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A slave since birth, Harriet Tubman escapes slavery for the first time from a plantation in Poplar Neck, Caroline County, Maryland, USA. She will be recaptured but will escape again making use of a secret network known as The Underground Railroad or The Freedom Train, which helped slaves escape to the Northern states. Harriet Tubman would make over 19 trips back South to help others escape and her 1987 biography was titled Freedom Train. The hope and succour
provided by the Underground Railway will inspire the musical Freedom Train, and numerous songs, including The Ballad Of The Underground Railroad, by Charles L. Blockson, best-known in a version peformed by the actor Danny Glover. The metaphor of the Freedom Train will also be widely adapted and adopted during in the civil rights stuggle of the 1960s, in such songs as People Get Ready [1965] by Curtis Mayfield And The
Impressions and Freedom Train [1969] by James Carr. There is also a compilation LP, Steal Away : Songs of
the Underground Railroad by Kim and Reggie Harris.
Jazz drummer, vocalist and bandleader Freddie Kohlman is born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. In a long career he will work with A.J. Piron, Joe Robichaux, Papa Celestin, Sam Morgan, Albert Ammons, Stuff Smith, Earl Hines, Lee Collins, Louis Armstrong, The Dukes of Dixieland, The Onward Brass Band and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band - to name but a few.Fiddlin' John Carson becomes the first country music performer to play live on WSB Radio in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
George Smith, who will become a pioneer of West-Coast blues harmonica, is born in Helena, Arkansas, USA. He will be perform under names including Little George Smith and George 'Harmonica' Smith.
Jesse Drakes is born in New York City, USA. He will find acclaim as a jazz trumpeter working with Lester Young, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan and others.
Shirley Luster is born in Springfield, Illinois, USA. She will find success as big band jazz vocalist June Christy.Cabinet designer Paul M. Fuller of The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co is granted US Patent No. D.99,277 for his 'Model 312' jukebox.
Benny Goodman And His Orchestra come to the end of a seven-month long residency in the Joseph Urban Room of the Congress Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, USA. In the course of the residency, Goodman has established a popular new style of big-band music - swing.
Variety magazine in the USA reports that, "John McCormack having retired and given up singing forever and a day, duly appeared on the Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall hour and sang a couple of numbers. Numbers weren't important nor, for that matter, the fact that he'd come out of retirement at his very first moment after commencing it. What counted was that the Irishman was in rare good humour and had himself a royal good time all through the programme, clowning with Crosby, Bob Burns (sic) and Lionel Stander. It was good fun throughout and if McCormack really means it about quitting the concert stage but wants to shift to some other branch of the biz he might consider being an MC. He could get away with it."
Tell Taylor, composer of Down By The Old Mill Stream, Some Day, If Dreams Come True and many other popular songs, dies of a heart attack in a bar in Chicago, Illinois, USA.Benny Goodman And His Orchestra play on the CBS network's Camel Caravan radio show in New York City, USA.
The musical comedy Too Many Girls, with music by Richard Rodgers And Lorenz Hart, opens at The Grand Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, USA.Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra record Coast To Coast, Carambola, Oo-La-La and Honeysuckle Rose for Capitol Records, in New York City, USA.
Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Arthur Godfrey and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires record songs including Music! Music! Music!, Candy And Cake, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes and Dear Old Girl at the Convention of the National Association of Tobacco Distributors, in the Chicago Civic Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, USA. The songs are transmitted as part of the radio programme Bing Crosby's All Star Chesterfield Show.
Frank Sinatra records Lonely Town and Baby, Won't You Please Come Home with arranger Gordon Jenkins, for Capitol Records in the USA.
US deejay/promoter Alan Freed's week-long revue has its third day at the Apollo Theater, Harlem, New York, USA, featuring Bo Diddley, Big Maybelle Smith, Jo Ann Campbell, Bobby Day, The Cadillacs, and The Wheels.
A Million To One by Jimmy Charles enters the Billboard R'n'B singles charts in the USA, where it will peak at No8. It will do better on the pop charts, reaching No5.
Anita O'Day and The Gene Krupa Quintet close at Basin Street East, New York City, USA.
Sarah Vaughan is playing during a three-week engagement at the My Fair Lady club in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
In one of his last recording sessions, Elmore James records Look On Yonder Wall, Find My Kind Of Woman, Dust My Broom and My Baby's Gone, with producer Bobby Robinson in New York City, USA.
The Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers, later to become Manfred Mann, record Why Should We Not, Brother Jack and Without You as part of their 'commercial test' at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, London, England, UK, Europe.
LaVern Baker continues with her month-long season at The Riviera, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.A package tour featuring Chubby Checker, Bo Diddley, Dee Dee Sharp, The Shirelles, The Checkerboard Band and others plays in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
Jan Scobey records Birth Of The Blues, Cottonfields, Ain't Misbehavin' and other tracks at Universal Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Sleepy John Estes, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sunnyland Slim, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Lightnin
Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers begin a season at McKie's Disc Jockey Lounge, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Virtuoso organist Lenny Dee records The Poor People Of Paris, Calcutta, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Arrivederci Roma and other tracks in Columbia Recording Studio, 804 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Fats Domino is playing the last of five nights at Club Laurel, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Johnny Young records Wild Wild Woman for Arhoolie Records at Sound Studios in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Canadian band The Paupers play the last of three nights at newly-opened rock venue, The Kinetic Playground, 4812 North Clark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, USA.Tim Buckley and the Illinois Speed Press play the fourth of five nights at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, Los Angeles, California, USA.
The Litter play at The Kinetic Playground [aka The Electric Theater], 4812 North Clark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, USA, supported by Nova Express.Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young play at The Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Jazz saxophonist Gene Ammons records Body And Soul, Out Of It, The Sun Died and other tracks at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA, for Prestige Records.
Willie Dixon and Johnny Winter, with Walter Horton harmonica], Lee Jackson [guitar] and Lafayette Leake [piano], record Spoonful, I Just Wanna Make Love To You, Chicago Here I Come and other tracks in Houiston, Texas, USA.
On their Some Great Reward Tour, 
The 
Hole, a band led by Courtney Love, future wife of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, releases its debut album, Pretty On The Inside, in the USA.
When, just fifteen minutes before showtime, Whitney Houston claims she has bronchitis and cancels an appearance at Concord Pavilion, Concord, California, the city officials sue her for $100,000.
On their A Folk Song A Day tour, Jon Boden And The Remnant Kings play at Cheltenham Folk Festival, Cheltenham, England, UK, Europe.Respected jazz band manager, booking agent, critic and author Jim Godbolt dies aged 90 in Hampstead, London, UK.
The fourth day of The Cheltenham Jazz Festival, a six-day event held at various venues in Cheltenham, UK, is headlined by Gregory Porter. The festival is directed by Jamie Cullum and Gregory Porter features as Artist-In-Residence.
On their The M A N I A tour, Fall Out Boy play at The Max Schmelling Halle, Berlin, Germany, Europe, supported by Against The Current and MAX.1849 |
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