Late record producer, label owner, songwriter and musician Robert "Bumps" Blackwell was born in Seattle, WA on May 23, 1918. Blackwell was sent to New Orleans by Specialty Records owner Art Rupe in September, 1955 to record Little Richard at Cosimo Matassa's studio. The sessions produced the R&R classic "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell also produced tracks by Guitar Slim, Art Neville, Larry Williams, Sam Cooke, and many others. See recording credits.
Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars, visiting the Gold Coast on May 23, 1956, performed before an estimated 100,000 fans at an an open air concert in Accra. This was the first concert of Armstrong's 3 day visit to the African west coast. A CBS crew accompanied Armstrong on the tour, and highlights later aired in Edward R. Murrow's documentary, "Satchmo The Great". Read more here and here.
1964
Louis Armstrong's album "Hello, Dolly!" entered the Billboard Top 40 Albums chart on May 23, 1964. It later topped the chart for 6 weeks, and it remained in the Top 40 for 48 weeks. Satchmo's only other Top 40 album chart entries were "Satch Plays Fats" (in 1955) and "Ella and Louis" (in 1956).
1988
Saxophone, violin and banjo player Emanuel Paul passed away in New Orleans on May 23, 1988 at age 84. Paul played with the Eureka Brass Band, Kid Thomas, and others. In the 1960s, he was a regular at Preservation Hall. Read more here and here. See Emanuel Paul recording credits. Listen to Emanuel Paul music on YouTube.
2007
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was awarded to Paul Simon at a concert gala in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 2007. Those paying tribute to Simon included Buckwheat Zydeco & Lyle Lovett, who performed "That Was Your Mother". Watch the video here. The event was broadcast on PBS on June 27, 2007.
