Ben Branch

Ben F. Branch (1924 – August 27, 1987) was an American entrepreneur, jazz tenor saxophonist, and bandleader.

Although possibly better known as being one of the last people Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to moments before his assassination in 1968, Branch had been a leading bandleader for many years.

Musical career

With his brother, Thomas, on trumpet, Branch was a member of the horn section on B.B. King's first recordings for Bullet Records in 1949. "My very first recordings were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalls. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player."

Branch recorded with King again on an early 1952 Memphis recording with the B.B. King Orchestra with, among others, Hank Crawford and Ike Turner.

For much of the 1950s, Branch was the bandleader for the house band, the Largos, at Curry's Club in North Memphis, which provided a young Isaac Hayes with his first professional gigs.

Operation Breadbasket

Operation Breadbasket was an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of black communities across the United States of America.

Operation Breadbasket was founded as a department of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1962, and was operated by Rev. Fred C. Bennette of Atlanta. The first activities were in Atlanta and other Southern cities.

A key figure in the later history of Operation Breadbasket was Jesse Jackson. In 1964, Jackson left his native South Carolina to study at the Chicago Theological Seminary. He participated in SCLC's movement in Selma. When Jackson returned from Selma, he joined SCLC's effort to establish a beachhead in Chicago.

In 1966, SCLC selected Jackson to be head of the Chicago chapter of its Operation Breadbasket. Influenced by the example of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan in Philadelphia, a key goal of the organization was to foster “selective buying” (boycotts) as a means to pressure white businesses to hire blacks and purchase goods and services from black contractors. Sullivan's plan was not without its predecessors. One was Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a wealthy doctor and community leader on the South Side and key financial contributor to Operation Breadbasket. Before he moved from Mississippi to Chicago, Howard had developed a national reputation as a civil rights leader, surgeon, and entrepreneur.

The Operation M.D.

The Operation M.D. (formerly The Operation) is a Canadian garage rock band created by Dr. Dynamite (Cone of Sum 41) and Dr. Rocco (Todd Morse of H₂O and The Offspring) as a side project to their other bands. The band's debut album We Have an Emergency was released in February 2007 by Aquarius Records. Their second album Birds + Bee Stings was self-released by the band's own label "Mouth To Mouth Music" in June 2010.

History

McCaslin and Morse met one another as their bands Sum 41 and H₂O toured during the 2001 Warped Tour. The two came up with a medical theme for their band and assumed the aliases of Dr. Dynamite (McCaslin) and Dr. Rocco (Morse) under the name The Operation. After signing with Aquarius Records the band added "M.D." to their name for legal reasons. The band's debut album We Have an Emergency was recorded during the summer of 2006, when Sum 41 was on hiatus, and was released on February 20, 2007 in Canada with two music videos made for the songs "Sayanora" and "Someone Like You", with both videos being directed by Sum 41 drummer Steve Jocz (Dr. Dinero). Though the band has said many times they don't plan to tour or to play live shows with this project, they did however play one special show at the Bovine Sex Club in Toronto, Ontario, in August 2008. On April 18, 2008, the album was also released in Japan.

Chess Records

Chess Records was an American record company based in Chicago, Illinois, whose catalog is now owned by parent company Universal Music Group, with the catalogue managed by Geffen Records. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz and comedy recordings, released on several labels including Chess, Checker, Argo and Cadet.

Founding in 1950 and run by Polish immigrant brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many important singles and albums, which are now regarded as central to the rock music canon. Musician and critic Cub Koda described Chess Records as "America's greatest blues label."

Chess Records was based at several different locations on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, initially at two different locations on South Cottage Grove Ave. The most famous location was 2120 S. Michigan Avenue from around 1956 to 1965, immortalized by British rock group The Rolling Stones in "2120 South Michigan Avenue", an instrumental recorded there during the group's first U.S. tour in 1964. The Stones recorded at Chess Studios on two more occasions. The building is now home to Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation. In the mid-1960s, Chess re-located to a much larger building at 320 E. 21st St., the label's final Chicago home.

The Last

The Last may refer to:

See also