News & Updates — Celebrate Icons

If you ever wondered who that was whistling that tune for the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team theme song, well it's Freeman Davis aka Brother Bones, who was born today in 1902. A fairly obscure guy, he was from Montgomery AL and worked as a shoeshine boy before he recorded an animal bones & whistling version of the "Sweet Georgia Brown" standard in 1949, which is the version I grew up loving in relation to the 'Trotters. (Notably, the tune also utilizes the Novachord, a very early synthesizer). Brother's tune "Black Eyed Susan Brown" was sampled by De La Soul ("Pease Porridge")....

By comparison to some of his other fellow Chicagoan jazz brothers and sisters, the music of Von Freeman is fairly traditional sounding--that is to say blues, ballads, bossa, bop and a touch of soul-jazz, although his phrasing and mentoring was influential to a rising avant-garde in the city. He may have been less well-known than his funky guitarist brother George and son Chico (there was a less-well-known drummer brother Bruz as well), but he continued with his creative outlet until the end. He was born in Chicago, the son of a cop. Louis Armstrong was a good friend of the...

Eddie Cochran, rockabilly icon of the '50s who perhaps set the template for the rebellious, tough rocker image, was born on this day in 1938. He was an innovative guitarist, a proto-punk influence and an early experimenter of overdubbing and multitracking. He remains one of the great heroes of early rock & roll. Originally from Minnesota, as a teenager he moved with his family to Los Angeles. He started off playing drums as a kid before learning guitar. He was into blues & country and dropped out of high school to become a professional musician. In '54 was part of a...

Much respect to the well-loved Donny Hathaway, the great gospel-inspired singer and songwriter, as well as pianist, producer and arranger. His music covered soul, gospel, pop, blues, jazz, Christmas songs, ballads, funk and even Latin, in a nice mix of both originals and covers. Born in Chicago to a gospel-singing family, he grew up in St. Louis. He started singing in church at age 3 and was playing piano young as well. He studied music at Howard University, where he also played in a jazz trio with Ric Powell and rolled with Roberta Flack and Leroy Hutson. He started working as...

One of my favorite '60s rock singers, Dutch gypsy vocalist Mariska Veres had a powerful presence as front woman for the arty psych band Shocking Blue, one of the great teenage rock bands of the era. Best known for their original version of "Venus" (covered thousands of times, literally, around the world) and their FAR SUPERIOR original version of "Love Buzz" (covered by Nirvana), they had a lot of great tunes! Other great tunes from them are the Indian-tinged "Acka Raga", "Send Me A Postcard" and other killers. Born in The Hague, her father was a Hungarian/Romani gypsy violinist and...