Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

During the 1960s, Danko performed as a member of the Hawks, backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan. Then, between 1968 and 1977, Danko and the Hawks, now called the Band, released seven studio albums before breaking up. Beginning with the group’s reformation in 1983 and up until his death, Danko participated in the Band’s partial reunion. On December 10, 1999, days after the end of a brief tour of the Midwest that included two shows in the Chicago area and a final gig at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Danko died of heart failure in his sleep at his home in Marbletown, New York. He was 55.

Yvonne Marianne Elliman (born December 29, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who performed for four years in the first cast of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar. She scored a number of hits in the 1970s and achieved a US No. 1 hit with “If I Can’t Have You“. The song also reached No. 9 on the Adult Contemporary chart and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Her cover of Barbara Lewis‘s “Hello Stranger” went to No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and “Love Me” was No. 5; at the time she had 3 top 10 singles. After a long hiatus in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she left music to be with her family, she made a comeback album as a singer-songwriter in 2004.

b. 12-29-1935, Newton, Mississippi, USA, d. June 1995. Aka Prez Kenneth, as a youngster Kidd sang in the church choir but was also attracted to the blues. He settled in Chicago in 1956 and soon tried to learn guitar, switching to bass because he found it easier. In the 60s, Kidd recorded in a Jimmy Reed vein for the Biscayne label. His track ‘Devil Dealing’ was the prototype for G.L. Crockett’s hit ‘It’s A Man Down There’, but he received no credit. Towards the end of the decade he formed his own label, Kenneth Records, and although he recorded on a Hip Linkchain session in 1976, little was heard of him subsequently. He continued to work occasionally in west side Chicago clubs until his death in 1995.

Irving Conrad Ashby (December 29, 1920 – April 22, 1987) was an American jazz guitarist.

Ashby was born in Somerville, Massachusetts and started playing guitar when he was nine. His career started in 1940 when he became a member of Lionel Hampton‘s band, and he played on Hampton’s hit “Flying Home”. In 1947, he took over for Oscar Moore in the Nat King Cole Trio.

He then briefly replaced Charlie Smith, a drummer, in the Oscar Peterson Trio, producing a line-up (piano, guitar, bass) similar to the Cole Trio’s; the substitution of a guitarist for a drummer continued until 1958. After leaving the Peterson Trio, Ashby concentrated on session work, which included recording with Norman Granz, Sheb Wooley, LaVern Baker, Howard Roberts, B.B. King, Louis Jordan, and Pat Boone. In addition to guitar, Ashby played the upright bass. Ashby died in April 1987 in Perris, California, at the age of 66.

Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952 Cleveland, OH) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. Though best known as a tenor saxophonist, Lovano has also recorded on alto clarinet, flute and drums, amongst other instruments. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions in Down Beatmagazine’s critics’ & readers’ polls. His wife is singer Judi Silvano, with whom he records and performs. Lovano was a longtime member of the late drummer Paul Motian‘s trio alongside guitarist Bill Frisell.

Michel Petrucciani (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl petʁutʃani]; Italian: [petrutˈtʃaːni]; 28 December 1962 – 6 January 1999) was a French jazz pianist. From birth he had osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and, in his case, short stature. Despite his health condition and relatively short life, he became one of the most accomplished jazz pianists of his generation.

Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion, smooth jazzand acid jazz genres. In 1963, he moved to New York City, where he initially played piano in Betty Carter‘s band for a year.^[1]Early in 1965, Smith began playing with Roland Kirk, first recording with his band on Here Comes The Whistleman (Atlantic, 1965), an album recorded live in New York on March 14, 1965. A further track from that gig, “Dream”, appeared on Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler‘s live album A Meeting of the Times (Atlantic, 1972).

Late in 1965, Smith joined Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers, sharing the piano position with Mike Nock and Keith Jarrett. The Jazz Messengers, together with Miles Davis’ group, were one of the main proving grounds for young up-and-coming jazz musicians, experimentally edgy and musically stretching, and both were an ever-revolving door of young modern jazz musicians as modes and moods rapidly changed during a fresh period of experimentation. Beginning with a live session at The Five Spot, New York City, November 9, 1965, Smith’s time as a Jazz Messenger was fairly short-term, only lasting until a three-gig engagement at The Village Vanguard 26–28 April 1966; by May 1966 his position was filled by Chick Corea. No recordings exist of this period.

Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl “Fatha” Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983 Duquesne, Pennsylvania), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, “one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz”.

The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (a member of Hines’s big band, along with Charlie Parker) wrote,

The piano is the basis of modern harmony. This little guy came out of Chicago, Earl Hines. He changed the style of the piano. You can find the roots of Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, all the guys who came after that. If it hadn’t been for Earl Hines blazing the path for the next generation to come, it’s no telling where or how they would be playing now. There were individual variations but the style of … the modern piano came from Earl Hines.

The pianist Lennie Tristano said, “Earl Hines is the only one of us capable of creating real jazz and real swing when playing all alone.” Horace Silver said, “He has a completely unique style. No one can get that sound, no other pianist.” Erroll Garner said, “When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines.”

Count Basie said that Hines was “the greatest piano player in the world”.