mick laBriola

John Robert “Johnny Hammond” Smith (December 16, 1933 – June 4, 1997 Louisville, KY) was an American soul jazz and hard bop organist. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he was a renowned player of the Hammond B-3organ so earning “Hammond” as a nickname, which also avoided his being confused with jazz guitarist Johnny Smith though this could lead to him being confused with Jimmy Smith (musician), another Hammond great.

Smith played with Paul Williams and Chris Columbo before forming his own group. His bands featured singers Etta Jones, Byrdie Green, saxophonists Houston Person, Earl Edwards, guitarists Eddie McFadden, Floyd Smith, James Clark, vibist Freddie McCoy. His career took off as he was serving as accompanist to singer Nancy Wilson. One of his last accomplishments also included Nancy Wilson. He wrote the song “Quiet Fire” for her Nancy Now! release in 1988.

Charles Daniel Richmond (December 15, 1931 – March 16, 1988) was an American jazz drummer who is best known for his work with Charles Mingus. He also worked with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond.

Richmond was born Charles Daniel Richmond on December 15, 1931, in New York City and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. He started playing tenor saxophone at the age of thirteen, and went on to play R&B with the Paul Williams band in 1955.

His career took off when he took up the drums, which he had taught himself to play in his early twenties, through the formation of what was to be a 21-year association with Charles Mingus. Mingus biographer Brian Priestley writes that “Dannie became Mingus’s equivalent to Harry Carney in the Ellington band, an indispensable ingredient of ‘the Mingus sound’ and a close friend as well”.

That association continued after Mingus’ death when Richmond became the first musical director of the group Mingus Dynasty in 1980.

He died of a heart attack in Harlem on March 16, 1988, at the age of 56.

Carmine Appice (born December 15, 1946 NY,NY) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is also Vinny Appice‘s older brother. Appice was inducted into the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. He is also a more than capable (fretless-) bass player, as can be heard on the “Guitar Zeus” albums, for example.

His best-selling drum instruction book The Realistic Rock Drum Method. was first published in 1972 and has since been revised and republished as The Ultimate Realistic Rock Drum Method. It covers the basic subjects of rock rhythms and polyrhythms, linear rudiments and groupings, shuffle rhythms, hi-hat and double bass drum exercises. Appice has claimed that he influenced John Bonham‘s use of bass drum triplets.

Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Corsican and Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.

In 1961, Palmieri founded the band Conjunto La Perfecta, which featured singer Ismael Quintana. Apart from the big bands, at the beginning of the decade the Pachanga was the Latin dance craze. Essential to the Charanga style is the five key wooden flute and at least two violins. Palmieri decided to replace the violins with two trombones for a heavier sound.

Two key elements to the ‘Palmieri’ sound were trombonist Barry Rogers as well as guitarist Bob Bianco with whom Palmieri studied the advanced harmonic concepts of Russian music theoretician Joseph Schillinger. Rogers would also expose Palmieri to the work of then John Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner whose use of chord voicings in fourths became a signature of Palmieri’s sound. Rogers alongside Brazilian-born José Rodrígues were also responsible for many of the ‘head’ arrangements, mambos and moñas that the band employed in live performances and eventually recorded. George Castro (flute), Manny Oquendo (bongó and timbales), Tommy López (conga) and Dave Pérez (bass) rounded out the group. To this day, the group is known as one of the swingingest, most danceable, innovative and influential groups of that period.^[4]

Palmieri experimented by employing a jazz aesthetic both in live performance and on his recordings based on the Cuban “descarga” (jam session) concept. He “opened up” the arrangements by featuring his band members as soloists. In addition he began incorporating a newly developed post Castro Cuban rhythm known as mozambique. Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso (What I Bring is Tasty) and Mozambique are just two examples of his use of this rhythm. Discontent among several members and seeking a bigger and punchier sound, Palmieri disbanded the band in 1968 reforming it with legendary Cuban trumpeter Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, timbalero Nicky Marrero, conguero Eladio Perez, bongocero Tomas ‘Choki” Lopez, and bassist Andy Gonzalez.

Golden “Big” Wheeler (December 15, 1929 – July 20, 1998) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter. He released two albums in his lifetime and is best known for his recordings of the songs “Damn Good Mojo” and “Bone Orchard”. He worked with the Ice Cream Men and Jimmy Johnson. He was the brother of the blues musician James Wheeler.

He was born Golden Wheeler in Baconton, Georgia. He left Georgia in 1941 and settled in Chicago, Illinois, in July 1954, where he befriended Little Walter. His enthusiasm for playing the harmonica began when he was working as a taxicab driver. One of his regular customers was the harmonica player Buster Brown, who later had a hit record with “Fannie Mae“, in 1960. Wheeler fronted his own band by 1956, although he was a part-time musician, working for years as an auto mechanic to supplement his income and provide for his family.

Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021 Detroit, MI) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style.Influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Harris in turn influenced and mentored bebop musicians including Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Curtis Fuller, Joe Henderson, Charles McPherson, and Michael Weiss.

Harris performed with Cannonball Adderley‘s quintet and on television with them. After moving to New York City, he worked as an educator and performed with Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet, Yusef Lateef and Hank Mobley. Harris was a sideman on Lee Morgan’s famous album The Sidewinder and returned to recording as leader following his move to New York.