Edward Lamonte Franklin (January 16, 1928 – July 31, 1975), better known as Guitar Pete Franklin, was an American blues singer, musician and songwriter. His best known track was "Guitar Pete's Blues".Franklin variously worked with a number of fellow blues musicians including St. Louis Jimmy Oden, Jazz Gillum, John Brim, Sunnyland Slim, and Tampa Red.
Richard Louis Holler (born October 16, 1934) is an American songwriter, pianist, and performer, best known as the writer of the folk-pop standard "Abraham, Martin and John". The song has been recorded by numerous artists including Dion, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Andy Williams, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, and Moms Mabley, among others.
William James Gaither (born March 28, 1936) is an American singer and songwriter of Southern gospel and contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife Gloria; he is also known for performing as part of the Bill Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band. In the 1990s, his career gained a resurgence (as well as the careers of other southern gospel artists), as popularity grew for the Gaither Homecoming series. In 2023 he released a secular music album with the Gaither Vocal Band entitled “Love Songs”.
Robert Alan Lewis (February 9, 1925 – April 28, 2020) was an American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer, best known for his 1961 hit singles "Tossin' and Turnin'" and "One Track Mind".
Charles "Buddy" Montgomery (January 30, 1930 – May 14, 2009) was an American jazz vibraphonist and pianist. He was the younger brother of Wes and Monk Montgomery, a guitarist and bassist respectively.
Buddy and brother Monk formed The Mastersounds in the late 1950s and produced ten recordings. When The Mastersounds disbanded, Monk and Buddy joined their brother Wes on a number of Montgomery Brothers recordings, which were mostly arranged by Buddy. They toured together in 1968, and it was in the middle of that tour that Wes died. Buddy continued to compose, arrange, perform, produce, teach and record, producing nine recordings as a leader.
John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), known professionally as Scatman John, was an American musician. A prolific jazz pianist and vocalist for several decades, he rose to prominence during the 1990s through his fusion of scat singing and dance music. He recorded five albums, which were released between 1986 and 2001.
In the United States and Europe, Larkin is recognized for his 1995 singles "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" and "Scatman's World". He achieved his greatest success in Japan, where his album Scatman's World (1995) sold over a million copies. Outside of his musical activities, he had deepened exchanges with stuttering organizations and established the Scatland Foundation in 1996 with the purpose of furthering research of and educating the public on stuttering. Larkin was a recipient of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community and a posthumous inductee to the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.
Raymond Lewenthal (August 29, 1923 – November 21, 1988) was an American virtuoso pianist. Among his teachers were Olga Samaroff, who was a pupil of Charles-Valentin Alkan's son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde.
Joseph Armand Castro (August 15, 1927 – December 13, 2009) was an American bebop jazz pianist, based primarily on the West Coast of the United States.
Joyce Collins (born 5 May 1930, Battle Mountain, Nevada - died January 3, 2010) was a jazz pianist, singer and educator.
Collins began playing piano professionally at the age of 15 while still attending Reno High School in Nevada. Later, while studying music and teaching at San Francisco State College, she played in groups and solo at various jazz clubs, eventually going on tour with the Frankie Carle band.
In the late 1950s, Collins settled in Los Angeles, working there and also in Reno and Las Vegas, where she became the first woman to conduct one of the resort's show bands. During this time Collins worked in film and television studios, spending 10 years in the band on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and also on comedian Bob Newhart's shows.
In 1975, she recorded with Bill Henderson. Their Street Of Dreams and Tribute To Johnny Mercer albums were Grammy nominees. Collins continued to work in films, coaching actors Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges for their roles in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989).
Beginning in 1975, Collins taught jazz piano at the Dick Grove Music School. Collins wrote and arranged extensively, including a program, performed live and on radio, tracing the involvement of women in jazz as composers and lyricists. She appeared twice on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz radio show, most recently in 2002.Although she performed mostly in solo, duo and trio work, Collins occasionally sat in with big bands, such as that led by Bill Berry. She also recorded with Paul Horn and under her own name. Her first album appeared in 1961, her next, Moment To Moment, after a long gap. Centered mainly in Los Angeles, Collins worked farther afield in places such as Mexico City, Paris, New York and Brazil.Joyce Collins died on January 3, 2010.
Robert L. Steele ("Lanny") (December 30, 1933 – October 21, 1994) was an American jazz pianist, educator, composer, and jazz festival promoter. He founded the Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble.Steele graduated from Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. He studied music at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band.
He was a pianist for Arnett Cobb. He taught music at Texas Southern University, where he created the TSU Jazz Ensemble. He also founded the Juneteenth Blues Festival (Houston), a commemoration of the liberation of Texan African-Americans from slavery. He helped organize the Houston Jazz Festival and was a co-founder of SUMArts.