Frank R. Strozier Jr. (born June 13, 1937) is a jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, pianist and composer whose contributions remain insufficiently known and appreciated by the wider jazz community.
Strozier was born in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play piano. In 1954, after high school, he moved to Chicago, where he studied clarinet at the Chicago Conservatory of Music and performed with other Memphis musicians such as Harold Mabern, George Coleman, and Booker Little, and also played with Walter Perkins group MJT+3 (recording in 1959-60) and led sessions for Vee-Jay Records during that period.
In 1959 he moved to New York, where he appeared with Miles Davis for a brief period n 1963 (alongside Hank Mobley and George Coleman) and with Roy Haynes's quartet. After six years in Los Angeles, during which he performed with Chet Baker (recording in 1965) and groups led by Shelly Manne (1965-c1967) and Don Ellis (1968), he returned to New York in 1971.
He joined the Jazz Contemporaries, led by drummer Keno Duke (recording in 1974), and the New York Jazz Repertory Company. He recorded as a leader for Trident (1972) and Steeple Chase (1976-1977) and also played with Horace Parlan (1977). Strozier was a dynamic and committed performer with a blues-based style that enlivened any context in which he appeared. His tone and phrasing had a biting edge reminiscent of Jackie McLean's playing.
He played and recorded with Woody Shaw in 1978, and with Louis Hayes and Stafford James in 1979. Frustrated with his lack of work, Strozier dropped out of the music scene by the mid-1980s. On March 31, 1990, he made his piano debut in a trio setting at Weill Recital Hall in New York which was favourably reviewed by a critic in Cadence Magazine. But since then, little has been heard of Strozier who left music to become a teacher of math and/or science in schools in Westchester County, New York.
(Limited information edited from New Grove Dictionary of Music, Wikipedia & AllMusic)
Della Griffin (born June 12, 1922 – died August 9, 2022) was an amazing American jazz singer and drummer. She was also known as Della Simpson. Della was part of two of the very first all-girl R&B music groups in the 1950s: The Enchanters and The Dell-Tones.
Della Griffin was born in Newberry, South Carolina, on June 12, 1922. She was the nineteenth of twenty children! Later, she moved to New York City and grew up there. Della loved music from a young age. She really looked up to famous musicians like Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, and especially Billie Holiday. Della started singing when she was just 12 years old. Singing was her biggest passion, but she was also great at playing the drums, alto saxophone, and piano. After finishing Jamaica High School in Queens, New York, in 1943, Della began singing professionally.
In 1950, Della and her friend Frances Kelley decided to start a singing group. They knew each other from working together in a factory. They soon added Pearl Brice, Della's childhood friend, and Rachel Gist, a singer from Harlem. Their friend Chris Townes helped them a lot. He became their teacher, helped arrange their songs, played piano, and wrote music for them. The group performed in small clubs for about a year. In 1951, Della invited Jerry Blaine, who owned Jubilee Records, to hear them. He was so impressed that he signed them the very next day! Their first songs included "Today is Your Birthday" and "How Could You Break My Heart." In January 1952, Jubilee released The Enchanters' first record. The group started touring the country and became very popular. Later that year, Rachel Gist and Pearl Brice left the group.
Della and Frances Kelley wanted to keep making music. They found two new members, Gloria Alleyne and Sherry Gary. With these new singers, the group changed its name to The Dell-Tones. They named it after Della Griffin because she was the lead singer and also the group's drummer. Della Griffin was actually the first female drummer in a well-known music group! Della's first husband, Jimmy Simpson, managed the group. He helped them get a recording deal with Coral's Brunswick company. In 1953, they recorded "Yours Alone" and "My Hearts on Fire." When these songs didn't get much attention, The Dell-Tones moved to Rainbow records. There, they recorded "I'm Not in Love With You" and "Little Short Daddy." The group then went on the "Night Train Tour" with Jimmy Forrest. After this, Frances Kelley, Gloria Alleyne, and Sherry Gary left.
New members Algie Willie, Shirley Bunnie Foy, and Renee Stewart joined. The Dell-Tones then signed with Baton records and recorded songs like "Don't Be Long" and "Baby Say You Love Me." In 1955, The Dell-Tones went on a tour of Canada. Later, Gloria Bell and Chris Townes left the group. The Dell-Tones then joined forces with Sonny Til and his group The Orioles. This new, bigger group included Della Griffin, Sonny Til, Della's second husband Paul Griffin, and many other talented musicians. They performed in clubs in New York City and recorded "Voices of Love" and "I'm so Lonely" in 1957. After this, The Dell-Tones slowly stopped performing together, and Della began her solo career.
Here's "My Melancholy Baby" from above album.
Della Griffin was married three times. Her husbands were Jimmy Simpson, Paul Griffin (a pianist), and Gene Walker (a saxophone player). Over the years, she toured and performed with many famous artists like Jimmy Forrest, Sonny Stitt, Benny Green, Illinois Jacquet, and her sister-in-law, Etta Jones. After The Dell-Tones, Della's husband at the time, Paul Griffin, encouraged her to take a break to focus on their family. After their marriage ended, Della started performing again in New York City clubs.
In 1973, Griffin opened at Harlem's Blue Book Club. It became a steady gig for 14 years, ending only when Griffin was injured in a car accident. Frequent comparisons to Billie Holiday were both a blessing and a frustration -- a frustration because she was persistently asked by audiences to sing the songs Holiday sang. Limited in her ability to consistently do her own stuff, Griffin left the business. Returning in the '80s, she worked with both Etta Jones and Irene Reid, recording with Jones.
This work led to two albums for Muse Records, I'll Get By and Travelin' Light, both produced by Houston Person. When Muse folded, Griffin followed many of that label's performers to the newly formed HighNote-Savant. Her first album for Savant, also produced by Person and which he appeared on, The Very Thought of You, came out in 1998. That same year, Griffin was invited to Finland to appear at one of that country's major jazz festivals. Griffin settled in New York and performed regularly at clubs and other jazz events.
In 2005, Della Griffin and The Enchanters performed as the main act at a show organized by the UGHA (United Group Harmony Association). The audience loved her performance. Della Griffin lived in New Rochelle, New York, where her foster children would visit her every day. She passed away in New York City on August 9, 2022, at the age of 100.
David Gardner (June 11, 1926 – September 22, 1983), known as Brother Dave Gardner, was an American comedian, professional drummer and singer. Next to Homer & Jethro, he was the most successful Southern-derived comedian. Variously described as a "Southern Lenny Bruce" or "Billy Graham with a sense of humour," Gardner's best routines still sound fresh and original today, a testament to his off-kilter genius.
There was much, much more to this small-statured stand-up comic than your average hillbilly ploughboy set of wheezy jokes; Gardner may just very well have been the true innovative genius of classy Southern humour. A native of Tennessee, Gardner studied drumming, beginning at age 13. After a one-semester term as a Southern Baptist ministerial student at Union University in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, he began a musical career as a drummer and occasional vocalist. After recording a handful of semi successful singles as a drummer/vocalist in and around his native Memphis (he had the original hit of "White Silver Sands"), Gardner found his true calling when Chet Atkins discovered him in Nashville doing comedy routines between drum solos.
His on-stage character (and by most accounts, off-stage as well) was one part hipster, one part Sunday-morning preacher, peppered with off-the-wall observations about history and life, all of it barely concealing a personality that was as convention shattering as the times would barely allow. His debut album on RCA, Rejoice, Dear Hearts!, was released at the height of the comedy-album craze in 1960, and his follow-up, Kick Thy Own Self, was even more successful. These propelled Brother Dave into the national eye, along with the first of several appearances on national television talk/variety shows such as The Tonight Show.
Gardner's act played well on national TV, so well, in fact, that a young Ray Stevens took whole Gardner routines, set them to music, and scored big with most of them well into the late '60s ("Ahab, the Arab," "Speedball," etc.). In the late '60s, a Memphis rock & roll band -- the Hombres -- took one line from a Gardner routine and fleshed it out into a hit song, "Let It All Hang Out." On-stage, Gardner was a law and entity unto himself. Although his original ascension to stardom was made, not unlike Bruce, with carefully constructed "bits," as time went on these gave way more and more to off-the-wall but trenchant observations. But unlike Bruce, Gardner never totally abandoned these staples of his nightclub act and his records. Instead, the nightly grind in clubs caused him to expand on them, and true fans of his fertile comic imagination can compare his telling of "The Motorcycle Story" (from one of his early albums) with the full-blown treatment it receives -- almost covering an entire side of an album -- on his second-to-last LP, Out Front.
Rather than sounding like a comedian giving a perfunctory reading of a well-known (and well-worn) routine, he sounds as if he just concocted it moments ago, his enthusiasm in telling the tale literally bounding off the grooves. His sense of timing was unerring, and his ability to respond to his surroundings would often send him into a free association rant that would spawn an ad-lib passage that would stretch over several minutes. One of his greatest personal quirks on-stage was that he never timed his act in the conventional sense, and although he wore an expensive watch on-stage, he never bothered to look at it. Generally credited (oddly enough) with the invention of the 100 millimetre cigarette, Gardner had them custom-made for him in quantity starting in the early '60s. Once he had pulled three of them from his similarly custom-made cigarette case, fired them up, and disposed of them in rapid, chain-smoking succession, he knew he had filled his time on-stage.
Gardner's involvement with drugs somewhat derailed his career after a bust for marijuana possession in 1962. Although he never wore it on his sleeve the way Bruce did, Gardner, by all accounts, had a voracious and most experimental appetite for them and was not above sneaking in veiled references in one of his routines. He was cleared, but the resulting publicity flap closed off the big television shows and forced him out of the big rooms up North and into the small-time Southern club circuit. After a small prison stint for tax evasion in the early '70s (his defence at his trial was to tell the judge, "I didn't know how much money I made, so I figured it was a fraud to fill out one of them things"), Gardner's career was pretty much dead in the water, having gone from RCA Victor to Capitol to their budget label, Tower, to no deal at all.
Working small clubs, his humorous and skewered outlook nonetheless stayed intact, a true rebel spirit that refused to be brought down, even though he was now under the "management" of a racist billionaire who was trying to remould him for the "good ol' boy" Hee Haw crowd. He recorded for a spate of small labels right up to the end, including one-offs for Four Star (his last, where he asks a stunned Nashville crowd, "I wonder if Johnny Cash turned Billy Graham on?") and another for the short-lived record division of the Tonka toy company. Gardner suffered a mild heart attack in January 1983, and had a pacemaker inserted while in Smyrna, Georgia. The following September, he was on a movie set near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, working on an Earl Owensby film called Chain Gang, when he had a much bigger heart attack. He had just completed filming that day, and was signing autographs and joking with people when he suddenly went into the studio and said he needed help. He died that night at about 9 p.m. in Grand Strand General Hospital, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Gardner was twice married: his first wife, Millie, preceded him in death, and he was married to his second wife, Judy, at the time of his death. He had two children from his first marriage — son Dave II (died 1999) and daughter Candace. Although he is seldom remembered today, except by old timers who smile when you mention his name, Gardner's influence on all branches of comedy continues to be writ large.
Shirley Alston Reeves (born June 10, 1941), born Shirley Owens, is an American soul singer who was the main lead singer of the hit girl group the Shirelles.
Raised in Passaic, New Jersey, she formed the group in 1957 with classmates Beverly Lee, Doris Kenner Jackson (nee Coley), and Addie "Micki" Harris under the name The Poquellos for a talent show at their high school, they were signed by Florence Greenberg of Tiara Records. Their first single, "I Met Him on a Sunday", was released by Tiara and licensed by Decca Records in 1958.
After a brief and unsuccessful period with Decca, they went with Greenberg to her newly formed company, Scepter Records where as The Shirelles they achieved fame with hits like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (1960) which was the first number-one hit by a Black girl group on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Dedicated to the One I Love" (1961). Owens’ warm, soulful voice defined their sound, and was the lead singer, though Jackson was also featured as lead on several songs, as well. Blending pop, R&B, and doo-wop. The Shirelles released 12 studio albums, with over 20 charting singles, influencing the girl group era and artists like The Beatles.
After a successful period of collaboration with Dixon and promotion by Scepter, with seven top 20 hits, the Shirelles left Scepter in 1966. Afterwards, the Shirelles declined in popularity due in part to pressure from the British Invasion and the heavy competition from other girl groups, including the Chiffons, the Supremes, the Ronettes, Martha & the Vandellas, and the Crystals.
Clockwise from top-Addie Harris, Shirley Owens, Beverly Lee and Doris Coley
During this period, Warwick often replaced Coley on stage due to the latter's family commitments. The Shirelles were still bound to Scepter and thus unable to record for another company until the end of their contract in 1966. Their last single to chart was 1967's "Last Minute Miracle", which peaked at No. 99.
After the commercial failure of their most recent releases, Coley left the group in 1968 to focus on her family. The remaining three Shirelles recorded songs for several labels, including Bell Records, RCA Victor, and United Artists until 1971. Afterwards, they toured singing their older songs, and participated in the filming of the 1973 documentary Let the Good Times Roll, recording two songs for it. Coley returned as lead singer in 1975, replacing Owens, who left that year to pursue a solo career.
Owens then went on to release albums like With a Little Help from My Friends (1975) under the name Shirley Alston,which featured members of the Flamingos, the Drifters, Shep and the Limelites, the Five Satins, the Belmonts, Danny & the Juniors, Herman's Hermits and La La Brooks of the Crystals. Then she recorded as Lady Rose and released a self titled album in 1977. Also that year as Shirley Lady Rose Alston" she recorded Sings Shirelles Greatest Hits. Doris, Beverly and Shirley would come together once more to record on Dionne Warwick's 1983 album, "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye", which featured a new version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
In 1994, the Shirelles were honored by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation with the Pioneer Award for their contributions to music. The award was accepted by Owens, Lee, and Kenner. As Coley was accepting her award, she said "This is dedicated to the one I love", and sang an impromptu rendition of "Soldier Boy" together with Owens and Lee. Two years later they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, together with Gladys Knight & the Pips. At the ceremony in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the three surviving members sang a medley of songs after being presented the awards by Merry Clayton, Marianne Faithfull, and Darlene Love.
Shirley continued to perform as Shirley Alston Reeves and The Shirelles with various line-ups into the 2000s. The Shirelles were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Lee and Owens accepted the award. In September, 2008, The Shirelles' hometown of Passaic, New Jersey honored the group by renaming a section of Paulison Avenue as Shirelles Boulevard. Shirley is married to Kenneth Reeves and has two children. She retired from performing in 2020 but remains a celebrated figure in R&B history, living in North Carolina.
Bobby Murray (June 9, 1953 – April 30, 2026) was an American electric blues guitarist, songwriter and record producer.
Murray was born on a US Air Force base in Nagoya, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an Irish father. Growing up in a military family, he was later raised in Tacoma, Washington. Murray attended the same high school as Robert Cray and they engaged Albert Collins to play at the school's graduation party.
His guitar playing was mainly influenced by Albert Collins and B. B. King. He started his musical career playing in blues clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, having originally formed an ensemble that became Robert Cray and the Crayolas.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Murray supplied guitar backing for Frankie Lee, Sonny Rhodes, Mark Naftalin, and others. He performed frequently with Albert Collins, Charlie Musselwhite, Otis Rush, Jimmy Witherspoon and John Lee Hooker. In 1988, Murray joined Etta James' backing ensemble, the Roots Band, performing with James for 23 years. He also played and/or recorded with Albert King, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Taj Mahal, Percy Mayfield, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Lowell Fulson.
Here's "Let My Guitar Do The Talking" from above album
Murray appeared on B. B. King's Grammy Award-winning album, Blues Summit, reuniting with Robert Cray on the track, "Playing With My Friends". Murray also played guitar on James' Grammy winning recordings, Let's Roll and Blues to the Bone. Murray's definitive style was heard on the Etta James song, "Blues is My Business" in an episode of television drama series, The Sopranos.
He performed with James' Roots Band on other television programs such as The Tonight Show, Austin City Limits and Late Night with David Letterman. Murray also played at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, the WOMAD Festival and the inaugural celebration for President Bill Clinton.
Murray's debut album, The Blues is Now (1996), featured Frankie Lee and Freddie Hughes on vocals. The AllMusic journalist, Thom Owens, commented about Murray's work on the recording, "he's a fine guitarist, as he proves here, turning out jazzy, classy solos that separate him from the rest of the crowd". In 1999, the follow-up album, Waiting for Mr. Goodfingers..., was issued by No Cover Productions. A live album, Live & Lowdown! was released in May 2006.
In 2011, Murray received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit Blues Society. Murray also received Detroit Music Awards in the Outstanding Instrumentalist (Blues) and Outstanding Blues Performer/Group categories.
Bobby with Etta James
Murray's last solo recording, Love Letters From Detroit, was released in 2021 and was granted the Outstanding Blues Recording of the Year at the Detroit Music Awards. The title track, "Love Letter", is a song written by Murray and his wife about Etta James and him playing with her. Murray latterly resided in White Lake, Michigan, United States. Just as important was his role on the local Detroit scene, where Murray remained a steady presence, mentoring younger musicians and helping sustain the city’s blues lineage. He was also absolutely revered by fellow musicians in the city.
Clyde Beavers (June 8, 1932 - March 29, 2015) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter.
I was surprised to find that Clyde did not have a mention in Wikipedia or anything substantial about his life story on the web. Most of the information I managed to find was from album sleeve notes and snippets from Google books.
Clyde Winfrey Beavers was born in Tenga, Georgia. As a child he would listen to the Grand Ole Oprey. He would get his mothers washboard and start beating rhythm to the songs and daydream. Although living in poverty, he was brought up in the atmosphere of revivals and tent meetings and gospel songs, which developed in him an early appreciation for singing the gospel.
Not much news is available regarding his teens or when he was in his twenties except that when he was 23 he recorded his first record for the Georgia label whilst a DJ at Radio Station WJATl in Atlanta. It was his own composition titled "I Won't Always Love You"." From 1957 he recorded a slew of records for various labels including Dollie Records, Decca, Tempwood, KA$H, Hickory & Mercury.
Other radio stations he worked for included WCGA - Calhoun, Ga. (1957), WBRO - Waynesboro, Ga. (1959) and WENO in Nashville besides playing clubs and appearing US Military bases throughout the States. In 1960 he had a #13 Country hit in 1960 with "Here I Am Drunk Again". The song was covered in 1976 by Moe Bandy. In 1963, Clyde had a #21 hit with an English language version of the Kyu Sakamoto song "Sukiyaki".
Clyde also formed KA$H Records with Tom Reeder in Nashville during February 1963. Beavers was well known for some odd promotion drives in the early 60's. Once he rode a donkey more than a hundred miles to Nashville. Another time he pushed a wheelbarrow to Nashville from 75 miles away. In 1965 he bought a cow for $77 and tied her to a parking meter in front of the Andrew Jackson Hotel in New Orleans, and draped a sign over her that read "Clyde Beavers has a smash hit record on Hickory titled "That's You" and this is no bull. He later sold the animal for $70 losing only $7 on the promotion.
As well as his country songs he recorded a gospel album in 1965 titled "Hallelujah, Amen." In the 1970's he recorded on the Dot and Boyd record labels He also had a successful road show with his own troupe of performers and had appearances on the Grand Ole Oprey. He became co-owner with Buddy Herman of the Jackpot music publishing Co. and built a recording studio in Hendersonville which he named Beaverwood. Johnny Cash and many other country music stars would often record there. Clyde also owned Beaverwood Audio-Video, which he considered a ministry because it allowed him to work with various churches and Christian musicians.
Clyde was a long-time church member and in his later years he joined the Gideons, where he helped to distribute the Gideons Bible. He also served in the Layman Lessons Ministries helping the poor, needy and homeless in Hendersonville. His last gospel album "Clyde Beavers - Southern Gospel Legends Series was released in 2009.
Clyde Beavers died in Hendersonville, TN on Mar 29, 2015 at the age of 82.
Harry Geller (July 7, 1913 - February 15, 2008) was a Canadian-born American composer, arranger, conductor, and trumpeter known for his early career in big band jazz and his prolific contributions to television and film music in Hollywood.
Harry Geller was born Harry Max Geller in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. His family's original surname was Sitkovetsky, which was changed to Geller upon their relocation to the United States. Geller spent his early life in Manitoba before later transitioning to a career in the United States. Geller began playing trumpet professionally in the 1930s, serving as lead trumpeter in Artie Shaw's first big band and working as an arranger for Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
Harry Geller
In the mid-to-late 1940s, Geller served as conductor and orchestra leader for several vocal recording sessions. He led his orchestra for Anita Ellis on tracks such as "Anniversary Song," "I'm Yours," and "The Old Lamplighter" in 1946. He later conducted for Frankie Laine on recordings including "All of Me" and "Mamselle" in 1947, as well as "That Lucky Old Sun," "Rockin' Chair," and "Waiting (At the End of the Road)" in 1949.That same year Geller received a credited role providing orchestral arrangements for the film Love Happy, starring the Marx Brothers. These pre-1950s efforts in film orchestration and recording direction bridged his swing-era band work to subsequent challenges in his career.
During the Hollywood blacklist period, Harry Geller was reportedly named in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) but avoided a subpoena by relocating to Paris with his family, including his eleven-year-old son. They remained there until the mid-1950s. During this time, Geller wrote much uncredited music in Paris amid the blacklisting days, allowing him to continue composing and arranging despite restrictions in the United States. Due to the uncredited nature of these contributions, no specific titles or detailed records appear in major sources such as his filmography or discography. Geller similarly worked with Frankie Laine, conducting the orchestra on some of his early Mercury recordings starting in April 1947. He provided conducting support for Laine's 1949 release "That Lucky Old Sun," among other tracks during this period.
Upon returning to the United States in the mid-1950s, Geller reportedly became apolitical and resumed his career in television music. He transitioned to arranging and composing after moving to California, where he worked in radio before establishing himself in television scoring. His credits include composer, arranger, and conductor for series such as Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Land of the Giants, among others. Geller also served as music director on various productions. He frequently served as conductor and arranger for popular vocalists during the late 1940s and 1950s, particularly through his work at Mercury Records. He collaborated extensively with Patti Page, providing orchestral arrangements and conducting duties on several of her early hit singles. For example, he conducted Patti Page with Harry Geller & His Orchestra on the July 1950 release "All My Love," a chart-topping bolero-style ballad. He also conducted for Page on "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)," which became another successful single in 1951.
In addition to his vocal accompaniments, Geller led instrumental projects under his own name, including the 1955 easy listening release "New York, New York" credited to Harry Geller And His Orchestra. Hiss arranging style extended to distinctive instrumental albums, such as the 1962 "Fiery Mandolins of Harry Geller," which highlighted mandolin-focused arrangements. These experiences in studio conducting and arranging for singers laid groundwork for his subsequent transition into television music direction.
For the series “The Wild Wild West”, his work was divided in two categories: the exotic and ethnic scores as “The Night the Dragon Screamed” (Asian) and “The Night of the Egyptian Queen” (Middle East) and the rhythmic scores as “The Night of the Returning Dead” (co-composed with Morton Stevens) and “The Night of the Bottomless Pit” and some jazzy aspects of “The Night of the Egyptian Queen”. In the line of the same “The Night of the Egyptian Queen”, Geller wrote a single “Mission: Impossible” score entitled “The Innocent” which integrated Middle East sound elements but in the discreet and minimalistic mold of the series. Moreover, Geller wrote the music for two espionage movies made for ABC television: “The Challenge” (1970), starring Darren McGavin and Sam Elliott, and “Dead Man on The Run” (1975), written by Ken Pettus, starring Peter Graves and Pernell Roberts.
He died February 15, 2008 (94 years of age).
Not to be confused with Australian-born composer Harold Geller who was a member of the Performing Right Society, London.
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