Much Ado About Nuthing

Meschiya Lake And The Little Big Horns: A few years back Meschiya Lake was best known for singing on New Orleans streets with various bands, including The Loose Marbles. Now, she’s in high demand at all the local clubs featuring “trad jazz.” At the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this year, Lake brought her Little Big Horns to the Lagniappe Stage. The music seemed the perfect fit for the sunny kick-off day of the festival’s first weekend. Lake and the band drew smiles on everyone listening and, at one point, in the middle of a song, she frantically waved at a friend to get up on the stage with her and lindy-hop. And dance they did!

B. Bumble and the Stingers @rockabilly.nl : B. Bumble and the Stingers were an instrumental ensemble from the early 1960s, who specialized in rocking up classical melodies. A lot of incorrect information has been published about the group ever since they appeared on the music scene, much of which was the result of deliberate mystification. Let’s try to set the record straight.

Donald Byrd @Hardbop : Following the death of Clifford Brown in 1956, Byrd was for a few years arguably the finest hard-bop trumpeter. He had not only a masterful technique, displayed on all his albums from this period, but also a beautiful tone. He resumed playing in the 1970s and made several pleasant recordings in a jazz-rock style. His best-selling album Black Byrd led to the formation of his students into the Blackbyrds, a hit group of the mid-1970s.

Tommy Mccook & The Skatalites : In Jamaica in April 1984 at the Dynamic Studios he was responsible for the “Return of the Big Guns” the reunion of the Skatalites who continue to tour up to the present day. At this session tunes written by Don Drummond were recorded for the first time. In the fascinating interview with David Rodigan, in 1984 at the Reggae Sunsplash Festival at Crystal Palace, in England. Tommy recalled how after the death of Don Drummond his music was found by Lloyd together with his trombone, who put it in the back of his car and drove off.

Danny and The Juniors : Danny & The Juniors, individually Frank Maffei, Danny Rapp, Joe Terranova and Dave White, began singing together in the early 1950’s at ages 13 and 14 in Philadelphia where they were fans of the local rhythm and blues radio stations. It was there they heard the first stirrings of a new music soon to become known as Rock ‘n Roll. The Juvenaires, as they were called then, quickly decided to become part of the new movement and began to perform the new songs as well as their own original material at school dances, local clubs and restaurants.

Twennynine @Wikipedia : Twennynine is the name of a music group formed in 1979. The group featured jazz fusion drummer Lenny White with Carlo Vaughn (vocals), Jocelyn Smith (vocals), Skip Anderson (keyboards), Barry Johnson (bass), and Eddy Martinez (guitar).

Georgia White @eNotes : In the 1940s, Georgia White formed an all-women band, which never recorded, and also performed with Bumble Bee Slim. In 1949 she joined Big Bill Broonzy as pianist in his Laughing Trio. “She was very easy to get along with,” said Broonzy. “Real friendly.”

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