Helen Carter born 19 September 1927

Helen Myrl Carter (Jones) (September 19, 1927 – June 2, 1998) was an American country music singer. The eldest daughter of Maybelle Carter, she performed with her mother and her younger sisters, June Carter and Anita Carter, as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, a pioneering all female country/folk music group. After the death of A.P. Carter in 1960, the group became known as The Carter Family.

The Carter Family (clockwise), A.P. Carter, (Sara and A.P.’s daughter) Janette Carter, Ezra Carter, Sara Dougherty Carter, Maybelle Addington Carter, (Ezra and Maybelle’s children) June, Anita and Helen Carter.

The original Carter Family band, which helped kick-start the country-music record industry in 1927, was begun by A. P. Carter, a railroad worker and farmer from Maces Springs, Va.; his wife, Sara, and Sara's cousin, Maybelle. The band grew with the occasional addition of Maybelle's children, including Helen.

L-R: June, Maybelle, Anita, Helen (sitting).

The family band lasted from 1927 to 1943, and it was of inestimable importance to American music. It disseminated traditional songs, established a widely imitated small-group sound and built a set of templates that country, bluegrass and folk musicians would draw upon -- the mountain hymn, the love ballad, the cowboy tune and so on.

In 1943 Sara quit singing for good, and Maybelle started a new band, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, with her daughters as permanent members. Helen was 12 when she was introduced to the world over the airwaves of XET in Monterrey, Mexico, and in her teen-age years became the most dependable musician of her mother's band, playing accordion, guitar and autoharp.

It was a successful band, featured on ''The Old Dominion Barn Dance,'' a radio show based in Richmond, Va., in 1946; later it moved to the ''Tennessee Barn Dance,'' on Knoxville's WNOX. In 1950 the band joined the Grand Ole Opry on WSM in Nashville, and did some recording as a trio for Columbia records.

In 1950 Helen married Glenn Jones of Baxley, Georgia. After the family's move to the Nashville area, they lived in Madison, Hendersonville and Dickson, Tennessee. They had four sons (Kenneth Burton, Glenn Daniel, David Lawrence, and Kevin Carter Jones) and six grandchildren. They tragically lost their son, Kenny, as the result of an auto accident, at 16 years old. At the time, Kenny had recently been signed as a recording artist for Monument Records.

                              

Helen pursued a solo career apart from the family. She recorded for a number of historically important independent labels such as Tennessee, Republic, Starday and Hickory. She had releases on major labels such as Columbia and Okeh as well. She recorded 
duets with such acts as The Willis Brothers, Johnny Bond, famed Grand Olde Opry announcer Grant Turner, and Wiley Barkdull. In the 1960s, Helen teamed with Dolores "Tootsie" Dinning (of the 
Dinning Sisters) to form a short-lived group called the Blondettes that recorded for MGM. While many of Carter's solo recordings were favourites with loyal fans and always welcomed by concert goers, they did not have a great deal of commercial success. One likely reason for Helen's limited success as a solo artist may have been competition for radio air play with other members of her famous clan.

Throughout the recording career of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, much of the time, all four group members had individual recording contracts as well. Though each had her own style, it is of note that all members of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle group often sang and played on one another's solo recordings.Therefore, it was not unusual for the members' solo recordings to sound a lot like the group recordings.

Another possible reason for Helen Carter's limited success with her solo recordings may simply have been that she was ahead of her time in terms of what the conservative country music establishment was willing to accept. The 1950s was an era in which barriers were being broken by the likes of Kitty Wells. Yet, some of Helen's self-penned lyrics may have been deemed a bit risqué.

Helen Carter was a songwriter as well, writing ''Poor Old Heartsick Me,'' a hit for the singer Margie Bowes in 1959. In the 1960's and 70's, she often appeared on radio and television not as a member of a working group but simply as a member of the famous clan. For example, she appeared on television with her sister June and Mr. Cash. Helen had a professional career in music that spanned 60 years and recorded for such labels as Liberty, Columbia, MGM and RCA Victor.

She died on June 2, 1998 at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tenn. She was 70 and lived in Dickson, Tenn. She had been hospitalized for gastrointestinal problems that began over a year ago.

(Edited from Wikipedia &New York Times)

Gabriella Ferri born 18 September 1942

Gabriella Ferri (18 September 1942 – 3 April 2004) was an Italian pop-folk singer and actor. Her career was one of the richest and most varied of Italian music, although many remember only the great interpreter of dialect songs.

Gabriella was born Maria Gabriella Ferri in the Roman quarter

Testaccio. Her father, Vittorio, was a merchant for sweets and a lover of traditional Roman folk songs. One day Gabriella met Luisa De Santis and the two girls became close friends. They both enjoyed singing and formed a duo Luisa & Gabriella, singers of Roman folk songs.

In 1963 during a performance in the Intra’s Derby Club in Milan, they were noted by Walter Guertler, who gave them a recoding deal and helped them release their first single “Joly.” After a tv appearance in Mike Boingiomo’s Show, the single sold over 500.000 copies. It was followed by other singles with minor success. After which the duo decided to quit.

Gabriella continued her career as a solo artist and released her first album in 1966. She toured through Canada with other folk artists. In 1968 she was signed by ABC and released an unsuccessful single. However the b side “Ti regalo gli occhi miei” which was also recorded in Spanish  as “Le regalo mis ojos,”, sold over one million copies in South America. During her career, she also performed Neapolitan and Latin American pieces.

In 1969 she signed with RCA Italy and participated in the San Remo festival together with Stevie Wonder. She sang “Se Tu ragazzo mio.” But the song was eliminated in the first round. She never sang in the festival again. However the song became a reasonable commercial success and was followed by the album “Gabriella Ferri.” With this record she innovated traditional Italian folk music into a modern style. One of her biggest hits was "Sempre" ("Always").

                              

During the 1970s, she not only performed as a singer but also starred in several popular TV shows. In 1981 she released the album “Gabriella” containing mostly of songs written by Paolo Conte after which she moved to America, but by 1987 she returned to Italy where she appeared in more TV shows.

In the second half of the 1990’s she had her last relevant appearances: first the Tenco Prize, in Sanremo, then a concert in front of thousands of people in Rome, at Villa Celimontana. In 1997 she released a personal album “Ritomo al futuro” but by this time she was suffering from severe depression and disappeared from the public eye. However the album “Canti DiVersi” released in 2000 was considered her spiritual legacy as it contained a collection of classic songs with influence from jazz, tango and calypso.

She died in Corchiano, province of Viterbo, after falling from a third-floor balcony in an apparent suicide. Family members dispute this, saying she may have fallen ill after taking anti-depression medication and lost her balance.

(Edited from Wikipedia and Europopmusic)

Jack McDuff born 17 September 1926

Eugene McDuff (September 17, 1926 – January 23, 2001), known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was a marvelous bandleader and organist as well as capable arranger, having one of the funkiest, most soulful styles of all time on the Hammond B-3. His rock-solid basslines and blues-

drenched solos are balanced by clever, almost pianistic melodies and interesting progressions and phrases.

He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break. He appeared on more than 60 albums during his career.

Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, Illinois, McDuff began playing bass, appearing in Joe Farrell's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 1950s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige while still with 

Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson on guitar, Red Holloway on tenor saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums.

McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige, including his debut solo Brother Jack in 1960; The Honeydripper (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and guitarist Grant Green; Brother Jack Meets The Boss (1962), featuring Gene Ammons; Screamin’ (1962), with alto saxophonist Leo Wright and guitarist Kenny Burrell; and Brother Jack McDuff Live! (1963), featuring Holloway and Benson, which includes his biggest hit, "Rock Candy".

                             

After his tenure at Prestige, McDuff joined the Atlantic label for a brief period, and in the 1970s he recorded for Blue Note. To Seek a New Home (1970) was recorded in England with a line-up featuring blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and some of Britain's top jazz musicians of the day, including Terry Smith on guitar and Dick Morrissey on tenor saxophone.

Decreasing interest in jazz and blues during the late 1970s and 1980s meant that many jazz musicians went through a lean time. But in 1988, with The Re-Entry, recorded for the Muse label, McDuff once again began a successful period of recordings, initially for Muse, then on the Concord Jazz label in 1991. George Benson appeared on his 1992 Colour Me Blue album.

McDuff spent most of his career in Chicago and New York City and also travelled internationally. He met his wife, Kathy McDuff, while playing at the Artists' Quarter in Minneapolis and moved to Minnesota in 1990. He continued to play at Artists' Quarter, now located in St. Paul, as well as the Dakota Bar & Grill in St. Paul.

Despite health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and he toured Japan with Atsuko Hashimoto in 2000. "Captain" Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while convalescing from a series of small strokes he had suffered during previous months. He was 74.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Jack McDuff among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

(Edited mainly from Wikipedia)

Brother Jack McDuff - organ; Red Holloway - tenor sax; George Benson - guitar; Joe Dukes - drums. Festival gig in France.

Al Casey born 15 September 1915

Albert Aloysius Casey (September 15, 1915 – September 11, 2005) known professionally as Al Casey, was a jazz guitarist who was a member of Fats Waller's band during the 1930s and early 1940s. During his career, Casey worked with Louis Armstrong, Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Billy Kyle, Frankie Newton, Clarence Profit, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson.

Al Casey towers alongside the finest acoustic guitarists of the

swing era, boasting a subtly powerful presence that flourished in intimate musical contexts. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Casey was a child prodigy who first adopted the violin, briefly moving to the ukulele before zeroing in on the guitar, which he studied at New York City's DeWitt Clinton High School. He joined Fats Waller while in his mid-teens, recommended to the legendary pianist by his uncles, who met Waller while on tour with their gospel group the Southern Singers.

Waller insisted Casey remain in school and earn his diploma before he could join the group full-time, but the guitarist was a fixture of recording sessions from the early '30s onward, and even joined Waller on tour during extended holiday breaks. Casey remained with the group until Waller's 1943 death, appearing on more than 200 classic swing sides; the famous blues number "Buck Jumpin'" took shape after Casey appeared late to a gig, prompting Waller to single him out on-stage and invite him to play a solo. The result was so electrifying that it was later captured in the studio.

                              

           Live recording, WNEW broadcast, NYC, May 31, 1947.

Casey also recorded with trumpeter Louis Armstrong, singer Billie Holiday, vibist Lionel Hampton, and pianist Teddy Wilson, even joining the latter's short-lived big band in 1939. After Waller's passing, he played with pianist Clarence Profit's trio before assembling his own trio, which headlined New York's Onyx Club for close to a year before moving to the Down Beat. Around this time Casey moved to the electric guitar, and in both 1944 and 1945 he was named the instrument's top player in Esquire magazine's annual jazz poll; he spent much of the decade to follow as a gun-for-hire, capped off by a four-year collaboration with R&B saxophonist King Curtis initiated in 1957.

Casey briefly retired from music in 1961, working in a Xerox copy shop before returning to performing, recording sessions in support of singer Helen Humes and pianist Jay McShann. After another extended period of retirement, he resurfaced in 1981 with the Harlem Jazz and Blues Band, which toured the world with success until the middle Nineties. A small band drawn from the group and led by Casey was resident at the Louisianan Community Bar and Grill from 1992 to 1997. He also cut his first headlining date, signing to the Jazzpoint label for A Tribute to "Fats" in 1994.

After a long battle with colon cancer, Casey died at the Dewitt Rehabilitation Centre, Manhattan on September 11, 2005, just days short of his 90th birthday. He had been hospitalized for about a year.

(Edited mainly from All Music)  (*There is some debate over Casey’s date of birth as a census record indicates he could have been born some time in 1917.) Also not to be confused with Al Casey, the session guitarist, rockabilly artist,& Duane Eddy collaborator.

Ray Charles born 13 September 1918

Ray Charles (born Charles Raymond Offenberg; September 13, 1918 – April 6, 2015) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who was best known as organizer and leader of the Ray Charles Singers. Over seven decades, Charles worked in radio, TV, movies, records and personal appearances with a stellar lineup including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, Jackie Gleason, Gene Kelly, John Denver, Dick Van Dyke, Andy Williams, the Carpenters and the Muppets.

A native of Chicago, he was the grandson of a cantor, studied piano from age 11 and was singing professionally on radio while he was still in high school. Largely self-taught as an arranger, he began writing arrangements for a vocal quartet in 1937 while continuing to perform all kinds of music (from operetta to popular) on Chicago radio stations.

Charles moved in 1942 to New York, where he discovered that his talents were very much in demand. Within days of his arrival he was performing in NBC's legendary Studio 8H, and within weeks he was singing solos and as part of choral groups on some of radio's most celebrated shows: The March of Time, The Kate Smith Hour and The Westinghouse Program.

By the time Charles joined the Navy in 1944, he was performing and/or arranging for 10 live radio shows a week. And upon his return to civilian life in 1946, he remained one of radio's most widely sought-after arrangers, also including stints as a commercial jingle composer and performer. He wrote musical signatures for Chesterfield and 7-Up, and that's his voice on the original "mmm, mmm, good" jingle for Campbell Soups.

Broadway beckoned in 1947. Charles, who had supervised choral work in the musical Finian's Rainbow, conducted the show for nine weeks and also conducted the original cast album on Columbia Records. Other labels, including RCA Victor and Decca, hired Charles to write vocal arrangements and layouts for many of their artists. It was in the late 1940s that Charles began his long association with singer Perry Como, on NBC's Chesterfield Supper Club radio show, which aired three times a week.

When Como moved to CBS television in the fall of 1950, The Ray Charles Singers were an integral part of the ensemble. Como's show ran three times a week through 1955, then became an hour-long variety show that ran on NBC through 1963. The team, including Charles and music director Nick Perito, remained intact when Como's show went to a once-a-month airing for the next four years, and on occasional specials thereafter. It was Charles who penned the upbeat "Letters, We Get Letters" that became a Como tradition.

Coinciding with Charles' work with Como in the early 1950s was a seven-year stint as choral director on NBC's TV version of the long-running radio show Your Hit Parade. His final radio work was as choral director and vocal arranger on NBC's big-budget, Tallulah Bankhead-hosted The Big Show in 1950-51.

                            

It was Como who christened Charles' choral group The Ray Charles Singers. They went on to record some 30 albums, hitting number 3 on the Billboard charts in 1964 with "Love Me With All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol)" and scoring such other top-40 hits as "Al-Di-La" and "One More Time" in the mid-'60s.

During the 1960s and '70s, the heyday of television variety series and specials, Charles was everywhere. His two Emmy wins, for Music, Lyrics and Special Material, were for The First Nine Months Are the Hardest, which aired on NBC in January 1971, and the NBC sketch-comedy series The Funny Side, from the fall of 1971. He received eight other Emmy nominations, for writing special vocal material, music and lyrics, music direction and arrangements. During the late 1970s, Charles worked on The Muppet Show, creating special material, writing arrangements and producing the vocals for Jim Henson's beloved characters during its last two seasons of production in London.

For the big screen, Charles oversaw choral work on the Barbra Streisand film Funny Lady (1975) and the '40s period drama Racing With the Moon (1984). 

He and his son Jon served as co-musical directors on the syndicated series Sha Na Na (1977-80), on which his daughter Wendy was assistant director.

Charles received the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers' Irwin Kostal Award in 2004 and ASCAP Foundation's Life in Music Award in 2013. His wife Bernice died in 2002 and his daughter Wendy in 2004.

For thirty-two years, 1982 through 2014, Charles was the musical consultant of the Kennedy Centre Honours and for 14 years performed the same function for the "Fourth of July" and "Memorial Day" concerts on PBS.

Charles died of cancer at the age of 96 on April 6, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California. He donated a collection of his personal papers, including his scripts and musical arrangements for the Kennedy Centre Honours galas, to the Great American Songbook Foundation shortly before his death.

(edited from Wikipedia & Variety)

Here's a clip of the Ray Charles Singers and Mitchell Ayers and his Orchestra saluting Harry James' great instrumentals (1960)

Judy Clay born 12 September 1938

Judy Clay (September 12, 1938 – July 19, 2001) was an American soul and gospel singer, who achieved greatest success as a member of two recording duos in the 1960s.

Judy was born Judith Grace Guions in St Paul, North Carolina, and soon moved to Fayetteville, where she was raised by her grandmother. She started singing in church as a small child. Moving to Brookyn in the early 1950s, she continued her church singing, indeed her choir featured on Sunday night radio.

By her early teens, she had been adopted by Lee Drinkard, of the famous gospel group, the Drinkard Singers. Lee was Cissy Houston's sister and Dionne Warwick's mother - and Judy was soon involved in the group with them, as well as with Dionne's sister Delia, Dee Dee Warwick.

The Drinkard Singers  (who later became better known as The Sweet Inspirations)- released three albums in the 1950s which featured Judy - the Newport Spiritual Stars record in 1954, a live album from the Newport jazz festival and a 1958 studio LP. Judy's voice could raise the roof and stir the soul.

She left the Drinkard Singers in 1960 and made her first solo recording, "More Than You Know", on Ember Records. "Do You Think That's Right" appeared the following year, and while both captured soul music at its most visceral and poignant, neither record caught on at radio or retail, a pattern Clay proved unable to shake for the majority of her career. In 1963, she signed to the Lavette label, teaming with Little Lee for the duet "Everyday Since You've Been Gone," the first of many such collaborations spread across her discography.

This was followed by further singles on Scepter and Stax but with little commercial success, although "You Busted My Mind" later became successful on the UK's Northern soul nightclub circuit.

                                

In 1967, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records teamed her up with white singer-songwriter Billy Vera to make the United States' first racially integrated duo, and The Sweet Inspirations, to record "Storybook Children”. The record made #20 on the US R&B chart and #54 pop. It was seen as the first interracial duo recording for a major label.

However, Vera has stated that television executives denied them appearances together, believing (wrongly) that Vera and Clay were more than just singing partners, and, to add insult to injury, had the song performed on network TV by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. Judy was pregnant, at the time, with her first child by her husband, jazz drummer Leo Gatewood.

After another hit duet with Vera, "Country Girl, City Man", which reached #41 R&B and #36 pop, and an album together, she returned to Stax Records. There she had further successes, this time with William Bell. Their recording of "Private Number" reached #17 in the R&B chart and #75 on the U.S. pop chart, and had greater 

success in the UK where it reached #8 on the UK Singles Chart.

A follow-up, "My Baby Specializes", also made the R&B chart, before she returned to Atlantic for one more record with Vera, "Reaching For The Moon" and a final solo hit "Greatest Love" (# 45 R&B in 1970).

Subsequently, she worked as a backing vocalist with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Donny Hathaway and Wilson Pickett. Whenever the Sweet Inspirations needed a temporary replacement Judy was on hand and she also toured South Africa and Liberia with Ray Charles and his Orchestra. She made a fleeting return to the record world in 1979 with "Stayin' Alive", cut live for the small Newark, New Jersey-based LA-DCP label. Ill health then set in.

Judy Clay, Dionne Warwick & Mabel John

Stricken with a brain tumour she returned to gospel music. Shorty after her recovery she vowed never to sing secular music again and sang occasionally with Cissy Houston's gospel choir in Newark, New Jersey. Clay became a licensed evangelist in 1990.

Judy relocated to her hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she spent the rest of her days as Mrs. Judith Gatewood, witnessing her two sons graduate from college and exercising her deep and commanding singing voice only in the choir of her local church.

She died July 19, 2001 in Fayetteville, NC following complications from an auto accident. She was 62 years old. She was survived by two sons, Todd and Leo Gatewood, a brother, Raymond Guions, and her sister, Mrs. Sylvia Shemwell. (Edited from Wikipedia, Guardian, Spectropop & All Music)

Nelly Omar born 10 September 1911

Nelly Omar (10 September 1911 – 20 December 2013), was an Argentine actress and singer during the Golden Age of Argentine Cinema. She was successful as a tango singer, performing on numerous radio shows and performed canción criolla. She was blacklisted after the ouster of Juan Perón for having sung his anthem and did not work again until the 1970s. From her comeback in 1972, she remained an active performer until her death.

Omar was born Nilda Elvira Vattuone in Bonifacio a small town in the Guaminí subdivision of, Buenos Aires on 10 September 1911.She was the sister of tango singer Nélida, who took the scene name of Nilda Omar, in an interchange of their names. Her father died while she was quite young and the family moved to Buenos Aires, for better work prospects. Nelly began working in a textile factory at age 12. From the age of 13, she dreamed of becoming a pilot and went to flight school. It was there that she met Eva Duarte, who also had aspirations of becoming an aviator.

In 1924, Omar began singing tango professionally. Ignacio Corsini gave her a big break into singing when he heard her and hired her for his radio shows. She sang with the ensemble Cenizas del fogón under the direction of José Luis Suilas.

Between 1932 and 1933, Radio Stentor broadcast duets of Omar and her sister. When she was hired by Radio Belgrano she worked with some of the most famous tango poets, Enrique Cadícamo and Homero Manzi, as well as some of the most famous singers then working, Libertad Lamarque and Agustín Magaldi. Homero Manzi wrote at least three tangos for Omar: Solamente ella, Ninguna and Sur. She had a clear voice with firm phrasing and reached the height of her fame in the 1940s and 1950s.. She also performed in the canción criolla genre, which had been all but forgotten.

                              

In 1946, Omar recorded her first album, accompanied by Francisco Canaro’s orchestra, on the Odeón label. In 1951 she was signed by RCA Victor, and recorded a 78 rpm album with Domingo Farafiotti’s orchestra. In 1955, she travelled to Montevideo, Uruguay and appeared in a stage production and then 

moved to Venezuela for a year, before returning to Argentina. She retired from singing upon her return until her comeback in 1972.

In 1945, Omar sang an anthem, a milonga, Soy La Descamisada, which was created for the political campaign of Juan Perón. She wholeheartedly supported Perón and when he was ousted in 1955, she was blacklisted from the entertainment industry for 17 years. She made only three films prior to 1955, including Canto de amor (1940), directed by Julio Irigoyen, which also starred the singer Carlos Viván. It is believed that all copies of the film were destroyed; however, the Argentine film archives has photographs taken during filming.

Her film career began in 1940. In 1942, she filmed Melodías de América with Eduardo Morera. Though she is not listed in the cast roster, she is documented in a cast photo of the film. In 1951, she dubbed the singing voice of Mecha Ortiz in the film Mi vida por la tuya. She would not make another film for 57 years, but in 2008, she worked on a documentary about tango entitled Café de los maestros under the direction of Miguel Kohan.

In 1972, she staged a singing comeback accompanied by guitarist José Canet, who convinced her to come out of retirement. They did a series of concerts and she began releasing records, appearing regularly on stage. She also wrote two books. In 1986, she was declared Honorary Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires and received the award for Great Performer from the Society of Authors and Composers.

In 2011, Nelly appeared in public for the last time in a sold-out and overcrowded Luna Park Stadium (a typical mega-concert stadium in Buenos Aires).

She died of cardiac arrest on 20 December 2013, aged 102, in her native Buenos Aires. Nelly’s death not only implied a last reference to the Golden Age of Argentine Tango but also for one of the last folklore and popular culture standard-bearers.

(Edited from Wikipedia)