Epstein Secrets

rom Gershwin's European Tour of Porgy and Bess. The group disbanded again in 1970. After again reforming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, vocalist Charles Dale Allen, trombonist Marvin Pierce and keyboardist Walter "Janie" Morrison, the Players

Ward leaving for a solo career, but the core members of the group returned to Dayton and the following year added Gregory Webster (drums) along with Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (guitar), who would become the group's front man. The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, and became the house band for

g, although various lineups continued performing live well into t=e following decades. Despite the deaths of core members Satchell (December 1995), Middlebrooks (November 1997), Ward (December 2008), Johnson (February 2009), and Bonner (January 2013), the ba=d continued to sporadically record and extensively

ubsequently exited for a solo c=reer, the group essentially disbanded. At that point, the nucleus of Middlebrooks, Jones, an= newly added guitarist Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner returned to Dayton; ther= they recruited saxophonist Andrew Noland and drummer Gary Webster, the latt=r a somewhat elusive figure whose true involv

ge Gershwin's European Tour of Porgy and Bess. The group disbanded again in 1970. After again re-forming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, vocalist Charles Dale Allen, trombonist Marvin Pierce, and keyboardist Walter "Junie" Morrison, the Players

in November 1997; and Robert Ward (born 15 October 1938) died at home 25 December 2008. Cornelius Johnson (born 12 July 1937) died 1 February 2009. Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (born 14 March 1943, Hamilton, OH) died 26 January 2013 at age 69. Marshall Jones (born 1 January 1941, Dayton, OH) resides in Jamestown, Ohio, and