| 1888 | George 'Pop' Hamilton, Traditional jazz trumpeter, string bassist and alto horn player from New Iberia, Louisiana. His son, Lumas, was also a musician and played in two bands with him. At the turn of the century until 1920, he played with Bunk Johnson, Lawrence Duhe', and Evan Thomas and later with Chris Kelly and Sam Morgan. 'Pop' led the 'Lyons Brass Band' in the late twenties. In 1930 he organized and led the 'Pop Hamilton Orchestra' through the Depression years.
(137) |
| 1899 | Mezz Mezzrow, Clarinetist who was actually most significant for writing his colorful and somewhat fanciful memoirs, "Really the Blues", and for being a reliable supplier of marijuana in the 1930s and '40s. In the 1920s, he was part of the Chicago jazz scene. He moved to France and died in 1972.
(126) |
| 1900 | Elmer Snowden, A fine banjo player who was the original leader of the Washingtonians, a group that would become the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Snowden had met Ellington in 1919 and before that he had worked with Eubie Blake in Baltimore. He died in 1973.
(125) |
| 1915 | Lee Wiley, She earned notice as one of the best early jazz singers by recognizing the superiority of American popular song and organizing a set of songs around a common composer or theme. She died in 1975.
(110) |
| 1920 | Yusef Lateef, By the 1950s he was one of the top flutists around. He also developed into the best jazz soloist to date on oboe, an occasional bassoonist and introduced such instruments as the argol (a double clarinet that resembles a bassoon), shanai (a type of oboe) and different types of flutes.
(105) |
| 1925 | Ernest Thibodeaux, He played rhythm guitar, fiddle, bass fiddle, and drums from Jennings, Louisiana. Between 1982 to 1990, he had his own band called The Pine Grove Boys. He became a member of the Cajun French Music Association Hall of Fame in 1999.
(100) |
| 1934 | Abdullah (Dollar Brand) Ibraham, Pianist who's fused the melodic sounds of South Africa with the improvisation of jazz and the technical proficiency of classical music.
(91) |
| 1940 | John Lennon, Guitarist, singer and songwriter for the popular group 'The Beatles'. Out of all the Beatles, he had the most interesting and frustrating solo career. He was capable of inspired, brutally honest songwriting and he also had a tendency to rest on his laurels, churning out straight-ahead rock & roll without much care. But the extremes, both in his music and his life, were what made him fascinating. He died tragically when he was gunned down in 1980.
(85) |
| 1943 | Ronnie Barron (Ronald Raymond Barrosse), An actor, keyboardist, organist, and white soul and a native of Algiers, Louisiana. Barron met Mac Rebennack in 1958 and performed with him at several venues around New Orleans. During that period, he created the Reverend Ether persona. Rebennack loved the gimmick, and wanted Barron to become Dr. John. Ronnie was hired by Sonny and Cher in 1965, and relocated to California to become a session musician, and left the Reverend Ether character behind. He died in 1997 from complications of heart problems at the age of 53.
(82) |
| 1944 | John Entwistle, Bassist for the super rock group "The Who". is He's probably the most influential bassist in rock music. Before he came along as a member of the Who, bassists seldom stood out for their playing and few casual listeners knew or cared what purpose the four-stringed instrument served. After he came along, everyone knew. He died in 2002.
(81) |
| 1948 | Jackson Browne, He was the quintessential singer and songwriter of the early '70s. Only Joni Mitchell and James Taylor ranked alongside him in terms of influence.
(77) |
| 1948 | Dave Samuels, A talented vibraphonist and marimba player, he gained his greatest fame for his many years with Spyro Gyra.
(77) |
| 1954 | James Fearnley, Musician with 'The Pogues'.
(71) |
| 1961 | Kurt Neumann, Guitarist, singer and songwriter who rose to prominence when he and fellow singer, songwriter and guitarist Sammy Llanas formed the BoDeans in Waukesha, WI.
(64) |
| 1969 | P.J. Harvey, During the early-'90s alternative rock explosion, several female singer and songwriters rose to prominence, but few were as distinctive or as widely praised as Polly Jean Harvey. Over the course of three albums, she established herself as one of the most individual and influential songwriters of the '90s.
(56) |
