mick laBriola

Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp (October 12, 1929 – September 20, 2008) better known by his stage name Nappy Brown, was an American R&B singer. His hits include the 1955 Billboard chart No. 2 “Don’t Be Angry“, “Little By Little”, and “Night Time Is the Right Time“. His style was recognizable; Brown used a wide vibrato, melisma, and distinctive extra syllables, in particular, “li-li-li-li-li.”

Brown was the son of Kathryn Culp and Sammie Lee Brown. After his mother died he was brought up by Fred and Maggie Culp. They attended Gethsemane AME Zion Church and he attended school in Charlotte, North Carolina. He began his career singing gospel music before switching to R&B. In 1954 he won a recording contract with Savoy Records, which yielded a series of hits, including “Don’t Be Angry” (No. 2 R&B, No. 25 pop, 1955), “Pitter Patter” (No. 10 R&B, 1955), “Little By Little” (No. 57 pop, 1956), and “It Don’t Hurt No More” (No. 8 R&B, No. 89 pop, 1958). Brown was among the biggest stars in R&B, frequently touring with the revues of Alan Freed.

His songs, along with those of his peers and contemporaries (such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino), were among the first wave of African-American pop music to become noticed and popular with white audiences. Elvis Presley reportedly used to see Brown perform whenever he appeared in Memphis. In addition to Brown’s influence on blues music, and 1950s R&B and pop, Brown’s powerful and protean voice, combined with his distinctive emotive style, is widely viewed as a key link in the development of soul music.

Robert Lewis Jones (October 12, 1925 – April 2, 1996 Decatur, GA), 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.

Frank Floyd, known as Harmonica Frank (October 11, 1908 – August 7, 1984) was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonicist.

Frank Floyd was born in Toccopola, Mississippi, the son of itinerant parents who separated without giving him a name, though he is recorded in the 1910 census as Shankles Floyd. He was raised by his sharecropping grandparents, who died while he was a teenager. He taught himself to play harmonica when he was 10 years old, and he eventually learned guitar. He gave himself the name Frank Floyd, and began performing in the 1920s for traveling carnivals and medicine shows.

He learned many types of folk music and became a mimic, effortlessly switching from humorous hillbilly ballads to deep country blues.

With his self-taught harmonica technique, he was a one-man band, able to play the instrument without his hands or the need for a neck brace. While also playing guitar, he perfected a technique of manipulating the harmonica with his mouth while he sang out of the other side. He could also play harmonica with his nose and thus play two harmonicas at once, a skill he shared with blues harp players Walter Horton and Gus Cannon’s partner Noah Lewis.

Alfred “Tubby” Hall (October 12, 1895 – May 13, 1945) was an American jazz drummer.

Hall was born in Sellers, Louisiana; his family moved to New Orleans in his childhood. His younger brother, Minor “Ram” Hall, also became a professional drummer. He played in many marching bands in New Orleans, including with Buddie Petit.

In March 1917, Tubby Hall moved to Chicago, where he played with Sugar Johnny Smith. After two years in the United States Army, he returned to playing in Chicago, mostly with New Orleans bands, joining Carroll Dickerson‘s Orchestra (recording with it in 1927) and later with the groups of King Oliver, Jimmie Noone, Tiny Parham, Johnny Dodds. Noted swing and big-band drummer Gene Krupa said that Hall and Zutty Singleton “were great! They knew every trick and just how to phrase the parts of the choruses behind the horns, how to lead a man in, what to do at the turn-arounds, when to use sticks and when to use brushes, when to go for the rims or the woodblocks, what cymbals are for.”

He is seen in Armstrong’s movies of the early 1930s, including the live action and Betty Boop cartoon I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal You(1932) and A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), made by Paramount. Only Armstrong and Hall got closeups in the two films, and both got their faces transposed with those of racially stereotyped “jungle natives” in the cartoon. Hall morphs from a jazz drummer to a cannibal stirring a cooking pot with two wooden sticks.

His drumming style was forceful and sober, generally maintaining a constant tempo on the snare. Jazz critic Hugues Panassié considered him one of the three greatest jazz drummers of his generation, along with Zutty Singleton and Warren “Baby” Dodds.

Tubby Hall died in Chicago.

October 12th 1946

Jay Epstein has put in several decades performing, recording, & touring in this jazz game. After college, I studied polyrhythmic concepts in Manhattan with Barry Altschul, the drummer in Chick Corea’s Circle. Lived in Hollywood, Oklahoma City, Montana, Miami, Minneapolis, and played in house bands for 5 years on several cruise ship lines. Been on 7 European tours with pianists Bill Carrothers & Giacomo Aula. Shared a few choruses with Rocky Robbins, Barney Kessel, Roseanna Vitro,  Manfredo Fest, Sheila Jordan, Terry Gibbs, Greg Abate, Claudio Roditi, Gary Foster, Eric Alexander, Richie Cole, JoAnne Brackeen, Ernie Watts, Wayne Johnson, Karrin Allyson, Kenny Werner, Howard Levy, Bruce Henry, Toots Thielemans, Avashai Cohen, Bob Dorough, Marc Ribot, and Sarah Vaughan. My CDs, ‘Long Ago’ & ‘Easy Company’, featuring bassist Anthony Cox and pianist Bill Carrothers, have garnered luminous reviews in the international press. Current bands include Red Planet, Framework, Firebell, Tall Tales, Andrew Walesch, Sam Miltich, & Tim Sparks. I’ve endorsed Bosphorus Cymbals since 1997.

Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.

Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman‘s first records, beginning in 1958. He then freelanced extensively with hard bop and other post-bop players, including Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Don Cherry, Paul Horn, Milt Jackson, Jackie McLean, Pat Metheny, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, David Murray, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Mal Waldron, and Cedar Walton. He was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played on dozens of Blue Note albums of the 1960s. He also collaborated with composer La Monte Young and guitarist Sandy Bull.

There are two parts to a Fandangos de Huelva, including the estribillo, a rhythmic chordal refrain played on the guitar with or without singing, and the coplas. These two parts alternate, similar to the chorus and verse in a folk song. The Fandangos de Huelva are usually sung aflamencada  ( in the flamenco style.) For the singer, the rhythm has a definite 3/4 feel, but with accents on 3 and 5, and with count 6 held at the end of the 2nd set of 6 counts (see the rhythmic example and description in the Compás sample above). Letras for Fandangos de Huelva have to do with the annual pilgrimmage to Rocio and the April and May fairs, both events held in Spain after Semana Santa. Many letras have religious significance, including the estribillo example below, which alludes to the statue of the Virgin Mary carried to the same religious site every year. When esconsed at the site, the statue becomes a sanctuary for her and for all those who travel there.

Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021), known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer. Mance first played with Gene Ammons in Chicago in 1947 while he was enrolled at Roosevelt. He recorded with Ammons on September 23 that year for Aladdin Records, and they worked in New York City during a week when Mance was suspended from school (having been caught playing jazz in a practice room).While on tour, Lester Young came to see Ammons play at the Congo Lounge in Chicago in 1949. Young’s piano player, Bud Powell, had missed his flight to Chicago, and Young asked Mance to replace him, thinking Mance was a fill-in rather than Ammons’ regular pianist. Having just been offered Stan Getz‘s chair in the Woody Herman band, Ammons was “delighted” to let Mance go. Mance recorded with Young for Savoy Records that year, and reunited with Ammons to record with Sonny Stitt for Prestige Records in 1950.