About maketodayrock.com: We celebrate musicians' birthdays, remember those we've lost, and highlight key moments in music such a release dates, chart peak dates, or anything else tied to a specific date. Pick any day from the menu in the top right. The front page shows recent obituaries.
September 4, 1935 ~ Jazz pianist Michel Sardaby born in Fort-de-France, Martinique ~ After relocating to France in the mid 1960s, became a fixture on the Paris jazz scene, working alongside artists such as Errol Parker, Stuart de Silva, and Aaron Bridgers. Over a dozen albums to his name, especially noted for his 1970 Night Cap sophomore album featuring backing from Percy Heath and Connie Kay. Other notable collaborators include Billy Cobham, Ray Barretto, Rufus Reid, Ralph Moore, and Tony Reedus. To blues audiences perhaps best known for guesting on T-Bone Walker's acclaimed 1969 Good Feelin' album ~ Sardaby passed away in 2023September 4, 1930 ~ Jordan Ragovoy, commonly known as songwriter, producer Jerry Ragovoy, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ~ Perhaps best known for penning Time Is On My Side, first recorded by Kai Winding and notably covered by Irma Thomas and subsequently the Rolling Stones. Other well known songs written or co-written by Ragovoy include Stay With me recorded by well over 50 artists including Lorraine Ellison, the Walker Brothers, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Bette Midler, and Piece Of My Heart originally recorded by Erma Franklin and made famous by Janis Joplin. Others who have recorded his songs include Garnet Mimms, Justine Washington, the Drifters, Elvis Presley, Miriam Makeba, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, and the Pointer Sisters ~ Ragovoy passed away in 2011
September 4, 1930 ~ Piedmont blues guitarist John Cephas born in Washington DC, USA ~ First teamed up with the younger blues harpist Phil Wiggins in the mid 1970s, both playing in singer, pianist Big Chief Ellis' backing unit. Following Ellis' death in 1977, the pair decided to continue as a duo despite their 24-year age difference. Showing strong influences from Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis, and Sonny Terry, the duo would become a popular festival act, earning acclaim among blues aficionados for keeping the Piedmont blues alive. Cephas & Wiggins recorded well into the 2000s, and are noted most for the late 1980s albums Dog Days Of August and Walking Blues ~ Cephas passed away in 2009September 4, 1923 ~ Gloria Adele Shain, commonly known as songwriter Gloria Shayne Baker, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA ~ Perhaps best remembered for co-writing Do You Hear What I Hear with her then-husband Noël Regney, first recorded by Harry Simeone Chorale. Written as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis the song would sell a quarter million copies during the Holiday season in 1962. Do You Hear What I Hear would be covered by over an estimated 500 artists of artists, notably a 1963 hit for Bing Crosby, and later covered by artists such as Pat Boone, Perry Como, and Mahalia Jackson. Other songs written or co-written by Baker have been recorded by James Darren, Bobby Vinton (Rain Rain Go Away), Wynona Carr, Lesley Gore, Ginny Arnell, and Wilma Burgess ~ Baker passed away in 2008
September 4, 1920 ~ Harold Bradley Jackson, commonly known as country steel guitarist, dobroist Shot Jackson born in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA ~ Brother of producer Owen Bradley. One of the premier postwar generation steel guitarist and dobroists. Has recorded sporadically as a solo artist, notably Bluegrass Dobro released in 1965, but best known as a first call session musician present on albums by Webb Pierce, Merle Travis, Eddy Arnold, Red Foley, Elvis Presley, Buddy Emmons, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner (The Cold Hard Facts Of Life), Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Bashful Brother Oswald, and the Osborne Brothers ~ Jackson passed away in 1991
September 4, 1919 ~ Edward Victor Johnson, commonly known as singer Teddy Johnson, born in Surbiton, UK ~ Formed a duo with his wife Pearl Carr. Prior to their marriage in 1955 both had been successful solo performers, but teamed up they would enjoy their greatest success as regular performers on stage and in a variety of British TV shows throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Internationally the couple are best known for representing their native UK at the 1959 Eurovision Songfestival, reaching second place with Sing Little Birdie. Later Johnson commented that upon winning the national finals, they had never heard of the international contest and had no idea they were going to have to represent their country: “We had no idea whatsoever. They gave us the dates for Cannes and I just hoped we had them available. As it happened, we did.” ~ Johnson passed away in 2018
September 4, 1918 ~ Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger Gerald Wilson born in Shelby, Mississippi, USA ~ Arranged songs for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson. Worked with Jimmie Lunceford, Clark Terry, Willie Smith, Jimmy Nottingham, Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie. As a bandleader employed sidemen including Snooky Young, Carmell Jones, Bud Shank, Joe Maini, Harold Land, Teddy Edwards, Don Raffell, Joe Pass, Richard Groove Holmes, Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson, Luis Bonilla, Rick Baptist, Randall Willis, Shuggie Otis, Anthony Wilson, Eric Otis, Jimmy Owens, Oscar Brashear, Ron Barrows, and Jon Faddis ~ Wilson passed away in 2014
September 4, 1905 ~ Anderson Meade Lewis, commonly known as boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA ~ Trained on the violin as a child, switching to piano at age 16. Along with artists such as Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey highly revered for a high-energy hybrid boogie-woogie that would eventually lead to rock & roll. Probably best known for penning Honky Tonk Train, his recording debut in 1927. Over the years the song would be covered by over an estimated hundred artists including Bob Crosby, Frankie Trumbauer, Keith Emerson, and Axel Zwingenberger. Lewis would later be mentioned in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle, Ross Macdonald's novel The Moving Target, and in Keith Richards's autobiography Life ~ Lewis passed away in 1964
September 4, 1892 ~ Composer, conductor, teacher Darius Milhaud born in Marseille, France ~ Influenced by jazz and Brazilian music. Member of Les Six, a group of Montparnasse-based composers which also included Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. Their music is considered a neoclassical reaction against both the style of Richard Wagner and the impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Milhaud is regarded as one of the key modernist composers and has tought jazz and classical composers such as Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis ~ Milhaud passed away in 1974
September 4, 1891 ~ Jazz bandleader, clarinetist, violinist, percussionist Sam Lanin, full name Samuel Charles Lanin, born ~ First gained attention as a member of Victor Herbert's orchestra, backing Herbert from 1912 through the end of World War I. Following his departure from the orchestra, Lanin relocated to New York, where he established himself as one of the most prolific bandleaders of the 1920s, one of the first to be heard over the airwaves, and directing over an estimated 400 sessions for nearly every label through the end of the decade. Lanin only occasionally played himself, but is best remembered for recognizing young talent. Sidemen who have played in Lanin's numerous ensembles include Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy McPartland, Bix Beiderbecke, Nick Lucas, Frankie Trumbauer, and a young Bing Crosby. The 1929 stock market crash would hit Lanin heard, and he would lose a sponsorship deal and his radio show, after which his fame gradually waned. Lanin retired from music altogether from the music industry by the late 1930s ~ Lanin passed away in 1977September 4, 1824 ~ Composer, organist Anton Bruckner, full name Josef Anton Bruckner, born in Ansfelden, Austria ~ Late-era Romantic composer admired by peers, most notably Gustav Mahler ~ Bruckner passed away in 1896