Al Jackson Jr.

popular name: Scrapper Blackwell

date_of_death: October 7, 1962

age: 59

cause_of_death: Murdered (solved but no arrest)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Scrapper Blackwell, together with Leroy Carr are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

popular name: Big Joe Turner

date_of_death: November 24, 1985

age: 74

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Big Joe Turner, a 300-pound legend who learned to sing the blues as a Kansas City junkman and transformed decades of urban black music into the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Turner sang rhythm and blues songs such as “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Corrine Corrina” and “Lucille” that became the foundation of a new genre of music when white singers such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets popularized them for audiences of white teen-agers in the mid-1950s. The music took the name rock ‘n’ roll because those words appeared in the lyrics of several blues songs.

popular name: Jimmy Dorsey

date_of_death: June 12, 1957

age: 53

cause_of_death: Cancer of the throat

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Jimmy Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who played a key role in the big band and swing eras of the 1930s and 1940s. His father, a coal miner turned music teacher, taught Tommy and Jimmy to play and appreciate music. They both started by learning to play the cornet, but Jimmy would soon learn and excel at the clarinet and alto saxophone while Tommy would perfect playing the trumpet and trombone. The brothers would form their first band, Dorsey’s Novelty Six, while they were still teenagers. In 1927 they began recording on their own label, The Dorsey Brothers and Their Concert Orchestra, though it did not officially debut until 1934. During this period of time, the lead vocals for their orchestra was Bing Crosby. Their combined orchestra did not last long. Tension and rivalry ran high among the brothers and less than a year after their official debut, Tommy left to form his own band. On the night of May 30, 1935, the growing tension between the two brothers exploded. As the band started “I’ll Never Say ‘Never Again’ Again,” the two started to argue about the tempo and in the middle of the performance Tommy walked off the stage, abandoning his brother and the band. They both went on to successful solo careers when they reunited 1953 and co-led The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra again. They appeared on the television program “Stage Show”, which famously introduced Elvis Presley to national TV audiences. Before his sudden death at the age of 53, Jimmy Dorsey had eleven number one hits with his orchestra in the 1930s and the 1940s including "Green Eyes", "Blue Champagne", "Tangerine", "Bésame Mucho" and "Pennies from Heaven" with Bing Crosby. Upon his death he was laid to rest at Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Cemetery.