Theodore Roethke (1908 - 1963)

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan and grew up on the west side of the Saginaw River. His father, Otto, was a German immigrant, a market-gardener who owned a large local 25 acre greenhouse, along with his brother (Theodore’s uncle). Much of Theodore’s childhood was spent in this greenhouse, as reflected by the use […]

Richard Bong (1920 - 1945)

Richard Bong’s ability as a fighter pilot was recognized at training in northern California. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and awarded his pilot wings on January 19, 1942. His first assignment was as an instructor (gunnery) pilot at Luke Field, Arizona from January to May 1942. His first operational assignment was on May 6 […]

Sidney Burbank (1807 - 1882)

Sidney Burbank was born in Lexington, Massachusetts in October 1807, the son of Lt. Col. Sullivan Burbank, an officer in the US Army since the War of 1812. Sidney Burbank attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating 17th in a class of 46 in 1829. Burbank was assigned to the […]

Daniel Theron (1872 - 1900)

Daniel Theron became a Boer Army Captain and was put in charge of organizing and leading the Boer Intelligence scouts, the Theron se Verkenningskorps (TVK) (Theron’s Reconnaissance Corps). To save horses for combat, he developed the use of bicycles for despatch and reconnaissance. His 105 recruits were equipped with various items including revolvers, binoculars and sometimes […]

Jonathan Demme (1944 - 2017)

Jonathan Demme broke into feature film working for exploitation film producer Roger Corman early in his career, co-writing and producing Angels Hard as They Come (1971), a motorcycle movie very loosely based on Rashomon, and The Hot Box (1972). He then moved on to directing three films for Corman’s studio New World Pictures: Caged Heat […]

Gordon Langford (1930 - 2017)

Gordon Langford won an Ivor Novello Award for best light music composition for his March from the Colour Suite in 1971. He is perhaps best known as a brass band composer and arranger, with a string of CDs to his name. In particular, the test pieces Facets of Glass and Rhapsody for trombone are well […]

Eddie Macon (1927 - 2017)

Eddie Macon was a track star at Edison High School. He was drafted into the United States Army during World War II in 1945, and was stationed for seven months at Yokohama, Japan after the war’s conclusion. Upon returning to the United States, he joined the San Joaquin Delta College track team, before transferring to […]

Erin Moran (1960 - 2017)

Erin Moran’s first acting role was at the age of five, in a television commercial for First Federal Bank. At the age of six, she was cast as Jenny Jones in the television series Daktari, which ran from 1966 to 1969. She made her feature-film debut in How Sweet It Is! (1968) with Debbie Reynolds, […]

Kathleen Crowley (1929 - 2017)

Born on December 26, 1929 in Green Bank, New Jersey as Betty Jane Crowley, she graduated from Egg Harbor High School in 1946. On August 7, 1949, the 19-year-old Crowley won the title of Miss New Jersey at a contest held at Asbury Park. As the winner, she entered the Miss America pageant held in […]

Curtis Mayfield (1942 - 1999)

Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. He first achieved success and recognition with the Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, and later worked as […]

Marv Johnson (1938 - 1993)

Marv Johnson was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1938. He began his career singing with a doo-wop group, the Serenaders, in the mid-1950s. With budding talents not only as a singer but also as a songwriter and pianist, he was discovered by Berry Gordy while Johnson performed at a carnival. Gordy had already decided to form […]

Jimmy Ruffin (1936 - 2014)

In 1966, Jimmy Ruffin heard a song about unrequited love written for The Spinners, and persuaded the writers that he should record it himself. His recording of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” became a major success. The song reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B Chart. It also initially reached […]

Billy Davis (1932 - 2004)

Roquel “Billy” Davis (July 11, 1932 – September 2, 2004), of Detroit, was an American songwriter, record producer, and singer. Davis was also known as a writer/producer of commercial jingles, mostly for Coca-Cola. He was also known as Tyran Carlo on writing credits. Early in his career in Detroit, Billy Davis sang and wrote with an […]

Gwen Gordy (1927 - 1999)

Gwen Gordy was born to Berry Gordy Sr. (or Berry Gordy II) and Bertha Ida (née Fuller) Gordy in Detroit. She was the youngest of the four Gordy sisters (Esther, Anna and Loucye) and the third youngest of the entire family(brothers Berry and Robert were born after her). Following graduation from high school, Gwen owned the […]

Wilton Felder (1940 - 2015)

Wilton Lewis Felder (August 31, 1940 – September 27, 2015) was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of The Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders. Wilton Felder was born in Houston, Texas and studied music at Texas Southern University. Felder, Wayne Henderson, Joe Sample, and Stix Hooper […]

Johnny Bristol (1939 - 2004)

Johnny Bristol first came to local attention in the Detroit area as a member of the soul duo ‘Johnny & Jackey’ with Jackey Beavers, an associate Bristol met while in the US Air Force. The pair recorded two singles in 1959 for Anna Records, a label owned by Gwen Gordy (Berry Gordy’s sister) and Billy […]

Marshall Thompson (1925 - 1992)

Marshall Thompson was born James Marshall Thompson in Peoria, Illinois. He and his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Laurence B. Thompson, moved to California when he was one year old. Thompson enrolled at Occidental College with plans to become a dentist. He attended University High School where he was a classmate of Norma Jean Baker, later […]

Sylvia Moy (1938 - 2017)

Born and brought up on the northeast side of Detroit, Sylvia Moy studied and performed jazz and classical music at Northern High School, before she was seen performing in a club in 1963 by Marvin Gaye and Mickey Stevenson. She was given recording and songwriting contracts by Motown, but was urged to prioritize her songwriting […]

Hari Rhodes (1932 - 1992)

In 1960, Hari Rhodes appeared in five television series: General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan; The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, Have Gun, Will Travel, starring Richard Boone, The Westerner, starring Brian Keith, and in two episodes of Adventures in Paradise, starring Gardner McKay. In 1961, he was cast in an episode of ABC’s […]

Yale Summers (1933 - 2012)

Born in Manhattan, Yale Summers made his acting debut in the 1961 film, Mad Dog Coll, playing a small unbilled role. The remainder of his career was almost entirely occupied with television. He appeared in a recurring role on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital, as Dr. Bob Ayres during the 1964-1965 television season. His […]

Ferenc Fricsay (1914 - 1963)

Ferenc Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner. With these and other faculty at the Budapest Academy of Music he studied piano, violin, clarinet, trombone, percussion, composition and conducting. Ferenc Fricsay made his first appearance as a conductor at age 15, […]

Helmut Zacharias (1920 - 2002)

Helmut Zacharias was born in Berlin. His father Karl was a violinist and conductor, and his mother was a singer. He started having lessons from his father at the age of 2 and a half and at 6 he played at the Faun club, a cabaret venue on the Friedrichstraße in Berlin. At the age […]

Mantovani (1905 - 1980)

Mantovani was born in Venice, Italy, into a musical family. His father, Bismarck, served as the concertmaster of La Scala opera house’s orchestra in Milan, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The family moved to England in 1912, where young Annunzio studied at Trinity College of Music in London. After graduation, he formed his own […]

Billy Eckstine (1914 - 1993)

Billy Eckstine’s paternal grandparents were William F. Eckstein and Nannie Eckstein, a mixed-race, married couple who lived in Washington, D.C.; both were born in 1863. William F. was born in Prussia and Nannie in Virginia. His parents were William Eckstein, a chauffeur, and Charlotte Eckstein, a seamstress of note. Eckstine was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; […]

Wes Montgomery (1923 - 1968)

Wes Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to NPR Jazz Profiles “The Life and Music Of Wes Montgomery”, the nickname “Wes” was a child’s abbreviation of his middle name, Leslie. He came from a musical family; his brothers, Monk (double bass and electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone and piano), were jazz performers. The brothers […]

Erroll Garner (1923 - 1977)

Erroll Garner (June 15, 1923 – January 2, 1977; some sources say 1921) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad “Misty”, has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him “one of the most distinctive of all pianists” and a “brilliant […]

Norrie Paramor (1914 - 1979)

Although the term “producer” was not in circulation at the time Paramor started producing records (the usual term being Artiste and Repertoire Manager, or A&R man), he effectively began this role in 1952 when he became Recording Director for EMI’s Columbia Records. As well as being producer for Cliff Richard and the Shadows, he produced […]

Joe Williams (1918 - 1999)

Joe Williams worked as a singer and bouncer in Chicago in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He began singing professionally as a soloist in 1937. He sometimes sang with big bands: from 1937 he performed with Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra, and also toured with Les Hite in the Midwest. In 1941 he toured […]

Milt Jackson (1923 - 1999)

Milt Jackson was born on January 1, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. Like many, he was surrounded by music from an early age, particularly that of religious meetings: “Everyone wants to know where I got that funky style. Well, it came from church. The music I heard […]

Zoot Sims (1925 - 1985)

John Haley “Zoot” Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto and later soprano. He first gained attention in the “Four Brothers” sax section of Woody Herman’s big band, after which he went on to a long solo career, often in partnership with fellow […]