December 28
Blues-rock's albino virtuoso Edgar Winter celebrates his 79th birthday today, the multi-instrumentalist whose "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride" proved that synthesizers and saxophones could coexist in hard rock while his technical mastery earned respect across genres… Texas blues lost one of its three Kings on this day in 1976 when Freddie King died at 42 from heart failure and ulcer complications, "The Texas Cannonball" whose aggressive style influenced Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan dying far too young from years of hard living… Jazz piano found one of its founding fathers when Earl "Fatha" Hines was born on this day in 1905, the Pittsburgh innovator whose "trumpet style" right hand liberated the instrument from ragtime rhythms and influenced every jazz pianist who followed before his death in 1983… The Beach Boys suffered their most tragic loss on this day in 1983 when Dennis Wilson drowned at 39 while div...
