On May 18th, 1999, Rastafarian, guitarist, session musician, keyboardist, producer, composer, record executive, pioneer of Dub, frequent King Tubby collaborator, and one of the best melodica players in the world-Augustus Pablo (Horace Swaby) was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica. Pablo helped pioneer the Jamaican DJ sound system culture with his brother Dougie Swaby. They called themselves The Rockers, and these original ‘crate diggers’ would shop for new vinyl at Herman Chin-Loy’s Aquarius Records. Chin-Loy heard Augustus playing the melodica in the shop, and decided to record him. Chin-Loy also gave Augustus his name.
Chin-Loy wanted to add a sense of mystique to the musician, and had previously used the name for keyboardist/singer-Lloyd Charmers & composer/arranger Glen Adams for their instrumental recordings. Augustus recorded a few sides with the imprint during the early 1970's (The Red Sea, East Of The River Nile, and Java-which was named Swing Magazine Instrumental Song Of The Year). He had an all-star backing band featuring sound engineer Errol Thompson, Tyrone Downie on keys, Earl 'Chinna' Smith on guitar-and the trios of Aston 'Family Man' Barrett, Lloyd Park, and Fully Fullwood on bass & Carly Barrett, Lloyd 'Tin Leg' Adams, and Santa Davis on drums. When King Tubby stepped on the scene, as the producer of the album King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown LP in 1976, it served as the blueprint for the new style of reggae called Dub. Pablo was a featured guest on several reggae and dub recordings during the 70's and 80's, in addition to his own lengthy discography. Augustus Pablo was 44 years old when he passed.
| | |
On May 18th, 2004, we lost a seminal jazz musician, prolific drummer, former member of the John Coltrane Quartet/Quintet, sideman, percussionist, composer, US Army soldier, bandleader, avant-garde/free jazz pioneer, multi-genre collaborator, brother of Thad Jones (trumpeter), Hank Jones (pianist) and Eddie Jones (double bassist)-Elvin (Ray) Jones. TOV covered the artist’s birthday on the September 9th post. Please refer to it for more information. He’s most known for his work as a sideman and bandleader during the golden era of jazz (late 40s to the late 70s). He’s one of the few jazz drummers that was considered one of the best of all-time by fans and colleagues. He’s unique in that he was able to make recordings during the swing, be bop, hard bop, avant-garde/free and fusion jazz eras.
Here's his professional timeline by decade: In the 40s, Jones played with Billy Mitchell and joined the army. In the 50s, he moved to NYC and recorded with Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Art Farmer, Pepper Jones, Hank and Thad Jones (latter two brothers). He also released his recording debut as bandleader-Keepin’ Up with the Joneses. In the 60s, he started working with John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Phineas Newborn Jr. and Grant Green. In the 70s, he continued to record as a bandleader, worked closely with Art Pepper, left the John Coltrane quintet/quartet and worked with prog rockers like Oregon. Most of his best solo work is on Blue Note Records. He was 76 when he passed.
| | |
On May 18th, in 1911, seminal vocalist, songwriter, rock ‘n’ roll innovator, bluesman, multi-label recording artist, frequent collaborator with boogie-woogie jazz pianist/composer-Pete Johnson and member of the first class of musicians to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame (1987)-Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner) AKA ‘The Brawny Voice Boss of the Blues' was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He’s most known for his classic rock ‘n’ roll song-Shake Rattle & Roll (made famous by Bill Haley & His Comets and Elvis Presley). He also was a prominent figure in music. He participated in the evolution of popular Black compositions from traditional blues to big bands, then swing jazz, to jump blues, and later R&B to rock ‘n’ roll.
He performed and recorded with Count Basie, Art Tatum, and Sammy Price. The Kansas City native put the ‘Kansas City’ sound on the map from a vocal perspective. He was just as prolific of a songwriter, singer and soloist as fellow local musicians like Charlie Parker on sax and Basie on piano. Turner was voted the Male Vocalist of the Year by Esquire magazine (1945), and he also earned the Best New Vocalist award from Melody Maker magazine (1956). In 1965, the British magazine-Jazz Journal voted him the Top Male Singer of the Year. He toured Europe during the 70s. The audience there appreciated his style more so than American fans during the disco era. In 1983 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He was 74 when he passed.
| | |
HONORABLE MENTION: On May 18th, in 1922, jazz musician, trombonist, sideman, composer, arranger, bandleader and recording artist-Kai (Chresten) Winding was born in Aarhus, Denmark. TOV covered his death on the May 6th post. Please refer to it for more information. Winding is most known for his work with J.J. Johnson (trombonist), Benny Goodman (clarinet-the King of Swing), Quincy Jones (producer), Sarah Vaughan, Stan Kenton (pianist), Creed Taylor (CTI label owner/producer) and Paul Chambers (double bassist). The majority of his recordings can be found on Verve Records from the late 40s to the late 60s. He was 60 when he passed.
On May 18th, in 1949, gospel musician, pastor, pianist, composer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and younger brother of the infamous choir director Edwin Hawkins-Walter (Lee) Hawkins was born in Oakland, CA. He was an original member of Edwin’s choir-The Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ. He started his own church in the 70s-The Love Center Church (Oakland, CA). His compositions and choir often worked with Sylvester, Van Morrison, Jeffrey Osbourne (L.T.D.) and Diahann Carroll. He has a lengthy discography with over 100 charting songs. He was 61 when he passed.
On May 18th, in 1950, new wave musician, electronic music pioneer, pianist, producer, singer, guitarist, composer, author, graphic/visual artist, arranger, songwriter and founding member of Devo-Mark (Allen) Mothersbaugh was born in Akron, OH. He’s most known for his work with Devo-the new wave band that sang Whip It. He also did a lot of composing for Disney movies, shows and music for video games. He scored over 30 films during the 90s, mostly TV show theme songs and cartoons. He also is a prolific artist that creates multimedia pieces using photos, sculptures and music. He’s 69 today.
On May 18th, in 1952, country musician, singer, guitarist, actor, Western swing music innovator, Country Music Hall of Fame member, Academy of Country Music Artist of the Decade (2000) and the man that broke Conway Twitty’s record for the most number one singles on the Country Billboard chart-George (Harvey) Strait was born in Poteet, TX. He’s worked with numerous artists like: Willie Nelson, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Lee Ann Womack and Alan Jackson. He’s a 3-time Country Music Association (CMA) Entertainer of the Year winner (1989, 1990, 2013). He started singing professionally in the 70s and continues to perform to date. He’s 67.
For more information on any musician or event reviewed in posts, or for additional information on The Wandering Eyes Blog overall, use the search bar and search the artist or event using keywords. It’s like a Google search for the site. A wide variety of information, covering several topics exists on this site going back to 2013 when it was created. PEACE