mick laBriola

Little Johnny Taylor (born Johnny Lamont Merrett; February 11, 1943 – May 17, 2002 Gregory, AK) was an American blues and soul singer. He made recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and continued public performances through the 1980s and 1990s.

Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969 Greenville, SC) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.

White grew up in the South during the 1920s and 1930s. He became a prominent race records artist, with a prolific output of recordings in genres including Piedmont blues, country blues, gospel music, and social protest songs. In 1931, White moved to New York, and within a decade his fame had spread widely. His repertoire expanded to include urban blues, jazz, traditional folk songs, and political protest songs, and he was in demand as an actor on radio, Broadway, and film.

However, White’s anti-segregationist and international human rights political stance presented in many of his recordings and in his speeches at rallies were subsequently used by McCarthyites as a pretext for labeling him a communist to slander and harass him. From 1947 through the mid-1960s, White was caught up in the anti-communist Red Scare, and as a consequence his career suffered. Nonetheless, White’s musical style would go on to influence several generations of musical artists. In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.

Didier Lockwood (11 February 1956 – 18 February 2018) was a French violinist. He played in the French rock band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electric violin.

Sérgio Santos Mendes 11 February 1941 – 5 September 2024) was a Brazilian musician.

His career took off with worldwide hits by his band Brasil ’66. He released 35 albums and was known for playing bossa nova, often mixed with funk. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Songin 2012 as a co-writer of “Real in Rio” from the animated film Rio.

Mendes was primarily known in the United States, where his albums were recorded and where most of his touring took place. He was married to Gracinha Leporace, who performed with him from the early 1970s. Mendes collaborated with many artists, including Black Eyed Peas, with whom he re-recorded in 2006 a remake of his 1966 version of the song “Mas que nada“, which was a breakthrough hit for him. Mendes died from complications of long COVID at a hospital in Los Angeles on 5 September 2024, at the age of 83.

Walter “Baby Sweets” Perkins (February 10, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois – February 14, 2004 in Queens, New York) was an American jazz drummer.

Starting out in Chicago, Perkins began his professional career with Ahmad Jamal in 1956–57. He recorded for Argo Records in 1957 as a leader under the name MJT+3 with Paul Serrano [de] on trumpet, Nicky Hill on tenor sax, Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, and Bob Cranshaw on bass. In 1959, he regrouped under the same name with Willie Thomas on trumpet, Frank Strozier on alto sax, Harold Mabern on piano, and Cranshaw on bass; they recorded for Vee-Jay in 1959 and 1960 and played in Chicago until 1962, when he moved to New York City.

Perkins played with Sonny Rollins in 1962 and accompanied Carmen McRae in 1962–63. In 1964 he played with Art Farmer and Teddy Wilson. Following this he recorded with many musicians, including Rahsaan Roland Kirk, George Shearing, Gene Ammons, Charles Mingus, Billy Taylor, Booker Ervin, Jaki Byard, Lucky Thompson, Pat Martino, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Criss, and Charles Earland.

He died in Queens of lung cancer at the age of 72.

Rufus Reid (born February 10, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer.

Reid was raised in Sacramento, California, where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation from Sacramento High School, he entered the United States Air Force as a trumpet player. During that period, he began to be seriously interested in the double bass.

After fulfilling his duties in the military, Rufus had decided he wanted to pursue a career as a professional bassist. He moved to Seattle, Washington, where he studied bass with James Harnett of the Seattle Symphony. He continued his education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Warren Benfield and principal bassist, Joseph Guastefeste, both of the Chicago Symphony. He graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Music Degree as a Performance Major on the Double Bass.

Rufus Reid’s major professional career began in Chicago and continues since 1976 in New York City. Playing with hundreds of the world’s greatest musicians, he is famously the bassist that saxophonist Dexter Gordon chose when he returned to the states from his decade-long exile in Denmark. His colleagues include Thad Jones, Nancy Wilson, Eddie Harris, and Bob Berg.

Emmanuel N’Djoké “Manu” Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single “Soul Makossa“. The song has been referred to as the most sampled African song in addition Dibango, himself, as the most sampled African musician in history. He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.

William Henry “Chick” Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader. Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. The Encyclopædia Britannica and Allmusic indicate 1905, and this seems to be supported by census information. Other publications claim other years. During Webb’s lifetime, a December 1937 DownBeat magazine article, “The Rise of a Crippled Genius”, stated he was born in 1909, which is the year that appears on his grave marker. In 1939, The New York Times stated that Webb was born in 1907 the year also suggested in Rhythm on Record by Hilton Schleman.

Webb was one of four children; the other three were sisters (Bessie, Mabel, and Ethel). His sister Mabel married Wilbur Porter around 1928. When an infant, Webb fell down some stairsteps in his family’s home, crushing several vertebrae and requiring surgery, from which he never regained full mobility. The injury progressed to tuberculosis of the spine, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine which caused him to appear hunchbacked. The idea of playing an instrument was suggested by his doctor to “loosen up” his bones. He supported himself as a newspaper boy to save enough money to buy drums, and first played professionally at age 11.

Webb died from Pott disease on June 16, 1939, in Baltimore.