missed birthdays

I have been up at my cousins' cabin up in the Sierras for the past three days, so posting was not an option, as their network did not work very well, and it was snowing with strong wind up there. Any way, I'm glad to be back in the bay area!
So I missed two important birthdays within my absence:

Frank C. Stanley(December 29)

Fred Van Eps(December 30)

Frank C. Stanley(1868-1910)

Fred Van Eps(1878-1960) 

these two were very influential in their day, even though Van Eps made several improvements to various inventions later in life. Without Frank Stanley, many of the famous quartets we often hear on early disc records and cylinders would not have been recorded, and Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan may had never been paired together. Van Eps led the way for banjo players and how the instrumentation of early Jazz bands would be. He brought up the popularity of the Saxophone in 1916!  

Anyhow happy 2015 ev'ryone!