Alex, a good local musician can make a good living, so I recently discovered. Nothing compared to a touring musician, but good never the less. They had to drag "Grant" out of St. Louis; they couldn't even drag Eddie Fisher out. There are other local musicians who got into drugs. Grant is the only "famous" musician from St. Louis I knew personally. My friend was not from St. Louis, and if I ever mentioned his name, I would be hounded down to fill in missing time and pieces, which I'm not going to do.
There is someone else on this forum who might have figured out his name, and we had a squabble about revealing personal stuff, so me friend's personal life will remain personal. I'll never attach a name to negative personal information I know; think about the guys heirs.
Wardell Grey died in May 1955, and I discovered him in June 1956; so he was dead when I discovered him. My cousin had a lot of his records, but those records are no longer available, and I don't like most of the records that are available; recording quality didn't matter as much back then. All in all, it doesn't seem to matter a lot; that's because the music we like is not for this generation.
Bird survived because not only was he good, but he kept evolving, and he was playing in so many different styles when he was alive; "Bird With Strings", is just as fresh today, as it was the day he made it, and the recording quality is good.
Not many people have a bottom tier of records as good as yours, and I want to thank you for sharing them with us.
Enjoy the music.