William Diehl (December 4, 1924 – November 24, 2006) was an American novelist and photojournalist.

He had two children, a boy and a girl from whom he was estranged.

Diehl was fifty years old and already a successful photographer and journalist when he decided to begin a writing career. His first novel, Sharky's Machine, which became a movie by the same name was directed by and starred Burt Reynolds. Diehl saw the movie shot on location in and around his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Its cast included Vittorio Gassman, Brian Keith, Charles Durning, Earl Holliman, Rachel Ward, Bernie Casey, Henry Silva, and Richard Libertini. It has been the most successful box-office release of a film directed by Reynolds.

Following the success of Sharky's Machine, Diehl relocated to St. Simons Island, GA in the early 80's where he lived for the next 15 years before going back to the Atlanta area. While living on St. Simons, he completed eight more novels, including Primal Fear, which also became a movie by the same name starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton. Diehl died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on November 24, 2006, of an aortic aneurism. He was a resident of Woodstock, Georgia at the time of his death and was working on his tenth novel.

Bibliography[link]

• Sharky's Machine (1978)
• Chameleon (1981)
• Hooligans (1984)
• Thai Horse (1987)
• 27 [aka The Hunt] (1990)
• The Hunt [aka 27] (1990)
• Primal Fear (1992)†
• Show of Evil (1995)†
• Reign in Hell (1997)†
• Eureka (2002)

†Primal Fear, Show of Evil and Reign in Hell are all part of the Martin Vail series featuring the character Aaron Stampler.

References and external links[link]

• AP via Yahoo!, 'Primal Fear' author Diehl dies at 81 , 26 November 2006
• William Diehl at Imdb links to info on films based on Diehl's novels

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John Diehl (born May 1, 1950) is an American actor, particularly known for his roles as Charles Kawalsky in the 1994 film Stargate, Det. Larry Zito on the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy on The Shield, and as "the Cruiser" in Stripes. His other notable roles include Pvt. Bucklin, the spokesman of the 2nd Maine mutineers in Gettysburg, Cooper in Jurassic Park III (2001), as G. Gordon Liddy in the Oliver Stone movie Nixon, the Klansman informant ("Mickey Mouse") in A Time to Kill, and as Keith, a credit card company supervisor in Mo Money. He also appeared as the spirit of Harley Earl in a series of commercials for Buick. Diehl later appeared in Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, a made-for-TV movie based on the television series Burn Notice. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,^[1] and graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1968.^[2]

For a time, he flirted with a professional boxing career, leaving Miami Vice to pursue it.

In 2011 he appeared in Monte Hellman's romantic thriller Road to Nowhere (film)

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Diehl at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with John Diehl, 15.11.2008

Randy Crawford
Background information
Birth name	Veronica Crawford
Born	(1952-02-18) February 18, 1952 (age 60) Macon, Georgia, United States
Genres	Jazz, R&B, disco
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1970s–present
Labels	Warner Bros. Records

Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952, Macon, Georgia)^[1] is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist.^[1] She has had multiple top five hits in the UK, including her 1980 #2 hit, "One Day I'll Fly Away".

Career[link]

Crawford first performed at club gigs from Cincinnati to Saint-Tropez, but made her name in mid 1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen George Benson and Cannonball Adderley.^[2] Adderley invited her to sing on his album, Big Man (1975).^[3] Crawford recorded "Don't Get Caught in Love's Triangle," produced by Johnny Bristol, during her short stint on the Fantasy label.^[3]

In 1978, Crawford performed on the second solo album of former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. She sang vocals on "Hoping Love Will Last", the opening song on side two of Please Don't Touch.^[4]

She led R&B veterans The Crusaders on the transatlantic hit "Street Life" (1979).^[2] This song stayed atop the U.S. jazz chart for twenty weeks and has since become both a rare groove and disco classic.^{[citation needed]} It was featured in the soundtrack for the film, Sharky's Machine,^[3] and appeared in commercials in the early 2000s. She moved to Warner Bros. and after "Street Life," recorded and toured Europe with the Crusaders. Crawford was named the 'Most Outstanding Performer' at the 1980 Tokyo Music Festival.^[3]

Her follow-up solo efforts included "One Day I'll Fly Away" (1980); "You Might Need Somebody" (1981); and "Rainy Night in Georgia" (1981); which all became soul standards. The album, Secret Combination (1981) stayed on the UK Albums Chart for sixty weeks, after which her profile dipped, despite a return to the UK Top Ten with "Almaz" in 1986.^[2] She remained with Warner Bros. through to the early 1990s, but was unable to score either a big R&B hit or major crossover success, despite having one of the most readily identifiable voices and distinctive approaches of any contemporary female vocalist.^[3]

Naked And True (1995) brought Crawford back to her roots: it included George Benson's "Give Me the Night", and confirmed her soul heritage by featuring Funkadelicists Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and the Fred Wesley Horns.^[2] She enjoyed her highest profile of the decade when rising starlet, Shola Ama, had a worldwide hit with her 1997 cover of "You Might Need Somebody".^[2]

Crawford recorded a live session with Joe Sample on July 24, 2007, at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road. The episode she shared with David Gilmour and Amos Lee was screened on the Sundance Channel in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the UK.

She has sung with Bootsy Collins, Johnny Bristol, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Rick Springfield, Steve Hackett, and Joe Sample amongst others. The soundtrack of The Competition, entitled "People Alone", was revived by Filipina singer Jamie Rivera in 1999.

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Most of the following singles charted in various countries.

Albums[link]

• Everything Must Change (1976)
• Miss Randy Crawford (1977)
• Raw Silk (1979)
• Now We May Begin (1980)
• Secret Combination (1981)
• Windsong (1982)
• Nightline (1983)
• Abstract Emotions (1986)
• Rich and Poor (1989)
• Through the Eyes of Love (1992)
• Don't Say It's Over (1993)
• Naked and True (1995)
• Every Kind of Mood: Randy, Randi, Randee (1997)
• Play Mode (aka Permanent) (2000)
• Feeling Good (with Joe Sample) (2006)
• No Regrets (with Joe Sample) (2008)

Compilation albums[link]

• The Competition (1980, soundtrack, Oscar nominated theme song "People Alone")
• Sharky's Machine (1981 soundtrack, new version of "Street Life")
• Greatest Hits (1984)
• Wildcats (1986 soundtrack, song "Don't Wanna Be Normal")
• Love Songs (1987)
• The Very Best of Randy Crawford (1993)
• Best of Randy Crawford (1996)
• Jackie Brown (1997, soundtrack, "Street Life" - Sharky's Machine newer version)
• Best of Randy Crawford and Friends (2000)
• Love Songs: The Very Best of Randy Crawford (2000)
• Hits (2002)
• The Ultimate Collection (2005)
• Pop-Jazz Volume One (2006)
• The Best of Randy Crawford (2011)

Guest appearances[link]

• "Hoping Love Will Last", on Steve Hackett's album, Please Don't Touch.
• "Come Il Sole All'improvviso" and "Imagine" on Zucchero's album, Zucchero Live at the Kremlin.
• "Taxi Dancing", on Rick Springfield's album, Hard to Hold.
• "Fallen", on Presuntos Implicados' live album, La Noche

Awards[link]

• 1982 BRIT Awards - Best female solo artist.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Randy Crawford biography at musicianguide.com
• Randy Crawford at Vh1
• Randy Crawford at the Internet Movie Database

Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Early life[link]

Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, the son of Minnie Mae (1897–1998) and Carl Severinsen (1898–1972), a dentist.^[1] Nicknamed "Little Doc" after his father, he originally wanted to play the trombone, which he discovered at neighbor Art Fletcher's home, but the senior Severinsen, a gifted amateur violinist, urged him to study that instrument instead. The younger Severinsen insisted on the trombone, but had to settle for the only horn available in Arlington's small music store, a trumpet. A week later, with the help of his father and a manual of instructions, the seven-year-old was good enough to be invited to join the high school band.

At the age of twelve, Severinsen won the Music Educator's National Contest. While still in high school, he was hired to go on the road with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. However, his stay with the group was cut short by the World War II draft. After serving in the U.S. Army, Severinsen made his broadcasting debut playing live popular music on KODL radio in The Dalles, Oregon.^[2]

[edit] The Tonight Show

Starting in 1952 during Steve Allen's tenure as host of NBC-TV's Tonight, Doc Severinsen played first trumpet in the band directed by Skitch Henderson. Severinsen took over as bandleader in 1967 and soon became noted for his flashy fashions.

Under Severinsen's direction, the The Tonight Show NBC Orchestra became the most visible big band in America. The band played incidental music for sketch comedy, guest introductions, and intermission music during station breaks. Severinsen took the opportunity to update many well known swing music and jazz standards, including classics by Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, and others.

Adept at comic interplay, Severinsen occasionally substituted for Ed McMahon as Johnny Carson's announcer and sidekick. Severinsen campaigned for the band to get featured slots during the show. The show introduced a "Stump the Band" segment in which audience members challenged the band to play obscure song titles, with the band responding with a comic piece.

Severinsen often cried "key of E," his signal for the band to strike up a western theme, whereupon he would enthusiastically sing a country music-flavoured nonsense song.

Tommy Newsom was frequently the band's substitute director, whenever Severinsen was away from the show or filling in for announcer Ed McMahon.

Severinsen continued as bandleader until Carson's retirement in 1992.

Recording career[link]

During the 1950s and 1960s, Severinsen put out a number of albums of jazz standards, over which he performed very melodic solos. He served as lead trumpet on many of Enoch Light's Command Records LP's of that era. Severinsen certainly had a well-developed high-note range with an incredible amount of control and melodic sense. In the 1960s, Severinsen also recorded with the Clarke/Boland Big Band and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band. Severinsen was also the second trumpeter whose recording of the fanfare "Abblasen", composed by Gottfried Reiche, has been used as the theme for the CBS News program Sunday Morning.

During the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, Severinsen released several albums under the band name The Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen, and later receiving first billing, Doc Severinsen & The Tonight Show Band. He has also recorded with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Severinsen also released albums that have a pop rock basis, some of which include electronic instrumentation components, such as Brass Roots, Good Medicine and Facets. These albums were received with varying degrees of success by the public. He recorded two albums of standards with Henry Mancini and his orchestra in the 1970s, Brass On Ivory and Brass, Ivory And Strings.

Severinsen arranged the score for the nudist-themed cult film Nude on the Moon (1961). In addition, Severinsen co-wrote the Top 10 hit single "Stop and Smell the Roses" with singer-songwriter Mac Davis (1974).

Conducting, academic career, and after[link]

Severinsen was the principal pops conductor for several American orchestras during and after his tenure on the Tonight Show. His first was with the Phoenix Symphony in 1983.^[3] He held similar positions with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra,the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.

Severinsen retired from active conducting in 2007, and was named Pops Conductor Emeritus in Milwaukee.^[4] and Pops Conductor Laureate in Minnesota.^[5] Severinsen was also named Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music and Katherine K. Herberger Heritage Chair for Visiting Artists at Arizona State University School of Music in 2001 and 2002.^[6] He has also conducted the New York Pops orchestra at the world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York City.

As of 2012, Severinsen is still performing on a regular basis with the group Doc Severinsen & the San Migeul 5^[7] (formerly known as El Ritmo De La Vida^[8]). The group plays an eclectic variety of styles, including classical Spanish, gypsy jazz, and Latin and American ballads. In February 2012, the group was called on short notice to replace an ailing Marvin Hamlisch at a concert with the Nashville Symphony. Severinsen declared from the stage that Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center was the finest performing venue in the United States.

Personal life[link]

Severinsen with daughter Nancy, in 1974. Nancy was part of a vocal group called "Today's Children" which often performed with him.

Severinsen's children are Nancy, Cindy, Allen, Robin and Judy. He also has eight grandchildren: Blaire, Gray and Richard (Blaire and Gray write and perform roots rock music together as the Blaire Reinhard Band). Severinsen has been married three times. Television writer and producer Emily Marshall was his third wife. They met when she was working as a secretary to Tonight Show producer Fred de Cordova.^[9]

Severinsen owned Severinsen Custom Trumpets, manufacturer of custom-made horns, including the Destino line of trumpets he personally tests.^[10] Severinsen now helps design new Destino trumpets for the S.E. Shires Company.^[11] Severinsen also enjoys cooking and collecting American art.

Discography[link]

As sideman[link]

This section requires expansion.

With Gene Krupa

• "Gene Krupa Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements" (Verve, 1958)

With Henri Rene

• "Compulsion to Swing" (RCA Victor, 1959)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Perceptions (Verve, 1961)

With Milt Jackson

• Big Bags (Riverside, 1962)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Doc Severinsen Discography
• Tonight Show Bio

Flora Purim
Purim performing in Saratoga California, 1981
Background information
Also known as	"The Queen of Brazilian Jazz" [1]
Born	(1942-03-06) March 6, 1942 (age 70) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1960s–present
Labels	Milestone, Warner Bros., ECM, CTI
Associated acts	Return to Forever
Website	http://www.florapurim.com/

Flora Purim (born March 6, 1942 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea's landmark album Return to Forever. She has recorded and performed with numerous critically acclaimed artists, including Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Stan Getz, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jaco Pastorius, and her husband Airto Moreira.

In 2002, Purim was the recipient of one of Brazil's highest awards; the 2002 Ordem do Rio Branco for Lifetime Achievement.^[1]

Biography[link]

Purim's parents were both classical musicians, her Romanian-born father played violin and her Brazilian mother was a pianist.^[2][3] Flora discovered American jazz when her mother played it while her husband was out of the house.^[4]

"She would bring home those 78 vinyl RPMs and when my father was at work, she would play them. That was how I got exposed to jazz music... basically listening to Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. But also a lot of piano players, such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Errol Garner, those were my mother's favorites."^[5]

Purim began her career in Brazil during the early 1960s. During this period, she made a recording, titled "Flora e M.P.M.", in which she sang bossa nova standards of the day by Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal.^[6] Later in the 1960s, Purim was lead singer for the Quarteto Novo, led by Hermeto Pascoal and Airto Moreira.^[4]

After reaching young adulthood, Purim mixed jazz with radical protest songs to defy the repressive Brazilian government of that time.^[4] A 1964 military coup in Brazil led to censorship of song lyrics, and she later commented about this period of her life as follows: "I wanted to leave Brazil. There's a river there called the San Francisco River. I used to sing to the river, that, as it flowed out to the ocean, it would take me to America."^[7]

Shortly before leaving Brazil, Purim and Airto Moreira married. Around 1971, their daughter Diana Booker was born. By 1998, Diana married Krishna Booker, son of jazz bassist Walter Booker, nephew of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and godson of pianist Herbie Hancock.^[8] Diana later described life with her parents as "[growing] up on the road traveling the world like a gypsy".^[8]

Arriving in New York in 1967,^[9] Purim and Moreira became immersed in the emerging Electric Jazz. They toured Europe with Stan Getz and Gil Evans.^[4] In 1972, alongside Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell, they were, for the first two albums, members of Chick Corea's fusion band Return to Forever, which released first a self-titled album, Return to Forever, in 1972, followed the same year as Light as a Feather; both which received glowing reviews. In 1973, Purim released her first solo album in the United States, titled, Butterfly Dreams. It was well received, and soon thereafter she was chosen by the Down Beat reader's poll as one of the top five jazz singers. Purim also worked with Carlos Santana, Mickey Hart, and Janis Joplin^{[dubious – discuss]} at outdoor festivals, and on jazz and classical albums^[4] through the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Purim was arrested and briefly incarcerated for cocaine possession.^[6]

Throughout the 1970s, Purim released a string of albums for the Milestone label. She and her husband Airto were also involved with the Uruguayan band Opa (which means "hi", but just in Uruguay), Flora collaborated in vocals in the band's second album Magic Time, and in return, Opa played in "Corre Niña" in Flora's album, Nothing Will Be as It Was...Tomorrow. (Warner Bros. Records)

In the 1980s Purim toured with Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra culminating with Gillespie's Grammy Award-winning albumUnited Nations Orchestra released in 1982, and then in the 1990s sang on Grammy Awardwinning album for Mickey Hart, the former Grateful Dead drummer. Later in the 1990s Purim released her own album and world tour, Speed of Light starting with a month at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho with a new band with contributions from Billy Cobham, Freddie Ravel, George Duke, David Zeiher, Walfredo Reyes, Alphonso Johnson, Changuito, Freddie Santiago, and Giovanni Hidalgo, with important writing and performing contributions from Chill Factor and her daughter Diana.^[9] The new millennium saw the release of two recordings, Perpetual emotion and a crossover homage to one of Brazil's great composers, Flora sings Milton Nascimento. In 2005, she reunited with her old Return to Forever bandleader, Chick Corea.^[10] As of 2010, Purim is still actively touring.^[11]

Purim in concert, 2007

Through the 1990s, Purim worked on a number of broader projects. One of such was a heavy Latin jazz group called "Fourth World", which in addition to herself consisted of her husband Airto Moreira, Gary Meek, Gary Brown, Jose Neto and Jovino Santos Neto. They would release a number of albums and 12" singles; "Fourth World", "Encounters With The Fourth World", "Last Journey" and an album featuring remixes to their songs by several popular electronic DJ's from around the world called Return Journey. The band's last album release was in 2000.

In 1996, Purim and her husband Airto collaborated with P.M. Dawn on the song "Non-Fiction Burning" for the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization.

One of Purim's major musical influences is the Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal.^[12] She has said that Pascoal "play[ed] the Hammond B3 organ, flute, saxophone, percussion, and guitar. He is one of the most complete musicians that I ever met." He also helped train her voice.^[4] She also owes a great debt to Chick Corea, discovering the fusion jazz style for which she is best known when Corea asked her to add vocals to some recordings of his compositions.^[5]

Purim has a rare six octave voice, a faculty she shares with Mariah Carey,^[13] Bobby Brown,^[14] Yma Sumac, and Taborah Johnson.^[15] Her vocal style is influenced by Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald^[10] which drifts from lyrics to wordlessness without ever losing touch with the melody and rhythm.^[4] She expanded her vocal repertoire during early tours with Gil Evans.^[4] While touring the world for three years with Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra in the 1980s, she broadened her repertoire to include traditional mainstream jazz, bebop, and doing numbers in 4/4 time instead of the traditional Brazilian 2/4 beat.^[5]

Purim has confided that in recent decades "There are two albums that are at my bedside. They are Miles Ahead, the first collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans and Blow by Blow, by Jeff Beck. They are with me every night."^[6]

Prisoner 2775[link]

Purim was arressted and imprisoned at TERMINAL ISLAND FEDERAL PRISON, SAN PEDRO, CA, USA in 1975 for Cocaine possession. During her year and a half imprisonment, she organized a concert on March 3 which brought in some famous musicians from the outside: Cannonball Adderley, George Duke, Airto, Miroslav Vitous, Raul De Souza, and Ndugu. Flora, who was at the time a prisoner (Prisoner 2775) sang her heart out with the group - having little or no rehearsal time, for about an hour. The performance was broadcast on KBCA FM (105.1), an L.A. based jazz station - now defunkt. Some of the tunes they performed were Chick Corea's, "Light as a feather," "500 miles high," and, "Celebration Suite." This was the first time such a cooperation between civilians and inmates ever took place.

Faith[link]

Purim's mother is Brazilian. Her father, Naum Purim, is Romanian.^[2] who emigrated to Brazil from the Russian Empire.^[9] Purim is also the name of the annual Jewish festival commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from a plot to exterminate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther. Hence Flora Purim presumably has Jewish ancestry through her father.^[16] She also adheres to the Bahá'í Faith^[4] thanks in large part to Dizzy Gillespie. Gillespie's death in 1993 prompted Purim, in 2002 to comment on his influence, saying that [he was]:

"...still a part of my life. If you ever come to my house, there are pictures of him all over my walls... [While touring] he would sit in the back of the bus with me for several hours telling life stories about his family and things that happened to him. He took the time to sit with me and show me with his hands where one was, so if I ever wanted to go into another level of jazz positions I could go into it. I loved him not just for that, but I loved him also because he gave me a lot of insight and spirituality, he even gave me his praying book... One day, when we were on the airplane going to Australia, he said to me, "I want you to have this." Then I said to him, "If you give me your praying book how are you going to pray?" He told me he knew every prayer in the book by memory. I didn't believe it. So he challenged me to open the book on any page and ask him to tell me the prayer of the page. So I opened the book and he asked me what prayer was that, and I said the Traveler's Prayer. He asked me which number it was, and then I told him it was the number 3, and he recited the entire prayer. I quizzed him on another prayer and again he blew me away. He knew every single prayer of that book. So I asked him what was his religion and he told me he had been a Bahá'í for thirty years. I asked him what was the philosophy of Bahá'í religion and he said among other things, is the oneness of mankind, universal peace upheld by a world government, equality between men and women, mandatory education for all children of the world and a spiritual solution to the economic power. I was impressed."^[5]

Awards[link]

• 4-time winner Down Beat's Best Female Jazz Vocalist^[7]
• 2-time Grammy nominee for Best Female Jazz Performance^[7]
• Performed on 2 Grammy-winning albums - ^[7]
  • Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra (Best Jazz Album)
  • Hart's Planet Drum (Best World Music Album)
• In September 2002, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso named Purim and Moreira to the "Order of Rio Branco", one of Brazil's highest honors for those who have significantly contributed to the promotion of Brazil's international relations.^[9]

Discography[link]

This section requires expansion.

Filmography[link]

As a Leader[link]

• 2006: Airto & Flora Purim: The Latin Jazz All-Stars^[17]

As sidewoman[link]

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Rhythmstick CTI Records (1990)
• Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London (2001)

With Bobby Hutcherson

• Cool Summer (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Flora Purim

• Flora Purim discography at MusicBrainz
• Bio on the Flora Purim Official Website.
• Europe Jazz Network Musicians, Flora Purim.
• Berkeley Agency, Flora Purim and Airto
• Mondomix - Amérique Latine > Brazil >, Portrait of Flora Purim.
• Holston, Mark, The Queen of Fusion Returns.
• New England Jazz History Database - Photos
• Flora Purim interview at Allaboutjazz.com