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Happy birthday to the great and influential tenor saxophonist Lester Young, the President. The original jazz hipster, he was a key link between the swing and bop eras and was a modernist with an emotionally-driven and harmonically-gifted style. He grew up in New Orleans and played in the Young Family Band, touring the carnival circuit. In the '30s he went to Kansas City, becoming a major feature of Count Basie's band. During that decade he also played with Fletcher Henderson, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, King Oliver, Benny Moten and Andy Kirk and in the '40s cut some sessions with Nat...

Happy birthday to the boisterous Clifford Jarvis, stylish drummer of post-bop and free jazz who also worked well with other percussionists. He was from Boston and came from a family of trumpeters. He started playing drums at 10 and studied with Alan Dawson. Early professional experience with Chet Baker and Randy Weston set him up for some gigs with heavy hitters of the '60s & '70s. Operating out of NYC and Chicago, he played or recorded with a host of amazing musicians: Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Big John Patton, Barry Harris, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, Elmo...

Happy born day to one of my favorite reggae singers, the rootical Junior Delgado. Born Oscar Hibbert in Kingston, he was nephew to musician Lenny Hibbert. As a teenager in the early '70s he was a member of the vocal group Time Unlimited, which recorded for Lee "Scratch" Perry, Duke Reid, Tommy Cowan and Bunny Lee. The group scored a hit with "Reaction" (reissued on Pressure Sounds!). He recorded as Junior Hibbert in the mid '70s with Rupie Edwards and after changing his name to his longtime nickname Delgado he got cracking on even more material: "Everyday Natty" with Niney...

Happy birthday to the beloved Cuban singer/bandleader/composer Beny Moré! In 1942 he joined Trío Matamoros and went to Mexico with them in '45. Moré stayed in Mexico, joining the band of Perez Prado and cutting a couple dozen records with them, as well as with other orchestras. After touring Latin America, he returned to Cuba in '52 where he was still, at that time, an unknown. He started working in Havana with Bebo Valdés and cut a record with Orquesta Aragón before forming his sixteen-piece orchestra La Banda Gigante, becoming one of the most popular bands on the island and...

One of the fathers of rock & roll and a top blues shouter and dancer in his day, here is the guy Elvis Presley stole his stage moves from. From Omaha, Wynonie Harris got big locally in the '30s and took his show on the road: Kansas City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Harlem, Nashville and Texas were some key touch-down points. In '44 he joined Lucky Millinder's band and "Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well" was a #1 hit in '45. After that success he signed as an artist with Philo and hired Johnny Otis to put his band together, which...