Héctor Lavoe born 30 September 1946

 Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez (30 September 1946 – 29 June 1993), better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe is considered to be possibly the best and most important singer and interpreter in the history of salsa music because he helped to establish the popularity of this musical genre in the decades of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. 

His personality, style and the qualities of his voice led him to a successful artistic career in the whole field of Latin music and salsa during the 1970s and 1980s. The cleanness and brightness of his voice, coupled with impeccable diction and the ability to sing long and fast phrases with total naturalness, made him one of the favourite singers of the Latin public. 

Hector LaVoe was born Hector Juan Perez in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He attended the Ponce Free School of Music. By the age of 14, he was singing with a band, and he opted to drop out of school. "El Cantante De Los Cantantes", as he is affectionately known, came to New York at age 17 with the dream of making it big. With no formal singing training this skinny kid from Barrio San Antonio in Ponce, caught the ears of Johnny Pacheco. Pacheco was amazed at the raw talent this young kid had. Because Pacheco already had a singer (Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez) and during those times you only needed one singer. Lavoe only sang sparingly on weekend gigs. 

Colon & Lavoe

Later Pacheco, who at this time began to recruit musicians and singers for his new Fania label, introduced to Lavoe a young talented trombonist who was in need of a singer. This gifted trombonist was Willie Colon. Colon was in the process of a new recording with Al Santiago's Alegre label when Pacheco saw the potential of Colon and included him on his roster. And as they say "the rest is history".

Lavoe and Colon collaborated for eight years and for more than 10 albums. Willie Colon and Lavoe combined salsa, originally Afro-Cuban music, with Puerto Rican bombas, plenas, orisa, baquine y aginaldos, cumbia, merengue, and other Latin American music, as well as Jazz. Hector Lavoe sang every aspect of his culture and religions from Catholicism to Santeria. Many hits like "Che Che Cole" to "Rompe Saraguey" to "El Todo Poderoso" to "Mi Gente." 

                               

Hector and Willie parted ways and most people thought that Lavoe could not make it on his own. They were proved wrong as Lavoe became even more popular. With hits like "El Cantante", "Periodico De Ayer", "Plato De Segunda Mesa" and many others Lavoe was at the top where he belonged. 

He also performed with the Fania All Stars for several shows. One of the group's notable performances took place in the Kinshasa province of the Zaire (modern day Democratic Republic of Congo) where the group performed as part of the activities promoting The Rumble in the Jungle, a boxing fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman for the heavyweight championships of the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association. 

The Fania All Stars recorded several of their tracks during live concerts. Lavoe was part of the group when the All-Stars returned to Yankee Stadium in 1975, where the band recorded a two volume production entitled Live at Yankee Stadium. The event featured the top vocalists of Fania and Vaya records. Lavoe was included in the group along with: Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Justo Betancourt, Ismael Quintana, Bobby Cruz, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, Santos Colón, and Celia Cruz. Lavoe recorded songs with the band in fifteen different productions, serving as vocalist on twenty-three songs.

Although he had fame, Hector also had to face many tragedies that followed him throughout his life. His mother died when he was only four years old. Later on in life, he suffered the death of his brother in a car wreck, the accidental death of his son who was only 17 years old, the murder of his mother-in-law, followed by the death of his father. The weight of these tragedies plus the alcohol and drugs addictions appeared to have taken its toll. The death of his son was the biggest blow that would finally break his heart. 

Hector must have been emotionally drained, for in 1988, Hector jumped off the ninth floor of a hotel room in El Condado. Some thought that it was an attempted suicide and others said that the drugs and booze were finally affecting him. Some close to him though, say that Hector had seen a vision of his son appear outside the window, asking him to come. It was another tragedy added to his life. Hector was never the same again. He later appeared in clubs to sing a few songs, but his health continued to deteriorate until he died in a Manhattan hospital at age 46, from complications due to AIDS. He was buried near his son's grave in Saint Raymond's in the Bronx. In 2002 the bodies were exhumed at his family's request and reburied in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His life was depicted in two separate films, 'El Cantante' (2006) and 'Lavoe' (2011).

(Edited from Wikipedia & Christian Rozo bio)

Shirley Gunter born 29 September 1934

Shirley M. Gunter (September 29, 1934 – December 1, 2015) frequently misspelled "Gunther"was an American singer and songwriter who led one of the earliest female doo-wop groups, Shirley Gunter and the Queens, in the mid-1950s.

She was born in Coffeyville, Kansas; her younger brother was Cornell Gunter. Her mother Reba was a school teacher, who, according to Shirley, also sang on the radio a couple of times a week. This was the start of the musical family, which would come to include at least Shirley, Cornell, Gloria, and Patty. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1943. Cornell Gunter was the first family member to join a vocal group, firstly being a founding member of The Platters and then, in 1953, joining The Flairs. 

Shirley's brother Cornell persuaded the Bihari brothers, owners of Flair Records, to audition his sister, and they signed Shirley on the spot. After releasing solo singles without success, she formed a group, the Four Queens, with her friends Blondene Taylor and Lula Bee Kenney, and Lula's aunt Lula Mae Suggs.

                              

In 1954, Gunter and Taylor worked up a nonsense song, "Oop Shoop", and the group quickly recorded it with saxophonist and arranger Maxwell Davis. Credited to Shirley Gunter and the Queens, it immediately became a regional hit, and rose to number 8 on the national Billboard R&B chart after being promoted by leading DJ Alan Freed. 

The song was also covered by the Crew-Cuts, whose version made number 13 on the national pop chart, and Harry James recorded a version in 1955 on his album Jukebox Jamboree. "Oop Shoop" became the first record to be written and performed, with any degree of success, by a group of young black women", and inspired later groups such as the Cookies and the Shirelles. 

The Queens recorded several more singles for Flair, and toured widely. However, their records had little commercial success, and the group split up in late 1955. Then, on August 5, 1956, Shirley married Albert Perrin from Chicago, she toured as a solo performer with Young Jessie and the Flairs, and featured on an early Modern Records compilation LP, The Hollywood Rock & Roll Record Hop. She then became a member of the Flairs, and recorded a moderately successful single, "Headin' Home", with them. In 1958, she had a single "Believe Me" bw "Crazy Little Baby" released on Tender Records.   

We don't hear of Shirley Gunter again until January 1965, when she released a couple of sides on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records: "Stuck Up", backed with "You Let My Love Grow Cold". There's a girl group on "Stuck Up", resulting in a Supremes-type sound. Shirley's second husband was Antoine Mathieu (1933-1974); they had a child, Cornell, in February 1967. Shirley later lived in Las Vegas, and continued to sing at her local church. The September 21, 1968 Billboard reported on a new record production company called O'Rett, owned by Maria Tynes. "On the O'Rett artist roster is Shirley Gunter, a top 40 R&B singer." If she actually recorded anything for them, nothing was ever released. 

On July 2, 1972, there was a huge show called "The History Of Rock And Roll, Volume 2" at the Oakland Coliseum. It starred Bill Haley, Cornell Gunter's Coasters, the Shirelles, Chubby Checker, the Olympics, Freddie Cannon, Joe Turner, Bobby Day, Jessie Hll, Jennelle Hawkins, Del Shannon, and Shirley Gunter. For many years legally blind, sometime in the 1970s, Shirley went completely blind. 

On June, 22, 1990, the Doo-Wop Society put Shirley and Lula (Piper) together again with another vocalist to form a new Shirley Gunter & The Queens for DWS Show #6; also on the bill was her old group, The Flairs, including ex-members Richard Berry, Pete Fox and Young Jessie. 

These remarkable women showed that they still had the stuff, and Shirley displayed that distinctive, rich voice that had survived forty years of professional singing. They worked out a hand-in-hand entrance in which it wasn't obvious that Shirley was blind and being led onto the stage by Patty and Piper. There was a return visit in August 2002. 

Shirly Gunter died in Las Vegas in 2015, aged 81. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Discogs & Marv Goldberg) 

Sammy Benskin born 27 September 1923

 Samuel Benskin (September 27, 1922 – August 26, 1992) was an American pianist and bandleader, considered one of the finest of accompanists for vocalists, to the point where he spent parts of his career simply coaching them rather than following them on-stage. 

He was born in The Bronx, New York City, United States, and made his professional debut around 1940 as piano accompanist to singer and guitarist Bardu Ali. He played at Café Society and Nick’s in New York with Bob Burnet’s sextet (1941), then worked with Stuff Smith (1942) and Gene Sedric (1943), recorded with Freddie Green and Billie Holiday (both 1945), and performed and recorded with Don Redman (1943) and Benny Morton (1945). 

In 1945 he appeared as a soloist and as the leader of a trio, with which he recorded four titles, including “Cherry” and “ The world is waiting for the sunrise.” The following year he made some recordings with John Hardee’s Swingtet, and his playing may be heard to advantage on Idaho. The following year he made some recordings with John Hardee’s Swingtet.

By the early 1950s he had begun leading his own piano trio, as well as appearing as a soloist and as accompanist to singers including Roy Hamilton and Titus Turner. In 1954 he also played with the group, The Three Flames, which also featured Tiger Haynes.The following year he began a stint as part of the Time of Your Life revue at City Center in New York, a gig he would bounce in and out of while training with singers as diverse as Carroll and the magnificent Al Hibbler. He followed Time of Your Life overseas for performances at the Brussels World Fair and for a brief spell began touring with Dinah Washington as her accompanist. Later in the 1950s he worked as accompanist to Dinah Washington.

                             

In 1959, with a band credited as The Spacemen, he recorded an instrumental, "The Clouds", written and produced by Julius Dixson and issued on Dixson's Alton record label. 

Other session musicians playing on the record were Panama Francis, Haywood Henry, and Babe Clark. The song originally had vocals, which Dixson removed, releasing the instrumental version. This rose to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and No. 41 on the pop chart. "The Clouds" was the first number one on any chart released by an African-American owned independent record label, predating Motown's first No. 1 by a year.

From the 1960s Benskin worked primarily as a vocal coach, arranger and producer. In the mid-1980s he performed in New York with the Harlem Jazz and Blues Band.  In 1986, he recorded an album in Paris for Black & Blue Records, These Foolish Songs, which was reissued on CD in 2002. He died in Teaneck, New Jersey, aged 69.  

(Edited from Wikipedia, Grove Music & AllMusic)

René Hall born 26 September 1912

René Hall (September 26, 1912 ‒ February 11, 1988) was an American guitarist and arranger. Like so many session musicians, Rene Hall recorded only a limited tracks under his own name. But his swinging, fluid and inventive guitar playing as well as his arrangements have largely contributed to the success of numberless recordings whether in R&B, jazz, blues, pop or Rock'n'roll. 

Papa Celestin

Born in New Orleans as Rene Joseph Hall, he learned as a child to read and write music and play trombone, banjo and guitar. Still a teenager, he played on the Riverboats and was hired by several New Orleans bands like Papa Celestin's and Joel Robicheaux with whom he recorded 22 tracks in August 1933. 

He then worked around the country as a member of the Ernie Fields Orchestra, with whom he made his earliest recordings. In the group he was known by the nickname Lightning’. Later he joined Earl Hines as musical arranger and recorded with him in 1946 – 47. . During the 1940s as a black musician, he built up a considerable reputation as a session musician in New York City and was constantly on demand, playing in the Apollo Theater house band, backing on stage and in studio Roy Milton, Louis Jordan, Billy Ward among many others. 

In the late 1940s, he formed his own sextet with such luminaries as Buddy Tate, Reginald Jones, Bobby Donaldson and recorded at last six jazz sides under his own name in 1950. To catch on the great success of trios a la Nat King Cole, Rene Hall launches his own Rene Hall Trio with singer/ guitarist Courtland Carter and Ted Sinclair on the string-bass. The Trio records several numbers for Jubilee, Decca, RCA, Regent with sometimes an extra pianist and drummer to get a fuller sound but the sales are not very strong. He also worked as a talent scout for King Records, discovering such acts as Billy Ward and the Dominoes with whom he also played for.

In 1955, aware of many opportunities for an arranger/ musician of his calibre and experience, Rene Hall settles in Los Angeles where, quite quickly and after a meeting with producer Art Rupe, he becomes A&R man and session musician for several successful labels like Specialty, Combo or Del-Fi. Being mainly in the studio, Rene Hall brings with him some of the best West Coast musicians (Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer, Roy Montrell) and arranges and plays on innumerable sessions, more and more in the teenage Rock'n'roll vein of the era.

His guitar solos behind Little Richard, Don & Dewey, Bumps Blackwell or Larry Williams certainly play a major part in the commercial success of many hits and will be reproduced note for note by hundreds of guitarists in the USA and abroad (among the British Rock future stars). In 1958, he recorded the electric bass track using a Danelectro Baritone guitar on the Ritchie Valens hit, "La Bamba", with Buddy Clarke on the upright acoustic bass. At the same time, Rene Hall records also a handful of tracks under his own name. 

                            

Throughout his career, Hall was the featured guitarist on such tracks as "Number 000" (Otis Blackwell), "That's It" (Babette Bain), "Cincinnati Fireball" (Johnny Burnette), "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (Ernie Fields), "In The Mood" (Ernie Fields), "Hippy Hippy Shake" (Chan Romero), and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams). He also released numerous recordings as both René Hall and the René Hall Orchestra. His best-known recording was the instrumental "Twitchy", which featured a single-string guitar (Unitar) lead played by Willie Joe Duncan, the instrument's inventor. 

Rene Hall & Sam Cooke

Hall arranged Ike & Tina Turner's 1963 album Don't Play Me Cheap. He also arranged some of Sam Cooke's best-known recordings including the 1964 song, "A Change Is Gonna Come", in which Hall devised a dramatic arrangement with a symphonic overture for strings, kettledrum, and French horn. He also prepared arrangements for many of Motown's most successful artists including The Impressions. He also played guitar on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and did a lot of work for Bobby Womack. 

When Gaye died he found himself one of the most in demand arrangers in the business. Rene also was an advocate for up and coming new groups. He came into Bill Withers' Tiki Studios in San Jose and worked out the arrangements for two of San Francisco's own Cordial Band. He arranged 'Wave' and 'A Special Love' written by Raymond Coats and Danny Dinio. 

Rene worked constantly until his death from heart disease in his Los Angeles home on 11 February 1988 at the age of 75.      (Edited from Wikipedia & Blue Eye) (Can only find two photographs of Rene which is strange considering how popular he was)

Wade Flemons born 25 September 1940

Wade Herbert Flemons (September 25, 1940 – October 13, 1993) was a splendid but underrated American R&B/soul singer and pianist, who made a brief impact on record charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In spite of several 7” records for different labels, he made only one album throughout his career.

He was born in Coffeyville, Kansas to Samuel and Kathyrine Flemons. His father was a minister, who introduced him to gospel music. Raised to the west in Wichita, Flemons took to singing, first in his local church choir and later in various gospel groups. His parents' marriage ended in divorce, so Flemons moved with his parents to Battle Creek, Michigan in 1955. While attending Battle Creek Central High, he formed a vocal group called The Shifters, for whom he composed material during a series of lessons he undertook on the piano.

By June 1958, The Shifters were rehearsed and competent enough to travel west to Kalamazoo and cut a demonstration record. The tune The Shifters had elected to record was "Here I stand," a song Flemons had authored himself. A copy was sent to James and Vivian Carter-Bracken at Vee Jay Records. Vee Jay liked "Here I stand." Having the group change names to the less furtive Newcomers, they signed them up in July. "Here I Stand" was a regional hit and  reached #80 on the Hot-100 which earned him an appearance on American Bandstand in 1958, as well as an appearance on the Alan Freed Show.

                             

The Newcomers were no more by the time of the follow-up, 1959's "Hold Me Close"; two more singles appeared that year -- "Slow Motion" and "Goodnight, It's Time to Go" -- neither of them hits. However, in 1960 Flemons returned to the charts with his biggest hit, "Easy Lovin'," which reached the R&B Top Ten; its B-side, "Woops Now," was also a significant hit in scattered regions of the country. A self-titled LP preceded his next single, "Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby," and in 1961 Flemons returned to the charts one final time with a reading of the Percy Mayfield hit "Please Send Me Someone to Love," which squeaked into the R&B Top 20.  Influenced by singers like Nat Cole and Roy Hamilton, Flemons chose to sing in a smooth, infectious way, drifting into a more dramatic style when the song demanded it.

Flemons resurfaced two years later on the tiny Ramsel label with "Jeanette," quickly followed by "Two of a Kind." He gained a reputation as a prolific songwriter: during his career, he wrote as many as 200 songs for himself and for other musicians. He went on to co-write the Dells' 1968 hit "Stay in My Corner," around that same time joining Vee-Jay session vocalist Maurice White in the Salty Peppers for their debut single, "La, La, La"; in 1969 the group signed to Capitol for "La La Time," and after one subsequent effort, "Your Love Is Life," evolved into Earth, Wind & Fire.

                 L-R  Wade Flemons, Sherry Scott and Maurice White

Flemons contributed vocals, vibes, and electric piano to the group. After releasing two albums on Warner Bros, the leader of the group, Maurice White, fired most of the group in 1972, including Flemons due to a lack of commercial success.

Flemons married in 1980; he and his wife Brenda had a daughter and three sons. His subsequent musical pursuits, if any, remain unknown. He died from cancer October 13, 1993 in Battle Creek, Michigan, at age 53. A United States Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, he was buried at the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Michigan. One of his sons, Brian Wade Flemons, followed in his father's footsteps and also became a musician.

(Edited from Wikipedia. AllMusic, Doo-Wop blog & blackcat.nl)

 

Jack Costanzo born 24 September 1919

Jack Costanzo (September 24, 1919 – August 18, 2018) was an American percussionist. 

A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known for having been a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana three times in the 1940s and learned to play Afro-Cuban rhythms on the bongos and congas. 

A Chicago native, Costanzo was 14 when he became enchanted with the bongos after hearing a musician play them at a dance concert at a ballroom in the Windy City. It was an epiphany. “My eyes came out of my head!” the self-taught Costanzo recalled in a late 2015 Union-Tribune interview. “I had to learn on my own, which is good, because I developed my own style. It seemed like it came natural. I listened to a lot of music. Xavier Cugat was big. And, many years later, he hired me.” 

Costanzo with Marda c.1946

Costanzo started as a dancer, touring as a team with his wife before World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 and worked in aviation ordnance in the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. After his discharge he worked as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Latin band leader Bobby Ramos heard Costanzo playing bongos in a jam session and offered him a job. Throughout the 1940s, Costanzo worked with several Latin bands, including a revived version of the Lecuona Cuban Boys, Desi Arnaz, and Rene Touzet. 

Costanzo toured with Stan Kenton from 1947–48 and occasionally in the 1950s, and played with Nat King Cole from 1949 to 1953. He also played with the Billy May Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Perez Prado, Charlie Barnet, Pete Rugolo, Betty Grable, Harry James, Judy Garland, Patti Page, Jane Powell, Ray Anthony, Martin & Lewis, Frances Faye, Dinah Shore, Xavier Cugat, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Eddie Fisher. 

Costanzo formed his own band in the 1950s which recorded and toured internationally. “Afro Cuban Jazz North-of-the-Border,” Costanzo’s debut album as a band leader,” came out in 1955. In 1957 came “Mr. Bongo,” the first of about half a dozen Costanzo albums that used his stage moniker. His popular-song and instrumental compositions include "I Want (Quiere)", "Bongo Blues", "Drumarama", "Go Bongo", and "El Diablito". 

   Here’s “Cumbanchero” (feat. Eddie Cano)  from above album. 

                             

His musical command almost single-handedly established the bongos as a serious instrument. Costanzo also played a key role in bringing the instrument to the fore in both jazz and Latin jazz. 

He played the bongos with a winning combination of skill bravura, but always in service of the music. Thanks to his musical talents and photogenic good looks, he was featured on camera in a number of movies and TV shows. 

Leonard Feather who in the 1960s was the Los Angeles Times’ jazz critic, called out “Mr. Bongo” when he saw Costanzo at a Philadelphia train station after a concert with Kenton. The name stuck. Many Hollywood stars studied bongos with him, including Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Carolyn Jones, Hugh O'Brian, Keenan Wynn, Van Johnson, Tony Curtis, Betty Grable, Vic Damone, James Dean, and Gary Cooper. 

Costanzo moved to San Diego from Los Angeles in the early 1970s and was in retirement until 1998 when he decided to make a comeback and in 2001 recorded Back From Havana under the Ubiquity Records umbrella. This album featured the likes of Black Note's Gilbert Castellanos, Steve Firerobing and the Panamanian singer Marilu. In 2002 he released another album with the same cast called Scorching the skins this time he also added Quino from Big Mountain. . The albums were followed by a concert tour that included at least one date in Canada.

Jack Costanzo’s final performance was on Aug. 9, 2018 when he sat in on congas at trumpeter and San Diego Latin-jazz mainstay Bill Caballero’s weekly jam session at Border X in Barrio Logan. Costanzo was admitted to Grossmont Hospital the next day, then returned a few days later to his Lakeside home, where he received hospice care up to his death on August 18, 2018, aged 98. He died of complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & San Diego Union Tribune

Norma Winstone born 23 September 1941

 Norma Ann Winstone MBE (born 23 September 1941) is an English jazz singer and lyricist. In a career spanning more than 50 years she is best known for her wordless improvisations although she is equally at home with the standards repertoire, performing with small groups, orchestras and big bands.

Born as Norma Short in Bow, East London, she began singing inbands around Dagenham in the early 1960s, before joining Michael Garrick's band in 1968. Her first recording came a year later with Joe Harriott.

In 1971 she was voted top singer in the Melody Maker Jazz Poll and subsequently recorded her own album ‘Edge of Time‘for Decca, which although long deleted has now been re-released as a CD on the Dusk Fire label. Winstone contributed vocals to Ian Carr's Nucleus on that band's 1973 release Labyrinth, a jazz-rock concept album based on the Greek myth about the Minotaur.

Winstone has worked with many major European musicians and visiting Americans, as well as with most of her peers in British jazz, including Garrick, John Surman, Michael Gibbs and Mike Westbrook. In the late seventies she joined her former husband , the pianist John Taylor and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler to form the group Azimuth, which was described by Richard Williams of The Times as “one of the most imaginatively conceived and delicately balanced of all contemporary chamber jazz groups“.

In this setting she combines the instrumental use of the voice with words, most of which she writes herself. Azimuth has recorded several albums on the ECM label (the first three of which have been re-issued as a CD boxed set).Their CD ‘How It Was Then… Never Again‘ was released in May 1995, and received four stars in Down Beat magazine. 

Azimuth

Her own legendary album ‘Somewhere Called Home‘ on the ECM label is widely considered to be a classic.In addition, she made albums with the American pianists Jimmy Rowles (Well Kept Secret, 1993) and Fred Hersch.

In recent years she has become known as a very fine lyricist, writing words to compositions by Ralph Towner, and Brazilian composers Egberto Gismonti and Ivan Lins (who has recorded her English lyrics to his song ‘Vieste‘). She has a special affinity with the music of Steve Swallow, and has written lyrics to many of his compositions, most notably ‘Ladies in Mercedes‘, which has become a standard.

Her voice has become an important part of the sound of Kenny Wheeler’s big band, and can be heard in this context on the ECM double CD ‘Music for Large and Small Ensembles‘ which also features John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Peter Erskine and John Taylor.

Her CD ‘Well Kept Secret‘, recorded with the legendary American pianist Jimmy Rowles, featuring George Mraz on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums, was given a four star rating in Down Beat magazine. Here Norma sings a selection of rare jazz standards, including Jimmy’s famous tune ‘The Peacocks’ for which she wrote lyrics and re-titled ‘A Timeless Place‘.Her CD ‘Manhattan In The Rain‘, with pianist Steve Gray, bassist Chris Laurence and special guest saxophonist Tony Coe consists of unusual and classic standards, described by Dave Gelly in The Observer as “A delectable set of songs… masterly and enthralling“.

                             

With Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German saxophonist/ bass clarinettist Klaus Gesing she has recorded four albums for the ECM label, the first of which, “Distances” was nominated for a Grammy. 

Their last recording, “Descansado” consists of new arrangements of music for films and features Italian cellist Mario Brunello and Norwegian percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken.

In recent years Norma has become known as a very fine lyricist, writing words to compositions by Ralph Towner, and Brazilian composers Egberto Gismonti and Ivan Lins (who has recorded her English lyrics to his song Vieste). She has a special affinity with the music of Steve Swallow, and has written lyrics to many of his compositions, most notably Ladies in Mercedes, which has become a standard. Her voice has become an important part of the sound of Kenny Wheeler’s Big Band, and can be heard in this context on the ECM double CD Music for Large and Small Ensembles which also features John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Peter Erskine and John Taylor.

She continues in the forefront of British jazz and was nominated again in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Jazz Awards for best vocalist. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2007. In 2009 she was awarded the Skoda Jazz Ahead Award in Bremen for her contribution to European jazz.

In February 2018, Winstone released Descansado: Songs for Films, a collection that AllMusic described as "an unusual and provocative album". As for this year Norma is working on a new album project in collaboration with Steve Swallow. (Edited from Wikipedia, Royal Academy of Music &  normawinstone.com)

Carlos José born 22 September 1934

Carlos José Ramos dos Santos (September 22, 1934 – May 9, 2020), better known as simply Carlos José, was a Brazilian singer-songwriter of the genre seresta.

Carlos José was born in São Paulo, Brazil as Carlos José Ramos dos Santos. He was the brother of guitarist Luis Cláudio Ramos, who was conductor and arranger of Chico Buarque's band for many years, Att the age of five, his family moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro where he has lived until his death.

A student at Santo Inácio and Andrews colleges and, later, at the Faculty of Law, he was always connected to amateur musical groups. In 1947, he was ranked 1st in the freshman program "Papel carbon", presented by Renato Murce on Rádio Nacional (RJ). He joined the Faculty of Law, where he organized a theater and music group, which revealed, among others, Geraldo Vandré and Silvinha Telles. During 1951 he sang at Rádio Globo, then moved to Rádio Roquete Pinto, where he sang American songs.

Although he practised law for a few years he abandoned his career to dedicate himself to music. In 1957, the world lost a lawyer and won a singer when Carlos José was voted one of the musical revelations of that year after appearing on a TV program presented by Flávio Cavalcanti. He had signed for Polydor and recorded two recent songs, It was the night (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça, 1956) and Listen (Maysa, 1957), then the career of the singer took off throughout the 1960s, a decade in which the full-bodied bass voice of the interpreter came to be associated with serestas.

                       Here’s “Ouça” (Listen) from above LP

                     

Passing through several record companies, Carlos José recorded albums and singles with annual regularity from 1958 to 1975. In 1960, the singer gave voice to the first great success of his career, the samba-song Esmeralda (Fernando Barreto and Filadelfo Nunes), released by Carlos José on 78 RPM disk.

On his first LP in 1958, “Revelation” for the Polydor label, more than half of the repertoire is composed of bossa nova compositions, although the way of singing has not changed. The first song he recorded outside of this style was Esmeralda, guarânia by Filadelfo Nunes and Fernando Barreto, in 1960. From then on he started recording many popular boleros and guarânias, with songs by Vinicius de Moraes, Billy Blanco, Tito Madi, composers who modernized Brazilian music. His soft and velvety voice fitted well in the new type of song that started to be done in Brazil, with more elaborate harmonies, with lyrics of a restrained romanticism.

Carlos José is generally associated with romantic music, which in Brazil has become synonymous with brega, and seresta, the latter entered his career because of the 1966 album Uma Noite de Seresta, with a repertoire of songs from the 1930s. and 40, the LP sold so much that it became a series, and forever linked the singer's name to what was conventionally called seresta music.

The Serestas series extended to six volumes, the last of which was released in 1971. Carlos José, like all of his generation, was displaced amid the sudden changes suffered by the music market, but he continued to record regularly throughout the 1970s. From the 80s, he took a long break, would return to recording sparingly in the 90s.Throughout his career, he performed on stages across Brazil, in addition to having performed in Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador

In 2014 the singer had returned to the studios after a long period away from the musical environment. He recorded the album “Musa das songs”, with his brother Luiz Cláudio Ramos, guitarist and arranger. The work brings together re-recordings of all the greatest successes of the interpreter and composer's career, such as “Doralice” and “Marina” (both by Dorival Caymmi), “Celina” (by Carlos José himself) and “Maria” (by Ary Barroso and Luis Peixoto).  The repertoire is all songs with women's names by title.

On May 9, 2020, José died due to complications brought on by COVID-19.He was admitted to the São Francisco Hospital in Providência de Deus, in Tijuca, in the North Zone of Rio, with respiratory problems resulting from the disease. At the time of his death, José was married to Vera Goulart. who was also hospitalized.

José also had two children from his previous marriage to journalist Maria D'Ajuda

(Edited from Wikipedia and various Google translations from JC Journal Brazil, musicamagia & G1 Globo)