Jim Lauderdale Ralph Stanley | en

Stanley William Turrentine, also known as "Mr. T" or "The Sugar Man", (April 5, 1934 – September 12, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Turrentine was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District into a musical family. His father, Thomas Turrentine, Sr., was a saxophonist with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, his mother played stride piano, and his older brother Tommy Turrentine became a professional trumpet player. He began his prolific career with blues and rhythm and blues bands, and was at first greatly influenced by Illinois Jacquet. In the 1950s, he went on to play with the groups of Lowell Fulson,...

Ralph Duren "Ralphie" May (February 17, 1972 – October 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. May first got into comedy after he entered and won a talent show while still in high school. The prize of the talent show was the right to open for Sam Kinison. After graduating from Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Arkansas, he then moved to Houston, Texas to perfect his comedy, and then to Los Angeles, where he has worked as an actor, writer, and producer. May entered the public eye when he appeared in the first season of the reality television...

Ralph Gean has been writing, performing and recording his own unique variety of off-beat Rock, Rockabilly and Country songs since the late 1950s. As an early ‘60s contemporary of first-wave Rock n’ Roll acts like Roy Orbison and Glenn Campbell, Gean achieved a measure of regional success in Texas, cutting several 45s and receiving vigorous support from local radio. Unfortunately, just as he was rising to what was sure to be national stardom, The Beatles stormed America, and the “British invasion” that followed all but eliminated the market for Gean’s home-grown Rock n’ Roll, causing his career to fall-apart almost...

Stanley Cowell (born 1941 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American jazz pianist and founder of the Strata-East Records label. He played with Roland Kirk while studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and later with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land. Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965-66. .

Ralph Henry Kirshbaum (born April 4, 1946) is an American cellist currently living in England.The rare cello that Ralph Kirshbaum plays was crafted in 1729 by the Italian maker Domenico Montagnana and once belonged to the 19th century virtuoso, Piatti. Ralph Kirshbaum's father was a professional violinist, music educator and conductor; his mother was a harpist. Kirshbaum started cello lessons with his father at age of six. During his career he has performed solos with major orchestras worldwide, won prizes in several international competitions, and recorded extensively. His special love for the Elgar Concerto dates from his memorable televised performance...