Music Notes for June 30th

Birthdays

1917: Lena Horne

1937: Pianist/composer Andrew Hill born in Chicago, IL.

1951: Stanley Clarke, jazz bassist who has worked with Chick Corea, Santana, Keith Richards, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney and the fusion band Return to Forever.

1958: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Helsinki Finland, conductor (Giro)

Events, Releases, Recordings, Charts

1934: Adolf Hitler begins Operation Hummingbird, the Röhm Putsch, or the Night of the Long Knives which culminates in the murder of Ernst Röhm on July 2. Al Stewart later writes a song about it called "The Last Day Of June 1934."

1939: Frank Sinatra made his first appearance with Harry James’ band.

1975: Cher married Greg Allman four days after her divorcing Sonny Bono, the couple split after ten days, followed by a three year on and off marriage.

1976: Police raided the home of Neil Diamond searching for drugs, they found less than one ounce of marijuana.

1977:The album Love Gun was released by KISS.

1984: Huey Lewis and the News went to No.1 on the US album chart with "Sports."

1986: Steve Winwood released "Back in the High Life."

2000: During a Pearl Jam concert at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, nine people are crushed to death as the crowd rushed the stage. Investigations have concluded that the events were an accident. Several people fell and couldn't get up, and in addition, crowdsurfers were falling into the open area. Pearl Jam stopped the show and asked people to back up, but it was too late. As a result, many European venues have banned crowdsurfing. The Pearl Jam song "Love Boat Captain" refers to the events with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today."

2001: Beach Boys member Al Jardine went to court in a bid to sue his former band mates, claiming he had been frozen out of the Beach Boys. The $4 million (£2.35 million) suit was filed against Mike Love, Brian Wilson, the Carl Wilson Trust and Brother Records Incorporated in a New York Superior Court. In 1998 a US judge temporarily barred Jardine from performing under the name Beach Boys Family And Friends after representations from Mike Love and Brother Records. Jardine lost the case in 2003.

2004 : Dave Davies of The Kinks suffers a massive stroke while walking out of a BBC building in London. Completely incapacitated for a few days, he gradually recovers, re-learning how to walk and play guitar over the next few years.

Sad Notes

1995: American soul singer Phyllis Hyman committed suicide by overdosing on pentobarbital and secobarbital in her New York City apartment aged 45. She was found hours before she was scheduled to perform at the Apollo Theatre, in New York.

2001: American guitarist and producer Chet Atkins died in Nashville aged 77. Recorded over 100 albums during his career, produced records for Perry Como,Elvis Presley, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves and Waylon Jennings. He was a major influence on George Harrison and Mark Knopfler.

2001: Joe Henderson, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1937)

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