Blind Willie McTell born 5 May 1903

Blind Willie McTell (May 5, 1903 – August 19, 1959) was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players.

Most sources give the date of his birth as 1898 but biographer Michael Gray and researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest 1903 as most likely on the basis of his entry in the 1910 census. He was born in the Happy Valley community outside Thomson, Georgia, yet few facts are known about his early life. Even his name is uncertain: his family name was either McTear or McTier, and his first name may have been Willie, Samuel, or Eddie. His tombstone reads “Eddie McTier.”  

He was born blind in one eye and lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, learning to read and write music in braille by the early 1920s. This made him well-educated compared to most of his peers who sang the blues. He first started playing the harmonica and accordion before turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens. His family was rich in music; both of his parents and an uncle played the guitar and he and bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey were cousins.

In his teenage years, after his mother’s death, he left home and toured in carnivals and medicine shows. In the 1920s and 1930s McTell travelled a circuit between Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and Macon. This region encompasses two major blues styles: Eastern Seaboard/Piedmont, with lighter, bouncier rhythms and a ragtime influence; and Deep South, with its greater emphasis on intense rhythms and short, repeated music phrases. McTell  also journeyed from Georgia to New York City. Along the way he entertained wherever he could find an audience: passenger train cars, hotel lobbies, college fraternity parties, school assemblies, proms, vaudeville theatres, and churches. As he followed the tobacco market from Georgia into North Carolina, he played for farmers, buyers, and merchants at warehouses, auctions, livery stables, and hotels.

                                       

By the mid-1920s McTell was already an accomplished musician in Atlanta, playing at house parties and fish fries. He had also traded in the standard six-string acoustic guitar for a twelve-string guitar, which was popular among Atlanta musicians because of the extra volume it provided for playing on city streets. By 1926 record companies had begun to take an interest in recording folk blues artists, mostly men playing solo with guitars—Blind Lemon Jefferson from Texas, Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson from Mississippi, and Peg Leg Howell from Georgia. Beginning with his first recording in 1927 for Victor Records and his 1928 recording session for Columbia, McTell produced such blues classics as “Statesboro Blues” (later made famous by the Allman Brothers Band and Taj Mahal), “Mama 'Tain’t Long 'for’ Day,” and “Georgia Rag.” In 1929 he recorded “Broke Down Engine Blues.”

Like other musicians at the time, he recorded on different labels under various nicknames to skirt contractual agreements. Thus he was Blind Willie for Vocalion, Georgia Bill for OKeh, Red Hot Willie Glaze for Bluebird, Blind Sammie for Columbia, Barrel House Sammy for Atlantic, and Pig 'n’ Whistle Red for Regal Records. The latter name came from a popular drive-in barbecue restaurant in Atlanta where he played for tips. McTell married Ruth Kate Williams, now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. For most of their marriage, from 1942 until his death, they lived apart, she in Fort Gordon, near Augusta, and he working around Atlanta.

In 1940 folk-song collector John Lomax recorded the versatile musician for the Archive of Folk Culture of the Library of Congress. These recordings captured McTell's distinctive musical style which bridges the gap between the country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, ragtime-influenced East Coast, Piedmont blues sound. The Lomaxes also elicited from him traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") and spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"), which were not part of his usual repertoire.

McTell was the only bluesman to remain active in Atlanta until well after World War II (1941-45). With his long-time associate Curley Weaver, he played for tips on Atlanta’s Decatur Street, a popular hangout for local blues musicians. Ahmet Ertegun visited Atlanta in 1949 in search of blues artists for this new Atlantic Records label and after finding McTell playing on the street, arranged a recording session. Some of the songs were released on 78 rpm discs but sold poorly. McTell recorded for Regal Records in 1949 but these recordings also met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta but his career was cut short by ill health, mostly due to diabetes and alcoholism.

In 1956, an Atlanta record store owner, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and convinced him to play 13 songs on a tape recorder. Prestige Records/Bluesville Records posthumously released as his Last Session in 1961 during the folk music revival. McTell had recorded around 120 songs throughout his life over 14 sessions. From 1957 to his death he was active as a preacher at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Atlanta. He died of a stroke at the Milledgeville State Hospital, Georgia, in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia.

In 1981 Blind Willie McTell was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame. Two years later, folksinger Bob Dylan paid homage to McTell in his song “Blind Willie McTell”. In 1990 McTell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Each year, the city of Thomson hosts the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival in honour of their hometown legend.

(Edited from Wikipedia and the New Georgia Encyclopaedia)

Lars Gullin born 4 May 1928

 Lars Gunnar Victor Gullin (4 May 1928 – 17 May 1976) was a Swedish jazz saxophonist.

Lars Gullin was born in Visby, Sweden. His great musicality showed itself early on and at the age of 13 he was accepted as a student at the 18 Music Corps in Visby, where he played bugle, then horn and clarinet, being his main instrument. By then, like many others of that generation, he had also learned to play the accordion. He moved to Stockholm in 1947 to study classical piano playing with the intention of becoming a concert pianist. He was already interested in folk music, but above all in National Romantic music, the branch of classical music that is often coloured by melodies reminiscent of folk songs. He planned on a classical career, studying privately with classical pianist Sven Brandel, before turning to jazz in the late 1940's.

He played with the orchestras of Charles Redland (as a pianist. 1947-8), and Arthur and Seymore Osterwall's orchestras (1949-51), changing from alto to baritone saxophone, an instrument that he becomes one of the absolute best at. He next played with Arne Domnerus's orchestra (1951-3), the group mainly performed at Nalen, a leading dance spot in Stockholm. He then  worked freelance and began to work with visiting American musicians, recording with James Moody, Zoot Sims and Clifford Brown. Most importantly, he first performed with Lee Konitz in 1951, an association which was to be repeated several times in future years.

                                       

Gullin formed his own group in 1953, probably the only regular group he was to lead. It was short-lived, breaking up that November, after Gullin was responsible for causing the group to be involved in an automobile accident, although no one was seriously hurt. The next year, 1954, he won the best newcomer award in the American DownBeat magazine, after two March 1953 Swedish sessions were leased and issued by Contemporary Records as a 10” LP. Later Gullin albums were leased to Atlantic Records in the United States. Gullin toured several European countries with Chet Baker in October 1955, in a group which was marred by tragedy; it was Gullin who found the body of the group's pianist Dick Twardzik, victim of a heroin overdose, on 21 October, in a Paris hotel room.

Although at first influenced by the cool jazz of Miles Davis. Lee Konitz, and Stan Getz, he soon developed a highly personal, expressive style, both as a soloist and as a composer, and became one of the most highly regarded jazz musicians in Europe. In 1954 he became the first European performer to win a jazz poll in the USA (in Down Beat's "new star" category); the same year he began a series of successful European tours. The remainder of Gullin’s career was blighted by his own narcotics problems, and sometimes he survived on artists' grants from the Swedish government. He was restricted by illness for much of the later part of 1958. During most of 1959, Gullin, was active in Italy, he played with Chet Baker again and with the jazz alto saxophonist (and businessman) Flavio Ambrosetti, making radio broadcasts with him in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the 1960s, he continued to work occasionally with leading American players, including Archie Shepp, with whom he recorded in 1963.

From the mid-1960's Gullin devoted himself mainly to composition, showing a fine sense for scoring. His largest work is Jazz amour affair (1971) for symphony orchestra and jazz soloists. One of his last major statements was his Aeros aromatic atomica suite recorded in 1973. His last performance abroad was in Germany in 1976. Gullin died of a heart attack in Vissefjärda, Sweden on 17 May 1976, brought on by his long-term addiction to methadone. When he died at 48 years of age, he left a legacy of more than 120 compositions and 450 recorded melodies and, besides that, hundreds of hours of fabulous private and radio/TV recordings from all over Europe. The film Sven Klang's Combo (Sven Klangs kvintett, 1976) is a fictionalised version of the Swedish jazz scene of the 1950s, and the saxophonist Lars is based on Gullin.

His son, Peter Gullin, (12 April 1959, Milan, Italy – 7 October 2003, Uppsala, Sweden) was also a baritone saxophonist and composer. The elder Gullin’s composition "Peter of April" was dedicated to him. The tune "Danny's Dream" was dedicated to his first son Danny Gullin and "Gabriella" to his daughter, Gabriella Gullin (born 1961), a composer and conductor.

(Edited from New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Lars Gullin Society and Wikipedia)

Jane Morgan born 3 May 1924

 Florence Catherine Currier (May 3, 1924 – August 4, 2025), known professionally as Jane Morgan, was an American singer and recording artist of traditional pop. 

Morgan initially found success in France and the UK before achieving recognition in the US, receiving six gold records. She was a frequent nightclub and Broadway performer, and also appeared numerous times on American television, both as a singer and as a dramatic performer. Morgan performed for French President Charles de Gaulle, and for five U.S. Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush. She toured with Jack Benny and John Raitt, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry; two of her RCA singles hit the Billboard country charts in 1970.

Morgan was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on May 3, 1924. She was one of five children born to musicians Olga (Brandenburg) and Bertram Currier. At five she began vocal lessons while continuing piano lessons. During the summers, she took on child roles and appeared in theatre productions at the Kennebunkport Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine, which her brother, Robert Currier, had founded. In 1941, she was the Treasurer of the Kennebunkport Playhouse. After graduating from Seabreeze High School, she was accepted into New York's Juilliard School of Music. Intending to become an opera singer, she studied opera by day and performed whenever possible.

Morgan sang popular songs in nightclubs and small restaurants, and at bar mitzvahs and other private parties, to help pay her tuition expenses at Juilliard. Orchestra leader Art Mooney changed her name to Jane Morgan by taking the first name of one of his vocalists, Janie Ford, and the last name of another, Marian Morgan. In 1948, French impresario Bernard Hilda selected her to accompany him to Paris. Morgan became a sensation in Paris. Many French songwriters, including Charles Trenet, frequented the club, and they wrote several songs that became hit recordings for Morgan. Morgan and Hilda soon opened a new weekly hour-long television show and she began recording in 1949 on the French Polydor label as well as Parlophone, Philips, and others. 

                                       

She returned to Europe in 1954 to appear in a London West End review with comedian Vic Oliver, and later at the Savoy Theatre and London Palladium. Morgan left her agent and began singing at Lou Walters' Latin Quarter in New York. Walters kept Morgan at the Latin Quarter for a year, when she was noticed by Dave Kapp, who had recently founded a new recording label, Kapp Records. Kapp signed Morgan to a recording contract, and near that same period he signed pianist Roger Williams.

To counter her reputation as a French singer, Kapp had Morgan record "Baseball, Baseball", and her first album release was titled The American Girl from Paris. She recorded several additional albums and soon was paired with Williams, who had gained national acceptance with his recording of "Autumn Leaves". They recorded "Two Different Worlds", which gave Morgan her first significant airplay on US radio. In 1957 Kapp brought The Troubadors, a virtually unknown group of five musicians, to his studio. They had appeared in Love in the Afternoon. Kapp asked Morgan to join The Troubadors and sing "Fascination". 

Although written in 1904 by F. D. Marchetti as "Valse Tzigane", the song was modified in Paris at the Folies Bergère as a "strip" number. With English lyrics added by Dick Manning in 1932, it had been played throughout the 1957 movie (the French lyric had been created in 1942). Her recording was released in late 1957 and remained on the charts for 29 weeks. In 1958, Kapp released "The Day the Rains Came" (a French song by Gilbert Bécaud called "Le jour où la pluie viendra") with Morgan singing in English on one side and in French on the other. It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in early 1959. She was featured on the 10 November 1959, jazz special, Timex-All-Star Jazz III.In 1960, she recorded the English-language version of an Italian song, Romantica.

Her early television credits include The Victor Borge Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Cavalcade of Stars, The Jack Benny Program, The Jimmy Dean Show, The Jonathan Winters Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Hollywood Palace, as well as more than fifty appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Morgan performed in musicals on the stage and Broadway. She appeared in Can-Can, The King and I, Kiss Me, Kate, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bells Are Ringing, Anniversary Waltz, Affairs of State, Hello, Dolly and others. Morgan's agent died in 1959 and her new manager, Jerry Weintraub, was able to obtain bookings for her in many noted US venues. 

Morgan divorced Larry Stith in 1964 and married Weintraub, more than a decade her junior, in 1965; the couple later adopted three daughters. Morgan also had a stepson Michael from Weintraub's first marriage. After Morgan performed on Broadway, she said, "Being on Broadway was one of the most exciting things in my life because I had always dreamed of it". Morgan's two final albums were for RCA Records: her last LP, Jane Morgan in Nashville, yielded two moderate hits on the country music charts, including her answer to Johnny Cash's song, "A Boy Named Sue", titled "A Girl Named Johnny Cash" (written by comic Martin Mull). She performed the song on Cash's eponymous television series in early 1971.

The only other time Morgan had recorded without formal arrangements was on her hit single, "Fascination"; nevertheless, she was reportedly dubbed "The Countryest Girl in Nashville" by the crew. She retired from performing in 1973, but appeared occasionally over the years at special events and benefits. She worked as a production assistant to her husband (producer Jerry Weintraub) on films including the remake of Ocean's Eleven. On December 10, 2009, Morgan performed at the UNICEF Ball honouring her husband, Jerry Weintraub, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, singing "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Big Spender". Known as Jane Weintraub, she divides her time between Malibu, California, Palm Springs, California and Kennebunkport, Maine. She owned Blueberry Hill Farm in Kennebunkport, Maine from 1958. On May 6, 2011, Morgan received the 2,439th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Morgan and Weintraub separated in the 1980s, but never divorced. Weintraub died in 2015.

Morgan's collection of her unique performance gowns spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s were exhibited to the public for the first time, premiering at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, in February 2022. Morgan celebrated her 100th birthday on May 3, 2024. She died at her home in Naples, Florida, on August 4, 2025, at the age of 101.

Henry Hall born 2 May 1898

Henry Hall (2 May 1898 - 28, October 1989)is now recognised as one of the important figures during the dance band era in Britain from the 1920's to 1950's.

Henry Robert Hall was born in Peckham, London, England. After winning three musical scholarships, he studied piano, trumpet and harmony at the Trinity School of Music. In his teens he worked for the Salvation Army, and wrote several marches, one of which, "The Sunshine March", he adapted later as his closing BBC radio signature tune, "Here's To The Next Time". After service as an officer in the Royal Artillery in World War I, he formed his own trio, called the Variety Three. 

When the trio disbanded in 1922, Hall was engaged as relief pianist at the LMS Railway's Midland Hotel, Manchester. A year later he became resident bandleader there, and by 1932 Henry was running 32 bands in the L.M.S. organisation. He made his first broadcast from one of the hotels, the Gleneagles, in 1924, and in the same year started to record for Columbia Records. In 1932 he became a national figure when he was chosen by the patriarchal Lord Reith to replace Jack Payne as leader of the BBC Dance Orchestra.

The first broadcast by the new combination in March 1932 received a mixed response from listeners and Henry's Salvation Army background didn't help the opinion of some critics, because of his apparent lack of showmanship and gimmickry so prevalent in many of the 30s dance bands. However things soon settled down and the band established itself in the five-fifteen slot. "This IS Henry Hall speaking" became an institution, with very high musical standards and a fair amount of jazz interspersed with the more traditional type arrangements. The theme, Five-Fifteen, was based on the notes B-B-C whilst the closing refrain Here's to the Next Time, was an adaptation of the trio section from one of Hall's Salvation Army marches Sunshine. 

                                       

Aware that children would be listening. In 1932 he recorded the songs "Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogeyman" and "Teddy Bears' Picnic" with his BBC Orchestra, featuring singer Val Rosing on vocals. The latter song gained enormous popularity and sold over a million copies. With his unassuming manner and proven musicianship, Hall led the Dance Orchestra to even greater popularity than before. The only flamboyant feature of the band was their electric-blue uniforms which Reith insisted they wear on broadcasts, even though no-one could see them!

In 1933, the first broadcast from Radio City, New York, featured Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. Also that year he had his solitary US chart entry, "Play To Me Gypsy". Such was the popularity of the Dance Orchestra that in 1934 the BBC launched Henry Hall's Guest Night, credited by some as the first chat show, which ran for almost 1000 editions. The Radio Times never published who would be on the show, it was always a surprise. Guest included Flanagan and Allen, and Tommy Handley. Henry Hall's Guest Night, introduced somewhat hesitantly by Hall with his catch phrase: "This is Henry Hall speaking, and tonight is my Guest Night", ran on and off for the best part of 20 years. Hall played the popular songs of the day and featured stars of the entertainment world such as Flanagan and Allen, Elsie And Doris Waters, Nöel Coward and Gracie Fields.

In 1936, Henry Hall made his first feature film and in the same year he was guest conductor of the ship's orchestra on the Queen Mary's maiden voyage, where he wrote the song "Somewhere at Sea". Some of the many popular tunes during Hall's hey-day included Bing Crosby's theme song "Where The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day)", "Songs That Are Old Live Forever", "What's The Name Of That Song", "One, Two, Button Your Shoe", "Butterflies In The Rain", "Eccentric", "Little Man You've Had A Busy Day", "The Man On The Flying Trapeze", "Southern Holiday", "East Wind", and his opening and closing themes, "It's Just The Time For Dancing", and "Here's To The Next Time".

Hall's last broadcast with the B.B.C. Dance Orchestra was on 25 September 1937, the band embarking on a variety tour before disbanding in 1939. Henry reached agreement with Sir John Reith that he (Henry Hall) would be given the entire music library and for the last six weeks of their contract the band would be referred to as Henry Hall and his Orchestra.  During the Second World War, Hall played for the troops, and gave concerts and shows in factories all over Britain. Many of these concerts came in the form of "Guest Night" broadcasts. 

Henry and Vera Lynn

Early in 1948 he disbanded his orchestra to concentrate on his entertainment agency, Henry Hall Enterprises, dealing with dance bands, compositions, plays and films. Later that year he took over the Grand Theatre in the popular summer resort of Blackpool and ran a new band for two seasons to accompany some of the artists he had discovered. These included Donald Peers, Norman Wisdom, David Hughes and Reginald Dixon, but he turned down Vera Lynn because he thought her voice was unsuitable for broadcasting. His recordings were limited somewhat by his broadcasting work and the need to provide "something for everybody". In 1955, Hall published his autobiography Here's to the Next Time. He dedicated it to his wife, Margery.

One of radio's most popular figures, at the peak of his career he is reputed to have received 35,000 letters a year while making eight broadcasts a week. He continued to conduct orchestras for recording and radio, and made his farewell broadcast as a bandleader in 1969, although he made occasional television appearances until 1970, featuring regularly in the BBC television series Face The Music. It was also in 1970 that his great service to music was recognized by the award of the OBE. Henry retired to Eastbourne, Sussex, England, where he died on 28, October 1989, aged 91.

(Edited from New Musical Express & Wikipedia) 

Cora Mae Bryant born 1 May 1926

                  

Cora Mae Bryant (May 1, 1926 – October 30, 2008) was an American blues musician. She was the daughter of another American blues musician, Curley Weaver. Bryant released two solo albums in her lifetime on the Music Maker label.

Part of her home in Oxford, Georgia, was thought of as a 'blues museum'. Her own music largely derived from the influence of attending impromptu performances and house parties, including her father, plus Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss, and other local blues musicians of the early 1930s.

She was born Cora Mae Weaver in Oxford, Newton County, Georgia, United States. She was the daughter of Curley Weaver, and started singing at the age of six in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Walnut Grove, Georgia. With her father often absent performing and recording, Bryant was part-raised by her grandmother, Savannah Shepard, who lived in Almon, Georgia. Bryant often spent days and nights with her grandmother, who had both a piano and guitar, and often played them and sang to entertain the young girl. 

Bryant maintained that was where her father had earlier obtained his own basic musical intuition. She once said, "When the weekend came, Daddy would come and get me. We did not know the difference between night and day." She started attending fish fries and barbecues around her home state with her father, and through these connections got to meet Buddy Moss, Blind Willie McTell and others, including the unrecorded guitarist Johnny Guthrie. They played generally outside for the entertainment of locals and Bryant obtained her education in Georgia blues. She later found casual employment in her mid-twenties, with her father picking cotton for a living. Curley Weaver died in 1962.

                                     

     Here's "Born In Newton County" from her second album.

Bryant began to perform in her own right, although one researcher wryly noted that "Clyde Langford and Cora Mae Bryant, kin to Lightnin' Hopkins and Curley Weaver respectively, but very distant from them in talent". Her own songwriting was slow to get started, but Bryant found the process easy to accomplish. 

She stated "I don't get no pencil and write 'em. One song, we was sittin' up there just talkin', me and my granddaughter, and I said, "Yeah, if you got anything in layaway, you better get it out." And I made a song of that". Also, Bryant's knowledge of early blues in Atlanta and Georgia, was used as a source by the music historians Peter B. Lowry and Bruce Bastin. Her own recording career was late in commencing before Dave Peabody's 1997 album, Down in Carolina, contained a guest appearance from Bryant on her penned track, "McTell, Moss, & Weaver".

She gradually became important on the Atlanta blues scene; performing, organizing "Giving It Back" festivals at the city's Northside Tavern to honour early blues artists, and as a frequent caller to local blues radio shows. In addition, her collection of memorabilia continued to expand; "... a little pale gray bench, that she said Blind Willie McTell used to sit on to play" was donated to Bryant's 'museum' housed in a side room in her home in Oxford. Bryant was the subject of articles in both Living Blues magazine in February 1998 and in Music Makers in 2002.

In 2001, Bryant recorded her debut album, Born with the Blues, which was released on the supportive Music Maker label. In July 2002, Bryant appeared at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, accompanied by the guitarist Josh Jacobson, performing songs from Born with the Blues. Her song "You Was Born to Die" had previously appeared on the compilation album, fRoots 7 (1996), while "It Was Weaver" appeared on Soul Bag N°192 (2008). Further tracks were included on Music Maker's own compilation, Sisters of the South (2003). Her own second album, Born in Newton County, came out the same year.

In 2005, Bryant was living at home in Oxford when suffered a stroke. She died of natural causes on the morning of October 30, 2008, at the age of 82.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Boo Hanks born 30 April 1916

James Arthur "Boo" Hanks (April 30, 1928 – April 15, 2016) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. He was billed as the last of the Piedmont blues musicians. A one-time farmer, who grew up in and lived most of his adult life around Buffalo Junction, Virginia, Hanks appeared at the Roots of American Music Festival at the Lincoln Center, shared a bill with Patti Smith, was covered by The New York Times, and performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; plus he toured in both the US and Europe.

Hanks was born in Vance County, North Carolina, United States, to the late Eddie and Fannie Hargrove Hanks. His heritage came from ancestors that variously were African American and Occaneechi. Family folklore reckons the family are descendants of Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks. Hanks attended Henderson Institute in Henderson, North Carolina. He bought his first guitar from the money he raised selling packets of garden seeds. With it, he learned to pick out the same songs his father played in the evening, after working as a share-cropper in the tobacco fields. In addition to tuition from his father, Hanks inspiration came initially from listening to his family's wind-up Victrola record player, in particular the recordings of Blind Boy Fuller.

                                         

         Here's "Troublin' Mind" from Boo's Pickin' Low Cotton album

Hanks learned to play, and tune his guitar, purely by ear, and picked up a delicate finger-style method of guitar picking. Hanks later stated "Most people, when they hear me play, they think it's two guitars, because I play the bass and the other strings at the same time. They say, man that's two guitars, and I say no, me, it's just me by myself. They say, don't believe you, it sounds like two guitars to me." His Piedmont string band ambitions were restricted to him playing locally. In the 1940s, Hanks played his guitar at barn dances, along with his cousins providing accompaniment on mandolin and spoons. However, Hanks never played outside his locale until he was aged 79, and worked in the tobacco fields up to that time. Hanks was a farmer for over two decades, but was also employed by Russell Stover Candies, Lenox, and later at the TOP Tobacco Factory in Oxford, North Carolina.

In 2007, Hanks made his first recording, Pickin' Low Cotton, at age 79. It was issued by Music Maker, who provides regular support to various low-income blues and roots musicians. In addition to assisting Hanks himself at that time, these veteran musicians then included Ironing Board Sam who was fitted with new prescription glasses; John Dee Holeman who needed assistance to pay for his medication; and the R&B singer Denise LaSalle who was given help to pay her mortgage. In 2008, Hanks appeared in a documentary film, Toots Blues. Also in the film were Adolphus Bell, Cool John Ferguson, Guitar Gabriel, George Higgs, Macavine Hayes, John Dee Holeman, Drink Small, Cootie Stark, Beverly Watkins and Albert White. In the same year, and just after his 80th birthday, Hanks appeared at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, in Davenport, Iowa. In August of that year, Hanks performed at the 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival, held at the Lincoln Center in New York.

In 2010, the Music Maker Relief Foundation helped Hanks obtain a passport, purchased a new trailer for him and provided an allowance towards his medication and food. Dom Flemons had been at the Music Maker office the day Hanks arrived, and their growing friendship led to a collaborative recording of the album, Buffalo Junction (2012), named for Hanks' hometown. It contained upbeat country blues with Hanks playing his guitar and providing the main vocals, while Flemons played jug, harmonica, bones and supplied the backing vocals. The album comprised twelve tracks, which the two musicians recorded in Hanks' trailer home. These included the traditional folk number "Railroad Bill", plus a version of Sticks McGhee's "Drinking Wine, Spodie Odie" Another track was a version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's song, "One Dime Blues", which in the lyrics had the line "Mama, don't treat your daughter mean." One of the collection's songs was their collaboration on "Diddy Wah Diddy", penned by Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley. Hanks and Flemons take on Blind Boy Fuller's song "Truckin' My Blues Away" was another number on the album. Hanks and Flemons toured in the US and Europe, primarily in Belgium, to support the album.

By December 2014, Hanks still played on occasion at local bars and nursing homes. In July 2015, Hanks was on the same bill as Lightnin' Wells and Ironing Board Sam at a concert in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. He also performed at The Prizery in South Boston, Virginia, and the Clarksville Fine Arts Center.

Hanks died on April 15, 2016, at the Select Specialty Hospital, in Durham, North Carolina. He was 87. He was survived by five daughters; one son and one daughter predeceased him.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Music Maker)

Duke Ellington born 29 April 1899

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time. One of the originators of big-band jazz, Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music.

Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. as Edward Kennedy Ellington. Duke was a name he picked up in childhood, given to him to describe his elegant manner and because of the flashy way he liked to dress. His parents were part of the Black middle class of Washington, D.C., and both played music at home. He started piano lessons at age seven, but it wasn't the music he was learning at his teacher's side that interested him but instead the ragtime music he heard at dance parties and pool halls when he was a teenager. It took being fired from several bands, however, for Ellington to finally learn how to read music!

Ellington dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music, and the five-piece band he played with, The Washingtonians, moved from Washington, D.C. to New York City in 1923. Under Ellington's leadership, the band grew and moved up from Times Square to Harlem's Cotton Club in 1927. He stayed at the Cotton Club through June of 1931. This popular club featured Black performers, but catered to a wealthy White audience.

                                   

Ellington's real fame came in the 1930s. His band started touring nationally, traveling by train and using the train coaches as dormitories since finding hotels that would accept the Black performers was challenging. One of his first hits from this time period was "Don't Mean a Thing", opens a new window from 1932. In 1933, he and his band went on their first International tour, visiting London and Paris, where "Daybreak Express", was one of the new works premiered. In 1935, Paramount Pictures released the short film Symphony in Black, which not only was scored entirely by Ellington but also featured a young Billie Holiday.

Ellington called his style and sound "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category", including many of the musicians who served with his orchestra, some of whom were themselves considered among the giants of jazz and remained with Ellington's orchestra for decades. While many were noteworthy in their own right, it was Ellington that melded them into one of the most well-known orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Concerto for Cootie" ("Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me") for Cootie Williams and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan" and "Perdido" which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to big-band jazz.

In 1939, Ellington took on Billy Strayhorn, who he called his alter-ego, as a second composer, arranger, pianist, and lyricist for the band. This collaboration proved to be a great success and featured such hits as Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train" in 1941. World War II saw a recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians in August 1942, which definitely had an impact on the Ellington band. The ability to tour extensively was constrained by the war in Europe, but Ellington continued to compose and started to put on recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City. During this time he also returned to movies, appearing in Cabin in the Sky and Reveille. The recording ban ended in 1944, and record labels started putting out recordings again. The hits kept coming: some of them were ones that had been written a few years earlier, and others were brand new, like "I'm Beginning to See the Light," which became a top 10 hit. Ellington's popular favourites included "Mood Indigo," "Solitude," "Sophisticated Lady," "In A Sentimental Mood," "Take the 'A' Train," "Satin Doll," "Black, Brown and Beige," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and "Come Sunday".

When World War II ended, Ellington and his band kept touring, but the end of the big-band era in the 1940's took its toll on the Ellington orchestra, and as worked dried up Ellington was forced to turn to royalties from his popular songs to keep the band afloat, a situation which was later reversed. In 1946, he wrote the music for the Broadway musical Beggar's Holiday, and later scored the film Asphalt Jungle.Ellington spent much of his professional career in motion-traveling with his band from one performance to the next, composing aboard trains, planes, automobiles and living out of suitcases in an endless series of hotel rooms as he took his music to audiences across the globe. 

The early 1950s were a difficult time for Ellington and the band, but they came back swinging when they performed at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival on July 7 and wowed the audience with a rendition of "Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue." The performance at Newport was released as a live recording by Columbia Records as Ellington at Newport, opens a new window, which became the best selling album of his career. That year also saw Ellington on the cover of Time magazine. The success of the showing at Newport opened up more opportunities for touring, and in 1958 he undertook his first large scale tour of Europe. From that point on, Ellington was a busy world traveller.

The rest of Ellington's career continued to see success until his death in 1974. He scored more movie soundtracks, including Anatomy of a Murder in 1959 (which he appeared in and also won three Grammy awards), Paris Blues, opens a new window in 1961 (which was nominated for an Academy Award), Assault on a Queen, opens a new window in 1966, and Change of Mind in 1969. He won several Grammy awards, including for "In the Beginning, God," in 1966 (best original jazz composition), Far East Suite in 1967 (best instrumental jazz performance), And His Mother Called Him Bill in 1969 (best instrumental jazz performance), and The Ellington Suites, posthumously in 1976. He never did have a real stage hit during his lifetime, as most of the shows that he was involved with ended after around 100 performances. But the revue Sophisticated Ladies, which opened on Broadway on March 1, 1981, and ran for 767 performances.

During this time Ellington was deservedly showered with awards, prizes, sixteen honorary degrees and celebrated both at home and abroad for his musical achievements. These awards included the presentation of the keys to the city of Los Angeles in 1936, the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP in 1959, The President's Gold Medal by President Lyndon B. Johnson (1966), the Pied Piper Award (1968), the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon (1969), the Legion of Honour by the country of France (the countries highest award), a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6535 Hollywood Blvd.) and thirteen Grammy's.

On May 24, 1974, at the age of 75, Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia. His last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered." More than 12,000 people attended his funeral. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. Widely recognized during his life as one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackaging's of his signature music often becoming best-sellers. Posthumous recognition of his work include a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

(Edited from Boston Public Library, Curtis Jackson & Wikipedia)