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Al Viola
Alfred Viola (June 16, 1919 – February 21, 2007) was an American jazz guitarist who worked with Frank Sinatra for 25 years. He played the mandolin on the soundtrack of the film ''The Godfather''. Biography Viola grew up in an Italian family in Brooklyn and learned to play the guitar and mandolin as a teenager. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and played in an Army jazz band from 1942 to 1945. He started a trio with Page Cavanaugh and bassist Lloyd Pratt. The band appeared in several films, including ''Romance on the High Seas'' with Doris Day, and played a few dates in 1946 and 1947 with Frank Sinatra. Viola continued to work with Sinatra regularly, accompanying him on several hundred studio recordings and concert dates between 1956 and 1980. Viola was a session musician in Los Angeles, performing in films and television. His mandolin playing can be heard on the soundtrack of ''The Godfather''. Other credits include ''West Side Story'' and '' Who's Afraid of Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelve original counties established under English rule in 1683 in what was then the Province of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, and the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the state.Table 2: Population, Land Area, and Population Density by County, New York State - 2020 New York State Department of Health. Accessed January 2, 2024. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Band Clinics, Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.Sparke, Michael. ''Stan Kenton: This is an Orchestra.'' UNT Press (2010). . Early life Stan Kenton was born on December 15, 1911, in Wichita, Kansas; he had two sisters (Beulah and Erma Mae) born three and eight years after him, respectively. His parents, Floyd and Stella Kenton, moved the family to Colorado, and in 1924, to the Greater Los Angeles Area, settling in suburban Bell, California. Kenton attended Bell High School (Bell, California), Bell High School; his high-school yearbook pict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anita O'Day
Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self-proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances that shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough", slang for money. Early career Anita Belle Colton (who later took the surname "O'Day") was born to Irish parents, James and Gladys M. (née Gill) Colton in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Colton took the first chance to leave her unhappy home when, at age 14, she became a contestant in the popular Dance marathon, Walk-a-thons as a dancer. She toured with the Walk-a-thons circuits for two years, occas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, Intonation (music), intonation, absolute pitch, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve, she recorded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
June Christy
June Christy (born Shirley Luster; November 20, 1925 – June 21, 1990) was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued a solo career from 1954 and is best known for her debut album '' Something Cool''. After her death, she was hailed as "one of the finest and most neglected singers of her time." Biography Early life Shirley Luster was born in Springfield, Illinois, United States. She moved with her parents Steve and Marie (née Crain) Luster to Decatur, Illinois, when she was three years old. She began to sing with the Decatur-based Bill Oetzel Orchestra at thirteen. While attending Decatur High School she appeared with Oetzel and his society band, the Ben Bradley Band, and Bill Madden's Band. Her first work outside of Decatur was with the Dick Cisne Orchestra of nearby Champaign, IL, performing as far away as Texas and Louisiana. After high school she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Humes
Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 13, 1981) was an American singer. She was a blues, R&B and classic popular singer. Early life Humes was born on June 23, 1913, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Emma Johnson and John Henry Humes. She grew up as an only child. Her father was one of the first Black attorneys in her hometown, and her mother was a schoolteacher. In an interview, Humes recalled her parents singing to each other around the house and in a church choir. Humes was introduced to music in the church, singing in the choir and getting piano and organ lessons given at Sunday school by Bessie Allen, who taught music to any child who wanted to learn. Humes began occasionally playing the piano in a small and locally traveling dance band, the Dandies. This constant involvement in music would lead to her singing career in the mid-1920s. Humes attended Central High School in Louisville. Career Early career Humes' career began with her first vocal performance at an amateur co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Witherspoon
James Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues and jazz singer. Early life, family and education Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. His father was a railroad worker who sang in local choirs, and his mother was a piano player. Witherspoon's grandson Ahkello Witherspoon is a cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams. Witherspoon served in the Merchant Marines until 1944. Career Witherspoon first attracted attention singing in Calcutta, India, with Teddy Weatherford's band, which made regular radio broadcasts over the US Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Having made his first gramophone record, records with Jay McShann's band in 1945, he first recorded under his own name in 1947, and two years later, still with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business", a song that came to be regarded as his signature tune. In 1950 he had hits with two more songs closely identified with him—"No Rollin' Blues" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been Music recording sales certification, certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935 – March 7, 2024) was an American singer, comedian, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop duo Steve and Eydie with his wife Eydie Gormé, and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and friend of the main characters in the 1980 film '' The Blues Brothers'' and its sequel. Steve and Eydie first appeared together as regulars on '' Tonight Starring Steve Allen'' in 1954 and continued performing as a duo until Gormé's retirement in 2009. Early life Lawrence was born on July 8, 1935, as Sidney Liebowitz to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, and his mother, Helen, was a homemaker. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School. During high school, Lawrence skipped school to spend time at the Brill Building in the hopes of being employed as a singer. Career In 1952 at the age of 16, Lawrence signed a cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie London
Julie London (born Julie Peck; September 26, 1926 – October 18, 2000) was an American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. A torch song, torch singer noted for her contralto voice, London recorded over thirty albums of pop and jazz standards between 1955 and 1969. Her recording of "Cry Me a River (Arthur Hamilton song), Cry Me a River", a song she introduced on her debut album ''Julie Is Her Name,'' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to her musical notice, London was nominated for a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award in 1974 for her portrayal of Nurse Dixie McCall in the television series ''Emergency!'' Born in Santa Rosa, California, to Vaudeville, vaudevillian parents, London was discovered while working as an elevator operator in downtown Los Angeles, and she began her career as an actress. London's 35-year acting career began in film in 1944, and included roles as the female lead in numerous Western film, Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Soul", and is often considered one of the Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Singers of All Time, greatest singers of all time. Gaye's Motown hits include "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" (1964), "Ain't That Peculiar" (1965), and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968). He also recorded duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross. During the 1970s, Gaye became one of the first Motown artists to break away from the reins of a production company and recorded the landmark albums ''What's Going On (album), What's Going On'' (1971) and ''Let's Get It On'' (1973). His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time. He has written and recorded ten singles that reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts: "Cracklin' Rosie", "Song Sung Blue", "Longfellow Serenade", "I've Been This Way Before", "If You Know What I Mean", "Desiree (song), Desirée", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (which he co-wrote with Marilyn Bergman and performed with Barbra Streisand), "America (Neil Diamond song), America", "Yesterday's Songs", and "Heartlight (song), Heartlight (co-written with Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach). A total of thirty-eight songs by Diamond have reached the top 10 on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Adult Contemporary (chart), Adult Contemporary chart, including "Sweet Caroline". He has also acted in films, maki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
