Mimi Farina born 30 April 1945

Mimi Farina (April 30, 1945 – July 18, 2001) was an American singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters to a white mother and Mexican-American physicist Albert Baez. She was the younger sister of the singer and activist Joan Baez. 

Born Margarita Mimi Baez, in Palo Alto, California, to a British mother and Mexican physicist father, she was the third of three daughters. Being raised as a Quaker, she later claimed, encouraged her social conscience and a steadfast belief in non-violence. Her striking dark looks and feisty personality made her a natural performer, and, as a child, she showed rare talents as a dancer. But she also became an accomplished violinist and guitar player, and was a familiar figure at the burgeoning late-1950s and early-1960s folk movement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

By the time she was 16, she had embarked on a solo singing career, writing her own songs and travelling across Europe playing her music. In Paris, she met - and fell in love with - the man whose tragic fate left an indelible mark on her life, novelist, musician, and composer Richard Fariña (1937–1966). She married him at age 18 in Paris. The two collaborated on a number of influential folk albums, most notably, Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965) and Reflections in a Crystal Wind (1966), both on Vanguard Records. After Richard Fariña's death in a motorcycle accident on April 30, 1966 (on Mimi's twenty-first birthday), she moved to San Francisco, where she flourished as a singer, songwriter, model, actress, and activist. She performed at various festivals and clubs throughout the Bay Area, including the Big Sur Folk Festivals, the Matrix, and the hungry i. 

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, Joan Bridge 

Fariña briefly sang for the rock group the Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities. In 1967, she joined a satiric comedy troupe called The Committee. That same year, she and her sister Joan Baez were arrested at a peaceful demonstration and were housed temporarily in Santa Rita Jail, personalizing the experience of captivity for her. In 1968, Fariña married Milan Melvin and continued to perform, sometimes recording and touring with either her sister Joan or the folksinger Tom Jans, with whom she recorded an album in 1971, entitled Take Heart. Fariña and Milan divorced in 1971. 

                             Here’s “Mary Call” from above LP 

                                    

Among the songs she wrote is "In the Quiet Morning (for Janis Joplin)", which her sister recorded and released in 1972 on the album Come from the Shadows. The song is also included on a number of compilations, including Joan Baez's Greatest Hits. By 1973, Fariña was asked to accompany her sister Joan and B.B. King when they performed for the prisoners in Sing Sing Prison. This experience, along with her arrest in 1967, led her to a desire to do more for those who are held in institutions. 

In 1974, Fariña founded Bread and Roses, a non-profit organization that brings free live music and entertainment to children, adults, and seniors who are isolated in institutional settings: children's day care and special needs schools, hospitals, adult and juvenile detention facilities, homeless shelters, adult recovery centers, senior day and convalescent homes. Bread and Roses serves isolated audiences in eight counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, and consults with other like-minded programs nationally. In 2019, Bread and Roses brought performers to play more than 600 concerts in over 120 institutions. 

Though she continued to sing in her later years, releasing an album in 1985 and performing sporadically, Fariña devoted most of her time to running Bread and Roses. In the late 1980s, she teamed with Pete Sears to play a variety of benefit and protest concerts. Many concerts were concerned with human rights issues in Central America, especially the U.S.-backed civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. They once set up to play on the abandoned railroad tracks outside the Concord Naval Weapons Center in California. Surrounded by military police, Fariña and Sears played a show for people protesting U.S. weapons being shipped to government troops in El Salvador. 

In 1985, she recorded her own album Mimi Fariña Solo. Bread and Roses also has a CD—produced by Banana, aka Lowell Levinger, with Michael Kleff—of a series of concerts that she gave with Banana in Germany in the 1980s. Fariña used her connections with the folk-singing community to elicit help in supporting Bread and Roses, including Pete Seeger, Paul Winter, Odetta, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Taj Mahal, Lily Tomlin, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and others. There are now more than 15 other community organizations modeled after Bread & Roses across the country. 

Fariña died after a two year battle with neuroendocrine cancer at her home in Mill Valley, California on July 18, 2001, at age 56. A memorial service was held on August 7 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. 1,200 people attended.

(Edited from Wikipeda & The Guardian) 

Tammi Terrell born 29 April 1945

Tammi Terrell (April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye. 

She was born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia to Jennie, née Graham, and Thomas Montgomery. Jennie was an actress and Thomas was a barbershop owner and local politician. Terrell was the older of two siblings. According to her sister Ludie, she said her parents thought Terrell would be a boy and, therefore, she would be named after her father. When Terrell was born, the parents settled on the name Thomasina, nicknaming her "Tommie". At the age of 11 she won a talent contest.  Terrell later changed it to "Tammy" after seeing the film Tammy and the Bachelor and hearing its theme song, "Tammy", at the age of 12. 

Terrell attended Germantown High School in Philadelphia and by the age of 13 she was regularly opening club dates for acts including Gary "U.S." Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles. In 1960, Terrell signed under the Wand subsidiary of Scepter Records after being discovered by Luther Dixon. She recording the ballad "If You See Bill" under the name Tammy Montgomery, and did demos for the Shirelles. After another single, Terrell left the label. 

Having been introduced to James Brown, she signed a contract with him and began singing backup for his Revue concert tours. In 1961, Terrell created the group the Sherrys. In late 1962, she was kicked out due to multiple disputes. Eventually, they went their separate ways, with the Sherrys moving on without Terrell. 

In 1963, she recorded the song "I Cried". Released on Brown's Try Me Records, it became her first charting single, reaching No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100. Terrell later signed with Checker Records and released the Bert Berns-produced "If I Would Marry You", a duet with Jimmy Radcliffe, which Terrell co-composed. Following this relative failure, Terrell announced a semi-retirement from the music business. 

                                    

Terrell enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in pre-med, staying at the school for two years. In the middle of this, Terrell was asked by Jerry Butler to sing with him in a series of shows in nightclubs. After Butler arranged to assure Terrell that she could continue her schooling, she began touring with Butler. In April 1965, during a performance at the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit, she was spotted by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who promised to sign her to Motown. 

Terrell with Sam Cooke & Betty Harris

Terrell agreed and signed with Motown on April 29, 1965, her 20th birthday. "I Can't Believe You Love Me" became Terrell's first R&B top 40 single, followed almost immediately by "Come On and See Me". In 1966, Terrell recorded two future classics, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do (Is Think About You)" and The Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)". After the release of her first single on Motown, Terrell joined the Motortown Revue opening for the Temptations. 

Terrell was then paired with Marvin Gaye, who previously recorded duets with Mary Wells and Kim Weston. His chemistry with Terrell was immediate and in 1967, they entered the pop Top 20 with the magnificent "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," the first in a series of lush, sensual hits authored by the husband-and-wife team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. "Your Precious Love" cracked the Top Five a few months later and in 1968, the twosome topped the R&B charts with both "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By." The success of these later hits was nevertheless tempered by Terrell's off-stage travails -- after an extended period of severe migraine headaches, in 1967 she collapsed in Gaye's arms while in concert at Virginia's Hampton-Sydney College, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

Although the tumor forced Terrell to retire from performing live, she continued to record with Gaye even as her health deteriorated; however, as time went on, Valerie Simpson herself assumed uncredited vocal duties on a number of hits, including 1969's "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By" and "What You Gave Me." (For several other tracks, Gaye's vocals were added to pre-existing Terrell solo recordings.) 

In all, Terrell endured eight operations, ultimately resulting in loss of memory and partial paralysis; she finally died in Philadelphia on March 16, 1970. Gaye was so devastated by her decline and eventual passing that he retired from the road for three years; her loss also contributed greatly to the spiritual turmoil which informed his 1971 masterpiece What's Going On. At the time of her death, Tammi Terrell was just 24 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

 

Phil Guy born 28 April 1940

Phil Guy (April 28, 1940 – August 20, 2008) was an American blues guitarist. He was the younger brother of blues guitarist Buddy Guy. Phil and Buddy Guy were frequent collaborators and contribute both guitar and vocal performances on many of each other's albums. 

Philip Guy was born at Lettsworth, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the youngest of five children of sharecroppers. As a boy he picked cotton and pecan nuts and helped raise pigs and chickens around the family's shack, which was fitted with electricity only when he was nine. When Buddy moved to Baton Rouge to attend high school, he left his battered Harmony f-hole guitar hanging from a nail, ordering his younger brother never to touch it – an injunction which Phil was unable to respect. 

A natural left-hander, he initially played the instrument upside down, but later taught himself to play right-handed. Thanks to the arrival of electricity, his parents had been able to install an old phonograph, and he began mimicking the music of bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf. On Buddy's occasional trips home he would help Phil develop his skills, and it wasn't long before Phil was able to take Buddy's place in Raful Neal's blues band. He stayed with Neal for almost a decade before striking out on his own, settling in Chicago. Four years younger than Buddy, Phil Guy created his own style, mingling the Cajun music of his native Louisiana with Mississippi Delta blues, jazz and soul to produce his own brand of blues; this was understated and unflashy, in contrast to the elder brother's flamboyant style. 

He joined Buddy's band just before they embarked on a tour of Africa in 1970 and stayed with them for five years until Buddy, angered and frustrated at his inability to secure a record contract, retired from touring (albeit, as it turned out, temporarily). Phil managed to do what Buddy couldn't--get a record contract--and that year he recorded "The High Energy Blues" for JSP Records, and soon afterward began his own band, Phil Guy and the Chicago Machine. 

To underline his own identity, Phil, who looked like a chubbier version of the late comedian Richard Pryor, became known for a wild Afro hairstyle as well as for the beloved Fender Telecaster he called "Ludella". He realised early on that he would remain firmly in his brother's shadow. "There's two Guys and one's on top," he said. "If the labels can't get the Big Man, they don't want to mess with me." Nevertheless, Phil became well known in Europe. In the United States he was particularly popular in his adopted hometown of Chicago, where he performed for 40 years, often at his brother's renowned club Buddy Guy's Legends. 

                            Here’s “Tina Nu” from above album.

                                   

Guy recorded a number of albums under his own name in the 1980s and 1990s, branching out into soul and funk. Most of his albums were recorded by JSP Records, based in London. Among them was Say What You Mean (2000), which features what is perhaps his best-known song, (I'm the) Last of the Blues Singers, mourning the loss of such greats as Junior Wells and Howlin' Wolf. According to John Stedman, founder of JSP Records, Phil Guy was "one of the most impressive 'live' acts I've worked with in 30 years of legendary Americans". 

Phil Guy and the Chicago Machine toured extensively around the world, returning to Chicago for gigs in between. His favourite British venues were the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, the Leadmill in Sheffield, and Band on the Wall in Manchester.  During August 2007, Guy and his band sold out venues in Ireland and Northern Ireland, including the Bleu Note in Dublin and the Big River Jazz and Blues Festival in Belfast. He had first played Belfast during "the Troubles" and said he found it "helluva safe compared with some of the neighbourhoods back home". 

On what turned out to be Phil Guy's final album, He's My Blues Brother (2006), Buddy joined him on vocals and guitar on the title track. Although Buddy won five Grammys and had influenced artists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, it was his younger brother Phil who was named Blues Entertainer of the Year in 2007 at the 27th annual Chicago Music Awards. 

In January of 2008 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and his health quickly deteriorated. He died on August 20 of the disease at Saint James Hospital in Chicago Heights, Illinois He was 68 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia and The Telegraph) 

 

Cuba Gooding born 27 April 1944

Cuba Gooding (April 27, 1944 – April 20, 2017) was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient and also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own.

Born in Harlem, New York City, Cuba Mark Gooding was a son of Dudley MacDonald Gooding (1890–1955) and his wife Addie Alston. The elder Gooding was a native of Barbados who fled the island in 1936 to Cuba, and met and married a woman there. When she was murdered because of their affiliation with Pan Africanist leader Marcus Garvey, Dudley Gooding promised his wife on her deathbed that he would name his first son Cuba. He became a taxi driver in Manhattan, but he died when Cuba was 11 years old. 

The Main Ingredient 1974. L-R:
Luther Simmons, Cuba Gooding, Tony Silvester 

Cuba Gooding began his recording career as the lead singer of The Charades in the mid 1960s. He joined The Main Ingredient as a back-up vocalist. He became the lead singer after lead singer Donald McPherson died of leukemia in 1971. With Cuba Gooding on lead vocals, the Main Ingredient had their first million-selling single with "Everybody Plays the Fool," which hit number three pop and held the number two R&B spot for two weeks on Billboard's charts in fall 1972. The follow-up, "You've Got to Take It (If You Want It)," was included on the album Bitter Sweet, which hit number ten R&B in summer 1972. Their next LP, Afrodisiac, peaked at number 16 R&B in spring 1973. 

The Main Ingredient produced the 1974 LP Euphrates River, which included their second million-seller, a cover of Ronnie Dyson's 1973 hit "I Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (number eight R&B, number ten pop); the sumptuous disco classic "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend," which bopped to number seven R&B; and "California My Way." Tony Sylvester left the group to become a record producer and Carl Thompkins joined the group. Rolling Down a Mountainside was the title of their 1975 LP (number three R&B, spring 1975) and of the title track single that hit number seven R&B. The "Shame on the World" single peaked at number 20 R&B, while the Shame on the World LP made it to number 27 R&B in late 1975. 

                                   

In 1977, Gooding signed as a solo artist with Motown Records. Amid much anticipation and critical raves, his solo debut, The 1st Album, produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter (Tavares, the Four Tops), was released in spring 1978 with only one single, "Mind Pleaser," charting number 91 R&B in spring 1978. Another Motown LP, Love Dancer, produced by Michael Lovesmith, was issued in spring 1979. 

Shirley & Cuba Gooding

Gooding moved from the Bronx to southern California in the 1970s. Gooding and his wife, singer Shirley Gooding (née Sullivan) had four children: actors Cuba Gooding Jr., Omar Gooding, actress April Gooding and musician Tommy Gooding. Gooding Sr. later became a minor actor himself. He separated from his wife in 1974 but in 1995, they remarried. 

In 1980, Gooding returned to The Main Ingredient and made two more albums for RCA Victor. In the summer of 1984 Cuba Gooding released a song called "I've Got The Hots (for you), which was a disco/funk song. His biggest international success was Brian Auger's "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" in 1983, which has in recent times been sampled by several R&B artists, as well as hitting the charts again as a remix by UK Hardcore Rave group Altern-8 in 1991. He was also developing a film project called Everybody Plays the Fool: The Cuba Gooding Story. The film highlights three generations of the Gooding Family: Dudley "Cuba" Gooding, Cuba Gooding Sr., Cuba Gooding Jr. and Omar Gooding. 

Gooding appeared on the Beach Music Super Collaboration CD, performing the Charles Wallert composition, "Meant To Be In Love". This led to the duo's project, “Never Give Up” (Bluewater Recordings), which debuted at the 2009 presidential inauguration. In 2011, he had a residence in Rosarito Beach, Mexico where he performed at least one charity concert. He also had a residence in Flagler Beach, Florida. 

On April 20, 2017, one week before his 73rd birthday, Gooding was found dead in his silver Jaguar while parked on a street in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. CPR was performed by the fire department but they were unable to revive him. 

An autopsy determined he died of Hypertensive and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, which is defined as a hardening and narrowing of the arteries, often leading to heart attack and/or stroke. He is interred at the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic &IMDb)

 

Jørgen Ingmann born 26 April 1925

Jørgen Ingmann (26 April 1925 – 21 March 2015) was a Danish jazz and pop guitarist from Copenhagen. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of "Apache". He and his wife Grethe Ingmann won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Dansevise". Although virtually unknown in Britain, he sold hundreds of thousands of records in mainland Europe, Scandinavia, the US, Canada, and the Far East. 

Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen was born in Copenhagen, and as a young man still in his teens he became a messenger saving his pay checks to buy his first guitar.  As a child he had learned to play the violin but his passion was the guitar.  His next job was as a printing house clerk where he remained for 4 years.  During that time he would learn to play the piano. One of his early influences was Charlie Christian – an American musician – who played the electric guitar – primarily designated to provide rhythm for jazz ensembles. 

Jorgen would finally get his first guitar in 1941 along with an amplifier.  He would next form his first group the “Ingmann Quintet”.  The group were regulars playing in downtown Copenhagen.  This was in the early 1940’s. In 1944 he would join the Roger Henriksen Orchestra playing in the village of Randers.  1945 would be a big turning point in his career when he became a member of Svend Asmussen’s  backing group,  Svend being crowned the “Fiddling Viking”.  Svend provided Jorgen with the opportunity to record his first record with “How I’m Doing, Hey Hey” b/w “That’s My Weakness Now”. 

Ingmann’s inspiration on the guitar came from America’s pioneer Les Paul.  Like Paul, Jorgen would experiment with multi-tracking techniques, echo and special effects.  He had his own 4-track recording machine at a time when 2-track mono was predominant.  Ingmann also used half speed recording extensively in the studio. In addition to the guitar, Jorgen would overdub the bass and drums playing all the instruments and manning the controls for his echo special effects and began recording under the name Jørgen Ingmann & His Guitar. 

                                   

He would cover the hugely popular Shadows’ UK hit “Apache” taking it to number 1 in Canada and number 2 in the United States.  “Apache” even resonated with R&B radio stations reaching number 9 on the R&B national charts. He remade Silvana Mangano's "Anna" with moderate US chart success. In the first half of the 1960s he had many hits in Germany, including "Pepe" (1961 #15), "Anna" (1961 #19), "Violetta" (1962 #16), "Drina Marsch" (1964 #5) and "Zorba le Grec" (1965 #14). Billboard magazine reported that he charted at no. 2 on the Denmark pop singles chart with his recording of "Marchen Til Drina" on 7 December 1963.  His recording reached no. 1 on 17 December 1963. Other recordings of his included "Tequila" (which he also recorded during the 60s, with the Champs) and a version of Pinetop Perkins' "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (from 1962). 

He also worked as a member of the duet, Grethe og Jørgen Ingmann, together with his wife Grethe Ingmann. After winning the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix competition in 1963, they went on to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 where they won with the song "Dansevise" (Dance Ballad), music by Otto Francker and lyrics by Sejr Volmer-Sørensen. His best jazz work is to be found on the LP Guitar in Hifi which, apart from "Margie", the first track, has many songs written by Hoagy Carmichael. It was issued in England on a 10-inch LP and in other places as a 12-inch LP. In the USA it was called Jorgan Ingmann Swings Softly. 

Besides releasing his own recordings, his orchestra Jørgen Ingmann's Orkester backed a number of contemporary Danish artists in the 1950s and early 1960s. He and Grethe met in 1955, married in 1956, and divorced in 1975. Jorgen continued to perform as a soloist. Ingmann was never fond of appearing live solo but much preferred working in the studio.  His final appearances were a disappointment for him, attending festivals in 1984 standing in the back of track and playing his familiar tunes from a tape recorder!  By 1985 he sold all of his guitars and equipment and would never record or perform again. 

Jørgen had a short two year marriage to Gitte Heide from 1979, but according to close friend and musician Laif Møller Lauridsen, the divorce from Grethe was devastating for him and he turned to drink for solace. Eventually they both reunited in 1984 but as close friends, as Gerthe had married advertising executive Bo Augustinusin in 1977. She died 18 August 1990 from cancer, age 52. In 2003 a biography about Jørgen Ingmann by Henrik Kristoffersen was published. 

Jørgen Ingmann died in Holte, Denmark, on 21 March 2015, aged 89. 

(Edited from Wikipedia. AllMusic, kimsloans & Eurovisionary) 

 

Vassar Clements born 25 April 1928

Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions. 

Clements was born in Kinard, Florida and grew up in Kissimmee. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, learning "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor" as his first song. Soon, he joined with two first cousins, Red and Gerald, to form a local string band. In his early teens Clements met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather, a friend of fiddler Chubby Wise. Clements was impressed with his playing. 

In late 1949, Wise left Monroe's group, and the 21 year-old Clements traveled by bus to ask for an audition. When told he would have to return the next day, Clements was crestfallen, lacking the money for either a hotel room or return bus trip. Monroe gave him some money to a night's lodging, and the next day Clements auditioned and was hired. He remained with Monroe for seven years, recording with the band in 1950 and 1951. 

Between 1957 and 1962, he was a member of the bluegrass band Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys. He also gained recognition joining with the popular bluegrass duo of Flatt and Scruggs on the popular theme to the hit television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. Earl Scruggs' path-breaking banjo style had premiered with Bill Monroe in the late 1940s, and thereafter gained widespread renown with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys. 

By the mid-1960s, however, his struggles with alcohol left him making his living in blue-collar trades, being employed briefly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a plumber, in a Georgia paper mill, and as switchman for Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He even sold insurance and once operated a convenience store while owning a potato chip franchise in Huntsville, Alabama. Sobering up, he returned to Nashville in 1967, where he became a much sought-after studio musician. 

                                  

After a brief touring stint with Faron Young he joined John Hartford's Dobrolic Plectral Society in 1971, when he met guitarist Norman Blake and Dobro player Tut Taylor, and recorded Aereo-Plain, a widely acclaimed "newgrass" album that helped broaden the bluegrass market and sound. After less than a year he joined up with Earl Scruggs. His 1972 work with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Will the Circle be Unbroken earned even wider acclaim, and he later worked on the Grateful Dead's Wake of the Flood and Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. 

Within the next two years, Clements would cut his first solo album, (although an album was released under his name in 1970 of some session tracks with country band). In 1973, he joined and toured with the bluegrass supergroup Old & In the Way with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn; their self-titled live album Old & In the Way was released in 1975. In 1974 he lent his talents to Highway Call, a solo album by former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts. 

In his 50-year career he played with artists ranging from Woody Herman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, and Paul McCartney, and earned at least five Grammy Award nominations and numerous professional accolades. He once recorded with the pop group the Monkees by happenstance, when he stayed behind after an earlier recording session. He also appeared in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville and Alan Rudolph's 1976 film, Welcome to L.A.. He made a duet album with Stéphane Grappelli Together at Last in 1987. 

In 2004, he performed in concert with jazz quartet Third Stream – in which a video documentary of the concert was done with Jim Easton (guitar), Tom Strohman (sax), Jim Miller (bass), and John Peifer (drums). His 2005 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was for "Earl's Breakdown," by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and featured Clements, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, and Jerry Douglas. 

Vassar Clements played on over 200 albums, including nearly 40 on which he starred or was featured. His albums often featured newgrass style music and what Clements called "Hillbilly Jazz". His last album, Livin' With the Blues, released in 2004, was his only blues recording; it featured guest appearances by Elvin Bishop, Norton Buffalo, Maria Muldaur, and others. 

Clements last performance was on February 4, 2005 in Jamestown, New York., On March 11, 2005 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died at his home August 16th, 2005. He was 77. (He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

( Edited from Wikipedia & Discogs)