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Nick Fatool
Nick Fatool (January 2, 1915 – September 26, 2000) was an American jazz drummer. Music career He was born in Millbury, Massachusetts, United States. Fatool first played professionally in Providence, Rhode Island, which he followed with time in Joe Haymes's band in 1937 and Don Beston's in Dallas soon after. In 1939, he played with Bobby Hackett briefly, and then became a member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra. He became one of the most visible drummers of the 1940s, playing with Artie Shaw (1940–41), Alvino Rey (1942–43), Claude Thornhill, Les Brown, and Jan Savitt. In 1943, he moved to Los Angeles and took work as a session musician, recording profusely. Credits include Harry James, Erroll Garner (1946), Louis Armstrong (1949, 1951), Jess Stacy, Tommy Dorsey, Matty Matlock, John Scott Trotter and Glen Gray. He began an association with Bob Crosby, playing with him regularly between 1949 and 1951 and occasionally with Crosby's Bobcats into the 1970s. Between January 7, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Chorus
''Second Chorus'' is a 1940 Hollywood musical comedy film starring Paulette Goddard and Fred Astaire and featuring Artie Shaw, Burgess Meredith and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw, Bernie Hanighen and Hal Borne, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by H. C. Potter and produced independently for Paramount Pictures by Boris Morros, with associate producers Robert Stillman and (uncredited) Fred Astaire. The film's copyright expired in 1968 and it is now in the public domain. Plot Danny O'Neill (Fred Astaire) and Hank Taylor (Burgess Meredith) are friends and rival trumpeters with "O'Neill's Perennials", a college band. Both have managed to prolong their college careers by failing seven years in a row. At a performance, Ellen Miller (Paulette Goddard) catches both Danny's and Hank's eyes. However, she serves them a summons notice for her boss, a debt collector, but the fast-talking O'Neill and Taylor soon have her working as their manager, where her b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Session Musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a tour. Session musicians are usually not permanent or official members of a musical ensemble or band. They work behind the scenes and rarely achieve individual fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders. However, top session musicians are well known within the music industry, and some have become publicly recognized, such as the Wrecking Crew, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Funk Brothers who worked with Motown Records. Many session musicians specialize in playing common rhythm section instruments such as guitar, piano, bass, or drums. Others are specialists, and play brass, woodwinds, and strings. Many session musicians play multiple instruments, which lets them play in a wider range of musical situations, genres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy May
Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet'' (1966), '' The Mod Squad'' (1968), ''Batman'' (with ''Batgirl'' theme, 1967), and '' Naked City'' (1960). He collaborated on films such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1981), and orchestrated '' Cocoon'', and '' Cocoon: The Return'', among others. May wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Yma Sumac, Nat King Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s comedy music albums. As a trumpet player in the 1940s Big Band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and " Boom Shot", with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 11, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. Early life and education Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Michigan. While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for another woman. They did not hear of him again until they received a telegram in 1937, informing them of his suicide. Betty and her older sister, Marion Hutton, Marion, were raised by her alcoholic mother, who took the surname Hutton. Marion was later billed as the actress Sissy Jones. The three started singing in the family's speakeasy when Betty was 3 years old. Troubles with the police kept the family on the move. They eventually landed in Detroit, Michigan, Detroit, where she attended Foch Intermediate School. On one occasion, when Betty, preceded by a police escort, arrived at the premiere of ''Let's Dance (1950 film), Let's Dance'' (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Russell (singer)
Andy Russell (born Andrés Rábago; September 16, 1919 – April 16, 1992) was an American popular vocalist, actor, and entertainer of Mexican descent, specializing in traditional pop and Latin music. He sold 8 million records in the 1940s singing in a romantic, baritone voice and in his trademark bilingual English and Spanish style. He had chart-busters, such as " Bésame Mucho", "Amor", and " What a Diff'rence a Day Made". He made personal appearances and performed on radio programs, most notably '' Your Hit Parade'', in several movies, and on television. During this initial phase of his career, his popularity in the United States rivaled that of crooners Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. In 1954, he relocated to Mexico where he became a star of radio, television, motion pictures, records and nightclubs. He toured extensively throughout Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Cuba, and hosted the television variety program ''El Show de Andy Russell'' in Argentina from 1956 to 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, comedian, television producer, southern gospel singer and writer whose career spanned seven decades in music and television. Known for his Southern drawl, his characters with a folksy-friendly personality, as well as his gruff but friendly voice, Griffith was a Tony Award nominee for two roles. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's film '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957) and '' No Time for Sergeants'' (1958) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead roles of Andy Taylor in the sitcom '' The Andy Griffith Show'' (1960–1968) and Ben Matlock in the legal drama '' Matlock'' (1986–1995). Early life and education Griffith was born on June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the only child of Carl Lee Griffith and his wife, Geneva (née Nunn). As a baby, Griffith lived with relatives until his parents could afford to buy a home. With neither a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Crosby
George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the younger brother of famed singer and actor Bing Crosby. On TV, Bob Crosby guest-starred in ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show''. He was also a regular cast member of '' The Jack Benny Program,'' on both radio and television, taking over the role of bandleader after Phil Harris' departure. Crosby hosted his own afternoon TV variety show on CBS, ''The Bob Crosby Show'' (1953–1957). Crosby received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for television and radio. Early years Crosby was born in Spokane, Washington, to bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Catherine "Kate" Harrigan, the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland. The couple had seven children: Larry, Everett, Ted, Harry (popularly known as Bing Crosby), Catherine, Mary Rose, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Gray
Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.'' The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. Borgman, October 2006, page 1 Early years Gray was born to Lurdie P. and Agnes (Gray) Knoblauch in Roanoke, Illinois, United States. His father was a saloon keeper and railroad worker who died when Glen was two years of age. He had an older sister. His widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner, and moved her family to Roanoke. Gray graduated from Roanoke High School, in 1917 where he played basketball and acquired his nickname, "Spike". Career Gray attended the American Conservatory of Music in 1921 but left during his first year to go to Peoria, Illinois, to play with George Haschert's orchestra. From 1924 to 1929, he played with several orchestras in Detroit, Michigan. Gray served as leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Scott Trotter
John Scott Trotter Jr. (June 14, 1908 – October 29, 1975), also known as "Uncle John", was an American arranger, composer and orchestra leader. Trotter was best known for conducting the John Scott Trotter Orchestra which backed singer and entertainer Bing Crosby on record and on his radio programs from 1937 to 1954. He also worked with Vince Guaraldi on the score for ''Peanuts'' animated television specials and feature films between 1966 and 1975. Early life Trotter was born John Scott Trotter, Jr. on June 14, 1908, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born to parents John Scott Trotter (June 26, 1881 – August 8, 1949) and Lelia Trotter (née Bias) (May 10, 1885 – July 7, 1965). Trotter attended local schools in Charlotte. He studied piano under Ida Moore Alexander. In 1925, Trotter entered the University of North Carolina, where he began his career as a professional musician playing piano for a college band led by Hal Kemp. Kemp had entered the university ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matty Matlock
Julian Clifton "Matty" Matlock (April 27, 1907 – June 14, 1978) was an American Dixieland jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and arranger. Early years Matlock was born in Paducah, Kentucky, April 27, 1907, and raised in Nashville beginning in 1917. He began playing clarinet when he was 12. Career From 1929 to 1934, Matlock replaced Benny Goodman in the Ben Pollack band doing arrangements and performing on clarinet. Matlock was one of the main arrangers for Bob Crosby's band. He had joined Crosby's group in 1935 as clarinettist, playing with both the main Crosby band and the smaller Bobcats group, but "he was often seconded to write full-time for the orchestra and the Bobcats." He stayed with Crosby until the band broke up in 1942. Matlock's entry in ''The Rough Guide to Jazz'' says of him (in part): "Matty Matlock was, with Irving Fazola, the most inspired and spontaneous clarinettist in the Dixieland style, and as a truly original arranger he perfected the sound of 'arranged whit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". His technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as " Opus One", " Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again". Early life Born in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was the second of four children born to Thomas Francis Dorsey Sr., a bandleader, and Theresa (née Langton) Dorsey. He and Jimmy, his older brother by slightly less than two years, became know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jess Stacy
Jesse Alexandria Stacy (August 11, 1904 – January 1, 1995) was an American jazz pianist who gained prominence during the swing era. He is perhaps best known for his years with the Benny Goodman band during the late 1930s, particularly his performance at Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert in 1938. Early life Stacy was born in Bird's Point, Missouri, United States, a small town across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois. His first piano teacher was Mabel Irene Bailey, who played piano for silent movies. In 1918 Stacy moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He received his only formal music training with Clyde Brandt, a professor of piano and violin at Southeast Missouri State Teachers College ( Southeast Missouri State University)Allen, Steve. "The Return of Jess Stacy", unknown newspaper, undated. Jess Stacy Collection, Box 1036, Folder 7, Item B, Special Collections and Archives, Kent Library, Southeast Missouri State Universitybut see 'Discussion' while sweeping at Clark's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
