Johnny One Eye

The rock’n’roll music of the mid-1950s encouraged performers to lose their inhibitions, but with the exception of his close friend Screaming Lord Sutch, no one in the UK was wilder or more outrageous than Freddie Fingers Lee. “If I wasn’t crazy when I joined Sutch’s band, I certainly was when I left,” he used to say. Lee was an extrovert rock’n’roll pianist and songwriter whose songs were recorded by Charlie Gracie and Carl Mann and he is best known for his autobiographical composition “One-Eyed Boogie Boy”…

This Dutch blues band was formed in the Hague around 1967, becoming a regular outfit from 1969. The early line-up included Bjorn Toll (vocals), John Lagrand (harmonica), Ted Oberg (guitar), Ruud Fransen (bass) and Niek Dijkhuys (drums) but although the name remained wholesale changes soon took place, bringing in a new singer, Nicko Christiansen, and new bass and drums, Peter Kleinjan and Beer Klaasse, the latter pair being swiftly replaced by Gerard Strutbaum and Cesar Zuiderwijk, while keyboard player Henk Smitskamp was added. Other changes followed through the 70s, by which time the band’s repertoire was more inclined towards rock. Musicians involved included bass players Ruud van Buuren, Jan van der Voort, Jaap van Eijk and André Reynen, drummers John Lejeune, Herman van Boeyen, Cor van Beek, Michel Driessen, Kenny Lamb and Arjen Kamminga; the latter pair played in the band simultaneously for a spell…

Moonlight in Vermont is a 1956 album by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, featuring tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. Titled for Smith’s breakthrough hit song, it was the No.1 Jazz Album for 1956. It was popularly and critically well received and has come to be regarded as an important album in Smith’s discography, in the cool jazz genre and in the evolution of jazz guitar. Notable songs on the album, which reveal the influence of Smith’s experiences with the NBC Studio Orchestra, and as a multi-instrument musician, include the title track and the original composition “Jaguar”. The title track, singled out for its virtuosity, was a highly influential rendition of a jazz standard that secured Smith’s position in the public eye…