mick laBriola

Charles “Specs” Wright (September 8, 1927 – February 6, 1963) was an American jazz drummer born in Philadelphia.

Wright played drums in an Army band until his discharge in 1947. Following this he played in a group with Jimmy Heath and Howard McGhee. In 1949 he joined Dizzy Gillespie‘s band alongside John Coltrane, remaining until it disbanded in mid-1950. Later in 1950 he was a member of Gillespie’s sextet with Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, and Milt Jackson. In the 1950s, Wright played with Earl Bostic, Kenny Drew, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, and Carmen McRae, and gigged locally in Philadelphia. He was with Hank Mobley in 1958 with his septet alongside Billy Root, Curtis Fuller, Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant, and Lee Morgan. Following this Wright played with Sonny Rollins, Betty Carter, Red Garland, Coleman Hawkins, and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. He died in 1963. He was interred in Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly, New Jersey.

Marion Brown (September 8, 1931 – October 18, 2010) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane’s landmark 1965 album Ascension. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow described him as “one of the brightest and most lyrical voices of the 1960s avant-garde.”

Brown, the grandson of an escaped slave from Georgia’s Sea Islands, was born in Atlanta in 1931 and was raised by a single mother. He began studying the saxophone at an early age, inspired by Charlie Parker. He left high school in the 10th grade and joined the army. During his three-year enlistment, he played alto saxophone, clarinet, and baritone saxophone, and was stationed in Hokkaido for some time. In 1956, he returned to Atlanta and enrolled at Clark College, where he studied music, taking lessons from Wayman Carver. After graduating, he moved to Washington, DC, where he enrolled at Howard University‘s law school. During this time, he began listening to musicians such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Archie Shepp, all of whom he would soon meet and come to know.

Harmonica Fats (born Harvey Blackston, September 8, 1927 – January 3, 2000) was an American blues harmonica player who was active in the 1950s through to the 1990s. Fats first achieved success with his cover version of the Hank Ballard song “Tore Up” in 1962, which established him as an in-demand session and touring musician. He is also remembered for his collaboration with blues guitarist Bernie Pearl, a partnership that resulted in four albums.

Born in McDade, Louisiana, a small community 40 miles from Shreveport, Blackston, the eldest of 13 children, was raised on a cotton farm by his grandparents. Blackston casually played harmonica since he was four years-old, and credited Sonny Terry as the foremost influence on his style of playing. Bored with the farming lifestyle, in 1946 Blackston relocated to Los Angeles where he lived with his father, and worked for a manufacturing company. After an automobile accident in 1954 temporarily left him jobless, Blackston began avidly practicing his harp skills; recalling how he knew “a guy by the name of Cleveland Weller that plays guitar and he invited me out to his house to play on a Saturday night with him. So I went out there. He gave me a mike and an amplifier and I started blowing through that mike and amplifier and I would hear all my mistakes, and so then I went down town next day bought me a amplifier and a mike and so I went and practised for four months”.

Wilbur Bernard Ware (September 8, 1923 – September 9, 1979) was an American jazz double bassist. He was a regular bassist for Riverside in the 1950s, and recorded with J.R. Monterose, Toots Thielemans, Tina Brooks, Zoot Sims, and Grant Green.

Ware taught himself to play banjo and bass. In the 1940s, he worked with Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt, and Roy Eldridge. He recorded with Sun Ra in the early 1950s. Later in the 1950s, settling in New York City, Ware played with Eddie Vinson, Art Blakey, and Buddy DeFranco. His only album recorded as a leader during his lifetime was The Chicago Sound, from 1957 when he worked for Riverside. He made jazz instructional albums for Music Minus One. In 1958, Ware was one of 57 jazz musicians to appear in the photograph A Great Day in Harlem.

Ware was a member of the Thelonious Monk quartet from 1957 to 1958. He also performed with the Sonny Rollins Trio live at the Village Vanguard.

Narcotics addiction resulted in his return to Chicago in 1963 and a period of incarceration. He was inactive musically for about six years. In 1969, Ware played with Clifford Jordan, Elvin Jonesand Sonny Rollins. He died from emphysema in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1979.

Makanda Ken McIntyre (born Kenneth Arthur McIntyre; also known as Ken McIntyre) (September 7, 1931 – June 13, 2001)was an American jazz musician, composer and educator. In addition to his primary instrument, the alto saxophone, he played flute, bass clarinet, oboe, bassoon, double bass, drums, and piano.

McIntyre was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His father played mandolin. McIntyre started his musical life on the bugle when he was eight years old, followed by piano. In his teens he discovered the music of Charlie Parker and began playing saxophone at nineteen, then clarinet and flute two years later. In 1953 he served in the Army and played saxophone and piano in Japan.

James Milton Campbell Jr. (September 7, 1934 – August 4, 2005), better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single “We’re Gonna Make It“. His other hits include “Baby, I Love You“, “Who’s Cheating Who?”, and “Grits Ain’t Groceries (All Around The World)“.

A native of the Mississippi Delta, Milton began his recording career in 1953 at Sun Records before relocating to St. Louis and co-founding Bobbin Records in 1958. It wasn’t until Milton signed to Checker Records that he achieved success on the charts. Other labels Milton recorded for include Meteor, Stax, Glades, Golden Ear, MCA, and Malaco. Milton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1988.

Milton was born James Milton Campbell Jr. on September 7, 1934 in Inverness, Mississippi. He was raised in Greenville, Mississippi by a farmer and local blues musician. By age twelve he was a street musician, chiefly influenced by T-Bone Walker and his blues and rock and rollcontemporaries. He joined the Rhythm Aces in the early part of the 1950s, a three piece band who played throughout the Mississippi Deltaarea. One of the members was Eddie Cusic who taught Milton to play the guitar. In 1951, Milton recorded several sides backing pianist Willie Love for Trumpet Records.

Walter Theodore “Sonny” Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including “St. Thomas“, “Oleo“, “Doxy“, “Pent-Up House”, and “Airegin“, have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called “the greatest living improviser” and the “Saxophone Colossus”.

Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFveprr7pUI