FROM THE VAULTS

Monday 25 March 2024

Mina Mazzini born 25 March 1940

Mina Anna Maria Mazzini OMRI (born 25 March 1940) known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman. 

One of the most beloved and iconic performers in Italian history, vocalist Mina was a fixture on the pop music scene in the '60s and '70s before she retired from the limelight in 1978. Her lush and powerful voice put a distinctive mark on her music, which frequently jumped genres, from Italian pop and R&B to bossa nova, jazz, and even disco. 

From her first number one single, 1959's "Tintarella di luna," and through her run in the '70s with "Amor mio," "Parole Parole," "E poi...," and "L'importante e finire," she was a trailblazing figure who challenged social mores and became a symbol for female empowerment, pushing boundaries with her liberated image and unapologetic lyrics. Into the 21st century, her prolific and genre-shifting output kept her atop the charts with over a dozen number one albums and multiple hit singles. 

Anna Maria Mazzini was born into a working-class family in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy. The family moved to work in Cremona in her childhood. She listened to American rock and roll and jazz records and was a frequent visitor at the Santa Tecla and the Taverna Messicana clubs of Milan, both known for promoting rock and roll. After finishing high school in 1958, she attended college where she majored in accounting. 

In September, she started her solo career with the backing of the band Happy Boys. Her concert in September 1958, before an audience of 2,500 people at the Theatre of Rivarolo del Re, won enthusiastic approval from local critics. She soon signed with Davide Matalon, owner of the small record company Italdisc. He was impressed with the young singer and soon recorded four songs with her: two in English under the name Baby Gate -- "Be Bop a Lula" and "When" -- and two in Italian as Mina: "Non Partir" and "Malatia." 

             

                                    

In December, her performance at the Sei giorni della canzone festival of Milan was described by the La Notte newspaper as the "birth of a star". It was Mina's last performance with the Happy Boys, as her family refused to let her skip college for a scheduled tour of Turkey. Less than a month after the breakup with her previous band, Mina co-founded a new group called Solitari, which consisted of a singer, a saxophonist, a pianist, a contrabassist, and a guitarist. Her first hit with the band featured Mina performing an extra-loud, syncopated version of the popular song "Nessuno" ("Nobody"), which she performed at the first rock festival in the Milan Ice Palace in February 1959. 

Mina was the name that she stuck with for her debut album, Tintarella di Luna, which was released in 1960. During that decade she recorded over a dozen albums, and -- thanks to her high visibility in the television commercials that began in Italy after WWII and the economic boom that followed -- she became one of the country's most famous stars, notching seven number one albums, including 1971's best-selling Mina and 1976's Singolare y Plurale. At the height of her popularity, Mina announced that she would retire from the spotlight, a public hiatus which she started after the 1978 live album Mina Live '78. Recorded where it all started at La Bussola, the set celebrated the first 20 years of her career. 

Withdrawing from the public eye, she continued to record and release albums, which maintained her chart presence through the '80s and '90s. During that era, she issued almost three dozen efforts, seven of which topped the Italian charts, including Si, Buana (1986), Lochness (1993), Leggera (1997), and Olio (1999). In addition to her fresh output, Mina began releasing greatest-hits collections, including 2004's chart-topping, triple-disc The Platinum Collection, which introduced her to a new generation of fans. The following year, she issued Bula Bula, another number one that incorporated sleek pop production and dance beats. 

Mina continues to publish gold selling albums to the present. She alternates pop albums with jazz-arranged projects and other styles and keeps surprising with new musical collaborations. Meanwhile, her voice and songs are omnipresent in radio and TV commercials, theme tunes of sports programs, talent shows (where they sing classics), tribute shows, new covers, and even as samples in the recordings of other artists.Even into her seventies, Mina showed no signs of slowing down, notching another pair of chart-toppers with Le Migliori (2016) and Maeba (2018). In 2019, she joined fellow pop vocalist Ivano Fossati for a duets album, Mina Fossati. 

In 2023, a surprising intergenerational duet of Blanco (at the age of 20) and Mina (at the age of 83) was issued, "Un briciolo di allegria", it made number 1 in the Italian hitparade for 5 consecutive weeks.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

 

Sunday 24 March 2024

David Dee born 24 March 1938

David Dee (24 March 1938 – 22, March 2023) was an influential East St. Louis soul singer, guitarist and bandleader. His music career spanned more than five decades, during which he thrived as a charismatic and versatile performer.

Dee was born David Eckford  in Greenwood, Mississippi but St. Louis was the town he has called home since childhood after his mother moved the family in the middle of the night from Mississippi. She was in debt to the owner of a plantation, where the family was living as sharecroppers. She wanted a better life for her family. “She called the boss man and said she needed $200 to buy Christmas gifts for the kids,” Dee said. Instead, she used the money to buy bus tickets to St. Louis, where she had family." 

He began singing with a spiritual group at the age of 12. When he reached the age of 16, he moved to Chicago and in 1963 after a stint in the military, returned to East St. Louis to form his first musical group, David and the Temptations. Following the break-up of the group, he free-lanced as a singer for other groups such as Clyde Jones, Walter Rice, Wahtachie and others. A booking agent in Springfield, Illinois, suggested the name David Dee to him and that’s the name he has used on all of his recordings. Although he initially tried his hand at playing keyboards, alto saxophone, and bass, Dee permanently switched to the guitar in 1972. 

                                    

He worked the club scene, including the all-night venues in East St. Louis. Dee has been called the St. Louis area’s premier contemporary bluesman.  Howlin' Wolf recruited Dee to play bass for him. Albert King did the same. He played behind Jimmy Reed and performed and recorded with Oliver Sain, who presented Dee with a track that needed some lyrics. The collaboration became “Goin’ Fishin” in 1982 which took him from the local clubs of East St. Louis to the national soul-blues “chitlin circuit.” 

David has released numerous CDs, which include a substantial body of original work, perhaps most notable is his 1991 album "Going Fishing", which colorfully portrays the consequences of neglecting a spouse. It has been suitably described as ST. Louis blues anthem.. 

Considered at the time by many to be St. Louis’s reigning blues king, David Dee earned the title of one of his original standards, "Workin Blues Man". The moniker embodied the various roles of bandleader, song writer, guitarist, entertainer, and singer that had been cultivated through 40 plus years of travels, recording and performing. From Parisian Hotels to East St. Louis VFW halls to festivals in Amsterdam, his performances delighted just about every type of audience imaginable. He performed regularly with his Hot Tracks band, augmented on special occasions by his three daughters who also sang. 

Lesley Withers, a daughter of Dee, shared news of his death on 22, March 2023. He was 84 years old.

(Scarce info edited from Discogs, Soul Blues Music, Radio KDHX & AllMusic) (* some sources state 1942 as birth-year)

 

 

Saturday 23 March 2024

Karen Young born 23 March 1951

Karen Young (March 23, 1951 — January 26, 1991) was an American disco singer known for her 1978 hit song "Hot Shot". 

Young grew up in a Northeast Philadelphia rowhouse. She began as a singer of jingles and backing vocalist for Philadelphia-based production companies. In the early 1970s, she performed with the group Sandd, featuring Frank Gilckin (lead guitar), George Emertz (rhythm guitar), Frank Ferraro (bass guitar) and Dennis Westman (drums). 

In 1978, Young released the single "Hot Shot", written and produced by (Andy) Andrew Kahn and Kurt Borusiewicz. The song spent two weeks at number 1 on Billboard's disco chart and eventually peaked at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. An album, also titled Hot Shot, was then released by West End Records of New York City. The song propelled Young to international fame. With a powerful, soulful voice that invoked elements of Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand, Karen could tear through a song like a tornado," wrote a critic in Record World. 

"Hot Shot" was featured in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune and in the 2020 documentary The Times of Bill Cunningham. The song was a featured sample in Daft Punk's song "Indo Silver Club" on their album Homework. The song was also used by ITV in the mid-1980s during its coverage of the World Snooker Championship for "hot shots" compilations during the tournament. Hot Shot was covered by the pop band, Blondie and included as a bonus track on the Japan and South Africa editions of their comeback album, No Exit. Various remixes of the song were released in 2007. "Hot Shot" made three separate appearances in the UK Singles Chart in 1978, 1979, and 1997. The highest placing was number 34. 

                                   

Producer Andy Kahn told in an interview that success made Karen 'unmanageable' and difficult to work with. A new recording Rendezvous With Me was attempted towards the end of 1979 but was never finished because the relationship ran sour. Instead Karen started working with his brother Walter Kahn. Signing with his Sunshine Recordings label, her first single was a rendition of God Bless America, an unlikely choice considering her disco fame, and unsurprisingly it was not a hit. 

An album of pop/rock sides was shelved in favor of the dance track Dynamite, released late 1981, and seeing her have a modest disco hit when it reached #69 in the dance charts. Detour on Atlantic fared better at #34 in 1982, but none of the following singles, scattered on various labels, did particularly well. After 1987's double A-side Change In Me/Eye On You, she had no new recordings. After that, she was still a hot property, but the timing, or song or people, never quite worked. She tried different directions, but they led nowhere. In a business where the lights go out very soon after the song stops, Karen's time on the meter ran out. She was a dynamic piano player and, with her singing, created a large following for herself in the Greater Philadelphia area. 

On Sept. 30 1990 Young performed at the Mandell Theater on the Drexel University campus. It was a benefit concert for Action AIDS. It was basically a jazz concert, but Karen and the song "Hot Shot" would forever be inseparable, and that is what she sang."It brought the audience down. Five hundred people went bananas, “said producer Andy Kahn. 

Just two months before her 40th birthday, suffering from weight problems, she had trouble breathing and went to the hospital for a check-up, but she died on January 26, 1991, at her home in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. The exact cause of her death still isn't  known, but house mate and close friend Renee Koch, said a doctor called Karen's mother and said it might have been ruptured perforated ulcers that caused her death. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Bandcamp & The Inquirer Daily News) 

Friday 22 March 2024

Cecil Campbell born 22 March 1911

Cecil Campbell (March 22, 1911 – June 18, 1989) was an American bluegrass bandleader & musician, most famed as a steel guitarist for the Tennessee Ramblers during the 1930s and '40s, although he also played tenor banjo. 

Born Cecil Robert Campbell in Danbury, North Carolina, Campbell worked on his father's tobacco farm and played occasionally on WSJS in Winston-Salem. He graduated from Walkertown High School in Walkertown, near Winston-Salem, and moved to Charlotte in 1935. He taught himself to play the guitar when he was 14 or 15 years old, sitting around the tobacco farm chewing on the home-grown leaf. Seeking new opportunities, Campbell hitchhiked in 1932 to Pittsburgh where he lived with his brother where he met Dick Hartman and was asked to join Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers, a large group that played both Western swing and old-time string music. And since many performers used nicknames, Campbell was often called "Curley" at that time. 

The band continued to record until fall 1936, also as "Hartman's Heart Breakers" or "Washboard Wonders." This incarnation of the Tennessee Ramblers held its last session with RCA-Victor on October 11, 1936, in Charlotte. The Tennessee Ramblers kept on performing and also began appearing in various B western movies, including "Ride Ranger Ride" (1936), "The Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge" (1937, both starring Gene Autry), among others. Hartman left in 1938 but the band continued without him, simply calling themselves "The Tennessee Ramblers" 

                                   

Campbell played on radio broadcasts and Bluebird sessions with the band throughout the '30s, taking over the leadership of the Ramblers' by-then skeleton crew in 1945, when the only original member left was guitarist Harry Blair. 

Cecil Campbell & the Tennessee Ramblers gained a contract with RCA Victor in 1946 and recorded throughout the late '40s. Campbell's steel guitar wizardry was emphasized, and the Ramblers gradually became more Campbell's backing group than an original entity themselves. Campbell remained popular, not only in the Carolinas but also in other parts of the United States, through tours and appearances on such WBT shows as the Dixie Jamboree and the Carolina Hayride (which was broadcasted coast to coast over CBS from 1946 onwards). 

He sold nearly a Million copies of his 1947 recording of "Tryon Street Boogie." Carolina themes wound through many of Cecil Campbell's 100 or so songs, including (Catawbay River Blues," "My Little Hut in Carolina" and "North Carolina Skies." Campbell also wrote and recorded Hawaiian tunes such as "Little Hula Shack in Hawaii" and” Neath Hawaiian Palms." He wrote country music back when it was called "hillbilly music" and appeared on WBT's Briarhopper radio show in the 1930s and '40s. During his RCA tenure, "Steel Guitar Ramble" became Campbell's only hit when it reached the country Top Ten in May 1949. Many of his 1940s RCA sides showcase his skills on the steel guitar, as Campbell and the Ramblers included many instrumentals in its repertoire.

In the early 1950s, the Western Ramblers did an unusual number called "Spooky Boogie". Cecil was looking for an "...unusual hollow type of rattling sound designed to send cold chills rushing down the spine." He couldn't find that sound on the musical instruments. But as fate would have it, one of the members of the Tennessee Ramblers had false teeth and that mysterious sound that appears on the tune "Spooky Boogie" was made by a pair of chattering false teeth. The flip side of that disk was another unusual tune called "Steel Guitar Dig." That record was the follow up to his "Proud Papa Polka" and "Serenade To The Winds." 

By 1951, Cecil was living in Charlotte, NC with his wife, Katherine and their daughters, Joretta Kay, and Linda Lee. From there, he traveled to New York for his recording sessions usually. Campbell also recorded for Disc and Palmetto Records during the early '50s, but signed with MGM in 1955, mixing some rockabilly material in with his traditional swing. After his stint with MGM, Campbell took a break from recording but continued to do personal appearances. However, his popularity had waned since the beginning of the decade. Although he tried his hand at rock'n'roll to refresh his sound, his age and dated western swing sounds were not pleasing the young audiences anymore. In 1958, he went into the real estate business and remained active in this field until the 1970s. 

Campbell recorded for Starday in the 60’s and in 1965 he founded his own Winston label, on which he occasionally released recordings. He continued to perform live with the Tennessee Ramblers, often appearing at the annual Western Film Fair in Raleigh, North Carolina, well into the 1980s.  He also appeared often at the Western Film Fair (held in Raleigh, NC) until his death at the Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 18, 1989. He was 78. 

(Edited from Rocky 52, Mellows Log Cabin, Discogs & Hillbilly Music.com)

Thursday 21 March 2024

Brian Cassar born 21 March 1936

Brian Cassar (21 March 1936 – 25 December 2022) was a British singer and guitarist known as Casey Jones. He led the first notable beat group in Liverpool, Cass and the Cassanovas, who were early rivals of The Beatles in the city. He later led another group, Casey Jones and the Engineers, which was one of Eric Clapton's first bands, and then, as leader of Casey Jones and the Governors, became successful in Germany, where he became based for much of his life. His surname is sometimes misspelled as Casser. 

Cass & the Cassanovas

Cassar was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and raised in Liverpool. In the 1950s, he worked in the Merchant Navy. As a singer and rhythm guitarist, Cassar formed a trio, Cass & the Cassanovas, in May 1959, with singer and guitarist Adrian Barber and drummer and singer Brian J. Hudson. After a few months, Hudson left and was replaced by Johnny Hutchinson, known as Johnny Hutch. In need of a bass guitarist, Hutchinson then brought in Johnny Gustafson in December 1959. At that time Gustafson did not have a proper bass guitar so Barber converted an acoustic for him. 

The group became popular playing a wide range of music, from Latin American music to rock and roll, in dance halls in the Liverpool area. Cassar also started his own music club in Liverpool, the Casanova Club, whose guest groups included one known at the time as the "Silver Beetles"; according to some reports, Cassar had suggested that they change their name from the earlier spelling of "Beatals" which Cassar found "ridiculous". 

In May 1960 Cass & the Cassanovas took part in auditions in front of leading manager Larry Parnes who was looking for backing bands for his stable of pop singers. The group secured a place as backing group for singer Duffy Power and toured with him. By this time, Cassar had begun using the stage names of "Casey Jones" and "Casey Valence". 

                                 

In December 1960, Gustafson, Hutchinson and Barber left the band, and formed themselves into a new trio, The Big Three. Cassar moved to London around 1962, and managed the Blue Gardenia club in Soho. He also briefly formed a group called the Nightsounds, which featured Albert Lee on guitar. 

The following year, he won a recording contract with the Columbia label, and recorded a single, "One Way Ticket", using the name Casey Jones. With drummer Ray Stock, he recruited two former members of R&B group the Roosters, guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Tom McGuinness, and briefly toured as Casey Jones & the Engineers. Clapton and McGuinness left after a few performances, shortly followed by Stock. 

Cassar then formed a new group with David Coleman (lead guitar), Roger Cook (rhythm guitar), Jim Redford (bass) and Peter Richards (drums). They played at the Star-Club in Hamburg and became popular in Germany, releasing two singles, "Tall Girl" and "Don't Ha Ha" on the Bellaphon label, before changing their name to Casey Jones & the Governors, apparently in an attempt to stress their British origins. 

The record label reissued "Don't Ha Ha" – which in fact was a version of the 1958 Huey Smith and the Clowns song "Don't You Just Know It" – under the new band name and it rose to # 2 on the German pop chart. Casey Jones and the Governors continued to tour and record successfully in Germany for a few years, achieving six top 40 singles and releasing two albums on the Gold 12 label, Casey Jones and the Governors (1965) and Don't Ha Ha (1966). 

In the 1970s, Cassar, still using the name Casey Jones, worked as a disc jockey in Löhnberg, and recorded a solo album, Casey's Rock 'n' Roll Show. In the 1990s, he formed a new version of Casey Jones and the Governors to play the oldies circuit in Germany, and in 2006 was reported to be living in Unna near Dortmund. 

Cassar died on 25 December 2022, at the age of 86. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

 

Wednesday 20 March 2024

Marva Wright born 20 March 1948

Marva Wright (March 20, 1948 – March 23, 2010) was an American blues singer. 

Down in Louisiana, Marva Wright was called the Blues Queen. Fans of her energy-filled performances, both live and recorded, called her a lot of other things, too, like "Marvalous Marva." The "bluesiana" numbers she favored were a strong showcase for her dynamic, gospel-rooted voice. One listen would be enough to convince any newcomer of her strengths, which was surprising in light of the fact that the vocalist was a late bloomer who didn't turn professional until 1987, when she was creeping up on 40. Even then, she only began singing as a way to support her family with a second job. 

Bourbon Street in the Big Easy led to more than she had dreamed, ultimately landing her gigs in Europe and across the world, with stops in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Brazil. Her appearances in the U.S. included Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, as well as Texas, California, Vermont, Colorado, and Florida. 

She was born Marva Maria Williams in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, to mother Mattie P. Gilbert, and father Reverend Arthur Williams on March 20, 1948. Wright's first public singing efforts were heard in church at the age of 9, with her mother Mattie Gilbert, a piano player and gospel singer as her accompanist in which they recorded "I Walk With The King". Top honors in a school-sponsored singing competition followed. Mahalia Jackson, the esteemed gospel singer, was an early friend of the family. Marva graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1965 and attended Southern University of Baton Rouge. 

                                  

When Wright was discovered she was working as a secretary at Eleanor McMain Junior High in New Orleans. Wright did not turn professional until 1987, when she was almost forty years old. Even then, she only began singing as a way to support her family with a second job, the song that got attention was "Dr. Feelgood" by Aretha Franklin. Early in 1989 during a live set at Tipitina's in New Orleans, Wright made her first recording, "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean". 

She made her debut on national television in 1991, when her hometown was the setting for a special that revolved around the Super Bowl where she met CBS news anchorman Ed Bradley, who thought at that time that she only sang Gospel. Later that same year he rediscovered her at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and from that day on encouraged her career and introduced her every Jazz Fest. Heartbreakin' Woman, Wright's first full-length release, appeared later that year and garnered honors from the Louisiana Music Critics Association as Blues Album of the Year. The Times-Picayune placed it among the year's Top Ten albums in the city. 

Wright's 1993 album Born With The Blues was originally released in France, then three years later the major-label imprint Virgin picked it up for the rest of the world. Her 2007 album, After The Levees Broke, addressed the devastation of Hurricane Katrina - which destroyed her house and all her belongings - by repurposing songs like Willie Nelson's "Crazy", Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come", and Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is". In August 2008, she performed with the Louisiana Wetlands All Stars at both the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado and the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. 

She also sang backup for such artists as Allen Toussaint, Glen Campbell, Joe Cocker, Cyril Neville, Harry Connick, Jr., Bobby McFerrin, Aaron Neville, Fats Domino, Lou Rawls, and Marcia Ball. 

In May and June 2009, Wright suffered a pair of strokes from which she never fully recovered. She died on March 23, 2010, a few days after her 62nd birthday at her eldest daughter's home in New Orleans. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic) 

 

Tuesday 19 March 2024

Buster Bennett born 19 March 1914

Buster Bennett (March 19, 1914 – July 3, 1980) was an American blues saxophonist and blues shouter. His nickname was "Leap Frog". At various times in his career, he played the soprano saxophone, the alto, and the tenor. He was known for his gutbucket style on the saxophone. He also played the piano and the string bass professionally. He appeared on 28 recording sessions between 1938 and 1947. 

James Joseph “Buster” Bennett was born in Pensacola, Florida. Nothing is known about his early days. When he cut his first recordings in 1938, he was a highly distinctive, gutbucket stylist with many 1920s features still adhering to his playing (not least of them his continued use of the soprano sax, which was way out of fashion by this time). All of this suggests that he learned early and was playing profesionally in his teens. By 1930 or so, he was working professionally in Texas, but he spent most of his active career (1938 to 1954) in Chicago. 

He was employed as a session musician by Lester Melrose from September 1938 to 1942. He would work the studios with Big Bill Broonzy, The Yas Yas Girl, and Monkey Joe; his most fruitful association seems to have been with Washboard Sam, who found his alto (or soprano) sax to be an ideal melody instrument. He also did two non-Melrose sessions with Jimmie Gordon, under the direction of Sammy Price. Ransom Knowling (bass player on many Melrose sessions) once told Bob Koester that Buster Bennett got on a lot of sessions because he was so adept at extracting advances on his salary from Walter Melrose, who would then have to schedule him for another session to recoup. Some documentary evidence supports the claim that Buster was also in the habit of drawing advances from nightclub owners. 

                                   

Busters claim to fame stems from his own three-year contract with Columbia, which ran from 1945 through the end of 1947 (he did one final session with Broonzy, just getting back into the studios after the 1942 recording ban, right before starting to record under his own leadership). On paper he might look like Louis Jordan, but the two had little in common besides leading a small combo, singing, and playing alto sax. Columbia wanted Buster to sing blues; he came across as more of a strict blues singer than Jordan, and a lot less polished vocally. 

L-R: Arrington Thornton, Buster & Duke Groner

Where Jordan was a consummate Swing player, Bennett's alto and soprano sax stylings (hardly anyone else was playing soprano in the late 1940s) were vigorous but had a quaint, almost 1920s tone and rhythmic feel. When Bennett employed front line partners (usually in the studio, not on the gigs he most often played with just sax, piano, and bass), he was careful to find complementary horn players who swung more and rocked less than he did. In 1946 and 1947, he made the (seemingly inevitable) R&B soloist's move to tenor sax. He hired beboppers to complete his front line, and started copping a few licks himself.

In early 1946, while under contract to Columbia, Bennett appeared, under the name of his trumpet player, Charles Gray, on a recording for the short-lived Chicago label Rhumboogie. He also made an unannounced appearance on a Red Saunders session for Sultan Records in 1946 and on a "tenor battle" session with Tom Archia for Aristocrat Records in 1947. At the height of his popularity, in the late 1940s, he was known for his ability to draw customers into a South Side club—and for his cantankerous personality. On one occasion, he and Preston Jackson got into a fistfight at the Musicians Union hall, over a $2 debt. 

The end of Bennett's recording contract came with the general fall-off of blues recording in Chicago by the majors. Indeed, Columbia would shut down its 30000 "race" series in 1950. It would be interesting to know how Bennett's style evolved after the end of 1947. Despite an appearance on one of the first sessions for Aristocrat, he never caught on with Chess or the other independents that were taking over blues recording locally. Since Chess was willing to give his former employers Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam a tryout, Buster's legendary temperament may have had something to do with that. 

By 1956 Bennett suffered from health problems that required him to quit playing professionally, and he ended up leaving Chicago and retiring in Texas where he lived out the remainder of his life. Houston newspapers did absolutely nothing to commemorate his passing on July 3, 1980 at the age of 66 and there was no obituary and not even a notice in the column for area deaths. Sadly Buster has been pretty much forgotten, except among collectors of the most obscure blues material. In 2002, the first (and so far only) comprehensive reissue package of Buster's work as a leader appeared on Classics 5037. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Jazz critic Robert Campbell’s bio)