About maketodayrock.com: We celebrate musicians' birthdays, remember those we've lost, and highlight key moments in music such a release dates, chart peak dates, or anything else tied to a specific date. Pick any day from the menu in the top right. The front page shows recent obituaries.
April 13, 1941 ~ Soprano singer Margaret Price, full name Margaret Berenice Price, born in Blackwood, UK ~ First gained attention in the early 1960s as a member of the Ambrosian Singers, remaining only briefly with the ensemble. Would go on to work with the Royal Opera House, initially as an understudy yet rising to fame overnight filling in for Teresa Berganza in the role of Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro. Price has also notably worked with the English Opera Group, the Cologne Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera ~ Price passed away in 2011April 13, 1940 ~ Harmonica player, singer Lester Chambers born in Mississippi, USA ~ Member of psychedelic soul band the Chamber Brothers, known for incorporating elements of traditional gospel and blues, psychedelica and rock into soul. The band, which also includes his siblings bassist George Chambers and guitarist Joe Chambers, has recorded half a dozen albums and is best known for their 1968 eleven-minute single Time Has Come Today, which reached No.11 Billboard Hot 100
April 13, 1940 ~ Jazz keyboardist Neal Creque, full name Earl Neal Creque, born in St Thomas, Virgin Islands ~ Wrote and played on Grant Green's Windjammer, included on Green's 1970 Green Is Beautiful album. Co-wrote Sofrito, recorded by Mongo Santamaria in 1976. Creque recorded three albums as a leader, starting with Creque in 1972. An in-demand session pianist and organist, Creque has appeared on albums by Pucho & his Latin Soul Brothers, Ramsey Lewis, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Bernard Pretty Purdie, Harold Ousley, Leon Thomas (Blues And The Soulful Truth), Johnny Lytle, Charles Earland, and Ronnie Earl. Creque's daughter is singer Nina Creque of the R&B group 1 Of The Girls ~ Creque passed away in 2000
April 13, 1938 ~ Edwin Marshall, commonly known as jazz drummer Eddie Marshall, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA ~ Influenced by Max Roach and Art Blakey. During the 1960s, Marshall backed artist such as Charlie Mariano, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Stan Getz, and Sam Rivers. Toured with Dionne Warwick. Member of 1960s fusion outfit the Fourth Way, 1970s unit Almanac, and of 1980s group Bebop & Beyond, the latter known for a string of tribute albums to the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Marshall has also appeared on albums by Smiley Winters, John Klemmer, the Pointer Sisters (Pointer Sisters), Red Garland, Jon Hendricks, Art Pepper, Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Harris (Tale Of Two Cities), Archie Shepp, and Freddie Hubbard, and taught at the San Francisco School of the Arts, San Francisco. Marshall recorded two albums as a leader, Dance Of The Sun released in 1977, and Holy Mischief released in 1999 ~ Marshall passed away in 2011April 13, 1938 ~ Composer, pianist Frederic Rzewski, full name Frederic Anthony Rzewski, born in Westfield, Massachusetts, USA ~ Considered one of the most admired composers of his day, best known for the minimalist Coming Together and The People United Will Never Be Defeated, the latter regarded as a modern classic ~ Rzewski passed away in 2021
April 13, 1936 ~ Colin Frederick Jacobsen, commonly known as pop, rock & roll, country singer, guitarist, songwriter Col Joye, born in Sydney, Australia ~ Known for songs such as Bye Bye Baby, Rockin' Rollin' Clementine, Oh Yeah Uh Huh, Yes Sir That's My Baby and Heaven Is My Woman's Love ~ Jacobsen passed away in 2025
April 13, 1936 ~ Saxophonist, flutist Stan Robinson born in Salford, UK ~ Praised for his full-toned delivery, agile technique and harmonic detail. Influenced by Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson. First gained attention in the early 1960s playing at the famed Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, often in a quartet which included a then-unknown Ginger Baker of later Cream fame. Closely associated with Tubby Hayes, who has been cited as saying Robinson was “among the most promising British tenor saxophonists of the day”, the pair going on to work in a variety of settings. Robinson would also work with the Jazzmakers, Phil Seamen, Long John Baldry, Humphrey Lyttelton, Eric Burdon, Don Rendell, Maynard Ferguson, and Charlie Watts, as well as tour with visiting American jazz and R&B acts including King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tony Bennett ~ Robinson passed away in 2017
April 13, 1932 ~ Yosef Banai, commonly known as singer, actor, dramatist Yossi Banai, born in Tel Aviv, Israel ~ Best known as an actor, working with most of the active theater companies in Israel and particalurly associated with playwright Nisim Aloni, starring in numerous of the latter's plays. As a singer known for his smoky voice, and as a fine interpreter of usually translated works of Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens. Banai's son is Yuval Banai, lead singer of influential pop rock band Mashina ~ Banai passed away in 2006
April 13, 1921 ~ Jazz, contradance, danzón bandleader, pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, full name Francisco Emilio Flynn Rodriguez, born in Havana, Cuba ~ Considered a pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz, active since the 1940s in a number of forms of Cuban music including danzas, danzones, filin, and descarga. Founder and director of a number of seminal ensembles including Loquibamba, Los Modernistas, and the Quinteto Instrumental de Musica Moderna, the latter later evolving into Los Amigos ~ Flynn passed away in 2001
April 13, 1920 ~ Jazz clarinetist, composer John LaPorta, full name John Daniel LaPorta, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ~ Classically trained, LaPorta is known for fusing jazz with classical music. One-time classmate of Buddy DeFranco. Played with Charlie Ventura and Bill Harris while still in his teens. LaPorta has recorded close to a dozen albums since the mid 1950s, and is respected in both the classical world for his collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, and Igor Stravinsky, and in jazz circles for his collaborations with Woody Herman, Kenny Clarke, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Lester Young ~ LaPorta passed away in 2004
April 13, 1920 ~ Singer Ken Nordine born in Cherokee, Iowa, USA ~ Best known as narrator and voice-over artist featured in commercials and movie trailers. To music audiences known for his association with the beat and jazz-and-poetry movements. Notably present as the voice-over on Billy Vaughn's Shifting Whispering Sands, a surprise Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit in 1962 ~ Nordine passed away in 2019
April 13, 1913 ~ Western swing, country fiddler, singer Wade Ray, full name Lyman Wade Ray, born in Griffin, Illinois, USA ~ Early Western swing fiddler, singer, bandleader noted for including sidemen such as Kenneth Carllile and Curly Chalker early on in their careers. First to record Let Me Go Devil, penned by Jenny Lou Carson inspired by Hank Williams' battle with alcoholism and premature death. It would be instantly covered, using the original title, by Georgie Shaw, Johnny Bond and by Tex Ritter. It would become a jazz, pop standard after being rewritten to Let Me Go Lover at the insistence of producer Mitch Mitchell who felt the original “devil” would be too depressing for pop audiences ~ Ray passed away in 1998April 13, 1883 ~ Wilhelm Levkowitz, commonly known as vaudeville singer Willie Howard, born in Neustadt, Germany ~ Formed the sibling duo the Howard Brothers with his younger brother Eugene Howard. The duo were among the earliest openly Jewish performers and known for their burlesque and vaudeville performances and appeared in several Broadway revues, most notably The Passing Show series starting in the early-1910s and the George Gershwin-penned Girl Crazy musical in 1930 ~ Levkowitz passed away in 1949