mick laBriola

Frank Morgan (December 23, 1933 – December 14, 2007 Minneapolis) was a jazz saxophonist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He mainly played alto saxophone but also played soprano saxophone. He was known as a Charlie Parker successor who primarily played bebop and ballads.

Frank Morgan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1933, but spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while his parents were on tour. Morgan’s father Stanley was a guitarist with Harlan Leonard and the Rockets and The Ink Spots, and his mother, Geraldine, was a 14-year-old student when she gave birth to him. Morgan took up his father’s instrument at an early age, but lost interest the moment he saw Charlie Parker take his first solo with the Jay McShann band at the Paradise Theater in Detroit, Michigan. Stanley introduced them backstage, where Parker offered Morgan advice about starting out on the alto sax, and they met at a music store the following day. Morgan, seven years old at the time, assumed they’d be picking out a saxophone, but Parker suggested he start on the clarinet to develop his embouchure. Morgan practiced on the clarinet for about two years before acquiring a soprano sax, and finally, an alto. Morgan moved to live with his father (by that time divorced) in Los Angeles, California at the age of 14, after his grandmother caught him with marijuana.

Chesney Henry “Chet” Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988 Yale, OK) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the “Prince of Cool”.

Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals: Chet Baker Sings (1954) and It Could Happen to You (1958). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker’s early career as “James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one”. His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s. Early on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the street below his room in Hotel Prins Hendrik, Amsterdam, with serious wounds to his head, apparently having fallen from the second-story window. Heroin and cocainewere found in his room and in his body. No evidence of a struggle was found, and the death was ruled an accident. According to another account, he inadvertently locked himself out of his room and fell while attempting to cross from the balcony of the vacant room adjacent to his own. A plaque was placed outside the hotel in his memory.

Lil Green (probably born Lillie May Johnson; December 22, 1901 (some sources give 1905, 1910 or 1919 Port Gibson, MS) – April 14, 1954) was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of the 1940s, with a sensual soprano voice. Gospel singer R.H. Harris lauded her voice, and her interpretation of religious songs.

John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer.

John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the electric bass at age 10, performing and composing at age 12, and at age 15, started playing the acoustic bass, as well as piano by age 16. He listened to bass parts in R&B songs on the radio and on his grandfather’s jazz records. He cites as influences Oscar Peterson‘s albums with Ray Brown and Wes Montgomery‘s with Ron Carter. For the development of rhythm, he points to the time he has spent with Danilo Pérez, a pianist from Panama.

In the late 1970s he studied acoustic bass at San Francisco State University and Long Beach State University. He began his professional career when he moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and made connections with Henry Mancini, Dave Grusin, and Tom Scott. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s he was a member of three Chick Corea groups: the Elektric Band, the Akoustic Band, and the quartet. As a leader he formed a trio with Joey Calderazzo and Peter Erskine, and a quartet with Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Tavaglione, and John Beasley. He has played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Roy Haynes. Patitucci switches between double bass and electric bass.

Ronald Ball (December 22, 1927 – October 1984) was an English jazz pianist, composer and arranger. n the early 1950s Ball worked both as a bandleader and under Ronnie Scott, Tony Kinsey, Victor Feldman, and Harry Klein. In 1952, he moved to New York City and studied with Lennie Tristano. At the time, it was his ambition to learn more about the American jazz scene and in the 1950s and 1960s he worked extensively with other jazz musicians. Among the musicians Ball performed with are Chuck Wayne (1952), Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz (1953–55), Kenny Clarke, Hank Mobley, Art Pepper, J.J. Johnson (1956), Kai Winding (1956, 1958), Warne Marsh,(1956–57), Buddy Rich (1958), Gene Krupa (1958), Roy Eldridge (1959) and Chris Connor (1961–63).

John Josephus Hicks Jr. (December 21, 1941 – May 10, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader of more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300.

After early experiences backing blues musicians, Hicks moved to New York in 1963. He was part of Art Blakey‘s band for two years, accompanied vocalist Betty Carter from 1965 to 1967, before joining Woody Herman‘s big band, where he stayed until 1970. Following these associations, Hicks expanded into freerbands, including those of trumpeters Charles Tolliver and Lester Bowie. He rejoined Carter in 1975; the five-year stay brought him more attention and helped to launch his recording career as a leader. He continued to play and record extensively in the United States and internationally. Under his own leadership, his recordings were mostly bebop-influenced, while those for other leaders continued to be in a diversity of styles, including multi-year associations with saxophonists Arthur Blythe, David Murray, David “Fathead” Newman, and Pharoah Sanders.

Travis Leonard Blaylock (December 21, 1934 – June 16, 1984 Texarkana, TX), better known as Harmonica Slim, was an American blues harmonicist, singer and songwriter. He had some commercial success in the 1950s; recordings of two songs he wrote, “Mary Helen” and “You Better Believe It” (both 1956), were modest hits. He released a total of six singles and toured alongside Percy Mayfield, Harmonica Fats, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton and Ray Charles. His debut album was released in 1969. By the late 1970s, he had stopped playing the blues.

He is not to be confused with (as he has been in some sources) two other similarly named artists, James Isaac Moore (better known as Slim Harpo) and Richard Riley Riggins (1921–2003).

Bennie Ross “Hank” Crawford, Jr. (December 21, 1934 – January 29, 2009 Memphis, TN) was an American alto saxophonist, pianist, arranger and songwriter whose genres ranged from R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, and soul jazz. Crawford was musical director for Ray Charles before embarking on a solo career releasing many well-regarded albums for labels such as Atlantic, CTI and Milestone.

When Crawford left Ray Charles in 1963 to form his own septet, he had already established himself with several albums for Atlantic Records. From 1960 until 1970, he recorded twelve LPs for the label, many while balancing his earlier duties as Ray’s director. He released such pre-crossover hits as “Misty“, “The Peeper”, “Whispering Grass“, and “Shake-A-Plenty”.

He also has done musical arrangement for Etta James, Lou Rawls, and others. Much of his career has been in R&B, but in the 1970s he had several successful jazz albums, with I Hear a Symphony reaching 11 on Billboard‘s Jazz albums list and 159 for Pop albums.