Clarinet, sax and trumpet player Charlie Cordilla, aka Charlie Cordella (Charles Joseph Cordilla) was born in Baton Rouge, LA on May 25, 1899. Cordella played with the Halfway House Orchestra, New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Alfred Laine, Sharkey Bonano, Leon Prima, and many others. Cordella died of a stroke on March 21, 1990 at age 90. Read more here and here. Listen to Charlie Cordella music on YouTube. Listen to Charlie Cordilla music on YouTube.
1907
Noted banjo and guitar player "Creole" George Guesnon was born in New Orleans on May 25, 1907. Guesnon worked with Kid Clayton's Happy Pals, Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra, Sam Morgan, Little Brother Montgomery, George Lewis, Percy Humphrey, and others. In his latter years, Guesnon was a regular at Preservation Hall. Guesnon passed away on May 5, 1968 at age 60. Read more here. See recording credits. Check out this performance video from Art Ford's Jazz Party (1958) featuring George Guesnon, George Lewis, Punch Miller, Alphonse Picou, Sweet Emma Barrett, Peter Bocage, Charlie Love, Louis Nelson, Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau, and Paul Barbarin.
1912
Late blues singer, piano player and songwriter James Crutchfield was born in Baton Rouge, LA on May 25, 1912. Crutchfield grew up in lumber camps in Louisiana and Texas. He picked up a few licks from Little Brother Montgomery in Bogaulusa, and played with Elmore James and Boyd Gilmore in Mississippi before settling in St. Louis in 1948. Crutchfield was still active on the St. Louis blues scene at the time of his passing on December 7, 2001. Watch James Crutchfield videos on YouTube.
Fats Domino and his band appeared on NBC's "The Perry Como Show" on May 25, 1957. Fats performed "Valley of Tears", "It's You I Love" and "I'm Walkin'". Fats also chatted with Perry, and the band participated in some skits.
1959
The soundtrack album "Hey Boy! Hey Girl!" by Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and Sam Butera & The Witnesses entered the Top 40 Albums chart in 1959. The album included 10 tunes from the film, which starred Prima, Smith and Sam Butera (Watch Sam Butera performing "Fever" from the film).
R&B singer and songwriter Roy Brown passed away in Los Angeles on May 25, 1981 at age 56. The Kinder, Louisiana native racked up 14 R&B hits between 1948 and 1951, including two that reached the #1 spot -- "'Long About Midnight" and "Hard Luck Blues". Brown's classic "Good Rocking Tonight" was a #1 R&B hit for Wynonie Harris in 1948, and was later covered by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, James Brown, and a host of others.
1992
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" premiered on NBC on May 25, 1992. Jay's musical director & bandleader was New Orleans jazz great Branford Marsalis. The band included Kenny Kirkland, Robert Hurst, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Matt Finders, Sal Marquez and Kevin Eubanks (who took over for Branford when he quit in 1995). Watch a news clip about Branford and Leno here. Watch Jay Leno introducing Branford on the first show.
The 21st annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards were held in Memphis on May 25, 2000. Winners included Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown in the "Blues Instrumentalist - Other" category. Performers at the event included piano man Henry Butler.
