John Phillips born 30 August 1935

 John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas and remains frequently referred to as Papa John Phillips. 

L-R clockwise top Mike Boran, John Phillips,
Scott Mackenzie, Bill Cleary 

The son of a marine officer, Phillips was born in South Carolina. He studied at George Washington University, and briefly attended the US Naval Academy before migrating to New York in 1957 to join the Greenwich Village folk scene. There, he formed several groups, including the Abstracts, the Smoothies and the New Journeymen, whose members included guitarist and singer Denny Doherty and Michelle Gilliam, who became his second wife in 1962. The quartet that was to become the Mamas and Papas was completed by the arrival of Cass Elliot, who had formerly sung with Doherty in the Mugwumps. 

The New Journeymen

The quartet moved to Los Angeles, where they linked up with record producer Lou Adler. He later said of their audition: "They had just come down from about 80 acid trips; they were funky, dirty and grizzly, and yet they sang like angels." Elliot found them a name after hearing a Hell's Angel say, "We call our women mamas," on a television show. 

Their first single was California Dreamin', released on Adler's Dunhill label in 1966. Doherty was the lead singer, Glen Campbell played guitar, and the flute solo was by jazz musician Bud Shank. Like another of John Phillips's 1966 compositions, San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair), it portrayed California as a new utopia, and was the first of a series of his powerful ballads. These included the playful Creeque Alley, which told the history of the group, the ecstatic love song, I Saw Her Again Last Night, and the sombre Look Through My Window. 

                             

The Mamas and Papas also recorded some deftly-chosen songs from the 50s, notably Dedicated To The One I Love, originally by the Shirelles. Phillips's four-part vocal arrangements were influenced by the jazz singing of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and by such 1950s pop groups as the Four Freshmen. With Lou Adler, Phillips organised the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which introduced Jimi Hendrix and The Who to American audiences. 

But the Phillips' marriage had been damaged by Michelle's affair with Doherty, for whom Elliot had an unrequited passion. Michelle was temporarily ejected from the group, and the end came when Elliott left to follow a successful solo career as Mama Cass. She died suddenly in 1974. 

In 1970, Phillips made his own solo album, The Wolf-king Of LA, which reflected the growing popularity in Los Angeles of the country-rock sound associated with his friend Gram Parsons. Its lyrics mostly concerned the lifestyle of the new Los Angeles movie and music aristocracy, of which Phillips was a leading member. 

Phillips with Brian Jones

By this time, however, he was in the grip of the drug addiction graphically described in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. He had little incentive to work in the 1970s, as he was reportedly receiving $100,000 a year in composer royalties. The sum total of his musical activity in that decade was the soundtrack music for Nicolas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), and the production of an album by his third wife, Genevieve Waite. He also recorded some solo tracks, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as producers, under the title Pay, Pack And Follow. 

The catalyst for Phillips to return to the stage was a conviction for drug offences that forced him to undergo rehabilitation in 1981. As part of his sentence, he gave lectures on drug abuse, assisted by his daughter, McKenzie. The following year, he was fit enough to form a new Mamas and Papas group, with Doherty, McKenzie and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (formerly of the Los Angeles group Sparky and Our Gang). 

Later members of the re-formed quartet included Scott McKenzie, an ex-Journeyman and the singer of the hit version of San Francisco. In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to Phillips. In 1998, Phillips was reunited with Doherty and Michelle when the Mamas and Papas were inducted into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000. 

Phillips died on March 18, 2001, in a Los Angeles hospital of heart failure, following several years of failing health after a liver transplant and two hip replacements. Prior to entering the hospital, he had completed work on a solo album tentatively titled "Slow Starter." He was married four times and had five children and two stepchildren. They include McKenzie, a singer and television actress, Chynna, a member of the Wilson Phillips vocal group, and Bijou, a singer and model. 

(Edited from a Dave Laing article @The Guardian & Wikipedia)

Roger Sprung born 29 August 1930

Roger Sprung (born August 29, 1930, in New York City) is an American banjo player and teacher best known for introducing authentic bluegrass banjo picking styles to the folk music community in the north and for the eclectic manner in which he has adapted bluegrass banjo techniques to music of other genres. He is known as “The Father of East Coast Bluegrass.” His 1963 album Progressive Bluegrass may have been the first use of that title, later applied to a subgenre of bluegrass music by him and others.

Roger Sprung began playing music at the age of seven when an interest in the piano was sparked by his nanny who taught him to play a tune. Later, around age ten, Roger took formal piano lessons for about a year, but by then he had already taught himself to play by ear. He was introduced to folk music as a teenager in 1947 when his older brother took him to hear musicians perform in New York's Washington Square. After taking up the guitar Roger soon took up the banjo, teaching himself to play by ear with the aid of 78 rpm records by Earl Scruggs. He was also influenced by Pete Seeger and Paul Cadwell, as well as Tom Paley, from whom he took a few banjo lessons.

In 1950, Sprung made the first of many trips to the bluegrass country, accompanying mandolinist Harry West to Asheville, North Carolina. There he had his first exposure to such traditional country musicians as Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Samantha Bumgarner. These trips became a regular part of Sprung's musical life, and he passed along the styles and techniques he absorbed during them to his fellow musicians in the north. As bluegrass historian and performer Ralph Lee Smith wrote, "Banjo player Roger Sprung almost single-handedly introduced Southern bluegrass music to New York through his playing in Washington Square."

In 1953 Sprung joined Erik Darling and Bob Carey to form the Folksay Trio. The group recorded four tracks on an anthology album that also included performances by Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. One of the trio's songs, "Tom Dooley," would later be popularized by the Kingston Trio and become one of the best-selling folk song recordings of all time. Carey and Darling later joined Alan Arkin, who would go on to achieve fame as an actor, to form the highly successful folk group The Tarriers. Sprung was also a familiar face in the mid-1950s Washington Square gatherings of folk musicians in Greenwich Village. In 1957, Sprung formed another group, The Shanty Boys, with Lionel Kilberg and Mike Cohen.

                       Here’s “Greensleeves” from above LP

                             

Over the past six decades, Sprung has performed with such legendary folk musicians as Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson as well as with more recent country music artists Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, and Tanya Tucker. He has recorded with Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians and toured with popular jazz singer Kay Starr. His television appearances include the Jimmy Dean, Garry Moore, and Dean Martin Shows, and he has performed at both the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. 

For the past quarter century he has performed with guitarist Hal Wylie and various other musicians as "Roger Sprung, Hal Wylie and the Progressive Bluegrassers." Sprung appears frequently at folk festivals and musical conventions, including the Philadelphia Folk Festival, at which he performed for 30 consecutive years, and the Union Grove Fiddler's Convention in North Carolina, where in 1970 he was winner of the banjo competition.

In addition to his performing and recording career, Sprung sells and repairs banjos and has been teaching banjo and other instruments since 1950. Notable among his former students were Erik Darling and John Stewart, who became replacement members of The Weavers and the Kingston Trio, respectively. In the 1970s, he was a frequent visitor to the annual New England Fiddle Contest in Hartford.

Sprung's recordings and concert appearances embrace a variety of musical genres. In addition to traditional bluegrass and ragtime music, his repertoire includes arrangements of Elizabethan and classical pieces, Broadway show tunes, jazz and big band standards, and holiday songs. Composers whose works he has arranged for banjo include Mozart, Weill, Sousa, Ernesto Lecuona, and Stephen Foster. Among the selections he has recorded are ones as musically diverse as "Hava Nagila", "Hello, Dolly," "Turkey in the Straw," "Jingle Bells," "Puff, the Magic Dragon," "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise," and "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter."

Sprung's most treasured banjo is a 1927 Gibson which he reconstructed himself using parts from two other Gibson banjos. In 2009 he performed at the ROMP festival at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky where he was honoured as a "Pioneer of Bluegrass". He was a featured act at a 2010 reunion show for the artists of Gerde's Folk City in New York. He also performs annually at the Galax Old Fiddler's Convention.

Paul Pointer with Roger Srung at his ABM induction 2020

During 2017 Sprung had successful ablation surgery due to an abnormal heart rhythm. In 2020 Sprung was inducted into the ABM Banjo Hall of Fame. Roger currently lives in Newtown, Connecticut with  his wife, two daughters, and 45 pets.

 (Edited from Wikipedia, Facebook  & discogs.com) 

Kenny Drew born 28 August 1928

 Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American jazz pianist. 

Such was his virtuosity that it took Kenny Drew only three years from taking up the piano at the age of five to giving his first public recital when he was eight. In his youth he was much influenced by Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum. His first professional work was as an accompanist at the Pearl Primus Dance School. He studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York and was at his most impressionable as a teenager in the turbulent years of the bebop revolution of the Forties when his heroes were the pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. When Drew's own style matured it reflected all these interests, and it was unusual for a pianist of his era to refer back in his playing to Waller and Wilson.

Drew was a clear-thinking improviser who created long melodic lines which, unlike those of many of his contemporaries, resolved naturally, giving his work a great strength of form. On the other hand he was not a sensational player and his cerebral approach usually controlled his emotions. He was a superb accompanist and his first recording, in 1950, was with Howard McGhee, and over the next two years he worked in bands led by Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker, among others. After a brief period with his own trio in California, Drew returned to New York, playing with Dinah Washington, Johnny Griffin, Buddy Rich, and several others over the following few years.

He moved to California in 1951 and recorded with many of the West Coast stars such as Joe Maini and Jack Sheldon. When he formed his superb quartet in 1952 the bebop clarinettist Buddy DeFranco hired Drew along with the drummer Art Blakey. The altoist Frank Morgan recalls: 'I went to jail for the first time in my life in 1953, San Francisco. Kenny Drew and I got busted together. I was working with Oscar Pettiford and he was with Buddy DeFranco at the same club.' While Morgan was in and out of jail for the next 30 years for drug offences, Drew seemed to have brought his problem under control.

                         Here’s “Gloria” from above 1953 LP

                              

He made several albums with his own trio in 1953 and signed with the Riverside label in 1957, for whom he recorded copiously over the next few years. In September 1957 he joined some of the best young musicians of the day to record for Blue Note under the leadership of the tenorist John Coltrane. The resulting album, Blue Train, was a powerful element in the tide which changed the direction of jazz at the end of the Fifties.

Drew was one of the American jazz musicians who settled in Europe around this period: he moved to Paris in 1961 and to Copenhagen three years later. While he sacrificed much of the interest of the American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. Kenny Drew was a well-known figure on the Copenhagen jazz scene, recording many sessions with the Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. "Living in Copenhagen, and travelling out from there," Drew remarked, "I have probably worked in more different contexts than if I had stayed in New York where I might have got musically locked in with a set-group of musicians. This way, I have been able to keep my musical antennas in shape, while at the same time I have had more time to study and also get deeper into my own endeavors."

The partnership between Drew and Pedersen was to last for the rest of Drew's life and they frequently worked as a duo. At the Montmartre Drew was able to work for long periods and often record with visiting Americans like the tenorists Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz (each of whom also took up residence in Denmark at this period), Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims, Johnny Griffin, Hank Mobley, Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson and the maverick violinist Stuff Smith. Drew and Dexter Gordon appeared on screen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film, Pornografi – en musical (1971), for which they composed and performed the score.

From the late Seventies onwards Drew devoted a lot of his time to composing and orchestrating. He formed a successful music publishing company and was co-owner of the Matrix record company. He was prominent in European radio circles and his many compositions included Suite for Big Band, written for the Danish Radio Orchestra.

Drew died in August 1993 in Copenhagen, Denmark (he had stomach cancer, but it was unclear if this was the cause of death) and was interred in the Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. Earlier that year he won Denmark's coveted Palay Bar jazz award. He has a street named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Kenny Drews Vej" (Eng., Kenny Drew Street). 

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Independent)

Recorded live at The Brewhouse Theatre, England 1992. Kenny Drew (Piano) 

Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen (Double Bass)  Alvin Queen (Drums)

Track list:

1) In Your Own Sweet Way 2) Hush-A-Bye 3) Saint Thomas 4) It Could Happen To You

5) It Might As Well Be Spring

Fernest Arceneaux born 27 August 1940

Fernest Arceneaux (August 27, 1940 – September 4, 2008) was a French speaking Creole Zydeco accordionist and singer from Louisiana.  A torch-bearer for the classic zydeco traditions personified by Clifton Chenier, Fernest Arceneaux earned the title "The New Prince of Accordion" for his virtuosic prowess. 

Born August 27, 1940 to a large sharecropping family based in Lafayette, Louisiana, he first picked up his brother-in-law's accordion while working the fields as a child, and learned his craft by copying his father, himself a rural musician whom the youngster often backed at local house parties. "My home was really popular back in the 50s because my sister, Mildred, made the finest home-brewed beer in those parts. Clifton [Chenier], Dopsie [Alton Rubin], and [Hiram] Sampy would come over all the time and sample her beverages and then serenade the neighbors," he said. 

Not long after his mother's death in 1952, Fernest made his professional debut at an area club. Fernest freely admitted that by the late 50s, it wasn't hip to be playing the "old fashioned songs" of his father, so he concentrated on the R&B; and rock and roll of the time, fronting, as guitarist, a combo which included two drummers. Somewhere along the line, this notorious booming backbeat of his earned him the moniker "Fernest and the Thunders" which thereafter stuck. 

Oddly enough, as much as he (and his outfit) was a big attraction during the 60s, he didn't record until the mid-70s and that was only at the behest of his hero Chenier. Fernest  returned to playing the accordion, and soon the Thunders made the move from rock to zydeco. Now riding the crest of zydeco's resurgence, he was approached by famed producer, the late J.D. Miller of Crowley, LA, who in 1970 founded the Blues Unlimited label after parting ways with Ernie Young's Excello of Nashville, with which he had had a lease agreement for the previous decade and a half. 

During Fernest & the Thunders nearly decade-long association with Blues Unlimited, the group released no less than eight singles, many of them reworked R&B; or soul classics like "Mustang Sally (#2007, 1976)," Earl King's "Lonely Lonely Nights (#2009, 1977)," King Karl's (Bernard Jollivette) "Irene (# 2008, 1977)," Fats Domino's "My Girl Josephine (#2011, 1978)," Little Richard's "Send Me Some Lovin' (#2023, 1982)," and "Zydeco Boogoloo  (#2017, 1981)." Fernest appropriated this latter rocker from Tom & Jerrio's (Robert Tharp and Jerry Murray) obscure 1965 gem, "Boo-Ga-Loo (ABC-Paramount # 10638)," and it became a sensation in the Southwest Louisiana region. Until his death, it still remained his signature song and calling card. 

                              

Although Fernest never became a household name in zydeco circles stateside, he was revered "across the pond" and, in fact, went abroad many times starting in 1978.  But it wasn't until the intercession of Belgian radio host Robert Sacre, a frequent visitor to Louisiana, that Fernest found success regularly entertaining Old World audiences. It was Sacre who introduced him to Rolf Schubert, noted Cologne, Germany-based impresario, who thereafter kept the group busy, crisscrossing the continent. 

Jockey reminisced recently about a brutal touring itinerary that brought the Thunders to all the major European capitals, including an appearance at the prestigious 1980 North Sea Jazz Festival (Fats Domino, Rockin' Dopsie, Carmen McRae, Clark Terry, and Dizzy Gillespie) then held at the Nederlands Congresgbouw in The Hague. 

The group also featuring singer/bassist Victor Walker, guitarist Chester Chevalier and drummer Clarence "Jockey" Etienne -- mounted the first of many European tours, and within months they recorded their debut LP Fernest and the Thunders; albums like 1979's Rockin' Pneumonia and 1981 Zydeco Stomp! followed, but shortly after recording the latter, Walker was killed in a barroom brawl. Arceneaux himself then assumed vocal duties, although as a result of asthma his presence failed to pack the same punch; still, the Thunders remained a popular live attraction, especially on the Gulf Coast crawfish circuit, and continued issuing LPs including 1985's Zydeco Thunder, 1987's Gumbo Special and 1994's Zydeco Blues Party. 

On the strength of Zydeco Blues Party, Fernest came out in a big way in 1994, a re-emergence which was marked especially by a West Coast swing, including well received engagements at the San Francisco Blues Festival, the Bay Area Cajun/Zydeco Festival, and the Ojai Bowlful of Blues. By 1995, he had performed at such noted venues as Tobacco Road in Miami, Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, Berri Blues in Montreal, and Tornado Alley in Wheaton, MD. In May of this same year, he returned to the U.S. after a triumphant appearance at the Byron Bay Blues Festival in Australia and by July he was on the slate of the Bucks County Blues Picnic in Pennsylvania. 

As late as a year before his death, Fernest was still fulfilling obligations to perform at such venues as El Sid O's club in Lafayette and Rock ÔN' Bowl in uptown New Orleans. He died from complications of diabetes on September 4, 2008 in Lafayette, LA. Age 68.

(Edited from AllMusic & Bluesworld.com)

Peter Appleyard born 26 August 1928

Peter Appleyard, OC (26 August 1928 – 17 July 2013) was a British–Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer. 

He spent most of his life in the city of Toronto, where for many years he was a popular performer in nightclubs and hotels. He also played and recorded with many of the city's orchestras and was featured on Canadian television and radio programs. In the early 1970s he drew wide acclaim for his performances with Benny Goodman's jazz sextet with which he toured internationally. In 1992, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of his being an "internationally renowned vibraphonist who has represented the Canadian jazz community across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia". 

Born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, Appleyard became apprenticed to a nautical instrument maker after being forced to leave school owing to economic reasons related to the Second World War. At that time the popularity of the American Big Bands was growing in England, particularly through a major influx in big band recordings from America by jazz musicians like Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. These recordings had a strong influence on Appleyard, and he decided to pursue a career as a jazz musician. He began his career in the early 1940s playing in the Boys Brigade, a youth organization. He performed as a drummer in several other British dance bands during the 1940s and, while a member of the Royal Air Force in the mid-1940s, played in RAF bands. 

In 1949 Appleyard moved to Bermuda, where he lived for two years. While there he spent his holidays in Canada and picked up his first set of vibes. He was so impressed with Canada that when the time came to leave Bermuda, he headed for Toronto. At first, unable to get a union card in Toronto, Appleyard worked as a room booking clerk at the King Edward Hotel and as a salesman at Simpson's department store. He began studying music with Gordon Delamont and soon thereafter began playing the vibraphone in concerts with Billy O'Connor in the early 1950s. 

Gloria DeHaven

From 1954 to 1956 he played with a band at the Park Plaza Hotel and made numerous appearances on CBC Radio with jazz pianist Calvin Jackson. He formed his own jazz ensemble in 1957 which performed not only in Toronto but also toured throughout North America and appeared on American television during the 1960s. Among the ensemble's original members was pianist and arranger Jimmy Dale. The group accompanied singer Gloria DeHaven for a year. 

                             

From 1961 to 1962 Appleyard co-hosted, with singer Patti Lewis, the CBC Radio program Patti and Peter. He spent most of the mid-1960s on the road touring. In the late sixties, he ceased his busy touring schedule and returned to Toronto on a more permanent basis. He began playing once more at the Park Plaza Hotel. In 1969 he co-hosted the program Mallets and Brass with Guido Basso for CBC TV. In addition he began studying timpani and percussion and extended his musical expertise substantially. 

In the early 1970s Appleyard was a member of Benny Goodman's sextet which toured in Europe in 1972 and 1974 and in Australia in 1973. Afterwards, he played only periodically with the group for the remainder of the decade, notably playing three performances with the ensemble at Carnegie Hall in the mid to late 1970s. During these years he lived in Toronto and performed in nightclubs and hotel lounges and was music director for local jazz bands. He was a percussionist in the city's orchestra. In the 1970s he appeared at the Colorado Springs Invitation Jazz Party. From 1977 to 1980 he hosted Peter Appleyard Presents, a jazz and variety television program which was syndicated in North America.

In 1976, Frank Sinatra invited Appleyard to join him in concert with the Count Basie Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald at the Uris Theatre in New York City. Sinatra made this request based on Appleyard's work with Goodman. Appleyard and Sinatra performed together several years later during a benefit concert in Ottawa arranged by Rich Little.

In 1982 Appleyard formed the All-Star Swing Band which performed traditional pop and jazz tunes, often in medley arrangements by Rick Wilkins. The ensemble's 1982 album Swing Fever received a gold record certification for sales of 50,000 units in Canada and was nominated for a Juno award. During the late 1990s Appleyard performed at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops.

He received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award on 18 June 2012. He spent his final years living on a farm at Rockwood, Ontario where his final public performance took place in a century-old barn in May 2013 with a band made up of fellow Order of Canada recipients before a sold-out audience of 200. He died at his farm on 17 July 2013, aged 84.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Globe & Mail)

Charles Fambrough born 25 August 1950

Charles Fambrough (August 25, 1950 – January 1, 2011) was an American jazz bassist, composer and record producer from Philadelphia. 

Fambrough studied classical piano throughout his elementary and high-school years. He gravitated to bass at the age of 13, attempting to imitate Paul Chambers, the first jazz bassist he ever heard. He began studying classical bass in the seventh grade but gave it up in 1968 to begin working in the pit bands for such theatrical productions as You Can’t Take it With You and Bye-Bye Birdie and, by day, playing on The Mike Douglas Show. 

In 1969, Charles began working with a cover band called Andy Aaron’s Mean Machine that also featured a young saxophonist by the name of Grover Washington, Jr. A year later, Charles joined Grover Washington’s road band, staying with the saxophonist during his popular CTI years. In 1975, Fambrough joined Airto Moreira’s band, where he stayed for two years until joining legendary pianist McCoy Tyner’s group, playing on Tyner’s Focal Point (1977), The Greeting (1978) and Horizon (1979), as well as Rahsaan Roland Kik’s Boogie Woogie String Along For Real (1977) – his earliest known recordings. 

Upon leaving Tyner’s group, Fambrough hooked up with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at about the same time Wynton Marsalis was part of the group, recording with the great jazz drummer from 1980 until 1982 and featuring on the pivotal Album of the Year (1981). Fambrough once said “McCoy showed me how to play with endurance. Art gave me refinement.” 

Surprisingly, Charles Fambrough made his own solo recording debut on Creed Taylor’s famed CTI Records in 1991 with The Proper Angle, an excellent, star-studded affair featuring Wynton Marsalis (who featured Fambrough in his first band in 1982) and Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Branford Marsalis and Joe Ford (who first met Fambrough on a McCoy Tyner gig 13 years earlier) on sax, the late, lamented Kenny Kirkland on piano, Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums (both Kirkland and Watts featured with Fambrough in a trio at the time dubbed “Jazz From Keystone”) and Steve Barrios, Mino Cinelu and Jerry Gonzalez on percussion. The record is the first bassist-led date on CTI Records since the legendary Ron Carter in 1976 and it’s clear that Fambrough, like Carter, was a bassist who could lead an interesting jazz record of his own. It also ranks among the very best the label issued during its 1989-98 resurgence. 

                       Here's "Little Man" from above album

                              

Fambrough issued two more records on CTI, The Charmer (1992), featuring Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto sax, pianists Bill O’Connell, Kenny Kirkland and Abdullah Ibrahim, drummers Jeff “Tain” Watts, Billy Drummond and Yoron Israel on drums and a reunion on three tracks with Grover Washington, Jr., and the splendiferously excellent live album Blues at Bradley’s (1993) featuring Donald Harrison, Steve Turre, Joe Ford, Bill O’Connell, Bobby Broom, Ricky Sebastian and Steve Berrios. These records remain the undisputed highpoint of CTI in the nineties. 

Several other discs under Charles Fambrough’s name also appeared, including Keep of the Spirit (AudioQuest, 1995), City Tribes (Evidence, 1995), Upright Citizen (NuGroove, 1997) and Charles Fambrough Live @ Zanzibar Blue (Random Chance, 2002). The bassist also continued to appear on a wide array of discs by others, including Pharoah Sanders (Crescent with Love), Bill O’Connell (including the pianist’s great CTI album Lost Voices), Ernie Watts (Reaching Up), Kevin Mahogany (My Romance) and the jazz-rock cover bands Beatlejazz and Stonejazz. 

He was an accomplished composer who wrote often complex and diverse songs for his own band as well as others. However, despite an emphasis on complex harmonies and rhythms, it was always important to him that the melody was there. In recent years, health problems prevented Charles Fambrough from participating as much as he once had on the recording scene. But he continued playing around his hometown as much as possible and was one of the bassists featured on drummer/composer Lenny White’s 2010 album Anomoly (Abstract Logix). 

After a long bout battling kidney failure, the great jazz bassist Charles Fambrough died of a heart attack at his home on January 1, 2011. Fambrough was on dialysis for five years and had been awaiting a transplant match. Several musical tributes were held in Philadelphia over the last year or two to help Fambrough and his family pay the bassist’s outrageous medical expenses. 

When listening to Charles Fambrough, it’s clear that a good bassist propels the music where it needs to go. It’s a shame that the music will no longer be propelled by Charles Fambrough, an inventive and imaginative bassist and one of the finest of “the young lions” who emerged in jazz’s new traditionalism of the early 1980s. 

(Edited from admin article @ The Philadelphia Sunday Sun & Jazz Times)