Evelyn Knight born 31 December 1917

Evelyn Knight (December 31, 1917 – September 28, 2007) was an American singer of the 1940s and 1950s. 

Born Evelyn Davis in Reedville, Virginia, her father was "head of a geodetic survey for the government". She sang soprano in the young people's choir in a church in her hometown of Reedville, Virginia. After her father's death, Knight and her mother moved to Arlington County, Virginia, in 1926. Knight began her career in high school when she would sing at Washington D.C.'s Station WRC as “Honey Davis” twice a week over NBC for $16 a broadcast. At the age of 18, she married Andrew B. Knight, a war photographer for the Washington Post, and became professionally known as Evelyn Knight. 

One of Knight's early bookings was in the King Cole Room in Washington, D.C. An initial two-week contract eventually turned into a five-year stay. By 1939, she was so well known in Washington that she made headlines when she "suffered nose injuries" as a passenger in a minor traffic accident. Near the end of that span, a Billboard reviewer wrote, "For five years she has held down the entertainment assignment in this spot and in that five years she has grown into a local tradition ... Cool and with plenty of glamour, this girl delivers her stuff in a sophisticated manner". 

Knight moved to New York City, where she began headlining at Manhattan nightclubs the Blue Angel and the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room. She launched her recording career in 1945 by signing with Decca records, and moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s where she headlined at Ciro's and Coconut Grove.  Knight was the female vocalist on the Tony Martin Show, which began March 30, 1947. Also by this time a 1947 newspaper article reported, "She has given three 'command performances' for President Truman.” 

In 1948, she co-starred with Gordon MacRae on Star Theater on CBS.  She also was featured on Barry Wood's Million Dollar Band program and starred in a weekly program broadcast over CBS shortwave for Latin America. Knight was also a regular on Club Fifteen, Happy Island,  and The Lanny Ross Show. During a seven-year span in the late 1940s and 1950, Knight had two No. 1 hit records and 13 that made the Top 40. Her debut recording was "Dance with a Dolly (With a Hole in Her Stocking)" for Decca Records in 1945. It became a Top 10 hit. 

                                     

In 1948, she recorded the million-seller "A Little Bird Told Me" with The Stardusters, which was number one for seven weeks and stayed on the chart for five months. Later that year she recorded "Powder Your Face with Sunshine"; which also reached number one and remained on the chart into the following year. She had other hits including "Buttons and Bows" in 1948, which Bob Hope also sang in the film The Paleface.  

By the late 1940s, Miss Knight had moved to Los Angeles, where she headlined at Ciro's and the Cocoanut Grove, two nightclubs frequented by Hollywood stars. Her musical arranger was composer Victor Young (Crosby's music director), she sang alongside Tony Martin and Gordon MacRae and had enough money in the bank to help her mother retire and to send her sister to college. In 1950, she released "Candy and Cake", originally sung by Mindy Carson, and "All Dressed Up to Smile" with the Ray Charles singers. 

In 1951, she recorded a duet with country singer Red Foley called "My Heart Cries for You", as well as a pair of titles with Bing Crosby. Knight appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour and a 1951 television appearance with Abbott & Costello. From 1950 to 1953, Miss Knight toured the country, appearing at top hotels, including the Palmer House in Chicago, the Brown Palace in Denver and the Copley Plaza in Boston. Her sister was her driver and assistant, and her pianist and conductor was Ray Sinatra (a cousin of Frank). 

When she married songwriter John Lehmann in 1954, supper clubs were beginning to close, and musical tastes were turning toward the raucous sounds of rock-and-roll. She was among the original 1,500 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her star, dedicated February 8, 1960, is at 6136 Hollywood Boulevard, in the "Recording" section. During that year recorded her last record “Speak For Yourself Bill” composed by her husband on the Canadian American label, which was only issued as a promo. It was around this time Miss Knight chose to retire while still in top form and never sang professionally again. 

She and her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1967 where she lived in obscurity. She worked as a property manager and babysitter, and her only singing came in church choirs. Almost no one she met knew a thing about her glamorous past.  Following a decline in health in 2007, she moved to San Jose, California to live with her daughter. She died on September 28, 2007, from lung cancer at a San Jose nursing home, aged 89. 

(Edited from Wikipedia and Washington Post obit)

Joaquin Murphey born 30 December 1923

Earl James "Joaquin" Murphey (often spelled "Murphy) (30 December 1923 – 25 October 1999) was an American steel guitarist who was the cutting edge lap steel guitarist of his time due to his clean legato playing and innovative chordal style. Music historian Andy Volk described Murphey as "a jazz musician disguised as a cowboy". 

A native of Hollywood, he was born Earl James Murphey in 1923 and took up the steel guitar as a teenager. He took lessons from Roland Ball and Tommy Sargent, but by all accounts was something of a prodigy who didn’t need much help. He auditioned for a position with Spade Cooley during 1941 and amazed the listening musicians with his youthful virtuosity. Murphey joined the band and, courtesy of Cooley's manager Foreman Phillips, found himself tagged "Joaquin". Phillips believed that giving band members names that reminded fans of their own roots would prove a popular gimmick; Murphey's came courtesy of the San Joaquin Valley. In December 1944 he participated in Cooley's first recording session, contributing effective solo work behind the vocals of Tex Williams and Smokey Rogers on "Shame On You", a number that went on to become the biggest country hit of 1945. 

Other notable sides from his time with Cooley included "You Can't Break My Heart" (1945), "Crazy 'Cause I Love You", "Detour", "Three Way Boogie" - which he co-wrote - and "Oklahoma Stomp" (all 1946). The band also appeared on film, starring alongside the Three Stooges in Rockin' in the Rockies (1945). In 1946 Tex Williams, the band's featured vocalist, left in a dispute over money and took several key bandmembers, Murphey among them, with him. He formed the Western Caravan and developed a tight ensemble sound modelled on that produced by his former boss. 

                                      

On numbers like "Joaquin Special" and "Tennessee Wagoner" (both 1948) and "Fiddle Time", "The Campbells are Coming" and "Steel Guitar Rag" (all 1949) Murphey pushes his instrument to new harmonic and melodic limits. His contribution to the Caravan's adaptation of Stan Kenton's "Artistry in Rhythm", "Artistry in Western Swing" (1948), continues to startle in its originality. Murphey's impact on his instrument's development took a more practical turn when he commissioned a new steel guitar from an amateur inventor named Paul Bigsby, thus kick-starting the career of one of the great names in custom guitar design. Bigsby custom-built at least four steel guitars for him with his first in 1944 (including a double-neck lap steel, an early pedal steel, and a three-neck console model). 

From May 1946 on, he appears to have free-lanced for a while before officially joining Tex Williams. He recorded with Tex Tyler later in May 1946 then performed briefly with Andy Parker and the Plainsmen who cut a clutch of stunning sides for Capitol. His  featured solos included a cover of the Fats Waller classic "Honeysuckle Rose," and a "Sweet Georgia Brown" that is usually stashed away somewhere in every pedal steel player's treasure chest. Murphey also did some recording on pedal steel guitar, but his reputation was formed from the mid-'40s onward, before he ever approached the pedal instrument. 

Joaquin was in constant demand with a number of the Western recording acts—familiar names such as Roy Rogers, T. Texas Tyler, Johnny Bond, and he would be involved in three sessions at RCA with the Sons of the Pioneers (1947-49). Instead of pursuing a more active recording career, he spent a large chunk of his career in Southern California working with dance bands. 

He was fairly active recording through 1954. The date of his later stints with Cooley in the 1950s isn’t known although he made one LP with Cooley around 1959, after which he had effectively retired from music and dropped off the radar. An old acquaintance described Murphey as living almost like a hobo for several years. He spent a lot of time drinking which took a tremendous toll on his body and mind. But he managed to quit and started recording again in 1972 when the album Hawaii Forever was issued only in cassette form. In 1976 DeWitt "Scotty" Scott persuaded him to record a now-rare album for the Mid-land label. 

In 1980 he was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. His last album was a CD production eventually released under the title of Murph, a labor of love for producer Mike Johnstone of the Class Act label. This disc features tracks recorded between 1996 and 1999, using a custom-built, single-neck, nine-string guitar with six pedals. 

Joaquin Murphey passed away on October 25, 1999 from complications caused by metastatic cancer. 

Steel guitar giants such as Herb Remington, Buddy Emmons, Vance Terry, Leon McAuliffe, Noel Boggs and Speedy West have singled Murphey out as an important influence in their own jazz and swing enhancements. 

(Edited from Independent obit by Paul Wadey, Wikipedia, Brads Page of Steel, Bransom Globe, AllMusic and Kenneth Rainy article) 

Please note: - A big thank you goes to John Smith who suggested today’s birthday musician and for supplying most of the photos, and many mp3’s (also correcting my first draft.)

 

Nichelle Nichols born 28 December 1932

Nichelle Nichols (December 28, 1932 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress, singer and dancer whose portrayal of Uhura in Star Trek and its film sequels was groundbreaking for African American actresses on American television. 

Grace Dell Nichols was born the third of six children on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to Samuel Earl Nichols, a factory worker who was elected both town mayor of Robbins in 1929 and its chief magistrate, and his wife, Lishia (Parks) Nichols, a homemaker. Disliking her name, Nichols asked her parents for a new one; they suggested Nichelle, which they said meant "victorious maiden". The family later moved into an apartment in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, where Nichols attended Englewood High School, graduating in 1951. From age 12, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy. 

Nichols began her professional career as a singer and dancer in Chicago. She then toured the United States and Canada with the bands of Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. In 1959, she appeared as the principal dancer in the film version of Porgy and Bess. Her acting break was an appearance in Kicks and Co., Oscar Brown's highly touted but ill-fated 1961 musical In the thinly veiled satire of Playboy magazine, she played Hazel Sharpe, a voluptuous campus queen who was tempted by the devil and Orgy Magazine to become "Orgy Maiden of the Month". 

Although the play closed after a short run in Chicago, Nichols attracted the attention of Hugh Hefner, the publisher of Playboy, who booked her as a singer for his Chicago Playboy Club. She also appeared as Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of Carmen Jones and performed in a New York production of Porgy and Bess. Between acting and singing engagements, she did occasional modeling. 

In 1966, Nichols was cast as Lieutenant Commander Uhura in Star Trek, which marked one of the first times that an African American actress was portrayed in a non-stereotypical role on television. Nichols went on to appear as Uhura numerous times in the Star Trek movie and television series. Despite her success, however, Nichols had initially considered leaving the show. But she was convinced otherwise by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who described her character as the "first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a black woman in television history". 

                                   

As Uhura, Nichols sang on the Star Trek episodes "Charlie X" and "The Conscience of the King". Nichols released two music albums: Down to Earth, a collection of standards released in 1967, during the original run of Star Trek; and Out of This World, released in 1991, a more rock-oriented album themed around Star Trek and space exploration. 

In 1975, Nichols established Women in Motion, Inc., a company that produced educational materials using music as a teaching tool and was expanded to become an astronaut recruitment tool after Nichols won a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This resulted in thousands of women and minorities applying to NASA’s space program such as Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Ellison Onizuka. In addition to her autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories (1994), Nichols is co-author of Saturn’s Child (1995) and a contributor to publications of the National Space Institute. 

In October of 1984, Nichols was presented with NASA’s Public Service Award for her many efforts towards integrating the U.S. space program. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992, and became the first African American actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the Star Trek cast. Nichols was elected an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; and, on June 8, 2010, she received an honorary doctorate degree from Los Angeles Mission College. 

In June 2015, Nichols suffered a mild stroke at her Los Angeles home and was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital. A magnetic resonance imaging scan confirmed a small stroke had occurred, and she began inpatient therapy. In early 2018, she was diagnosed with dementia, and subsequently announced her retirement from convention appearances. 

Nichols died of heart failure in Silver City, New Mexico, on July 30, 2022, at the age of 89.Her ashes were sent into deep space. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & The History Makers)

 

Peter Sinfield born 27 December 1943

Peter John Sinfield (27 December 1943 – 14 November 2024) was an English poet and songwriter. He was best known as a co-founder and lyricist of King Crimson. Their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King is considered one of the first and most influential progressive rock albums ever released. 

Born in Fulham, south-west London, Peter was the son of Deirdre and Alan Sinfield. After his parents divorced he lived with his eccentric mother. She ran a hair salon and a burger bar, and Peter was often cared for by their German housekeeper, Maria Wallenda, who was a member of the Wallenda family of high-wire walkers and acrobats. At the age of eight Peter was sent off to Danes Hill boarding school in Oxshott, Surrey, where, with the encouragement of a teacher, John Mawson, he developed an enthusiasm for literature, especially the poetry of William Blake, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. 

He subsequently attended Ranelagh grammar school in Bracknell, Berkshire, but left at 16. After working as a trainee travel agent, he landed a job with a computer company where he would check printouts from Pye Records showing how much money their recording artists were making. It was possible that this planted a seed, though it was certainly not the main reason he became a songwriter. Inspired by friends who attended the Chelsea School of Art, he learned to play the guitar and wrote poetry, and spent time travelling in Spain and Morocco. 

Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian MacDonald, Peter Sinfield

Back in Britain in 1967, he formed the Creation (not the same Creation who had a Top 40 hit with Painter Man in 1966). The group featured his future King Crimson comrade Ian McDonald. In 1968 McDonald joined the brothers Michael and Peter Giles on drums and bass and Fripp on guitar in Giles, Giles and Fripp. Later that year Peter Giles left, Sinfield and Lake joined, and King Crimson was born. 

                                    

When King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, was released in October 1969, it was greeted with amazement and disbelief, with the Who’s Pete Townshend hailing it as “an uncanny masterpiece. Sinfield’s lyrics were an integral part of its success, and they teemed with imagery by turns savage, mystical or melancholy. He recruited his friend Barry Godber to create the album’s fascinatingly grotesque sleeve artwork. Godber died shortly after the album’s release. 

Perhaps it was too good, since King Crimson could never quite equal it thereafter, but Sinfield’s role in the group continued to expand over their next three albums, In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard, and Islands. He co-produced the first two of these. While he did not play an instrument with the band, as well as writing all the lyrics he ran the light show during their concerts and used a VCS3 synthesiser to add sonic effects. However, Sinfield found himself increasingly at odds with the band’s dominant character, Robert Fripp, about their artistic direction, and in early 1972 he moved on. 

His skills were in demand, however. He was tasked by EG Management, who managed King Crimson, to work with their new act Roxy Music. He produced their first single, Virginia Plain, and their eponymous debut album, and both were sizeable hits. On a solo album, Still, Sinfield played 12-string guitar and synthesiser. He had production assistance from Greg Lake, also an ex-member of King Crimson. This led to Sinfield being recruited by Lake’s new outfit, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, to write lyrics for them. He featured on the albums Brain Salad Surgery (1973), Works Volume 1 & Volume 2 (1977) and Love Beach (1978), the band’s last album before they split up. They would make a belated comeback in the 1990s. 

In the late 70s Sinfield moved to Ibiza with his first wife, Stephanie Ruben, and for a time lived the life of a tax exile. In 1979 he narrated Robert Sheckley’s In a Land of Clear Colors, an audio sci-fi story with music by Brian Eno. He returned to London in 1980 with his second wife, a Spanish model, and was introduced by his music publisher to Andy Hill, a songwriter. This launched a new chapter of his career, as he combined with Hill to write a string of big pop hits, including Have You Ever Been In Love by Leo Sayer (which won them an Ivor Novello award), and Celine Dion’s Think Twice, which topped charts around the world and won another Novello. 

Sinfield underwent heart surgery in 2005. After a period of convalescence Sinfield wrote an increasing number of poems and after his appearance at the Genoa Poetry Festival at the Ducal Palace in June 2010, he turned his creative energies more towards poetry. A keen cook and gardener, living on the Suffolk coast in the town of Aldeburgh, famed for its international music festival, Peter, had been suffering from declining health for several years. He contracted sepsis and died in hospital on 14 November 2024, at the age of 80.  (Edited from The Guardian, Wikipedia & DGM Live) 

Here's Peter Sinfield performing The Song of The Seagoat on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.

Herb Johnson born 26 December 1935

Herb Johnson (December 26th, 1935 - January 19th, 2004) was an American rhythm & blues, soul and funk vocalist. 

Philadelphia soul legend Herb Johnson was born Herbert Earshell Johnson Jr. in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, relocating to Philadelphia with his family when he was nine years old. As a teenager attending Overbrook High School, he auditioned at the Royal Theatre on South Street for a radio spot on WPEN, singing "You Belong To Me" by one of his favorite groups, The Orioles. 

At 18 he joined the U.S. Air Force, performing R&B covers on USO package tours as a member of a group called the Lyrics; following his discharge, Johnson returned home to Philadelphia, joining vocal group the Ambassadors, who participated in a talent show at the Leader Theatre at 41st and Lancaster Avenue. Around this time he also auditioned as lead vocalist with the Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra, losing out to the renowned Little Jimmy Scott. (It was not the only frustrating near-miss Johnson would endure during his career -- he lost his bid to replace the Flamingos' Nate Nelson to Billy Paul, and because he couldn't dance, he was later passed over to replace Franklin Peaker in Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.) 

                                   

In the spring of 1960 Johnson signed as a solo act to Len "Buddy" Caldwell's Len label, collaborating with backing vocalists the Cruisers on his debut single, the two-sided hit "Guilty" and "Have You Heard" -- the record was a local smash, selling in excess of 50,000 copies in Philly alone, but never cracked the national consciousness. In 1961 he resurfaced on Caldwell's V-Tone label with a pair of singles, "Remember Me" and "Deep Down Love," followed the subsequent year by "Help," cut for Caldwell's Palm imprint; from there, Johnson and backing unit the Premiers skittered from label to label, among them Arctic ("Gloomy Day" and "Carfare Back") and Swan ("Two Steps Ahead of a Woman") and Tyler Records. 

With his instrumental group The Impacts, Herb performed all over the Philadelphia club circuit throughout the 60s and early 70s. The bass player for The Impacts, Wally Osborne, formed the Toxan label in 1968, releasing Herbs uptempo soul classic, "Im So Glad". This record did well enough to get released nationally on Brunswick and became a hit in England when it reached their shores five years later. Still, its initial failure so stung Johnson that he opened a Philadelphia ice cream shop, dramatically scaling back his performance schedule -- in 1972, he cut his farewell record "Damph F'Aint," a James Brown-inspired funk cult classic complete with extemporaneous lyrics. 

Over a decade later, Johnson agreed to an interview with Philadelphia radio station WXPN that resulted in an offer to sing with the local a cappella group the Zip Codes; a few years later, he signed on with doo wop combo A Moment's Pleasure, which regularly appeared at city-sponsored events on the recommendation of then-Mayor and avowed fan Ed Rendell. Following the group's demise, Johnson was contacted by Dave Brown, drummer for Philadelphia dream pop combo the Clock Strikes Thirteen and owner of the Philly Archives reissue label; not only did Brown hope to re-release Johnson's vintage sides on CD, but he also wished to form a latter-day incarnation of the Impacts, even recruiting original guitarist Bobby Eli. 

The new group became a major favorite on the Philadelphia nightclub circuit, and in 2002 Philly Archives issued Remember Me, a compilation of Johnson's finest singles. In 2003 he cut his final new song "Make You Wanna Holler," recorded with Finland's Soul Investigators and issued on the Timmion label.

On January 19, 2004, Johnson lost his long battle with cancer in Philadelphia, PA.  (Edited from AllMusic & Soul Source)

 Herb Johnson  performs his 1960 Len release, "Guilty", backed at the time by his present-day Cruisers group ("Boo", "Mutt" and Emerson Brown of the Red Top Students) at a United in Group Harmony Association Black History Month concert at Symphony Space in New York City, NY on February 13, 1999. 

  

Cab Calloway born 25 December 1907

Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. 

Born Cabell Calloway III in Rochester, New York, his mother was a teacher and church organist and his father was a lawyer. Cab Calloway's charm and vibrancy helped him become a noted singer and bandleader. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he first started singing, and where his lifelong love of visiting racetracks took hold. However, music was his passion and by 1922 he was taking vocal lessons and exploring jazz, After graduating high school in 1925, he followed his sister into nightclub work and even joined her on tour as a performer in the musical revue Plantation Days. When the tour ended, he briefly enrolled in law school at Chicago's Crane College. 

While performing at Chicago's Sunset Club, Calloway met Louis Armstrong, who tutored him in the art of scat singing (using nonsensical sounds to improvise melodies). In 1928, Calloway took over the leadership of his own band, the Alabamians. Ready for the next step in his career, he headed to New York the following year. That same year, upon Armstrong's recommendation, Calloway joined the trumpeter at Harlem's Connie's Inn as a replacement singer in the popular Connie's Hot Chocolates revue. The revue, which soon became a Broadway hit, featured songs written by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf, including the classic "Ain't Misbehavin'," showcasing Calloway and Armstrong. 

                                    

While singing in Connie's Hot Chocolates, Calloway joined the Missourians as their lead singer and in 1930 the group renamed itself the Cab Calloway Orchestra. The following year, they took over for a touring Duke Ellington as the headliner at Harlem's The Cotton Club and by 1932 had supplanted the Ellington Orchestra as the house band. From the early '30s until the late '40s, Cab Calloway's Orchestra was one of the biggest and most profitable bands in the country. Calloway hit the big time with "Minnie the Moocher" (1931), a No. 1 song that sold more than one million copies. The tune's famous call-and-response "hi-de-hi-de-ho" chorus — improvised when he couldn't recall a lyric — became Calloway's signature phrase for the rest of his career. 

With other hits that included "Moon Glow" (1934), "The Jumpin' Jive" (1939) and "Blues in the Night" (1941), as well as appearances on radio, Calloway was one of the most successful performers of the era. During the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in such films as The Big Broadcast (1932), The Singing Kid (1936) and Stormy Weather (1943). In addition to music, Calloway influenced the public with books such as 1944's The New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive, which offered definitions for terms like "in the groove" and "zoot suit." He also hosted a 1940s radio program, The Cab Calloway Quizzicale, and penned a humorous gossip column for Song Hits magazine. The onset of World War II also kept him busy as the orchestra regularly performed for troops waiting to ship overseas. 

With the break-up of his orchestra in 1948, Calloway largely branched out on his own, touring England in 1955 and appearing in the film St. Louis Blues in 1958. However, he would periodically reassemble his orchestra for special occasions, notably tours of Canada and South America. He became active in musical theater, including starring in a 1953 staging of Porgy and Bess as Sportin' Life, a character composer George Gershwin partly based on the singer. There were also several studio albums, including 1959's Hi De Hi, Hi De Ho and a 1962 standards album Blues Makes Me Happy. He also appeared in an all-Black staging of Hello Dolly! with Pearl Bailey in 1967, as well as a production of The Pajama Game in the early '70s. He even toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, and his 1976 autobiography Of Minnie the Moocher and Me, hooked new legions of fans, as did his 1978 disco version of "Minnie the Moocher." 

In 1980, Calloway enjoyed a career revival after appearing in the hit comedy film Blues Brothers, in which he performed "Minnie the Moocher." More work followed, including filming a 1985 BBC concert special at The Ritz London Hotel, featuring original members of his orchestra. He also revived his Cotton Club act, touring the show alongside his daughter, singer Chris Calloway. He toured Europe in 1992. In 1993, he received the National Medal of Arts. 

Calloway suffered a stroke and died five months later from pneumonia on November 18, 1994 at the age of 86. Already a member of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, as well as the International Jazz Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Calloway's accolades continued well into the 21st century: "Minnie the Moocher" was added to the Library of Congress in 2019, and he was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2020.

 (Edited from Biography, AllMusic & Wikipedia)

 

Frank Morgan born 23 December 1933

Frank Morgan (December 23, 1933 – December 14, 2007) was a jazz saxophonist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He mainly played alto saxophone but also played soprano saxophone. He was known as a Charlie Parker successor who primarily played bebop and ballads. It is a real rarity for a jazz musician to have his career interrupted for a 30-year period and then be able to make a complete comeback. 

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Franklin Delano Morgan spent his early years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin living with his paternal grandmother. His father, Stanley Morgan, was a guitarist and leader of a version of the Ink Spots vocal group who settled in Los Angeles when Frank was a teenager and introduced him to jazz and its practitioners at his Casablanca Club. Frank’s first instrument was guitar, but after hearing Charlie Parker, he switched to saxophone. He attended Jefferson High School where, along with many other musical luminaries to be, he was taught by the legendary Samuel Rodney Browne. By the time he was 15, Frank’s prodigious musical skills were becoming apparent. 

Morgan moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947 and won a talent contest, leading to him record a solo with Freddy Martin. In 1952, Morgan earned a spot in Lionel Hampton's band, but his first arrest in 1953 prevented him from joining the Clifford Brown and Max Roach quintet (that role went instead to Harold Land, and later, Sonny Rollins). He made his recording debut on February 20, 1953, with Teddy Charles and his West Coasters in a session for Prestige Records. On November 1, 1954, Morgan cut five tracks with the Kenny Clarke Sextet for Savoy Records, four of which were released with Clarke billed as the leader, with "I've Lost Your Love" credited to writer Milt Jackson as leader. Morgan also lead his own album for GNP in 1955. But then 30 years of darkness intruded. 

                                    

Following in the footsteps of Parker, Morgan had started taking heroin at 17, subsequently became addicted, and spent much of his adult life in and out of prison. Morgan supported his drug habit through check forgery and fencing stolen property. His first drug arrest came in 1955, the same year his debut album was released, and Morgan landed in San Quentin State Prison in 1962, where he formed a small ensemble with another addict and sax player, Art Pepper. 

Fresh out of prison in April, 1985, Morgan started recording again, releasing Easy Living on Contemporary Records that June. Morgan performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 21, 1986, and turned down an offer to play Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's film Bird (Forest Whitaker took his place). He made his New York debut in December 1986 at the Village Vanguard, and collaborated with George W.S. Trow on Prison-Made Tuxedos, a semi-autobiographical Off-Broadway play which included live music by the Frank Morgan Quartet. After an initial period, during which he sounded very close to Charlie Parker, he developed his own bop-based style. Frank Morgan has recorded a string of excellent sets for Contemporary, Antilles, and Telarc, and has become an inspiring figure in the jazz world. His 1990 album Mood Indigo went to number four on the Billboard jazz chart. 

Morgan suffered a stroke in 1998, but subsequently recovered recording and performing during the last nine years of his life. HighNote Records eventually released three albums worth of material from a three-night stand at the Jazz Standard in New York City in November, 2003. Morgan also participated in the 2004 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park. In 2000, Morgan traveled to Taos, New Mexico for a two-night engagement. He fell in love with Taos and made it his home for the next five years. Whenever asked, he proudly proudly proclaimed, "My hometown is Taos, New Mexico". 

His most recent albums include Tribute to Charlie Parker(2003), City Nights: Live at the Jazz Standard (2004), Raising the Standard (2005), and Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Station (2007). After moving to Minneapolis in the fall of 2005, Morgan headlined the 2006 Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival and played duets with Ronnie Mathews at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis and George Cables at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul. Morgan also performed at the 2006 East Coast Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C., and on the West Coast at Yoshi's and Catalina's. His last gig in Minneapolis featured Grace Kelly, Irv Williams, and Peter Schimke at the Dakota on July 1, 2007. 

For one of Morgan's final recordings, he composed and recorded music for the audiobook adaptation of Michael Connelly's crime novel The Overlook (2007), providing brief unaccompanied sax solos at the beginning and end of the book, and between chapters. Morgan is mentioned in the book by lead character Harry Bosch, a jazz enthusiast. Shortly before his death, Morgan completed his first tour of Europe. He died in Minneapolis on Friday, December 14, 2007, from complications due to colorectal cancer, nine days before his 74th birthday. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Noal Cohen's Jazz History Website)