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)

Jimmy Bryant born 5 March 1925

Jimmy Bryant (5th March 1925 - September 22, 1980) was an American country music guitarist. He is best known for his collaborations with steel guitarist Speedy West and his session work and was known as the Fastest Guitar in the Country. 

Born John Ivy Bryant Jr., in Moultrie, he was a prodigy on the fiddle while growing up in Georgia and Florida. In 1943, Bryant would join the United States Army, serving in France and Germany. While fighting in Germany he was severely injured by a grenade, and would spend the rest of the war in a hospital, where he would meet Tony Mottola, who motivated him to begin playing the guitar. Once the war ended, Bryant would join the USO, where he would play until he was discharged. 

After the war, he would drift around various states, including Georgia, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., where he played as ''Buddy'' Bryant. He then moved to Los Angeles county where he worked in Western films and played music in bars around L.A.'s Skid Row, where he met pioneering pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. West, who joined Cliffie Stone's popular Hometown Jamboree local radio and TV show, suggested Bryant be hired when the show's original guitarist departed. That gave Bryant access to Capitol Records since Stone was a Capitol artist and talent scout. 

In 1950 Tex Williams heard Bryant's style and used him on his recording of "Wild Card". In addition, Bryant and West played on the Tennessee Ernie Ford-Kay Starr hit "I'll Never Be Free", leading to both men being signed to Capitol as instrumentalists. Bryant and West became a team, working extensively with each other. During this time Bryant was also one of the first musicians of note to play the electric Telecaster, a model that's become legendary and hugely influential in the sound of the electric guitar throughout popular music. 

                                  

With steel guitar wizard Speedy West, guitarist Jimmy Bryant formed half of the hottest country guitar duo of the 1950s. With lightning speed and a jazz-fueled taste for improvisation and adventure, Bryant's boogies, polkas, and Western swing (recorded with West and as a solo artist) remain among the most exciting instrumental country recordings of all time. Bryant also waxed major contributions to the early recordings of singers like Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merrill Moore, Kay Starr, Billy May, and Ella Mae Morse, and has influenced country guitarists like Buck Owens, James Burton, and Albert Lee. While he enjoyed a career that spanned several decades, it was his sessions with Capitol Records in the early '50s that allowed him his fullest freedom to strut his stuff. 

Bryant was a difficult musician to work with. By 1955 he left Hometown Jamboree (retaining his friendship with West) and after various clashes with his Capitol producer Ken Nelson, because of his heavy drinking, the label dropped him in 1956. In 1957 Jimmy Bryant was a part of one of the first integrated television shows featuring popular radio and television star Jimmie Jackson who hosted the show along with black jazz violinist and recording star, Stuff Smith and black jazz percussionist and recording star, George Jenkins. He continued working in Los Angeles and in the early 1960s he and his trio made an appearance in the Coleman Francis film The Skydivers. 

During the 1960s he shifted into music production. But he did continue to play live and in the studio, doing quite a bit of obscure recordings in the 1960s in Hollywood and Nashville, mostly for the Imperial label. (A lot of his post-West material finally found wide circulation in 2003 with Sundazed's three-CD box set Frettin' Fingers: The Lightning Guitar of Jimmy Bryant. Waylon Jennings made a hit of his song "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line". He can also be heard playing fiddle on the Monkees' "Sweet Young Thing". 

In the early 1970s Bryant ran a recording studio in Las Vegas, but finally relocated to Georgia before settling in Nashville in 1975, the same year he reunited with Speedy West for a reunion album produced by Nashville steel guitarist Pete Drake. Bryant played in Nashville bars and did some recording work but his personality did not mesh well with Nashville's highly political music and recording industry. In 1978, in declining health, Bryant learned that he had lung cancer due to being a heavy smoker. He played his final performance in August, 1979 at a club in North Hollywood before he returned to his Georgia hometown. 

He died in Moultrie in September 1980 at the age of 55 and is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Colquitt Georgia. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Rocky 52)

 

Thomas Shaw born 4 March 1908

Thomas Edgar Shaw (March 4, 1908 – February 24, 1977) was an American blues singer and guitarist who got a late opportunity to shine after a lifetime of developing his gift. 

Shaw was born in Brenham, Texas, a farming community between Austin and Houston. His was a musical family; his father played harmonica, guitar and accordion and Shaw learned acapella versions of spirituals on his father’s knee. His uncle Fred Rogers headed up a family string band and his cousins, Willie and Bertie, were first rate blues guitarists. His older brother Leon played piano and his brother Louis played harmonica. 

Shaw first played harmonica before picking up guitar in the early 20’s. The first song he mastered was “Out And Down”, a ragtime song that was played locally by his brother Louis and later recorded as “One Dime Blues” by Blind Lemon Jefferson. Shaw had already been enthralled by Jefferson’s early recordings of “Long Lonesome Blues” and “Matchbox Blues” when he met Jefferson on the town square of Waco in 1926 or 1927. “I followed all around that evening there, and then I started talkin’ to him, and naturally me being a kid he’s askin’ me different things: ‘You like the way I play this guitar?’ I told him ‘I love it!’ …Say: ‘How would you lie to do it?’ I say: ‘I sure wish I could do it!’ He says: ‘Well you can.’ I say: ‘I don’t know.’ 

He says: ‘Yes, you can …go and find you a guitar.’ .’..When you hear  me in town, you come where I am.’ At Blind Jefferson’s urging he bought himself a guitar and learned Jefferson’s “Long Lonesome Blues”. He learned many of Jefferson’s song from a combination of listening to the records and hearing him in person. 

Around 1930 Shaw met J.T. “Funny Papa” Smith. Shaw and Smith went on to play weekend house parties, each devising second guitar parts behind the others’ vocal and leads. Smith promised to include Shaw in on of his recording sessions in 1931 but Smith was hauled off to face a murder charge and never returned to the area. Shaw later had collaborations with J. T. Smith and Ramblin' Thomas and briefly accompanied Texas Alexander. He may have been the only bluesman to have known and played with all of these essential Texas bluesmen. 

                    Here’s “Howling Wolf Blues” from above LP 

                                   

Thomas could not resist recording his own version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Motherless Children” thrilled crowds with his ability to do both Blind Lemon and Blind Willie favorites. Thomas travelled many miles all over the country to find his audience, and like another Washington County neighbor, L. C. Robinson, ended up in California in 1934. Transplanted Texans on the West Coast loved that he could lay down Jack O’ Diamonds, Two White Horses in Line, and See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, received right from Blind Lemon’s corner to their ears. 

He also hung out with Mance Lipscomb, T-Bone Walker and Smokey Hogg. His acquaintances read like the Who’s Who of Texas Blues. He teamed up with Bob Jeffrey and the duo were Saturday night regulars at Jeffrey`s San Diego club "The Little Harlem Chicken Shack" from the 40s into the 60s. By then, Shaw had been ordained as a minister in a church in San Diego, California. becoming Reverend Shaw of Noah’s Temple of the Apostolic Faith. 

Still, his time came when a blues revival came in the 70’s and Thomas was there to sing the old songs, just like he remembered them, to a new generation of enthusiastic listeners. He found new purpose in doing something he loved, something his whole family teased him unmercifully about, but they were mostly dead now, and it was up to Tom Shaw to carry on the family music legend. And so he did. And he was always glad to tell you all about it. 

Shaw’s belated debut was recorded in 1969 or 70 and issued in 1972 on the Blue Goose label, titled Blind Lemon’s Buddy. Subsequent albums included Born In Texas issued in 1972 on Advent then later on Testament. In addition, Shaw appeared at festivals and, in 1972, he toured in Europe. His last album Do Lord Remember Me was released in 1973 on the Blues Beacon label, which he recorded in Holland.

Shaw died during open heart surgery in San Diego, in February 1977, aged 69 and was buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery, San Diego. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Big Road Blues & Navasto Music Murial)

Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis born 2 March 1925

Charles W. Thompson (March 2, 1925 – December 28, 1995), known as Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, was an American electric blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He played with John Lee Hooker, recorded an album for Elektra Records in the mid-1960s, and remained a regular street musician on Maxwell Street, in Chicago, for over 40 years. He is best remembered for his songs "Cold Hands" and "4th and Broad". 

Davis was born Charles W. Thompson, in Tippo, Mississippi. By chance, none other than future blues giant John Lee Hooker happened to be keeping company with one of Davis’s aunts, and it was this connection that led him to begin learning the rudiments of the guitar while a teenage youngster, as Hooker took it upon himself to help the fledgling musician with the instrument’s basics.  One can certainly hear that Hooker style in Davis’s blues through his use of droning one-chord attacks and frameworks.  Hooker’s influence is undeniable. 

But early on, Davis did not only confine his musical and entertaining energies to his burgeoning blues guitar interests.  While a teen, he took it upon himself to find employment and outlets for his artistic creativity by enlisting himself into the traveling world of the minstrel shows, working with both the Silas Green From New Orleans outfit and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.  In these shows, he showcased his dexterity as a dancer by doing the buck dance, an improvisational form of solo step dancing, along with other unique innovative skills that captivated audiences.  He even went to the extreme and employed a walking on glass routine in his fervent desire to drive spectators to heights of entertainment pleasure. 

It is generally believed that Davis made the decision at age 21 to move north out of Mississippi to Detroit in 1946 to reunite with his mentor John Lee Hooker.  Together, the pair worked together on the city’s bustling blues scene pretty much through the 1940s, following Davis's relocation there in 1946. Here is where research gets somewhat murky, as some accounts have Davis relocating once again for a brief period to Cincinnati, Ohio, before he decided to again move, this time Chicago in 1953. He started performing regularly in the marketplace area of Maxwell Street, playing a traditional and electrified style of Mississippi blues. 

                                   

In 1952, he recorded two songs, "Cold Hands" and "4th and Broad", under his real name, for Sun Records. They were offered to Chess Records and Bullet Records but were not released. And, it is acknowledged that for some time Davis performed on Mississippi radio broadcasts in the 1957 timeframe. In 1958, Davis again decided to make the move northward, this time during the blues’ surging heyday.  And like many arriving bluesmen in Chicago, he was savvy enough to realize that the best way to get himself noticed was to play his blues on the Maxwell Street open-air market for both tips and the aforementioned valuable awareness of his talents.  

It is uncertain when he took the name Jimmy Davis, but in 1964, under that pseudonym, he recorded a couple of tracks for Testament Records. They appeared on the 1965 Testament compilation album Modern Chicago Blues. His songs were "Crying Won't Make Me Stay" and "Hanging Around My Door". The album also included a track from another Chicago street performer, John Lee Granderson, and more established artists, such as Robert Nighthawk, Big Walter Horton, and Johnny "Man" Young. The music journalist Tony Russell wrote that it was "music of great charm and honesty". 

In 1966, Davis recorded a self-titled album for Elektra Records, which Jason Ankeny, writing for Allmusic, called "a fine showcase for his powerful guitar skills and provocative vocals". He recorded several tracks for various labels over the years, without commercial success. And, during a period in the 1980s, Davis renounced blues music fully and became a minister, but that pursuit didn’t last long, and he returned to what he knew and loved; performing blues. 

Davis owned a small restaurant on Maxwell Street, the Knotty Pine Grill, and performed outside the premises in the summer. He continued to play alfresco on Chicago's West Side for decades. In July 1994, Wolf Records released the album Chicago Blues Session, Vol. 11, the tracks of which Davis had recorded in 1988 and 1989. The collection included Lester Davenport on harmonica and Kansas City Red playing the drums. 

Davis died of a heart attack on 28th December 1995, in his adopted hometown of Chicago. He was 70 years old. He was another of the vital connections between the blues’ rural roots in the Southern U.S. and how it adapted to the metropolitan swirl of the Northern U.S.’s major municipalities. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Curt’s Blues)

 

Ray Frushay born 1st March 1944

Ray Frushay (March 1, 1944 - August 8, 2022) was a Country and western singer-songwriter, who enjoyed moderate success in the 1960s, although a long-term record deal eluded him. 

Ray was born Raymond Frusha in the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego, California to G. Ray and Loyce Eskew Frusha. While in McCallum High School, he played his songs for local DJ and manager Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser who introduced Ray to the Country Music Variety Shows at the Austin Municipal Auditorium. From there, Ray was quickly seen on the Louisiana Hayride, the Grand Ole Opry, and stages across America, charting records from the early age of eighteen. Ray was seen on such national television shows as the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Merv Griffin Show, and the Joey Bishop Show. 

Ray with Johnny Cash

While Ray was a prolific songwriter in the 60s and 70s, he was also in demand as a performer.  He either opened for or did concerts with people like Johnny Cash, Mel Tillis, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, Statler Bros. Roger Miller, Doug Kershaw, Jim Reeves, Porter Wagner, June Carter…..and the list goes on and on.  But, it wasn’t only country stars!  There’s that blues and rockin’ side, too, with the likes of BB King, Little Richard, and Ike/Tina Turner.  The list goes on and on.  

                                   

Later, Ray was discovered by boxer Rocky Marciano and was transitioned to perform as a "pop" singer and actor. He had an abundant recording career from roughly 1960 to 1980. During his acting career he appeared in two films, one being “Ransome Money” in 1970 where he played “Officer Smith”. However, for the first half of the 'Seventies, he was officially a major-label recording artist, but Dot/Paramount never green-lighted a full album, so Frushay kept chugging along a parallel course as an indie musician and working hotel lounge gigs and doing impersonations also in the clubs of Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Reno. 

In 1976, Ray revived his career releasing his last album "Frushay Country," although he continued to record singles for several years to come. His lone charting single, a private-press release called "I Got Western Pride," came out a few years after this, in 1979. His last single was released in 1980 also on the Western Pride label. He also hosted a local country music television show in Monroe, Louisiana. 

Since retirement, Ray enjoyed and was thankful for a renewed friendship with his ex-wife Barbara Covington, He also enjoyed playing his guitar and singing for friends in his new community of Hempstead, Texas. Although Ray recently suffered from cancer, heart disease, leg and lung issues, he died from natural causes on August 8, 2022 at the age of 78 years in Hempstead, Texas. He was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Bastrop, Texas. 

His true legacy may be his daughter Sheri Frushay, a country-rock artist with whom he co-wrote “Walk Tall Cowboy”.  

(Snippets of information mainly edited from Cypresss Fairbanks Funeral Home obit & The Texas and Music Story)