Gene Puerling born 31 March 1929

Gene Puerling (March 31, 1929 – March 25, 2008) was a vocal performer and vocal arranger who created and led the vocal groups The Hi-Lo's and The Singers Unlimited. 

There certainly is no more influential and revered a cappella arranger than the brilliant Gene Puerling. From his auspicious beginnings as a founding member of the vocal jazz group the Hi-Lo's, with whom he recorded thirteen albums between the years of 1953-1964, Gene revealed the talent and promise that would later be fully realized with his work as director, arranger and performer with the Singers UnLimited. 

Eugene Thomas Puerling was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1929. Though his family was musically inclined (various members of the family played violin, piano and clarinet) Gene himself had no formal musical training! He was a working professional musician from the age of seventeen, and simply did not have the time to devote to a formal musical education. 

The Hi-Lo's, who recorded their first record in 1953 when Gene was 24, garnered accolades for popular renditions of classic jazz tunes such as "Fascinatin' Rhythm" and "Skylark." Gene was developing the trademark style with which he would become so uniquely identified. Subsequent to the demise of the Hi-Lo's, Gene was working in the busy recording studios of Chicago's commercial and jingle industry, where he met studio vocalists Len Dresslar and Bonnie Herman. Len and Bonnie, along with fellow ex-Hi-Lo Don Shelton, joined together under the moniker of "Singer's Unlimited" in 1967. 

                                  

The group's purpose was to garner lucrative commerical work, and to that end they produced a demo including the Beatles song, "Fool On the Hill." This demo ultimately came to the attention of German producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, via pianist Oscar Peterson. Schwer had founded MPS Records, and had, in his studio in Villengen, Germany, the only sixteen track recording console in Germany at the time. Schwer was immediately taken with the Singers Unlimited and proposed that they come to Germany to record. 

The results of that recording, which took place in 1971, were released as the album "In Tune." The group went on to record fourteen albums, the last of which was "Easy To Love." The group's extensive studio experience was vital, as Gene's arrangements would employ all of their range and skill, and utilized the burgeoning studio techniques of overdubbing and mixing to create their inimitable sound. Given the complexity of the arrangements, the The Singers Unlimited did not perform live, feeling that the studio was their ideal medium of expression. 

Puerling's vocal arrangements and chord structures were classic and instantly recognizable. In addition to the Hi-Lo's and The Singers Unlimited he contributed to Rosemary Clooney's TV show and mentored many other singers and groups, including Take 6, The King's Singers, The Manhattan Transfer, First Call, Chanticleer, Glad (band), The Free Design, and Brian Wilson. His vocal arranging ability and his ability to arrange musical backing by Frank Comstock's band and several others was widely regarded; John Neal of Harmony Sweepstakes said after his death: "As a craftsman of the art of blending and harmonizing the human voice in song, Gene has no equal." 

He was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices in 1982 for his arrangement of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (as performed by The Manhattan Transfer). A Latin song he arranged for Singers Unlimited, "One More Time, Chuck Corea," inspired by Chuck Mangione and Chick Corea, has been adapted and used by marching bands, drum and bugle corps and jazz ensembles. 

In the late 1970s, Puerling reunited the Hi-Lo's, with whom he recorded a couple of CDs and performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival and elsewhere around the country calling it quits in 1994 but making sporadic reunion appearances for many years after. In recent years, Puerling taught workshops at the Marin-based Harmony Sweepstakes. He died March 25, 2008, in the Marin County Hospital, California, due to complications from diabetes  just days shy of his 79th birthday.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Singers.com & SF Gate)

 Here’s a clip of The Hi-Lo's singing A Gal in Calico on the Rosemary Clooney Show. 

Bobby Wright born 30 March 1942

John Robert "Bobby" Wright (born March 30, 1942) is an American country music singer. He is the son of country singers Kitty Wells and Johnny Wright, and brother of Ruby Wright and Carol Sue Wright, also country singers. 

He was born in Charleston, West Virginia, United States. Most of his boyhood years were spent in Louisiana, since his parents were regular performers on the country music television program Louisiana Hayride. At age eight, Wright appeared with his parents on the show, and became part of their recordings three years later. The family went back to Nashville in 1958, because his parents became headliners at the Grand Ole Opry. 

Although Wright was an able guitarist and vocalist, he had little interest in a music career. He became interested in acting when he learned that Peter Tewksbury, a television and film director, had a role for a young Southern boy who could play the guitar. Wright made the trip to Hollywood to test for Tewksbury. While he did not get the role he went to California for, his screen test was seen by the producer of McHale's Navy, who cast him in the new television comedy as Willy Moss, the PT-73 radio operator, a role he played through the entire series. 

                              

                                 

While McHale's Navy was still in production, Wright decided to give music a try, beginning by working with his mother on one of her 1965 albums. Unhappy with the Hollywood scene after McHale's Navy ended, he moved back to Nashville to start a music career. 

Bobby Wright recorded for Decca, ABC and United Artists Records between 1967 and 1979, charting 21 singles on the Hot Country Songs charts. In 1967, he gained his first US country chart hit with ‘Lay Some Happiness On Me’. In 1971, he had a Top 15 country hit with ‘Here I Go Again’. He recorded country cover versions of some pop hits and in 1974, he had Top 30 country success with his ABC recording of Terry Jacks’ pop number 1, ‘Seasons In The Sun’. He later recorded for United Artists, registering his last solo success, ‘I’m Turning You Loose’, on that label in 1979. 

He appeared in the UK with his parents at the 1974 Wembley Festival and received praise for his performance with the family at the 1988 Peterborough Festival. A talented all-round entertainer, he continues to be an important part of the family show and has not made any further attempts to pursue a solo career. He was married to the former Brenda Kay Davis; the couple has two daughters, Theresa LeAnn and Kamela Lynn. 

As of 2024, Wright is the last surviving cast member from the McHale's Navy television series. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Van Broussard born 29 March 1937

Van Broussard (March 29, 1937 - November 17, 2020) was an American swamp pop musician from Louisiana. 

Van Buren Broussard Jr. was born in Prairieville, Louisiana. The oldest of 12 siblings, Broussard grew up in a musical family. Several of his relatives were well-known Cajun musicians in the area, and his great-grandfather Sydney Babin played fiddle in the house band for the popular country radio show the Louisiana Hayride. When he was ten years old, Broussard struck up a friendship with a guitarist named Pete Franklin, and the youngster set out to learn as many of his tricks as possible, sometimes riding the family's horse out to his home. 

At the age of 15, Broussard landed a gig playing guitar with the Garson Gautreaux Dixieland Band, and he played regularly with them for several years until one night, someone at a show asked them to play some Elvis Presley tunes. Broussard was the only one to take up the challenge, and he started focusing his energies on rock & roll and honing his skills as a vocalist. In 1957, he suffered a severe auto accident that nearly cost him a leg. This sidelined him for two years, but once he recovered, he assembled a new band and began performing, sometimes sharing the vocal mike with his sister, Grace Broussard. 

In 1960, Van & Grace Broussard released their debut single, "Feel So Good" b/w "Young Girls," and the following year, Van cut a solo effort, "I Can't Complain" b/w "Winter Wind." Grace would enjoy greater success with singer and pianist Dale Houston; as Dale & Grace, they would top the pop charts in 1963 with the song "I'm Leaving It All Up to You." Van didn't enjoy the same sort of breakthrough, but his 1968 single "Feed the Flame" got a national release on the Bell-distributed Mala label, and in addition to becoming a smash in Louisiana, it broke into the nationwide Top 200, peaking at number 49. 

                                  

In 1974, Van Broussard recorded I Need Somebody Bad (also a song recorded by Warren Storm) which became a local hit. His record label, Bayou Boogie took the opportunity to publish – finally, after 20 years of his career – his first album, in 1977, simply titled Van Broussard. Seeking to capitalize on this success, A second album was released in 1978, ”More Bayou Boogie! During 1981 Van participated in the "South Louisiana Music All-Star Show" concert organized by Johnnie Allan in Thibodaux, with his sister Grace. It continued throughout the 1980s at recording and performing with his band, Le Bayou Boogie Band, with or without his sister.

 Although mainly known for his expansive music career, Van was also accomplished in many other areas. He served his country as a member of the National Guard. He worked as a crane operator for nearly 25 years, spending most of that career at Vulcan Chemicals. He was a skilled mechanic and spent years performing custom modifications to a 1968 Hemi Barracuda, which he named ""Papa Cuda"". In 1978, with that car, he earned the national drag racing record, clocking in at 141 mph and 9.62 in the quarter mile. 

While Broussard was offered the opportunity to sign with a big label and take a serious shot at stardom, he admitted he preferred playing dances to concerts and was wary of the commitments that would come with touring and recording for a large corporation. His long career includes releases for a number of different labels, among them CSP, Red Stick, Rex, and Bayou Boogie. During his later years, Broussard put out more than half a dozen albums with CSP, amassing approximately 100 recorded songs for that label alone. Singles like "I'll Pay the Cost," and "I Need Somebody Bad," were often heard on radio and jukeboxes in the South. The Louisiana Hall of Fame inducted the artist in 1997. 

Van Broussard never broke out to national stardom, but he was a hero and a legend in his native Louisiana, where his blend of rhythm & blues, rock & roll, and Cajun music was eagerly embraced by fans of the regional genre known as "swamp pop." Broussard had a strong, flexible voice that was well suited to the vintage soul and rock numbers that were the staples of his catalog, and backed by a band enriched with horns and keyboards, his sound was warm while spirited enough to fill the dance floor even during slow ballads. 

Broussard and his group, the Bayou Boogie Band, were a popular live attraction in Louisiana and the surrounding states well into the 2010s. After years of living with cardiac disease, Van Broussard died on November 17, 2020 at his home in Prairieville. He was 83 years old.

(Edited from AllMusic, The Advocate obit, Monola & WABF9) 

 

Germaine Bazzle born 28 March 1932

Germaine Bazzle (born March 28, 1932) is a jazz vocalist from New Orleans. Her musical influences include Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billy Eckstein. 

Bazzle was born in New Orleans, Los Angeles. She learned to play songs at the age of nine and started to accept formal training of music around the age of eleven. Both of her parents played the piano. Bazzle started to play the bass at the age of fourteen, and she participated in Xavier University’s Junior School of Music Orchestra. Bazzle sang with the St. Louis Cathedral Choir. She was also a member of The New World Ensemble, an all black choral group. Bazzle earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Xavier University. 

Followed her graduation from Xavier University, Bazzle was an educator at Washington High School in Thibodaux, Louisiana during the early 1960s. At the same time, she was also a youthful member of Earl Foster’s band. Bazzle also engaged in professional duo-piano playing between her bass-playing years and vocal specialization years.  Early in the 70s, she started to serve on the faculty of Xavier Preparatory High School, an all-girl catholic high school in New Orleans. She was also encountered as a bassist with traditional jazz bands during the same time period. Bazzle taught at the Xavier Preparatory High School until her retirement in 2007. 

Bazzle has always prioritized teaching above touring and recording. She taught nine through twelve grade music lessons in the Prep and she also taught choral music because she believes that “education is her calling”. She is currently a vocal music instructor at the Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. She contributes greatly to jazz education for young people. Although she has never performed beyond New Orleans, she is admirable both as an educator and a musician. 

                           Here’s “Lush Life” from above 1988 album. 

                                   

“Teaching was what I was supposed to do; the gigs are what I could do,” she said emphatically upon her receipt of the 2015 Off Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Education award. “As far as I was concerned, I had the best of both worlds.” In an interview she added, “The voice is the original musical instrument and sometimes we forget that. Learning how to do the scales, learning how to do the arpeggios, learning how to read music...all of these things make good jazz.” 

She has collaborated and performed with Red Tyler, Peter "Chuck" Badie, Victor Goines, George French, Ellis Marsalis, Emile Vinnette, Larry Siebert, and David Torkanowsky, along with their band Germaine Bazzle & Friends.She sang regularly with the Saint Louis Catholic Choir and The New World Ensemble. She has performed in New Orleans night clubs for over twenty years. She has recorded two albums of her own in 1996 and 2018 and has been credited as a collaborator on more than a dozen other albums between 1962 and 2016. 

Her voice is rich, full of quirks and surprises; she is truly an acquired taste. Her repertoire consists, for the most part, of classic tunes written by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, freshly interpreted and given new arrangements. In any standard number, she may imitate a bass, trumpet, saxophone and imaginary instruments. She will also add idiosyncrasies where they are least expected or veer off into scatting, always displaying an abundance of technique and flexibility and never singing the same song the same way. Bazzle radiates engaging warmth and an infectious joy when she sings. The music flows through her and she resonates with it. 

Germaine Bazzle’s unique talent and unparalleled artistry as a vocalist is perhaps one of New Orleans’ best kept secrets. Her command of tone and melody coupled with her brilliance in the manipulation of her own vocal timbre are nothing short of spectacular. Still performing today, she is a frequent headliner with her own backup band at Snug Harbor in the heart of the Frenchmen Street. Even as she turns 92. Bazzle shows no sign of letting up, and the physical energy she emits from the stage is still there in full force. 

In an interview given in 2022, Bazzle acknowledged that if she had cut more records and was willing to go on tour, she might have had a lucrative full-time career as a singer. However, touring held no interest for her. She was content to stay at home in her beloved New Orleans, doing what she enjoyed most, teaching and performing locally for her legion of appreciative fans. 

(Edited from Scalar.usc.edu, The French Quarterly Magazine, Where y’at Magazines & Wikipedia)

Wilson Miranda born 27 March 1940

Wilson Miranda (March 27, 1940 - June 20, 1986) was a Brazilian singer of samba, rock and jazz, and music producer who early on, was identified with the "jovem guarda" a teen-oriented rock'n'roll sound of the early 1960s, but later found his way into the pop mainstream. 

Miranda was born as Wilson Antonio Chaves de Miranda in Itápolis, São Paulo, Brazil. He began his career as the lead singer of a jazz ensemble. During the late fifties he signed a contract with the Chantecler label and recorded many singles from 1958 to 1965. In 1960, he managed to sign a contract with Rádio Tupi, where he started to sing his rock-ballad songs. 

He alternated the repertoire of his recordings with the inclusion of Samba-Canção and Boleros in his albums. Although it was not well received by critics, who considered the then newcomer Rock’n’roll as a kind of sub-music, he achieved commercial success with "Quando", "É Porque", "Veneno", "O Apacheand "Bata Baby" (a version of Little Richard’s  Long Tall Sally.). 

1960 was a busy year for Miranda, he participate in the film "Conceição", under the direction of actor Hélio Souto, a show of the crime, police and suspense genre and where he appeared singing the song "Bata Baby" together with the group "The Rebels". He also recorded the  LP "Samba e Rocks", containing 13 songs versions of American hits, some new ones such as "Aquele Relógio" and "Ring a Rockin'" and other re-recordings such as "Bata Baby", among others. 

                                      

More singles an albums were issued from 1961 to 1964  including the LPs. "Teu Amor é Minha Vida" an "A Outra Face de Wilson Miranda", with exclusive Bossa Nova songs, presenting a more jazzy and intimate performance recording Brazilian classics such as "Minha Namorada" by Carlos Lyra and Vinicius de Moraes an "Samba de Verão" by Marcos an Paulo Sérgio Valle. 

By 1965 Miranda was ready to shed his teenybopper roots and recorded his second album with Bossa Nova songs and other sambas, under the name of "Tempo Novo", by his new label RCA Victor, which was very well received earning him many awards, Among the 11 tracks recorded, there are the sambas "Tempo Feliz" by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes, "Amanhã" by Walter Santos and Tereza Souza, and other hits, with arrangements and orchestras by Chico Moraes and Erlon Chaves. 

It was about this time that the TV show called Jovem Guarda (Young Guard), was aired in São Paulo, influenced by the Rock and Roll movements of the 50s and 60s. The program was led by Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos and Wanderléa and had the participation of several young artists of the time, including Wilson Miranda who sang several of his hits during the time the program was on the air. 

In 1967 he recorded the million selling single "Estou Começando a Chorar" (I'm Starting to Cry), a composition by Roberto Carlos and one of the biggest hits of that year. Even so, in the following years he left his singing career in the background, acting as a producer on albums by Nelson Gonçalves, Bendegó, Banda de Pífanos de Caruaru, and others of more popular appeal. 

It was only in 1978 that he recorded again, this time for the Continental label, the LP entitled "Relevo", with a completely different repertoire, definitively moving away from the rocker image of the beginning of his career, more focused on Brazilian Popular Music. In 1984, he released CD single of  “Viviana, in search of love” , the theme of Lucía Méndez's soap opera aired on SBT that year. In his latter years, he lived in the Campo Belo neighborhood of São Paulo with his family, where he had a room full of gold records and awards from the Jovem Guarda period. 

Wilson Miranda died on June 20, 1986, victim of a cardiac arrest in his car while he was stopped at a traffic light in São Paulo. Several artists from the Jovem Guarda attended the funeral. He was buried in the Araçá Cemetery. 

(Edited mainly from a translated Wikipedia article)

James Moody born 26 March 1925

James Moody (March 26, 1925 – December 9, 2010) was an American jazz saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles. The annual James Moody Jazz Festival is held in Newark, New Jersey. 

He was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised by his (single) mother, Ruby Hann Moody Watters. Born partially deaf, he was deemed to have learning difficulties at school, and his mother moved him to Newark, New Jersey, where he attended the Bruce Street school for deaf children, and then Newark's Arts high school. Encouraged by an uncle who gave him a saxophone, a 16-year-old Moody began to learn the alto, and then the tenor sax.  

Moody joined the US Army Air Corps in 1943 and played in the "negro band" at the segregated Greensboro Training Center. Following his discharge from the military in 1946, he played bebop with Dizzy Gillespie for two years. Moody later played with Gillespie in 1964, where his colleagues in the Gillespie group, pianist Kenny Barron and guitarist Les Spann, would be musical collaborators in the coming decades. 

His first recordings as a bandleader were with James Moody and his Modernists in 1948, but he moved to Paris to stay with an uncle in an attempt to overcome alcoholism, and worked there in 1949 with the Miles Davis/Tadd Dameron quintet. In 1949, during a session with local players in Sweden, Moody recorded the improvisation on I'm in the Mood for Love, which was to become one of his signature achievements. The vocalist Eddie Jefferson put lyrics to the passage, and in 1952 King Pleasure turned the combination into the pop hit Moody's Mood for Love. 

                                    

It wasn`t until he returned to the U.S. and toured with The Brook Benton Revue (with The James Moody Orchestra) that he became acquainted with music theory, crediting Tom Macintosh with explaining to him chord changes. Moody and his Orchestra performed for the eleventh famed Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on July 24, 1955 and also featured Big Jay McNeely, Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra, The Medallions and The Penguins. 

But after a fire in Philadelphia in 1958 destroyed his band's instruments, uniforms and scores, Moody decided on a change. He checked himself into Overbrook hospital, New Jersey, for rehab and recorded his masterly Last Train from Overbrook on his discharge six months later. By the beginning of the 1960s he was a sideman in the classic bebop group led by the saxophonists Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt. But in 1962 he returned to Gillespie. 

Though he continued to record distinctive projects that reaffirmed his stamp on the bebop tradition,   Moody stayed with Gillespie's quintet until 1973, when he decided to give up touring and devote more time to his young daughter. Joining the Las Vegas Hilton orchestra, he found himself backing Bill Cosby, Ann-Margret, Liberace, Elvis Presley, the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and many others. 

But after divorce from his first wife in 1979, he resumed his jazz career with appearances at the Nice jazz festival, the Sweet Basil club and the Kool jazz festival, both in New York, and Montreux in 1981, receiving a Grammy nomination for his solo on Manhattan Transfer's Vocalese album in 1985. By 1986 he was back as a jazz leader on a major label. He recorded the album Something Special for RCA/Novus that year, met his second wife, Linda, in 1987, married her in 1989 (with Gillespie as his best man), and settled in San Diego. 

Through the 1990s, Moody also worked with Jackson, took up soprano saxophone, received a Grammy nomination for his singing Get That Booty, (a duet with Gillespie), worked with Lionel Hampton and Tito Puente, and saw a tribute to his remarkable flute improvisation with the publication in 1995 of James Moody's Greatest Transcribed Flute Solos. In 1997 he had a minor role in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, received a Jazz Master award from the National Endowment for the Arts the following year, and in July 2000 was presented with an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts. 

In 2005 Moody and his wife founded the James Moody scholarship endowment at Purchase College, New York, and, in early 2010, the James Moody scholarship fund for Newark youth in the town where he was raised. He kept the news of his inoperable pancreatic cancer from all but his innermost circle, and though he declined further treatment, he remained comfortable and typically genial through his last months, continuing to play his instruments at home on his stronger days. After palliative care, Moody died in San Diego, on December 9, 2010, from complications resulting from the cancer. Two months after his death, Moody won the Grammy Award posthumously for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his album Moody 4B.  

(Edited from Guardian obit by John Fordham & Wikipedia)

 

Mina Mazzini born 25 March 1940

Mina Anna Maria Mazzini OMRI (born 25 March 1940) known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman. 

One of the most beloved and iconic performers in Italian history, vocalist Mina was a fixture on the pop music scene in the '60s and '70s before she retired from the limelight in 1978. Her lush and powerful voice put a distinctive mark on her music, which frequently jumped genres, from Italian pop and R&B to bossa nova, jazz, and even disco. 

From her first number one single, 1959's "Tintarella di luna," and through her run in the '70s with "Amor mio," "Parole Parole," "E poi...," and "L'importante e finire," she was a trailblazing figure who challenged social mores and became a symbol for female empowerment, pushing boundaries with her liberated image and unapologetic lyrics. Into the 21st century, her prolific and genre-shifting output kept her atop the charts with over a dozen number one albums and multiple hit singles. 

Anna Maria Mazzini was born into a working-class family in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy. The family moved to work in Cremona in her childhood. She listened to American rock and roll and jazz records and was a frequent visitor at the Santa Tecla and the Taverna Messicana clubs of Milan, both known for promoting rock and roll. After finishing high school in 1958, she attended college where she majored in accounting. 

In September, she started her solo career with the backing of the band Happy Boys. Her concert in September 1958, before an audience of 2,500 people at the Theatre of Rivarolo del Re, won enthusiastic approval from local critics. She soon signed with Davide Matalon, owner of the small record company Italdisc. He was impressed with the young singer and soon recorded four songs with her: two in English under the name Baby Gate -- "Be Bop a Lula" and "When" -- and two in Italian as Mina: "Non Partir" and "Malatia." 

             

                                    

In December, her performance at the Sei giorni della canzone festival of Milan was described by the La Notte newspaper as the "birth of a star". It was Mina's last performance with the Happy Boys, as her family refused to let her skip college for a scheduled tour of Turkey. Less than a month after the breakup with her previous band, Mina co-founded a new group called Solitari, which consisted of a singer, a saxophonist, a pianist, a contrabassist, and a guitarist. Her first hit with the band featured Mina performing an extra-loud, syncopated version of the popular song "Nessuno" ("Nobody"), which she performed at the first rock festival in the Milan Ice Palace in February 1959. 

Mina was the name that she stuck with for her debut album, Tintarella di Luna, which was released in 1960. During that decade she recorded over a dozen albums, and -- thanks to her high visibility in the television commercials that began in Italy after WWII and the economic boom that followed -- she became one of the country's most famous stars, notching seven number one albums, including 1971's best-selling Mina and 1976's Singolare y Plurale. At the height of her popularity, Mina announced that she would retire from the spotlight, a public hiatus which she started after the 1978 live album Mina Live '78. Recorded where it all started at La Bussola, the set celebrated the first 20 years of her career. 

Withdrawing from the public eye, she continued to record and release albums, which maintained her chart presence through the '80s and '90s. During that era, she issued almost three dozen efforts, seven of which topped the Italian charts, including Si, Buana (1986), Lochness (1993), Leggera (1997), and Olio (1999). In addition to her fresh output, Mina began releasing greatest-hits collections, including 2004's chart-topping, triple-disc The Platinum Collection, which introduced her to a new generation of fans. The following year, she issued Bula Bula, another number one that incorporated sleek pop production and dance beats. 

Mina continues to publish gold selling albums to the present. She alternates pop albums with jazz-arranged projects and other styles and keeps surprising with new musical collaborations. Meanwhile, her voice and songs are omnipresent in radio and TV commercials, theme tunes of sports programs, talent shows (where they sing classics), tribute shows, new covers, and even as samples in the recordings of other artists.Even into her seventies, Mina showed no signs of slowing down, notching another pair of chart-toppers with Le Migliori (2016) and Maeba (2018). In 2019, she joined fellow pop vocalist Ivano Fossati for a duets album, Mina Fossati. 

In 2023, a surprising intergenerational duet of Blanco (at the age of 20) and Mina (at the age of 83) was issued, "Un briciolo di allegria", it made number 1 in the Italian hitparade for 5 consecutive weeks.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)