Roy Gaines born 12 August 1937

Roy James Gaines (August 12, 1937 – August 11, 2021) was an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He wrote and recorded the song "A Hell of a Night", which was first issued on his 1982 album Gainelining. He was the younger brother of the blues musician Grady Gaines.

Gaines was born in Waskom, Texas and relocated with his family to Houston when he was six years old. Originally a piano devotee, Gaines moved to playing the guitar in his adolescence. In his teens he was acquainted with another budding guitarist, Johnny Copeland. By the age of 14 he had performed onstage backing his hero, T-Bone Walker, and played in Houston nightclubs. After a failed marriage at the age of 16, Gaines headed to California where he found himself thrust into the world of late night bars and touring with Roy “Pops” Milton. In 1955, Gaines played as a backing musician on recordings by Bobby Bland, Junior Parker and Big Mama Thornton. He later backed Roy Milton and then Chuck Willis, and he worked again with Walker. 

                                     

In 1958 he played with Billie Holiday on Jazz Party, the singer’s last public appearance with pianist Mal Waldron and bassist Vinnie Burke. He released two low-key albums in 1956 and a couple more in the 1960s for small record companies.  At the end of the 1950's, Roy went back to Los Angeles recording with his former boss and friend Roy Milton, the Jazz Crusaders and under his name before being drafted by Uncle Sam in 1962. Based in Monterey, Roy took more music lessons from several musicians including Woody Herman. When he was discharged from the Army, Roy became a most sought after session man. 

In 1966, Gaines became part of Ray Charles's backing band. He was also a backing musician in sessions with the Everly Brothers, the Supremes, Bobby Darin, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight. Roy Gaines was known for his ability to blend different blues styles. He combined the raw energy of Texas blues with the powerful sound of electric blues. This made his music exciting and fresh. He was a true artist who put his heart into every performance.  

In 1975, Roy toured France with organist Milt Buckner recording behind Milt (a fantastic version of Green Onions) and his first whole album for the Black & Blue French label (Superman).. He then toured several times in Europe, recording more albums while operating a complex in Los Angeles' Crenshaw district that housed a nightclub, restaurant and a recording studio! Roy was part of Harry Belafonte's Las Vegas show in 1976. He toured Central and South America with the Supremes in 1976, and the U.S. with Diana Ross in 1977. 

Although he worked primarily as a sideman, his prolific career spans many iconic albums including Gainelining (1982), Lucille Work for Me (1996), Bluesman for Life (1998), I Got The T-Bone Walker Blues (1999) and New Frontier Lover (2000). It was followed by Tuxedo Blues, featuring a big band billed as Roy Gaines & His Orchestra, released in 2009. The album includes the song "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)," which Gaines had performed in the 1985 film The Color Purple. Also included is a cover version of Michael Jackson's "Rock with You." Gaines co-wrote the song "No Use Crying", which was recorded by George Jones and Ray Charles. 

In 2018 he played the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl with an 18-piece orchestra. That same year he did the Central Ave Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, the KSDS 88.3 live broadcast concert, and the Legendary Blues Cruise with a nine-piece orchestra featuring five horns. 

Gaines died on August 11, 2021, a day before his 84th birthday. He left behind a rich collection of music. His work continues to inspire new generations of blues musicians. Roy Gaines will always be remembered as a gifted guitarist, singer, and songwriter who helped keep the blues alive. 

(Wikipedia, American Blues Scene & Blue Eye) 

 

Christine Kittrell born 11 August 1929

Christine Kittrell (August 11, 1929 – December 19, 2001) was an American R&B singer who never quite became the major star that her big voice and impressive recorded legacy richly deserved; she was first recorded tracks in 1951 with Louis Brooks and his Band. 

Kittrell was born Christine Joygena Porter in Nashville, Tennessee. She said she never knew who her father was and her mother died when she was just one year old. She was adopted and raised by an aunt and uncle, Roberta and Fred Pennington. Christine sang in church and started touring with a local church choir in 1943. She wed Rufus Carrethers of the Fairfield Four at age 14, but neither the marriage nor her commitment to gospel music lasted for long. In 1945 she began to participate in talent shows and was soon booked by saxophonist Louis Brooks as the female singer with his band. She became Christine Kittrell when she married Hank Kittrell in the late 1940s. 

It was with Brooks that she made her first record, “Old Man You’re Slipping”, for the Tennessee label in Nashville (autumn 1951). Two further Tennessee singles came out in 1952, including “Sittin’ Here Drinking”, which sold some 150,000 copies in its first year, without making the national charts. Kittrell would re-record the song for Republic in 1954 and for the Vee-Jay label in 1961. A hot act around Nashville, the success led her to tour on a larger scale in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and California, with some big names of the period such as Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Big Maybelle and Paul ‘Hucklebuck’ Williams. 

At the end of 1952 Tennessee Records was closed down under the weight of official reprimands, and reformed by Bill Beasley as Republic Records. Kittrell recorded seven singles for the label (1953-55), initially backed by a group of New Orleans musicians working under the name of Guitar Red and the Hot Potatoes. On the 1954 remake of “Sittin’ Here Drinkin”, on its reverse, “Lord Have Mercy”, and on “ Call His Name”, Christine was accompanied by a band that included Little Richard on piano and Lee Diamond on sax. On June 20, 1954, Kittrell played at the tenth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. She performed along with The Flairs, Count Basie and his Orchestra, Lamp Lighters, Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, Ruth Brown, and Perez Prado and his Orchestra. 

                                    

In 1955 she relocated to Chicago and recorded at least two tracks for Chess, though nothing has ever been released ; the tapes seem to be lost. She returned temporarily to gospel music. A one-off single for Ted Jarrett’s Champion label in 1958 was her only release until 1961, the year in which she signed with Vee-Jay in Chicago. 

This association yielded two single releases, first a third version of “Sittin’ And Drinking” and, in 1962, the original version of the Leiber-Stoller number “I’m A Woman”. Soon it would be covered by Peggy Lee, who had a # 54 hit with the song in 1963. It developed into a standard popular song over the succeeding years. Although Christine’s version did not chart, it opened the doors for a better range of night club work around Chicago. After her Vee-Jay period Kittrell recorded a cover of “Love Letters” (copying the arrangement of the Ketty Lester hit) and a remake of “Call His Name” for Federal in 1965. 

During 1964 and 1965 Christine started to accept offers to join entertainment groups touring American forces bases in the Far East, mainly in Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. In August 1968, in Tu Lai, Vietnam, she was hit in the left foot, leg and hip by shrapnel flying from a Vietcong mortar bomb attack. She was hospitalised for the best part of a year and subsequently decided to retire from the music business, though still made some studio and radio recordings in Columbus, Ohio (where she had settled in the 1960s), over the next three decades. 

In 1970 she took employment as a social worker, running a State of Ohio programme for delinquent girls. Unfortunately, in 1972 a hysterical young woman pushed Christine down three flights of a metal fire escape, injuring her spine severely and leading to another long period in hospital. She was registered disabled in 1975 and was in a motorised wheelchair in her later years. She only performed occasionally in clubs and at blues festivals until the 1990s. She married husband number three, Otha Furlough on March 23, 1985, but it lasted less than two years before he died on January 19, 1987. 

On July 27, 1996, she was part of an AIDS fund-raiser at Riverside Park in Zanesville, Ohio, singing with Sean Carney and the Nite Owlz. In 1998, with Sean Carney and the Nite Owlz, she recorded her final tune: "True Love Untold" (which she had written). It's on his Provisions album on Main Street Records. As Christine Furlough, she died at the Riverside Methodist Hospital in 2001, of emphysema and heart problems, aged 72. A compilation CD of her recordings was subsequently issued by Bear Family Records. 

(Edited from This Is My Story, Wikipedia, Unca Marvey (some pics) & AllMusic) 

Arnett Cobb born 10 August 1918

Arnett Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989) was an American tenor saxophonist, sometimes known as the "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax" because of his uninhibited stomping style. 

Arnett Cobb, jazz tenor saxophonist, was born Arnette Cleophus Cobbs in Houston, Texas. He was taught piano by his grandmother and went on to study violin before taking up tenor saxophone in the Wheatley High School band. When he was fifteen he joined Louisiana bandleader Frank Davis’s band and performed in the Houston area and throughout Louisiana during the summer. Cobb continued his musical career with the local bands of trumpeter Chester Boone, from 1934 to 1936, and Milt Larkin, from 1936 to 1942 (which included a period on the West Coast with Floyd Ray). Among his bandmates in the Larkin band were Illinois Jacquet, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Tom Archia, Cedric Haywood, and Wild Bill Davis. The band became a regular at venues including the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and boxer Joe Louis's Rhumboogie Club in Chicago. 

Originator of the “open prairie” tone and “southern preacher” style, Cobb continually turned down offers from many national bands including Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton. However, with his mother’s approval, and Gladys Hampton’s offer to Elizabeth (Cobb’s wife), in 1942 Arnett took the lead saxophone chair in Hampton’s band, replacing Illinois Jacquet. With Cobb as the featured soloist, Hampton re-recorded his theme song, "Flying Home [No. 2]," and the excitement elicited by Cobb’s uninhibited, blasting style earned him the label "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax." He was a major asset to the Hampton band for five years as co-writer, writer, reed-section arranger, lead saxophone, featured soloist, and talent scout. Gladys Hampton and Elizabeth Cobb helped manage the band, and Cobb’s mother did the tailoring. 

Hampton & Cobb

Cobb left Hampton in 1947, formed his own combo, and was immediately signed by Ben Bartz of Universal Attractions for management and booking. Under Ben’s direction, Cobb toured extensively through 1949, while recording such hits as “Go Red Go” (Cornell University's theme song), "Dutch Kitchen Bounce," "Big Red's Groove," and "Big League Blues” for the Apollo label. He had begun some of his most influential years in American music history with his showmanship (bar walking and circular breathing techniques) and style (predecessor of Texas “swing” blues). 

                                   

Between 1950 and 1956, Cobb produced a string of hits including “Jumpin’ the Blues,” “Lil Sonny,” “The Shy One,” and “Smooth Sailing” (Ella Fitzgerald’s signature scat) on the Columbia label; “Night,” “Light Like That” and “Flying Home Mambo” on the Atlantic label; and other popular tunes for these and other labels. His combos and support became a career-building platform for Red Garland (playing with Miles Davis), George Rhodes (Sammy Davis Jr.’s music director), George Duvivier (bassist), Dinah Washington, comedian Redd Foxx, Jackie Wilson, Arthur Prysock, and many others. Arnett scouted James Brown, positioned him as his opening act, and took him to New York to sign with agent Ben Bart at Universal. 

In 1956 a car accident interrupted his national prominence. Against doctors’ advice, a year later he was back performing and touring coast to coast, although from this time on he could not walk without crutches. Cobb was living in New Jersey at the time, but the long, cold, damp, northeastern winter made working too strenuous, so in 1959 he moved back to Houston permanently. He managed the Club Ebony, organized regional orchestras for touring acts (Sammy Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and others), and devoted a lot of time to nurturing young talent. Major recording R&B, soul, and jazz artists of the day called on him constantly for arrangements, band personnel, and gigs. Cobb restricted his touring to Texas from 1959 to 1973, but proceeded with a recording schedule that had continued from 1957 for the Prestige label. 

He recorded extensively with VeeJay, Prestige, Muse, Black and Blue (France), BeeHive, Progressive, Soul Note, MCA, and the Fantasy labels between 1957 and 1988. Cobb began an international touring schedule in 1973 with his daughter as his personal manager. He toured consistently, in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, with the Lionel Hampton All Stars, as a member of the renowned Texas Tenors, as a featured soloist, and, from 1985 to 1989, with his own ensemble, Texas Jazz and Blues featuring Jewel Brown. 

Cobb received a Grammy nomination in 1979 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Live at Sandy’s, Muse). He shared a Grammy with B. B. King in 1984 for Best Traditional Blues Performance (Blues n’ Jazz, MCA). In 1986 he founded the Jazz Heritage Society of Texas, which established the Texas Jazz Archives at the Houston Public Library. Cobb died in Houston, aged 70, on March 24, 1989.

(Edited from Texas State Historical Association)

 

Willie Henderson born 9 August 1941

Willie Henderson (born August 9, 1941, in Pensacola, Florida) is an American R&B and soul musician and producer whose versatile talents can be heard throughout the Brunswick Records catalog as well as a myriad of sides recorded during the '60s-'70s heydays of Chicago soul. 

Born in Pensacola, Florida, Henderson's family moved to Chicago when he was a child. Taking up the baritone sax, he began backing Otis Rush and others while in his twenties. He also studied with another arranging legend, James Mack. After graduating from Crane Junior College, Henderson began playing around Chicago, backingOtis Rush,  Syl Johnson, Alvin Cash, and Harold Burrage while in his twenties. 

Henderson joined the Chicago branch division of New York-based Brunswick Records in 1968. Working with producer Carl Davis, Henderson arranged, produced, and played on records by the Chi-Lites, Jackie Wilson, Tyrone Davis, The Artistics, Barbara Acklin, and other Brunswick acts. Henderson played on many of these records and also did some production work himself, especially for Tyrone Davis’ "Can I Change My Mind" and another gold single, "Turn Back the Hands of Time"; the following year, Henderson co-wrote Johnny Williams' "I Made a Mistake." Three years later, Williams hit with "Slow Motion (Part 1)," a Top Ten R&B single for Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International Records. 

                                   

Henderson also released several singles, which included "Funky Chicken (Part I)", as Willie Henderson and the Soul Explosions (#22 R&B, #91 pop); the Lowrell Simon-written 1974 instrumental "Dance Master", "Break Your Back" and "Gangster Boogie Bump", on Playboy Records. He also released two albums on Brunswick in 1970 and 1974. 

For the week ending July 13, 1974, funky instrumental "Dance Master Part 1" was at #95, and had been in the Cash Box Top 100 chart for two weeks. It entered the Record World Singles chart at #85 on June 22. "Dance Master" had also moved up from #65 to #53 on the Record World R&B Singles chart. 

In 1974, Henderson left Brunswick to become an independent producer> He produced Barbara Acklin's only charting, post-Brunswick singles and her LP A Place in the Sun. He began working with Essence, a male vocal group, and with songs written by Jim Peterek of Ides of March and later Survivor, Henderson got a deal for the group with Epic Records. The band released eight singles, with one 45 ("Sweet Fools") charting at number 91 R&B in the fall of 1975. Henderson produced funk band Magnum Force's album "Share My Love" with Carl Davis. 

Henderson continued working throughout the '70s, and during the '80s he released singles on his Now Sound label; by 1999, he had formed the Chicago Music Organization (CMO) in downtown Chicago and continued to produce, arrange, and occasionally perform with a band. In 2016 he was in the horn section of the Otis Rush tribute at the 2016 Chicago Blues Festival. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Al King born 8 August 1923

  

Alvin K. Smith (August 8, 1923 – January 21, 1999), who performed and recorded as Al King, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He released singles with regular intervals from 1951 until 1970. 

King was born in Monroe, Louisiana, by 1947 he was in Los Angeles after doing his bit for uncle Sam in WWII. He was swept up in the post war R&B boom and first recorded for DJ John Dolphins label in 1951 after which he recorded as Alvin Smith and Al Smith in 1954 and 1955 on the Music City and Combo labels. From 1957 to 1965 he moved from label to label including Irma (1957), Christ (1958) Gejdenson’s (1961), Phillips VCP, Push & Art-Tone (1962) then Triad (1964). After moving to Los Angeles he recorded for the the Shirley record label and delivered superb West Coast blues illuminated by the guitar of Johnny Heartsman as "Reconsider baby" and "Lingerin' love". 

                                  

He also wrote songs under his real name, Smith, as in "On My Way", the B-side of his first single covering "Reconsider Baby" in 1964. In 1965 after trying to create his own label Flag , he then continued within the Sahara label with "My money ain't long enough", "Everybody ain't your friend", "Playing on me", "Get lost". He had a number 36 US Billboard R&B chart hit in 1966 with "Think Twice Before You Speak". 

After the beautiful productions for the Shirley and Sahara labels, Al King worked for the Bihari brothers and their Kent and Modern labels between 1968 and 1969. His superb voice is well surrounded with excellent sidemen like Arthur Adams, Big Jay Mac Neely and Maxwell Davis (who arranges the sessions). His only Flag single was re-issued on the Sue label in the UK in 1968 and is now sought after by record collectors. 

His last two singles were “I Can’t Understand” and “Nosey Neighbors” for Ronn Records in 1970. Being fed up with the record industry, the man who was regarded as the “Father of the West Coast Blues” vowed never to record again, and for many years played in neighborhood clubs in Oakland, California. But the blues had stayed with Al, as he continued to write and perform and finally released his own album “It’s Rough Out Here” in 1998, consisting of 10 new blues tracks, backed up by a group of young musicians known as the Sugarbees. Sadly King suddenly died in Oakland, California in January 1999 at the age of 75. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Blues Sessions & Ace liner notes)

Florence Passy born 7 August 1931

Florence Passy (August 7, 1931 – May 16, 2007) was a French pop singer . She is known for having sung songs that have inspired, among others, Claude Nougaro  as well as Jean-Claude Pascal. 

Florence Passiflora Cappoccia was born in Russange (Moselle, France).She took piano and opera singing lessons at the Luxembourg Conservatory where she obtained a state diploma. The singer Lina Margy advised her to try her luck in Paris. Florence Passy followed the advice and met Jacques Canetti who invited her to sing in his cabaret. The success was immediate and Florence recorded many songs including, La valse parisienne, Ton adieu, Comme une symphonie, Nous les amoureux (a song also covered by Jean-Claude Pascal). 

                                   

In the early 1950s, she met the trumpeter Pierre Sellin who became her accompanist and her husband. The couple then performed all over the world and hosted many dance evenings, such as in La Baule, Monte-Carlo and Évian-les-Bains. In the sixties, she covered hits of the time on the labels 'PBM', 'Actualité' or 'Disque du jour'. 

In the 1970s, Florence Passy decided to put an end to her career as an artist to take care of her disabled daughter. 

She died in Paris on May 16, 2007. She was 75 years old. 

(Scant information edited from Wikipedia)

Lillian Boutté born 6 August 1949

 Lillian Boutté (August 6, 1949 – May 23, 2025) was a versatile American jazz and gospel singer who was capable of singing both New Orleans Dixieland standards and New Orleans R&B, as well as swing-era tunes and contemporary originals. 

Lillian Theresa Boutte’s career and influence stretched far beyond her hometown New Orleans. She started young, winning a vocal contest when she was 11, then joining the Golden Voices Choir, and went on to study opera performance at the Xavier University of Louisiana,  where she received a bachelor's degree in music therapy, meanwhile she was singing in clubs at the same time. During the 1970’s she worked as a session musician in New Orleans, performing and touring as a backup singer with Allen Toussaint, James Booker, Patti LaBelle, The Pointer Sisters, Neville Brothers, and Dr. John. 

What brought her first to national, and then international, fame was in 1979 playing multiple roles in the second New Orleans cast of the groundbreaking musical One Mo Time. After lengthy seasons in New Orleans, and then New York City, she toured with the production to Sweden and Brazil.  She became good friends with James Booker during her tenure in the cast. She recorded a gospel album with the Olympia Brass Band in 1980, and in 1982, made her first jazz album. After leaving the show in 1983 she assembled a band to tour overseas, and became a star performing in theaters and on television in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.  

In 1984, she married her bands clarinetist and saxophonist Thomas L'Etienne. Their “Music Friends” ensemble toured internationally for many years, working both in Europe and back in the USA. Lillian’s talent was to connect immediately with an audience, whether in a tiny club or a vast concert hall. For more than three decades, she made her home abroad, performing and promoting the spirit of New Orleans music across international stages. Along the way, she helped bring countless fellow musicians with her, offering them opportunities to perform and grow beyond the city’s borders. 

                       Here's " You Send Me" from above album. 

                                   

Her music was rooted in New Orleans, but was not strictly traditional jazz, incorporating New Orleans music from gospel onward. She could belt out a vaudeville number with everyone clapping along, and, next moment, hush the crowd to silence with a ballad or spiritual as highlighted when she sang with pianist Sammy Price’s small group in an intimate studio theatre. In a 1986 interview with WWOZ, she said, "the people we entertain all over the world seem to like music, they don't try to characterize my music, they don't put it only as what some folks say 'Preservation Hall Music.' We play all of the music, we play the blues, we play the traditional jazz, we play many standard ballads, we play a little bit of boogie, we play soul, and a little bit of rock and roll." 

She returned often to New Orleans, and WWOZ broadcast many of her performances from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the French Quarter Festival. In one performance in the French Market she shut down Decatur Street as her audience spilled out of Dutch Alley into the street.  

In 1986 she was named "New Orleans Musical Ambassador" by Mayor Ernest "Dutch" Morial, only the second person to hold that title after the city's first Ambassador, Louis Armstrong. The Price event was at the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where from 1985-89 she was known as the “Queen of Ascona”, playing to some of the festival’s biggest crowds. In 1989, and a year or so later at the Barbican, she performed with US pianist Butch Thompson. 

She was a popular guest vocalist with Humphrey Lyttelton from the late 1980s. Through the years, Lillian Boutte recorded for many labels (mostly in Europe), including Herman, Feel the Jazz, High Society, Turning Point, Timeless, Southland, Storyville, GHB, Calligraph , Blues Beacon, and Dinosaur Entertainment. 

She continued performing until 2017, when she began suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s. Part of the city’s famed Boutte musical lineage, Lillian was the older sister of singer John Boutte and related to many others in the family’s rich musical tradition. As her health declined, relatives brought her back to New Orleans in 2017 to care for her. She had been living in Hamburg, Germany for over 30 years. She died from the disease, on May 23, 2025, at the age of 75. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic, Jazzwise & New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation)