Pete Pike born 30 November 1929

Pete Pike (30 November 1929 -  27 August 2006) had a long & interesting career in both country & Bluegrass music, recording for such early post-war labels as 4-Star, Coral and Rebel. With the likes of Roy Clark, Don Stover, Buzz Busby and Scotty Stoneman, he helped introduce and popularize Bluegrass music in the Washington, D.C. area as early as 1949. 

Pete Pike was born on a tenant farm November 30th, 1929, in Amelia, Va. When he was about twelve years old his Dad gave him and his brother, Frank their own little half-acre of tobacco and from the profits earned from the sales from grain and tobacco on the seventy-acre family farm. Frank purchased a Gibson J 200 guitar for himself and a Gibson F5 mandolin for Frank. Pete learned to play guitar on a Sears and Roebuck guitar and an Ernest Tubb songbook. His main ambition was to sing. His inspirations were groups such as the Carter Family, The Delmore Brothers, Roy Acuff, and Bill Monroe. 

Franklin & Pete Pike

The Pike boys formed a local band in the ‘40s, about the time Pete met his life-long friend and banjo partner, Buck Austin. They began playing in the local Amelia Theater and soon Pete and Frank’s dad let them play with him and his brother Cephas Pike, the Virginia State Champion Fiddle Player at the time. It wasn’t long before the boys were playing for “a lot of dances” in and around the eastern Virginia area. 

In 1947, Pete and the band left Amelia and the pace of their lives began to pick up. They played a weekly radio show on WKLV in Blackstone, Va. It was so successful the station manager brought in a big star, Little Jimmy Dickens, and started an annual outdoor event – The Virginia Folk Music Association. Pete and Buck decided to go to Washington to play with Roy Clark at the Camden Tavern. These were the years of hard training, four hours a night, six days a week. 

Buzz Busby, Pete, Donnie Bryant, Lee Cole

In the summer of 1949, Pete worked at Jo-Del’s Bar and Grill for what was to be the last time with Roy, as well as with a bass player named Curley Irvin.  Pete now decided to move into doing shows. Figuring they had “nothing to lose”, he called Bill Monroe one night after his last act on the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville. Monroe couldn’t use them, but suggested they contact WWVA in Wheeling, W.Va. They headed there, went on the air, sang a duet, and did the show until 1952. 

                             

Pete then went in the army, got married in 1952, and was honourably discharged from the service in 1954. When he arrived back in Washington, D.C. he met mandolin player Buzz Busby from Eros, La Over the next ten years and again in 1976 and 1985, the two would record countless records, producing some of the classics of the early bluegrass era. 

Pete in concert 1952

Pete had two hit records, “I Can See An Angel Walking” and “Little Bitty Teardrops” which earned Billboard’s Five Star Pick Hit designation. WRC-TV Channel 4 in Washington approached Pete for a hillbilly, five-day-a-week show. The station’s program director had noticed the huge crowds showing up for hillbilly and Grand Ole Opry stars events in the area. He’d also been tipped off that Pete and Buzz had won four prizes at the National Championship Country Music Event in Warrenton, Va., that summer. 

Throughout the 1950s Pete and Busby continued to play among the more than fifty clubs in the Washington, D.C. area. In the summer of 1958, the band rented Watermelon Park in Berryville, Va., and booked groups like the Stanley Brothers and George Jones. Before signing with Rebel Records in late 1959, Pete, Busby, and various other artists together recorded a string of songs, primarily at the Adelman Studios, for Four Star and Starday. He then stayed with Rebel until 1963. 

Like many artists, Pike tried his hand at running his own record company, VRC (Virginia Recording Company) in 1967/68. Later on, he had records on MRC, Stop and Music City. From 1978 to 1996 he went in the timber business then a diner restaurant n Amelia. 

Later he was diagnosed with brain cancer.  After successful surgery, it had seemed that he had won the battle, but died from further complications on 27 May 2006. He had been working on a come-back CD  “Rolling Again”, which was a mix-up of new and older 50s songs.

(Edited mainly from bopping.org & nrv.host.com)

Billy Strayhorn born 29 November 1913

Billy Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. 

An extravagantly gifted composer, arranger, and pianist -- some considered him a genius -- Billy Strayhorn toiled throughout most of his maturity in the gaudy shadow of his employer, collaborator, and friend Duke Ellington. Only in the 1990s has Strayhorn's profile been lifted to a level approaching that of Ellington, where diligent searching of the Strayhorn archives revealed that Strayhorn's contribution to the Ellington legacy was far more extensive and complex than once thought. 

There are several instances where Strayhorn compositions were registered as Ellington/Strayhorn pieces ("Day Dream," "Something to Live For"), where collaborations between the two were listed only under Ellington's name ("Satin Doll," "Sugar Hill Penthouse," "C-Jam Blues"), where Strayhorn pieces were copyrighted under Ellington's name or no name at all. Even tunes that were listed as Strayhorn's alone have suffered; the proverbial man on the street is likely to tell you that "Take the 'A' Train" -- perhaps Strayhorn's most famous tune -- is a Duke Ellington song.

Still, among musicians and jazz fans, Strayhorn is renowned for acknowledged classics like "Lotus Blossom," "Lush Life," "Rain Check," "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," and "Mid-Riff." While tailored for the Ellington idiom, Strayhorn's pieces often have their own bittersweet flavour, and his larger works have coherent, classically influenced designs quite apart from those of Ellington. Strayhorn was alternately content with and frustrated by his second-fiddle status, and he was also one of the few openly gay figures in jazz, which probably added more stress to his life. 

William Thomas Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. He spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. Classical music was Strayhorn's first and life-long musical love. He started out as a child prodigy, gravitating toward Victrolas as a child, and working odd jobs in order to buy a used upright piano while in grade school. He studied harmony and piano in high school, writing the music for a professional musical, Fantastic Rhythm, at 19. But the realities of a Black man trying to make it in the then-lily-white classical world, plus exposure to pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, led Strayhorn toward jazz. 

                             

He gigged around Pittsburgh with a combo called the Mad Hatters. Through a friend of a friend, Strayhorn gained an introduction to Duke Ellington when the latter's band stopped in Pittsburgh in 1938. After hearing Strayhorn play, Ellington immediately gave him an assignment, and in January 1939, Strayhorn moved to New York to join Ellington as an arranger, composer, occasional pianist, and collaborator without so much as any kind of contract or verbal agreement. "I don't have any position for you," Ellington allegedly said. "You'll do whatever you feel like doing." 

It was a dispute with ASCAP in 1940 that kept Ellington's compositions off the radio that gave Strayhorn his big chance to contribute several tunes to the Ellington band book, among them "After All," "Chelsea Bridge," "Johnny Come Lately," and "Passion Flower." Over the years, Strayhorn would collaborate (and be given credit) with Ellington in many of his large-scale suites, like "Such Sweet Thunder," "A Drum Is a Woman," "The Perfume Suite," and "The Far East Suite," as well as musicals like Jump for Joy and Saturday Laughter, and the score for the film Anatomy of a Murder. 

Beginning in the '50s, Strayhorn also took on some projects of his own away from Ellington, including a few solo albums, revues for a New York society called the Copasetics, theater collaborations with Luther Henderson, and songs for his friend Lena Horne. Strayhorn was openly gay. He participated in many civil rights causes. As a committed friend to Martin Luther King Jr., he arranged and conducted "King Fit the Battle of Alabama'" for the Ellington Orchestra in 1963 for the historical revue (and album) My People, dedicated to King. 

In 1964, Strayhorn was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, aggravated by years of smoking and drinking, and he submitted his last composition, "Blood Count," to the Ellington band while in the hospital. Strayhorn finally succumbed to the disease in the early morning on May 31, 1967, in the company of his partner, Bill Grove, not in Lena Horne's arms as has often been falsely reported. His ashes were scattered in the Hudson River by a gathering of his closest friends. Shortly after Strayhorn's death, Ellington recorded one of his finest albums and the best introduction to Strayhorn's work, And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA), in memory of his friend. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Gato Barbieri born 28 November 1932

Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (28 November 1932 – 2 April 2016) was an Argentine jazz tenor saxophonist who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and is known for his Latin jazz recordings of the 1970s. An eclectic and experimental composer, his influences included jazz greats Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, pop legends Marvin Gaye and Carlos Santana, and classical composers Erik Satie and Tchaikovsky. His nickname, Gato, is Spanish for "cat". Barbieri was the inspiration for the character Zoot in the fictional Muppet band Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. 

Born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, Barbieri's family included several musicians, although he did not take up an instrument until the age of 12 when he heard Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time" which encouraged him to study the clarinet. Upon moving to Buenos Aires in 1947, he continued private music lessons, picked up the alto sax, and by 1953 had become a prominent national musician through exposure in the Lalo Schifrin orchestra. 

Later in the '50s, Barbieri started leading his own groups, switching to tenor sax. After moving to Rome in 1962 with his Italian-born wife, he met Don Cherry in Paris the following year and, upon joining his group, became heavily absorbed in the jazz avant-garde. Barbieri also played with Mike Mantler's Jazz Composer's Orchestra in the late '60s. By now influenced by John Coltrane's late recordings, as well as those from other free jazz saxophonists such as Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders, he began to develop the warm and gritty tone with which he is associated. 

Yet after the turn of the next decade, Barbieri experienced a slow change of heart and began to reincorporate and introduce South American melodies, instruments, harmonies, textures, and rhythm patterns into his music. Albums such as the live El Pampero on Flying Dutchman and the four-part Chapter series on Impulse! -- the latter of which explored Brazilian and Afro-Cuban rhythms and textures, as well as Argentine -- brought Barbieri plenty of acclaim in the jazz world and gained him a following on American college campuses. 

However, it was a commercial accident, his sensuous theme and score for the controversial film Last Tango in Paris in 1972. The soundtrack would go on to make him an international star and earn him a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition the following year. A contract with A&M in the U.S. led to a series of softer pop/jazz albums in the late '70s, including the brisk-selling Caliente! which included his best known song, a rendition of Carlos Santana's "Europa". That and the follow-up album, Ruby Ruby (1977) were both produced by fellow musician and label co-founder, Herb Alpert. 

                              

He returned to a more intense, rock-influenced, South American-grounded sound in 1981 with the live Gato...Para los Amigos under the aegis of producer Teo Macero, before doubling back to pop/jazz on Apasionado. Yet his profile in the U.S. was diminished later in the decade in the wake of the buttoned-down neo-bop movement. He continued to record and perform well into the 1980s, including composing the scores to films such as Firepower (1979) and Strangers Kiss (1983). 

Beset by triple-bypass surgery and bereavement over the death of his wife, Michelle, who was his closest musical confidant, Barbieri was inactive through much of the 1990s. He was aided in his recovery by Laura, a physical therapist, whom he married in 1996. He returned to action in 1997, playing with most of his impassioned intensity, if limited in ideas, at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles. He toured regularly and went on to record four more albums, including 1997's 'Que Pasa', which reached No. 2 on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts, 'The Shadow of the Cat' (2002) and 'New York Meeting' (2010). 

As the 21st century opened, Barbieri saw a steady stream of collections and reissues of his work appear. A new album, Shadow of the Cat, appeared from Peak Records in 2002. Barbieri received a Latin Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2015. The citation credited him with covering “virtually the entire jazz landscape” in his long career and with creating “a rebellious but highly accessible musical style, combining contemporary jazz with Latin American genres and incorporating elements of instrumental pop.” 

Regardless of the idiom in which he worked, the warm-blooded Barbieri was always one of the most overtly emotional tenor sax soloists on record, occasionally driving the voltage ever higher with impulsive vocal cheerleading. Barbieri continued making monthly appearances at the Blue Note in New York until November 2015, clad in his trademark fedora, scarf and wraparound sunglasses. He died on April 2, 2016 of pneumonia after having bypass surgery to remove a blood clot in a New York City hospital at the age of 83. 

(Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia & The Washington Post)

Werly Fairburn born 27 November 1924

Werly Fairburn (November 27, 1924 – January 18, 1985) was an American rockabilly musician. 

Fairburn was born in 1924 near Folsom, LA, the son of a farmer of Cherokee, Scots, Irish, and English ancestry. He grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry on radio on Saturday nights with the family, and his father (who died in 1937, when Werly was 13) bought a guitar for his sons. Werly showed the greatest interest and competed with his older brothers to learn the instrument. He and his brothers learned to play from an elderly blues musician who lived nearby, teaching them blues licks, which they adapted to the hillbilly sounds they heard on the radio. 

With the outbreak of World War II, 17-year-old Fairburn -- who was married by then -- left the family farm to take a job in New Orleans at the Higgins Shipyard. He enlisted in the Navy and joined its maintenance division in 1943, spending the war serving in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was while in the service that Fairburn began thinking about trying music as a career, but as a precaution, he also got training as a barber when he returned to New Orleans. Music became an avocation, something he did in his spare time, but his style -- heavily influence by both Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, but also by New Orleans-style R&B -- was attractive enough to get him a spot on WJBW radio broadcasting from his own barber shop. 

Thus, in 1948, Faiburn first became known to the local public as the Singing Barber. His broadcasting career continued on WWEZ in New Orleans, and he became the Singing Deejay. Subsequently, he enrolled in a local music school to formalize his playing and understanding of music. During the early '50s, he also made his recording debut on Lillian McMurry's Trumpet Records, best known as the early home of Sonny Boy Williamson II. The highlight of his association with the legendary blues label was "Camping With Marie," an upbeat proto-rockabilly-style number that later became regarded as a classic of the music's formative years. 

In March 1955, Fairborn joined the cast of the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, where he performed alongside Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Luman, David Houston and other early rockabilly stylists. Werly remained with the Hayride through the end of 1957. His first album appeared on Trumpet Records in the 1950s. Over the years he recorded for Columbia, Capitol, and Savoy. Fairburn also owned a label called Milestone Records in the 1950s and 1960s. 

                              

His music was basically country but was done with a beat that made it accessible and even pleasing to younger rockabilly and rock 'n roll fans. His 1956 Columbia single "Everybody's Rockin' " is considered a quintessential example of rockabilly music. Fairburn was a favorite performer locally in New Orleans and had an audience as far away as Dallas, where he appeared on the Big D Jamboree, even without a hit record of his own. 

His music was heavily influenced by New Orleans R&B, and his stage repertory included pieces like Fats Domino's "All By Myself." Fairburn's openness to those sounds -- coupled with his professional flexibility -- may have helped him adapt when rock & roll hit in the mid-'50s. Unlike a lot of post-twenty year old country artists, who sounded awkward trying to reach out to the youth market, Fairburn took naturally to rockabilly. 

In 1964, he was performing one of his own songs, "I Guess I'm Crazy," on the Louisiana Hayride when it was heard by his friend Jim Reeves. Reeves decided to record the song himself, and "I Guess I'm Crazy" was the single that was in release when Reeves' plane went down on July 31, 1964.

Fairburn's success in the Southeast didn't follow him when he moved to California in the '60s, but he kept performing steadily. In 1982, he developed a lung tumour and fought the disease for three years. He continued to play until he completely lost his voice and died 18 Jan 1985 in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, aged 60 years.

 In 1994, Bear Family Records released a CD assembling Fairburn's classic sides entitled Everybody's Rockin' and a live performance of Fairburn doing "All By Myself" at the Big D Jamboree in the mid-'50s surfaced on CD in 2000. 

(Edited from findagrave bio,Wikipedia & Rockabilly Hall)

Hosea Leavy born 26 November 1927

Hosea Leavy (November 26, 1927 - August 12, 2008) was a blues singer, guitarist and bassist from Fresno, California. 

Guitarist-vocalist Hosea Leavy hailed from a small crossroads town called Althermer, Arkansas, located out about 26 miles from Little Rock. One of 15 children, Hosea learned the guitar from his father, also a blues player in the 1920s and '30s, and soon started playing in a combo, performing at house parties and work camps with instruments rented from a local pawnbroker. 

In 1950 Hosea was drafted into the Army and saw some combat action in Korea. It was in the army's USO clubs that Hosea picked up his bass skills which served him well throughout his musical career. After being discharged from the service in 1954 he formed a blues group featuring his younger brother, Calvin Leavy, who was a notable singer. 

In 1968 fame came to the Leavy brothers when Calvin recorded the blues classic "Cummins Prison Farm," based on the notorious prison work camp in Arkansas, and later made into a film called "Brubaker," starring Robert Redford. The song hit at #40 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1970 and stayed there for 5 weeks after Shelby Singleton's Blue Fox label picked it up. The song has had a firm position in the canon of the modern Blues repertoire ever since, and is a favourite of Southern Blues audiences. The group toured extensively through much of the south with the success of the song. 

            Here’s “When I Was a Little Boy” from above cassette.

                             

Hosea wrote and recorded one single in 1969 for Soul Beat titled 'It's Too Early in the Morning b/w You Cant Lose What You Never Had' the Muddy Waters original.In 1969 he also made a single for Riceland that was produced by Willie Cobbs titled 'Oo-Wee Baby b/w When I was a Little Boy'. 

Calvin Leavy

In 1976 the Leavy brothers did some recordings for the Arkansas Bicentennial Blues Project which are archived at the University Of Arkansas in Little Rock. In 1977 the band performed at the Beale Street Music Festival. Soon after they broke up and started their own bands. Hosea moved to California and started a combo with Johnny 'Da-Doo' Wilson on bass and Warren Milton on drums. This trio play a small joint in West Fresno called 'Wagners' every weekend for at least 5 years. The band would start around 10 in the evening and go until 5 in the morning or until the police showed up. 

In 1993 Hosea recorded a cassette titled 'Greasy Greens' for the debut of Fedora Records. The tape was noticed by 'Blues and Rhythm' who in turn published an article by Mike Rainsford which got Hosea some good festival work in Europe and elsewhere. Chris Millar produced sessions with Hosea that led to his only CDs, You Gotta Move, in 1997 and a collaboration with Harmonica Slim called Cold Tacos and Warm Beer on the Fedora record label. 

Hosea loved to hunt and fish when he wasn't gigging or hanging out at 'The Barrel' in West Fresno. Hosea was father to 26 children, 4 of whom are named Hosea Leavy,Jr. Hosea was a fine performer and a strict band leader. He was respected by the local musicians and he mentored many of the area's best Blues musicians. 

His last major gig was the 2007 San Francisco Blues Festival. Hosea was still performing at very high level only weeks before he drove his old Chrysler to the V.A. and checked himself in. In his last days at the hospice Hosea was very lucid and enjoyed visits with his friends and family. Hosea Leavy the self-proclaimed "Grand Daddy of the Blues" died on August 12, 2008 at the U.S. Veterans Hospital in Fresno, California after a short bout with liver cancer. He was 80 years old. 

(Edited from Smokestack Lightnin’ & Colorado Blues Society)

Joe Carroll born 25 November 1919

Joe "Bebop" Carroll (November 25, 1919 – February 1, 1981) was an American jazz vocalist who worked with Dizzy Gillespie between 1949 and 1953. His collaborations with Gillespie include the humorous songs "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac" and "Oo Bla Dee." 

Born Joseph Paul Carroll in Philadelphia, his nickname was "Bebop." According to legend, Joe Carroll was the man to call during the height of popularity for that style of jazz, especially if one was trying to locate an elusive genius such as Charlie Parker. To some listeners, however, Carroll is a pariah, not a messiah. He may be one of the earliest singers credited with recording jazz vocalese, a kind of sophisticated term for scat singing, but few fans of this type of performance pick him as a favourite. 

                     

               

While the man did cut several albums under his own name beginning in the '50s, the recordings he is mostly known for were done with the extended band of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie from 1949 after replacing Kenny ‘Pancho’ Hagood. Not blessed with much range or a particularly powerful voice, Carroll got by with humour, exuberance and great bebop instincts.  Carroll and Gillespie’s relationship, which lasted until June 1953, is remembered for its exciting, fun filled scat singing and, with Dizzy, Joe traveled to Europe, where he found more appreciation from overseas audiences. It also gave him the chance to make several recordings in Paris. 

While Gillespie is often considered a deity equal to Parker in the bebop creation myth, the type of vocal comedy and novelty song material which featured Carroll was actually more of a throwback to the repertoire of one of Gillespie's former bosses, Cab Calloway -- although simply not as funny. 

Calloway, by the way, absolutely hated bebop, referring to it as "Chinese music." 

Carroll wrote some of his own material, asking essential musical questions such as "Got a Penny, Benny?." Jazz vocalists from subsequent generations, such as Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks, have cited Carroll as an important influence; it was Hendricks who reported calling Carroll upon arriving at the Greyhound bus station in New York City, simply to ask "Where is Bird?" 

Undeniably, Carroll represents an important transition in the role of vocalists in jazz, coming from an era when they were stuck on the sidelines, stepping forward to provide variety in the form of cornball humour, overt sentimentality, or simply sex appeal. Carroll himself was influenced by one of the great novelty jazz singers, Leo Watson. In contrast, singers such as Murphy or Hendricks became bandleaders and were considered fully capable of holding centre stage for the entire length of a concert. While even a Carroll booster might not want to wish for such an event, the supply of good vibes present in just five minutes of the man's singing is a pretty good remedy for the world's troubles, if only temporarily. 

Joe Carroll passed away in New York City on February 1st, 1981 age 61 years. The title of Carroll's 1962 album on the Charlie Parker label, The Man with a Happy Sound, sums it up best. Although his career had its ups and downs, he managed to infuse his life with vitality and happiness. “When you’re happy you project that feeling to your audience… and when I’m on, I am happy. Look at Pops or Dizzy. They make you feel good.” 

(Edited from Blue Sounds & AllMusic)

Joe Carroll at Jack Kleinsinger's "Highlights in Jazz" Tribute to Charlie Parker, April 8, 1973, featuring Howard McGhee, trumpet; Cecil Payne, flute; Richard Davis, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; and Ted Dunbar, guitar.

Al Cohn born 24 November 1925

 Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an excellent American jazz saxophonist and a superior arranger / composer who was greatly admired by his fellow musicians. 

Born and brought up in Brooklyn, NY, as a youngster his interest was in piano and clarinet, but on hearing Lester Young, Cohn was inspired to take up the tenor saxophone. He was self-taught on tenor and even though he never took lessons on the instrument, he made his professional debut aged just 18 in 1943. 

Early gigs included associations with Joe Marsala (1943), Georgie Auld, Boyd Raeburn (1946), Alvino Rey, and Buddy Rich (1947). But it was when he replaced Herbie Steward as one of the "Four Brothers" with Woody Herman's Second Herd (1948-1949) that Cohn began to make a strong impression. He was actually overshadowed by Stan Getz and Zoot Sims during this period but, unlike the other two tenors, he also contributed arrangements, including "The Goof and I." On leaving the Herman band, Cohn and Simms moved to New York and their musical relationship continued up to Simms’ death in 1985. 

He was with Artie Shaw's short-lived bop orchestra (1949), and then spent the 1950s quite busy as a recording artist (making his first dates as a leader in 1950), arranger for both jazz and non-jazz settings, and a performer. Starting in 1956, and continuing on an irregular basis for decades, Cohn co-led a quintet with Zoot Sims. The two tenors were so complementary that it was often difficult to tell them apart. His arrangements included the Broadway productions of Raisin' and Sophisticated Ladies, and his arrangements of his own compositions were recorded by big bands led by Maynard Ferguson, Gerry Mulligan, Terry Gibbs and Bob Brookmeyer. 

         Here’s “You’re A Lucky Guy” from above 1957 album.

                             

He wrote arrangements for many singers, including Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Linda Ronstadt and Sammy Davis, Jr., and special material for Dick Shawn and Kay Thompson. On occasion, Al conducted his orchestrations during recording sessions. In addition to Bennett and Horne, Al recorded with many of the vocal greats, including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Teresa Brewer, Betty Carter, Irene Kral, Susanna McCorkle, Carmen McRae and Nana Mouskouri. Al even ventured into the world of poetry and prose. He and Zoot were among jazz musicians accompanying the Beat Generation’s Jack Kerouac during club readings and recording sessions. 

Al with Zoot Simms

He composed regularly for television shows, including “The Andy Williams Show,” “The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom,” “The Steve Allen Show,” “The Ernie Kovacs Show,” and “Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows.” He also scored orchestrations for numerous televised specials, including the week-long “50th Anniversary of CBS,” the award-winning “Anne Bancroft Show” and “S’Wonderful, S’Marvelous, S’Gershwin” shows, along with the “Cole Porter in Paris Show,” the Tony Awards, and Miss Universe and Miss USA shows. He also wrote for the Jack Sterling WCBS morning radio show. 

Cohn also appeared on stage with Elvis Presley in June, 1972, as a member of the Joe Malin Orchestra at Madison Square Garden. In film, he appeared in “The Great Rocky Mountain Jazz Party,” a 1977 documentary based on one of Dick Gibson’s Colorado Jazz parties, and in the 1948 film short entitled “Woody Herman and his Orchestra.” He also played tenor solos on the soundtrack for “Lenny,” a film based on the life of comedian Lenny Bruce. 

During his last few years, when his tone became darker and more distinctive, Cohn largely gave up writing to concentrate on playing. He made many excellent bop-based records throughout his career for such labels as Prestige, Victor, Xanadu, and Concord; his son Joe Cohn is a talented cool-toned guitarist. 

The recipient of numerous awards during his lifetime, including 4 Grammy nominations, his posthumous awards include the prestigious inductions to the American Jazz Hall of Fame and the ASCAP Wall of Fame. Al composed more than one hundred original jazz tunes, all of them recorded. He had more than 50 recordings to his credit, with appearances on more than 350 other albums and CDs.As player, leader, and co-leader, Al toured extensively throughout the U.S. and around the world. Al and Zoot co-led a quintet from 1957 through the early 1980s, appearing regularly at the Half Note in NYC. 

Cohn's first wife was jazz singer Marilyn Moore. His son, Joe Cohn, is a jazz guitarist.

            Granddaughter Shaye Cohn, Joe's daughter, is a musician who plays cornet with her band Tuba Skinny in New Orleans and at jazz festivals in Italy, France, Australia, and elsewhere. Shaye also plays accordion, violin and piano. Cohn was also married to Flo Handy, a singer and composer, from the mid-1960s until his death from liver cancer in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 1988. 

(Edited from The Kemp Library Al Cohn Collection, AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Here’s a clip of Al Cohn & Zoot Sims in 1968 with Stan Tracey on piano, Dave Green on bass & Phil Seamen on drums. Taken from the TV programme  'Cool of the Evening' .The numbers played are What the World Needs Now & Doodle-Oodle.