Herman Chittison born 15 October 1908

Herman "Ivory" Chittison (October 15, 1908 – March 8, 1967  )was an American jazz pianist. 

Herman Chittison was born in Flemingsburg, KY, on October 15, 1908, to Charles and Sarrah Jame Chittison. Chittison began playing the piano at age 8 and would often play hymns at Strawberry Methodist Church. He and his family left Kentucky for him to attend school in Tennessee when he was 13-years-old. He attended the Waldron Boys School in Nashville, Tennessee. 

After completing high school, Chittison enrolled at Kentucky State College (now Kentucky State University) in 1925, which he left to play for the Kentucky Derbies at the Lexington State Fair. He then pursued a professional career in music. His music career began when he joined Zack Whyte’s band, Chocolate Beau Brummels, in Ohio in 1928.  

In 1931 he moved to New York and then toured as an accompanist for the comedian "Stepin'" Fetchit. Later he toured with singers Adelaide Hall and Ethel Waters and recorded as a freelancer with pianist and conductor Clarence Williams (1930 – 1933). In the spring of 1934 he joined Willie Lewis' orchestra with whom he travelled to Europe where he remained from 1934 to 1938, working with and outside Lewis' orchestra, also touring with Louis Armstrong. 

                             

                     

He also conducted his own orchestra in Egypt, accompanying the singer Arita Day in early 1935. He left Willie Lewis for good in 1938 and worked with several former members of this orchestra, such as trumpeter Bill Coleman and saxo-clarinetist Joe Hayman, under the name "Harlem Rhythmakers". 

Returning to the U.S.A. in the spring of 1940, he formed his own trio and toured with "Stepin'" Fetchit in the fall of 1940. Throughout the forties and fifties, he led his trio in many residencies in New York: "The Blue Angel", "The Blue Ribbon", the "Bobili Club", etc. He also had a weekly radio show for seven years on C.B.S. Radio. He recorded on both American and French labels as a soloist and accompanist for Ethel Waters and Mildred Bailey. He also toured with comedian Stepin Fetchit and trumpeter Louis Armstrong. He played “Ernie” in radio series Casey, Crime Photographer (1942-51). 

He recorded with a trio in New York City for nine years, appeared regularly on radio, series of music labels that included Columbia, and Musicraft. In October 1959, Chittison was employed as the resident pianist at the Red Garter bar in the Lenox Hotel in Boston. In an interview with John McLellan in March 1960, he noted that “Some clubs will spend $150,000 on decorations, and then they want to put in a $20 piano. They were going to put a spinet in here, but I asked them if they’d have their cook work on a two-burner stove. They got the point. And I got my piano.” He must have been persuasive, because that piano was a Mason & Hamlin concert grand. 

Chittison was still working Boston lounges in spring 1961, but later that year he returned to New York, and a few years after that he moved to Cleveland. 

He died at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital of lung cancer, in March 1967 at age 58. His funeral service was held five days later at the J.W. Willis Funeral Home, in Cleveland, and he was interred in the Highland Park Cemetery.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Findagrave)

Here’s Herman Chittison with Cab Calloway in this short video clip

Red McKenzie born 14 October 1899

William 'Red' McKenzie (October 14, 1899 – February 7, 1948) was an American jazz vocalist and musician who played a comb as an instrument. He played the comb-and-paper by placing paper, sometimes strips from the Evening World, over the tines and blowing on it, producing a sound like a kazoo. 

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. While working as a bellhop in St. Louis he and some friends , including Jack Bland and Dick Slevin formed the Mound City Blue Blowers, and would get together and play on the street where they were “discovered” and taken to Chicago to record in 1924. They recorded “Arkansas Blues” and “Blue Blues“. The record sold over a million copies. 

The group was quite popular for a few years, recording a dozen titles (two with guest Frankie Trumbauer and the last six with Eddie Lang making the group a quartet) during 1924-1925. McKenzie also recorded under his own name as leader of the Candy Kids, the exact same quartet). While playing in Atlantic City Red met Eddie Lang who joined the band and played with them in London. 

After his return to America, Red became active as a Jazz Promoter, more than as a Jazz musician. Red worked as a talent scout and set up the first Okeh Recording date for Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang and Frankie Trumbauer which featured the famous recording “Singing the Blues“. 

In 1927, he promoted a Paramount Recording session at which a group of Chicagoans recorded the “Friar’s Point Shuffle”. In 1928, Okeh Records cut four sides with his group called McKenzie and Condon’s Chicagoans. In 1930 he recorded with a number of famous musician, Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman. Eddie Condon and Josh Billings. 

                                  

Regarding his musical abilities, unique to him, McKenzie’s singing isn’t to everyone’s taste; he is earnest, declaratory, even tipping over into barroom sentimentality.  But he could put over a hot number with style, and his straight-from-the shoulder delivery is both charming and a product of the late Twenties.  

Trumbauer, McKenzie & Whiteman

As an instrumentalist on the comb and newspaper, he had no equal, and the remarkable thing about the records on which he appears is how strongly he stands his ground with Coleman Hawkins and Bunny Berigan, powerful figures in their own right.  

Both singing and playing, McKenzie reminds me greatly of Wild Bill Davison, someone who had “drama,” as Ruby Braff said. 

Further Blue Blowers titles were cut during 1931 (featuring Hawkins, Jimmy Dorsey, and Muggsy Spanier) and 1935-1936 (often with Bunny Berigan). McKenzie recorded as a straight singer in 1931 with “Time on My Hands” “Just Friends” and “I’m Sorry Dear”. He was with Paul Whiteman the following year and although he never did become a major name, he did front the Spirits of Rhythm (1934) and the Farley-Riley group (1935) on record dates. 

Red was often seen in New York’s 52nd Street jazz club area. But, Red was musically inactive and moved back to his home town of St. Louis and worked in a brewery throughout most of the Depression. Apparently he was one of the great heavy drinkers of his time, and only the support of his great friend Eddie Condon kept him in the limelight in the Forties, where he appeared now and again at a Condon concert in 1944 or a Blue Network broadcast. But little was heard from McKenzie for the last years of his life, except for one 1947 record date with Condon, before dying of cirrhosis of the liver on  February 7, 1948 in New York. 

Had he been in better health, he could have been one of those apparently ancient but still vivacious stars who appeared on the Ed Sullivan and the Hollywood Palace alongside Crosby, Sophie Tucker, Durante, and Ted Lewis . . ... but it was not to be. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Syncopated Times, Jazz Lives & AllMusic) 

Johnny Lytle born 13 October 1932

Johnny Dillard Lytle (October 13, 1932 – December 15, 1995) was an American jazz drummer and vibraphonist. 

Lytle grew up in Springfield, Ohio in a family of musicians, the son of a trumpeter father and an organist mother. He began playing the drums and piano at an early age. Before studying music in earnest, he was a boxer, and was a successful Golden Gloves champion. During the late '50s, Lytle continued to box, but landed jobs as a drummer for Ray Charles, Jimmy Witherspoon and Gene Ammons. 

He then switched from drums to vibraphone and toured with organist Hiram "Boots" Johnson from 1955 to 1957. He formed his first group in 1957 with saxophonist Boots Johnson, organist Milton Harris and drummer William "Peppy" Hinnant. He impressed the producer Orrin Keepnews who signed him to his Jazzland label in 1960. 

                                  

Lionel Hampton said Lytle was "the greatest vibes player in the world." Lytle was known for his great hand speed and showmanship. He was also a songwriter, penning many of his own hits, including "The Loop", "The Man", "Selim", "Lela", and the jazz classic "The Village Caller". 

Lytle recorded more than 30 albums for various jazz labels including Jazzland, Pacific Jazz, Solid State, Milestone and Muse. Lytle never recorded with any of the major record labels, and that could be why he never gained the status of a jazz icon like some of his peers. Lytle felt that he would lose control of his music and creative development; Lytle liked to play what came natural to him, and being with a major label might not have afforded him that opportunity. 

Throughout his career he performed and recorded with jazz greats including Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Timmons and Roy Ayers. Lytle was such an admirer of the music of Miles Davis that he wrote "Selim" (Miles spelled backwards) in honor of Davis. He also featured his son, Marcel Lytle, on several recordings, as a vocalist and drummer. 

He found success early in his career with chart-topping albums like A Groove, Moon Child, and The Loop. From his swinging uptempo tracks to his soul-satisfying ballads, Lytle knew how to keep a groove. And with a nickname like "Fast Hands", he could always keep the attention of an audience. In addition to his musicianship, his gregarious personality made him a popular attraction on the jazz circuit. In addition to leading his trio (which appeared along the way with Wes Montgomery and Nancy Wilson), Johnny Lytle was very involved in community affairs, winning awards for the “good vibes” that he accomplished through public service. Even though he did not experience the same success he was privileged to during the 1960s, he did continue to record and build a respectable catalog of music with recordings in the '70s, '80s and '90s. 

Lytle remained a popular concert attraction in the U.S. and Europe; his last performance was with the Springfield (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra in his hometown on November 18, 1995. Passing away from kidney failure the following month, he was survived by his wife Barbara Jean Lytle, his son Marcel Anthony (of Atlanta), Michael-Lamont (of Toronto), and daughter Ayo Michelle Hagans (of Springfield). At the time of his death, Lytle was scheduled to begin recording a new album on the Muse label. In his hometown of Springfield, Ohio, the street where he used to live was renamed 'Johnny Lytle Avenue' in his honor. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Concord)

Guitar Gabriel born 12 October 1925

Robert Lewis Jones (October 12, 1925 – April 2, 1996), known as both Guitar Gabriel and Nyles Jones, was an American blues musician. Gabriel's unique style of guitar playing, which he referred to as "Toot Blues", combined Piedmont, Chicago, and Texas blues, as well as gospel, and was influenced by artists such as Blind Boy Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis. After hearing of Guitar Gabriel from the late Greensboro, North Carolina blues guitarist and pianist, James "Guitar Slim" Stephens, musician and folklorist Tim Duffy located and befriended Gabriel, who was the inspiration for the creation of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Gabriel wore a trademark white sheepskin hat, which he acquired while traveling and performing with Medicine Shows during his late 20s. 

Nyles Jones

Gabriel was born in Decatur, Georgia, moving to Winston-Salem, North Carolina at age five. His father, Sonny Jones (also known as Jack Jones, James Johnson, and as Razorblade for an act in which he ate razor blades, mason jars, and light bulbs) recorded for Vocalion Records in 1939 in Memphis, accompanied by Sonny Terry and Oh Red (George Washington). Sonny Jones also recorded a single for the Orchid label in Baltimore in 1950 (as Sunny Jones). His family, who grew up sharecropping, shared a talent for music. His great-grandmother, an ex-slave, called set dances and played the banjo; his grandfather played banjo and his grandmother the pump organ; his father and uncle were blues guitarists and singers and his sisters sang blues and gospel. 

In 1935, Gabriel's family moved to Durham, North Carolina, where he began playing guitar on the streets.Between the ages of 15 and 25, Gabriel traveled the country playing the guitar in medicine shows. During his travels, he performed with artists such as Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, Louis Jordan, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, B. B. King, T-Bone Walker and Jimmy Reed. 

                                    

In 1970, Gabriel went to Pittsburgh and recorded a single, "Welfare Blues," as well as an album, My South, My Blues, with the Gemini label under the name "Nyles" Jones. The 45 became a hit in Pittsburgh and Cleveland and though the album sold well, Gabriel never saw any royalties. 

Disillusioned and embittered by the music business, Gabriel returned home to Winston-Salem where he continued playing music, but expressly for his community, at churches, homes, clubs, "drink houses," and even at bus stops when children were returning home from school. The album, My South, My Blues was reissued in 1988, on the 'Jambalaya' label (a Flyright subsidiary), as Nyles Jones, the Welfare Blues. 

In March 1990, musician and folklorist Tim Duffy began searching for Guitar Gabriel. After being directed to a drink house in Winston-Salem, Duffy met Gabriel's nephew, Hawkeye, who took him to meet Gabriel. Duffy and Gabriel forged a friendship, and began performing under the name Guitar Gabriel & Brothers in the Kitchen, later recording the album, which was released on cassette, Do You Know What it Means to Have a Friend? on their own Karibu label. During this time, Duffy would assist the impoverished Gabriel by providing transportation, paying bills, and providing food for him and his wife, but realized that there were many more musicians like Gabriel who were in need of the same assistance, and who were still capable and willing to record and perform. 

In 1994, Tim and his wife, Denise Duffy founded the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Through this foundation, Gabriel was able to perform in professional venues, including the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and made several trips to Europe. Michael Parrish played piano on Deep in the South, Guitar Gabriel: Volume 1, and at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall concerts. Gabe said he could “do more with a guitar than a monkey can do with a peanut,” and the first time Eric Clapton heard him, the response was simply, “Oh, my God.” 

Gabriel died on April 2, 1996, and is buried with his guitar (per his request to Duffy) at the Evergreen Cemetery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

(Edited from Wikipedia and Musicmaker)

The video quality is questionable and the audio skips. But from the Music Maker archives, we find Guitar Gabriel accompanied by Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Tim Duffy in his kitchen. 1992.

Curtis Amy born 11 October 1929

 

Curtis Edward Amy (October 11, 1929 – June 5, 2002) was an American jazz saxophonist. Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve probably heard Curtis Amy. If you listened to pop music and pop radio from the mid-’60’s through the late ’70’s, then you heard Amy’s tenor, soprano or flute backing artists from Carole King, to Ray Charles to the Doors. But as a solo artist, Curtis Amy toiled in virtual obscurity. 

 Born in Houston, Texas, Amy’s first instrument was the clarinet at the young age of four.  He was drafted and during his stint in the Army, he started to play the tenor sax. When his time in the Army was up, Amy decided to pursue formal musical training at Kentucky State College (now University), from which he graduated in the early ’50’s.  He then taught school in Tennessee and knocked around playing gigs throughout the midwest for a couple of years, before landing in Los Angeles around 1955.  Once in L.A., he recorded a session with Dizzy Gillespie and continued to pay his dues on the club scene. 

While playing at a club called “Dynamite Jackson’s”, in the Crenshaw District, Curtis Amy caught the ear of Dick Bock, the now legendary head of Pacific Jazz Records.  Bock dug the bluesy sound of Amy’s tenor and signed him to the label.  Amy’s first date for Pacific Jazz was The Blues Message, which he co-led with organist Paul Bryant, another L.A. club regular.  The sound on that session is what you would expect – greasy organ and gritty tenor, augmented by Roy Brewster’s valve trombone. The music would have easily fit into any smoky joint in Crenshaw, Watts or even Harlem. Though Bock had brought Amy, Brewster, Bryant and the others in the quintet together for the recording, the cats apparently dug their sound and decided to remain together as a group for a while, taking up residence as the house band at “Dynamite Jackson’s” and cutting one more album, Meetin’ Here, in 1961. 

                                  

Between 1960 and 1963, Bock and Pacific Records kept Mr. Amy busy as he recorded a total of six albums as a leader or co-leader. All but one included Brewster as a sideman.  They are also notable for containing some of the early efforts of two vibraphonists who are now anything but obscure, Bobby Hutcherson (on Groovin’ Blue) and Roy Ayers (on Way Down and Tippin’ on Through). The unquestionable standout of Amy’s Pacific Jazz Recordings (and of his overall catalog) is his final album for the label, 1963’s Katanga!

It was originally credited to the co-leadership of Amy and Dupree Bolton, a trumpet player who was as gifted as he was enigmatic.  On Katanga!, the overt blues base of most of Amy’s earlier works has been replaced by a sound that is closer to hard bop. Amy, Bolton, pianist Jack Wilson, guitarist Ray Crawford, bassist Victor Gaskin and drummer Doug Sides, burst forth with a power that is still as arresting today as it was almost half a century ago.  Nevertheless, Katanga! was lost in the surfeit of jazz releases at that time.  It all but vanished from the scene, along with the musicians who led the session. 

Curtis Amy would lead just three more sessions after 1963; a totally forgettable pop album Sounds of Hollywood in 1965, a date that Amy later dismissed as “syrup”;  Mustang;  a Joel Dorn produced album for Verve, which drew some attention from acid jazzers in the ’90’s, due to the funky title track and Peace For Love a very good album that marked Amy’s return to straight-ahead jazz, as well as his recorded swan song.  Though Peace For Love was recorded in 1994, it was not released in the U.S. until 2004, two years after Amy’s death. 

In the years between the mid-60’s and the start of this century, Amy though invisible to the jazz scene, was anything but idle.  He married Merry Clayton, a fine and extremely underrated vocalist in her own right (she is the female singer who gives Mick Jagger a run for his money on “Gimme Shelter”). Together and separately, they worked constantly in Hollywood.  When Merry joined Ray Charles’ Raelettes, Curtis signed on for a three-year stint as Brother Ray’s musical director.  When The Doors went for an orchestral sound on 1969’s The Soft Parade, they called on Amy as one of the saxes. It’s Mr. Amy that you hear soloing on the hit “Touch Me”.  Mr. and Mrs. Amy are also heard all over Carole King’s immortal album Tapestry, Merry as a background vocalist and Curtis on reeds – that’s his soprano sax on the break on “It’s Too Late” and his flute that rides out “So Far Away”. 

Curtis Amy died of pancreatic cancer on June 5, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. Though he was reluctant to be called a “Texas Tenor” or a “West Coast Jazz” player, he left a fine body of work that is worth exploring by fans of any niche or genre of Black American Music. Up until his death, he was married to singer and recording artist Merry Clayton. Their son, Kevin Amy has also pursued a musical career.

(Edited from Curt’s Jazz Café & Wikipedia)

Eddie Layton born 10 October 1925

Edward M. Layton (October 10, 1925 – December 26, 2004) was an American stadium organist who played at old Yankee Stadium for nearly 40 years, earning him membership in the New York Sports Hall of Fame. 

Eddie Layton was born Edward Litvin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the West Chester State Teachers College (Now West Chester University) majoring in meteorology with a minor in music. He began playing the organ when he was 12 years old. While serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he learned to play the Hammond organ. After the war, he studied with theatre organ great, Jesse Crawford. He began a career as a professional organist writing scores for soap operas on CBS. Four noted CBS soap operas were "The Secret Storm," "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," "Love of Life," and "Where the Heart Is." During that time, he recorded nearly 27 albums of organ music.

Eddie Layton had a smooth style that many appreciated. He used many special effects on the Hammond drawbars such as clopping horses, the wind, Big Ben and many more. The Hammond Organ Company retained him as a demonstrator for over 50 years, concertizing both in America and abroad. He made the first album on the “new” Hammond X-66, a collection of favorite Lawrence Welk tunes. He also came out with music books of special effects and arrangements for Hammond organ. Although he recorded exclusively on Hammond, he did make one album on a theatre pipe organ.

                          

In the mid to late 1960s, there was a British organist named Ashley Tappen, who sold records in America from recordings at the Piccadilly Gardens in London. He recorded several albums as tributes to Ken Griffin. This was, in reality, Eddie Layton in the United States, and the reverberation was added to the recordings to simulate a large hall. Piccadilly Gardens never existed. 

Layton joined the New York Yankees franchise in 1967 when CBS purchased the Yankees from Dan Topping. Because of pressure from the success of the New York Mets, their new Shea Stadium facility and the popularity of their organist, Jane Jarvis, Topping had installed an organ in Yankee Stadium at the beginning of the 1965 season. Lowrey organ demonstrator Toby Wright was the first Yankee organist and did the 1965 and 1966 seasons. Team president E. Michael Burke brought Layton in to play organ music at the stadium in 1967. At the time, he had never been to the stadium and knew nothing about baseball. 

He went on to play the organ for the Yankees for over three decades, taking a break from 1971 to 1977 to pursue other musical commitments. (Wright had returned as organist during that time.) When he retired on September 28, 2003, he played a final performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", while fans chanted "Eddie! Eddie!" Current New York Yankees organists Ed Alstrom and Paul Cartier were recruited by Layton to take his place at Yankee Stadium. 

In addition to playing for the Yankees, Layton was the organist for the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers from 1967 to 1985. He also played for several seasons of New York Islanders games in the 1990s and served one stint as organist for the indoor New York Cosmos soccer team at Madison Square Garden. Layton also performed concerts in more than 200 cities for the Hammond Organ Company and released 27 albums. In addition, Layton played the organ at Radio City Music Hall for thirty years of Pace University commencements held there. The student union at Pace University's New York City campus was named in his honor. 

Layton never married, but his passion was sailing and he owned his own tugboat which he cruised up and down the Hudson River. He also owned a huge collection of model trains he maintained at his Forest Hills, New York home. 

Eddie loved demonstrating organs to the public, and giving organ lessons. In 2009, Soapluvva established a YouTube tribute channel to both Eddie Layton and Charles Paul, who were colleagues of each other at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan. 

On December 26, 2004, Layton died of natural causes at his home in Forest Hills, New York at age 79, according to various reports following a brief illness. He was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens, New York City, with his feet pointed away from Shea Stadium. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & TheatreOrgans.com)

Johnnie Bassett born 9 October 1935

Johnnie Alexander Bassett (October 9, 1935 – August 4, 2012) was a Detroit-based American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Working for decades primarily as a session musician, by the 1990s Bassett had his own backing band. He released seven albums in his lifetime. He cited Billy Butler, Tiny Grimes, Albert King, B.B. King and especially T-Bone Walker as major influences. 

Born in Marianna, Florida, Bassett relocated with his family in 1944 to Detroit. He aspired to comedy as a child but embraced the guitar at 18, when his brother bought a guitar and amplifier at a pawn shop, turning to the blues he’d grown up listening to on the radio. He made his debut as a guitarist in the group Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, which won local talent contests and backed Big Joe Turner, and Ruth Brown. In 1958, Bassett enlisted in the United States Army. Upon his return to Detroit he worked with the Bluenotes as session musicians for Fortune Records. During this time he provided accompaniment to Nolan Strong & the Diablos and Andre Williams.

He later backed the Miracles in a short tenure at Chess Records, working on their debut single, "Got a Job" (1958). In concerts while in Detroit, Bassett played on stage alongside John Lee Hooker, Alberta Adams, Lowell Fulson and Dinah Washington. In the 1960s, Bassett moved to Seattle, where he backed up Tina Turner, Little Willie John, and others. Jimi Hendrix was a frequent guest at the bluesman's club gigs around Seattle. Before the decade ended, he moved back to Detroit, where he was based for the remainder of his life. 

                        

The 70’s and 80’s saw Bassett emerge as a singer and front man at the encouragement of musician R.J. Spangler, who spotted the guitarist playing on a low-key side stage at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival in 1991. Together they formed the Blues Insurgents and Bassett enjoyed a late-life second wind as his name became acclaimed in international blues circles. Spangler declared Bassett to be the best Detroit bluesman of all time. He became known as Detroit’s Gentleman of the Blues, with a playing style that fit the moniker. 

The Detroit Blues Society recognized Bassett's contribution to the blues with a lifetime achievement award in 1994. He released the album I Gave My Life to the Blues on the Dutch label Black Magic in 1996, before recording and touring in North America and Europe with his own backing band, the Blues Insurgents. Their 1998 album Cadillac Blues was nominated for five W. C. Handy Awards. His record label at the time, Cannonball Records, ceased to trade, but Mack Avenue Records signed him to a new recording contract, after its owner saw Bassett and his band play in concert in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe. 

At the 2003 Great Lakes Folk Festival, Bassett performed as part of the Detroit Blues Revue with Alberta Adams and Joe Weaver. At the 2006 Detroit Music Awards, Bassett won an award for Outstanding Blues/R&B Instrumentalist. In 2010 and 2011, he was awarded the Outstanding Blues Artist/Group title. 

The Detroit Music Awards honored his 2009 release, The Gentleman is Back as Outstanding National Small/Independent Label Recording. Bassett and his band (Chris Codish, keyboards; Keith Kaminski, saxophone; and Skeeto Valdez, drums) played weekly at the Northern Lights Lounge in Detroit. Well into his seventies, he toured extensively and seduced his audiences with his incomparable elegance and class, both on guitar and vocals. 

In his later years Bassett had been declining in health and was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was moved to hospice care at St. John Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Detroit during July where he died on August 4, 2012 at the age of 76.. In April of 2022 The Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Johnnie Bassett at the Detroit Memorial Cemetery in Warren, MI. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Detroit Free Press, Soulbag & AllMusic)