Died On This Date (March 10, 1997) LaVern Baker / R&B Great
themusicsover LaVern Baker
November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997
Originally going by the stage name of Little Miss Sharecropper, the early queen of R&B rose to fame when she signed to Ahmet Ertegun’s Atlantic Records and changed her professional name to Lavern Baker. In the 60s, Miss Baker went to Vietnam to entertain the troops and on the advice of a friend, she stayed in the Philippines for the next 22 years and worked as the entertainment director at a Marine Corps nightclub for the US government. LaVern Baker passed away from a heart condition on this date in 1997.
What You Should Own
Micky Jones was the founding lead singer and influential guitarist for ’70s Welsh rock band, Man. They were one of the acts that helped popularize what became known as British “pub rock,” a back-to-basics trend in rock that was also being cultivated by the likes of Brinsley Schwarz, Graham Parker, and Dave Edmunds. As time passed, Man’s sound grew more psychedelic, often drawing comparisons to the Grateful Dead or Quicksilver Messenger Service. In fact, it could be argued that they were the world’s first jamband. Though relatively unknown in the U.S., the band had several moderate hits in the U.K. and were very popular concert draws. The original group split up in 1976, but Jones reformed a variation of it in 1980 and continued to make a solid living along the pub rock circuit through the ’90s. In 2005, Micky Jones was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which lead him to permanently leave the group for treatment. The cancer ultimately took his life on March 10, 2010. He was 63.
Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.; Biggie Smalls) was an east coast rapper signed to Sean “Puffy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records. Although Wallace had some run-ins with the law, his musical talent could not be denied. And just as that talent was catapulting him to the upper stratosphere of the musical world, Wallace’s reported life of crime and involvement in a festering east coast vs west coast feud, he was executed in a hail of bullets outside the Soul Train Awards in Los Angeles, CA. Christopher Wallace was just 24 when he was allegedly assassinated during a drive-by shooting. The crime remains unsolved and is ripe with theories involving Marion “Suge” Knight, the LAPD, the Crips and the Bloods. Wallace was married to R&B singer, Faith Evans.
