Beverly "Guitar" Watkins born 6 April 1939

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins (April 6, 1939 – October 1, 2019) was an American blues guitarist. She performed in relative obscurity for many years, but she made up for lost time after recording her first solo album at the age of 60. Sandra Pointer-Jones wrote, "Beverly Watkins is a pyrotechnic guitar maven whose searing, ballistic attacks on the guitar have become allegorical tales within the blues community."  

Watkins was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1939.When she was 3 months old, her mother died and she went to live with her maternal grandparents, Luke and Phyllis Terrell, sharecroppers in Commerce, Ga., about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta. She was surrounded by music: Mr. Terrell played banjo and harmonica, and her aunts were performers.  Her earliest influences included Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Memphis Minnie, and she was exposed to the music because of her grandmother, who would play their recordings on the family Gramophone. 

She began playing guitar as an eight-year-old, learning by listening to the records that were played for her. Later, she was exposed to the records of touring bands, including Louis Jordan's and Count Basie's. She began to model her playing after Charlie Byrd and Basie's rhythm guitarist, Freddie Green. Throughout high school, she participated in a variety of talent shows and played trumpet in the school band. Her high school band master helped broaden her knowledge of jazz and blues guitar, and piano. She played bass for a band called Billy West Stone and the Down Beats. 

Around the year 1959, she was introduced to Piano Red, who had a daily radio show on WAOK, and she subsequently joined Piano Red and the Meter-tones, who played in a number of towns in the Atlanta area, and then Atlanta clubs such as the Magnolia Ballroom and the Casino, before starting to tour throughout the southeast, primarily at colleges. 

About the time the group renamed itself Piano Red and the Houserockers, they started touring nationally. The group had two successful singles: "Dr. Feelgood" and "Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo". After recording "Dr. Feelgood" the group was known variously as Piano Red & The Interns, Dr. Feelgood & The Interns, and Dr. Feelgood, The Interns, and The Nurse. The group also included Roy Lee Johnson (composer of "Mr. Moonlight", later recorded by The Beatles), and Albert White. 

After the breakup of the band in about 1965, Watkins played with Eddie Tigner and the Ink Spots, Joseph Smith and the Fendales, and then with Leroy Redding and the Houserockers until the late 1980s.. She played guitars that she named Red Mama, Sugar Baby and the like as if she were on a mission, even when the gigs paid little. In the 1980s, while performing at nights and on weekends, she cleaned houses and offices and worked at carwashes. Late in the decade, she began playing in the retail and entertainment district Underground Atlanta. Sometimes she worked with other musicians, sometimes accompanied by a drum machine. She made as little as $30 a day, as much as $600 on Christmas Eve. 

                             

Watkins had a long and continuous musical career, and worked with artists including James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. However, like many roots musicians, she found it difficult to crack the airwaves, and achieved recognition much later in her career, after the advent of the internet made it possible for musicians not backed by major labels to be heard by a wider audience. 

She was re-discovered by Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Tim Duffy, who started booking her in package shows, and in 1998, with Koko Taylor and Rory Block, was part of the all-star Women of the Blues "Hot Mamas" tour. Her 1999 CD debut, Back in Business, earned a W. C. Handy Award nomination in 2000. 

Watkins was playing internationally (for example, the Main Stage at the Ottawa Blues Fest in 2004) as well as in her hometown Atlanta until temporarily sidelined by surgery in 2005, but recovered. She performed a set at the 2008 Cognac Blues Festival. 

Watkins’s latter career was hindered by health issues including cancer, a heart attack and a brain aneurysm, but she never stopped performing. Indeed most of the footage of Watkins that you’ll find online shows her in her 70s, still rocking hard, still inciting audience sing-along’s. 

Right up until her stroke in 2019, which preceded the heart attack that killed her at the age of 80, she continued to play in clubs and nursing homes across Atlanta, and, on the first Sunday of each month, at the church in Commerce, Georgia, where she was raised. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, The New York Times & loudersound.com)

Jack Clement born 5 April 1931

Jack Henderson Clement (April 5, 1931 – August 8, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter, and record and film producer. 

Raised and educated in Memphis, Clement was performing at an early age, playing guitar and Dobro. Before embarking on a career in music, he served in the United States Marines. In 1953, he made his first record for Sheraton Records in Boston, Massachusetts, but he did not immediately pursue a full-time career in music, instead choosing to study at Memphis State University from 1953 to 1955. Nicknamed "Cowboy" Jack Clement, during his student days, he played steel guitar with a local band. 

In 1956, Clement was part of one of the seminal events in rock-and-roll history when he was hired as a producer and engineer for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Subsequently, Clement worked with future stars such as Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Most notably, he discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Phillips was away on a trip to Florida. One of those recordings, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. 

Clement in the Sun studio 1958

In 1957, Clement wrote the song "Ballad of a Teenage Queen", which became a crossover hit for Johnny Cash. Other Cash hits written by Clement include "Guess Things Happen That Way", which was No. 1 on the country chart and No. 11 on the pop chart in 1958, and the comedic "The One on the Right Is on the Left", which was a No. 2 country and No. 46 pop hit in 1966. Clement also produced (and came up with the horn intro) Cash's No. 1 hit, "Ring of Fire," in 1963. Clement performed "Guess Things Happen That Way" on the "Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute" on CMT (Country Music Television) in November 2003. 

                             

In 1958, Clement released the single "Ten Years", which was covered by Johnny Western (1959), Rex Allen (1962) and Roger Mews.  In 1959, Clement accepted an offer to work as a producer at RCA Victor in Nashville, then the most important label in the record industry. In 1961, he moved to Beaumont, Texas, joining the producer and publisher Bill Hall in opening the Gulf Coast Recording Studio and the Hall-Clement publishing company. 

He returned to Nashville permanently in 1965, becoming a significant figure in the country music business, establishing a publishing business, and founding a recording studio, making records for stars such as Charley Pride and Ray Stevens. In 1971, he co-founded JMI Records, which can be credited with launching the career of Don Williams. Bill Hall took control of Hall-Clement in 1973 and sold it to the Welk Music Group in 1975. 

Clement was involved in a few film projects as a singer or songwriter of soundtracks. He produced the 1975 horror film Dear Dead Delilah, the last film performance by the actress Agnes Moorehead. Clement wrote a number of highly successful songs that have been recorded by singing stars such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Richard ("It'll Be Me"), Charley Pride, Tom Jones, Dickey Lee and Hank Snow. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973. He also produced albums by Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings. 

In 1987, Clement was approached by U2 to record at Sun Studio in Memphis. Clement was then oblivious to U2's catalogue, but nonetheless agreed to arrange the session upon the urging of someone in his office. The result was a portion of the U2 album Rattle and Hum ("When Love Comes to Town", with BB King; "Angel of Harlem", a tribute to Billie Holiday; and "Love Rescue Me", with backing vocals by Bob Dylan), as well as the Woody Guthrie song "Jesus Christ", which was included on the 1988 album Folkways: A Vision Shared—A Tribute to Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly. Portions of the two sessions also appear in the film Rattle and Hum. 

In 2005, a documentary about Clement, Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan, was created by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville which were pieced together from Clement's home videos and interviews with peers, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Bono. Clement hosted a weekly program on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.  He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the Music City Walk of Fame. 

On June 25, 2011, a fire destroyed his home and studio on Belmont Boulevard in Nashville. Clement was unhurt, but many priceless recordings and memorabilia were lost. 

On April 10, 2013, it was announced Clement would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Clement died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 8, 2013. He had suffered from liver cancer.  (Edited from Wikipedia) 

Marion Harris born 4 April 1896

Marion Harris (April 4, 1896? – April 23, 1944) became famous as a white vaudeville singer and recording artist who was influenced by contemporary black jazz which helped to usher in the Jazz Age across America. For several decades beginning around 1915 and continuing well into the 1920s she was a seminal force in American popular music with over 130 recordings to her credit. 

Her birth year and place are unknown, variously reported as Kentucky or Indiana, and that her family name was Harrison and her name may have been Mary Ellen. Also mysterious is a report that she ran away from a convent at age 14 to pursue a singing career as an Illustrated Singer. This was a vogue ca. 1900 to have singers in early vaudeville perform a story song to the visual accompaniment of colour lantern slides which could be purchased from various mail-order companies around the country. The slides were changed as the performer sang different parts of the story song. 

She was seen and recommended by the noted society dancer Vernon Castle, who together with his wife Irene, was among the great elegant dancers of their era and who were among the first to innovate traditional coupled ballroom dancing with new and unusual footwork such as the Castle Walk. Vernon died in an airplane crash while instructing new recruits during World War I. He recommended Marion to record producers at Victor. 

She began to appear at this time, 1915, in the Charles Dillingham and Irving Berlin produced show Stop, Look and Listen, along with French star Gaby Deslys. She was also a regular visitor to Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic where her powerful voice à la Blossom Seeley, a huge star of the time, thrilled listeners. 

Her popular songs for Victor Records 1916 through 1919 made her a national star and a foremost singer of the new jazz idiom, heavily influenced by black music and black composers, especially Henry Creamer and J. Turner Layton. During the teens and twenties they produced hit after hit for black and white artists. They gave her one of her biggest hits, After You’ve Gone, which had been introduced by Sophie Tucker. Another very sad black tune, although the composers of it are still disputed, was introduced by black comedian Bert Williams and became an enormous hit for Marion. Her recording in 1919 of A Good Man is Hard to Find, was essentially hard black jazz and was later a mainstay song for Bessie Smith ca. 1927. 

               

There were battles over what Victor wanted her to record and in 1920 she joined many other celebrities at Columbia Records, among them Al Jolson and Bert Williams. With Columbia Harris’ work got more blues-infiltrated and more black-influenced. 

She was often mistaken for a black blues singer by those who only heard her records and never saw her in a show. And she had a great number of hits, some having become jazz and pop standards such as There'll Be Some Changes Made. W.C. Handy wrote, "She sang blues so well that people hearing her records sometimes thought that the singer was coloured." Harris commented, "You usually do best what comes naturally, so I just naturally started singing Southern dialect songs and the modern blues songs." 

In 1921 she married an actor, Robert Williams, but it was a stormy union that was over within a year. There was a little girl from the union, who later sang and billed herself as Marion Harris Jr. By the mid twenties after recording with Brunswick for a time she married the nephew of millionaire Howard Hughes and took a hiatus from performing to have, it is believed, two more children…and a second divorce. 

In 1927 she returned in a highly successful show called A Night in Spain. The show ran for an outstanding 174 performances. She went back to recording now, with a style more pop than black, and she became a major influence on the next generation which sounded more and more like her: Ruth Etting and Annette Hanshaw. 

After embarking on a film career singing in the 1929 early talkie and musical film Devil May Care with former silent film idol Ramon Novarro, she became seriously ill and briefly retired but then returned as a popular radio vocalist on major shows of the early 1930s. She became a notable star in England too and did extensive touring and recording there to great acclaim, marrying English theatrical agent Leonard Urry. 

After their home was destroyed in a German rocket attack, she became terrified and unsettled throughout World War II, eventually coming back to America for treatment of a neurological disorder. Medically discharged, although still unstable, she stayed at the Hotel Le Marquis, 12 East Thirty-First Street in New York, where on April 23, 1944 she fell asleep with a lit cigarette while sleeping in a hotel bed and was burned to death. She had just turned 48. 

Marion Harris is yet another unsung, forgotten star of the stage and popular songstress of the 1920’s. Listeners to her recordings today will find her voice and phrasing unparalleled by other stars of the era.

(Edited mainly from an article by David Soren @ The American Vaudeville Museum & UA collection)

Jimmy Nolen born 3 April 1934

Jimmy Nolen (April 3, 1934 – December 18, 1983) was an American guitarist, known for his distinctive "chicken scratch" lead guitar playing in James Brown's bands. In its survey of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," the English magazine Mojo ranks Nolen number twelve. 

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, Nolen took up the guitar at the age of 14, teaching himself on a Harmony Acoustic guitar. Having played the violin since the age of nine, Nolen already had a sound musical foundation upon which to base his T-Bone Walker-inspired guitar playing. Nolen was "discovered" in a club in Tulsa, Oklahoma by Jimmy Wilson, a blues singer famous for his 1953 hit "Tin Pan Alley. 

Soon afterward, Wilson offered Nolen a job in his band. He took Nolen back to Los Angeles, California, to play in a studio band with popular southern California players Monte Easter (trumpet) and Chuck Higgins (tenor saxophone). During this period Nolen recorded his own commercially unsuccessful singles, mostly for King Records' Federal subsidiary, on which he both sang and played period-inspired blues songs. These sides leave no doubt that he was an passable singer and better than average songwriter, but it was as a guitarist that he really stood out as a truly original stylist. 

                    

In 1957, Nolen began to play for Johnny Otis, replacing the ailing Pete "Guitar" Lewis. He was the principal behind Otis' hit "Willie and the Hand Jive." He remained in Otis’ band until 1959 when he struck out on his own, recording for the Specialty subsidiary Fidelity that year, the result being an extremely rare two part instrumental– Swinging Peter Gun Part One b/w Part Two. 

He formed his own group, The Jimmy Nolen Band who performed in small clubs and ballrooms in California and Arizona's "Chitlin' Circuit", backing many of the blues musicians that passed through California. The principal influences that inspired his guitar technique were, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King and Lowell Fulson. The Jimmy Nolen band was popular but never released any records since their primary purpose was to work as live backup for more famous acts. In the early 1960s Nolen began playing with the backing band for harmonica player George "Harmonica" Smith and was struggling for a break. 

In 1965, Nolen joined the James Brown band at the recommendation of Les Buie, Brown's guitar player at that time. Buie had grown tired of the road and recommended Nolen as a replacement when the band was in Los Angeles. Like saxophone player Maceo Parker, trombonist Fred Wesley and drummers Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks, Nolen was a staple in James Brown's band. 

Nolen developed a style of picking known as "chicken scratch," in which the guitar strings are pressed lightly against the fingerboard and then quickly released just enough to get a muted “scratching” sound that is produced by rapid rhythmic strumming of the opposite hand near the bridge. This new guitar style was affected not only by Nolen's choice of two and three note chord voicings of augmented 7th and 9th chords, but also by his strumming straight 16th note patterns, as in James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." It was a style which he’d play for the rest of his life.  It was from this latter style he got his nickname “Chank”, which was the sound he made hitting that chord. Nolen's choices of guitars and amplifiers also affected the sound for which he would be nicknamed. 

During this time Nolen began to tour with Maceo Parker's group Maceo & All the King's Men. James replied to the mass resignation of his musicians by hiring a then-juvenile band called the Pacemakers from Cincinnati, Ohio. This band was composed of the young Bootsy Collins on bass, his brother Catfish Collins on guitar, Robert McCullough on saxophone, Clayton Gunnels on trumpet, and Frank Waddy on drums. 

The new band was named The J.B.'s and marked a new era for James Brown. Months after this new band was formed Starks and Stubblefield returned. Despite this band's undeniable talent for playing breakneck funk, it was relatively short-lived as a group, as the Collins brothers soon left to join George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic organization. In 1972, Nolen returned to play with The J.B.'s. Nolen remained with Brown until December 18, 1983, when he died of a heart attack while the band was in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Despite the fact that Nolen defined the guitar style which influenced decades of guitarists and funk groups to follow, including Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Chic, George Clinton, and more, his influence on other forms of contemporary popular music such as hip hop is often overlooked. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & legends of Soul Guitar) 

Here's a video of Jimmy Nolen with James Brown live at the Beat Club 1981.

Marvin Gaye born 2 April 1939

Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul". 

Singer Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C. Gaye was raised under the strict control of his father, Reverend Marvin Gay Sr.—Marvin Gaye Jr. added the "e" on the end of his name later in life—the minister at a local church, against a bleak backdrop of widespread violence in his neighborhood.  Throughout his childhood, Gaye often found peace in music, mastering the piano and drums at a young age. Until high school, his singing experience was limited to church revivals, but soon he developed a love for R&B and doo-wop that would set the foundation for his career. In the late 1950s, Gaye joined a vocal group called The New Moonglows. 

The talented singer had a phenomenal range that spanned three vocal styles and he soon impressed the group's founder, Harvey Fuqua. It wasn't long before Gaye and Fuqua both came to the attention of Detroit music impresario Berry Gordy Jr. and were signed to Gordy's legendary Motown Records. Gaye's first certified hit under his own name wouldn't come until 1962, but his early years at Motown were full of behind-the-scenes successes. He was a session drummer for Motown legends such as Little Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Marvelettes and Martha and the Vandellas. Showing his stripes as Motown's renaissance man, Gaye went on to break into the Top 40 for the first time on his own in 1962 with his solo single "Hitch Hike." 

                              

Throughout the 1960s, Gaye would show his immense range, churning out solo dance hits and romantic duets with hit-makers like Diana Ross and Mary Wells. "Can I Get a Witness" and "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" were some of Gaye's biggest hits of the period, the latter achieving its place as Motown's best-selling single of the 1960s. 

For three high-flying years, Gaye and Tammi Terrell wowed the country with their soaring duet performances of songs like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You." Unfortunately, their reign as the Royal Couple of R&B ended when Terrell succumbed to a brain tumor in 1970. His beloved partner's death ushered in a dark period for the singer, who swore never to partner with another female vocalist and threatened to abandon the stage for good. 

In 1970, inspired by escalating violence and political unrest over the Vietnam War, Gaye wrote the landmark song "What's Going On." Despite clashes with Motown over the song's creative direction, the single was released in 1971 and became an instant smash. Departing from the tried and true Motown formula, Gaye went out on his own artistically, paving the way for other Motown artists like Wonder and Michael Jackson to branch out in later years. Beyond influencing his peers, the album garnered widespread critical acclaim, winning the Rolling Stone Album of the Year award. In 1972, Gaye moved to Los Angeles and soon met Janis Hunter, who would later become his second wife. Inspired in part by his newfound independence, Gaye recorded one of the most revered love anthems of all time, "Let's Get It On." The song became his second no. 1 Billboard hit, cementing his crossover appeal once and for all. Shortly afterwards, Motown pushed Gaye into touring to capitalize on his most recent success; reluctantly the singer-songwriter returned to the stage. 

Through most of the mid-1970s, Gaye was touring, collaborating or producing. Working with Diana Ross and The Miracles, he put off releasing another solo album until 1976. He continued touring after the release of I Want You (1976) and, after scoring a No. 1 hit in 1977 with the dance single "Got to Give It Up," released his last album for Motown Records (Here, My Dear) in 1978.

After two decades at Motown, Gaye signed with CBS's Columbia Records in 1982 and began to work on his last album, Midnight Love. The lead single from that album, "Sexual Healing," became a huge comeback hit for the R&B star and earned him his first two Grammy Awards and an American Music Award for Favorite Soul Single. 

Marvin with parents 1981

In 1975, Gaye's wife Anna Gordy—Berry Gordy's sister—filed for divorce, and two years later Gaye married Hunter, who had by then given birth to their daughter, Nona (born September 4, 1974) and their son Frankie (born November 16, 1975). Gaye also had an adopted son (Marvin Pentz Gaye III) from his previous marriage. The singer's marriage to Hunter proved short lived and tumultuous, ending in divorce in 1981. 

Despite his successful comeback in the early 1980s, Gaye struggled badly with the substance abuse and bouts of depression that had plagued him for most of his life. After his last tour, he moved into his parents' house. There he and his father fell into a pattern of violent fights and quarrels that recalled conflicts that had haunted the family for decades. On April 1, 1984, Marvin Gaye Sr. shot and killed his son after a physical altercation; the father claimed he acted in self-defense but would later be convicted of involuntary manslaughter. 

(Edited from biography.com)

Ace Harris born 1 April 1910

Asa "Ace" Harris* (April 1, 1910 – June 11, 1964) was an American jazz pianist, singer , arranger and band leader in the field of rhythm & blues and jazz. 

Ace with the Sunset Royal Serenaders

Born in Fort Pierce, Florida, Asa "Ace" Harris learned to play the piano as a child and got his first professional job in early 1930 with Billy Steward's Celery City Serenaders; a popular Florida-based territory band that regularly toured the Eastern Seaboard and ventured as far west as Wyoming. By 1935, Harris had joined the celebrated Sunset Royal Serenaders managed by Bill Mears and fronted by Steve Washington, and by 1937, having proved himself to be a talented pianist and singer - and a charismatic front man after Washington's death in 1936 - Harris took over leadership of the band which recorded for Vocalion in 1937 as Ace Harris & his Sunset Royal Orchestra.

At this time, the band included Joe Murphy, Jimmy Harris and Bobby Smith who would later play in Erskine Hawkins band alongside Ace (the Sunset Royals, then under trombonist Doc Wheeler's leadership, recorded once more, for Bluebird, in 1941/42). Ace left the Sunset Royals in 1939 to remain in New York City, where, during the period 1940-42, he was employed as the accompanist/arranger with the successful vocal group The Ink Spots, touring on package shows with a line-up that often included the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. 

Ace with the Ink Spots

Ace Harris' attractive, bluesy piano-playing graced a Hot Lips Page session in early 1944, following which he was asked to join the Erskine Hawkins band, along with his old pal Bobby Smith, and he quickly quelled, and indeed, mastered the ghost of the band's star pianist/arranger Avery Parrish who had left the band the year earlier. His boogie woogie piano and fine singing voice made him a natural for jump tunes like Caldonia (#2 1945), Let's Have Fun Tonight and Hawk's Boogie (#2 1947), and he remained with the Hawkins orchestra, recording for RCA Victor, until the summer of 1947. 

                             

Like many of the Hawkins alumni, Harris conducted his own solo recording career while still a member of the big band, and between 1945 and 1948 he recorded for New York City labels Hub and Sterling - including a cheeky tip-of-the-hat to Parrish with a new version of After Hours. He rejoined Hawkins' band in 1950 to record for Coral Records, reprising After Hours and providing Hawkins with his last r&b chart hit, Tennessee Waltz (#6 1950). Also recording with his friend Bobby Smith's offshoot unit for Apollo Records during this period, he left Hawkins again in 1951 when he struck his own recording contract with Teddy Reig at Coral, going on to record three sessions in 1951/52. 

Disbanding his small working unit in 1953, he relocated to Chicago and began working as a solo singer/pianist at night clubs like The Cloister Inn. He enjoyed a one-off reunion with his brother-in-law Erskine Hawkins' band in 1955 to record a couple of singles for Decca, and the following year he was featured playing the title track of a King LP called After Hours, when the Cincinnati-based record company used his decade-old Hub recording for a compilation album. Also in 1956 he was featured on Mercury recordings by hot new tenor star Sil Austin - including the saxophonist's #3 r&b smash Slow Walk. 

Ace Harris and Buddy Charles found themselves alternating as solo pianists in the Junior Room of the famous Black Orchid in Chicago. About two-third of their working time was spent in solo playing. The other third of their working time was spent playing duo-piano, while they overlapped in changing places. During this period they appeared to win more listeners and to generate more interest in their playing, with the result that a duo-piano team was born. Ace and Buddy found that they enjoyed twice the popularity and success that might have been expected as a result of their doubling on the ivories resulting in their recording “Zonky” on the Audio Fidelity label in 1957. 

Ace Harris with his 2nd wife Kathlyn, East Coast 1963 

Ace then sank into obscurity and died at the young age of 54 from a stroke in Chicago on 11th June 1964. His legacy is carried on by his daughter, also named Asa, who is a singer with the Gene Esposito Jazz Orchestra in Chicago and recording artist in her own right with a CD on the MaxJazz label. 

(Edited from a bio by Dave Perry @ tims.blackcat.nl)

*(Not be confused with pianist Johnny “Ace” Harris (1928-2000) who for many years claimed to have been the Ace Harris in the Ink Spots; he wasn't.)