mick laBriola

Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote “Da Doo Ron Ron“, “Be My Baby“, “Maybe I Know“, “Then He Kissed Me“, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy“, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)“, “Hanky Panky“, “Chapel of Love“, “Leader of the Pack“, and “River Deep – Mountain High“, among others.

Ernest James Watts (born October 23, 1945 Norfolk, Va) is a Grammy-winning American jazz and R&B saxophonistwho plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. He has worked with Charlie Haden‘s Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa‘s album The Grand Wazoo he played the “Mystery Horn”, a straight-necked C melody saxophone. Watts also played the notable sax riff on “The One You Love” from Glenn Frey‘s album No Fun Aloud.

Frank Hewitt (October 23, 1935 – September 5, 2002) was an American hard bop jazz pianist.

Born in Queens, New York, Hewitt lived most of his life in Harlem. His mother was a church pianist, and he initially studied classical and gospel music, but switched to jazz after hearing a Charlie Parker record. He took the bop pianists Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope as his role models. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked with Howard McGhee, Cecil Payne, John Coltrane, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, among others; in 1961, he also participated in the Living Theater‘s production of Jack Gelber‘s The Connection. He became a regular figure in the circle of the pianist Barry Harris. In the 1990s, Hewitt became a central figure at New York’s Smalls Jazz Club; aside from playing there several nights a week, he sometimes also ended up using the walk-in refrigerator as a place to bunk when times were rough.

During his lifetime only one track of Hewitt’s playing was released, a version of the Kenny Dorham tune “Prince Albert” on the compilation Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls (Impulse, 1998). After Hewitt’s death, however, recordings made by Luke Kaven began to surface on Kaven’s Smalls Records label: the trio discs We Loved You, Not Afraid to Live, Fresh from the Cooler, and Out of the Clear Black Sky, and the quintet date Four Hundred Saturdays. His reputation as a neglected jazz master has steadily grown among fans of bebop piano.

William “Sonny” Criss (23 October 1927 – 19 November 1977) was an American jazz musician. An alto saxophonist of prominence during the bebop era of jazz, he was one of many players influenced by Charlie Parker. William Mansfield Turner, known to the world as Sonny Criss, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 15. He then went on to play in various bands including Howard McGhee‘s, which also featured Charlie Parker, Sonny’s idol.

However, Criss was much more than just a Charlie Parker clone. He developed his own sound, drenched in the blues, as his ability on the instrument continued to develop. Nevertheless, he continued to drift from band to band, and played on some records with Johnny Otis and Billy Eckstine.

His first major break came in 1947, on a number of jam sessions arranged by jazz impresario Norman Granz. In 1956 he signed to Imperial Records, based in New York, and recorded a series albums including Jazz U.S.A , Go Man! and Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter featuring pianist Sonny Clark. Capitol, which owned the master recordings, reissued them as a double-CD set on their Blue Note imprint in 2000. Criss also recorded At the Crossroads with pianist Wynton Kelly. In 1977, Criss was preparing to tour Japan but developed stomach cancer. As a consequence of this painful condition, Criss committed suicide (self-inflicted gunshot) in 1977, in his adopted city of Los Angeles. He never married, but had one son, Steven Criss.

Robert Gaston Fuller (October 22, 1942 – July 18, 1966 Baytown, TX) was an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for “Let Her Dance” and his cover of the Crickets‘ “I Fought the Law,” recorded with his group The Bobby Fuller Four. Within months of “I Fought the Law” becoming a top 10 hit, Fuller was found dead in an automobile parked outside his Hollywood apartment.The Los Angeles deputy medical examiner, Jerry Nelson, performed the autopsy. According to Dean Kuipers: “The report states that Bobby’s face, chest, and side were covered in ‘petechial hemorrhages,’ probably caused by gasoline vapors and the summer heat. He found no bruises, no broken bones, no cuts. No evidence of beating.” Kuipers further explains that boxes for “accident” and “suicide” were checked, but next to the boxes were question marks. Despite the official cause of death, some commentators believe Fuller was murdered.

Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded.

Manfred Sepse Lubowitz (born 21 October 1940), known professionally as Manfred Mann, is a South African-born musician, residing in the UK since 1961. He is best known as a founding member of the bands Manfred Mann, Manfred Mann Chapter Three and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie(October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge  but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality have made him an enduring icon.    

Martin Taylor, MBE (born 20 October 1956) is a British jazz guitarist who has performed solo, in groups, guitar ensembles, and as an accompanist.

Taylor was born in Harlow, Essex, into a family with a musical heritage and a Gypsy tradition. At the age of four, he received his first guitar from his father, jazz bassist William ‘Buck’ Taylor who only took up music at 30. Buck frequently played the music of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, so the young Martin Taylor became inspired by guitarist Django Reinhardt. At age eight, he was already playing in his father’s band and at 15 he quit school to become a professional musician.

The band Martin joined at 15 called the Oo-yah Band was led by Lennie Hastings, a jazz drummer who had been in the Alex Welsh band. The band included Nick Stevenson (trumpet), Peter Skivington (bass guitar), Ron Brown (trombone), Jamie Evans (piano), Malcolm Everson (clarinet and baritone saxophone).

Over the next few years Taylor played in bands at holiday camps, on radio, and on cruise ships. One cruise gig led to his playing with the Count Basie orchestra. Performing dates in and around London brought him into contact with jazz guitarist Ike Isaacs, who became a mentor. Isaacs not only performed with Taylor as a duet, but also helped Taylor develop his sense of jazz harmony and fingerstyle technique. He recorded for the first time in 1978, with bassist Peter Ind.