         

He studied at Juilliard, graduating early in the 1950s. Moving back to Chicago, he played with Johnny Tate and accompanied Carmen McRae before moving to New York City in 1955. There he played with Rolf Kühn and assembled his own trio in 1957. In 1957–58 he was with Dizzy Gillespie,s big band and acted as an accompanist for Sarah Vaughan (1958-60,1963), Al Hibbler, Lena Horne (1961) , and Gloria Lynne (1963). 

The Ronnell Bright Trio first came about as a 1958 studio set recorded in Paris while Bright was there working as Sarah Vaughan's accompanist.  In a fascinating interview for Marc Myers' JazzWax blog, Bright relates how he was playing at a late-night jam session at a club in Paris when a rep from Polydor Records approached and asked if he wanted to record an album while he was in town.  Bright pulled together bassist Richard Davis (also from Sarah Vaughan's band) and English drummer Art Morgan (who was in town with the Ted Heath Band), and they cut the album. 

Ronnell’s compositions were recorded by Vaughan, Cal Tjader, Horace Silver, and Blue Mitchell. From 1964 -1967, he became Nancy Wilson's arranger and pianist after moving to Los Angeles. . While with Wison he he worked in television and made cameo appearances in the TV shows The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son, also working on The Carol Burnett Show. He also played on Doris Day’s 1967 Love Album. 

In 1970 he played with Ray Anthony and also found work as a studio musician, playing in Supersax from 1972 to 1974. He won a Grammy in 1973 for his contribution to the album, Supersax Plays Bird. After leaving Supersax he taught high school for a year. After a long stay on the West Coast he returned to New York in 1985 where had an excellent opportunity to make himself known to a New York audience in his solo performance for the Kool Jazz Festival at Carnegie Recital Hall. 

He continued to play in various restaurants but by 2008, Ronnell was living with his wife, Dianne, in relative obscurity in Denver. 

Ronnell died on August 12, 2021 at the age of 91 from dementia. 

(Edited fom Jazzwax, Wikipedia, New York Times)

Harlan Leonard born 2 July 1905

Harlan Leonard (July 2, 1905 – November 10, 1983) was an American jazz bandleader clarinetist and alto, tenor and soprano saxophonist from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. 

Harlan Quentin Leonard was born in Butler, Missouri. He attended Kansas City’s Lincoln High School in 1918 where he was given clarinet and saxophone lessons from George Wilkenson and Paul Tremaine. After graduation he became a professional musician and playing briefly with George E. Lee’s Band in Kansas City (1923), he played with Bennie Moten from late 1923 until 1931 where he led the reed section. He also worked with George E. Lee’s band in 1928. In 1931, he and Thamon Hayes formed the Kansas City Skyrockets, which included trumpeters Ed Lewis and James Ross, trombonist Vic Dickenson, and pianist Jesse Stone. Thamon Hayes resigned in June 1934 and Leonard, with Hayes’ blessing, assumed leadership of the group and eventually formed a new band under the name Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. They instantly became favorites with the Kansas City audiences and frequently played gigs at Fairyland Park. 

                                   

After forming his second rendition of The Rockets in 1936, the band head to Chicago and played at the Savoy and Aragon Ballrooms during 1939-1940. Charlie Parker played in this band for five weeks, but he was fired by Leonard for lack of discipline. For six weeks beginning February 1940 the band played at the Golden Fate in Harlem, New York and while doing so recorded for the Bluebird label. The band recorded “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” which under The Rockets to not reach record hit status until it was turned into a ballad and recorded by other artists. 

Myra Taylor

The song also featured Myra Taylor on vocals, who joined The Rockets after a chance encounter and after watching singer Sullivan delight crowds with her charismatic female vocalist. Leonard recorded several tunes under the Bluebird label though half of the recordings were rejected due to ASCAP bans on union recordings and the jukebox boycott. In addition to being a visionary bandleader, Leonard was a spirited clarinetist and alto and baritone saxophonist, particularly as a soloist. He also had an ear for arrangers. His penmen included, Jesse Stone, Richard J. Smith, Eddie Durham, Buster Smith and Rozelle Claxton. The arrangements by its piano player Tadd Dameron, bore suggestions of the transition between swing and bebop. 

In January 1940, Leonard began recording steadily for RCA and turned out 23 sides that year. Leonard's records set new standards for swing. With a bass-heavy rhythm section and syncopated brass built to get couples up and jitterbugging, Leonard pioneered catchy grooves, the basis of swing. While Leonard's band didn't have Basie's snap or intoxicating drive, it had tremendous lift and jump, setting the tone for R&B to come at the other end of the decade. Tadd Dameron's Rock and Ride, 400 Swing, Dameron Stomp and others recorded in mid-1940 were way ahead of their time. 

During late 1941, the band headed to New York, to compete in the battle of the bands at the municipal auditorium, but they were not very successful. Eventually Harlan Leonard and his Rockets dismantled after he relocated the band to Los Angeles in 1942. Members went their separate ways after a year-long run at Club Alabam in 1945. “I began to think. After 20 years of no family life, travel all the time, I decided to quite- before I, so much in love with my music, got out there and couldn’t get back.” said Harlan. 

He sold all his musical instruments and worked in a defense plant, then took up a job as a civil servant at the post office and made a name for himself at the intentional revenue service in 1949 where he worked until his retirement. Looking back in his bandleader days he says, “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it a little differently.” He died in Los Angeles in 1983. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Jazz Wax & harlanleonard wordpress)

Johnnie Morisette born 1 July 1935

Johnnie Morisette (1st July 1935 – 1st Aug 2000) was a singer, songwriter and showman who spent a good deal of his career on the underbelly of society. Throughout the early 1960’s and into the early 1970’s, he issued at least twenty 45’s. 

Most of R&B reference books state that Morisette was born either on Montu or Manui Island in the American Samoa island chain of the South Pacific although he claimed that he was born 50 miles from Rio on Lui Island (which apparently cannot be found on any map). In his infancy he lived with his Godmother in Mobile, Alabama where he first attended Williamson Elementary before going to Owens Junior High where he both sang in and took solos with the school choir. 

He grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry but against his Godmothers wishes he tuned into Gene Nobles blues programmes on Nashville WLAC radio. He learned to mimic the vocal timbres of Percy Mayfield, Charles Brown, Roy Brown, Roy Milton and Billy Eckstine, which he used during later public engagements. It was not long before Morisette was singing lead in his first gospel quartet Bells Of Heaven from Mobile then the Harmonious Harmonettes. He was introduced to Dr. Gizmo who ran a talent show on WMOZ where Morisette always came out on top. 

It was Dr.Gizmo who christened him “Two Voice” as he was able to split his voice by singing in natural and falsetto simultaneously; something that a select number of gospel soloists were able to perfect. One of Morisettes exploits included singing in local clubs and was asked to open for Guitar Slim at Club Harlem, After this, word got around and he wound up opening for Roy Brown, Earl King, Smiley Lewis and Larry Darnell as well as jamming with R&B bands such as Buddy Johnson and Joe Morris. It was around this time he had his first encounter with Sam Cooke. 

                                  

By 1953 Mobile had become too small for Morisette’s talents so he hitched rides to New Orleans and met up with Little Richard. He then hiked to Los Angeles and somehow managed to live on the roof of the Oasis where the action was. He befriended Bordu Ali, who was the manager of Johnny Otis and allowed Morisette to jam with the band. Dootsie Williams of Dootone Records heard him and signed him up. Instead of being a solo singer he was placed in front of a vocal group and named Johnnie Two-Voice & The Medallions, cutting two sides in 1955. In 1956 he duetted with Marsha Ann Johnson with his own compositions “Friends until the End b/w After School Date” on the Chart label. 

Sam Cooke and Johnnie Morisette

In 1959 he sang with the Robins for a short period then met up with Sam Cooke again. Cooke changed the stage name of Johnnie Two-Voice to Johnnie Morisette (his real chosen name) and signed him to his own record label SAR. His biggest hit was “Meet Me At The Twisting Place” which peaked at #18 on Billboards R&B chart also #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.The success of this hit took Morisette all over the nation. When Sam Cooke was killed, in December 1964, Morisette fell into a state of shock which took him on a ten year downward slide into a drunken depression. 

During the Watts riots of 1965 Morisette fled to San Fransisco where he recorded four sides for Bay-Tone Records and the following year one single for Convoy without much success, and then he faded into total obscurity. 

It wasn’t until June 1970 that he sang duet with Mickey Champion resulting in two singles for the Checker label. In 1974 he released the album “Hell All the Way” on the Convoy label. In 1996 after much of his life drinking alcohol, heavy smoking and rock cocaine, Morisette suffered a heart attack and underwent bypass surgery which slowed him down with reliance on a portable respirator. This did not stop him from song writing which he continued to do until his death in San Francisco, California, on 1st August 2000.

(Edited from Opal Nations article & Discogs)

Dave Van Ronk born 20 June 1931

David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street". 

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and native New Yorker Dave Van Ronk inspired, aided, and promoted the careers of numerous singer/songwriters who came up in the blues tradition. Most notable of the many musicians he helped over the years was Bob Dylan, whom Van Ronk got to know shortly after Dylan moved to New York in 1961 to pursue a life as a folk/blues singer. Van Ronk's recorded output was healthy, but he was never as prolific a songwriter as some of his friends from that era, like Dylan or Tom Paxton. Instead, Van Ronk's genius was derived from his flawless execution and rearranging of classic acoustic blues tunes. 

Van Ronk was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a family that was "mostly Irish, despite the Dutch 'Van' name". He moved from Brooklyn to Queens around 1945 and began attending Holy Child Jesus Catholic School, whose students were mainly of Irish descent . He acquired a ukulele at 12 years old, a guitar a year later, and then he learned the banjo. His initial love was jazz, favoring singers like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jelly Roll Morton . He had been performing in a barbershop quartet since 1949, but left before finishing high school spending time in the Merchant Marine after which he left home for Greenwich Village, a few miles away. 

                      Here’s “House Carpenter” from above LP 

                                   

He took his inspiration from blues and folk singer Odetta, who encouraged him to play the classic jazz music that he was so keenly interested in. Often regarded as the grand uncle of the Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene, the self-effacing Van Ronk, an engaging intellectual and voracious reader, would have been the first to tell you that there were others, like Odetta, who were around the Village before him. As the blues and folk boom bloomed into the '60s, Van Ronk became part of an inner circle of musicians who lived in the Village, including then up-and-coming performers like Dylan, Paxton, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Joni Mitchell. An expert fingerpicker, Van Ronk was influenced as a vocalist by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong. 

Van Ronk's recording career began in 1959 with Sings Ballads, Blues & a Spiritual on Moses Asch's Folkways label. His reputation wasn't solid, however, until he began recording for the Prestige label in the first half of the '60s. A collection of jazz tunes, In the Tradition, followed in 1964, and then Inside Dave Van Ronk. He switched to Mercury for two albums, one with the Ragtime Jug Stompers. These recordings allowed him to tour throughout the U.S. and perform at major folk festivals like Newport. Although he had a short-lived folk rock band called the Hudson Dusters in 1968, the bulk of Van Ronk's recordings were solo acoustic affairs. 

Van Ronk was among 13 people arrested at the Stonewall Inn June 28, 1969, the night of the Stonewall Riots, which is widely credited as the spark of the contemporary gay rights movement. He had been dining at a neighboring restaurant and joined the riot against the police occupation of the club and was dragged from the crowd into the building by police deputy inspector Seymour Pine. The police slapped and punched Van Ronk to the point of near unconsciousness, handcuffed him to a radiator near the doorway, and charged him with assault. 

Recalling the expanding riot, Van Ronk said, "There were more people outside the building when I came out than when I went in. Things were still flying through the air, cacophony—I mean, just screaming and yelling, sirens, strobe lights, the whole spaghetti."The next day, he was arrested and later released on his own recognizance for having thrown a heavy object at a police officer. City records show he was charged with felony assault in the second degree and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of harassment. 

During 1985 Van Ronk released his first all-original album, Going Back to Brooklyn, containing only his own songs. He continued to record throughout the '90s and beyond, with the Alcazar Records label releasing Another Time and Place in 1995 and Justin Time issuing Sweet and Lowdown in 2001. 

On February 10, 2002, Van Ronk died in a New York hospital of cardiopulmonary failure while undergoing ostoperative treatment for colon cancer. He died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.  Married to Terri Van Ronk in the 1960s, lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. 

 (Edited from Wikipedia, Folkways & AllMusic)

Porky Freeman born 29 June 1916

"Porky" Freeman (June 29, 1916 – July 8, 2001) was an American Western swing performer, bandleader, and songwriter. He was also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor. 

Quilla Hugh Freeman was born near Vera Cruz, Missouri, USA. The Freeman’s, who eked a living from a small farm, were a musical family and Quilla began playing piano, fife, ocarina and harmonica as a young child. In 1928, he added banjo and trumpet and played in the school band, soon adding fiddle, mandolin and, his main instrument, guitar to the list. In 1931, he dropped out of school and hoboed around for a time before forming a quartet that played on a Jefferson City station. 

In 1933, he returned home and became a member of a trio, Raul Hatfield And His Ava Wildcats, on KGBX Springfield, Missouri, where he made his first recordings. After again deciding to return home to complete his education, he performed locally. In 1937, he worked on KWTO Springfield sometimes as member of the Brownlow Boys and sometimes with Otie and Sue Thompson, who gave him the nickname of Porky. He later played guitar and trumpet with Doc James and toured with the Weaver Brothers before playing with Bill Boyd and Roy Newman in Fort Worth, Texas. 

                                   

In 1942, he returned to KGBX Springfield, where he became a regular on the Slim Wilson Show before playing with Bill Nicholls in Los Angeles. During this time he had become one of the first musicians to feature boogie woogie style guitar music and in 1943, he recorded ‘Porky’s Boogie Woogie On The Strings’ for the Morris Lee label, which became the first country boogie instrumental. It proved popular and in 1944, he was given a contract with ARA, where he recorded as the Porky Freeman Trio. He played on Jack Guthrie’s hit recording of ‘Oklahoma Hills’ and his reputation saw him play and tour with numerous top acts including the Sons Of The Pioneers, Spade Cooley, Hank Penny, Jimmy Wakely and Stuart Hamblen and many others. 

Porky Freeman, Red Murrell & Al Barker

He was also much in demand as a session musician. In September 1945, the Porky Freeman Trio, which comprised Merle Travis, Tommy Sergeant and Alan Barker, recorded two versions of ‘Boogie Woogie Boy’. Freeman played lead guitar and Travis added the vocal. The first take was released on ARA and the second with a variation on the lyrics later on 4 Star Records. That Porky was used as lead guitarist when Travis was on the recordings emphasizes the instrumental brilliance of Freeman. Porky’s  early experimentation with the electric guitar led to several patents for the instrument. One of the patents, 'Single Pickup Frequency Control For String Instrument', led to legal wrangling with Fender. 

Throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, he played and/or recorded with many popular acts in the Los Angeles area. Freeman, who retired to make his home in West Hollywood, continued to perform locally into the late 80s. In 1987, the German Cattle label released an album of 21 of Freeman’s 40s recordings, including a version of the instrumental that started his recording career. The recordings with Travis were included in a 5-CD set of Merle Travis’ work by Bear Family Records in 1994. 

Porky Freeman died in Orange, California July 8, 2001 aged 85. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)