Spotlight for May 23rd:


BIRTHDAYS


1906 Libby Holman, vocals. Primarily active on the Broadway Stage
Libby Holman:
(Born... Died: Jun 18, 1971)
Cause of death: Suicide (carbon monoxide poisoning). "I always have to break a song over my back. I just can't sing a song; it has to be part of my marrow and bones and everything," Libby Holman explained in a 1966 interview. A musical and sexual revolutionary, Libby Holman succeeded at two different musical careers spanning the prohibition era of the 1920s, the second World War, and the advent of the political and social ferment of the 1960s. Strong, daring, "dark" and impetuous, this feisty Jewish woman led a rich public life touching a dizzying array of people, from Montgomery Clift, to Alice B. Toklas, to close friends Jane and Paul Bowles. From a deep sense of personal commitment to racial justice, she later made contributions to the civil rights movement as both an artist and a wealthy benefactor, helping to finance Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to India to meet Mahatma Ghandi. Known as the "Statue of Libby," she carried one of the smokiest torches of American music-hall society in the twenties and thirties and was the inventor of the strapless evening dress. Murder, millionaires, death and suicide were morbid recurrent themes in Libby Holman's life, reaching tabloid proportions. Scandal, however, was not only the operative mode of Holman's personal life; she also produced scandal on the stage, combining race, sound, and sexuality to create an aural form of "passing" which, I will argue, sought to destabilize culturally fixated notions of black and white. ~
www.echonyc.com/~women/Iss...cheper.html
--- In July 1932, Zachary Smith Reynolds, the younger son of North Carolina tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds Sr., was killed by a gunshot to the head. His wife, Broadway torch singer Libby Holman, and his close friend Ab Walker were charged with murder, though they said he committed suicide. The charges were later dropped at the request of the family, reportedly to prevent unpleasant details of Smith Reynolds' life from becoming public. ~
www.buckhead.org/gardenhil...uffie.html

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1910 Artie Shaw, Clarinet, b. New York, NY, USA. d. Dec. 30, 2004. né: Arthur Jacob Arshawsky.
AMG BIO:
Biography by Scott Yanow
One of jazz's finest clarinetists, Artie Shaw never seemed fully satisfied with his musical life, constantly breaking up successful bands and running away from success. While Count Basie and Duke Ellington were satisfied to lead just one orchestra during the swing era, and Benny Goodman (due to illness) had two, Shaw led five, all of them distinctive and memorable.

After growing up in New Haven, CT, and playing clarinet and alto locally, Shaw spent part of 1925 with Johnny Cavallaro's dance band and then played off and on with Austin Wylie's band in Cleveland from 1927-1929 before joining Irving Aaronson's Commanders. After moving to New York, Shaw became a close associate of Willie "The Lion" Smith at jam sessions, and by 1931 was a busy studio musician. He retired from music for the first time in 1934 in hopes of writing a book, but when his money started running out, Shaw returned to New York. A major turning point occurred when he performed at an all-star big band concert at the Imperial Theatre in May 1936, surprising the audience by performing with a string quartet and a rhythm section. He used a similar concept in putting together his first orchestra, adding a Dixieland-type front line and a vocalist while retaining the strings. Despite some fine recordings, that particular band disbanded in early 1937 and then Shaw put together a more conventional big band.

The surprise success of his 1938 recording of "Begin the Beguine" made the clarinetist into a superstar and his orchestra (who featured the tenor of Georgie Auld, vocals by Helen Forrest and Tony Pastor, and, by 1939, Buddy Rich's drumming) into one of the most popular in the world. Billie Holiday was with the band for a few months, although only one recording ("Any Old Time") resulted. Shaw found the pressure of the band business difficult to deal with and in November 1939 suddenly left the bandstand and moved to Mexico for two months. When Shaw returned, his first session, utilizing a large string section, resulted in another major hit, "Frenesi"; it seemed that he could not escape success. Shaw's third regular orchestra, who had a string section and such star soloists as trumpeter Billy Butterfield and pianist Johnny Guarnieri, was one of his finest, waxing perhaps the greatest version of "Stardust" along with the memorable "Concerto for Clarinet." The Gramercy Five, a small group formed out of the band (using Guarnieri on harpsichord), also scored with the million-selling "Summit Ridge Drive."

Despite all this, Shaw broke up the orchestra in 1941, only to re-form an even larger one later in the year. The latter group featured Hot Lips Page along with Auld and Guarnieri. After Pearl Harbor, Shaw enlisted and led a Navy band (unfortunately unrecorded) before getting a medical discharge in February 1944. Later in the year, his new orchestra featured Roy Eldridge, Dodo Marmarosa, and Barney Kessel, and found Shaw's own style becoming quite modern, almost boppish. But, with the end of the swing era, Shaw again broke up his band in early 1946 and was semi-retired for several years, playing classical music as much as jazz.

His last attempt at a big band was a short-lived one, a boppish unit who lasted for a few months in 1949 and included Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Don Fagerquist; their modern music was a commercial flop. After a few years of limited musical activity, Shaw returned one last time, recording extensively with a version of the Gramercy Five that featured Tal Farlow or Joe Puma on guitar along with Hank Jones. Then, in 1955, Artie Shaw permanently gave up the clarinet to pursue his dreams of being a writer. Although he served as the frontman (with Dick Johnson playing the clarinet solos) for a reorganized Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1983, Shaw never played again. He received plenty of publicity for his eight marriages (including to actresses Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Evelyn Keyes) and for his odd autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella (which barely touches on the music business or his wives), but the outspoken Artie Shaw deserves to be best remembered as one of the truly great clarinetists. His RCA recordings, which were reissued in complete fashion in a perfectly done Bluebird LP series, have only been made available in piecemeal fashion on CD.

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1920 Helen O'Connell, Vocal, b. Lima, OH, USA. d. Sept. 9, 1993, San Diego, CA, (Cancer). Died as wife of Frank DeVol Gained fame as a 1940's Big Bands vocalist with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Her duetting with singer Bob Eberly for the Dorsey band resulted in such million-selling hit records as "Green Eyes" and "Tangerine" as well as hit solo performances for (for Dorsey) like "Six Lessons from Madame LaZonga." A vivacious blonde, she also appeared with Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra in some early 1940's films. Later became a TV personality. Spouses included: 1943-1951 Clifford Smith Jr. divorced (2 daughters); 1957-1960 Tom Chamales till his death (2 daughters); 1965- 1965 Bob Paris annulled same year; and 1991-1993 Frank DeVol until her death in 1993.

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1918 Abie "Boogaloo" Ames, Blues pianist. b. Cruger, MS, USA, d. 2001. (Age 83). Ames was born in on the 'Big Egypt Plantation'. At just age 5, he began playing piano. While still a teen-ager, he moved to Detroit and formed his own band, In 1936, he toured Europe with Louis Armstrong. Sometime in the 1940s, the nickname "Boogaloo" became associated with him . Later, he was a well known figure in the "Motown Studios" (Detroit, MI), and was friendly with such other well known musicians as singer Nat "King" Cole, and pianist Erroll Garner. In 1980, Ames relocated to Greenville, MS, and became a regular performer at the local clubs and festivals. In 2000, along with Eden Brent, his protege and 1990s musical partner, Ames performed at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2001, He won the Artist's Achievement Award of the Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts in the state of Mississippi. In October 2001, Ames made his last public performance at the E.E. Bass Cultural Center in Greenville, MS, along with another of his former students, Mulgrew Miller. During his career, he also composed many tunes, one of which, "Darkness in the Delta", was composed for Cassandra Wilson's Blue Note CD tentatively titled "Belly of the Sun".


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1919 Betty Garrett, vocals. Spouse: Larry Parks (1944 - 1975 his death); 2 sons. Son Garrett is a composer; Son Andrew, is an actor.
AMG BIO:
Biography by Linda Seida
Betty Garrett was a sunny comic actress, dancer, and singer with a handful of Hollywood musicals and Broadway roles under her belt when the Communist scare of the 1950s brought her thriving career to a screeching and ugly halt. She and Larry Parks, her husband and an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and questioned about their Communist involvement. As the drama played out, a very pregnant Garrett was never called to testify, but her husband was. His admission that he had briefly belonged to the Communist party, and his refusal to name others who also belonged, earned him a spot on the Hollywood blacklist. Garrett and Parks suffered repercussions both professionally and socially.

Garrett and her husband took to the stage and appeared in stock productions. Parks never quite managed to shake the blacklist, although he did win a role in a John Houston film in 1962. Garrett managed to return to work in 1955, when she starred in My Sister Eileen, a musical by Harry Cohn. She left film work, however, because of her husband's continued status as <>persona non grata<>. Parks made a living from Real Estate ventures, while Garrett worked in television. She held recurring roles on the television series Laverne and Shirley and All in the Family.

Garrett's recordings stem mainly from her early years in film and on Broadway. Among them are the soundtracks to productions or movies from the 1940s, including On the Town, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and Something for the Boys. She has written her autobiography, Betty Garrett and Other Songs, and taken her show of the same name on tour. She also toured in a production of Breaking Up the Act, which co-starred Gale Storm and Sheree North.

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1928 Rosemary Clooney, Vocals, b: Maysville, KY, USA. d: June 29, 2002, Beverly Hills, CA, USA. A difficult childhood spent with parents Andy and Frances Clooney and relatives. Rosie, sister Betty and brother Nick were shuttled between an alcoholic father, and a mother who was often away traveling for a chain of dress shops. When Rosie was just 13, her mother left home, took the son with her, went to California and married a sailor. The two girls were left with the father. At the end of WWII, the father left home one night, with all the money, never to return. In This for Remembrance, her autobiography, Rosie described conditions which included collecting empty sodapop bottles for the deposit money, with which they could buy some food at their schools lunch program. They were about to be evicted when they won a singing audition at the local radio station, which then hired the girls (at $20/per week) for a regular late-night spot. In 1945, bandleader Tony Pastor was passing through town and hired the sisters who then toured with the band until 1948, - with Rosie staying on one more year. At age 21, Clooney headed for New York City on her own, where she was hired by Columbia Records. At Columbia, she worked with A&R man Mitch Miller, who had her record a song called "Come On-a My House," (Ross Bagdasarian music; William Saroyan lyric). It was a huge success, topped the charts, became a gold record, and made Rosemary Clooney a household name. Her career now included Radio shows and films. In 1953, she eloped with actor Jose Ferrer, 16 years her senior. The couple took up housekeeping in a Beverly Hills home once owned by composer George Gershwin, and often entertained with lavish poolside parties. Their first child was born in 1955, and by 1960, they had five children. From 1956-'57, she starred on her own TV show. However, there was a price to be paid for trying to work and still raise 5 children at the same time. That price was an addiction to tranquilizers and sleeping pills. In 1968, when her close friend Bobby Kennedy, then campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, was assassinated in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel, Clooney was standing just yards away. Perhaps it was that tragedy, together with her drug addiction, that triggered a mental collapse that occurred in public. While appearing at a Reno, NV, engagement she cursed at her audience and stalked off the stage. Subsequently, at a press conference, she announced her retirement while sobbing incoherently. She fled before a doctor could be summoned, and was later found driving on the wrong side of a dangerous mountain road. She admitted herself to the psychiatric ward of Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, remaining in therapy for many years, during which time she did some TV commercials, and worked at some local hotels. In 1976 Clooney joined Bing Crosby on his 50th anniversary tour (it was Crosby's last tour), which also became a comeback for her . Also in 1976, her sister Betty died of a brain aneurysm. As a result, Rosie created the 'Betty Clooney Center' in Long Beach, CA, a facility for treating brain-injured patients; the first of its kind in the U.S. In 1992, she received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for her contribution to American Popular Music. In November 1997, she married her longtime companion Hollywood dancer Dante DiPaolo. On December 15, 2001 she gave her last performance at the Count Basie Theatre in Redbank, NJ, and in January of 2002, she underwent lung cancer surgery at the Mayo Clinic, remaining hospitalized until early May. when she was finally able to go home to Beverly Hills. She died on June 29, 2002.
AMG BIO:
Biography by Ron Wynn & Bill Dahl
Vocalist Rosemary Clooney's rise to fame in the '50s came on the strength of songs that in many instances were without question novelty tunes; she's not a vocal improviser like Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, or Sarah Vaughan. She is an excellent lyric interpreter, has fine timing, phrases skillfully and intelligently, and performs with the dramatic quality evident among all great singers. Her background and foundation are jazz, even if her technique doesn't always adhere to rigid jazz scrutiny. She joined the Columbia roster in 1950 and made several hits for them, among them "You're Just in Love," "Beautiful Brown Eyes," "Half As Much," "Hey There," the number one hit "Come on-A My House," and "If Teardrops Were Pennies." Clooney had 13 Top 40 hits in the early '50s, among them duets with Guy Mitchell and Marlene Dietrich. The rock revolution and a decision to spend more time with her family resulted in Clooney going into semi-retirement. She returned in the late '70s, singing with renewed power and confidence while making swing-influenced dates and combo sessions for Concord. She's maintained that relationship through the '80s and '90s, doing standards, repertory albums, and demonstrating a resiliency and energy that validates her position among the fine jazz-based vocalists in American music.

READ IT ALL:
www.rosemaryclooney.com/

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1910 "Scatman" Crothers, vocal/drums, b. Terre Haute, IN, USA. d. 1986, USA. The "Scatman" had an extensive Jazz and later R&B background, performing in many clubs and on radio shows in the 1920s,'30s, and '40s. In 1948, he began a new career as a television actor, remaining an actor for the rest of his life. He had roles in such series as 'The Governor and J.J.', 'Kojak', 'Toma', and 'One of the Boys'. He was also a voice for such cartoon series as 'Hong Kong Phooey', and for 'The Harlem Globetrotters'.
AMG BIO:
www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll
Wikepedia Bio:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatman_Crothers


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1934 Robert Moog, inventor (Moog Synthesizer), b. New York, NY, USA.
AMG BIO:
Biography by Ed Hogan
Electronic music pioneer Bob Moog, creator of the Minimoog synthesizer revolutionized the sound and the role of keyboardists. Before Moog's invention, synthesizers were big, unruly instruments that could easily take up a whole room (laboratory). Unveiled in 1970, the Minimoog was the first, easily-portable synthesizer and brought what had been lab-bound electronic music to the masses and the stage; thus laying the foundation for the latter-day keyboard and MIDI-based marvels.

Born in 1934 in New York City, Moog (rhymes with vogue) took piano lessons as a child. During his teens, he built Theremins (the electronic sound instrument used to make the high-pitched eerie squeals in '50s-era sci-fi/horror movies). In 1957, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Queens College, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a Ph. D. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University. In 1954, Moog founded the R. A. Moog Company as a part-time business, designing and building electronic musical instruments in a small apartment with his wife. The company became a full-time business in 1964, the year it introduced a line of electronic music synthesis equipment.

Artist/engineer Wendy Carlos purchased one of Moog's instruments and used it to create the groundbreaking Switched on Bach album. Certified gold, the LP peaked at number ten pop in spring 1969. It's success caused the demand for Moog's instruments to soar. His line expanded to include the Polymoog, the Multimoog, the Memorymoog, and the strap-on Liberation. In 1971, the name of the company was changed to Moog Music, Inc. Two years later, the company became a division of Norlin Music, Inc., with Moog serving as president of Moog Music until 1977. From 1984 to 1988, Moog was a full-time consultant and Vice President of New Product Research for Kurzweil Music Systems.

Moog's career is sprinkled with awards: honorary doctorates from Polytechnic University (New York and Lycoming College, the Silver Medal of The Audio Engineering Society, the Trustee's Award of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Bilboard Magazine Trendsetter's Award, and the SEAMUS award from the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the United States. He has written and spoken widely on topics related to music technology and contributed articles to the Encyclopedia Brittancia and the Encyclopedia of Applied Physics. The Moog family moved from New York State to western North Carolina in 1978. There he founded Big Briar, Inc., where he continued to design and building novel electronic music equipment.

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Noteable Events occuring this date include:


1934. Fugitives Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde (Barrow), caught in a police ambush near Sailes, Louisiana, were killed in a fusillade of 187 bullets. Photos showed their lifeless bodies still clutching a shotgun and a revolver, and there was also a saxophone in their car. (One wonders - which was the more dangerous weapon. )

1938. Singer Ray Eberle became bandleader Glenn Miller's vocalist, - for $35 a week.

1940. Tommy Dorsey Orchestra recorded "I'll Never Smile Again", with Frank Sinatra doing the vocal.

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Songs Recorded/Released this date include:


1940 "I'll Never Smile Again", - Tommy Dorsey Orch. (Frank Sinatra's first major voc.)

1941 "Yours", - JImmy Dorsey

1952 "Somewhere Along The Way", - Nat King Cole

1952 "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", - Johnnie Ray