Born on this day in 1938, the soulful Alton Ellis was one of the finest rocksteady singers Jamaica ever produced. With a career going back to the late '50s, he recorded early on doing ska, R&B and ballads in the duo Alton & Eddy (and with his sister Hortense) for Studio 1 and Randy's. He teamed with John Holt for awhile and started The Flames, recording for Treasure Isle & again Studio 1. The genre took its name from Ellis' 1967 recording "Rock Steady", helping establish the genre and making Ellis popular enough to tour England. Several more hits followed...

Happy birthday to the great Cuban tres player and son montuno legend, one of the founding fathers of salsa and mambo, Aresnio Rodríguez!! His 1940's & '50s conjuntos were major building blocks in creating the mambo style, adding conga, multiple trumpets, piano and tumbao basslines to the son cubano format, leading the way to mambo, salsa and timba to come. Born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, he came from Matanzas, Cuba. His family were African descendants who practiced Palo Monte. He was blinded at 7 years old when a horse kicked him in the face. He was a professional musician by...

One of the greats, bop trumpeter & arranger (and singer!) Kenny Dorham may be best known for his composition "Blue Bossa" but check your collection and you will find his name on dozens and dozens of classic sides. His playing is exquisite and clear-toned with perfectly placed notes, and he had great taste in sidemen! Born McKinley Dorham, he grew up in Austin TX. He joined the Dizzy Gillespie band in '45, as well as a stint in that Billy Eckstine group that yielded many future bop stars. He also played in the '40s with Mercer Ellington, Kenny Clarke and...

Here's a shout-out to the original scumdog of the universe, Dave Brockie, better known as Oderus Urungus of the heavy metal/comedy/theatre/shock troupe GWAR. A Canadian, Brockie played bass, guitar or sang in the bands Death Piggy, X-Cops and DBX. For GWAR he reinvented himself as the 50 billion-year old caresser of his cuddlefish, dubbing himself Oderus Urungus, spewing fluids all over his audiences in outrageous costumes with equally outrageous storylines, attracting both positive and negative mainstream attention. As Oderus, he also had a character in the nutty TV sitcom Holliston. Happy birthday Dave Brockie, RIP.

The original Flying Luttenbacher, Hal Russell was a Chicago icon. A multi-instrumentalist, he played tenor sax, c-melody, soprano, drums, trumpet, vibes, marimba, musette, congas and keyboards. One of the most surreal jazz characters of the second half of the twentieth-century jazz scene, this guy brought humor, theater and playfulness into his artform. Harold Luttenbacher was born in Detroit, played drums in Dixieland and swing bands (Woody Herman, etc) before discovering bebop. Moving with his family to Chi-town as a teenager, he started playing trumpet as a second instrument in college. In 1950 he played drums with Miles Davis and did...