Illinois Jacquet born 31 October 1921

Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet (October 30, 1922 – July 22, 2004) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo.

Although he was a pioneer of the honking tenor saxophone that became a regular feature of jazz playing and a hallmark of early rock and roll, Jacquet was a skilled and melodic improviser, both on up-tempo tunes and ballads. He doubled on the bassoon, one of only a few jazz musicians to use the instrument.

Jacquet's parents were Creoles of color, named Marguerite Trahan and Gilbert Jacquet, When he was an infant, his family moved from Louisiana to Houston, Texas and he was raised there as one of six siblings. His father was a part-time bandleader. As a child he performed in his father's band, primarily on the alto saxophone. His older brother Russell Jacquet played trumpet and his brother Linton played drums.

At 15, Jacquet began playing with the Milton Larkin Orchestra, a Houston-area dance band. In 1939, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he met Nat King Cole. Jacquet would sit in with the trio on occasion. In 1940, Cole introduced Jacquet to Lionel Hampton who had returned to California and was putting together a big band. Hampton wanted to hire Jacquet, but asked the young Jacquet to switch to tenor saxophone

In 1942, at age 19, Jacquet soloed on the Hampton Orchestra's recording of "Flying Home", one of the first times a honking tenor sax was heard on record. The record became a hit. The song immediately became the climax for the live shows and Jacquet became exhausted from having to "bring down the house" every night. The solo was built to weave in and out of the arrangement and continued to be played by every saxophone player who followed Jacquet in the band, notably Arnett Cobb and Dexter Gordon, who achieved almost as much fame as Jacquet in playing it. 

It is one of the few jazz solos to have been memorized and played very much the same way by everyone who played the song. He quit the Hampton band in 1943 and joined Cab Calloway's Orchestra. Jacquet appeared with Cab Calloway's band in Lena Horne's movie Stormy Weather. In the earlier years of Jacquet's career, his brother Linton Jacquet managed him on the chitlin circuit

In 1944, Illinois Jacquet returned to California and started a small band with his brother Russell and a young Charles Mingus. It was at this time that he appeared in the Academy Award-nominated short film Jammin' the Blues with Lester Young.

                               

His solos of the early and mid-1940s and his performances at the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series, influenced rhythm and blues and rock and roll saxophone style, but also continue to be heard in jazz. His screaming solo on "Blues" found him biting on his reed to achieve high-register effects; the crowd went wild. He repeated the idea during his appearance in the 1944 film short Jammin' the Blues. In 1945, Jacquet put together his own band, and both his recordings and live performances were quite exciting. He appeared with JATP on several tours in the 1950s, recorded steadily, and never really lost his popularity.

In 1946, he moved to New York City, and joined the Count Basie orchestra, replacing Lester Young. In 1952 Jacquet co-wrote 'Just When We're Falling in Love'; Illinois Jacquet (m) Sir Charles Thompson (m) S. K. "Bob" Russell (l). Jacquet continued to perform (mostly in Europe) in small groups through the 1960s and 1970s.

Jacquet led the Illinois Jacquet Big Band from 1981 until his death and became the first jazz musician to be an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, in 1983. The big band  only recorded one album, an Atlantic date from 1988. He played "C-Jam Blues" with President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn during Clinton's inaugural ball in 1993. Jacquet's final performance was on July 16, 2004, at the Lincoln Center in New York.

Through the years, Illinois Jacquet (whose occasional features on alto are quite influenced by Charlie Parker) has recorded as a leader for such labels as Apollo, Savoy, Aladdin, RCA, Verve, Mercury, Roulette, Epic, Argo, Prestige, Black Lion, Black & Blue, JRC, and Atlantic.

Illinois Jacquet’s flashy playing, which worked countless crowds into a frenzy throughout his career, will likely be what the tenor great is remembered by most. However, true jazz and swing fans will also take into account his numerous sides done at slower tempi that communicate the sensitive side of the last of the big toned swing tenor saxophonists.

Illinois Jacquet died Thursday July 22, 2004 of a heart attack. Despite his fame and wealth he lived in a modest home in New York City’s borough of Queens. He was 81 years of age. He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.  (Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Swingmusic)

Clifford Brown born 30 October 1930

Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, Valery Ponomarev, and Wynton Marsalis. Brown was also a composer of note: his compositions "Sandu," "Joy Spring," and "Daahoud" have become jazz standards.

He won the Down Beat critics' poll for the 'New Star of the Year' in 1954; he was inducted into the Down Beat 'Jazz Hall of Fame' in 1972 in the critics' poll. Arturo Sandoval described him as "one of what we call the mandatory trumpet players" who was "one of the greatest trumpet players of all time".

Brown was born into a musical family in a progressive East-Side neighbourhood of Wilmington, Delaware. His father organized his four youngest sons, including Clifford, into a vocal quartet. Around age ten, Brown started playing trumpet at school after becoming fascinated with the shiny trumpet his father owned. At age thirteen, upon entering senior high, his father bought him his own trumpet and provided him with private lessons. As a junior in high school, he received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized." He even began making trips to Philadelphia. Brown took pride in his neighbourhood and earned a good education from Howard High.

Brown briefly attended Delaware State University as a math major, before he switched to Maryland State College, which was a more prosperous musical environment. As Nick Catalano points out, Brown's trips to Philadelphia grew in frequency after he graduated from high school and entered Delaware State University; it could be said that, although his dorm was in Dover, his classroom was in Philadelphia. Brown played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented, Maryland State Band.

In June 1950, he was seriously injured in a car accident after a successful gig. During his year-long hospitalization, Dizzy Gillespie visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career. Brown's injuries limited him to the piano for months; he never fully recovered and would routinely dislocate his shoulder for the rest of his life. Brown moved into playing music professionally, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.

                            

Brown was influenced and encouraged by Fats Navarro whom he first met at the age of 15, sharing Navarro's virtuosic technique and brilliance of invention. His sound was warm and round, and notably consistent across the full range of the instrument. He could articulate every note, even at very fast tempos which seemed to present no difficulty to him; this served to enhance the impression of his speed of execution. 

Navarro & Brown

His sense of harmony was highly developed, enabling him to deliver bold statements through complex harmonic progressions (chord changes), and embodying the linear, "algebraic" terms of bebop harmony. In addition to his up-tempo prowess, he could express himself deeply in a ballad performance.

His first recordings were with R&B bandleader Chris Powell, following which he performed with Tadd Dameron, J. J. Johnson, Lionel Hampton, and Art Blakey before forming his own group with Max Roach. The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet was a high-water mark of the hard bop style, with all the members of the group except for bassist George Morrow contributing original songs. Brown's trumpet was originally partnered with Harold Land's tenor saxophone. After Land left in 1955 in order to spend more time with his wife, Sonny Rollins joined and remained a member of the group for the rest of its existence. In their hands, the bebop vernacular reached a peak of inventiveness.

Brown & Max Roach

The clean-living Brown escaped the influence of heroin and alcohol on the jazz world. Brown stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol. Rollins, who was recovering from heroin addiction, said that "Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician."

In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell embarked on a drive to Chicago for their next appearance. Powell's wife Nancy was at the wheel so that Clifford and Richie could sleep. While driving at night in the rain on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, west of Bedford, she is presumed to have lost control of the car, which went off the road, killing all three in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived. ~Herb Alpert  (Edited from Wikipedia) 

Vivian Ellis born 29 October 1904

 Vivian John Herman Ellis, CBE (29 October 1903 – 19 June 1996) was an English musical comedy composer best known for the song "Spread a Little Happiness" and the theme "Coronation Scot".

Born at Hampstead, London, in 1904, Vivian Ellis was educated at Cheltenham College and initially trained as a classical pianist under Dame Myra Hess. But before he was out of his teens he contributed to a 1922 London revue called The Curate’s Egg and so much enjoyed the experience that from henceforth he was completely hooked on the stage, his subsequent career comparing more than favourably with anybody else in the profession.

While still only 25 he produced a smash hit musical which established him at the forefront of popular composers. Mr. Cinders was a modern Cinderella with the roles reversed and brought together a partnership which is still remembered with affection. The songs Spread a Little Happiness, I’m a One Man Girl, and the brilliantly witty On the Amazon were performed by Binnie Hale and Bobby Howes, the two main stars of a show which ran for 528 performances at the Adelphi Theatre.

Another hit song was his "Yale Blues" which had a dance step called the "Yale" and became a craze in 1927 both in the UK, Europe and the US. During the Thirties, there was nearly always at least one Ellis production running somewhere in the West End and their popularity can be gauged by the leading stars who performed in them — Jack and Claude Hulbert, Hermione Baddeley, Cicely Courtneidge, Richard Murdoch, Anna Neagle, Jack Buchanan, Florence Desmond, Elsie Randolph, Beatrice Lillie, Naunton Wayne, John Mills, Patricia Burke, Ralph Reader, and a great many more.

In addition, Ellis’s musical directors included Ray Noble, Lew Stone, Carroll Gibbons and Geraldo, with all the other top band leaders of the period recording his entertaining music at every opportunity. Not even Noel Coward or Ivor Novello could match that!

                                  

Ellis's composition Coronation Scot, was the signature tune for the series Paul Temple. The rhythm of the train in this piece was inspired by his commute to and from his home in Selworthy, near Minehead, Somerset to London Paddington. The original recording of "Coronation Scot", for the Chappell Recorded Music Library, was arranged by Cecil Milner and played by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra, conducted by Charles Williams. A later release was conducted by Sidney Torch.

War then intervened during which Ellis served as a Lt.-Commander in the RNVR. Happily, he emerged relatively unscathed and in 1946 staged Big Ben. But by now British musicals were beginning to change from the cut-glass Oxford accent of the Thirties and were moving inexorably towards the imported American showbiz creations epitomised by Annie Get Your Gun and Oklahoma both of which coincided in 1947 with what was arguably Ellis’s greatest ever success.

His last full-length musical, Half in Earnest, appeared in 1958. He contributed to revues for a few more years and then turned his hand to writing a series of amusing books such as How To Enjoy Your Operation. From the Sixties onwards, Ellis faded a little from the public eye but remained a prolific composer.

A grateful Performing Rights Society, of which he was a dedicated President, established an annual Vivian Ellis Prize for stage musical writers. His acerbic but amusing wit endeared him to all and in addition to his vast musical output he also wrote a number of humorous books. His only sadness was that his songs tended to be more associated with their original performers than with him, but then that is true of nearly all the established standard repertoire.

A.P. Herbert & Vivian Ellis

A confirmed bachelor, Ellis lived much of his life with sister Hermione near Minehead in Somerset, where he particularly enjoyed gardening. He was nevertheless well-travelled and during the Thirties worked with George Gershwin in Hollywood when he claimed to have been the first person to hear the Variations on I Got Rhythm. He also wrote an interesting account of his experiences there which he cleverly titled "Ellis in Wonderland".

Ellis as a composer was "rediscovered" in the 1980s when his 1929 musical Mr. Cinders (featuring the hit song, "Spread a Little Happiness") was revived at the King's Head Theatre in London. The song also charted in a version by Sting, following its ironic use in the film Brimstone and Treacle. His song "This is My Lovely Day" also appeared in the John Cleese comedy Clockwise in 1987.

Vivian Ellis died on 19th June 1996, a true blue-blooded Englishman who left behind much for which we should be grateful. His epitaph is perhaps best summed up by actress Ruth Madoc who described him as "A gentleman who wrote some of the most beautiful tunes in the whole of British theatre history."

(Edited from The Robert Farnon Society.org & Wikipedia).

Bobbi Staff born 1946

 Bobbi Staff (born 1946) is an American singer of pop and country songs in the 1960’s.

Bobbi Staff was born Barbara Grindstaff  in Cleveland Memorial Hospital Shelby NC.  Her father Ervin M. Grindstaff was the owner of a furniture store in Forest City where Barbara began competing in local talent shows at the age of 10. She appeared on the national Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour and became a regular on the George Hamilton IV television show. She performed frequently on the Arthur Smith talent Show on WBTV.

Barbara adopted the stage name “Bobbi Staff” while she was recording for RCA in the 60’s. With 26 other Americans Grindstaff represented the United States in a 1957 tour of Europe. 

She performed abroad in the summer of 1958. She took national honours in the United Nations Oratorical Contest. In 1961 she graduated from Cool Springs High School. She performed for 'my' queen Juliana and President LBJ in 1963. In 1964 she moved to Nashville and was staying with her manager and his wife in a mansion on Franklin Road near Brentwood. She recorded for RCA from 1965 – 1968 with Chet Atkins as producer.

                              

Chicken feed was Bobbi's only chart hit, #31 in 1966, on the Billboard country chart. Her records are a mix between pop and country. The twist ending on "He Can Be Your Baby" should have made it a hit.

She married Jerry Whitehurst, who was the pianist for the television show Hee Haw and who played at the Grand Old Opry. They had a son and daughter. Barbara had her own daytime television show before her retirement.

Barbara stopped recording and performing around 1969 when she became pregnant with her daughter. Barbara divorced Jerry Whitehurst in the late 70 – early 80’s and she never remarried. As of 2012 relatives of Bobbi stated that Barbara was still alive and well and living in Nashville. She had two children, a daughter and a son. In 2019 it was reported that Bobbi was in a nursing home in Nashville Tennessee.

(Scarce information edited from Legendary Locals of Rutherford County, North Carolina & Obscure Singers) 

George Wallington born 27 October 1924

 

George Wallington (October 27, 1924, – February 15, 1993) was an American jazz pianist and composer.

Wallington was born Giacinto Figlia in Sicily, and then moved to the United States (New York) with his family in 1925. He was introduced to opera and the classics early in life. His father taught him solfeggio (sightsinging) and the lessons of his youth in classical piano had a strong influence on his later jazz work. He said that he acquired the name Wallington in high school: "I like to wear flashy clothes and the kids in the neighbourhood would say, 'Hey, look at Wallington!'" He left school at the age of 15 to play piano in New York.

Wallington first heard jazz on New York radio and listened to great players like Count Basie, Teddy Wilson and Jess Stacy. 'But it was hearing Lester Young with Basie that got me interested in jazz and made me want to learn the style. I started playing little clubs and dates with friends. Then I started playing around Greenwich Village and got a job at a club called George's where I played for Billie Holiday.' As he spread his net wider in the search for work he found himself playing opposite Liberace in Philadelphia.

Wallington was there when Charlie Parker first arrived from Kansas City. The combination of Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at that time in New York drew many young musicians into the crucible of bebop which they fired up. Wallington was one of the gifted young white pianists - the others were Al Haig and Dodo Marmarosa - who were able to get a grip on what was essentially a black music.

Black musicians, outraged at the way the Goodmans, Dorseys and Shaws had exploited what they, the black musicians, saw as their own music, tried to keep bebop to themselves. It is a testimony to Wallington's outstanding virtues that Gillespie hired him for his first bebop group, which played on 52nd Street in 1944. Wallington's way of playing was like that of the black pianist Bud Powell, but the two men had arrived independently at the style.

'Dizzy used to take me to his house and we'd play and he showed me his songs. Then he and Oscar Pettiford started the band at the Onyx. Charlie Parker was supposed to join us but he couldn't get a cabaret card. Anyway we had Don Byas, then Lester Young. Billie Holiday used to sing with us sometimes and Sarah Vaughan used to come in too. I don't know if we thought of what we were doing at the Onyx as something historic, but we did know we were doing something new and that no one else could play it.'

Wallington was then much in demand with the black players, and some sources state that Parker used him on a recording he made with strings for Norman Granz, but this needs to be confirmed. He wrote 'Lemon Drop', an early be-bop anthem with a nonsense scat vocal part. Among those who recorded the song were Woody Herman and Gene Krupa: over a million records of it were sold. Another composition was 'Godchild', which Miles Davis recorded in 1949 with his classic 'Birth of the Cool' band.

                              

Wallington played with the who's who of bop during 1946-1952, including Charlie Parker, Serge Chaloff, Allan Eager, Kai Winding, Terry Gibbs, Brew Moore, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Red Rodney and recorded as a leader for Savoy and Blue Note (1950). In 1952 Gerry Mulligan called from Los Angeles to ask Wallington to travel out there. Wallington declined and the Gerry Mulligan pianoless quartet was caused by default. Mulligan kept the formula for decades.

Wallington visited Europe briefly in 1953 to tour with the Lionel Hampton orchestra - the only time he ever played with a big band. The band was full of young talent, including the trumpeters Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones. Hampton's wife fired the band's singer Annie Ross and left her stranded in Paris, promising to send Ross a ticket to return to the States. She didn't and Ross stayed in Paris for two years. Wallington felt she had been badly treated and resigned in protest.

Young talent continued to gravitate to Wallington and in the middle Fifties he had a regular quintet of rising stars - the trumpeter Donald Byrd, the altoists Jackie McLean and Phil Woods, the bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Arthur Taylor.

In 1960 Wallington gave up on the music business altogether citing the stress of endless touring and retired to work in his family's air-conditioning company, although he continued to play privately.

Following much interest in his work in Japan and the appearance of his old recordings there, he returned to the studios in 1983 to make his first recordings in 25 years: Virtuoso in 1984, Symphony of a Jazz Piano in 1986 and Pleasure of a Jazz Inspiration in 1992.His work proved to be as good as ever, and he was invited to play at the Kool Festival in 1985, but this was the sum total of his comeback. He died February 15, 1993 in New York City, NY

(Edited mainly from Steve Voce@ The Independent with help from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Mike Piano born 26 October 1944

Mike Piano (born October 26, 1944, Rochester, New York), Jim Brady (born August 24, 1944, Los Angeles) and Richard Shoff (born April 30, 1944, Seattle) were the founding members of The Sandpipers. This American easy listening trio carved a niche in 1960s folk rock with their vocals and innovative arrangements of international ballads and pop standards. They are best remembered for their cover version of "Guantanamera", which became a transatlantic Top 10 hit in 1966, and their Top 20 hit "Come Saturday Morning" from the soundtrack of the film The Sterile Cuckoo in 1970.Singing in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Tagalog, the Sandpipers had seven separate album entries in the Billboard 200 from 1966-1970, and over a dozen charted singles.

Mike Piano

The trio first performed together in the Mitchell Boys Choir, before forming the Four Seasons with friend Nick Cahuernga. Due to the rising popularity of a group with that name from New Jersey, they changed their name to the Grads and continued as a trio.

Although the Grads did not enter the charts with their early recordings, they performed well enough to secure a residency at Harrah's Lake Club (now Harveys Lake Tahoe) where a friend brought them to the attention of Herb Alpert of A&M Records. Alpert was impressed with the Grads, but after one single without success the group agreed to a name change, choosing the Sandpipers out of a dictionary. After the name change, their producer, Tommy LiPuma, recommended they record the Cuban anthem "Guantanamera" and they had their first hit. The use of a female singer (Robie Lester, uncredited) to add background vocals on "Guantanamera" established a trend that the Sandpipers would incorporate in multiple future studio recordings and live shows.

Initially Kathy Westmoreland (de) (later with Elvis Presley) toured with the group to provide the lyricless vocals that were used much like second strings, adding an ethereal quality to the Sandpipers' sound. Later Pamela Ramcier was the primary back-up vocalist. At times two or more back-up vocalists were used. For the Sandpipers' first live show in San Diego, two female singers were on stage, the well-known folk singer Penny Nichols and Pat Woolley. Early pressings of the Guantanamera LP showed a five person group—two females with Piano, Shoff, and Brady—on the back cover while later pressings had just the male trio. Subsequent albums depicted only the original trio. Other backup singers followed including Stormie Sherk in 1967, and Diane Jordan and Kathy Westmoreland in 1969, also some pressings of the 1970 Come Saturday Morning LP credit "solo voices" Patrice Holloway, Carolyn Willis, and Susan Tallman.

"Guantanamera" charted in the United States in September 1966 and in the United Kingdom the following month, and remains the group's biggest hit, earning 1967 Grammy Award nominations for Best Performance by a Vocal Group and Best Contemporary Group Performance, plus gold record awards for the single and the album. They also had many lesser chart entries including cover versions of "Louie Louie", "The French Song" (Quand Le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes), and songs from the movies The Sterile Cuckoo and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

                              

The record sleeve for their 1966 album Guantanamera was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover - Photography. Dolores Erickson was featured on the front cover artwork. In 1967 the Baldwin Piano Company signed the group to promote the company's line of musical instruments. In 1968, following a South Africa concert tour, they participated at the Festival di Sanremo in Italy, a highlight on the Italian music calendar. They were, as then usual, alongside Anna Identici as one of the two performers of the song "Quando M'Innamoro," which attained sixth place. The song would become more popular in the interpretation by Gigliola Cinquetti. The English version by British pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck, "A Man Without Love", became a global hit.

In 1969, the group embarked on a European tour with appearances in London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Madrid, and Berlin. In 1970 "Come Saturday Morning" was nominated for Best Original Song and was performed by the Sandpipers at the 42nd Academy Awards ceremony. In the mid-1970s, Michael Piano left the group and was replaced in turn by Michael Brady, Gary Duckworth and Ralph Nichols (later with The Lettermen). The final 1979 single, "Singapore Girl", featured only Brady and Shoff.

Original member Michael Piano died on December 29, 2014 in Kauai, Hawaii. Jim Brady died on May 5, 2019 in Durango, Colorado.

The Sandpipers has also been the name of many others including a girl group from Florida; A vocal group who sang for Mitch Miller; A South African folk rock group; A female choral group from Conncticut; A South Florida trio; A new York group; A Detroit group; A Nashville group; A Malaysian group; An instrumental group and a backing group to country singers Gary Lane and Chris Beckett.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Sam 'The Man' Taylor born 25 October 1934

 Samuel Leroy Taylor, Jr. (July 12, 1916 – October 5, 1990), known as Sam "The Man" Taylor, was an American jazz and blues tenor saxophonist of the 1950’s who was a mainstay in studios throughout the decade and on multi-artist stage shows leading the band. The number of hits he played on is staggering and it was largely his economical, but still explosive, style that defined what role the tenor sax would play in vocal records in rock for years.

 A certified honking sax legend, his Non-stop drive and power worked perfectly in swing, blues, and R&B sessions. He had a huge tone, perfect timing, and sense of drama, as well as relentless energy and spirit.

Sam Taylor was born in Tennessee and like so many other musicians of his era he headed to Alabama State University and did time with the famed Bama State Collegians. He also worked with Scat Man Crothers and the Sunset Royal Orchestra in the late '30s.Moving into the professional ranks in the 1940’s he tried his hand in jazz, still the dominant style of the day, but began to move in a more populist direction playing with Cab Calloway for six years and then Lucky Millinder’s group.

By the late 1940’s he found himself recruited to cut sessions behind others and along with drummer Panama Francis and later on guitarist Mickey Baker, they became the first-call musicians for the huge number of record labels in and around New York during the 1950’s, most of whom were hip-deep in rock ‘n’ roll.

Not at all snobbish about slumming in this less technically adroit style, Taylor solidified the formula that was required to pack as much excitement into brief instrumental breaks without upending the singers or the song itself. Taylor toured South America and the Caribbean during his tenure with Calloway. Then, Taylor became the saxophonist of choice for many R&B dates through the '50s, recording with Ray Charles, Buddy Johnson, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner, among others. He supplemented his studio work by acting as the bandleader for Alan Freed’s stage shows which were huge events and which in turn led to him leading the band under Freed’s name on albums that the disc-jockey concocted as promotional material..

                                

  Taylor played the saxophone solo on Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll". He also played on "Harlem Nocturne"; on "Money Honey", recorded by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters in 1953; and on "Sh-Boom" by the Chords. He also did sessions with Ella Fitzgerald and Sy Oliver. He played sax and clarinet on an album of poetry made by Langston Hughes in 1958, and his solo albums usually had a ‘Misty’ theme, with ‘Blue Mist’, ‘Misty Mood’ and ‘Mist of the Orient’. During this period Taylor had long term deal with MGM for his own singles but in spite of some quality outings they failed to make an impact as he had little name recognition with audiences who knew his work but not his name.

Taylor with Alan Freed.

By the 1960’s there was less reliance on session musicians in rock and Taylor led his own bands and recorded in a quintet called the Blues Chasers. In the In the 1970s he began touring overseas where he built up a large following in Japan. He wound up cutting a number of popular albums there that were far more tranquil than his heyday as rock’s leading saxophonist.

Taylor passed away  in Crawford Long Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia, October 5, 1990 at the age 74. Despite being the arguably most important session musician in rock during the 1950’s he hasn’t been inducted into The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame, remaining all but anonymous in the afterlife as he was in life itself. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & spontaniouslunacy.net)

Bettye Swann born 24 October 1944

Betty Barton (born October 24, 1944), better known by the stage name Bettye Swann, is a retired American soul singer. She is best known for her 1967 hit song "Make Me Yours". For one with such a fabulous voice and given the quality of her output, Bettye Swann criminally failed to get the recognition she deserved.

For collectors of 60’s and 70’s Soul music she is highly revered and popular artist. In a recording career lasting around fourteen years or so from 1964 to 1978 she recorded some 20 singles and three LP’s for Money, Capitol, Fame and Atlantic with very little recognition commercially. 

Southern soul chanteuse Bettye Swann was born Betty Jean Champion in Shreveport, Louisiana, one of 14 children. She grew up in Arcadia, Louisiana, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1963. Although some sources state that Swann was in a vocal group known as The Fawns who recorded for Money Records in 1964, she has refuted this, saying that she sang with a trio in Arcadia by that name. 

In 1964, Swann started a solo singing career, changing her name to Bettye Swann at the prompting of local DJ Al Scott, who became her manager. After a minor hit with the self-penned "Don’t Wait Too Long", the first of a series of Arthur Wright-produced singles for the independent Los Angeles label Money, her big breakthrough came with "Make Me Yours", which topped the Billboard R&B charts in July 1967 and made #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.This song also served as the title for her first full-length LP. 

                           

1967 saw the release of three more Money singles -- "Fall in Love With Me," "Don't Look Back," and "I Think I'm Falling in Love" -- while the next year heralded a leap to major label Capitol for "My Heart Is Closed for the Season." The follow-up, "Don't Touch Me," was the first single released from Swann's second long-player, The Soul View Now; Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me? followed in 1969, highlighted by the minor hit "Little Things Mean a Lot.” 

After a one-off single for Fame, 1971's "I'm Just Living a Lie," Swann transferred to Atlantic Records; her label debut, "Victim of a Foolish Heart," cracked the R&B Top 20 in 1972, and was revived over three decades later by blue-eyed soul upstart Joss Stone. Her next Atlantic effort, "I'd Rather Go Blind," was notable in large part for its B-side, a reading of Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again," that proved Swann a superb interpreter of country-soul -- 1973's "Yours Until Tomorrow" was backed by another Nashville cover, this time Tammy Wynette's "Til I Get It Right." 

In 1974, she made a return to the lower rungs of the Billboard Hot 100 with "The Boy Next Door" -- the flip side, "Kiss My Love Goodbye," found Swann operating firmly in Philly soul territory, its slick, urbane production courtesy of the Young Professionals team of LeBaron Taylor, Phil Hurtt, and Tony Bell. With 1975's "All the Way In or All the Way Out" she again enjoyed minor chart success, but subsequent recording sessions are undocumented,.

Following the death of her husband and manager, Bettye Swann retired from the music industry aged thirty-six. It was then that Bettye decided upon a change of name and career. In a sense Bettye Swann died and Bettye Barton was born. The “newly born” Bettye Swan embarked on a career in education in Las Vegas and became a Jehovah’s Witness. Never again, did Bettye return to soul music. 

That was a great shame. Bettye Swann was one of the most talented singers of her generation. She could breath life, meaning and emotion into lyrics. They were transformed, and the song took on new meaning. Sometimes, it seemed as if Betttye Swann had lived and survived the lyrics. However, despite her undoubtable talent, Bettye Swann didn’t scale the heights that Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Gladys Knight did. Nor did Bettye Swann make a fortune from music. Far from it. Bettye Swann made very little money from music. It’s only relatively recently that Bettye Swann has received a small income from the various compilations of her music that have been released. 

Her one foray into the public eye was in 2013 when she was persuaded to visit the UK for an appearance at the Cleethorpes soul weekender. She was in good voice and enjoyed herself, singing her heart out to a big audience who clearly adored her and knew every word of her songs. Bettye's personality shone through and as the show went on she came to realise just what a great reception she was receiving and a huge grin came over her face. 

Nowadays, Bettye is retired, and lives quietly in Las Vegas. She is a modest and humble woman, who doesn’t court publicity.  Instead, Bettye has spent so much of her life helping others. Very few of these people will even be aware of her past, or her rich musical legacy. 

(Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia & Dereks Music Blog)

Cleethorpes Weekender 7/8/9th June 2013.  Here’s Bettye singing one of her most popular songs on the UK's Northern Soul Scene "Kiss My love Goodbye". The sound quality is a bit poor due to too many people were in front of the speakers. Also the stage monitor speakers were I believe also turned down. Still great to see Bettye in action.