North Florida Music Hall of Fame

You are browsing the archives of 2008 August.

Born Robert White, in 1915, in Lake City; Chubby Wise moved to Jacksonville at 15 to pursue a career as a fiddler. Landed a touring gig with the Jubilee Hillbillies, went on to tour with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys; later worked with The York Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Hank Snow, Red Allen, and the Stanley [...]

Pianist/vocalist/songwriter, born in Jacksonville in 1893; Wesley Wilson worked with Sidney Bechet, Fletcher Henderson, and Coot Grant; his songs have been performed by Billie Holiday, Lavern Baker, Dr. John, Louis Jordan, B.B. King Nina Simone, Diana Ross and others.

Born Otis Dewey Whitman in Tampa, yodeling Slim Whitman was already a top-rated country performer with 30 top-50 country singles and 19 gold albums when he bought a spread near Middleburg (southwest of Jacksonville, in Clay County) in 1957. Unbelievably huge in England, at one point he even surpassed the Beatles on the British charts. [...]

Native of DeLand, grad of Florida A&M University, Noble Watts was in the FAMU marching band with both Cannonball and Nat Adderly.  In the 1940s through the 1950s, he played tenor sax with Charles Brantley & the Honeydippers; pianist Ray Charles was also a member. Watts went on to work with such notables as Dinah [...]

Born 1917 in Jonesboro, Ark., Waterford started a career as a blues singer in Oklahoma City in 1936. He soon lit for Chicago, where he became a fixture on the Windy City blues scene.  Moved to Los Angeles in 1945, where he briefly worked alongside singer Jimmy Witherspoon in Jay McShann’s band, then returned to [...]

Jazz/R&B trumpeter; member of James Brown’s band for seven years; played on several JB hits. Teddy Washington also toured with B.B. King and as session player at TK Records in Miami. Led a house band at The Fontainbleu Hotel in Miami that included future members of KC & The Sunshine Band. Fronts his own smooth-jazz [...]

Short-lived Jacksonville Christian-rock band; released one album independently. Members included guitarist/vocalist Rocco Marshall, keyboardist Billy Powell (from Lynyrd Skynyrd), bassist Leon Wilkeson (also from Skynyrd) and drummer Mike Maple (later with Mark Farner). Also see Synergy. Update – Rocco Marshall adds this comment Appreciate the mention about Vision and thought I’d give just a little [...]

Born James Tennant in Jacksonville, Jimmy Velvet was a Paxon High student of Mae Axton’s; she arranged his appearances on Toby Dowdy’s McDuff Hayride TV show alongside fellow Axton protégé, Johnny Tillotson. Through Axton, Velvet became a friend of Elvis Presley’s and a collector of Presley memorabilia; he later founded the Elvis Museum. As a [...]

See Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Youngest of the three singing Van Zant siblings. Originally a drummer; Johnny Van Zant formed Austin Nickels Band in late 1970s, which signed to Polydor in early 1980s, later with Nettwerk/Elektra. In 1987, Johnny replaced deceased brother Ronnie in the re-formed Lynyrd Skynyrd. Also records with brother Donnie in a duo called Van Zant, which [...]

See .38 Special, Van Zant.

This duo consisting of Van Zant brothers Donnie (of .38 Special) and Johnny (of Lynyrd Skynyrd), recorded two albums for CMC International in 1998 and 2001. In 2005, the duo signed with Columbia as a country act; two singles off Van Zant’s Columbia debut, “Get Right with the Man,” hit the Country Top 10. The [...]