Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006 Hartford, CT) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician.

Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, including 11 in the top ten. Among Pitney’s most famous hits are “Town Without Pity“, “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance“, “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa“, “I’m Gonna Be Strong“, “It Hurts to Be in Love“, and “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart“. He also wrote the early-1960s hits “Rubber Ball” recorded by Bobby Vee, “Hello Mary Lou” by Ricky Nelson, and “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals. In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Martyn Bennett (17 February 1971 – 30 January 2005) was a Canadian-Scottish musician who was influential in the evolution of modern Celtic fusion, a blending of traditional Celtic and modern music. He was a piper, violinist, composer and producer. Diagnosis of serious illness at the age of thirty curtailed his live performances, although he completed a further two albums in the studio. He died from cancer in 2005, fifteen months after the release of his fifth album Grit.

Noble “Thin Man” Watts (February 17, 1926 – August 24, 2004 DeLand, FL) was an American blues, jump blues and rhythm and bluessaxophonist. He primarily played tenor saxophone. The AllMusic journalist, Bill Dahl, considered Watts “one of the most incendiary […] fire-breathing tenor sax honkers” of the 1950s.

This Picture of the Week shows NGC 3640, an unusual elliptical galaxy 88 million light-years away. The image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, reveals a menagerie of galaxies of all shapes and sizes, ranging from slight blue smudges to the fried-egg shape of NGC 3640. But amidst this colourful cosmic neighbourhood, one thing stands out — this egg has a double yolk: a smaller galaxy that might be too close for its comfort.

Throughout their extremely long lifetime, galaxies change. As they soar through space, they may steal gas and stars from other galaxies, or even engulf and merge with them. After these events, galaxies can become distorted, as exemplified by the misshaped NGC 3640 and the diffuse light around it. The galaxy is then left with ‘scars’ that hint at a violent past, which astronomers can use to know its past and present history.

To trace the history behind this galaxy and its smaller companion, a team of astronomers at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics used the VST to analyse their globular clusters, spherical and compact aggregations of stars bound by gravity. These usually contain some of the first stars created within a galaxy and can therefore act as fossil markers, revealing the galaxy’s history, even after merging events.

The results confirm that NGC 3640 has engulfed other galaxies before, an ominous sign for the smaller galaxy now in its path, NGC 3641. Yet, this small galactic underdog shows a distinct lack of distortions in its shape or the globular clusters within. This suggests that their interaction, while fast, is not happening close enough for NGC 3640 to pose a threat. NGC 3641 might be safe… for now.

Nicole Mitchell (born February 17, 1967) is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Boniface Ferdinand Leonard “Buddy” DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014 Camden, NJ) was an American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.

Frank Grillo (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo; (February 16th or December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) known professionally as Machito (previously as Macho), was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. He was raised in Havana with his sister, singer Graciela.

In New York City, Machito formed the Afro-Cubans in 1940, and with Mario Bauzá as musical director, brought together Cuban rhythms and big band arrangements in one group. He made numerous recordings from the 1940s to the 1980s, many with Graciela as singer. Machito changed to a smaller ensemble format in 1975, touring Europe extensively. He brought his son and daughter into the band, and received a Grammy Award in 1983, one year before he died.

Machito’s music had an effect on the careers of many musicians who played in the Afro-Cubans over the years, and on those who were attracted to Latin jazz after hearing him. George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Cab Calloway and Stan Kentoncredited Machito as an influence. An intersection in East Harlem is named “Machito Square” in his honor.

Otis Blackwell (February 16, 1931 – May 6, 2002) was an American songwriter whose work influenced rock and roll. His compositions include “Fever” (recorded by Little Willie John), “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless” (recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis), “Don’t Be Cruel“, “All Shook Up“, and “Return to Sender” (with Winfield Scott; recorded by Elvis Presley), and “Handy Man” (recorded by Jimmy Jones).

Carlos Paredes ComSE ; 16 February 1925 – 23 July 2004) was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of Portuguese guitar of all-time.

Born in Coimbra, Portugal, in a family with a long tradition of guitar playing, he was taught to play the Portuguese guitar by his father, Artur Paredes. He composed numerous soundtracks for cinema and theatre, such as the soundtrack for the Portuguese film Os Verdes Anos (1963), which contains his famous piece “Canção Verde Anos”. He released several recordings as a solo artist and performed in numerous countries worldwide.

Besides his music career, Paredes also worked in the public service for most of his life. In 1958, during Portugal’s dictatorial Estado Novo regime, he was imprisoned for 18 months for joining the Portuguese Communist Party, at the time an illegal organization.