Chuck Wilson born 31 July 1948

Charles Dee “Hurl” Wilson (July 31, 1948 – October 16, 2018) was an American jazz alto saxophonist.

Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, Wilson began playing saxophone at age 11, and led his own trio while still in high school. He attended North Texas State University and spent much of his career in various big band ensembles. 

He was with Jerry Gray at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas around 1972, and following the leader's death in 1976, he played with Buddy Rich from 1977 to 1980. He did much studio work in New York City in the 1980s, on clarinet and flute in addition to saxophone. He played with Tito Puente in 1980–81, Gerry Mulligan from 1981 to 1989, Bob Wilber (1983), Loren Schoenberg (1984), Benny Goodman's last ensemble (1985–86), Buck Clayton (1986–90), and Walt Levinsky. He was with Howard Alden and Dan Barrett's quintet (also known as ABQ) from 1985 to 1991. 

The ABQ played often at clubs in and around NYC and at jazz events around the country. In their heyday, they traveled to England, Ireland, and Europe, and recorded two CDs for Concord Records (and one for Arbors Records).

After 1996 he led Chuck Wilson and Friends with Alden, Murray Wall, and Joel Helleny. In recent years he could often be heard sitting in with Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks and the EarRegulars, with Corin Stiggall and Carol Morgan. In August 2016 he played with Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band. 

Chuck was also an active member of the AAA Astrophotography group, and often met up with friends at various photo expeditions in Central Park, Jenny Jump or North South Lake. Early in 2018 Chuck was being treated for various problems but continued to go to the meetings until June after which, due to various medical procedures, he could not attend. 

Chuck Wilson died on October 16, 2018 at the age of 70 in New York City while waiting for a liver transplant, he was 70 years old. 

(Scant information edited from Wikipedia & aaa.org)

Here’s "Diga Diga Doo" by Terry Waldo's Gotham City Band. Terry Waldo, piano / leader; Chuck Wilson, alto saxophone; Jim Fryer, trombone; Jay Leonhart, string bass; Jay Lepley, drums.  Recorded on Sunday, August 14, 2016, at Fat Cat (75 Christopher Street) by Michael Steinman for Jazz Lives.

Michael Burks born 30 July 1957

Michael Burks (July 30, 1957 – May 6, 2012) was an American electric blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his tracks, "Everybody's Got Their Hand Out", "I Smell Smoke" and "Hard Come, Easy Go", and variously worked with Johnnie Taylor, O. V. Wright, and Marquise Knox. He was the son of the bassist, Frederick Burks. 

The Allmusic journalist, Tim Sheridan once noted "... while his vocals are not stellar, he has a rich, gritty quality to his singing that is nicely matched to his guitar playing." Burks was known as 'Iron Man' for his energetic and passion filled performances on stage. He was nominated five times for a Blues Music Award and, in 2004, Living Blues presented him with the Critics' Award for Best Guitarist. 

Burks was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, and had a musical heritage. His father played the bass guitar, and performed with Sonny Boy Williamson II, whilst his grandfather had played in a delta blues style. Burks junior had learned to play the guitar by the age of five. His father would often give his young son incentive to learn songs by offering him a dollar for each tune he could successfully figure out from beginning to end. A year later he made his performance debut in front of an audience, when he joined a cousin’s band on stage. 

In the early 1970s, Burks moved with his family to Camden, Arkansas. It was there that Burks and his father built a 300-seater juke joint named the Bradley Ferry Country Club, where Burks duly led the house band. Tables near the stage had to be reserved two weeks in advance. His status as a local celebrity was further heightened by his success at rebuilding and racing motorcycles. 

Michael, with a new baby daughter to raise, wanted a stable home life and a steady paycheck. He took a job as a mechanical technician for Lockheed-Martin. But his desire to perform persisted, and in 1994 he formed a new band and began playing clubs and regional festivals. Despite his not having a record deal, the high-powered energy of Michael's performances began to earn him festival offers from Florida to California. Fortunately, Michael's boss was a blues lover. He recognized Michael's ability and encouraged it, giving Burks the flexibility of long weekends in order to tour. On more than a few occasions, Lockheed even entertained its clients by flying them to Michael's festival appearances. 

                Here’s “Cross Eyed Woman” from above album.

                              

Burks self-released his debut CD, From The Inside Out, in 1997. His impassioned, string-bending solos, combined with his fiery tone and smoldering vocals, left no doubt that Michael Burks was an emotionally-charged blues powerhouse. Critics and fans loved what they heard. Living Blues rated it as one of "the best debut discs of the year." In 2000, Burks received a Blues Music Award nomination for Best New Artist, even though he was already a hard-working professional. 

It had become clear that Burks needed to pursue his musical career full-time once again. Fueled by a tank full of positive reviews, Michael began to play more festivals than ever before, appearing at the Chicago Blues Festival, Telluride Blues Festival, Mississippi Valley Blues Festival and Kalamazoo Blues Festival, and making headlining appearances at the Mississippi Muddy Waters Blues Festival, Arkansas River Blues Festival and the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival, among others. After his powerful set at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival, Iglauer signed him to Alligator on the spot. 

With Make It Rain, his 2001 Alligator debut, Burks achieved well-deserved national and international acclaim and became one of the blues world's fastest-rising stars. He immediately hit the road in support of the CD, bringing his blistering blues to fans across the country, throughout Europe, and even to Australia. I Smell Smoke followed in 2003, and five years later Burks issued what turned out to be the final album in his lifetime, Iron Man, named for his long held nickname.

Burks was a regular performer at the King Biscuit Blues Festival. He also appeared at Memphis in May in 2004 and 2009. Burks had completed recording his fifth album, which was due to be released in July 2012. On May 6, 2012, upon returning from a tour of Europe, Burks collapsed at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He was shortly after pronounced dead from a heart attack, at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, aged 54. 

In 2013, Burks took the Blues Music Award "Contemporary Blues Album of the Year" and "Album of the Year" categories with his posthumous release, Show Of Strength. Another posthumous CD was released in 2016, I'm A Bluesman. With taste, melodicism, and always in full command of his mighty guitar playing and soul-baring, fervent vocals, Michael "Iron Man" Burks leaves a legacy of extraordinary music. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Alligator.com) 

Jim Galloway born 28 July 1936

James Braidie Galloway (28 July 1936 – 30 December 2014) was a jazz clarinet and saxophone player. He based his career in Canada after emigrating from Scotland in the mid-1960s. 

Fifty years in Canada did nothing to blunt Jim Galloway’s Ayrshire accent, but having a West of Scotland accent in no way blunted his ability to play saxophone as if he had been born in New Orleans, like his idol Sidney Bechet.  His preferred territory lay somewhere between Dixieland and swing, though he was somewhat impatient with category and managed to strike up a long-standing relationship with the Oklahoman pianist and singer Jay “Hooty” McShann, who became a stalwart of Kansas City jazz and is often seen as a precursor of bebop. Galloway’s place in Canadian jazz, and his access to changing styles in the music, came through the Toronto Jazz Festival, which he helped to found and of which he was artistic director for more than two decades. 

James Braidie Galloway was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire and grew up in Dalry, Scotland. He attended Dalry High School from 1948 to 1954 before moving to Glasgow to study Commercial and Graphic Art at the Glasgow School of Art. He graduated in 1958 and subsequently attended the Glasgow Provincial Teacher Training College, before accepting a teaching position at the Strathbungo Senior Secondary School from 1959 to 1964. While in Glasgow, Galloway began playing Jazz - first clarinet and then saxophone - with Alex Dagleish’s Scottish All Stars and then with his own Jazzmakers. 

In 1964, Galloway emigrated to Canada, where he quickly became an active member of the local Toronto Jazz scene. He served as a booking agent for a number of prominent Toronto Jazz clubs - including the Cafe des Copains (later the Montreal Bistro) and the Bourbon St. Room. He also established himself as an accomplished performing saxophonist. In addition to playing with well-known members of the international Jazz scene - including Jay McShann and Wild Bill Davison - Galloway played in and then led The Metro Stompers Jazz band.  Though he continued for a time to play other horns, he began to focus on the soprano, often favouring a curved rather than the more usual straight model. “A sax shouldn’t be longer than your necktie, in my opinion”, he once said.

Jim with Kenny Stewart Trio

In the early 1970s Galloway was recording for the Canadian-based Sackville label, an imprint that combined an interest in roots jazz and blues with a strong reputation for avant-garde releases. In 1973 he made Three’s Company with pianist Dick Wellstood and worked again with the pianist (who doubled on an electric instrument) on the fine Walking On Air. He went on tour in Europe and the United States with Buddy Tate in the mid-1970s, and soon after formed the Wee Big Band in 1978. 

                              

A compilation of Sackville material from the 1970s was called Music Is My Life; it featured performances with Wellstood, McShann, a visiting Humphrey Lyttelton and local stalwarts guitarist Ed Bickert and bassist Don Thompson, the latter one of the few to keep pace with Galloway’s rapid-fire Scottish patter. Other eminent collaborators included the cornetist Wild Bill Davison and the Russian-born Chicago pianist Art Hodes. Galloway recorded many jazz albums, both with his own band and in collaboration with other well-known jazz musicians. His album Walking on Air was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the Juno Awards of 1980. 

Jim with Oscar Peterson

Galloway became involved with what was originally known as Du Maurier Downtown Jazz in Toronto and became an energetic supporter. A colleague on the committee, Fay Olson, said, “Toronto wouldn’t have a jazz festival if it weren’t for Jim”. Where others doubted, Galloway sought practical solutions. He was an expert communicator and presented Jazz.FM91’s Journeys In Jazz programme and hosted CKFM’s Alive! from 1981 to 1987, when he became artistic director of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival. He also performed at festivals in Europe. 

His own Wee Big Band and Jazz Canada were occasional groupings that should have been encouraged to record more but they were regular features of jazz in Toronto and across the country. It was a perfect compromise for Galloway, a personnel small enough to tour or to fit into a club like the Café des Copains but large enough to deliver what Galloway liked to describe, with an enthusiastic grimace, as “oomph”. Partly through the group, partly through his role with the Toronto Jazz Festival, he built strong relationships with a widening pool of like-minded players, including fellow saxophonist Fraser McPherson, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Don Vickery. 

Jim and his wife Anne

In 1993 Galloway was profiled on CBC. In 2002, he was made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Seven years later, he stood down as artistic director of the Toronto Jazz Festival. His last really distinctive recording was Echoes of Swing in 2003, on which he played a baritone saxophone that was considerably larger than a necktie. His health failed subsequently and he died on 30 December 2014 while receiving palliative care, following months of illness at the home in Toronto he shared with his second wife, Anne Page, just before what he never stopped referring to as Hogmanay. 

(Edited from Brian Morton article @ The Independent &  York University) 

Moses Rascoe born 27 July 1917

 Moses Rascoe (27 July 1917 - 6 March 1994) was an American blues singer and guitarist.

Moses Lee Rascoe was born in Windsor, North Carolina. His father played harmonica and his mother piano. He got his first guitar 13 first playing the streets and then juke joints. He hoboed around the South and moved to York, Pennsylvania in 1940. 

Incredibly it wasn’t until some 50-odd years later that he turned professional. In between, he traveled the roads as a day labourer and truck driver, playing guitar only for "a dollar or a drink," as he told Jack Roberts in Living Blues.

For most of his life making a living at music was the furthest from his mind. “I heard tell of so many people that had got beat out of their money” Roscoe explained, “that I said forget it. They were’nt going to beat me out of anything”.  

But he'd picked up plenty of songs over the years, from old Brownie McGhee Piedmont blues to Jimmy Reed's '50s jukebox hits, and when he retired from trucking for the Allied Van Lines at the age of 65, he gave his music a shot. With a mellow baritone voice and finger picking his 6- and 12-string guitars, Rascoe told simple stories in the blues and gospel tradition. 

The local folk-music community took notice, as did blues and folk festivals from Chicago to Europe. Rascoe recorded his only album live at Godfrey Daniels, a Pennsylvania coffeehouse, in 1987 which was produced by Radio DJ Gene Shay for Flying Fish records. After which he was in demand, appearing at the Newport Folk Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival. 

He continued performing up until he died at the Vetrans Administration Medical Cenrer, Lebanon, Pennsylvania on 6 March 1994. He was buried at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Annville. 

(Scarce information edited from AllMusic , Jook Right On & New Folk Music) 

Brenton Wood born 26 July 1941

Alfred Jesse Smith (born July 26, 1941), better known as Brenton Wood, is an American singer and songwriter known for his two 1967 hit singles, "The Oogum Boogum Song" and "Gimme Little Sign". 

Wood was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. The family moved to San Pedro in Los Angeles, California, when Wood was a child. He attended San Pedro High School for part of his first year before moving to Compton, where Brenton became a member of the Compton High School track team and received several awards for his athletic achievements. 

Following his high school graduation, Wood enrolled in East Los Angeles College. During this period, his musical interests began to manifest themselves. He was inspired by Jesse Belvin and Sam Cooke, and he began cultivating his songwriting skills, also becoming a competent pianist. 

He began forming vocal groups. Using his real name, Alfred Smith, he made his first recording in 1958 as a member of a group billed as Little Freddy with the Rockets, having co written their single "All My Love," a doo wop ballad released in 1958 on the Chief label. While he was studying at Compton College, he assumed the name Brenton Wood, naming himself after his home county. Wood formed the Quotations during college, but soon after graduation he became a solo act. 

                              

Early singles for Brent Records and Wand Records failed to chart. Wood signed with Double Shot Records, and his novelty song "The Oogum Boogum Song", reached No. 19 on the US Billboard R&B chart and No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1967. In Southern California, "The Oogum Boogum Song" hit the top 10 on KGB-FM and No. 1 on KHJ. 

Wood's biggest hit came a few months later, as "Gimme Little Sign" hit No. 9 on the pop chart, No. 19 on the R&B charts, No. 2 on KHJ, and No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart; sold over one million copies; and was awarded a gold disc. The title is not actually sung in the song; the chorus instead repeats "Give Me Some Kind of Sign". Wood's "Baby You Got It" (1967) peaked at No. 34 on the Hot 100 during the last week of 1967 and No. 3 on KHJ on January 31, 1968. 

A true music entrepreneur, in 1972 he formed his own record label and released, co-produced and co-wrote the Funk Soul classic "Sticky Boom Boom [Too Cold] Part I and II" with collaborators George Semper (co-producer, arranger) and Al McKay (co-writer, performer) of Earth, Wind & Fire fame. Wood recorded a duet with Shirley Goodman. His next solo song to reach the charts was "Come Softly to Me" in 1977. Following its release, Wood became part of the oldies soul circuit. 

He returned again in 1986 with the album Out of the Woodwork, which included contemporary re-recordings of his early hits, along with several new tracks, including the single, "Soothe Me". His album This Love Is for Real came out in 2001. Among his later appearances was in 2006 on the Los Angeles public access program Thee Mr. Duran Show, where Wood and his band performed several of his hit singles. 

In 2014, he partnered with William Pilgrim & The All Grows Up for a remake of the song "Gimme Little Sign" on their album, Epic Endings. In 2019, "The Oogum Boogum Song" was used in a commercial for Kinder Joy products. He is still performing and is currently touring. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Songkick) 

Don Ellis born 25 July 1934

Donald Johnson Ellis (July 25, 1934 – December 17, 1978) was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his life he worked as a film composer, contributing a score to 1971's The French Connection and 1973's The Seven-Ups. 

Ellis was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 25, 1934. His father was a Methodist minister and his mother a church organist. He attended West High School in Minneapolis, MN. After attending a Tommy Dorsey Big Band concert, he first became interested in jazz. Other early inspirations were Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. He graduated from Boston University in 1956 with a music composition degree. 

Ellis' first job was with the late Glenn Miller's band, then directed by Ray McKinley. He stayed with the band until September 1956, when he joined the U.S. Army's Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and the Soldiers' Show Company. Ellis was transferred to Frankfurt, Germany for duty. In the Army band, Ellis met pianist Cedar Walton, and saxophonists Eddie Harris and Don Menza. While in that band Ellis had his first opportunity to compose and arrange for a big band. 

After two years, Don Ellis left the Army band and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. He was able to get some work, but mainly with dance bands and other local work. He toured briefly with bandleader Charlie Barnet and joined the Maynard Ferguson band in spring of 1959. He remained with Ferguson for nine months. Shortly thereafter, Ellis became involved in the New York City avant-garde jazz scene. He appeared on albums by Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, and George Russell, working in that sextet for two years. Under his own name, Ellis led several sessions with small groups between 1960 and 1962. The last one, Essence, was recorded in mid-July 1962. 

During 1963 in New York, Ellis formed the Improvisational Workshop Orchestra. Uunusual artistic devices were employed, such as performers using cards to determine event orders, and musicians using their instruments to interpret a painter's work. Some uncommon musical elements were employed, such as the use of Arabian rhythms and scales, and foot shuffling. However it was in 1965 when he put together his first orchestra that he really started to make an impression in jazz. 

Ellis's big bands were distinguished by their unusual instrumentation, the leader's desire to investigate unusual time changes (including 7/8, 9/8, and even 15/16), its occasionally wacky humour, and an openness towards using rock rhythms and (in later years) electronics. Ellis invented the four-valve trumpet and utilized a ring modulator and all types of wild electronic devices by the late '60s. Around this time, Columbia Records producer and A&R man John Hammond sought to recruit the band for the label. 

                              

The band was signed, and was in the studio in September 1967 to record Electric Bath, which was released the following year to wide acclaim, was nominated for a Grammy award, won the 1968 Down Beat "Album of the Year" award, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard jazz charts. The song "Indian Lady" became one of the band's most popular tunes. "Open Beauty" featured Ellis in an echoplex trumpet solo, an innovative combination of acoustic instruments and electronic technology. Ellis would record six other albums for Columbia and continue to develop the "electrophonic trumpet" over the next five years. 

By 1971, his band consisted of an eight-piece brass section (including French horn and tuba), a four-piece woodwind section, a string quartet, and a two-drum rhythm section. A later unrecorded edition even added a vocal quartet. In 1974, Ellis became interested in the music of Brazil, even studying Portuguese so as to better communicate with indigenous musicians. He led a live band around this time called the Organic Band, which was a stripped-down version of the Orchestra that had no electronic instrumentation or modification (save for amplification). The band also featured a vocal quartet. 

After suffering a mid-'70s heart attack, Ellis returned to live performing, playing the "superbone" and a later edition of his big band featured Art Pepper. Ellis's last known public performance took place on April 21, 1978, at the Westside Room in Century City. After this, his doctor ordered him to refrain from touring and playing trumpet because it was too stressful on his heart. 

On December 17, 1978, after seeing a Jon Hendricks concert, Ellis suffered a fatal heart attack at his North Hollywood home while making an early morning meal for his parents. His heart condition is believed to have been cardiac arrhythmia. He was 44. Ellis was buried in the Sheltering Hills section, of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, California. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Max D. Barnes born 24 July 1936

Max Duane Barnes (July 24, 1935 – January 11, 2004) was an American country singer and songwriter who may not have released many records, but he left an important mark on contemporary country music. As a songwriter, Barnes composed many familiar songs of the '80s and '90s, receiving 42 songwriter awards in his career. 

Barnes grew up in Iowa, receiving his first guitar from his sister Ruthie Steele at age 11. Shortly afterward, his parents were divorced. He moved to Omaha, NE, with his mother and two younger brothers. At 16, he dropped out of school and began singing in a local nightclub. During this time, he formed a band called the Golden Rockets, which featured his future wife, Patsy, as lead singer. Max and Patsy quit playing clubs after the birth of their son, Patrick. 

At first, Max worked for an Omaha concrete company, but the family soon moved to Long Beach, CA, where he was the foreman at a lamp factory. After a while, he quit, spending his summers in Omaha and his winters singing in California. By 1962, he saved up enough money to buy a nightclub near Lake Okiboji, IA, but he sold it after eight months. Again, the Barnes family moved back to Omaha, where Max spent nine years driving as a truck driver. 

He had his first country song published in Nashville in 1966, but his musical career didn't really begin until 1971, when he recorded a single for Jed, "Ribbons of Steel"/"Hello Honky Tonk." He followed it with "You Gotta Be Putting Me On"/"Growing Old With Grace," which was released on Willex. Following some words of encouragement from songwriter Kent Westberry, Barnes moved to Nashville in 1973. Barnes became a staff writer for Roz-Tense Music, which led to Charley Pride recording two of his songs. 

Soon, he moved to Gary S. Paxman Music, then to Danor Music. While he was with Danor, Barnes wrote nearly 30 songs recorded by other artists, including several hit singles; on one occasion, he had five of his songs on the charts simultaneously. He also co-wrote many songs with Troy Seals, one of the co-owners of the publishing company. Sadly, tragedy befell the Barnes family, as the eldest son, Patrick, died in a car accident in 1975. Max wrote about the incident on "Chiseled in Stone," which was co-written with Vern Gosdin, who had a hit with the song in 1989. 

                             

Artists like George Jones ("Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes"), Waylon Jennings ("Drinkin' and Dreamin'"), Conway Twitty ("Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night"), Keith Whitley ("Ten Feet Away"), Randy Travis ("I Won't Need You Anymore [Forever and Always]"), Vern Godsin ("Way Down Deep," "Slow Burnin' Memory"), Pam Tillis ("Don't Tell Me What to Do"), and Vince Gill ("Look at Us") have recorded his songs, as have many others. Although he has had a couple of minor hits himself (most notably "Allegheny Lady" in the mid-'70s), his true legacy lies in his songs, not his records. 

In 1976, Barnes signed a publishing deal with Screen Gems EMI, which helped him secure a recording contract with Polydor. Released the following year, Rough Around the Edges spawned the minor hit "Allegheny Lady," which scraped the bottom of the charts. If he didn't have hits with his own records, he did have hits with his songs, as Conway Twitty brought several of Barnes' songs to the charts, including the Loretta Lynn duets "I Can't Love You Enough" and "From Seven Till Ten," and the solo "Don't Take It Away," which hit number one. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. 

In 1973, Barnes moved with his family from Omaha, Nebraska to Nashville, Tennessee, where he died on January 11, 2004 of pneumonia at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He was 68 years old. His custom coffin bore two chrome exhaust pipes from a diesel truck. 

Of his songwriting method, he once said, "I try to write so there's no confusion. Country music is for ordinary people. That's what I am, and I don't ever want to get above that." 

(Edited from AllMusic ,Wikipedia & Nashville Songwriters Foundation)