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Winter Shadows

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Carolyn Hester is 86 years old today

Carolyn Hester at the Gerde’s 60th Anniversary reunion, Jan. 24, 2020

Photo by Frank Beacham

Carolyn Hester is 86 years old today.

Born in Austin, Texas, Hester is a folk singer and songwriter, and a major figure in the early 1960s folk music revival. Her first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. In 1960, she made her second album for the Tradition Records label run by the Clancy Brothers.

She became known for "The House of the Rising Sun" and "She Moved Through the Fair.”

Hester was one of many young Greenwich Village singers who rode the crest of the 1960s folk music wave. She appeared on the cover of the May 30, 1964, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

According to Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times, Hester was "one of the originals — one of the small but determined gang of ragtag, early-'60s folk singers who cruised the coffee shops and campuses, from Harvard Yard to Bleecker Street, convinced that their music could help change the world."

Hester was dubbed "The Texas Songbird" and was politically active, spearheading the controversial boycott of the television program, Hootenanny, when Pete Seeger was blacklisted from it.

After failing to convince Joan Baez to sign with Columbia Records, John H. Hammond signed Hester in 1960. However, Hammond has a different recollection of events. In his autobiography, "John Hammond on Record," he maintains that he passed on Baez "because she was asking a great deal of money while still a relatively unknown artist."

That same year Hester met Richard Fariña and they married eighteen days later. They separated after less than two years.

In 1961, Hester — in a legendary story — met Bob Dylan and invited him to play on her third album, her first on the Columbia label. Her producer, John H. Hammond, quickly signed Dylan to the label.

Hester remained relatively obscure throughout the folk music revival. She turned down the opportunity to join a folk trio with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. With Mary Travers, the trio found stardom as Peter, Paul & Mary.

Although Hester collaborated with Bill Lee and Bruce Langhorne, she concentrated exclusively on traditional material. In the late 1960s, unable to succeed as a folk-rock artist, she explored psychedelic music as part of the "Carolyn Hester Coalition," before drifting out of the music industry of the period.

Hester has disputed David Hajdu's depiction of her marriage to Fariña in his book Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña. She also identified supposed exaggerations in his description of the relationships among Dylan, Baez, Hester and the Fariñas.

Hester denies that Fariña was so close to Dylan, as some rock historians claim, and strongly disputes that Fariña was in any way responsible for Dylan’s success, as Hajdu insinuated. Hajdu also suggested that Hester had an ongoing rivalry with Baez and her sister, Mimi.

To this day, Hester maintains that, on the contrary, she did not and does not know Baez well, and that they never were rivals — personally or professionally.

In 1969, Hester married the jazz pianist-producer-songwriter, David Blume, the composer of The Cyrkle's 1966 Top 40 hit, "Turn Down Day." Together they formed the Outpost label. They also started an ethnic dance club in Los Angeles.

In the 1980s, she returned to recording and touring. She and Nancy Griffith performed Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" at Dylan's Thirtieth Anniversary Tribute Concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992.

In 1999, Hester released a Tom Paxton tribute album. She appeared on the A&E television, Biography of Bob Dylan, in August, 2000.

Blume died in the spring of 2006. Hester closed the dance club, Cafe Danssa, a year after her husband's death. She continues to perform and tour with her daughters, Amy and Karla Blume. They recorded her latest album, which was released in 2010, We Dream Forever.

She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Here, Hester performs “Once I Had a Sweetheart” in 1963

Columbia Studio A, New York City, Sept. 29, 1961

Left to right: Bruce Langhorne, Carolyn Hester, Bob Dylan, Bill Lee

Jackson Pollock was born 111 years ago today

Pollack at work as Lee Krasner watches

Jackson Pollock was born 111 years ago today.

Pollock was an influential painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his unique style of drip painting.

During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety — a major artist of his generation. Regarded as reclusive, he had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life.

In 1945, he married the artist, Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.

Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car accident in which he was driving.

In December, 1956, several months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.

“The Key” by Jackson Pollock, 1946

Mikhail Baryshnikov is 75 years old today

Baryshnikov photographs a musician at a Jazz Foundation of America event in New York City, 2006

Photo by Frank Beacham

Mikhail Baryshnikov is 75 years old today.

Baryshnikov is a Russian dancer, choreographer and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance.

After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement. He then danced with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director.

Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer.

In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film The Turning Point.

Sarah McLachlan is 55 years old today

Sarah McLachlan is 55 years old today.

A Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and pianist, McLachlan is known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range. As of 2009, she sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album was, Surfacing, in 1997.

McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians on an unprecedented scale. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place from 1997 to 1999.

It was the most successful all-female music festival in history and helped launch the careers of several well-known female artists. The festival has now been discontinued due to poor ticket sales and financial problems.

In 2014, she released Shine On and a year later a classic Christmas album.

Here, McLachlin performs “Possession”

Ronnie Scott, English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner, was born 96 years ago today

Ronnie Scott, English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner, was born 96 years ago today.

Scott (originally Ronald Schatt) was born in Aldgate, East London, into a Jewish family. He began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of 16, his claim to fame then being that he was taught to play by "Vera Lynn's father-in-law!"

Scott toured with trumpeter Johnny Claes from 1944 to 1945, and with Ted Heath in 1946. He also worked with Ambrose, Cab Kaye and Tito Burns.

Scott was involved in the short-lived musicians' co-operative, Club Eleven band and club (1948–50), with Johnny Dankworth and others. He was a member of the generation of British musicians who worked on the Cunard liner Queen Mary (intermittently from 1946 to around 1950) in order to visit New York and hear the new jazz music that was emerging directly.

Scott was among the earliest British musicians to be influenced in his playing style by Charlie Parker and other bebop musicians. In 1952, Scott joined Jack Parnell's orchestra, and from 1953 to 1956, led his own nine-piece group and quintet which featured among others Pete King, with whom he later opened his jazz club.

Scott co-led The Jazz Couriers with Tubby Hayes from 1957 to 1959, and was leader of a quartet that included Stan Tracey (1960–67). During this period, Scott also did occasional session work. His best-known work here is the solo on The Beatles' "Lady Madonna."

Scott also played on film scores, including the score for Fear Is the Key, composed by Roy Budd. Scott continued to be in demand for guest appearances in later years, such as providing the tenor sax solo on Phil Collins's 1981 hit single, "I Missed Again.”

Scott is perhaps best remembered for co-founding Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, which opened on October 30, 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was the debut of a young alto sax player named Peter King (no relation to the Peter King, who co-founded the jazz club), before later moving to a larger venue nearby at 47 Frith Street in 1965.

The original venue continued in operation as the "Old Place" until the lease ran out in 1967, and was used for performances by the up-and-coming generation of domestic musicians.

Scott regularly acted as the club's genial Master of Ceremonies, and was known for his repertoire of jokes, asides and one-liners. A typical introduction might go: "Our next guest is one of the finest musicians in the country. In the city, he's crap."

After Scott's death in 1996 at age 69, King continued to run the club for a further nine years, before selling it to theatre impresario, Sally Greene, in June, 2005.

Jack Keroauc

Photo by Fred W. McDarrah

Note by Frank Beacham

In the early 1970s, I spotted a wild photograph of Jack Kerouac at a poetry reading taken by Fred W. McDarrah. I liked it and wanted a print.

I called McDarrah on the telephone — like we did in those days — and simply asked if he would sell me a print. He said “yes,” charged $75, I sent a check and he shipped it that day.

In later years, that same Kerouac print sold for over $5,000. When I later told McDarrah the story and showed him the print he made for me, he couldn’t believe it. But his signature was on the print.

“You have one of a kind,” he said, astounded. “You’re very lucky.”

Here’s the print I bought. It was Kerouac reading in a Lower East Side loft on February 15, 1959.

Elmore James was born 105 years ago today

Elmore James was born 105 years ago today.

A blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader, James was known as "the King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.

James was born Elmore Brooks in the old Richland community in Holmes County, Mississippi (not to be confused with two other locations of the same name in Mississippi).

He was the illegitimate son of 15-year-old Leola Brooks, a field hand. His father was probably Joe Willie "Frost" James, who moved in with Leola, and so Elmore took this as his name. James began making music at the age of 12 using a simple one-string instrument ("diddley bow" or "jitterbug") strung up on a shack wall.

As a teen, he was playing at local dances under the names Cleanhead and Joe Willie James. His first marriage, circa 1942, was to Minnie Mae (maiden name unknown). He apparently never divorced her. He subsequently married twice more, to Georgianna Crump in 1947 and to a woman called Janice in 1954.

James, like many other musicians in the day, was strongly influenced by Robert Johnson, as well as by Kokomo Arnold and Tampa Red. He recorded several of Tampa's songs, and even inherited from his band two of his famous "Broomdusters," "Little" Johnny Jones (piano) and Odie Payne (drums).

There is a dispute as to whether Robert Johnson or Elmore wrote James' trademark song, "Dust My Broom.”

During World War II, James joined the United States Navy, was promoted to coxswain and took part in the invasion of Guam against the Japanese. Upon his discharge, he returned to central Mississippi and eventually settled in Canton with his adopted brother, Robert Holston. It was at this time he learned that he had a serious heart condition.

Working in Robert's electrical shop, he devised his unique electric sound, using parts from the shop and an unusual placement of two D'Armond pickups.

He began recording with Trumpet Records in nearby Jackson in January, 1951, first as sideman to the second Sonny Boy Williamson and also to their mutual friend, Wille Love. He debuted as a session leader in August with "Dust My Broom.”

It was a surprise R&B hit in 1952 and turned James into a star. He then broke his recording contract with Trumpet Records to sign up with the Bihari Brothers through their "scout," Ike Turner, who played guitar and piano on a couple of his early Bihari recordings.

A year later, his "I Believe" was another hit. During the 1950s, he recorded for the Bihari brothers' Flair Records, Meteor Records and Modern Records labels, as well as for Chess Records and Mel London's Chief Records. His backing musicians were known as the Broomdusters. In 1959, he began recording for Bobby Robinson's Fire Records label.

These include "The Sky Is Crying" (credited to Elmo James and his Broomdusters), "My Bleeding Heart," "Stranger Blues," "Look on Yonder Wall," "Done Somebody Wrong" and "Shake Your Moneymaker," all of which are among the most famous of blues recordings.

James died of his third heart attack in Chicago in 1963, just prior to a tour of Europe with that year's American Folk Blues Festival. He was 45 years old. Many electric slide guitar players will admit to the influence of James' style.

He was also a major influence on such successful blues guitarists as "Homesick James," (who was a member of Elmore's band "The Broomdusters" and featured on many of his recordings) John Littlejohn, Hound Dog Taylor and J. B. Hutto.

He also influenced many rock guitarists such as The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones (Keith Richards writes in his book that at the time he met Brian Jones, Brian called himself Elmo Lewis, and that he wanted to be Elmore James.

James was covered by blues-rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble many times in concert. The most famous of these covers is one that came by an indirect route — James' fellow bluesman Albert King recorded a cover of "The Sky Is Crying," and Stevie Ray Vaughan copied King's version of the song.

That song was also covered by George Thorogood on his second album, Move It On Over, and by Eric Clapton on his album, There's One in Every Crowd.

The most famous guitarist who admired James was Jimi Hendrix. Early in his career, Hendrix styled himself variously as “Maurice James” and subsequently as “Jimmy James.” This, according to former bandmate and recording partner, Lonnie Youngblood, was a tribute to Elmore James.

Here, James performs “The Sky is Crying”

Lewis Carroll was born 191 years ago today

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson — better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll — was born 191 years ago today.

An English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer, Carroll’s most famous writings are “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel, “Through the Looking-Glass.”

He also wrote the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky," all examples of the genre of literary nonsense.

Carroll is noted for his facility at word play, logic and fantasy. There are societies in many parts of the world (including the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States and New Zealand) dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life.

John Lennon's Instant Karma was written and recorded in a single day — 53 years ago

"I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we're putting it out for dinner."

That's the way John Lennon told the story of "Instant Karma," one of his most memorable songs as a solo artist and the third Lennon single to appear before the official breakup of the Beatles.

The only exaggeration in John's description was the part about dinner:

"Instant Karma" wasn't actually released to the public until 13 days after it was written and recorded over the course of a single Tuesday, on January 27, 1970 — 53 years ago today.

By any measure, it was one of the fastest pop songs ever to come to market.

"Instant Karma" came during a tumultuous time for John Lennon personally and for the band he was in the midst of leaving behind. The Beatles had spent the better part of 1969 trying to decide whether or not they were still a band. They abandoned recording sessions that had just begun and cancelled plans for their first live performances in more than three years.

The material for both of the band's last two albums — Abbey Road and Let it Be — was recorded that year, but Let it Be sat unreleased and without an agreed-upon producer. Lennon, meanwhile, was moving in a new direction.

"Give Peace a Chance," recorded during the famous June, 1969 "bed-in," had already come out under the name "The Plastic Ono Band," as had "Cold Turkey," his wrenching account of kicking heroin that same year.

By January, 1970, John had walked away from the Beatles, and the Plastic Ono Band was the only musical entity he considered himself part of. The January 27 session came about spontaneously. Lennon wrote the song that morning and, as he said, "I knew I had a hit record."

What got the record finished that same day and gave it an incredible sound, however, was the unexpected appearance of Phil Spector that evening in the EMI studios. After several run-throughs under Spector's direction, John said, "Suddenly we went in the room and heard what he'd done to it...it was fantastic. It sounded like there was [sic] fifty people playing."

John's happiness with the results would lead directly to Spector's taking over the dormant Let it Be project — a development that ended up driving a further wedge between Lennon and McCartney prior to the official breakup of the Beatles.

Thanks History.com

Here, Lennon performs “Instant Karma”

Jerome Kern was born 138 years ago today

Jerome Kern was born 138 years ago today.

A composer of musical theatre and popular music, Kern was one of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century.

He wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "A Fine Romance," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "All the Things You Are," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Long Ago (and Far Away)" and "Who?."

Kern collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg.

A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on — rather than rejected — earlier musical theatre tradition.

He and his collaborators also employed his melodies to further the action or develop characterization to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals.

Although dozens of Kern's musicals and musical films were hits, only Show Boat is now regularly revived. Songs from his other shows, however, are still frequently performed and adapted. Although Kern detested jazz arrangements of his songs, many have been adopted by jazz musicians to become standard tunes.

On November 5, 1945, at 60 years of age, Kern suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street.

Identifiable only by his ASCAP card, Kern was initially taken to the indigent ward at City Hospital, later being transferred to Doctors Hospital in Manhattan.

Oscar Hammerstein was at his side when Kern's breathing stopped. Hammerstein hummed or sang the song "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" from Music in the Air (a personal favorite of the composer's) into Kern's ear. Receiving no response, Hammerstein knew Kern had died.

Here, Lena Horne performs Kern’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” in the 1946 film, Till The Clouds Roll By

Bobby "Blue" Bland, blues and soul singer, was born 93 years ago today

Bobby "Blue" Bland, blues and soul singer, was born 93 years ago today.

An original member of the Beale Streeters, Bland is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues." Along with such artists as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Junior Parker, Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B.

Born in the small town of Rosemark, Tennessee, Bland later moved to Memphis with his mother. He started singing with local gospel groups there and began frequenting the city's famous Beale Street, where he became associated with an ad hoc circle of aspiring musicians named the Beale Streeters.

In 1956, Bland began touring with Junior Parker. Initially, he doubled as valet and driver, a role he reportedly fulfilled for B. B. King and Rosco Gordon. Simultaneously, Bland began asserting his characteristic vocal style.

Melodic big-band blues singles, including "Farther Up the Road" (1957) and "Little Boy Blue" (1958) reached the U.S. R&B Top 10, but Bland’s craft was most clearly heard on a series of early 1960s releases including "Cry Cry Cry," "I Pity The Fool" and the sparkling "Turn On Your Love Light," which became a much-covered standard.

Until his death, Bland continued to record new albums, perform occasional tours alone, with guitarist/producer Angelo Earl and with B.B. King. He also performed at blues and soul festivals worldwide.

Van Morrison was an early adherent of Bland (he covered "Ain't Nothing You Can't Do" on his 1974 live album, It's Too Late to Stop Now) and on occasion had Bland as a guest singer at his concerts.

He also included a previously unreleased version of a March, 2000 duet of Morrison and Bland singing "Tupelo Honey" on his 2007 compilation album, The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3.

Bland died on June 23, 2013, at his home in Germantown, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis, after what family members described as "an ongoing illness." He was 83. After his death, his son told the news media that Bland had recently discovered that musician James Cotton was his half-brother.

Here, Bland performs “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone”

G. E. Smith is 71 years old today

G.E. Smith, 2010

Photo by Frank Beacham

G. E. Smith is 71 years old today.

Smith was the lead guitarist in the band, Hall & Oates, and the musical director of Saturday Night Live. He was lead guitarist of Bob Dylan's touring band from June 7, 1988, to October 19, 1990.

Smith also served as musical director of The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden on October 16, 1992.

As a session player, Smith has performed and recorded with an exceptionally wide spectrum of influential artists. His own albums include In The World (1981), Get A Little (with the Saturday Night Live Band, 1993) and Incense, Herbs and Oils (1998).

Smith was the lead guitarist for the band, Moonalice, until December, 2009. He is recently played guitar in the traveling tour of Roger Waters' The Wall Live.

Here, Smith performs in a series of 10 second snippets on Saturday Night Live.

Skitch Henderson was born 105 years ago today

Skitch Henderson with Johnny Carson

Lyle “Skitch” Henderson was born 105 years ago today.

A pianist, conductor and composer, Henderson’s nickname ("Skitch") reportedly derived from his ability to quickly "re-sketch" a song in a different key.

Henderson started his professional career in the 1930s playing piano in the roadhouses of the American Midwest, his major break being as an accompanist on a 1937 MGM promotional tour featuring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

Henderson later said that as a member of MGM's music department, he worked with Garland to learn "Over the Rainbow" during rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz. He played piano for her first public performance of the song at a local nightclub before the film was finished.

After the war, he worked for NBC Radio, where he was the musical director for Frank Sinatra's Lucky Strike Show. He was also accompanist on Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby on the new ABC network. Henderson also played on Bob Hope's Pepsodent Show.

The origin of his nickname is often traced to this period, with Henderson crediting the invention to Bing Crosby, who said he (Henderson) should have a nickname. Crosby settled on "Skitch," which came from "The Sketch Kid," referring to Henderson's ability to quickly transcribe music to a written score.

In a career at NBC spanning 1951 to 1966, he succeeded Arturo Toscanini as music director for NBC Television and was the original conductor of the orchestras for The Tonight Show and The Today Show.

Henderson served as the original bandleader for The Tonight Show with founding host, Steve Allen, (as well as for Allen's Sunday-night variety show), then came back to Tonight after the departure of host Jack Paar and his orchestra director, José Melis.

Henderson left Tonight again in 1966, during Johnny Carson's early years as host, and was replaced first by Milton DeLugg and then trumpeter, Doc Severinsen, who headed the NBC orchestra until Carson's 1992 retirement.

In 1983, he founded The New York Pops orchestra, which makes its home at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He served as the music director and conductor of the orchestra until his death in 2005. Henderson also conducted numerous symphonic orchestras throughout the world.

Henderson died in 2005 at age 87.

In this interview with Frank Beacham backstage at the Apollo Theatre in 2002, Henderson recalled his days at NBC and the first on-air solo by a black performer, Clark Terry, in the early 1950s. He held no nostalgia for those days.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the prolific and influential composer of the classical era, was born 267 years ago today

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the prolific and influential composer of the classical era, was born 267 years ago today.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly.

While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security.

During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife, Constanze, and two sons.

He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart’s influence on Western art music is profound. Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the September 6, 1791 premiere of his opera La clemenza di Tito, written in that same year on commission for the Emperor's coronation festivities. He continued his professional functions for some time, and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on September 30.

His health deteriorated on November 20, at which point he became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain and vomiting. Mozart died in his home on December 5 1791. He was 35 years old. The cause of Mozart's death cannot be known with certainty.

The official record has it as "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever," referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine.

Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning and a rare kidney ailment. One of the most widely accepted hypotheses is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever.

Mozart in 1780 in a portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce.

Lyla Tiffany, an 80-year-old street musician, plays her accordion outside Carnegie Hall, 1960

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Lucinda Williams is 70 years old today

Lucinda Williams is 70 years old today.

A rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter, Williams recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media or the public.

In 1988, she released her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams. This release featured "Passionate Kisses," a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Known for working slowly, Williams recorded and released only one other album in the next several years (Sweet Old World in 1992) before her greatest success came in 1998, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

This album presented a broader scope of songs that fused rock, blues, country and Americana into a more distinctive style that still managed to remain consistent and commercial in sound. It went gold and was universally acclaimed by critics.

Since Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, she has released a string of albums that have also been critically acclaimed, though none have sold in the numbers of her 1998 breakthrough.

By her early 20s, Williams was playing publicly in Austin and Houston, concentrating on a folk-rock-country blend. In the 1980s, Williams moved to Los Angeles, before finally settling in Nashville.

Williams had garnered considerable critical acclaim, but her commercial success was moderate. Emmylou Harris said of Williams, "She is an example of the best of what country at least says it is, but, for some reason, she's completely out of the loop and I feel strongly that that's country music's loss."

Williams has gained a reputation as a perfectionist and slow worker when it comes to recording.

Here, Williams performs “Real Love” on Letterman, 2008

Photo by Danny Clinch

Lucinda Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the daughter of poet and literature professor, Miller Williams, and an amateur pianist. Her music is rooted in Louisiana.

In this bittersweet song, she sings about an old boyfriend in “Lake Charles,” from her 1998 album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

The song is about Lucinda's one-time boyfriend, Clyde Woodward, who died long after they'd split up.

Lucinda had married and divorced in the interim, but Woodward’s influence was so profound that when his deterioration from cirrhosis of the liver reached its final stages in August, 1991, Lucinda jumped on a plane from Los Angeles to see him before he died.

Woodward died as Lucinda was in transit and she didn't get to say goodbye.

Woodward knew the Louisiana backroads of Ville Platte, Eunice, Cankton and Sulpher. He could paint florid descriptions of crawfish boils and backwoods French dances as if he were swamp born. He was a cultural chameleon capable of conjuring jaw-dropping magic.

He knew the music of Louisiana from swamp pop to Cajun to New Orleans to zydeco to Dixieland and back. He swore no Jazz Fest was right unless you'd had a Dixie beer and softshell crab poboy for breakfast.

He taught writers how to eat like royalty at happy hour buffets for the price of a beer. He knew how to build the best barbecue pits ("you dig a big hole and get an ol 'refrigerator with the door off...") and could talk his way into the Palomino in L.A.

He acted as Lucinda's first agent. He'd bring club owners boudin and crawfish by the bagful when he and Lucinda would come back from gigs in Louisiana.

This is Clyde’s song.

Huey "Piano" Smith, a rhythm and blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll, is 89 years old today

Huey "Piano" Smith, a rhythm and blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll, is 89 years old today.

Smith’s piano playing incorporated the boogie styles of Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons as well as the jazz style of Jelly Roll Morton and the piano sound of Fats Domino.

"At the peak of his game, Smith epitomized New Orleans R&B at its most infectious and rollicking, as showcased on his classic signature tune, "Don't You Just Know It," wrote Steve Huey, a journalist for Allmusic.

Born in New Orleans' Garden District and was influenced by New Orleans' piano innovator, Professor Longhair, Smith became known for his shuffling right-handed break on the piano that influenced other Southern players.

Smith wrote his first song on the piano, "Roberson Street Boogie" (named after the street where he lived), when he was only eight years old. He performed the tune with a friend. They billed themselves as Slick and Dark.

Smith attended McDowell High and Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. When he was fifteen, Smith began working in clubs and recording records with his flamboyant partner, Eddie Jones, who rose to fame as Guitar Slim.

When he was eighteen, in 1952, he signed a recording contract with Savoy Records, which released his first known single, "You Made Me Cry." In 1953, Smith recorded with Earl King.

In 1955, Smith turned 21, and became the piano player with Little Richard's first band for Specialty Records. The same year he also played piano on several studio sessions for other artists such as Lloyd Price. Two of the sessions resulted in hits for Earl King ("Those Lonely Lonely Nights") and Smiley Lewis ("I Hear You Knocking").

In 1957, Smith formed Huey 'Piano' Smith and His Clowns with blues singer and female impersonator, Bobby Marchan, and signed a long term contract with former Specialty record producer, Johnny Vincent at Ace Records.

They hit the Billboard charts with several singles in succession, including a breakout Top Five R&B hit, "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu."

The record was issued as "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu Part 1" on the topside, (a vocal) and "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu Part 2," an instrumental, on the flip. The lyrics were written by John Vincent and the record sold over a million copies.

Their most famous single, 1958’s "Don't You Just Know It" b/w "High Blood Pressure," hit #9 on the Billboard Pop chart and #4 on the Rhythm and Blues chart. It was their second million seller.

In later years, Smith became a Jehovah's Witness and left the music industry permanently.

In 2000, Smith was honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

Here, Smith performs “Don’t You Just Know It”

Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony and inventor of the Walkman portable music player, was born 102 years ago today

Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony and inventor of the Walkman portable music player, was born 102 years ago today.

A true inventor, in the rare mold of Steve Jobs at Apple and Amar Bose, founder of Bose, Morita’s unique vision resulted in products that changed the world. Sony’s decline as a great company began and continued after Morita’s death.

Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Morita’s family was involved in sake, miso and soy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part of Tokoname City) on the western coast of Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665. He was the oldest of four siblings and his father Kyuzaemon trained him as a child to take over the family business.

Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics. In 1944, he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He was later commissioned as a lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and served in World War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partner, Masaru Ibuka, in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.

On May 7, 1946, Morita and Ibuka founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp., the forerunner of Sony) with about 20 employees. Morita's family invested in Sony during the early period and was the largest shareholder.

In 1949, the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950, sold the first tape recorder in Japan. In 1957, it produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized).

In 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony (derived from "sonus" — Latin for "sound.”)

Since the early Sony radio was slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita made his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a "pocket-sized" appearance.

In 1960, Sony produced the first transistor television in the world. In 1975, it released the first Betamax home video recorder, a year before VHS format came out.

In 1979, the Walkman was introduced, making it the world's first portable music player. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products.

Morita moved his entire family to the United States in 1963 to learn American culture. He built a valuable network by continually socializing and giving parties during the week, a habit he maintained throughout his career. Morita followed art and music and was a sports fanatic.

In his 60s, he took up wind surfing and scuba diving and started skiing to ensure good exercise through the winter. He loved to water-ski and even crafted a water-resistant microphone on a handle, connected by a wire on the ski rope to a speaker on the boat so he could relay instructions to his wife, Yoshiko.

To simply have a good time, he would invent and perfect products. The Walkman is just such an invention. Morita watched as his children and their friends played music from morning until night. He noticed people listening to music in their cars and carrying large stereos to the beach and the park.

Sony's engineering department was generally opposed to the concept of a tape player without a recording function (it would be added later), but Morita would not be denied. He insisted on a product that sounded like a high-quality car stereo yet was portable and allowed the user to listen while doing something else — thus the name Walkman.

It is this contrary vision lacking at Sony since Morita’s death.

Morita suffered a stroke in 1993, during a game of tennis. On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as Sony chairman.

On October 3, 1999, Morita died of pneumonia at the age of 78.

Paul Newman was born 98 years ago today

Paul Newman was born 98 years ago today.

Newman was an actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver, auto racing team owner and auto racing enthusiast.

He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film, The Color of Money, and eight other nominations, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Cannes Film Festival Award.

He also won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.

Newman was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of June, 2012, these donations exceeded $330 million.

Newman was one of the few actors who successfully made the transition from 1950s cinema to that of the 1960s and 1970s. His rebellious persona translated well to a subsequent generation.

Newman starred in Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). He teamed with fellow actor, Robert Redford, and director, George Roy Hill, for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).

He appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & Son (1984) and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990).

Twenty-five years after The Hustler, Newman reprised his role of "Fast" Eddie Felson in the Martin Scorsese–directed The Color of Money (1986), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He told a television interviewer that winning an Oscar at the age of 62 deprived him of his fantasy of formally being presented with it in extreme old age.

Newman announced that he would entirely retire from acting on May 25, 2007. He stated that he did not feel he could continue acting at the level he wanted to. "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me," he said.

Newman was scheduled to make his professional stage directing debut with the Westport Country Playhouse's 2008 production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, but he stepped down on May 23, 2008, citing health issues.

In June, 2008, it was widely reported that Newman had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City. Photographs taken of Newman in May and June showed him looking gaunt.

In August, after reportedly finishing chemotherapy, Newman told his family he wished to die at home. He died on September 26, 2008, aged 83, surrounded by his family and close friends.

Here is a series of clips highlighting Newman’s career

Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist, was born 115 years ago today

Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist, was born 115 years ago today.

Grappelli founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist, Django Reinhardt, in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his 80s.

For the first three decades of his career, he was billed using a Gallicised spelling of his last name, Grappelly — reverting to "Grappelli" in 1969. The latter Italian spelling is now used almost universally when referring to the violinist – even on reissues of his early work.

Grappelli was born in Paris to Italian/French parents. At six, he was accepted into Isadora Duncan's dance school, where he liked French Impressionist music.

Grappelli started his musical career busking on the streets of Paris and Montmartre with a violin. He began playing the violin at age 12 and attended the Conservatoire de Paris studying music theory (1924–28).

He made a living busking on the side until he gained fame in Paris as a violin virtuoso. He also worked as a silent film pianist while at the conservatory and played the saxophone and accordion.

Grappelli’s early fame came playing with the Quintette du Hot Club de France with Django Reinhardt, which disbanded in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II.

In 1940, a little-known jazz pianist by the name of George Shearing made his debut as a sideman in Grappelli's band. Shearing went on to enjoy a long career.

After the war, Grappelli appeared on hundreds of recordings including sessions with Duke Ellington, jazz pianists Oscar Peterson, Michel Petrucciani and Claude Bolling, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, jazz violinist Stuff Smith, Indian classical violinist L. Subramaniam, vibraphonist Gary Burton, pop singer Paul Simon, mandolin player David Grisman, classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, orchestral conductor André Previn, guitar player Bucky Pizzarelli, guitar player Joe Pass, cello player Yo Yo Ma, harmonica and jazz guitar player Toots Thielemans, jazz guitarist Henri Crolla, bassist Jon Burr and fiddler Mark O'Connor.

He also collaborated extensively with the British guitarist and graphic designer Diz Disley, recording 13 record albums with him and his trio (which included Denny Wright in its early years), and with now renowned British guitarist, Martin Taylor.

His Parisian trio of many years included guitarist Marc Fosset and bassist Patrice Carratini.

Grappelli died in Paris at age 89 after undergoing a hernia operation. He is buried in the city's famous Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Here, Grappelli joins Frankie Gavin to perform “Sweet Georgia Brown”

Kissing Couple, Hollywood, CA

Photo by WR Young

Alicia Keys is 42 years old today

Alicia Keys is 42 years old today.

A singer, songwriter, record producer and actress, Keys debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001.

Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at #1 in the United States.

Here was released in 2016, becoming her seventh R&B/Hip-Hop chart topping album.

An accomplished pianist, Keys incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment.

Here, Keys performs “Fallin” at the Manchester Cathedral

Etta James was born 85 years ago today

Etta James was born 85 years ago today.

James’ singing style spanned the blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. She bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "Roll With Me, Henry," "At Last," "Tell Mama," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and "I'd Rather Go Blind," for which she wrote the lyrics.

Born in Los Angeles to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 at the time, James’ father has never been identified. She speculated that she was the daughter of pool player Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987.

Her mother was frequently absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men, and Jamesetta lived with a series of foster parents. James referred to her mother as "the Mystery Lady.”

James received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at the St. Paul Baptist Church, in south-central Los Angeles.

Under his tutelage, she suffered physical abuse during her formative years, with her instructor often punching her in the chest while she sang to force her voice to come from her gut. As a consequence, she developed an unusually strong voice for a child her age.

Thoughout her life, she faced a number of personal problems, including drug addiction, before making a musical resurgence in the late 1980s with the album, The Seven Year Itch.

James was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal and she died on January 20, 2012, just five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California.

Her death came three days after that of Johnny Otis, the man who discovered her in the 1950s. Additionally, just 36 days after her death, her sideman Red Holloway also died.

Here, James performs “I’d Rather Go Blind (Blind Girl)” with Dr. John, 1987

Blind Willie Johnson was born 126 years ago today

Blind Willie Johnson was born 126 years ago today.

Johnson was a gospel blues singer and guitarist. While the lyrics of his songs were usually religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions and is distinguished by his slide guitar accompaniment and gravelly false-bass voice, with occasional use of a tenor voice.

Johnson, according to his death certificate, was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas. When he was five, he told his father he wanted to be a preacher and then made himself a cigar box guitar. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried soon after her death.

Johnson was not born blind, and, although it is not known how he lost his sight, Angeline Johnson told Samuel Charters that when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. According to this account, the stepmother then blinded young Willie by throwing lye in his face.

It is believed that Johnson married at least twice. He was first married to Willie B. Harris. Her recollection of their initial meeting was recounted in the liner notes for Yazoo Records's "Praise God I'm Satisfied" album.

Johnson was also said to be married to Angeline Robinson, a sister of blues artist, L.C. Robinson. No marriage certificates have yet been discovered.

Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of several Texas cities including Beaumont. A city directory shows that in 1945, a Rev. W. J. Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street, Beaumont, Texas. This is the same address listed on Johnson's death certificate.

In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed in the August/September Texas heat. He lived like this until he contracted malarial fever and died on September 18, 1945.

Several of Blind Willie Johnson's songs have been interpreted by other musicians, including "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed," "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine," "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," "John the Revelator," "You'll Need Somebody on Your Bond," "Motherless Children" and "Soul of a Man."

"Dark Was the Night" was also included on the Voyager Golden Record, copies of which were mounted on both of the Voyager Project unmanned space probes.

Carl Sagan, who was involved with the selection of the contents of the record, chose the song as he believed it properly encapsulated the essence of loneliness that mankind often faces.

Ry Cooder's slide guitar title song and soundtrack music of the Wim Wenders film, Paris, Texas (1984), was based on "Dark Was the Night."

Here, Johnson performs “Dark Was The Night”

On this day in 1986 — 37 years ago today — Albert Grossman died of a heart attack while flying on the Concorde from New York to London

Albert Grossman and Bob Dylan

Photo by David Gahr

On this day in 1986 — 37 years ago today — Albert Grossman died of a heart attack while flying on the Concorde from New York to London.

Grossman managed Bob Dylan (between 1962 and 1970), Peter, Paul and Mary, The Band, Janis Joplin, Odetta, Gordan Lightfoot, Richie Havens, The Electric Flag, Ian and Sylvia, Phil Ochs, Jsse Winchester and Todd Rundgren.

Grossman built the Bearsville Recording Studio near Woodstock in 1969 and in 1970 he founded Bearsville Records. The cover of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album was photographed at Grossman's home in Woodstock. The woman in the cover photo with Dylan, in the red trouser suit, was Grossman's wife, Sally.

Having returned to Woodstock at the end of his 1966 World Tour, Dylan was on his way home from Grossman's house in West Saugerties when he suffered the motorcycle accident that precipitated his eight-year withdrawal from touring.

In his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan describes first encountering Grossman at the Gaslight Cafe:

"He looked like Sydney Greenstreet from the film, The Maltese Falcon, had an enormous presence, always dressed in a conventional suit and tie, and he sat at his corner table. Usually when he talked, his voice was loud like the booming of war drums. He didn't talk so much as growl."

The contracts between Dylan and Grossman were officially dissolved on July 17, 1970, prompted by Dylan's realization that Grossman had taken 50 percent of his song publishing rights in a hastily signed contract. Grossman had a reputation for aggressiveness in both his method of acquiring clients and the implementation of their successes. That aggressiveness was based in large measure on Grossman's faith in his own aesthetic judgments.

He charged his clients 25 percent commission (industry standards were 15 percent). He is quoted as saying, "Every time you talk to me you're ten percent smarter than before. So I just add ten percent on to what all the dummies charge for nothing."

In negotiations, one of Grossman's favorite techniques was silence. Musician manager Charlie Rothschild said of Grossman: "He would simply stare at you and say nothing. He wouldn't volunteer any information, and that would drive people crazy. They would keep talking to fill the void, and say anything. He had a remarkable gift for tipping the balance of power in his favor."

Grossman sometimes appeared treacherously devoted to his clients' satisfaction. While wooing Joan Baez into representation, Grossman is quoted as saying, "Look, what do you like? Just tell me what do you like? I can get it for you. I can get anything you want. Who do you want? Just tell me. I'll get you anybody you want."

On this day in 1961 — 62 years ago — President John F. Kennedy became the first U.S. president to hold a live televised news conference

On this day in 1961 — 62 years ago — President John F. Kennedy became the first U.S. president to hold a live televised news conference.

From a podium in the State Department auditorium, Kennedy read a prepared statement regarding the famine in the Congo, the release of two American aviators from Russian custody and impending negotiations for an atomic test ban treaty.

He then opened the floor for questions from reporters, answering queries on a variety of topics including relations with Cuba, voting rights and food aid to impoverished Americans.

Ever since his televised presidential debate with Richard Nixon in 1960, Kennedy had been aware of the media's enormous power to sway public opinion. On that day, Kennedy had appeared rested, well-groomed and in control.

Nixon, on the other hand, was not as telegenic as Kennedy and appeared sweaty and flustered. His five o'clock shadow created more of a stir than his responses to the moderator's questions.

Kennedy knew that, in a televised news conference, his appearance would count almost as much as what he said. On this day in 1961, the president exhibited a calm demeanor and responded to reporters' questions with intelligence and decorum.

Kennedy's ability to project charm, intelligence, strength and openness defined the presidential image in the age of mass media.

Thanks History.com

Scottish poet Robert Burns was born on this day in 1759 — 264 years ago

Scottish poet Robert Burns was born on this day in 1759 — 264 years ago.

The day is still celebrated by Burns fans across the English-speaking world, with high-spirited "Robert Burns Night" feasts, featuring haggis and other Scottish delicacies, as well as enthusiastic drinking, toasting and speechmaking.

Burns, the son of a poor farmer, received little formal schooling but read extensively. A restless, dissatisfied spirit, he fell in love with a young woman, Jean Armour, in the mid-1780s. The pair endured a legal struggle and her parents resisted a marriage. Eventually, the couple had nine children, the last one born on the day of Burns' funeral.

Burns published his first poetry collection, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in 1786, and he quickly became the darling of elite Edinburgh intellectuals.

Perhaps more famous for his lively lyrics in the Scottish dialect than for his longer, more literary poems, Burns is still beloved and celebrated today as the author of the New Year's anthem, "For Auld Lang Syne."

Thanks History.com

Sleepy John Estes, blues guitarist, songwriter and singer, was born 124 years ago today

Sleepy John Estes, blues guitarist, songwriter and singer, was born 124 years ago today.

Estes was born in Ripley, Tennessee. In 1915, his father, a sharecropper who also played some guitar, moved the family to Brownsville, Tennessee. Not long after, Estes lost the sight of his right eye when a friend threw a rock at him during a baseball game.

At the age of 19, while working as a field hand, he began to perform professionally. The venues were mostly local parties and picnics, with the accompaniment of Hammie Nixon, a harmonica player, and James "Yank" Rachell, a guitarist and mandolin player. He would continue to work on and off with both musicians for more than fifty years.

Estes made his debut as a recording artist in Memphis in 1929 at a session organized by Ralph Peer for Victor Records. His partnership with Nixon was first documented on songs such as "Drop Down Mama" and "Someday Baby Blues" in 1935.

Later sides replaced the harmonica player with the guitarists, Son Bonds or Charlie Pickett. He later recorded for the Decca and Bluebird labels, with his last pre-war recording session taking place in 1941.

Estes made a brief return to recording at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1952, recording "Runnin' Around" and "Rats in My Kitchen," but otherwise was largely out of the public eye for two decades.

A fine singer, Estes had a distinctive "crying" vocal style. He frequently teamed with more capable musicians, like "Yank" Rachell, Hammie Nixon and the piano player, Jab Jones.

Estes sounded so much like an old man, even on his early records, that blues revivalists reportedly delayed looking for him because they assumed he would have to be long dead, and because fellow musician Big Bill Broonzy had written that Estes had died.

By the time he was tracked down by Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962, he had become completely blind and was living in poverty. He resumed touring and recording, reunited with Nixon and toured Europe several times and Japan, with a clutch of albums released on the Delmark Records label.

His later records are generally considered less interesting than his pre-war output. Nevertheless, Estes, Nixon and Rachell also made a successful appearance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.

Bob Dylan mentions Estes in the sleeve notes to Bringing It All Back Home in 1965.

Many of Estes' original songs were based on events in his own life or on people he knew from his home town of Brownsville, such as the local lawyer ("Lawyer Clark Blues"), local auto mechanic ("Vassie Williams' Blues") or an amorously inclined teenage girl ("Little Laura Blues").

"Lawyer Clark Blues" referenced the lawyer, and later judge and senator, Hugh L. Clarke. Clarke and his family lived in Brownsville, and according to the song let Estes “off the hook” for an offense.

He also dispensed advice on agricultural matters ("Working Man Blues") and chronicled his own attempt to reach a recording studio for a session by hopping a freight train in "Special Agent (Railroad Police Blues).”

His lyrics combined keen observation with an ability to turn an effective phrase. Some accounts attribute his nickname "Sleepy" to a blood pressure disorder and/or narcolepsy.

Others, such as blues historian Bob Koester, claim he simply had a "tendency to withdraw from his surroundings into drowsiness whenever life was too cruel or too boring to warrant full attention."

Estes suffered a stroke while preparing for a European tour, and died on June 5, 1977 at his home of 17 years in Brownsville.

His gravemarker reads:

Sleepy John Estes
".. ain't goin' to worry Poor John's mind anymore"
In Memory
John Adam Estes
Jan. 25, 1899
June 5, 1977
Blues Pioneer
Guitarist - Songwriter - Poet

Sleepy John Estes' epitaph ".. ain't goin' to worry Poor John's mind anymore" was from his song, "Someday Baby Blues."

Here, Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon perform “Corrine Corrine” in 1976

Virginia Woolf was born 141 years ago today

Virginia Woolf was born 141 years ago today.

An English writer, Woolf is one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century. During the interwar period, she was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals.

Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay, A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now called bipolar disorder.

She committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist and short story writer, was born 149 years ago today

Maugham, 1934

Photo by Carl Van Vechten

W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist and short story writer, was born 149 years ago today.

Maugham was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.

After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a doctor.

The first run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time.

During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia. All of these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.

Maugham died in 1965 at age 91 in France.

On this day in 1978 — 45 years ago — Bob Dylan’s four-plus-hour film, Renaldo & Clara, began a run in movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles

On this day in 1978 — 45 years ago — Bob Dylan’s four-plus-hour film, Renaldo & Clara, began a run in movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles.

After playing in a few more cities, the film was pulled from distribution. Later, a shorter version of the film was released. Then it disappeared. The film, to this day, remains an underground classic.

Here’s a link to Dylan performing “One More Cup of Coffee” from Renaldo & Clara, 1975

Back seat kiss, Brooklyn, circa 1950s

Photo by Bruce Davidson

John Belushi was born 74 years ago today

John Belushi was born 74 years ago today.

A comedian, actor and musician, Belushi is best known as one of the original cast members of the hit NBC sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live. He was the co-star and co-creator of the hugely successful motion picture, The Blues Brothers.

The older brother of James "Jim" Belushi, he was known for his brash, energetic style and raunchy humor. During his career he had a close personal and artistic partnership with fellow SNL comedian and author, Dan Aykroyd.

Belushi died on March 5, 1982 in Hollywood, California after overdosing on a mixture of cocaine and heroin at the age of 33.

Here, with Aykroyd, Belushi performs “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” from the Blues Brothers movie

Ernest Borgnine was born 106 years ago today

Ernest Borgnine was born 106 years ago today.

Borgnine was a film and television actor whose career spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, winning an Oscar in 1955 for Marty.

On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962–1966 series, McHale's Navy, and co-starred in the mid-1980s action series, Airwolf, in addition to a wide variety of other roles.

Borgnine earned an Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER.

He was also known for being the original voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 to 2012.

He died in 2012 at age 95.

On January 24, 1956 — 67 years ago today — Look magazine published the confessions of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi who were acquitted in the 1955 kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till

On January 24, 1956 — 67 years ago today — Look magazine published the confessions of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi who were acquitted in the 1955 kidnapping and murder of Emmett Louis Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago.

In the Look article, titled "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi," the men detailed how they beat Till with a gun, shot him and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River with a heavy cotton-gin fan attached with barbed wire to his neck to weigh him down. The two killers were paid a reported $4,000 for their participation in the article.

In August 1955, 14-year-old Till, whose nickname was Bobo, traveled to Mississippi to visit relatives and stay at the home of his great-uncle, Moses Wright.

On August 24, he went into Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi, to buy candy. At some point, he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who ran the store with her husband, Roy, who was away at the time. Till's seemingly harmless actions carried weight in an era when prejudice and discrimination against blacks was persistent throughout the segregated South.

In the early hours of August 28, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Emmett Till from his great-uncle's home. The men were soon arrested, but maintained their innocence. On August 31, Till's decomposed body was found in the Tallahatchie River.

On September 3, Till's mother held an open-casket funeral for her son, in order to bring attention to his murder. An estimated 50,000 mourners attended. Afterward, Jet magazine published graphic photos of Till's corpse.

On September 19, the kidnapping and murder trial of Bryant and Milam began in Sumner, Mississippi. Five days later, on September 23, the all-white, all-male jury acquitted the two men of murder after deliberating for little over an hour.

The jury claimed it would've reached its decision even more quickly — despite overwhelming evidence that the defendants were guilty — had it not taken a soda break. The acquittal caused international outrage and helped spark the American civil rights movement.

Milam and Bryant were never brought to justice and both later died of cancer.

In 2004, the U.S. Justice Department reopened the case amid suggestions that other people — some of whom are still alive — might have participated in the crime.

Till's body was exhumed by the FBI in 2005 and an autopsy was performed. In 2007, a grand jury decided not to seek an indictment against additional individuals.

Thanks History.com

Jools Holland is 65 years old today

Jools Holland is 65 years old today.

Holland is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was a founder of the band, Squeeze, and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music.

Since 1992, he has hosted, Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show, Hootenanny, is based.

He also regularly hosts the weekly program, Jools Holland, on BBC Radio 2, which is a mix of live and recorded music and general chat and features studio guests, along with members of his orchestra.

Canned beer made its debut on this day in 1935 — 88 years ago today

Drinking the first canned beer in 1935

Canned beer made its debut on this day in 1935 — 88 years ago today.

In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia.

Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production. By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer.

This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming.

Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's was eating into the market share of the "big three" national brewers — Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.

The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas.

After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.

Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.

Thanks History.com

Aretha Franklin restarted her career at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on the day - 56 years ago

"Respect," "Chain of Fools" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" are the passionate, gospel-charged classics with which Aretha Franklin is most closely associated.

They were enormous, career-defining hits that earned her universal and eternal acclaim as the Queen of Soul.

What some may not realize, however, is that when Aretha recorded those hits, she was already 10 years into a professional career that would have been defined very differently had it ended before January 24, 1967 — 56 years ago today.

That was the date on which Aretha Franklin's career was effectively reborn in a historic recording session at FAME Studios in Sheffield, Alabama. The road to Muscle Shoals led through Columbia Records, where Aretha Franklin languished for six years without a breakthrough hit.

Worse than that, Aretha's recordings from 1960-66 showed almost no hint of her roots in gospel music. Columbia Records was as mainstream as mainstream could get in the 1950s and 60s, and their goal was to cast Aretha as an all-around pop entertainer in the mold of Johnny Mathis.

The head of Columbia, Mitch Miller, was the man who nurtured the recording career of Doris Day, who passed on signing Buddy Holly and who led millions of Americans through songs like "Be Kind To Our Web-Footed Friends" on his proto-karaoke television show, Sing Along With Mitch.

Under Miller's guidance, the closest Aretha came to pop success was with the song, "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)," in 1961.

When her contract with Columbia expired, Franklin made the pivotal decision to sign with Atlantic Records, the label that introduced the world to Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, LaVern Baker and the Drifters.

Atlantic's Jerry Wexler knew the direction he wanted Aretha to go, and he sent her to Sheffield, Alabama, as a first step. It was there that she recorded the blues ballad, "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)," backed by the now-legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

With the lush production Columbia had forced upon her stripped away, Aretha Franklin finally began sounding like Aretha Franklin. "They made me sit down at the piano, and the hits came," Aretha would say years later of the career transformation that began at FAME Studios on this day in 1967.

Aretha Franklin died on August 16, 2018 at age 76. The cause of death was pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, or pNET.

Thanks History.com

Here, Aretha Franklin performs "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)

Aaron Neville is 82 years old today

Aaron Neville is 82 years old today.

A soul, R&B and country performer, Neville has had four Top 20 hits in the United States along with four platinum-certified albums. He has recorded with his brothers Art, Charles and Cyril as The Neville Brothers and is the father of singer/keyboards player, Ivan Neville.

Of mixed African American and Native American heritage, Neville’s music also features Cajun and Creole influences. His hits include 1991’s "Everybody Plays the Fool," which reached #8 on the Hot 100; "Don't Take Away My Heaven," "Hercules" and "Can't Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song)."

Neville's biggest solo successes have been on the Adult Contemporary chart, where "Don't Know Much," "All My Life" and "Everybody Plays the Fool" were hits. All reached #1 in eight European countries.

In August, 2005, his home in Eastern New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. He evacuated to Memphis before the hurricane hit and moved to Nashville after the storm.

In January 2013, paying tribute to the songs of his youth, Blue Note Records released Neville's My True Story, a collection of 12 doo-wop tunes, produced by Don Was and Keith Richards, with backing by musicians such as Benmont Tench and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

In October 2015, Keith Richards selected the song "My True Story" as one of his Desert Island Discs.

Neville with India Arie performed Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" during NBC's “A Concert for Hurricane Relief” on September 2, 2005