Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for November 29th

All Birthdays Edition today: A blues legend, an underrated voice, and a great guitarist (but with a sad ending)...

11/29/1933 - Happy Birthday to an iconic artist often referred to as "The Father of the British Blues Movement", the (truly) one and only John Mayall, who turns 83 years old today. John has a long history of picking some of the coolest, classic hep-kats to play in his backing band, The Bluesbreakers; over the years, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, Harvey Mandel, Ansley Dunbar, and Jimmy McCulloch have all played with Mayall. Sixty-plus years in the biz and John's still out there, gigging away. Remarkable dude.

11/29/1944 - Happy Birthday to The Rascals singer-songwriter-keyboardist Felix Cavaliere, 72 years old today. No doubt about it, Felix's chops have graced some of the most classic American Top 40 singles of the Sixties ("Good Lovin'", "You Better Run" [later made famous by Pat Benatar], "Groovin'", "Lonely Too Long", "People Got To Be Free","How Can I Be Sure", "A Beautiful Morning") and we think The Rascals place near the top of the list as one of the most under-appreciated bands that ever was is an artistic crime. Time for a re-boot of their catalog, and by the way, they were a great live band too, check this out:

11/29/1947 - Born on this date, guitarist extraordinaire Ronnie Montrose, who led the bands Montrose (with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals,1973-'78) and Gamma (1979-'83), as well as an impressive and varied resume of session work, having recorded with Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock, Boz Scaggs, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Dan Hartman, The Neville Brothers and Johnny Winter. The first Montrose album in fact, was often cited by music journalists as "America's answer to Led Zeppelin". On March 3, 2012, Ronnie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after years of battling various forms of clinical depression that had plagued him since childhood; he was 64 years old.

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"...what a lovely, lovely world this would be/If everyone learned to live together", xoxo!