Russell Arms born 3 February 1920

Russell Arms (February 3, 1920 – February 13, 2012) was an American actor and singer. 

Russell Lee Arms was born in Berkeley, California. His parents divorced when he was young and during his high school years, he caught the acting bug. He gained acting experience via the Pasadena Playhouse and began his career on radio, including working at WNEW in New York City. 

He signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1941 and was given small parts in war movies before he was drafted the next year. In his screen debut, he played Richard, the son of the Stanleys, in 1942's The Man Who Came to Dinner. This was followed by "Captain of the Clouds" (1942) and "Wings for the Eagle" (1942). 

During World War II he served stateside, making military training films with the Army Signal Corps and the Army Air Forces. When the war ended, he returned to Warner Bros. as a freelance performer and was cast in westerns. Subsequently, he appeared in supporting roles in both feature films and television. In 1953 he played the role of Chester Finley, a piano instructor and hopeful suitor to Doris Day, in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon. 

                                   

From 1952 to 1957, he was best known as a vocalist on Your Hit Parade, an NBC television series that reviewed the popular songs of the day and on which a regular cast of vocalists would perform the top seven songs of the week. Arms and Eileen Wilson and were the only surviving lead performers from the show ntil Arms' death.  During his career as a singer, he was also well known for his 1957 hit single, "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)", which entered the charts on January 12, 1957 and stayed there for 15 weeks, peaking at No. 22. 

In 1957, he released the album Where Can A Wanderer Go, on the Era label. The same year he was a singer on The Hidden Treasure Show, "the first nationwide quiz show in which home viewers win the money...".The syndicated program was sponsored by Disabled American Veterans.  A 1958 newspaper story about Arms noted, "Although Arms started in show business as an actor, he became a singer 'by accident,' and now he can't get anyone to believe he can act.’I'm now in the process of proving them wrong,' he said." 

When rock and roll captured the music scene during the 1960s, Arms returned to his acting roots and accumulated a large body of work. On television dramas, Arms made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Attorney Everett Dorrell in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Credulous Quarry", and as Roger Correll in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Greek Goddess". Additionally, he appeared in the 1961 episode "Bad Sheriff" on the long-running series Gunsmoke, portraying a crooked lawman who tries to keep the money seized by stagecoach robbers. For the next two decades he continued to act periodically in other television series, including the CBS sitcom Ichabod and Me in 1962 and the NBC drama Gibbsville in 1976.He authored an autobiography in 2005, My Hit Parade... and a Few Misses. 

Arms and his second wife, Mary Lynne, resided in Palm Springs, California for many years. They then moved to Hamilton, Illinois, where Arms died at his home on February 13, 2012, aged 92. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Los Angeles Times) 

 

Omar Blondahl born 2 February 1923

Omar Blondahl, (6 February 1923 – 11 December 1993), also known as "Sagebrush Sam", was a musician who became fascinated with the largely unrecorded folk songs of Newfoundland, Canada, and became famous for popularizing them. 

Blondahl was born in Wynyard, Saskatchewan of Icelandic parents. Like many children of immigrants, Omar , who grew up in Winnipeg, did not start speaking English until he began school. By the time he reached high school he had studied piano, violin, voice, and music theory, and had performed in local Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. 

By his late teens he was working in radio dramas. In 1943, following several years of Army service, he returned to radio, working for the next eight years at radio stations in western Canada as a DJ, announcer, and performer and taking the nane “Sagebrush Sam “. As a performer he was involved in drama and music. He played some fiddle but mainly rhythm guitar in old-time music orchestras, and sang folksongs to his own guitar accompaniment as a soloist. 

                                    

In 1947 he joined the staff of CFRN in Edmonton, Alberta. During his years in Edmonton he also appeared on CBC shows with the bands of old-time fiddler Ameen "King" Ganam and polka accordionist Gaby Haas. Following a successful stint in organizing a radio March of Dimes campaign at CFRN that drew the largest contributions in Canada for 1951, he took the advice of well-wishers and went off to seek his fortune in Hollywood. 

Following two interesting but not particularly productive years, during which he made his first commercial recordings, he ended up in Portland, Oregon. There he joined Smiling Ernie Lindell and his New England Barn Dance Jamboree. For the next two years he toured with this band as fiddler and solo vocalist with, in his words, "a ballad singing act." 

Late in 1955 he left that band and, deciding to visit Iceland, he got a job on a boat and came to Newfoundland, where he stopped to work for a while in order to earn the rest of his passage. Walking into a local radio station with his guitar, he applied for what he expected to be a temporary announcer’s job. Soon he was a hit on local airwaves, singing traditional Newfoundland songs. Within a few years, he was a star of regional radio and television, had produced more than a dozen record albums in the 60’s and was a household name throughout Atlantic Canada. 

Modern folklorists credit him with establishing the modern Newfoundland folksong “canon” and preserving ballads that might otherwise have been lost as the new province’s culture was swamped by a blander Canadiana. Then at the peak of his career in the mid 1960's , he suddenly disappeared. Most Newfoundlanders (including his family), had no idea where he went. Apparently he just left his pregnant wife and children and moved to the Arctic and in 1979 settled in Vancouver with a friend where he was tracked down, living in an apartment. 

He died after a long illness in Vancouver, British Columbia, 11 December 1993 at the age of 70. 

(Edited from the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, Canadian Encyclopedia & AllMusic )

Lisa Marie Presley born 1 February 1968

Lisa Marie Presley (February 1, 1968 – January 12, 2023) was an American singer and songwriter. She was the only child of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley, as well as the sole heir to her father's estate after her grandfather and great-grandmother died. 

Lisa Marie was born in Memphis, Tennessee, nine months to the day after her parents married. She spent her early years at Graceland but, when she turned five, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles; the Presleys divorced in 1973. Lisa Marie visited Memphis regularly, where her father doted on her, once flying her in a private jet to Idaho so she could see snow for the first time and play in it for an hour. She was at Graceland when Elvis died in August 1977. 

In Los Angeles, her mother was more disciplinarian, but having converted to Scientology enrolled her at the church’s Apple school. Lisa Marie left the Westlake school for girls when she was 17. Her life was increasingly wild until, the next year, she awoke after a drug-filled party and went to the local Scientology church. She wound up living at their Celebrity Centre on Sunset Boulevard, and there she met the musician Danny Keough. They married at the Scientology headquarters in 1988. 

On her 25th birthday, in 1993, she inherited the Elvis Presley Trust, which included a business company and a charitable foundation, which were set up by Priscilla as Elvis’s executor. It was worth an estimated $100m at that point, though when Elvis died it had been worth only about $5m, and owed more in taxes. Lawsuits against Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, helped restore some of its wealth, and Lisa Marie became a notable philanthropist. 

In 1994, after six years of marriage and the birth of a son and a daughter, Lisa Marie went to the Dominican Republic, divorced Keough and a few weeks later married Michael Jackson. Begging for privacy, they returned to the US and began their honeymoon at Trump Tower in New York. Lisa Marie had first met Jackson when she was seven, at a show in Las Vegas, but they became friendly in 1992. They divorced in 1996 after accusations emerged of child abuse at his Neverland estate, where, as at Graceland, everything revolved around him. 

                                    

In 1997 she appeared in a music video, Don’t Cry Daddy, in which she sang a duet with her father – her vocals laid over his original recording – to mark the 20th anniversary of his death. She signed a record deal with its producer, David Foster, and spent the next five years preparing for her first album, To Whom It May Concern (2003), produced by Alanis Morissette’s producer Glen Ballard. It went to No 5 on the US charts, selling more than 500,000 copies, and a single, Lights Out, reached No 18, and 16 in the UK. By then, on the 25th anniversary of her father’s death, in August 2002, she had married the actor Nicolas Cage, who, in the 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas, had joined the skydiving Flying Elvises impersonators. Their honeymoon was short; Cage filed for divorce that November. Lisa Marie said Cage considered her just another Elvis souvenir. 

Lockwood & Lisa Marie

Her second album, Now What (2005), reached No 9 in the charts, and her cover of Don Henley’s Dirty Laundry became a hit single. That year she married Michael Lockwood, the guitarist in her band, with Keough as the best man. In 2010 they moved to a mansion in Rotherfield, East Sussex, not far from the Scientology church’s headquarters. In 2012 she released a third album, Storm and Grace, a downbeat, more country album, produced by T Bone Burnett and reminiscent of Cash’s darker later work. 

She and Lockwood had twin daughters, but announced they were divorcing in 2016. Her divorce papers claimed she was $16m in debt, though in 2004 she had sold 85% of the Elvis Presley Trust, retaining Graceland and its contents. In 2018 she filed a $100m lawsuit against her former business manager, Barry Siegel. In 2020 her son, Benjamin, killed himself at her house in Calabasas, outside Los Angeles. She largely withdrew from public life, as if nothing more could be put into song. 

But in the week before her death she travelled to Graceland to mark her father’s 88th birthday, and then, with her mother, attended the Golden Globe ceremony in Los Angeles, where Austin Butler won the best actor award for playing her father in Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis. On January 12, 2023, at around 10:30 a.m., Lisa Marie suffered cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California. Her heart was restarted after CPR was administered en route to West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, but she died later that day at the age of 54. According to her autopsy report, Presley died of small bowel obstruction caused by a bariatric surgery she had undergone. 

(Edited from obit by Michael Carlson @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)

Big Time Sarah born 31 January 1953

Sarah Streeter (January 31, 1953 – June 13, 2015), better known by her stage name Big Time Sarah, was an American blues singer. A rousing vocalist and dynamic entertainer, she was among the more enterprising contemporary blues performers who built a solid reputation worldwide with regular tours in the U.S. and abroad. 

She was born in Coldwater, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of alcoholic parents and sought community in a local church, developing her musical talent in its gospel choir.  At age 14, she began singing blues at the Morgan's Lounge Club. Sarah started sitting-in from the late ’60s with Louis and Dave Myers, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Magic Slim and Johnny Bernard.  

                              

It was during 1976 that after hearing Sunnyland Slim in a club, Sarah went to him for advice about her singing which resulted in her touring with his band. It also led to her first solo release, a single on his record label, Airway Records. She also toured Europe annually from 1978 – 1982 with pianist Erwin Helfer and since then on her own. She gained her nickname, "Big Time Sarah,” from a wish she had early in her career. 

When she began touring in the mid-1970s, Streeter was convinced she would make the "big time," becoming a blues sensation by delivering a million-selling album and then a film star.   Dubbed "The Shaker" for her trademark moving and shaking as she strutted across the stage, Streeter became renowned for giving audiences a performance ranging from the sentimental to the sexy. She was a featured performer at many clubs such as B.L.U.E.S., Kingston Mines, and Buddy Mulligan's and appeared at several blues festivals. She teamed with Zora Young and Bonnie Lee in 'Blues with the Girls', Sarah toured Europe in 1982 and recorded an album in Paris, France. 

She formed the Big Time Express in 1989, and made her Delmark label debut, Lay It on 'Em Girls, in 1993. Blues in the Year One-D-One arrived in 1996, followed by A Million of You in 2001 all for Delmark Records. Sarah and her band toured internationally blending risqué blues, soul, funk and jazz. 

Streeter received an W.C. Handy Award nominations, for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year, in 2002 and 2003.She has played at the Chicago Blues Festival, 2002 and 2008, the Efes Pilsener Blues Festival, Moscow, Russia, in 2005, the legendary San Francisco Blues Festival, 2002, Monterey Jazz Festival, 2002 and Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, 2001. Sarah worked many clubs in the Chicago area and often lent her vocal and fundraising talents to benefits for needy musicians and the homeless. 

Unfortunately, recurring health problems forced this eminently spectacular artist to take it easy. Big Time Sarah died on June 13, 2015, aged 62, from heart complications in a Chicago-area nursing home. She was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery, Alsip, Cook County, Illinois. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Sunnyland Slim liner notes, Last fm, Sooze Blues Jazz and AllMusic)

 

Roy Eldridge born 30 January 1911

David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the dominant style of jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop. 

Eldridge was born on the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to parents Alexander, a wagon teamster, and Blanche, a gifted pianist with a talent for reproducing music by ear, a trait that Eldridge claimed to have inherited from her. Eldridge began playing the piano at the age of five and took up the drums at the age of six, taking lessons and playing locally. 

When Roy began to play drums in his brother's band, Joe soon convinced him to pick up the trumpet. It was not until the death of their mother, when Roy was eleven, and his father's subsequent remarriage that Roy began practicing more rigorously, locking himself in his room for hours, and particularly honing the instrument's upper register. From an early age, Roy lacked proficiency at sight-reading, a gap in his musical education that would affect him for much of his early career, but he could replicate melodies by ear very effectively. 

Eldridge started out playing trumpet and drums in carnival and circus bands. With the Nighthawk Syncopators he received a bit of attention by playing a note-for-note re-creation of Coleman Hawkins' tenor solo on "The Stampede." Inspired by the dynamic playing of Jabbo Smith (Eldridge would not discover Louis Armstrong for a few years), Eldridge played with some territory bands including Zack Whyte and Speed Webb and in New York (where he arrive in 1931) he worked with Elmer Snowden (who nicknamed him "Little Jazz"), McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and most importantly Teddy Hill (1935). 

                            

                                   

Eldridge's recorded solos with Hill, backing Billie Holiday and with Fletcher Henderson (including his 1936 hit "Christopher Columbus") gained a great deal of attention. In 1937 he appeared with his octet (which included brother Joe on alto) at the Three Deuces Club in Chicago and recorded some outstanding selections as a leader including "Heckler's Hop" and "Wabash Stomp." By 1939 Eldridge had a larger group playing at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York. With the decline of Bunny Berigan and the increasing predictability of Louis Armstrong, Eldridge was arguably the top trumpeter in jazz during this era. 

Roy with Anita O'Day

During 1941-1942 Eldridge sparked Gene Krupa's Orchestra, recording classic versions of "Rockin' Chair" and "After You've Gone" and interacting with Anita O'Day on "Let Me Off Uptown." The difficulties of traveling with a White band during a racist period hurt him, as did some of the incidents that occurred during his stay with Artie Shaw (1944-1945) but the music during both stints was quite memorable. Eldridge can be seen in several "soundies" (short promotional film devoted to single songs) of this era by the Krupa band, often in association with O'Day, including "Let Me Off Uptown" and "Thanks for the Boogie Ride." 

Roy with Gene Krupa

He is also very prominent in the band's appearance in Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire, in an extended performance of "Drum Boogie" mimed by Barbara Stanwyck, taking a long trumpet solo which was filmed soon after Eldridge joined the band in late April of 1941, and "Drum Boogie" was a song that Eldridge co-wrote with Krupa. Eldridge had a short-lived big band of his own, toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and then had a bit of an identity crisis when he realized that his playing was not as modern as the beboppers. A successful stay in France during 1950-1951 restored his confidence when he realized that being original was more important than being up-to-date. 

Eldridge recorded steadily for Norman Granz in the '50s, was one of the stars of JATP (where he battled Charlie Shavers and Dizzy Gillespie), and by 1956, was often teamed with Coleman Hawkins in a quintet; their 1957 appearance at Newport was quite memorable. The '60s were tougher as recording opportunities and work became rarer. Eldridge had brief and unhappy stints with Count Basie's Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald (feeling unnecessary in both contexts) but was leading his own group by the end of the decade. He spent much of the '70s playing regularly at Ryan's and recording for Pablo and, although his range had shrunk a bit, Eldridge's competitive spirit was still very much intact. 

After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up playing the trumpet. He did however occasionally play the piano and can be heard as late as 1986 in an edition of Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" He died at the age of 78 at the Franklin General Hospital in Valley Stream, New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

  

Dave Young born 29 January 1940

Dave Young (born January 29, 1940) is a Canadian double bassist. 

David Anthony Young was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He began studying the guitar and violin when he was 10 years old, but a turn of events at his first gig (a university dance band) compelled him to pick up the bass. He was educated as both a jazz and a classical player and after attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 1960s, Young returned to Canada and embarked on a remarkably diverse and distinguished professional career. 

He was a member of the Lenny Breau Quartet in live performance and recording for five years from 1961 to 1966. Dave Young’s professional relationship with jazz giant Oscar Peterson spanned three decades during which he played in the Oscar Peterson Trio in appearances all over the world up until Peterson’s death. Young is equally comfortable with symphonic work and acoustic jazz. As classical artist, he was the principal Double Bassist for a number of years with the Edmonton and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras as well as with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. 

As a jazz artist, he has collaborated with the genre’s brightest luminaries including Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Joe Williams, Oliver Jones, Lenny Breau, Rob McConnell, Phil Dwyer, Michel Lambert, John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Tommy Flanagan, Ellis Marsalis, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut, Cedar Walton, Peter Appleyard, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones, Nat Adderly, Gary Burton, Barney Kessel, Ed Bickert, Ranee Lee, Marcus Belgrave, Don Thompson, and James Moody. 

Young regularly toured with clarinetist James Campbell and pianist Gene Di Novi in a program of “Classical Fusion” that melds the classical and jazz worlds. He also performed a “dueling basses” repertoire of classical works with Toronto Symphony bassist Joel Quarrington, often billed as the "Two Bass Hit". Perhaps one of Dave Young’s most loved and popular musical combinations is his own Quintet, an ensemble firmly rooted in the be-bop tradition, and focusing on the material of Horace Silver and Charles Mingus. In 2003, Young was in residence at the Music Department of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, conducting bass master classes and performing. 

                              Here’s “Celia” from above album.

                                     

In the fall of 2009, Young released, Mean What You Say ,an independently release album produced by bassist Robert Occhipinti and featuring Robi Botos, Frank Botos, and Kevin Turcotte. Also that year, Dave performed as part of a 16-piece orchestra accompanying award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp’s latest Broadway-bound dance work: “Come Fly With Me” – The Music of Frank Sinatra. 

In 2011, Young released Aspects of Oscar with his quintet featuring Kevin Turcotte, Reg Schwager, Robi Botos and Terry Clarke. A prolific composer and bandleader, Young is a Juno Award winner and 10-time nominee. A noted educator, he was a professor at the University of Toronto and has mentored many of Canada’s finest bassists. For his contributions to the world of music, Young was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006. 

Young has countless other awards under his belt, including the IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) Award for “Outstanding Service to Jazz.” He is a seven-time Jazz Report winner, a six-time National Jazz Award winner, and was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2017. In 2020, Dave concluded his 30-year tenure as a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Jazz department and has continued to share his wisdom with students and jazz fans through workshops. In September 2021, Dave was featured on two segments as part of JazzComposersPresent.com out of Washington, DC, which is led by Dan Jamieson. 

Dave continues to spend his time performing throughout Toronto on a regular basis, as well as recording with his various groups. Dave frequently performed in Detroit alongside Spencer Barefield and Dave Murray at Dirty Dog Jazz Café and Cliff Bell’s, as well as the Detroit Jazz Festival. Throughout his many tours within the United States, Dave has performed to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, The Blue Note, Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, Yoshi’s Oakland, and Birdland Jazz Club. 

Along with consistent performing, Dave has released numerous albums since 1975. His latest album, ‘Mantra,’ from 2021 features well-known musicians Kevin Turcotte, Reg Schwager, Brian Dickinson, Perry White, and Terry Clarke. 

Edited from (Canadian Jazz Archive, Celine Peterson Productions & Tiff 50) 

 

Larry Brasso born 28 January 1936

Larry Brasso ( January 28, 1936 – August 26, 1984) was a Country and Cajun vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter who fronted his own band, Larry Brasso & The Rhythmaires.

Brasso was actually born James Larry Brasseaux in the tiny town of Henry (Vermillion Parish), just outside of Abbeville.  By age 10, he was playing guitar and by 13, he was forming his first band. As he got older, he began playing in local clubs in south Louisiana and then they headed to Texas to spread their country music for some three years. In 1963, he was back in Louisiana to start his first venture into television, producing his own Saturday afternoon “Larry Brasso Show,” which was eventually syndicated into 10 CBS TV markets all around the state. The music show included not just country, but Cajun and French music as well. 

Unlike in today’s world, with everyone knowing how to pronounce “Geaux,” obviously, his television producer suggested he change the end of his last name from ’eaux’ to ‘o.’ He grew up speaking French and already sang French songs as a young boy. He was just as comfortable singing in English but always with a Louisiana tilt. He also formed the “Larry Brasso and the Rhythmaires” band, which he led for nearly 30 years. Later on, it included his son Keith Brasseaux.

                                    

The band toured solo, as well as opening for some major country acts, one of which was Loretta Lynn. He was not quite 30 years old when he recorded his first record on Lafayette-based La Louisiane labeI in 1965 with “Just around the Corner from the Blues” and “You’re only in Love.”  A year later in 1966, Baton Rouge record producer S.J. Montalbano a.k.a. “Sam Montel” brought Brasso into his recording studio, for first of three records and an album. His first 45 rpm release was a pair of cover songs, “Gonna Find Me Someone To Love” and “Big Mistake.” 

It was released on the ‘Montel-Michelle’ label. He followed that up in July of 1966 with his classic “These Empty Arms,” written by Johnny Troy, who also wrote two other songs for Brasso. The flip-side was “I Just Can’t Live (If you’re Really Gone).”  Then in late October of 1966, Montel released a 12-track LP by Brasso entitled, ‘Country Music Louisiana Style.’ One of the tracks included his version of “One More Glass Of Wine,” written by Abbeville native Robert Guidry, better known as “Bobby Charles.” 

Montel released Brasso’s cover on a single in late April of 1967, with “Big City” on the flip side. Later in 1967, Brasso made two recordings at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans and released on his ‘White Cliffs’ label. In 1969, he had his first self-written songs recorded and released on both the Nashville-based ‘One-Way’ label, as well as the Cincinnati-based ‘King’ label, with “Wait for the Heartache” and “You’re Going to Get What’s Coming for You.”  He also had another released on ‘One-Way,’ which was pressed at the Ville Platte plant.   

In the 1970’s, he had four releases on Floyd Soileau’s Ville Platte-based ‘Jin’ label.  Brasso had his own TV show on KADN Channel 15 in Lafayette in the early 1980’s.  Brasso continued to perform up until his death, which was by a heart attack in Henry, Louisiana, on August 26, 1984, He was just 48……His son  Keith, who died in 2007, was just 47 and his son, Larry Brasseaux Jr. died at the age of 36. 

(Edited from Louisiana Jukebox Café & Discogs)