mick laBriola

Troy Andrews (born January 2, 1986), also known by the stage name Trombone Shorty, is an American musician from New Orleans, Louisiana. He has worked with some of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip hop. Andrews is the younger brother of trumpeter and bandleader James Andrews III and the grandson of singer and songwriter Jessie Hill. Andrews began playing trombone at age four, and since 2009 has toured with his own band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

Andrews was born to James Andrews Jr. and Lois Andrews in New Orleans and grew up in the culturally vibrant Tremé neighborhood, steeped in New Orleans jazz, R&B and music-related traditions such as second line parades. Andrews’ family have deep roots in the music scene of New Orleans – his grandfather was musician Jessie Hill, his great-uncle Walter “Papoose” Nelson played with Fats Domino, and Andrews’ mother Lois Nelson Andrews was a regular grand marshal of jazz funerals and second-line parades in New Orleans, where she routinely encouraged young musicians and was known as the “Mother of Music” and “Queen of the Tremé”. Andrews’ father James Andrews Jr., a member of the Bayou Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Club, would frequently invite musician friends to visit their home. Other musical family members include his brother James Andrews III and cousins Glen David Andrews and the late Travis “Trumpet Black” Hill.

Hisao Oma “Isao” Suzuki (鈴木 勲, Suzuki Isao, 2 January 1933 – 8 March 2022) was a Japanese jazz double-bassist.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Suzuki learned to play bass on United States military bases, and played early in his career with Shotaro Moriyasu, Hidehiko Matsumoto, and Sadao Watanabe. He led his own ensemble in Tokyo from 1965–1969, also performing with Hampton Hawes in 1968. He moved to New York City from 1969 to 1971, playing with Ron Carter, Paul Desmond, Ella Fitzgerald, Jim Hall, Wynton Kelly, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Bobby Timmons.

Frank L. Marocco (January 2, 1931 – March 3, 2012) was an American piano-accordionist, arranger and composer. He was recognized as one of the most recorded accordionists in the world.

Born in Joliet, Illinois Frank Marocco grew up in Waukegan, near Chicago. At the age of seven years, his parents enrolled him in a six-week beginner class for learning to play the accordion.

Nick Fatool (January 2, 1915 – September 26, 2000) was an American jazz drummer. He was born in Millbury, Massachusetts, United States. Fatool first played professionally in Providence, Rhode Island, which he followed with time in Joe Haymes‘s band in 1937 and Don Beston‘s in Dallas soon after. In 1939, he played with Bobby Hackett briefly, and then became a member of the Benny GoodmanOrchestra. He became one of the most visible drummers of the 1940s, playing with Artie Shaw (1940–41), Alvino Rey (1942–43), Claude Thornhill, Les Brown, and Jan Savitt. In 1943, he moved to Los Angeles and took work as a session musician, recording profusely. Credits include Harry James, Erroll Garner (1946), Louis Armstrong (1949, 1951), Jess Stacy, Tommy Dorsey, Matty Matlock, John Scott Trotter and Glen Gray. He began an association with Bob Crosby, playing with him regularly between 1949 and 1951 and occasionally with Crosby’s Bobcats into the 1970s.

Seydou Koné  born January 1, 1953, in Dimbokro, better known by his stage name Alpha Blondy, is an Ivorian reggae singer and international recording artist. Many of his songs are politically and socially motivated, and are mainly sung in his native language Dyula, French and English, though he occasionally uses other languages, for example, Arabic or Hebrew. The first son of a family of eight children, Seydou Koné was raised by his grandmother in an environment described by him as “among elders”, which was to have a big impact on his career. In 1962, Alpha Blondy joined his father in Odienné, where he spent ten years, attended Sainte Elisabeth High School, and was involved in the Ivory Coast students movement. He formed a band in high school, but this affected his schooling and he was expelled for poor attendance. His parents sent him to study English in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, in 1973. He spent thirteen months there and then moved to the United States to improve his English.

Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed “Bags“, was an American jazzvibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartetand his penchant for collaborating with hard bop and post-bop players.

A very expressive player, Jackson differentiated himself from other vibraphonists in his attention to variations on harmonics and rhythm. He was particularly fond of the twelve-bar blues at slow tempos. On occasion, Jackson also sang and played piano.

Jackson was born on January 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, United States, the son of Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. Like many of his contemporaries, he was surrounded by music from an early age, particularly that of religious meetings: “Everyone wants to know where I got that funky style. Well, it came from church. The music I heard was open, relaxed, impromptu soul music” (quoted in Nat Hentoff‘s liner notes to Plenty, Plenty Soul). He started on guitar when he was seven, and then on piano at 11.

Bulee “Slim” Gaillard (January 9, 1911 – February 26, 1991), also known as McVouty, was an American jazz singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone.

Gaillard was noted for his comedic vocalese singing and word play in his own constructed language called “Vout-o-Reenee”, for which he wrote a dictionary. In addition to English, he spoke five languages (Spanish, German, Greek, Arabic, and Armenian) with varying degrees of fluency.^[2]: 676

He rose to prominence in the late 1930s with hits such as “Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)” and “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)” after forming Slim and Slam with Leroy Eliot “Slam” Stewart. During World War II, Gaillard served as a bomber pilot in the Pacific. In 1944, he resumed his music career and performed with such notable jazz musicians as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dodo Marmarosa.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he acted in films—sometimes as himself—and also appeared in bit parts in television series such as Roots: The Next Generations.

In the 1980s, Gaillard resumed touring the circuit of European jazz festivals. He followed Dizzy Gillespie’s advice to move to Europe and, in 1983, settled in London, where he died of cancer on February 26, 1991, after a long career in music, film and television, spanning nearly six decades.

Xavier Cugat (Catalan: [ʃəβiˈe kuˈɣat]; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria before and after World War II. He was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur. The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.