Happy birthday to the Beale Street Blues Boy. Born Riley B. King on a Mississippi cotton plantation on this day in 1925, the legendary guitarist picked up the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, later shortened to Blues Boy, and finally to B.B., when he moved to Memphis...
Born in Tampa, Florida, on this day in 1928, jazz alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley did not get his nickname from experience in military munitions or swimming pool hijinks; rather, legend has it that kids in high school called him “cannibal” due to his...
Born in London on this day in 1983, soul singer Amy Winehouse blazed a brilliant creative trail before dying of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011 — joining a list of memorable artists who died at age 27 that includes Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain. A six-time...
“The Velvet Fog” was a household name back in the day. Mel Torme, born in Chicago on this day in 1925, was “a supreme vocal technician whose style encompassed everything from intimate pop crooning to jet-propelled scat improvisations,” the New York Times said in...
Legendary R&B singer passed away in 2003 at age 58. Born in Galveston, Texas, on this day in 1944, he is unofficially credited with setting the mood for a whole lot of loving with the impossibly deep-voiced “crushed-velvet pillow talk” he brought to such classics...
