Kenny Burrell born 31 July 1931

Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on the Blue Note label. He is one of the leading exponents of straight-ahead jazz guitar, Kenny Burrell is a highly influential artist whose understated and melodic style, 
grounded in bebop and blues, made him in an in-demand sideman from the mid-'50s onward and a standard by which many jazz guitarists gauge themselves to this day.

Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan. Both his parents played instruments, and he began playing guitar at the age of 12 after listening Charlie Christian's recordings. During World War II, due to metal shortage, he abandoned the idea of becoming a saxophonist, and bought an acoustic guitar for $10. He was inspired to play jazz after listening to Oscar Moore, but it was Django Reinhardt who showed him "that you could get your own individuality on an instrument."

In 1951 while a student at Wayne State University, he made his recording debut on a combo session that featured trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie as well as saxophonist John Coltrane, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and bassist Percy Heath. Thus was followed by the "Rose of Tangier"/"Ground Round" single recorded under his own name at Fortune Records in Detroit. Also while in college, Burrell founded the New World Music Society collective with fellow Detroit musicians Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, and Yusef Lateef.

Although his talent ranked among the best of the professional jazz players at the time, Burrell continued to study privately with renowned classical guitarist Joe Fava, and enrolled in the music program at Wayne State University. Upon graduating in 1955 with a B.A. in music composition and theory, Burrell was hired for a six-month stint touring with pianist Oscar Peterson's trio.

                             

In 1956, Burrell and Flanagan moved to New York City and immediately became two of the most sought-after sidemen in town, performing in gigs with such luminaries as singers Tony Bennett and Lena Horne, playing in Broadway pit orchestras, and recording with an array of legendary musicians including Coltrane, trumpeter 
Kenny Dorham, organist Jimmy Smith, vocalist Billie Holiday, and many others. Burrell made his recorded debut as a leader on the Blue Note session Introducing Kenny Burrell -- technically his second session for the label, but the first to see release. From the late '50s onward, Burrell continued to record by himself and with others, and has appeared on countless albums over the years including such notable albums as 1957's The Cats featuring Coltrane, 1963's Midnight Blue featuring saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, 1965's Guitar Forms with arrangements by Gil Evans, and 1968's Blues -- The Common Ground.

Burrell started leading various college seminars including the first regular course to be held in the United States on the music of composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington. He continued performing, recording, and teaching throughout the '80s and '90s, releasing several albums including 1989's Guiding Spirit, 1991's Sunup to Sundown, 1994's Collaboration with pianist LaMont Johnson, 1995's Primal Blue, and 1998's church music-inspired Love Is the Answer. Burrell also wrote, arranged, and performed on the 1998 Grammy Award-winning album Dear Ella by Dee Dee Bridgewater,

Burrell released the relaxed quartet date A Lucky So and So on Concord and followed it up in 2003 with Blue Muse. He received the 2004 Jazz Educator of the Year Award from Down Beat, and was named a 2005 NEA Jazz Master and celebrated turning 75 years old in 2006 by recording a live date, released a year later as 75th Birthday Bash Live! In 2010, Burrell released the live album Be Yourself: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, recorded at Lincoln Center's smaller club-like venue, followed two years later by Special Requests (And Other Favorites): Live at Catalina's.

In 2015, Burrell released The Road to Love, recorded live at Catalina's Jazz Club in Hollywood. Another Catalina's live date, Unlimited 1, appeared in 2016 and featured Burrell backed by the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra. Besides continuing to perform, Burrell is the founder and director of the Jazz Studies Program at UCLA, as well as president emeritus of the Jazz Heritage Foundation.

In 2019, concerns arose about Burrell's well-being and living circumstances as he became increasingly socially and physically isolated in his home and major frictions developed between his wife, Katherine Goodrich, 37 years his junior, and others living in their Westwood, California, apartment building. 

A GoFundMe account was set up, due to  a cascading series of misfortunes: an accident that Kenny had suffered after his 85th-birthday concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall, mounting medical expenses, identity theft, bank fraud and ravaged credit scores. The sum required was reached within a few days. The jazz community had come to the aid of the man who’d brought them all together.

(Edited from Wikipedia, bio by Matt Collar @ AllMusic & jazz Times)

Ed Wilson born 29 July 1945

Ed Wilson (July 29, 1945 – October 3, 2010), was a Brazilian rock singer-songwriter, composer, director and co-founder of the musical group Renato & His Blue Caps.

Edson Vieira de Barros, known artistically as Ed Wilson, was born in the neighbourhood of Piedade, in Rio de Janeiro  He lived with music since he was a boy, and sang along to the hits of Nélson Gonçalves , Anísio Silvaand other idols at the time. The "Barros 

Family" were always dedicated to art, especially music. His mother Elair Silva, who was a singer at Rádio Nacional, won a contest as the best singer, but his father, the old “Barros”, evidently jealous, never allowed him to pursue a career.

But Edinho (as he was affectionately called by his friends), together with brothers Renato Barros and Paulo César Barros, decided to form a group, after watching Bill Halley's show, in April 1958, on the program “Noite de Gala” on TV-Rio. They originally called themselves Bacaninha do Rock da Piedade , but this was censored on the radio, so inspired by gene Vincent 

they became Renato  & His Blue Caps as Renato was the eldest, but Ed Wilson was the singer, all Elvis Presley style, that is, if you feel your own, letting the forelock grow, wearing a high collar and leather jacket. The youngest of them, Paulo César, on his acoustic double bass (tuned in C major), sang less.

After suffering a little, as always, the Blue Caps group began to be recognized by everyone, especially in programs dedicated to young people, but Edinho was persuaded to follow a solo career. He stayed with the group until the end of May 1962, when producer Carlos Imperial  gave him the stage name of Ed Wilson, however, it is worth noting that 

Ed always participated in the recording of the Blue Caps and also in some shows, never forgetting his origins and in some testimonies, he found his departure from the group a little premature.

He was hired by the Odeon label, and on July 6, 1962, he entered the studio to record his first solo recordings “Nunca Mais” - by Carlos Imperial and Paulo Brunner and “Juro Meu Amor”with the accompaniment of the Blue Caps. This obtained relative success which then was followed  by other singles but by the end of 1963, he left Odeon and was hired by RCA Victor until 1965 when he recorded “Doce Esperança” and “Como Te Adoro Menina” which are considered to be his best work.

    Here's "Sandra" from above 1966 album  Verdadeiro amor

                             

 On August 22, 1965, TV Record, in São Paulo, launched the program that would definitely mark youth music: “Jovem Guarda”, and due to the success of the show Ed Wilson was signed to CBS. which resulted in the  1966 album  “Verdadeiro 

Amor" also accompanied by Renato and his Blue Caps. His father's death in late 1967 affected him greatly, because he was the one who personally took care of his career.

Before leaving CBS in the late 1970s, he recorded in English under the pseudonym of Barry Dean.he continued performing on many shows singing international hits and later began producing singers on the  Polydor label, at the invitation of Roberto Livi, where he produced records in Los Angeles and Miami. He also composed many songs during this period.

In the 80s, he embarked on the gospel music circuit, when in 1985, for the record label Copacabana, he released his first religious album, "Rain of Blessings". In 1988, he continued producing albums and in 1992 was signed by Line Records in 1992, where he recorded  a few  albums: “ He also launched other works on the gospel line.

In 2005, he founded the band The Originals, with only members of the Blue Caps, Fevers and Incríveis, with whom he did a series of shows and recorded 3 albums and 3 DVDs with immediate success although over the years there were changes in the groups line-up. Wilson performed with the Originals up to two months before he died.

Wilson lived in Leblon, a neighbourhood in the South Zone of Rio when he was hospitalized at the São Lucas Hospital, in Copacabana during September, where he died on October 3, 2010 from septic shock due to thyroid cancer at the age of 65 years old.  (Edited Portuguese translation from letras.com.br)

Ray Ellis born 28 July 1923

Ray Ellis (July 28, 1923 – October 27, 2008) was an American record producer, arranger and conductor. During a career that spanned almost 65 years, the Philadelphia native also arranged for acts including Tony Bennett, Doris Day, the Drifters, Connie Francis, Judy Garland and Ray Price.

Raymond Spencer Ellis was born in Philadelphia. He took saxophone lessons as a teenager and played in dance bands in the Northeast before going into the Army in 1943. He found his way into the band of the 1st Armored Division; he played dances and tried his hand at arranging. After the war, he played saxophone, clarinet and flute for Paul Whiteman’s band and tenor sax in the Gene Krupa Band. He also performed on live TV with jazz combos on WCAU in Philadelphia. His big break came in 1955 when a friend introduced him to producer Mitch Miller of  Columbia Records and under the famed bandleader's guidance, Ellis arranged a string of top 10 records for acts including the Four Lads, Mathis, Bennett, Darin and Chris Connor.

In 1958, he gained notice as the arranger for Billie Holiday’s last two albums, including “Lady in Satin,” which received mixed critical notice. The album seemed to gain greater acceptance over the years and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

With Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, Ellis arranged R&B classics for the Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk"), Brook Benton ("There Goes My Baby"), Ben E. King ("Spanish Harlem") and Etta James ("C.C. Rider").  Ellis became A&R director at MGM Records in 1959, creating hits for Connie Francis ("Where the Boys Are"), Frankie Laine and Clyde McPhatter ("Lover's Question"). Later, he worked with such artists as Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley, Michelle Lee, Liza Minnelli and Maurice Chevalier.

                              

Ellis' work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. In the early 1960s, Ellis had a contract to produce his own easy listening record albums with RCA Victor, MGM, and Columbia, the most popular probably being Ellis in Wonderland. His television credits include theme music for NBC 
News At Sunrise with Connie Chung and the background and incidental music for the original Spider-Man cartoons.

Holiday & Ellis

In 1970, he produced Emmylou Harris' debut LP Gliding Bird. Ellis also composed two extended themes for The Today Show, the first in 1971. It was used as the Friday closing theme (and eventually the show's full-time theme) until the end of the decade. However, in Herald Square Music v. Living Music, the District Court of the Southern District of New York "found the instrumental arrangement and harmonization of defendant's melody to be substantially similar to that of 'Day by Day,'" a Stephen Schwartz 
song from the musical Godspell. As a result, Ellis composed a second Today Show theme based on the trademark NBC 

chimes. That theme was the NBC show's signature from 1978 to 1985 and has appeared irregularly on the morning program ever since.

Using many different pseudonyms Ellis and Norm Prescott composed nearly all of the background music for cartoon studio Filmation from 1968 to 1982, according to DVD booklets for Ark II, Space Academy, and Jason of Star Command. Ellis also composed the music for 1968's Fantastic Voyage, also on some of Filmation's early '70s output and its feature films and 1969's The Hardy Boys. On 1978's Fabulous 
Funnies, Ellis was credited as "Mark Jeffrey". However, Ray Ellis was credited with his real name for background music to The Archie Show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Also the animated Star Trek series in the early 1970's

Ellis, who resided in Los Angeles, also composed the music for the 1980s US edition of Sale of the Century theme, along with Hot Streak, Scrabble, Scattergories and Time Machine with his son Marc Ellis, that includes the Jack Grimsley's score from 1980 and the famed Reg Grundy Productions fanfare at the end of each broadcast; he also composed the theme from the short-lived US version of Catch Phrase.

Before his retirement Ellis worked on projects with Adam Sandler, Barry Manilow and Bette Midler. After which he was involved in fundraising efforts for the Ojai Music Festival. Ellis died at the age of 85 of complications from melanoma on October 27, 2008, at an assisted-living facility in Encino, California.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Hollywood Reporter & Los Angeles Times)

Tony Capstick born 27 July 1944

Tony Capstick (27 July 1944 – 23 October 2003) was an English comedian, actor, musician and broadcaster whose abundant star quality was undermined by the personal frailties that drove him to alcoholism, repeated brushes with the law and, ultimately, professional ruin.

Joseph Antony Capstick was born the first son of Joe Capstick, a wireless operator in the RAF, and his wife, June, née Duncan. Brought up by his mother and grandmother after his parents divorced, Capstick was an undistinguished pupil of Mexborough Grammar School, and took jobs on the railway and in an abattoir before establishing himself as a musician.

As an accomplished guitarist and banjo-player with a decent voice, he quickly made a name on the folk club circuit from the mid-1960s. This was a time when most parts of Britain seemed to be producing folk singers who were, in fact, better as comedians: Connolly from the Clyde; Jasper Carrott from Birmingham; Max Boyce in South Wales; Fred Wedlock from Somerset; and Mick Elliott up in the North-East.

Capstick thrived on radio, starting a connection with the BBC's Sheffield station in the early 1970s, which was to last more than 30 years. Thanks to spirited station managers like Phil Sidey in Leeds, this often disdained arm of the BBC used its position, away from the controllers' gaze, to produce some wonderfully subversive radio.

A regular performer on the folk circuit, he recorded many albums. The first was for the Newcastle based record label Rubber Records (His Round with Hedgehog Pie, Punch and Judy Man, Tony Capstick Does a Turn, Songs of Ewan MacColl with Dick Gaughan and Dave Burland and There Was This Bloke with Mike Harding, Derek Brimstone and Bill Barclay).

                                

There was, however, only one spell of real fame. A spoof of the Hovis bread advertisement in 1981, set to the Carlton Main and Frickley Colliery Band's arrangement of Dvorak's New World Symphony, and called Capstick Comes Home, was a minor comic masterpiece. The record began life, unpromisingly, as a Radio 
Sheffield promotional single. Capstick's producer John Leonard belatedly realised that a flip side was needed for the station's theme tune, The Sheffield Grinder, and suggested the Hovis parody.

Although already part of Capstick's folk club routine, it ran to only 20 seconds. Sitting in Leonard's car on the way to the studios, Capstick wrote the rest on the back of a cigarette packet. The track was recorded in a single take and soon displaced the original A-side. Listeners were entranced by Capstick's satire on Northern working-class life. The record reached number three in the hit 

parade in 1981. As a comedian he had an eight-part television series, Capstick's Capers, on Channel 4 in 1983. Capstick was also a prolific bit-part actor, with a career including minor roles in the soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street. In the latter he played the recurring character of the brewer Harvey Nuttall.

His folk-singing in clubs and on south Yorkshire radio, and writing a local newspaper column were all ephemeral, and when, in 1995, his 28-year marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Carol, collapsed, his drinking became worse.

Soon after, he married Gillian, a supermarket worker 18 years younger than himself. They made a base at Hoober, close to one of a collection of eccentric follies on the former estate of the Earls of Wentworth; an aspect of south Yorkshire that much appealed to Capstick, who enjoyed rural stately homes.

Meanwhile, he clung to his afternoon radio show, supported by a cast of loyal friends, who found the drunken Capstick worth 
tolerating for spells of the brilliant original. This applied to 

listeners too and his unpredictable goings-on retained a sort of Sheffield cult status. But in January, after a disastrous move to a morning slot, he was sacked by the station for failing to meet standards and "letting listeners down", after which his drinking worsened and his health declined following the latest in a string of drink driving offences.

He continued to write a regular column in a local weekly newspaper, the Rotherham Advertiser. Capstick was an author, with Paul Donoghue, of a book on the Appleby Horse Fair. On 23 October 2003, Capstick was found dead at his cottage in Hoober, near Wentworth, South Yorkshire.

Outside Sheffield, he is perhaps better known as one of the policemen in the long-running British sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine, where he played the role until his death, with his final appearance on the show broadcast in April 2004. Despite his many appearances in comic roles, he sadly never fulfilled a potential that had Billy Connolly once refer to him as “the funniest man he had ever met.”

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Guardian & The Telegraph)

Patti Bown born 26 July 1931

Patti Bown (July 26, 1931 - March 21, 2008) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and singer. She was a childhood friend and musical partner of the great Quincy Jones, a long-time member of Gene Ammons’ band and the composer of a minor jazz classic.  Her name is usually misspelled as “Paddy Bowen”, something which she constantly had to deal with. People often mispronounced her name to rhyme with “down”, it’s actually pronounced “bone”. And even now, Google auto-corrects “Patti Bown” to “Patti Brown”

Patricia Ann Bown was born in Seattle in 1931, one of seven children – two boys and five girls, raised in a household where musical talent and culture abounded. Her mother Edith was a fine pianist and took her children to hear concerts by Marian Anderson, Katherine Dunham, and Arthur Rubinstein. Most of the piano talent in the family was split between Patti and her sister Edith Mary, who became a concert pianist in an era where it was well-nigh impossible for Afro-Americans to enter the classical field. Another sister, Millie, was the only one of the girls without perfect pitch and recalls Patti at three years old astounding her parents by copying on the piano things she heard Duke Ellington play on the radio.

 Although their mother liked to play some blues and jazz piano at home, she insisted the girls study the classics and religious music, such as spirituals and gospel. She would never play blues in public and forbid her daughters to do so, especially Patti, who really showed an inclination in that direction

Quincy Jones was a neighbourhood friend, indeed he recalls playing “house” with Bown when they were kids. When Mrs. Bown finally relented as her daughter grew into a teenager and started to develop professional-level skill, Patti and Jones came up playing together on Seattle’s vibrant Jackson Street jazz scene in the late ’40s. The two would remain friends for life and during this time, Jones introduced Patti to his friend Ray Charles, who took an interest in the younger pianist and gave her some pointers on accompanying 
jazz soloists. This was a significant moment for the young woman: she would become prized for her infectious and soulful composing, and for a style which embraced and combined gospel, the blues and bebop, much as Charles did.

Her musical skills won Patti a scholarship to Seattle University, then to University of Washington and finally to the Big Apple, which became her home for the rest of her life.  Patti quickly earned a reputation as a good sight-reader and improviser, which made in great demand in the studio. From 1956 she worked as a soloist in New York City, playing early on in sessions with Billy Eckstine and Jimmy Rushing.

                     Here's "G-won Train" from above album.

                               

In 1959, she recorded her only album, a trio date for Columbia: Patti Bown plays Big Piano; with Ellingtonian Joe Benjamin on bass and Ed Shaughnessy (who would soon achieve fame on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show) as the drummer. To these ears, Ms. Bown was an excellent technical pianist, rooted in bop but with a strong dose of gospel-soul in her left hand.  For comparison, think Bobby Timmons or the pre-fusion Ramsey Lewis. Perhaps her similarity in style to those gentlemen, who were her contemporaries, contributed to her dearth of recordings as a leader.

However, Ms.Bown was still very busy. The next year, old playmate Quincy called her for his 1959-60 European tour and for his classic album The Quintessence.  She also did some writing, as Q added her soulful shuffle “G’won Train” to his book. It became a Jones staple and it can be heard on several of his recordings of that era.

In the 1960s she worked extensively in the studios, recording with Gene Ammons, Oliver Nelson, Cal Massey, Duke Ellington, Roland Kirk, George Russell, and Harry Sweets Edison. Big bands were a good setting for Bown, her full sound stood out in them and she had the sensitivity to weave in and out of backgrounds and the power to drive the rhythm sections in larger groups. Her musical compositions were recorded by jazz legends Benny Golson, and 

Duke Ellington. She also recorded with Aretha Franklin and James Brown. During 1962-1964 she served as the musical director for the bands accompanying Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan.

She continued to be busy for the rest of the ’60s, also recording with Sonny Stitt, Curtis Fuller, Gary McFarland, Art Farmer, Cal Massey, James Moody, and others. But after 1968 or so, her jazz recording activity began to taper off. She kept working though, playing Broadway shows and doing some composing for TV and film. In the ’70s she branched out into the pop field, working with Leon Redbone.

Bown was housebound for the last eight years of her life, suffering from weight issues, poor circulation, and diabetes. She moved into a New York nursing home and then to one in Media, Pennsylvania, where she died from kidney failure on May 21, 2008, at 76. The memorial tribute for Patti at New York’s St. Peter’s church drew many jazz luminaries, past and present that were anxious to share their fond memories of her.

(Edited from Curt’s Jazz Café,  Steve Wallace, Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Here’s a clip of  the Phil Woods Band:- Clark Terry, fluegel horn; Jimmy Cleveland, trombone; Phil Woods, alto sax; Budd Johnson, tenor sax; Patti Bown, piano; Buddy Catlett, acoustic double bass; Joe Harris, drums. 6th February 1960

Annie Ross born 25 July 1930

Annabelle Allan Short (25 July 1930 – 21 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Annie Ross was born Annabelle Macauley Allan Short in Mitcham, a town in Surrey, England, into a theatrical family. Her parents, Jack and Mary Short (nee Allen), were a Scottish vaudeville team; she claimed that her mother gave birth to her immediately after finishing a performance at a London music hall.

When she was 3 she was sent to Los Angeles to live with an aunt, the singer and actress Ella Logan. She made her movie debut in 1938 in an “Our Gang” comedy short and graduated to feature films in 1943, playing Judy Garland’s younger sister in “Presenting Lily Mars.”

She later moved frequently — first to New York, where she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; then to London, where she took the name Annie Ross and worked as a singer and actress; then to Paris, where she came under the spell of jazz, performing and recording with a number of expatriate American musicians. One of them, the drummer Kenny Clarke, became her companion and the father of her only child, Kenny Clarke Jr., who died in 2018.

                             

Ms. Ross recorded “Twisted” for the Prestige label during a brief return to New York in 1952. It became a minor hit, but she did not stick around long enough to savor its success, instead returning to Europe in 1953 to tour with Lionel Hampton’s band and then settling again in London. She went back to New York to appear on Broadway in the British revue “Cranks,” and in 1957 she joined 
forces with Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Lambert to record the album “Sing a Song of Basie,” on which they sang Mr. Hendricks’s lyrics to some of the Count Basie big band’s most celebrated recordings, using multiple overdubs to make their three voices sound like a dozen. The album was a hit, and the three vocalists decided to make their partnership permanent.

For four years, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross were a worldwide sensation, and Ms. Ross became a model for a new breed of jazz singers who could sing rapid-fire, tongue-twisting words with precision and clarity. But despite the group’s success, she quit in 1962. At the time, her departure was attributed to poor health. In later years she acknowledged that it had been fueled partly by friction with Mr. Hendricks, but mostly by her increasing dependence on heroin.

After Lambert, Hendricks and Ross finished a club date in London in May 1962, Ms. Ross stayed behind. “I kind of knew that if I came back to America I might die,” she said. The group continued with other female singers.Gradually, Ms. Ross straightened out her life.  She married an English actor, Sean Lynch, with whom she briefly ran a London nightclub, Annie’s Room. But by 1975 she had declared bankruptcy, lost her home and divorced Mr. Lynch, who died soon after in a car crash. The work had dried up as well.

With singing jobs scarce, Ms. Ross shifted her focus to acting. From the mid-’70s until she returned to the United States in 1985, she appeared frequently on the London stage, in plays like “A View From the Bridge” as well as in musical productions like “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Pirates of Penzance.” She also became a familiar face on British television. A role in the 1979 movie “Yanks” led to other film parts, including turns as a histrionic villain in “Superman III” (1983), an addled writing student in “Throw Momma From the Train” (1987) and an aging and temperamental jazz singer in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993).

“Short Cuts” and its soundtrack album offered Ms. Ross wider exposure as a singer than she had enjoyed since her days with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. But her singing voice was now harsh and ravaged, in stark contrast to the limber instrument for which she had once been known. She became a United States ciizen in 2001. No longer a virtuoso vocalist, she developed an act that relied primarily on her acting skills. While her contributions to jazz were not forgotten — the National Endowment for the Arts named her a Jazz Master in 2010 — she reinvented herself as an intimate and witty cabaret artist.

Ross received the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame award (2009), the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters' Award (2010), and the MAC Award for Lifetime Achievement (2011). She performed regularly at the metropolitan Room until it closed in 2017.

Ross died at her home in New York City on 21 July 2020 from emphysema and heart disease, four days before what would have been her 90^th birthday.

(edited mainly from the New York Times)