J.J. Barnes born 30 November 1943

James Jay Barnes (November 30, 1943 – December 10, 2022) was an American R&B singer and songwriter who was active for well over 50 years. 

Born in Detroit, Michigan, and had seven brothers and one sister (the singer Orthea Barnes). He was educated at the North Western High School in Detroit. His vocal career began with contributions to the groups, The Halo Gospel Singers, The Five Seniors and his own group, J. J. Barnes & The De!l Fi’s. The latter group were signed to the Kable lable, who released the single ‘My Love Came Tumbling Down’ b/w ‘Won't You Let Me Know’ in 1960. 

His first professional appearance was in Cincinnatti, Ohio in 1961, where he shared the bill with Aretha Franklin, The Miracles, Luther Barnes and the Emeralds and the Ohio Players. J.J. recorded his earliest sides for the Mickay’s and Scepter imprints, which included ‘Just One More Time’ b/w ‘Hey Child I Love You’, released in 1963, and issued on both labels. Further releases included ‘These Chains Of Love’ b/w ‘Color Green’ (in 1963) and ‘Please Let Me In’ b/w ‘I Think I Found A Love’ (in 1965), following a label move to Ric-Tic. These early sides became highly sought after on the U.K.’s Northern Soul scene. 

                                    

At Ric Tic, J.J. covered The Beatles' ‘Day Tripper’ b/w ‘Don't Bring Me Bad News’,after which he switched labels to  Motown. Barnes was a member of the Holidays, a trio which also included Edwin Starr and Steve Mancha. They had a #7 R&B hit in June 1966 with "I'll Love You Forever" (#43 in Canada). Barnes' biggest hit single came in 1967 with "Baby Please Come Back Home" on the Groovesville label, which, like many of his records, he co-wrote. The song reached No. 9 on the US Billboard R&B chart, and No. 25 in Canada. However, subsequent singles on a variety of labels, including covers of "Black Ivory" on Today/Perception Records, failed to repeat the success. 

He left the label the same year, and recorded sides for the Revilot and Groove City labels between 1967 and 1969. On the recommendation of his friend Edwin Starr, Barnes moved to England in the 1970s. Starr had arranged for Barnes to appear on a series of shows, which led to him signing a deal with Contempo Records who released several singles (including ‘Sara Smile’ b/w ‘Let Me Feel The Funk’ and ‘The Erroll Flynn’ b/w ‘She's Mine’) and an album, entitled ‘Sara Smile’ in 1977, all without chart success. 

In the 1980’s J.J. released material for Ian Levine’s Motorcity imprint, and released a version of the Northern soul evergreen by Frank Wilson, ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’. His song "Chains of Love", originally the B-side of his 1967 hit "Baby Please Come Back Home", achieved further renown when it was covered by the Dirtbombs on their Ultraglide in Black album in 2001. 

J.J. Barnes only had a brief period in the mass public spotlight, but he maintained a fiercely loyal fan base for over a half century, and he continued to please them with his performances right until the end.  In October 2022, Barnes headlined the Detroit A-Go-Go Festival, a destination event for fans of classic Detroit soul music. Barnes said it would likely be his last public performance, and he was right -- J.J. Barnes died on December 10, 2022 at the age of 79. 

(Edited from Soulwalking, Wikipedia & AllMusic) 

 

Tony Coe born 29 November 1934

Anthony George Coe (29 November 1934 – 16 March 2023) was an English jazz musician who played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute as well as soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. As a clarinetist in his mature years he was widely regarded in the jazz environment as one of the best in the world. 

Coe 2nd from right with Lyttelton

Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, Coe started out on clarinet and was self-taught on tenor saxophone. At just 15 years of age in 1949 he played in the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys trad band and two years later, aged 17, became a full professional with Joe Daniels. In 1953, aged 18, he joined the army where he played clarinet in the Military band and saxophone with the unit Dance Band. After demob in 1955 he spent some time in France with the Micky Bryan Band before rejoining Joe Daniels. In 1957 Tony's father went to see Humphrey Lyttelton and, as a result, Tony spent just over four years with Humphrey's band from 1957 to the end of 1961. This was a period when Coe was brought to the attention of critics and fans as well as giving him some degree of international fame. 

He left Lyttleton at the end of 1961 to form his own outfit, shifting more or less exclusively to the tenor saxophone and clarinet. In 1965, Coe was invited to join Count Basie's band (later saying: "I'm glad it didn't come off – I would have lasted about a fortnight") and has since played with the John Dankworth Orchestra, the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, Derek Bailey's free improvisation group Company, Stan Tracey, Michael Gibbs, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bob Brookmeyer, and performed under Pierre Boulez as well as leading a series of groups of his own, including Coe Oxley & Co with drummer Tony Oxley. 

As leader, his notable albums in this period include 1967's Tony's Basement for Denis Preston, a combination of jazz players and string quartet which "suits his evenness of tone and highly personal sound perfectly, and which recalls Stan Getz's beautiful Focus". In 1967-68 he performed regularly with the John Dankworth band, and from 1968-72 with the classy Clarke/Boland orchestra in Europe. In the 70’s Coe played regularly in Henri Mancini’s orchestra on tours to Europe. Coe and Mancini had been mutual admirers ever since the former’s replacement of the original Pink Panther saxophonist, Plas Johnson, on the theme tune, and the Englishman’s subtle version of the saxophone part was an audience favourite on tours. 

                                   

In 1976, a grant from the Arts Council enabled him to write Zeitgeist - based on poems of Jill Robin, a large-scale orchestral work fusing jazz and rock elements with techniques from classical music which was recorded on EMI records on 29 and 30 July 1976 at Lansdowne Studios based in Holland Park, London. Another recording with Denis Preston is his "Third Stream masterpiece" Zeitgeist from 1977. He played saxophone on John Martyn's 1973 album, Solid Air and clarinet on Paul McCartney's recording of "I'll Give You a Ring", released in 1982. 

Coe also worked with the Matrix, a small ensemble formed by clarinettist Alan Hacker, with a wide-ranging repertoire of early, classical, and contemporary music, the Danish Radio Big Band, Metropole Orchestra and Skymasters in the Netherlands. He has worked additionally with the Mike Gibbs big band and the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble. As leader, a career highlight from 1989 is the Canterbury Song album featuring the American pianist Horace Parlan. 

Coe recorded on soundtracks for several films, including Superman II, Victor/Victoria, Nous irons tous au paradis, Leaving Las Vegas, Le Plus beau métier du monde and The Loss of Sexual Innocence. He also composed the film score for Camomille. In 1995 the music world paid Coe due respect for three decades of accomplishment when he became the first non-American to receive the prestigious Jazzpar prize. In celebration he composed a fine extended big-band work, Captain Coe’s Famous Racearound (named after a childhood toy, and a venture he would come to regard as one of his lifetime favourites) for a performance conducted by the American jazz composer Bob Brookmeyer at the Jazzpar awards ceremony in Copenhagen. 

In the 2000s and beyond he would continue to play sporadically and to record with compatible partners and friends, including the trumpeter Gerard Presencer, Horler, the pianist Nikki Iles and the singer Tina May, as well as the saxophonist and bandleader Alan Barnes. In 2021 Coe and Horler belatedly released Dancing in the Dark, a long-neglected tape of their appearance at the 2007 Appleby jazz festival in Cumbria, for which Coe had made a last-minute decision to perform entirely on the clarinet. He continued to perform and record music well into his later years, and he remained an important figure in the jazz community until his death. 

Coe, who lived in Canterbury, died on 16 March 2023, at the age of 88.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)

 

Little Sammy Davis born 28 November 1928

Little Sammy Davis (November 28, 1928 – February 16, 2018) was an American blues musician based in New York's Hudson Valley. His music career began in the 1940s, but he was not widely known until the mid-1990s, when he began working in radio, singing, performing on tour, and recording studio albums. 

Born in Winona, Mississippi, 40 kilometers east of Greenwood, he was introduced to music by his grandmother and learned the harmonica at the age of 8. He then moved to Florida, where he performed in the Miami area, where he also worked in orchards and sawmills. He took part in travelling shows and joined a group that also included Pinetop Perkins, Albert King and Earl Hooker. 

He then recorded his first sides in Miami with Earl Hooker, in April 1953 for the Rockin' label and played harmonica on Sweet angel (Original sweet black angel), a famous Robert Nighthawk cover thanks to which Hooker established himself as a master of slide. He also recorded six sides (one of which remains unreleased) under the name Little Sam Davis, again with Hooker on guitar. In July of the same year, this time in Memphis for the Sun brand, some specialists claim that he played harmonica with Pinetop Perkins and Earl Hooker on (Talkin') Off the wall and a cut take of Off the wall, but according to others it probably was Walter Horton or Joe Hill Louis... He also visited Chicago, in the late 50’s where he rubbed shoulders with Little Walter, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters. In any case, these beginnings were not enough to really launch his recording career. 

                                     

After almost two decades, he reappeared in 1971. Married and now a resident of Poughkeepsie, New York, he called himself Harmonica Sammy Davis and produced a few tracks for Trix, then a few more the following year, with Eddie Kirkland as leader. After the sudden death of his wife in 1972/73, Davis stopped playing and dropped out of the music scene for the next two decades, despite the efforts of Little Eliot Lloyd, Lowry, and others to persuade him to play. 

But in the early 1990s, he was performing locally and caught the attention of a radio host, Doug Price, and two musicians, drummer Brad Scribner known as Midnight Slim, and his brother Fred, a guitarist, songwriter and producer. Thanks to them, Davis appeared on radio shows and toured beyond the region, and in 1995 he released the album "I Ain't Lyin'" on Delmark, nominated for the Blues Awards and awarded the Comeback Artist of the Year Award by Living Blues magazine. 

In 2002, Davis was the subject of an Arlen Tarolfsky film, Little Sammy Davis, and in 2005, he met Levon Helm, the Band's drummer and vocalist, and the artists together signed "Levon Helm Band Starring Little Sammy Davis: The Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume One". Three years later, accompanied by Midnight Slim, Davis released "Ten Years And Forty Days". When he was 80 years old, he suffered a stroke from which he recovered, and in early 2009, he recorded another album with Midnight Slim, "Travelin' Man". Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, another stroke left him partially paralyzed and forced him to retire permanently. 

Davis resided in a nursing home rehab unit in Middletown, New York. He died in Middletown on February 16, 2018, at the age of 89. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Soul Bag bio by Daniel Léon)

 

Buzz Cason born 27 November 1939

James Elmore "Buzz" Cason (November 27, 1939 – June 16, 2024) was an American rock singer, songwriter, record producer and author. 

James Elmore Cason was born in Nashville, Tennessee on November 27, 1939. He was a founding member of The Casuals, Nashville's first rock and roll band. With Cason on guitar, they recorded "My Love Song For You" (co-written by Cason and the group's vocalist/keyboardist, Richard Williams) for the tiny Nu Sound label in Nashville. It was picked up by Dot (# 15557) in April 1957 and became a local hit. The Casuals started touring and were heard by Brenda Lee's manager, Dub Allbritten, who asked them to become Brenda's backing band. They accepted the offer and some of the group members, notably Richard Williams, would stay with Brenda until the mid-seventies! 

In 1958 Cason met Bobby Russell (1941-1992), the later writer of such megahits as "Honey", "Little Green Apples" and "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. They started writing songs together and had two of their songs recorded by Jan and Dean. Also, Buzz and Richard Williams teamed up with Hugh Jarrett of the Jordanaires to record as The Statues for Liberty ("Blue Velvet", # 84 in 1960). At Liberty, Cason was approached by producer Snuff Garrett to cover a song from the film "Circus of Horrors", called "Look For A Star". The original version was by British singer Garry Mills ; Cason was renamed Garry Miles by Garrett for the occasion. "Can you imagine?" he said, "We not only took the guy's song, we pretty much stole his name, too. Cason's version of "Look For A Star" passed the original on the charts, peaking at # 16. 

                                   

Cason left the Casuals in 1962, to work as Snuff Garrett's assistant at Liberty Records. During this period, he and Leon Russell, then a session musician, produced The Crickets in a version of the song "La Bamba". The song did well in the United Kingdom and he toured with the group. In Nashville he also worked for arranger Bill Justis.

 Around the same time, and under a variety of pseudonyms, Cason also worked as a session vocalist for several Nashville-based budget labels that specialized in issuing knock-off soundalike versions of popular hits. These tracks were recorded quickly and made available for sale at budget prices. 

All told, Cason sang lead on at least seven of these 'soundalike' singles issued in 1962 and 1963, under such names as "Tommy Fuller", "Fred X. Brown", "Bob Lester", "Bill Allison", "Bill Austin', "Farley Wayne", and "The Shaw Brothers" — both of whom were Cason, double-tracked.

He moved to Los Angeles and produced the Crickets (with whom he would tour the UK in 1964, as a member), Buddy Knox and a few hot rod groups. He also did background vocals for Bobby Vee, Jackie DeShannon and Walter Brennan. After getting fired by Liberty in 1964, Buzz went back to Nashville to run Bill Justis's publishing company, Tuneville Music. At that time, Justis produced a hot rod group called Ronny and the Daytonas (who had a # 4 hit with "G.T.O." in 1964). For some time Cason was a member of the studio version of this group and wrote "Sandy" for them, a # 27 hit in late 1965. 

In 1967, Cason had his biggest success as a songwriter, with "Ever- lasting Love". The original version by Robert Knight went to # 13 on the Billboard charts, then a British cover by The Love Affair topped the UK charts in early 1968. The song was published by Cason's own publishing company, Rising Sons (also a record label, on which the Robert Knight version came out), which he had started in 1966, together with his old pal Bobby Russell and Fred Foster of Monument Records. Dolly Parton's first Monument single, the remarkable "Don't Drop Out", was also written by Cason and Russell. 

In the sixties and seventies, Buzz Cason recorded under his own name for a wide variety of labels, but without chart success. In 1970, Cason founded 'Creative Workshop', a recording studio for producing acts for Southern Writers Group USA (SWG), Nashville's first writer-owned group of music publishing companies. He kept writing songs and had a # 2 country hit in 1972, "Ann (Don't Go Running)" by Tommy Overstreet on Dot. From the mid-1980s he had his own rockabilly-styled group, 'B.C. & the Dartz' who released some albums. The 1990s saw the release of the Beatles' "Live at the BBC" recordings, which included Cason's "Soldier of Love", previously recorded by Arthur Alexander. 

His book, Living the Rock'N'Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason (2004), is about music, freedom, and adventure and sheds light on the events and careers that shaped the early days of rock and roll.  In 2018, Buzz released the album Billy & Buzz Sing Buddy, a tribute to Buddy Holly, with fellow songwriter Billy Swan. He was still writing and producing songs up until his death in Franklin, Tennessee on June 16, 2024, at the age of 84. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & This Is My Story)

 

Rocky Sharpe born 26 November 1952

Rocky Sharpe (26 November 1952 – 5 December 2019), was the lead singer of the English doo-wop/rock and roll revival group Rocky Sharpe and the Replays, who first found fame in the late 1970s. The usual line-up of the group was Rocky Sharpe (born Robert Podsiadły, Helen Highwater (real name: Helen Blizard), Johnny Stud (Sharpe's brother Jan Podsiadły) and Eric Rondo (Mike Vernon). An earlier incarnation of the group, Rocky Sharpe and the Razors, included Den Hegarty, Rita Ray, Griff Fender and Nigel Trubridge, who later formed Darts. 

Rocky Sharpe, born Robert Podsiadly, was the third son of Stanislaw and Stefania Podsiadly, Polish refugees who settled in Brighton after the war. The family was active in the local Polish community with Eddie, Johnny (Jan) and Robert growing up performing in Polish Academia on holidays and feast days. Even without this audience Robert enjoyed singing his way through the day at home. The opportunity to shine came with a performance singing Polish Christmas Carols as a trio. The trio sang Polish folk songs in further shows and became popular playing for Polish dances with old time dances on the accordion and pop songs on the guitar. Bookings from social clubs and folk clubs required a name for the band, Silver Sword (Srebrna Szabla in Polish). A regular Saturday night spot at a local pub always ended up as a riotous grannies’ knees up. 

In 1972 Silver Sword joined forces with the Rather Annoyed Angels and others for a performance at the Arlington on Brighton Seafront as Shey Ney Ney, a spoof of Sha Na Na. The joke was on the band when the audience demanded an encore. The moment Blue Moon was reprised, Rocky Sharpe was born. Rocky’s ambition to become an actor remained and he took up a place at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. The now more credibly named Rocky Sharpe and the Razors moved from local gigs to the London pub circuit and beyond following a national pub talent competition in 1974. 

In spite of a healthy following and some self-financed recordings commercial success was elusive and the curtain finally came down on the Razors on 18 June 1976, with the only lasting evidence a Chiswick Records EP from the recordings. Rocky naturally turned to the theatre, performing in rep and in some TV walk-ons. But in a lull Johnny called Chiswick Records in 1978 and asked if they would like to make a record.  Chiswick said yes and recruited Mike Vernon as producer (and later group member). Helen Highwater (Helen Blizard) was added to the line-up as the Replays. 

                                     

The group enjoyed its first commercial success with "Rama Lama Ding Dong", a cover version of the Edsels' original hit, which reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart. It became the perfect showcase hit record for Rocky’s vocal gymnastics and performances and opened the door to a short career defined by four albums, and chart success in the UK, Germany, Spain, Austria and Australia. 

To this day the music has held a deep and abiding love in the hearts of Replays’ fans, particularly in Spain. More chart success quickly followed with another single, "Imagination", which reached number 39 in 1979. After this, success was more difficult to find, and Sharpe found greater success in touring than in the charts. 

In 1982, Sharpe had another major hit. "Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)", a cover version of Ernie Maresca's 1962 hit, reached the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. The song became his only charting release in Australia peaking at number 39. The group's last chart single was "If You Wanna Be Happy", which reached UK chart position 46 in 1983. 

After a few line-up changes during 1982-1984, the band finally broke up in early 1985. Sharpe launched a new career as an actor - but he was forced to retire in 1988 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He lived with his wife Paulina in the family home in Brighton until late 2013, when he became a full-time resident at the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home (QAHH) in Worthing. 

Rocky Sharpe and the Replays had always been particularly popular in Spain and in 2013, a Spanish vocal group called the Velvet Candles, whose music had long been inspired by the group, staged a benefit/tribute concert for him in Barcelona after hearing about Sharpe's medical condition. As an added attraction, Sharpe's brother Jan Podsiadly flew out to Spain and, readopting his former Replays persona as Johnny Stud, joined them as a special guest on stage. 

The concert raised almost £2,000, which Sharpe donated to the Queen Alexandra Hospital funds. News of the concert also reached people that used to run Chiswick Records (the record company with whom Sharpe and the Replays had their early hits) and they donated an additional £5,000 to the QAHH funds. Sharpe died on 5 December 2019 at the age of 67. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Ace Records) 

 

Gus Bivona born 25 November 1915

Gus Bivona (November 25, 1915 – January 5, 1996) was an American reed player, (covering a range of clarinets, saxophones and flute) at the height of the big band era. He was never a household-name clarinetist like Artie Shaw or Buddy DeFranco, but during the big band era and throughout the 1950s, he was one of the finest and most relaxed swing studio clarinetists in the business. He also was a rock-solid alto saxophonist. 

Arcuiso “Gus" Bivona, was born in Connecticut. He got his musical start under the close eye of his parents, both of whom were also musicians. His mother was a pianist, and his father was a guitarist. Bivona's first instrument was violin, but he switched to a combination of alto saxophone and clarinet at the age of 16. His professional debut was in a band led by Spider Johnson, followed by dates all around New England in Leo Scalzi's Brunswick Orchestra. Bivona must have been a quick study on the horns, since these engagements are reported as having happened not much more than a year after he switched from violin. 

Gus with Bunny Berigan

In 1935, Bivona began a lengthy stint with the Jimmy Monaco Orchestra, based out of New York City, and also worked with the Hudson-DeLange Orchestra. Several months with Bunny Berigan in 1938 represented the first material that would thicken the big pot of stew that is Bivona's discography. Through the end of the '30s, he also worked with bandleaders such as Will Hudson and Teddy Powell. 

The first of Bivona's bands under his own name showed up in 1940, but work as a sideman in more established bands seemed to be more what he was after. This included a period with Benny Goodman from the fall of 1940 through the spring of 1941, just in time to match wits with the sizzling electric guitar solos of Christian. Prior to joining the Naval Air Force Band, Bivona gigged with Jan Savitt and Les Brown & His Band of Renown, though in the latter case it was hardly long enough to be known, let alone renown. During WWII he conducted the USNAF Band. 

                                  

After the war, Bivona settled in Hollywood and worked with Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown and Bob Crosby before re-joining Benny Goodman. Next came Woody Herman in 1947 and then the West Coast studios, where he recorded on MGM movie soundtracks and on albums with June Christy, Buddy DeFranco, Ray Anthony, Jack Teagarden and many others. 

Gus with Steve Allen

By the mid-1950s, Bivona landed on TV's Steve Allen Show as part of the band and as Allen's foil. Bivona's first leadership album was Hey! Dig That Crazy Band for Mercury in 1956. His second one in 1957 was Music for Swingers: Gus Bivona Plays the Music of Steve Allen, a superb recording, also for Mercury. Bivona not only pulled together a stellar band but also crack arrangers, and his playing on there is sensational. As the title implies, all of the albums songs were composed by Allen. What's more, Bivona contracted top talent playing arrangements by Henry Mancini and Skip Martin. 

In 1956, Bivona signed with Mercury Records. Once he connected with composer, lyricist and comedian Steve Allen, the two would occasionally hit the concert trail, including a lengthy club residency at the Roundtable in New York City. Music for Swingers: Gus Bivona Plays the Music of Steve Allen is an example of the delightful documentation of this relationship, originally released in 1958 on Mercury. The pair collaborated on many other West Coast jazz recordings, always in the company of many of the top studio players and arrangers, such as Skip Martin, Henry Mancini and Pete Rugolo with terrific results.Gus on saxophone can also be heard in the soundtrack to Elvis Presley’s Frankie & Johnny from 1966. 

Bivona is a good example of a player who seemed to have no problem keeping busy with music as he got older, with both the motivation and inspiration to turn in inspired performances on '70s recordings with vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and singer and guitarist Geoff Muldaur. 

Gus married big band singer Ruth Robin, sister of Leo Robin. Their son is Gary Bivona who is also a musician who raised a family of musicians as well. Gus is the paternal grandfather of Kevin, Justin and Jesse Bivona of The Interrupters. 

He died January 5, 1996 in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 80 years. 

(Edited from AllAbout Jazz & Wikipedia) 

Here's a short documentary on Bivona (it starts 26 seconds in)...

Rita Corita born 24 November 1917

Hendrika Sturm, best known as Rita Corita (24 November 1917 – 24 December 1998) was a Dutch singer, actress and comedian. 

Hendrika (Rita) Sturm was born in Amsterdam, the eldest of three: she had a brother (Lambertus, 1920) and a sister (Helena Catharina, 1925). Rita spent her early childhood in Arnhem, the place where her mother came from – her parents didn't marry until 1924 and divorced in 1933. 

From a young age Rita loved to play the artist and acrobat. When Rita was twelve years old, the family returned to Amsterdam, where her father took over a café on the Rembrandtplein. Live music could often be heard in the café, with the accordion in the lead role. Father Sturm also liked to play a tune at home, while mother and daughters sang. Young Rita decided to take accordion lessons. At the age of fourteen she entered the dance school of Frans Muriloff, where she learned tap dancing. In her father's café, Rita acted as a contortionist. 

In the mid-1930s, Sturm joined the accordion orchestra the Four Serenaders (later The Broadway Serenaders), which often played in her father's café Played. The group was led by Coen Ooms. Rita sang, played accordion and tap danced. She had an affair with Coen Ooms and in 1937 they got married. Three years later, they started the duo the Corita's, an amalgamation of both their names. They lived in an upstairs apartment in the Amsterdam Sawmill Street. During the war years, their two sons were born, of whom the eldest contracted polio in 1943 and died, for lack of medicine, but The Coritas continued to play during those difficult times, because they had to put food on the table. After the war, they performed for the Canadian and American occupying forces in Germany. 

                                   

Thanks to the expressive Rita Sturm, the Coritas stood out among all the others Schnabbel artists who were active in the post-war years. With her powerful contralto, she said she could have become a classical singer, but she preferred gospels, jazz, and popular songs. Her big break came in 1958: record executive Johnny Hoes asked Rita to record the  song Koffie, koffie, lekker bakkie koffie by Johnny Woodhouse. It became an instant hit and would last for the rest of her life. Now known as Rita Corita, the song was never in the charts, but there are more than two hundred thousand copies of it sold. 

In Castricum, close to the beach, she bought a house from the royalties, which she moved to with her family in 1959. In 1962 she participated in the National Song Contest: with the song Carnaval and finished in fourth place (out of seven). The now corpulent Rita, blessed with a great comic talent, also went on to work in television and film. In the 1960s, she performed with Bueno de Mesquita and also played the giantess in Kun Can you tell me the way to Hamelin, sir? (1972-1973). Corita played with Jenny Arean in There Falls a Star (1963), a television musical by Willy van Hemert, and in the feature films Geen Panic (1964) and Peter and the Flying Bus (1976). In the seventies she was also a panel member of the Berend Boudewijn Kwis and in the late 1970s seventies, early eighties in the Willem Ruisshow. 

Rita Corita continued to perform well into her old age. In In 1979 she had a small hit with the song Kant aan m'n broek and a year later with Ik heb geen vrijer. She performed a lot in the country and was regularly seen in the TROS music program Op volle toeren. In 1984 her husband Coen died in Aerdt, Gelderland, where they had lived. Three years later, together with other Dutch artists, she made a tour of colonies of Dutch emigrants in Canada and the United States.  In 1987 whilst in southern California, the van in which she was travelling with a number of colleagues was struck by a truck: three of them were killed. Rita Corita, Eddy Christiani and Manke Nelis  managed to survive, but she didn't perform again.

After her husband's death, Rita Corita had moved, first in 1993 to Vlijmen and three years later to Beekbergen, a municipality of Apeldoorn. There she died on December 23, 1998.

(edited from Resources Huygens (translation) & Wikipedia)