Frank Weir born 30 January 1911

Frank Weir (30 January 1911 – 12 May 1981) was a British jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader.

Frank Weir was born in Ton Pentre, Wales as Frederick Weir Willats. He served as an Army musician during the twenties. A gifted clarinettist and saxophonist, Weir played in several dance bands in London in the 30s. Among these were the bands of Jack Hylton, Ambrose, Sydney Lipton, Geraldo and Howard Jacobs. 

In the 40s, Weir played in numerous bands including recording with the Six Swingers and also played with the then relatively unknown George Shearing. Weir also led the band at London’s prestigious Astor Club and his Astor Club Seven made some quasi-dixieland records. He also appeared on the unusually early live recordings released in 1941 on four 12-inch 78s by HMV Records under the title of the First Public Jam Session, an event arranged in association with No 1 Rhythm Club and the Melody Maker. The group led by Frank Weir included Leslie “Jiver” Hutchinson on trumpet and Woolf Phillips on trombone in the front line ensemble, while pianist Billy Munn was part of the rhythm section. 

Weir also played with the Hatchett’s Swingtette. Hatchetts was an exclusive club in Piccadilly who employed a regular band, which was often augmented for recording purposes. Frank was also a ferry pilot for the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War Two but still found time to record with his sextet and orchestra. The sextet featured well known players such as Kenny Baker on trumpet, Lad Busby on trombone, Ivor Mairants on guitar and George Firestone on drums.

The orchestra was a twenty two piece ensemble employing many of the top players of the period such as Tommy McQuater, harry Roches, Jack Bently, Cliff Townshend and Don Barringo amonst others. In 1944 he led an all-star group at the Jazz Jamboree, held at London’s Stoll Theatre. This band included Kenny Baker, Laddy Busby, Freddy Gardner, Cyril Stapleton and Shearing. Later on that year he formed a band to play at the Astor Club. 

                              

In the 50s, Weir led a large string orchestra, playing popular music and novelty items. Also in the 50s, he toured the variety theatres and dancehalls and made several popular records. Among these ‘My Son, My Son’, recorded with Vera Lynn, and which appeared just outside the Top 20 in the Cash Box charts in 1954. 

Frank with Eartha Kitt.

His version of "The Happy Wanderer" became one of the most popular recordings of 1954, in both the UK and the US. It featured Weir's soprano saxophone solos between verses. It reached number 12 on the NME's short-lived "Best Selling Singles By British Artists" chart in 1954, on which "The Little Shoemaker" made #10 and "The Never Never Land" made number 4. Six years later, in 1960, he had his final hit with "Caribbean Honeymoon", which reached a peak position of number 42 on the UK Singles Chart. He tried something completely different in 1962 with the exotic, rocking "Manhunt," a Philips release credited to Frank Weir and his Werewolves. 

Frank Weir with Victor Cheeseman 1961

Despite his burst of commercial success in the fifties, Frank Weir continued to lead dance bands of varying combinations until his death in Chelsea, London, on the 12th May, 1981

(Edited from liner notes by Gerald Heath, Wikipedia, AllMusic & IMDB)  

Terry Morel born 29 January 1925

Terry Morel ( January 29,1925 – June, 24, 2005) was an American West coast jazz singer active in the 1950s and early 60s. 

Born Florence Cohen, in Philadelphia on January 29, 1925, Terry Morel was a gifted vocalist who always seemed to find steady work in her native Philadelphia, ever since her professional debut in 1949. She was half of a team of nightclub performers called Don and Terry, and for a good six years they did special material and musical comedy tunes, with successful appearances at nightclubs all over the East Coast. 

This wasn't quite enough for Terry though, because loved jazz, and wanted to sing the songs she liked, the way she liked. So she gave up a successful gig in a field she didn't really enjoy, to become a single, a jazz singer. It was not an easy path. The already crowded field had a limited audience at best, and bookings weren't easy to come by. 

She took that new step in her career backed by a new local trio headed by 24-year-old pianist Tony Luis, and ably supported Ron Andrews on bass and Hank Nanni on drums. Despite his age, Luis had already showed he was an inventive jazz soloist. Aside from his individual qualities, he was also an accomplished accompanist, the perfect complement to Terry's voice, and so they immediately got an audience wherever they went. 

                    

As a result of the numerous requests for records from Terry's fans, the Prestige label rushed to record an EP of her with Tony Luis' Trio in March 1955. We find Terry singing with warm tenderness in four well known standards arranged by Luis. His backing is tastefully simple, and he swings with thoughtful conception during his only solo of the set in “But Not for Me.” There isn't a single frantic moment, and an aura of musical confidence permeates these pleasant sides. 

Less than a year later, Bethlehem Records made the most of the fact that Terry was performing at the Montclair Supper club in Jackson Heights, New York, and arranged to record her right then and there. The label brought in sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder to capture Terry's live performance, who carefully chose the best songs after the set. The whole endeavour saw the light in the album "Songs of a Woman In Love." 

Ralph Sharon

Terry is serene and wistful in her interpretation. She swings lightly with a husky, pleasant voice, and with warmth, closeness, a feeling for words and melody. The Ralph Sharon trio, with Ralph at the piano, Jay Cave on bass and Christy Febbo on drums, provided some rhythmic structure, while the ever-inventive Herbie Mann contributed the distinguished flute passages that blend sowell into the vocal moods Terry creates. 

In May 1957, Terry traveled to the West Coast for the first time, and appeared as a guest vocalist on the popular television show 'Stars of Jazz,' singing with the trio of pianist Gerald Wiggins. The following week she could be found on Steve Allen's Tonight. In November she was invited to Stars of Jazz once again, and this second time she was interviewed by the great songwriter Johnny Mercer, who acted as the temporary host and replacement of Bobby Troup, who was on holidays. In her appearance, she sang two popular standards with lyrics by Mercer, “Day In, Day Out” and “Skylark,” where she achieved a light and dreamy atmosphere with some nice shades.

Johnny Mercer

As Mercer said: “We think that Terry is a very fine jazz singer indeed.” In her appearance, she sang two popular standards with lyrics by Mercer, “Day In, Day Out” and “Skylark,” where she achieved a light and dreamy atmosphere with some nice shades. 

Morel had come back East and sang at the 1961 Newport Jazz Festival All Stars after being invited by George Wein. As Terry herself pointed out, she got good reviews, especially from Nels Nelson, who observed that she hadn't been wasting her time on the West Coast. Whatever the case, Morel was home. In 1965 and 1966 she was again gigging around Philadelphia; in Wilmington DE; at Henry's in Haddonfield, NJ; and even singing in the lounge at the Latin Casino in Jersey when Nancy Wilson was the headliner. Yet, for all that, she hadn't gotten much beyond the cabaret gigs that she was doing in the late 1940s and the British Invasion was in full swing, turning the world of pop music upside down and dealing a body blow to jazz. 

The gigs started to diminish so she had to stop singing to obtain a liveable income. She held various jobs which included being a phone solicitor, an assistant at Schwab's drugstore on Sunset from 1967 to 1970 and also at astore called Harold's Place from 1975 to 1981. It's been many years since her television broadcasts, and except for a 1973 chorus background to a Jack Sheldon vocal performance of Bob Dorough's tune “Conjunction-Junction,” for the animated musical educational TV series for children Schoolhouse Rock!, little else is known about Terry Morel, who died from cancer on June 24, 2005. She was cremated and there is no grave site to visit. Her death certificate simply gave her occupation as "Singer." 

(Taken from liner notes by Jordi Pujol with additional editing from All About Jazz) (Photographs are very scarce)

Kathy Linden born 1938

 

Kathy Linden (born 1938) is an American pop singer, mainly active in the 1950s. She is known for her Top 20 Billboard hits, “Billy” and “Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye”. The childlike-voiced singer also had scored Top 100 hits such as “You Don’t Know Girls” (#92) and “You’d Be Surprised” (#50). 

Linden was born as Marion Londres in Moorestown, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Burlingtown, living on the town’s Elm Avenue. Although her exact date of birth remains unknown, according to most sources she was born in 1938. Kathy developed an early interest in music, danced ballet-style on stage at age four, took piano lessons during first grade and sang for an audience a few years later, then gravitated towards the violin and spent her high school years playing and singing with an all-girl string quintet called the Singing Strings. 

The Singing Strings. (Kathy far right).

She attended the University of New Hampshire Summer Youth Music School in 1954, was a soprano soloist with the All State Chorus in 1955, and studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. As featured vocal soloist with the Singing Strings, she appeared in many well-known spots in Philadelphia and New Jersey. She also sang with several local bands. 

At 19, she was discovered by record producer and trumpeter Joe Leahy when she auditioned for him. He was so intrigued with her sound that he recorded her and her first release was "It's Just My Luck to Be Fifteen." He transferred her recording contract to Felsted Records, a subsidiary of London Records which had just set up shop that year. She debuted on Felsted with "Billy". "Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye" became an international hit, not least in Sweden, where Linden's version peaked at no 3, where it stayed for many weeks in September and October 1959. 

                              

At the time of her first hit single Kathy was a married woman in her 20s, but her record company wanted her to appear as a child due to her childish voice. Largely because Kathy wanted to record country music and to work with the top creative people in that field, she signed with Monument Records in 1960. 

While recording at their RCA Studios, Kathy was backed by the absolute cream-of-the-crop personnel including guitarist Chet Atkins, pianist Floyd Cramer, saxaphonist Boots Randolph, bass player Bob Moore and the Anita Kerr Singers. Several songs that Kathy recorded in Nashville became regional hits, most notably "Midnight" - her personal favourite - which was written by Chet Atkins and Boudleaux Bryant and, according to Kathy, is still getting significant airplay in Texas. 

Kathy moved to California in 1961 and re-united with Joe Leahy, releasing "Put This Ring On My Finger," a song that she wrote by herself, on the R.P.C. label: it received a lot of regional attention across the country. She then signed with Capitol Records in Hollywood. After a few releases, she decided to retire from show business. She lived on a ranch with her husband and their three sons. They had three horses and her favorite was Shane. Her greatest joy during those years was riding Shane on an English saddle all over the valleys and mountains near their ranch. 

In 2015, Linden gave her first and only radio interview since her retirement. She told former Casey Kasem interviewer Ronnie Allen that her life had changed enormously around 1980 when she became a Christian and started writing inspirational songs and singing and leading worship at many churches. In 1985, she was interviewed and sang on the Joy Program on TV. In 1992, she made a pilgrimage to Israel and led worship on the boat on the Sea of Galilee. She also led worship in both maximum and minimum security prisons of Southern California for three years. 

In 2019, Linden recorded a new album of original inspirational, country and instrumental songs called The Love That's In My Heart, her first release in more than 55 years. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Jersey Girls Sing  & Way Back Attack)

Smokey Hogg born 27 January 1914

Andrew "Smokey" Hogg (January 27, 1914 – May 1, 1960) was an American post-war Texas blues and country blues musician navigating a post-war era infatuated by R&B, but he got along quite nicely nonetheless, scoring a pair of major R&B hits in 1948 and 1950 and cutting a thick catalogue for a slew of labels. 

Hogg was born near Westconnie, Texas, and grew up on a farm. He was taught to play the guitar by his father, Frank Hogg. In 1927 he fell in love with his “little schoolgirl”, 15 year old Bertha Blanton. They married in 1932.  A son was born in 1933, but they split up the following year.  While still in his teens he teamed up with the slide guitarist and vocalist B. K. Turner, also known as Black Ace, and the pair travelled together, playing a circuit of turpentine and logging camps, country dance halls and juke joints around Kilgore, Tyler, Greenville and Palestine, in East Texas.

In 1937, Decca Records brought Hogg and Black Ace to Chicago to record. Hogg's first record, "Family Trouble Blues" backed with "Kind Hearted Blues", was released under the name of Andrew Hogg. It was an isolated occurrence — he did not make it back into a recording studio for over a decade. By the early 1940s, Hogg was married and making a good living busking around the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, Texas. While in Dallas he met his second wife, Doris Louise McMillan, who gave birth to his second son and last child in 1944. 

Hogg was drafted in the mid-1940s. After a brief spell with the U.S. military, he continued working in the Dallas area, where he was becoming well known. In 1947 he came to the attention of Herbert T. Rippa Sr., the head of the Dallas-based record label Bluebonnet Records, who recorded several sides with him and leased the masters to Modern Records. 

                              

The first release on Modern was the Big Bill Broonzy song "Too Many Drivers". It sold well enough that Modern brought Hogg to Los Angeles to cut more sides with their team of studio musicians. These songs included his two biggest hits, "Long Tall Mama" in 1949 and another Broonzy tune, "Little School Girl." 

In January 1950, "Little School Girl" reached number 5 on the Billboard Retail R&B chart and number 9 on the Most Played Juke Box R&B chart. His two-part "Penitentiary Blues" (1952) was a remake of the prison song "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos". Hogg recorded a good many songs by blues singers who were popular in his and their day. 

Big Bill Broonzy and Peetie Wheatstraw and Black Ace were clearly the artists he most admired, but most of his recordings were his own compositions, with lyrics that often appear to be created spontaneously. Hogg’s playing tended to be rhythmically inconsistent; author and critic Peter Guralnick observed that “there is never any beat as such to Smokey Hogg’s music, though a pulse can sometimes be detected”. His music was popular with record buyers in the South during the late 1940s and early 1950s. 

Between 1947 and 1957 Hogg recorded prolifically for a host of labels, mostly West Coast, such as Combo, Ebb, Exclusive, Fidelity, Imperial, Jade, Meteor, Ray’s, Recorded in Hollywood, Show Time and Specialty, but also Bullet in Nashville and Macy’s, Mercury and Sittin’ In With in Houston. The company which recorded him most heavily was Los Angeles-based Modern Records, which meant that he had to spend long periods on the West Coast, leaving his wife and son in Dallas. The stresses of this way of life probably contributed to the failure of his second marriage around 1951. 

By his own account, Hogg had a girlfriend in all the major cities that he frequented, but nevertheless considered himself unlucky in love, no doubt because of the failure of his two marriages. He became an alcoholic but continued to work the party and juke joint circuit in Texas and the west coast of California until he died in McKinney, Texas of a haemorrhaging ulcer, on 1 May 1960, at the age of 46. 

Hogg was reputed to be a cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins and to be distantly related to Alger "Texas" Alexander, but both claims are ambiguous. However he did have a cousin named John Hogg who was also a blues musician; he recorded for Mercury Records in 1951.Smokey Hogg should is not to be confused with Willie "Smokey" Hogg, a musician based in New York City in the 1960s. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Ace Records, AllMusic & The Blues Trail) 

Norma Tanega born 26 January 1939

Norma Cecilia Tanega (January 30, 1939 – December 29, 2019) was an American folk and pop singer-songwriter, painter, and experimental musician. In the 1960s, she had a hit with the single "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" and wrote songs for Dusty Springfield and other prominent musicians. In later decades, Tanega worked mostly as a percussionist, playing various styles of music in the bands Baboonz, hybridVigor, and Ceramic Ensemble. 

Tanega was born in Vallejo, California in 1939, to a Panamanian mother and a Filipino father who was a bandmaster for the United States Navy and eventually led his own band after 30 years of service. After moving to Long Beach at age two, she started classical piano lessons at age nine. She was equally passionate about visual art, and directed her high school's art gallery during her senior year. She attended Scripps College on a full scholarship and earned her MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1962. 

With her studies completed, Tanega traveled Europe and then moved to New York City. Living in Greenwich Village, she became a part of the thriving folk music scene. Along with working at a mental hospital, where she'd perform songs for the patients, Tanega also worked summers as a music counsellor at a camp in the Catskill Mountains. Producer Herb Bernstein saw her perform there and introduced her to producer and songwriter Bob Crewe, most famous for his work with the Four Seasons. Tanega signed to Crewe's New Voice label in 1965 and released her debut single, "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog," in 1966. Inspired by her real-life pet (which she owned because her apartment building didn't allow dogs), the song mixed folk-rock with New York pop-soul production. It became an international hit, reaching number three in Canada and peaking at number 22 on the U.S. and U.K. charts. The song's popularity spawned covers by Barry McGuire, Art Blakey, and the Jazz Crusaders, as well as versions in Danish, Dutch, and French. 

                              

To promote "Walkin" and her full-length album -- also called Walkin' My Cat Named Dog -- Tanega appeared on American Bandstand and Where the Action Is and was the sole female performer on a North American tour that included Gene Pitney, Chad & Jeremy, and Bobby Goldsboro on the line-up. Later in 1966, she toured England and performed on the TV show Ready, Steady, Go!, where she met Dusty Springfield. 

The pair hit it off, and Tanega moved to London to be with Springfield. Along with painting, Tanega spent her time writing songs, many of which Springfield recorded. These included "No Stranger Am I," which first appeared on Walkin' My Cat Named Dog, and "Come for a Dream," which Tanega co-wrote with Antônio Carlos Jobim. 

She worked with Blossom Dearie on a song that appeared on Dearie's 1970 album That's Just the Way I Want to Be, and also pursued her own music career. Working with the Viscounts' Don Paul and producer/keyboardist Mike Moran, she recorded her second album, 1971's I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile, a set of songs inspired by her relationship with Springfield that added touches of psych-rock to her sound. However, the album didn't repeat Tanega's earlier chart success, and by 1972, her relationship with Springfield was over, although they remained friends until Dusty’s death in 1999. 

Tanega returned to Claremont, Califiornia and took jobs teaching both music and English as a second language. She returned to painting and exhibiting her artwork. Musically she switched from playing guitar to percussion and her style evolved from folk-rock singer-songwriting to more instrumental and experimental music. In the 1980s she was a member of Scripps ceramics professor Brian Ransom's Ceramic Ensemble, a group that played Ransom's handmade earthenware instruments. Over the years Ceramic Ensemble played at universities, folk festivals, and art museums. 

In the 1990s Tanega founded the group hybridVigor, starting as a duo with Mike Henderson for their first album, then expanding to a trio with the addition of Rebecca Jamm for their second album. In 1998 Tanega formed the Latin Lizards with Robert Grajeda, and the duo released the album Dangerous in 2003. Her next band was called Baboonz with guitarist Tom Skelly and bassist Mario Verlangieri. The trio released a self-titled CD in 2008, the album HA! In 2009, and a third called 8 Songs Ate Brains in 2010. Other recording projects soon followed, including the album Push with John Zeretzke, Twin Journey with Steve Rushingwind Ruiz, and a return collaboration with Ceramic Ensemble sound sculptor Brian Ransom for their album Internal Medicine. 

In 2014, her profile got another boost with the use of her song "You're Dead" in the vampire mockumentary film What We Do in the Shadows. The historic preservation center Claremont Heritage held an exhibition of her paintings in 2018. A year later, Tanega passed from colon cancer at age 80. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia) 

Benny Golson born 25 January 1929

Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. 

Benjamin Golson grew up in Philadelphia where, as a teenager, he played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and Red Rodney. 

After graduating from Howard University, which had a conservative music program that insisted on Golson playing clarinet, he left in 1951 to play in guitarist Tiny Grimes’ group. Next he joined Bull Moose Jackson’s R&B band where he became friends with his idol, Tadd Dameron, whom Golson came to consider the most important influence on his writing, was Jackson's pianist at the time. From 1953 Golson played with Dameron's band. 

It was while he was working with the Lionel Hampton band at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1956 that he learned that Clifford Brown, a noted and well-liked jazz trumpeter who had done a stint with him in Dameron's band, had died in a car accident. Golson was so moved by the event that he composed the threnody "I Remember Clifford", as a tribute to a fellow musician and friend. In addition, many of Golson's other compositions have become jazz standards. Songs such as "Stablemates", "Killer Joe", "Whisper Not", "Along Came Betty", and "Are You Real?", have been performed and recorded numerous times by many musicians. 

                              

Golson also worked with the bands of Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic and Dizzy Gillespie. From 1959 to 1962, Golson co-led the Jazztet with Art Farmer. Golson then immersed himself in studying composition and orchestrating and went to Hollywood in 1967 where he wrote commercials for products and companies from Borateem to Texaco, scored TV shows such as M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible, and The Partridge Family, and composed or arranged for musicians as diverse as Mama Cass and Itzhak Perlman. He also formulated and conducted arrangements to various recordings, such as Eric Is Here, a 1967 album by Eric Burdon, which features five of Golson's arrangements, conducted by Golson. 

As Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television, he was less active as a performer, but during the mid-1970s, Golson returned to jazz playing and recording. In 1982, Golson re-organized the Jazztet with Art Farmer.Touring in Japan, Europe, and the United States, Golson impressed listeners with a sound that had harder edges as compared with his previous efforts. From the 1980s onward, Golson divided his time between the United States and Europe, and many of his recordings were first released on Japanese labels. 

Golson has been honoured with over a dozen doctorates, toured on behalf of the State Department, and has had his commissioned concerto for bass and chamber orchestra, “Two Faces,” performed at Lincoln Center. His compositions such as “Killer Joe,” “Stablemates,” and “Whisper Not” have become part of the jazz canon along with “I Remember Clifford” which was choreographed by Twyla Tharp and performed by her ballet company in 1995. He received a Guggenheim Grant in 1995, was given an American Jazz Masters Award by the NEA in 1996, and honoured at Lincoln Center in 2001 with a concert, “The Magic of Benny Golson.” 

Golson made a cameo appearance in the 2004 movie The Terminal, related to his appearance in "A Great Day in Harlem", a group photograph of prominent jazz musicians. Golson's song "Something in B Flat" (from the album Benny Golson's New York Scene) can be heard during the film and in a later scene, Golson's band performs "Killer Joe". 

In October 2007, Golson received the Mellon Living Legend Legacy Award, presented by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center. Additionally, during the same month, he won the University of Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award at the university's 37th Annual Jazz Concert in the Carnegie Music Hall. In November 2009, Golson was inducted into the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame, during a performance at the University of Pittsburgh's annual jazz seminar and concert. On March 14, 2021, at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, The Recording Academy selected Arkadia Records recording artist Benny Golson with its 2021 Special Merit Award, The Lifetime Achievement Award. 

He has recorded over 30 albums for many recording companies in the United States and Europe under his own name and innumerable ones with other major artists. A prodigious writer, Golson has written well over 300 compositions. A live performer who consistently knocks audiences off their feet, Benny Golson has given hundreds of performances in USA, Europe, South America, Far East and Japan for decades. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & allAbout Jazz)

 

Joe Albany born 24 January 1924

Joe Albany (January 24, 1924 – January 12, 1988) was considered something of a legend in modern jazz and one of the first important bebop pianists. As with many others, critics never acknowledged his talents in the beginning of his career.

Rumored to have been Charlie Parker's favorite pianist, Joe Albany was renowned in his time. After a lengthy seclusion from the scene, he resurfaced in the 70s just in time to leave some lasting recordings. 

Looking at pianist Joe Albany's life in hindsight, it is miraculous that he lived to almost reach 64. Serious problems with drugs and alcohol resulted in a series of harrowing incidents and his domestic life would never be described as tranquil (his second wife committed suicide while his third almost died from a drug overdose). Albany's life was so erratic that he only recorded once during 1947-1971. However, Joe Albany's real importance is as one of the early bop pianists. 

Born Joseph Albani, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Albany played the accordion as a child, he switched to piano in high school and in 1942 joined Leo Watson's group. By 1943, he was working on the West Coast in Benny Carter's orchestra. In 1946 he at least once played with Parker and then 20-year-old Miles Davis. Albany's live recordings with Parker and some brilliant studio sides with Lester Young in 1946 (the latter later reissued on Blue Note) were the high points of his career. 

                              

              Here's !Over The Rainbow" from above album.

There is not much information on him until his first recording as a co-leader doing a quartet set “The Right Combination,” recorded in 1957  with an unusual trio line-up with saxophonist Warne Marsh and Bob Whitlock on bass, omitting a drummer. Despite that, most of the 1950s and 1960s saw him battling a heroin addiction, or living in seclusion in Europe. 

Other than a short stint with Charles Mingus in the mid-'60s, it was not until 1972 that Albany started to have a comeback and played on more than ten albums. He recorded a set with violinist Joe Venuti and was a leader on albums for Revelation, Horo, Inner City, SeaBreeze, and Interplay. 

Albany’s solo sets included a date from Milan, Italy; “This Is For My Friends,” (’74) “Plays George Gershwin” and “Bruce Lane,” made in Paris.(’76) “The Albany Touch,” ('77) on Seabreeze, was recorded in California. There was a duo “Joe + Joe,” ('74) done in Rome with Joe Venuti. He went back to leading a trio that also included bassist Art Davis and drummer Roy Haynes, on “Bird Lives!” from a New York date in '79. “Portrait Of An Artist,” from '81 on Elektra finds Joe teamed with George Duvivier, Charlie Persip, and Al Gofa on guitar. This would be his last recording. 

Albany was the focus of a 1980 documentary titled, Joe Albany... A Jazz Life. His daughter Amy-Jo wrote a memoir about her father called Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood. The book was adapted for the screen and released in 2014 as the biopic Low Down. 

Joe was also the biological father to Benjamin David Goldberg, who was adopted by another family shortly after being born. Benjamin David was also a musician, who studied percussion at Juilliard, played for Broadway shows and was in the US Army Band. 

Albany died of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest in New York City, January 12, 1988, at the age of 63.

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & All About Jazz)