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Bill LaVorgna
William A. LaVorgna (1933–2007) was an American traditional pop and jazz musician (drums) who for many years was musical director for American actress, dancer and singer, Liza Minnelli. Life and work LaVorgna took up the drums as a child. He attended Paterson Central High School, from which he graduated in 1951. He then studied at New York University, where he earned degrees in music education and music. According to his wife, LaVorgna was never without work as a studio musician, having performed in an estimated 10,000 recording sessions over his career. His first recordings were made in the early 1960s with jazz guitarist Tony Mottola. Beginning with Pat Boone, LaVorgna began a long career in the pop music field, working with singers such as Eddie Fisher, Bobby Darin, Judy Garland, James Brown, the Four Seasons, and The Toys, ringing up 19 million-sellers and many number one records. In the field of jazz LaVorgna was involved in 35 recording sessions between 1961 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey County Map New Jersey Department of State. Accessed July 10, 2017. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 159,732, rendering it New Jersey's List of municipalities in New Jersey, third-most-populous city. The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 157,794 in 2021, ranking the city as the List of United States cities by population, 163rd-most-populous in the country. Paterson is known as the Silk City for its dominant role in silk production during the latter half of the 19th century.Thoma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood films. According to ''Billboard'', Boone was the second-biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley, and was ranked at No. 9 in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955–1995. Until the 2010s, Boone held the ''Billboard'' record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week. At the age of 23, Boone began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom'', which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers, including Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey, and Johnny Mathis, made appearances on the show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin Stamm
Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter. Career Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band. He was a member of Stan Kenton's Mellophonium Orchestra from 1961 to 1963, then worked with Woody Herman from 1965 to 1966. Following this he was with The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1966 to 1972 and with Benny Goodman from 1974 to 1975. In the 1970s, he began a decades-long career as a prolific studio and session musician. In the studio he has recorded with Paul McCartney, Average White Band, Bill Evans, Quincy Jones, Donald Fagen, Oliver Nelson, Duke Pearson, Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington, Jr., Patrick Williams, Michel Legrand, Lena Horne, Frank Foster, Paul Desmond, Frankie Valli, Deodato, Les DeMerle, and George Benson. He played the flugelhorn solo on "Uncle Alber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanky McFarlane
Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (born June 19, 1942) is an American singer best known for fronting the vocal group Spanky and Our Gang in the late 1960s. She was nicknamed "The Queen of Sunshine Pop". Early years In 1959, McFarlane arrived in Chicago from Bloomington, Illinois. She started performing with such jazz greats as Lil Hardin Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Little Brother Montgomery, working the jazz clubs. She soon got involved with the burgeoning folk crowd and formed a trio with Roger McGuinn and Guy Guilbert called the Old Town Trio, playing the local bars and coffee houses for a summer. In 1962, she joined the New Wine Singers. Fellow singer Arnie Lanza nicknamed her Spanky because of the similarity of her last name, McFarlane, to the last name of child actor George McFarland who played Spanky in the Our Gang Comedies. The nickname stuck. The New Wine Singers performed folk songs the first half of their set, then dropped the guitars and banjo, picked up a trombone, coronet, dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began taking lessons at a local music shop. His heroes on the alto saxophone included Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges. He studied music with Lennie Tristano at the Manhattan School of Music and at the Juilliard School. His friend, Joe Lopes, coached him on clarinet as there was no saxophone major at Juilliard at the time and received a bachelor’s degree in 1952. Although he did not copy Charlie Parker, Woods was known as the New Bird, a nickname also given to other alto saxophone players such as Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley. In the 1950s, Woods began to lead his own bands. Quincy Jones invited him to accompany Dizzy Gillespie on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department. A few years later he toured Europe with Jones, and in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for his chromatic harmonica playing, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz".Gioia, Ted. ''The History of Jazz'', Oxford Univ. Press (2011) p. 382 He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.Morton, Brian, and Cook, Richard. ''The Penguin Jazz Guide: the History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums'', Penguin UK, (2010) ebook. His first professional performances were with Benny Goodman's band when they toured Europe in 1949 and 1950. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1951, becoming a citizen in 1957. From 1953 to 1959 he played with George Shearing, and then led his own groups on tours in the U.S. and Europe. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Free
Hot Butter were an American instrumental band fronted by the keyboard player and studio musician Stan Free. The other band members were John Abbott, Bill Jerome, Steve Jerome, and Danny Jordan and Dave Mullaney. They were best known for their 1972 version of the Moog synthesizer instrumental hit "Popcorn", originally recorded by its composer, Gershon Kingsley, in 1969. The track became an international hit, selling a million copies in France, 250,000 in the United Kingdom, and over two million globally. History The group released two albums, ''Hot Butter'' (Musicor MS-3242; 1972) and ''More Hot Butter'' (Musicor MS-3254; 1973), primarily of covers, on LP issued by Hallmark Records. The two albums were compiled on CD as ''Popcorn'' on the Castle Music label in 2000 (with an album cover from the 1974 Australian release of ''More Hot Butter'' titled ''Moog Hits'', depicting the five other band members immersed in melted butter produced by Free's synthesizer), though several tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Most
Samuel Most (December 16, 1930 – June 13, 2013) was an American jazz flutist, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, based in Los Angeles. He was "probably the first great jazz flutist", according to jazz historian Leonard Feather. Biography He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and began his career in music at the age of 18 with the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields, Boyd Raeburn and Don Redman. He also performed many times with his older brother, clarinetist Abe Most. His first recording was at age 23, a single called "Undercurrent Blues". The next year he was awarded '' DownBeat'' magazine's "Critic's New Star Award". Between 1953 and 1958 Most led and recorded sessions for the Prestige, Debut, Vanguard and Bethlehem labels. He also did session work for Chris Connor, Paul Quinichette and Teddy Wilson. He was a member of the Buddy Rich band from 1959 to 1961. Most resurfaced in the late 1970s recording six albums on the Xanadu label. From 1987 Most, with produce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Toys
The Toys were an American pop girl group from Jamaica, New York, which was formed in 1961 and disbanded in 1968. Their most successful recording was "A Lover's Concerto" (1965), which sold more than two million copies and reached the number-two spot on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Members The trio consisted of: * Barbara Harris (born Barbara Ann Harris, August 18, 1945, Elizabeth City, North Carolina), who sang lead most of the time * Barbara Parritt (born October 1, 1944, Wilmington, North Carolina) * June Montiero (born July 1, 1946, Queens, New York) Career Barbara Harris started singing in her hometown churches at an early age and moved to Queens, New York, when she was 11 years old. In high school, she joined a group with four other young singers: Barbara Parritt (later Toomer), June Montiero, Betty Stokes and Betty Blocker. Stokes and Blocker eventually left the group, and Harris, Parritt and Montiero formed a trio. Bobby Uri, a manager and friend, named the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Four Seasons (band)
The Four Seasons are an American rock music, rock and pop music, pop band formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito (musician), Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons. The legal name of the organization is the Four Seasons Partnership, formed by Gaudio and Valli, and was taken after a failed audition in 1960. While band members have come and gone, Gaudio and Valli remain the band's constants, with each owning 50% of the act and its assets, including virtually all of its recording catalog. Gaudio no longer plays live, leaving Valli as the only original member of the band who still tours . The band's original line-up wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honorific nicknames "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business", "Godfather of Soul", "Mr. Dynamite", and "Soul Brother No. 1". In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. Brown was one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction in New York on January 23, 1986. Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He first came to national public attention in the mid-1950s as the lead singer of the Famous Flames, a rhythm and blues vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd. With the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and " Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a dynamic live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, Pop music, pop, rock and roll, Folk music, folk, Swing music, swing, and country music. He started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis. He recorded his first million-selling single, "Splish Splash (song), Splish Splash", in 1958. That was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife#Popular song, Mack the Knife", and "Beyond the Sea (song), Beyond the Sea", which brought him worldwide fame. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe Award for his first film, ''Come September'', co-starring his first wife, actress Sandra Dee. During the 1960s, he became more politically active and worked on Robert F. Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. He was present at the Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles), Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968. During the same year, he d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
