Joe Mooney born 14 March 1911

Joe Mooney (March 14, 1911 – May 12, 1975) was an American jazz and pop accordionist, organist, and vocalist. If you like jazz with a swinging pop feel, you need to know about Joe Mooney. The singer, who had four different recording careers (one in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s) isn't well known today. But Mooney remains an inspiration and favorite of jazz legends who have made a career out of good taste. 

Mooney was born in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He went blind when he was around 10 years of age. Mooney's first job, at age 12, was playing the piano for requests called in to a local radio station. He and his brother, Dan, played together on radio broadcasts during 1926, and recorded between 1929 and 1931 as the Sunshine Boys and the Melotone Boys; both sang while Joe accompanied on piano. They continued performing together on WLW in Cincinnati until 1936, after which time Dan Mooney left the music industry. 

In 1937, Mooney began working as a pianist and arranger for Frank Dailey,  a role he reprised with Buddy Rogers in 1938. From 1939 – 1940, he played the accordion, arranged and recorded with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. He also played and arranged for  Vincent Lopez, Larry Clinton Les Brown, and The Modernaires. He put together his own quartet in 1943; he sang and played accordion with accompaniment on guitar, bass, and clarinet. This group experienced considerable success in the United States in the last half of the 1940s. 

                                   

In 1942 he formed his own quartet, playing accordion and taking vocals; his group also included clarinet, guitar and bass. Not long afterward, Mooney was in a terrible auto accident that left him with a fractured hip. After 18 months recuperating in the hospital, Mooney returned to Paterson and worked local clubs as a singer, accompanying himself on accordion, organ and piano. He then formed a Nat King Cole-ish pop quartet  that featured a clarinet, guitar and bass. Mooney's vocals were relaxed and savvy, and the group had great success on 52d Street, eventually recording for Decca and touring. 

The swing-oriented combo became very popular during 1946-49. In 1946, a newspaper columnist wrote that Mooney's music "has the most cynical hot jazz critics describing it in joyous terms such as 'exciting,' 'new,' 'the best thing since Ellington,' and as new to jazz as the first Dixieland jazz band was when it first arrived.'" As for Mooney himself, the columnist wrote that he "played in virtuoso fashion ... a fellow who knows not only his instrument, but jazz music, both to just about the ultimate degree." In 1947 he also played accordion on a recording with Buddy Rich and Ella Fitzgerald. In the late 1940s Mooney recorded briefly on piano with Georgie Auld and Red Rodney. 

In 1951 Mooney formed a trio with Pizzarelli and Bob Carter on bass that played clubs and recorded. Mooney moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but a year later, he joined the experimental Sauter-Finegan Orchestra as its male vocalist. Mooney recorded several sides with the band for RCA, including the minor jukebox hit Nina Never Knew. Despite Mooney's potential, RCA never signed Mooney to an extensive contract, and the singer-keyboardist returned to gigging. He recorded with Johnny Smith in 1953, moved to Florida in 1954 and gradually switched to organ. In the mid-1950s, Mooney recorded an album for Atlantic that included a revamped Nina Never Knew. But the album did little to advance his visibility or his career. Unsure what to make of Mooney as pop act at a time when rock and r&b were catching on, Atlantic passed. 

Back in Florida, Mooney spent the next seven years performing locally. Then in 1963, Mooney staged a comeback of sorts, recording two of his finest albums. These albums for Columbia were The Greatness of Joe Mooney, released in 1964, and The Happiness of Joe Mooney, released a year later. Both albums were arranged by guitarist Mundell Lowe, and they document Mooney's genius for simplicity and cool swing. 

Unfortunately, the soft-sung Greatness and Happiness had the misfortune of coming out just as the Beatles were coming in and pop was increasingly dominated by belters like Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand. As a result, Columbia never promoted the LPs or Mooney, who retreated disappointed once again to Florida. Occasionally he would travel to New York for television work or to record, but he mostly worked in Florida, including at his club The Grate Joy. He died at age 64, on May 12, 1975, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a stroke. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz)

 

Lee Moses born 13 March 1941

Vincent Lee Moses (March 13, 1941 – January 26, 1998), known as Lee Moses, was an American R&B and soul singer and guitarist. His recordings in the late 1960s as well as his 1971 LP Time and Place, are highly regarded within the deep soul genre. 

Lee Moses was born on March 13, 1941, in Atlanta, and he attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he sang in talent shows and learned to play guitar. Moses formed his first band, the Showstoppers, in the 1950s, and the group became a major draw in the Atlanta area. They were at one time the house band at the Royal Peacock club. In the mid-'60s, Moses relocated to New York City and began working as a session guitarist, primarily working with producer and behind-the-scenes man Johnny Brantley, who had roots in Georgia. Moses' tough but expressive guitar style and gritty, impassioned vocals became one of the hallmarks of Brantley's productions. He managed to release one single in 1965 on the Lee John Records label, “Diana (from NYC)” b/w “My Adorable One”. 

                                    

In 1967, Brantley helped Moses land a record deal with Musicor Records, and that year he released three singles for the label: "Reach Out, I'll Be There" b/w "Day Tripper," "Bad Girl (Part I)" b/w "Bad Girl (Part II)," and "I'm Sad About It" b/w "How Much Longer (Must I Wait)." Despite the strength of the material, Moses' Musicor sides did little business, and other 45s he issued that year for Dynamo fared no better. Moses' guitar style has been described as "funky" and likened to that of Jimi Hendrix, a contemporary of his on the club scene of the mid-1960s. He has also been praised for his "rough and powerful deep soul singing style". 

In 1970, Moses released a single, "Time and Place", on the Maple label, a subsidiary of All Platinum Records. This was followed by a nine-track LP of the same name - also produced by Brantley - that included his versions of several classic songs of the period including "Hey Joe" and "California Dreaming". The album featured several members of The Ohio Players, as well as Moses' own band, the Diciples. Although the album has since been described as "a revered and highly sought-after lost treasure for deep soul fans and collectors," it was a commercial failure at the time. 

After cutting a 1973 single for Gates Records -- a powerful version of "The Dark End of the Street" b/w "She's a Bad Girl" -- Moses decided he'd had enough of Brantley and the music business. He returned to the Atlanta area, where he played occasional club dates, but he never recorded again. Moses died in 1997 at the age of 56. 

While Lee Moses enjoyed little recognition during his lifetime, after his death the Time and Place album was discovered by crate diggers and soul music obsessives, and original copies started to fetch high prices among collectors. In 2007, the British label Castle Music gave Time and Place a reissue on both vinyl and CD, with many of Moses' single sides added as a bonus. In 2016, the American archival label Future Days Records brought out a new edition of Time and Place that restored the album's original sequence, and three years later the same label issued How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972, which collected all of Moses' non-LP singles, adding three unreleased tracks to the mix. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

 

Lew DeWitt born 12 March 1938

 Lewis Calvin DeWitt Jr. (March 12, 1938 – August 15, 1990) was an American country music singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a founding member of The Statler Brothers and the group's original tenor. 

Lewis Calvin "Lew" DeWitt was born in Roanoke County and was the son of Lewis Calvin DeWitt and Rose Esther Hogan DeWitt. In his youth he learned to play the guitar and mandolin and developed the strong tenor singing voice that became his trademark. While DeWitt was still in grade school his family moved to Staunton, where he befriended Phil Balsley, Joe McDorman, and Harold Reid. By their teenage years the four had begun to sing together, and in June 1955 they performed "A Little Talk with Jesus" at a local church. Emboldened by the positive reception, they dubbed themselves the Four Star Quartet and began performing regionally at churches and talent shows. They were modestly successful, but DeWitt had to drive a taxicab to supplement his income. 

The Kinsmen: Phil Balsey, Lew DeWitt,
Harold & Don Reid 

The Four Star Quartet disbanded about 1958, and Lew DeWitt moved to Baltimore to look for work and to gain experience playing guitar in the city's clubs. In 1960 Harold Reid persuaded DeWitt and Balsley to re-form the quartet, although Reid's younger brother Don Reid replaced McDorman. Renamed the Kingsmen, the quartet sang gospel music, but they also performed separate programs of country or popular music tailored for particular venues. The group sang on local radio stations, including WTON in Staunton, and headlined their own show on WSIG in Shenandoah County. After the Kingsmen began appearing weekly on the Roanoke television station WDBJ, they discovered that audiences were confusing them with an already-established North Carolina gospel group with the same name. DeWitt's quartet adopted the Statler Brothers as a moniker after spying the name on a box of Statler-brand tissues during a rehearsal. 

For most of his career, DeWitt sang tenor for The Statler Brothers. Songs he wrote for the group include "Flowers on the Wall", which was a greatest hit during the late 1960s and early 1970s that made the group popular included "Things," "Since Then," "Thank You World," "The Strand," "The Movies," and "Chet Atkins' Hand." In 1968, while the group was under contract to Columbia Records, DeWitt recorded a solo single composed of the songs "She Went a Little Bit Farther" and "Brown Eyes" (the latter was penned by DeWitt). 

                                   

During DeWitt's tenure, the Statler Brothers performed at the White House three times, and late in the 1960s they had appeared regularly on Johnny Cash's television shows and specials. DeWitt's "Flowers on the Wall" helped secure the group the first two of its three Grammys, for Best Contemporary Performance by a Group and Best New Country and Western Artist for the awards honoring music in 1965. The quartet also captured Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for its 1972 single "Class of '57." Beginning in 1972 the Country Music Association honored the quartet for six consecutive years as Vocal Group of the Year. 

The rigors of life on the road took their toll on DeWitt and exacerbated a stomach ailment with which he had suffered for years. His recurring attacks of debilitating pain interfered with his work and often forced the Statler Brothers to cancel or postpone engagements. While on tour in the mid-1960s DeWitt was diagnosed with regional enteritis, a form of Crohn's disease, and underwent surgery in 1981. Advised that stress could trigger DeWitt's symptoms, the other three members of the Statler Brothers took over his nonmusical obligations to the band. At his suggestion, Jimmy Fortune was tapped as his temporary replacement. 

DeWitt rejoined the group in June 1982 (with Fortune having been offered a permanent position in the group's backing band), but this arrangement lasted less than a week. DeWitt officially retired that same month with Fortune becoming his permanent replacement.  In all, the Statler Brothers recorded twenty-five albums during DeWitt's career with the group. During 1984, DeWitt, feeling that his health had gradually improved through continued treatment, decided to pursue a solo career.  He played a less-strenuous schedule with his new Star City Band, and he moved from the Statlers' home base of Staunton to the Waynesboro area. In 1984 he initiated what became an annual appearance at Waynesboro's Summer Extravaganza. He also released two solo albums, On My Own (1985) and Here to Stay (1986). 

In the face of declining health, Lewis Calvin "Lew" DeWitt retired from the music business in 1989. He died on 15 August 1990 of heart and kidney disease at his Augusta County home near Waynesboro, and his remains were cremated. The reconstituted Statler Brothers performed and toured together until 2002. The Gospel Music Hall of Fame inducted the Statler Brothers in 2007, and the following year the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted them. 

(Edited from Dictionary of Virginia & Wikipedia)

Norman Burns born 11 March 1920

Norman Burns (11 March 1920 – June 1994) was a British dance band and jazz drummer. 

Burns questing nature and his feeling for bop helped to make him one of the most important if unacclaimed figures in British drumming of the 30s and 40s.He was one of the very few drummers able to orchestrate. 

Norman Burns was born in London, England and began playing drums as a child. While still a teenager he worked as a professional musician on P&O ocean-going liners. In the late 30s and early 40s he was active in dance band circles in London, playing with many leading bands including those of Lew Stone, Ambrose, Frank Weir, Ted Heath and Geraldo. 

                                    

He also played with George Shearing and with Tito Burns (no relation). The drummer was one of the coterie of London-based jazzmen who dedicated themselves to the new music of the 40s, bop, and was a member of an all-star bebop band formed in 1948. 

George Shearing, Jack Fulton & Norman Burns 1947

In the early 50s Burns formed a quintet which he modelled upon the currently popular group being led in the USA by his former leader, Shearing. The vibraphone player in this group of Burns’ was Victor Feldman. Burns eventually left music and emigrated to Australia where he became an A & R man for Pye records in Sydney from the late 1950,s. He married singer Alan Dean’s sister Peggy in 1956. He remained in Australia until his death during June 1994. 

(Very Scarce biographical information edited mainly from AllMusic & My Heritage) 

Don Abney born 10 March 1923

John Donald Abney (March 10, 1923 – January 27, 2000) was an American jazz pianist. 

Abney was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied piano and French horn at the Manhattan School of Music. He joined the United States Army where he played the French horn in the army band and achieved the rank of technician fifth grade. 

After returning from the army he returned to New York where he worked with Snub Mosley (1948), Wilbur de Paris (1948-9), Kai Winding (1951), Chuck Wayne (1952), Sy Oliver, and Louis Bellson (1954, 1957). He also recorded with Eddie South (1947) and Louis Armstrong (1951). From 1954 to 1957 he toured with Ella Fitzgerald, and a live concert recorded during 1956 was finally released in 2017 as “Ella At Zardi’s”.  From 1958 to 1959 Abney was accompanist to Carmen McRae. He also accompanied Sarah Vaughan and Eartha Kitt, and played on many recordings for more minor musicians and on R&B, pop, rock, and doo wop releases. 

                       Here’s “Another One “  from above album.

                                 

Abney worked as a staff musician for NBC and CBS, then in 1962 moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with Benny Carter and played in concert with Stan Kenton’s Neophonic Orchestra (1966).  After moving to Hollywood, he worked as a musical director for Universal Studios/MCA. He appeared as a pianist in the film Pete Kelly's Blues behind Ella Fitzgerald. Additional credits include recording and arrangements for the film Lady Sings the Blues.  Later he toured with his own trio (1969 – 1971) and with Pearl Bailey (1971- 4). He toured with Anita O'Day in the 1980s. 

An unusual aspect of his career is that in its final decade, he decided to settle in Japan, where he had initially found quite a receptive audience on tours. Tokyo's Sanno Hotel grand piano became his musical sushi bar three times a week for several years, after which he worked the Japanese scene on more of a freelance basis, playing saloons and supper clubs throughout the city, as well as concerts or entire tours accompanying visiting jazz artists. Vocalist Anita O'Day did a remarkable tour with him in the early '80s, one of the shows captured on a commercially available video and described as a complete change in her style. 

But perhaps his greatest musical achievement, at least in the ears of the serious jazz buff, would be his brilliantly understated accompaniment to bass virtuoso Oscar Pettiford on that artist's solo album entitled Another One. The title tune is sometimes considered to be dedicated to the jazz buffs themselves, so accurately describing what they are going to windup acquiring in terms of recordings. Players can have the thrill of having Abney back them up in the privacy of their own homes by checking out vintage Music Minus One projects on which he is part of rhythm sections that include masters such a Pettiford and the swinging guitarist Jimmy Raney. There is no better way to practice jazz, that is unless hearing these pros at work makes one want to completely give up playing. 

Upon his return to the United States on January 20, 2000, he died in Los Angeles, California. He had been on kidney dialysis for some time, so he was taken to the hospital by his family after he had complained of flu symptoms. He had a heart attack at the hospital, losing consciousness. Abney was fitted with a pacemaker and had an angioplasty to open arteries, but neither procedure was able to keep him alive. He was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, in Burbank, California. 

(Edited from New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Ella Fitzgerald - April In Paris. Live at Jazz Pour Tous, Brussels, Belgium, 1957. Don Abney, pn, Herb Ellis, gt, Ray Brown, bs, Jo Jones, ds. 

 

Sweet Charles Sherrell born 8 March 1943

Sweet Charles Sherrell (March 8, 1943 – March 29, 2023) was an American bassist known for recording and performing with James Brown. He was a member of The J.B.'s from 1973 to 1996. 

Born Charles Emanuel Sherrell in Nashville, Tennessee, Sherrell started making music when he was 8 years old at school. He began playing trombone for 2 years, trumpet for 2 years and drums for 6 years. Then he attended university T.S.U and became a  music major. 

Sweets started playing R&B with Jimmy Hendrix and one of his bass players Billy Cox who also lived in Nashville. They used to practice at Club Del-Mor-Roca on Jefferson Street, one block from Jimmy's house. He was playing drums and tought himself to play bass. Sherrell learned to play the guitar by washing the car (a Jaguar) of Curtis Mayfield in exchange for guitar lessons. Sherrell soon began teaching himself to play the bass after buying one from a local pawn shop for $69, which led him to join Johnny Jones & The King Kasuals Band, Aretha Franklin's backing group. 

                                   

Sherrell joined James Brown's band in August 1968, replacing Tim Drummond after Drummond contracted hepatitis in Vietnam. He played on some of Brown's most famous recordings of the late 1960s, including the #1 R&B hits "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn", and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" and more. Brown credited him with being his first bassist to incorporate playing techniques such as thumping on the strings that were adopted by other players, including Bootsy Collins. 

In the 1970s, Sherrell rejoined Brown and performed with The J.B.'s. He later played with Al Green, Snoop Dog and Maceo & All the King's Men. He played bass on Beau Dollar's Who knows, Marva Whitney's and Lyn Collins album. He sang on a few of Maceo Parker's albums. 

He also released some recordings with the band Past Present & Future with friends Wade Conklin, Sam Pugh, Ted Hughes, Gail Whitefield, Thomas Smith, and James Nixon and he recorded under the name Sweet Charles, including his first solo album, Sweet Charles: For Sweet People, on James Brown's label People Records and the Sweet Charles Sherrell Universal Love album in 2017. 

Charles had hung in there amazingly long in good spirits battling lung emphysema, but his heart couldn’t cope anymore and he died on March 29, 2023, at his home in The Netherlands. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Martha Bass born 7 March 1921

Martha Bass (March 7, 1921 – September 21, 1998) was an American contralto gospel singer and mother of David Peaston and Fontella Bass. 

Martha Carter Bass Peaston was born in Arkansas. Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when she was 2 years old and joined the Pleasant Green Baptist Church, where G.H. Pruitt was the pastor. She started to sing in the choir and had a dark, powerful contralto like her mother, Nevada Carter. 

She came under the authoritative and watchful tutelage of Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith, the head of the Soloists Beareau in gospel composer Thomas A. Dorsey's National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses and the founder of the St. Louis Chapter of the organization, and it was there that she developed into a "house wrecker" as they are called in gospel. 

With Mother Ford's teaching and a wealth of church singing experience under her belt, she left St. Louis in the early 1950s to travel with the great Clara Ward Singers, with whom she stayed with for about four years. On November 2, 1950 they recorded “Wasn’t It A Pity How They Punished My Lord” on Savoy records with her on lead. It was a huge hit. About the same time, her family and entourage organized a private recording session and two songs were issued on the Bass label. 

                           Here’s “Rescue Me” from above LP

                                   

She then got married, and with two sons and a baby girl (Fontella Bass), she chose to stay at home and raise her family. In March of 1966 she recorded her first album “I’m So Grateful”, with Fontella playing piano and singing background. This album established Martha as a gospel singer of the first rank. In 1968 she recorded her second album “Rescue Me”. 

In 1969, as a tribute to her idol, Mahalia Jackson, she recorded her third album “Martha Sings Mahalia”. In 1970, Bass recorded 'Walk With Me Lord' with the Harold Smith Majestics Choir with Checker Records. The song was featured in Selma, the 2014 Ava DuVarnay film through Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises. 

In 1972, she recorded her last album on the Checker label “It’s Another Day’s Journey”. After that, she toured in Europe for some time with her mother, Nevada, and daughter, Fontella. The tour was called “From The Roots To The Source”.

From the late 1980’s until her death she was satisfied to be her daughters best supporter, and she helped Fontella’s career any way she could, until in 1990 Selah Records gave the entire family an opportunity to record an album together. It was called “A Family Portrait Of Faith” and featured Fontella’s brother and special guest, David Peaston. 

Martha died in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 21, 1998 (aged 77). 

With Willie Mae Ford Smith and Cleophus Robinson, Martha Bass will remain one of the best gospel singers ever to come out of Louis, Missouri. Unfortunately she was sadly under-recorded. 

(Edited from Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Lilian Bowles bio & Wikipedia)

Red Callender born 6 March 1916

George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Crew, a group of first-call session musicians in Los Angeles. Callender also co-wrote the 1959 top-10 hit "Primrose Lane". 

Callender was born in Haynesville, Virginia, United States. He got his nickname from his red hair, a product of 18th Century ancestors who had lived in Scotland but later made their way to Barbados in the Caribbean. He studied tuba, bass, trumpet and harmony as a boy and as early as 1933 was playing in bands in New Jersey. He moved to Los Angeles while still a teen-ager and made his recording debut with Louis Armstrong when he was 19. Although Callender said he never considered himself a teacher, in 1939 a determined 17-year-old boy asked Callender to teach him the bass. Callender charged the teen-ager $2 an hour, and after the lessons they would share ice cream and dreams. That student was Charles Mingus, and he said he wanted to become the best bass player in the world. 

Red with Erroll Garner 1947

In the early 1940s, Callender played in the Lester and Lee Young band, and then formed his own trio. In the 1940s, Callender recorded with Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Uffe Baadh and many others. After a period spent leading a trio in Hawaii, Callender returned to Los Angeles, becoming one of the first black musicians to work regularly in the commercial studios, including backing singer Linda Hayes on two singles. 

Red Callender Trio 1946

He turned down an offer to work with the Louis Armstrong All-Stars due to low wages. Red was also asked to join the Count Basie Band, an updated Nat Cole Trio and a new band being formed by Lester Young. He loved them all, and was not unmindful of the prestige-by-association they represented. On the other hand, being his own man and staying in town enabled him to maintain his freelancer freedom and accept record dates with the likes of André Previn, Benny Goodman, and Charlie Parker.  As a result of his work in the 1940s, he was credited with a pioneering role in showing that the bass could be both a solo instrument and rhythmic instrument. “He brought out melodic aspects of the bass,” said Times jazz critic Leonard Feather. 

                                    

But when the recording ban was imposed on the industry in 1947, Red sensed it was time for a change of venue. He accepted a gig touring the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu welcomed the entire band, including Gerald Wilson, Dexter Gordon, Ralph Bledsoe, and Irving Ashby. Around Oahu Red would also enjoy several new bands, a new romance, and a position in the bass section of the Honolulu Symphony. Local groups began hiring Red to write arrangements. He worked briefly in a record store and wrote “Pastel Symphony,” a full 45 minutes of “legit” music that has only been performed once. After living for three busy years in Hawaii, he felt the onset of “island fever,” and headed back across the Pacific. 

On his 1957 Crown LP Speaks Low, Callender was one of the earliest modern jazz tuba soloists. He often had bit parts as a musician and his music was featured on shows starring Carol Burnett, Danny Kaye, Flip Wilson, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jonathan Winters. His 1958 hit, “Primrose Lane,” later became the theme for Henry Fonda’s “Smith Family” television series. Keeping busy up until his death, some of the highlights of the bassist's later career include recording with Art Tatum and Jo Jones (1955–1956) for the Tatum Group, playing with Charles Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, working with James Newton's avant-garde woodwind quintet (on tuba), and performing as a regular member of the Cheatham's Sweet Baby Blues Band. 

He also reached the top of the British pop charts as a member of B. Bumble and the Stingers. In November 1964, he was introduced and highlighted in performance with entertainer Danny Kaye, in a duet on the Fred Astaire introduced George and Ira Gershwin song, "Slap That Bass", for Kaye's CBS-TV variety show. 

In explaining why he titled his 1985 autobiography “Unfinished Dreams,” Callender told jazz critic Leonard Feather: “It’s not that I’m frustrated about anything. To this day, I’m learning about music. Basically, that’s why I’m still playing. I want to be a better musician--that’s the dream.” 

He last performed on New Year’s Eve in Santa Monica, said his wife, Mary Lou. The next day, Callender was hospitalized and underwent surgery for the thyroid cancer that had plagued him for several years, but he succumbed to the disease at his home in Saugus, California on March 8, 1992. He was 76. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Los Angeles Times & Syncopated Times)