Gil Mellé born 31 December 1931

Gil Mellé (31 December 1931 – 28 October 2004) was an American artist, jazz musician and film composer. 

Gilbert John Mellé was born on the last day of 1931 in New York City where he was raised by a family friend after his parents abandoned him at the age of two. As a child, he began painting (he won several national painting competitions as a preteen) and playing saxophone as a teen. At age 16, Melle lied about his age to enlist in the Marines and spent some of his service time in California. Upon his discharge and return to New Jersey two years later, Melle played jazz nightly in New York, often with organist Freddie Roach and pianist Joe Manning. 

            Here’s  Weird Valley” from above 1956 LP Patterns In Jazz

                                   

At the age of 19, he was signed to Blue Note Records by label founder Alfred Lion, becoming the first white artist on the storied jazz label. He made several 10” records for Blue Note, his first being  a full-length 12” LP , Patterns In Jazz, in 1956. He also served as a musical talent spotter for the label. Melle appeared at the first Newport Jazz Festival, leading a band that also contained Joe Cinderella, Vinnie Burke, and Ed Thigpen.  Between 1956 and 1957 he recorded three albums for Prestige before deciding to halt his career as a traditional jazz bandleader. 

Stylistically, Melle's 1950s playing on the baritone sax shares stylistic similarities with Gerry Mulligan's swinging, linear sound. But Melle tended to loiter in the instrument's middle register and was more at home on melody-less original compositions than jazz standards. Melle's works had a West Coast feel but with a more introspective and restless East Coast finish. 

Apart from his musical career, Melle maintained a career as a visual artist, and at times the two intersected. His sculptures and art, beyond showing at various New York galleries, was also used in the cover design of records by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, as well as several of his own records. Melle moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and his jazz recording became sparse as he focused on painting and composing for film and television. His fascination with science and technology led him in the direction of electronic music and he began collecting, and even building his own, electronic instruments, including some of the earliest synthesizers and drum machines. In 1967, he performed with the first all-electronic jazz ensemble, The Electronauts, at the 10th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. 

He displayed his musical talent for NBC's series "Night Gallery" and then composed scores for four of the "Columbo Mystery Films" for ABC and later did the chilling score for television's "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". He also worked with major filmmakers including a young Steven Spielberg, for whom Melle scored his first two films "The Psychiatrist" and "Savage". His score for the sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain (1971), based on a novel by Michael Crichton, was perhaps the first electronic music score for film. With Larry Cohen, he composed a thundering score for "Bone" and next did the Sidney Poitier suspense thriller "The Organization" and ABC's motion picture "The Six Million Dollar Man". 

After relocating to Los Angeles in 1969, Gil Melle After leaving television, Melle displayed his talents again for such major motion pictures including "The Manipulator", Warner Brothers' "The Ultimate Warrior" and Melle's best-known score for Universal Pictures, the 1971 science fiction thriller "The Andromeda Strain". Upon returning to television in the early eighties, he did NBC's "The Intruder Within" and later "The Case of the Hillside Stranglers", where Melle used lower-register instruments to create a chilling score. 

Other films for the eighties include "Blood Beach", "The Last Chase" and "Hot Target". Melle's work has been recorded by The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The New Zeland Symphony Orchestra, The Los Angeles Symphony and The National Philharmonic Orchestra of London. In all, he composed music for a remarkable 125 motion pictures. As a film and TV composer, Mellé was one of the first to use self-built electronic instruments, either alone or as an added voice among the string, wind, brass, and percussion sections of the orchestra 

Melle returned to Blue Note with his 1991 release Mindscapes, which included ”The Blue Lion,” a musical eulogy for his life-long friend and mentor Alfred Lion. “Gil was like a beloved son to Alfred,” said Ruth Lion, Alfred's widow. “Gil Melle was a true Renaissance man, a multi-talented artist,” said current Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall, “He was one of Alfred Lion's protégés and remained a great friend of the label right up until his passing.” 

In 1994, Gil Melle retired but decided to concentrate on the visual arts, in particular his computer-based digital painting, which drew great acclaim from art critics across America. He  still continued his talented work in both music and art until he died from a heart attack in Malibu, California on October 28, 2004. 

(Edited from IMDb, All About Jazz, Jazz Wax, Blue Note & Wikipedia)   

Melvin Goins born 30 December 1933

 Melvin Goins (December 30, 1933 - July 29, 2016) was an American bluegrass guitarist and singer, among the first generation of bluegrass stars. 

Melvin was born on Sinai Mountain near the coal mining community of Goodwill, West Virginia and attended both Bramwell Grade School and High School in the 1940 - 1950 era. Even as a child he was known for his musical talents. As they were growing up, Melvin and his younger brother Ray Goins (January 3,1936 – July 2, 2007) fell in love with the sounds they heard from the radio shows broadcast out of Bristol, VA, where they heard The Stanley Brothers and Flatt & Scruggs. 

They could also pick up the radio signal from Bluefield where the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers were working. Before long both Goins boys were studying up on how to play the music. Though Melvin started with a fascination for the banjo, he abandoned it for the guitar once Ray began to to pick up the roll style himself. The beginnings of The Goins Brothers was laid listening to those old radio shows, and getting to see some of these artists in person. 

They performed as teenagers around home, and got to play their first show on the radio in 1951. But their early success was sidelined when Ray took the banjo job with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers a year later when he was only 16. When the band moved on to Detroit, Ray stayed home and he and Melvin worked as The Shenandoah Playboys, until the Fiddlers came calling again a few years later asking both boys to join their band. The Goins Brothers resettled in Kentucky.

The Goins Brothers with Bill Monroe

Melvin later worked with The Stanley Brothers, helping Ralph out during the times that Carter was too ill to perform, and following his death in 1966. He stayed on with Ralph until ’69. The Goins Brothers reformed when Melvin left Ralph Stanley. They recorded more than 30 albums during their time together, and played just about everywhere bluegrass was performed around the world. It was during this time that television helped the brothers reach an even wider audience, and their Saturday program ran of many years. 

                                   

In the ’70s and ’80s, Melvin got into event promotion, putting on bluegrass festivals in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. Their more youthful brother Conley Goins later on became their bass participant and sometimes, Melvin’s wife, Willa and her three sisters, billed because the Woodettes, sang tranquility gospel numbers together. The Brothers performed and recorded together until 1994 when Ray stopped touring due to heart problems. Melvin changed the band’s name to Melvin Goins and Windy Mountain, working a heavy schedule each year. 

This entailed some 200 concert dates a year with his band, also performing at elementary schools throughout his area. Melvin Goins works regularly with players such as rhythm and lead guitarist John McNeely, banjoist Dale Vanderpool, mandolinist John Rigsby, and bassist Jason Hale. The band's name, Windy Mountain, comes from a signature song of the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. 

Windy Mountain

The new Goins group has recorded for Hay Holler, including several classic sides such as the eerie "Death Came Creepin' in My Room" and the unappetizing "Mouse Tracks in the Bacon Grease." Available from the same label, a full-length video entitled 50 Years of Mountain Music and Bluegrass consists of a set by the band at the 1997 Olive Hill Bluegrass Festival in Kentucky interspersed with an extended interview with Melvin, describing how he and Ray got into the music. 

A member of the Board of Directors of MSU's Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, Melvin performed at the first Appalachian Celebration. He received the Appalachian Treasure Award during the 2001 Appalachian Celebration, and later was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. In February 2004 a section of US 23, the "Country Music Highway", was named in his honour. 

Ray died from cancer in 2007.  Melvin was also inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2013 both brothers were inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. On July 29. 2016, Melvin Goins died unexpectedly at the West Nipissing General Hospital in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. He was touring Canada and was in North Bay to play at the River Valley Bluegrass Jamboree.

Fans, friends, and fellow musicians will remember Melvin for his good humor and hard-working attitude. He never wanted to stop playing music, and it seems like he was at it until his final breath. He is the very definition of a bluegrass legend, and a true pioneer in bluegrass music..

(Edited from Bluegrass Today, AllMusic, Musicianbio.org & Bramwell High School)

Ed Bruce born 29 December 1939

William Edwin Bruce Jr. (December 29, 1939 – January 8, 2021) was an American country music songwriter, singer, and actor. He was known for writing the 1975 song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and recording the 1982 country number one hit "You're the Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had". He also co-starred in the television series Bret Maverick with James Garner during the 1981–1982 season. 

Bruce was born in Keiser, Arkansas, United States, and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. Ed went to Messick High School in Memphis graduated in June 1957. Ed sold used cars after graduation and worked a few lounges as a solo act with his guitar. At the age of 17, he went to see Jack Clement, a recording engineer for Sun Records. Bruce caught the attention of Sun owner Sam Phillips, for whom he wrote and recorded "Rock Boppin' Baby" (as "Edwin Bruce"). 

In the early 1960s, Bruce recorded for RCA and some smaller labels like Wand/Scepter, singing rockabilly music, as well as country material and pop material such as "See the Big Man Cry." In 1962, he wrote "Save Your Kisses" for pop star Tommy Roe and in 1963 he reached No. 109 on the Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart with his own recording of "See the Big Man Cry". During his career many songs that Bruce wrote and recorded were more successful when re-recorded by others. His career as a frenetic rockabilly performer was largely unsuccessful, however, and by 1964 Bruce had moved to Nashville to become a member of the Marijohn Wilkin Singers. 

He also entered into a lucrative career singing advertising jingles; his best-known campaign cast him as a character called "The Tennessean." By the time Ed recorded for Sonic and Apt Records in 1964 and 1965, it was clear that his career in pop music was over before it got off the ground. The Beatles had changed everything, and Ed was thinking of getting out of the business altogether when Charlie Louvin scored a top five country hit with See The Big Man Cry

                                   

Its success earned him another shot on RCA, notching his first chart hit with the single "Walker's Woods" and also charted with his version of The Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville". Both of these singles were minor hits. In 1969, Bruce signed with Monument Records, where he continued to have minor successes with "Everybody Wants To Get To Heaven" and "Song For Jenny" but the singer struggled until 1975, when he took his composition "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" into the Top 20. The song, Bruce's best-known, was later a monster hit when covered by the duo of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson in 1977. His songs have also been recorded by the likes of Charlie Louvin, Tex Ritter, Tanya Tucker, and Crystal Gayle. 

After his brief tenure at Epic Records between 1977 and 1978, Bruce achieved his greatest commercial success with MCA in the '80s. "The Last Cowboy Song," featuring guest vocals from Willie Nelson, hit number 12 in 1980; both "Girls, Women and Ladies" and "(When You Fall in Love) Everything's a Waltz" fell just short of entering the Top Ten. In 1981, Bruce hit number one with "You're the Best Break This Heart Ever Had"; other Top Five singles included "Ever, Never Lovin' You" (number four, 1982) and "After All" (number four, 1983). In 1984, Bruce returned to RCA Records and scored a No. 3 hit with "You Turn Me On Like A Radio" in 1985. His last Top 10 single was "Nights" in 1986 and his last Top 40 single (and last chart single to date) was "Quietly Crazy" in 1987. 

Bruce supplemented his songwriting income doing voice-overs for television and radio commercials. After the 1986 album entitled Night Things and a 1988 self-titled follow-up, Bruce made a conscious decision to cut back on his music to focus on his acting career. Bruce appeared in several made-for-TV films. He hosted two shows in the late 1980s, Truckin' USA and American Sports Cavalcade. 

He had the second lead on the television revival of 1957's Maverick, called Bret Maverick. Starring James Garner as a legendary western gambler, the series ran on NBC-TV during the 1981-82 season. Bruce played the irascibly surly town lawman who found himself reluctantly co-owning a saloon with Maverick, with whom he seemed to maintain a surreally adversarial relationship more or less throughout the entire season. Bruce sang and wrote the theme song to the show, while Garner himself sang the same song over the end titles at the show's close, while being relentlessly interrupted by network announcements about upcoming programming. Bruce appeared in several theatrical cinematic releases, including Fire Down Below with Steven Seagal. 

Bruce was honored with the Arkansas Country Music Award for "Lifetime Achievement" on June 3, 2018, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Bruce died of natural causes in Clarksville, Tennessee, on January 8, 2021, at the age of 81. His former wife, music manager and songwriter Patsy Bruce, died four months later also aged 81.

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Bear Family)

 

Pops Staples born 28 December 1914

 "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000) was an American gospel and R&B musician. A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 1970s", he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer. He was the patriarch and member of singing group The Staple Singers, which included his son Pervis and daughters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha. 

Roebuck Staples was born near Winona, Mississippi, the youngest of 14 children. He grew up on a cotton plantation near Drew, Mississippi. From his earliest years he was impressed by local blues guitarists such as Charlie Patton, who lived on the nearby Dockery Plantation. "That sold me on guitar," he recalled. "My greatest ambition was then to play and record." He began to play with Patton, Robert Johnson, and Son House. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade, then sang with a gospel group before marrying. He and his wife Oceola brought up their children in Chicago, where they moved in 1935. 

He worked for the Armour tinned-meat company as a packer and killer and in his spare time sang with a gospel quartet, the Trumpet Jubilees. He then worked in the stockyards, in construction work, and later in a steel mill. By his own account he "didn't touch a guitar for at least 12 years". In 1948, Roebuck and his wife Oceola Staples formed The Staple Singers to sing as a gospel group in local churches, with their children, Cleotha, Purvis, Yvonne and Mavis. 

                                   

In the early 50s they began to be heard on records, first for Leonard Allen's United label, then for the larger Vee-Jay, where they made such unforgettable records as Don't Drive Me Away, This May Be The Last Time - later adapted by the Rolling Stones - and Uncloudy Day. The combination of Staples' tremolo-laden guitar and the wild beauty of Mavis's voice- what the jazz writer Stanley Crouch called "their joy and thunder" - was like nothing previously heard in gospel music, and Uncloudy Day sold, as Staples remarked, "like rock 'n' roll". 

In the early 60s the Staples Singers, now with Riverside records, looked for an audience beyond the ghetto, recording coffeehouse favourites such as Cotton Fields, Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind and Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land. Such choices were mildly controversial at the time, but Staples was quick to defend them. "I think they're good material. I think it's time for the whole nation to start listening to something that means something, and think that this land belongs to everybody. If they would think like that we'd have a better United States." 

In the 1960s, the Staple Singers moved to Riverside Records, Epic Records, and later Stax Records and began recording protest, inspirational and contemporary music, reflecting the civil rights and anti-war movements of the time. Such choices were mildly controversial at the time, but Staples was quick to defend them. "I think they're good material. I think it's time for the whole nation to start listening to something that means something, and think that this land belongs to everybody. If they would think like that we'd have a better United States. 

They gained a large new audience with "Respect Yourself" (which featured Pops, nearly 57 at the time, on lead on the long version for more than two minutes), the 1972 US # 1 hit "I'll Take You There", "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)", and other hits. "Let's Do It Again" topped the Hot 100 on December 27, 1975, the day before his 61st birthday. Pops Staples (as Pop Staples) also recorded a blues album, Jammed Together, with fellow guitarists Albert King and Steve Cropper. 

In 1976, Staples also appeared in the movie documenting The Band's final concert, The Last Waltz (released in 1978). Pops Staples shared vocals with his daughters and with Levon Helm and Rick Danko on "The Weight." The group appeared in the concert on stage, but their later performance shot on a soundstage was used in the final film. It is considered by some fans as the definitive version of the song. After Mavis left for a solo career in the 1980s, Pops Staples began a solo career, appearing at international "blues" festivals (though steadfastly refusing to sing the blues).

In 1995, he won the Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy for Father, Father.  In 1998, Pops Staples received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States. In 1999, the Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died after suffering an ultimately fatal concussion in a fall at his home on December 19, 2000 just nine days shy of his 86th birthday. After his death, his daughters Yvonne and Mavis gave one of his guitars to country and gospel musician Marty Stuart. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)

 

Cootie Stark born 27 December 1927

Cootie Stark (December 27, 1927 – April 14, 2005) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter known as the King of the Piedmont Blues. He learned songs from the originators of Piedmont Blues - Baby Tate, Pink Anderson, Walter Phelps, Peg Leg Sam and Blind Sammy Doolie. Cootie had a repertoire of hundreds of nearly forgotten Old Blues and Gospel songs, making him one of the last direct links to a South long gone. 

Cootie was born Johnny Miller in 1927, in Abbeville County, SC. His mother told him that he began singing as a baby and played rhythms on cans to pass the time. Born with poor eyesight, he wasn't able to attend school. When he was 14, he schooled himself on his first guitar and began to play on street corners of Abbeville. He lived in Anderson for a short time and around 16 moved to Greenville. That's where he met Baby Tate. Cootie would follow him and his band around while Tate would teach him songs like 'Little Lean Woman' (aka Skinny Woman). He would sometimes play his guitar on Spring Street to make money. 

Cootie began to travel from town to town playing on corners and dances. It wasn't easy. He acquired the nickname, Sugar Man, and continued to work his trade as a songster in the area. His performing name of Cootie Stark was an amalgam of a childhood nickname and his grandfather's surname. He was kicked around, abused and robbed, but he kept on playing. By the time he'd reached his thirties, Cootie had completely lost his eyesight, but he kept playing. 

In an interview with Timothy Duffy, Founder of the Music Maker Foundation, Cootie said, "Many times I was hungry. But I made it. Peoples give me somethin' to eat, give me a good meal, then I move on to another place and I might not get no real good meal ... maybe some saltine crackers and sardines, cheese, pig skins. But I made it. I didn't worry Mama and them 'bout nothin'; I wanted Mama and them to know that I could make it." 

Although music was his forefront, life as a transient bluesman was hard on the body and pocket. Stark continued to perform across the State and beyond, often using the name Blind Johnny Miller. After years on the road Cootie was left with little money and a dwindling audience for the deep-rooted blues that defined his style. In the 1980's the blind Stark settled into the Woodland Homes Projects in Greenville, SC. "By then, the real Piedmont Blues was pretty much gone," he said. "All them guys were dead and gone and I wasn't making no headway." 

For most of his life, Cootie Stark played in obscurity, never making a record. Still, he never let go of his dream of making it big with his music. Then in the spring of 1997, Tim Duffy, the founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, heard Cootie playing electric guitar and singing Fats Domino songs. Duffy questioned Stark about his knowledge of the old songs and was blown away to find himself face to face with a Piedmont Blues original. Within months, Cootie had a new acoustic guitar and a promising career. 

                         Here’s “Metal Bottoms” from above album.

                                  

Duffy’s record label released Stark's debut album, Sugar Man, in 1999. Stark toured France, Costa Rica, and Switzerland as well as appearing at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, also Portsmouth Blues Festival in New Hampshire, the Charleston Blues Festival in South Carolina, and Taj Mahal Fishin’ Blues in Costa Rica. 

 He performed at major Blues Festivals across the US. His abrasive, percussive guitar style would meld with a vocal arsenal that ranged from a roughhewn gospel shout to a tight, pretty vibrato. Both European and American audiences have been held captive by Stark's raw and powerful performances. His best remembered recordings were "Metal Bottoms" and "Sandyland." “They say the older you get, the more fun you gonna have, and I believe them now,” Stark told Peter Cooper. “I just wish I’d had some of this a long time ago. I’ve had a lot of wasted time, a lot of time gone. But that was just an old, bumpy road.” 

In 2003, Stark released his second and final album, Raw Sugar, when he was accompanied on record by Taj Mahal. Before he died, he was recipient to The Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission for his contributions and preservation of the Piedmont Blues. His brother accepted the award on his behalf in May 2006 from the State Legislature. In his final years Stark was recognized and praised as an International Blues Figure. He died at the age of 77, in Greenville, in April 2005. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Piemont Blues and Hash Bash & The Music Maker Foundation)

 

Cathy Carroll born 26 December 1939

Carolyn Stern (December 26, 1939 – Dec. 13, 2022) better known by her stage name Cathy Carroll, was an American pop singer. 

Carolyn Stern was born in New Rochelle, New York The Wikipedia article on Carroll says that she was born in 1939, but both Billboard and Radio Television Daily reported in 1963 that she was 17 years old, which means that she would have been born closer to 1946.  

She first recorded for the Triodex label in 1961, with members of the Earls and the 4 Evers singing backing vocals. Her single "Jimmy Love" reached #11 on the WLS Chicago survey and was a Top 10 hit in several cities. "Jimmy Love" is notable not only for being a teen tragedy recording but also for its twist ending. The song leads you to think that it's about a wedding, but then you find out that the girl is actually at the funeral of her fiancé, who died when a tree fell on him during a storm. Billboard reported that Carroll appeared on the Bob Braun TV hop in Cincinnati to promote "Jimmy Love" and also traveled from Chicago to Detroit to Cincinnati to New York to pitch the record and to record promo spots for disk jockeys. 

                                   

She later recorded "Poor Little Puppet" at Warner Brothers, which became her only Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at No. 91. Regionally, Carroll's version of "Poor Little Puppet" was a Top 10 hit in several cities, including Seattle, San Diego, Cleveland, and Vancouver. Billboard said that, despite Carroll's many good records, "Poor Little Puppet" was "easily her best." The background vocals were provided by the Earls, who had a hit of their own in 1962 with "Remember Then." She also recorded a cover of Johnnie Ray's "Cry", and cut further recordings in the early 1960s for the Philips, Cheer, Musicor, and Dot labels. 

Apart from "Jimmy Love" and "Poor Little Puppet," Carroll's singles had only regional success. "Every Leaf That Falls" (1961) charted in a number of Northeastern cities and saw some action in San Francisco. Carroll's cover version of the Cliff Richard song ”The Young Ones” (1962) charted on at least 10 radio stations across the country, particularly around Massachusetts. "But You Lied" (1962) charted in Vancouver, Toronto, and Philadelphia. "I'm Available" (1963), Carroll's remake of the 1957 Margie Rayburn hit, charted in Montreal. 

Carroll moved to Philips Records in 1963 and signed with the cosmetics firm Coty to serve as "Miss Teen-Age America" in a 100-city tour. In 1965 she moved to the Musicor label where "Here's to Our Love" charted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. (That year she also released an unsuccessful answer song to Brian Hyland's "Ginny Come Lately," "Johnny Come Lately.") Her stay with Musicor was short lived, and by the end of 1965, she had signed with the Rotate label, which was distributed by Bell Records. In 1966, she moved to Dot Records and cut her final solo single. 

Carroll was portrayed as the "typical American girl" and went on a sponsored tour of 100 radio stations. In 1967 she married Bob Halley, who wrote and produced the songs for her Dot and Rotate Records releases, as well as inking the orchestrations. Under the name Bob and Cathy, the duo recorded a single for Mercury Records in 1967, "Just Imagine” b/w  "Clyde and Dale". " She retired from music in the 1970s to raise her two children, a son (Ronald Scott) born in 1968 and a daughter (Jennifer) born in 1976. 

In the 2000s, the Cheer label issued a 24-track CD of her complete works. It was announced on her Facebook page that she died Dec. 13, 2022. 

(Edited from an article by Greg Adams @ the MusicWeird blog, Wikipedia, Discogs & Cathy Carroll Facebook)