Bring
Out Your Dead 2009
The Biographies
Sam
"Bluzman" Taylor (25 October 1934 5 January 2009) - blues
vocalist
Biography
by Richard Skelly
Vocalist,
guitarist and songwriter Sam Taylor is the son of the late saxophonist Sam "the
Man"
Ron Asheton
(
Biography by Jason
Ankeny
As a founding member
of the legendary Stooges, guitarist Ron Asheton forever changed the face of rock
& roll, his raw, primordial riffs presaging the rise of punk by a decade.
Born
After the Stooges
disintegrated in the wake of Raw Power's commercial failure, the Asheton
siblings formed the short-lived New Order, issuing a self-titled LP on RCA in
1978; Ron next surfaced in the famed Detroit cult outfit Destroy All Monsters,
who were briefly darlings of the British music press on the strength of punk-era
singles like "Bored" and "Meet the Creeper." In 1981, he joined ex-Radio Birdman
members Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in their underground supergroup the New Race,
recording the live LP The First and the Last; quiet for the better part of the
decade that followed, Asheton returned to active musical duty during the
mid-'90s, recording Thin, Slim & None with the Empty Set while also teaming
with fellow Destroy All Monsters alum Niagara to release The Last Great Ride
under the name Dark Carnival. He also teamed with Mudhoney's Mark Arm, Mike
Watt, and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and
Claude
A. Jeter (26 October 1914 6 January 2009) - gospel
singer
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
The
longtime leader of the Swan Silvertones, Claude Jeter towers among the most
celebrated and influential gospel singers of the postwar era. While his silken
falsetto inspired a generation of crossover soul superstars including Sam Cooke
and Al Green, Jeter steadfastly refused to abandon spiritual music for secular
fame and fortune, and in the latter decades of his life he shifted his focus
away from performing in favor of the ministry. Jeter was born
The
Swan Silvertones (now featuring Jeter alongside tenors Solomon Womack, Robert
Crenshaw, and John Manson; baritone John H. Myles; and bass Henry K. Bossard)
signed with King Records in 1946, recording about 100 songs during their
five-year stint with the label. Efforts like "I'm Gonna Walk That Milky White
Way," "I'm Coming Home," and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" boast an
uncommon elegance and grace Jeter's signature vocal fillips often evoke the
improvisational freedoms of jazz, contrasting with the gritty intensity of
Womack and the ecstatic shouts of Crenshaw to presage the arrival of doo wop.
The Swan Silvertones relocated to
Despite
Vee-Jay's attempts to push the Swan Silvertones into the secular arena, the
group stood its ground: "I promised my mother I would never sing nothing but for
the Lord," Jeter later told The New York Times. "As far as lyrics are concerned,
there's just as much truth in the blues as there is in gospel. The difference?
The blues doesn't move me spiritually. The Devil, he's over there singing the
blues, and I'm over here singing gospel. Even though he's got true words, I've
got true words too." In 1963 Jeter became an ordained minister at
Gordon
"Whitey" Mitchell (22 February 1932
17 January 2009) - jazz bass
Biography
by Scott Yanow
The
brother of bassist Red Mitchell, Whitey Mitchell never achieved the fame of his
sibling but he was also an excellent player. He played clarinet and tuba as a
youth before settling on the bass. Whitey played with the Elinor Sherry Quartet
and Shep Fields Orchestra (1951-52) before serving in the Army. Starting in
1954, Whitey freelanced in
Biography
by Chris Kelsey
As
a teenager, David Newman played professionally around
Leonard
Gaskin (25 August 1920 24 January 2009) - jazz
bass
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Bassist
Leonard Gaskin was a vital if unheralded contributor to the evolution of bebop,
contributing to seminal dates headlined by jazz icons including Charlie Parker,
Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Coleman Hawkins. In the later years of his
career he emerged as one of the most sought-after session musicians in
Gaskin
was later a fixture of the
Gaskin
joined Erroll Garner's trio in 1949, remaining with the group for five years
while he freelanced on sessions headlined by Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, and Billie
Holiday. He joined Eddie Condon's Dixieland band in 1957 on the recommendation
of clarinetist Bob Wilbur the lone African-American member of the group,
Gaskin joined Condon's ranks in time for a British tour, and remained in the
lineup upon their return to their regular gig at Condon's
Gaskin
later assumed the role of educator, touring
Biography by
After the breakup of
the seminal psychedelic garage punk band the Seeds in 1969, frontman Sky Saxon
(born Richard Marsh) embarked on an erratic solo career in between stints as a
mystical guru in
Billy Powell
(
Biography by
Charlotte Dillon
Best known for his
time as Lynyrd Skynyrd's unique keyboardist, Billy Powell was born on (June 3,
1952) in
After graduating
from high school, Powell entered college and, not surprisingly, majored in Music
Theory. He also studied music in what many would consider a less practical way,
by becoming a roadie for the Lynyrd Skynyrd rock group and performing with the
band Alice Marr. After a couple of years of working with Skynyrd as a roadie,
Powell let the group hear what he could do on the keyboards. It was 1972 and
Ronnie VanZant was so impressed with what he heard that Powell was giving the
job of Skynyrd's keyboardist on the spot. Things went from good to great, life
slowly becoming a dream come true for Powell and his bandmates as they set about
making album rock history.
In 1977, the dream
became a nightmare. A plane carrying the band members on a tour crashed into a
patch of
Music did go on for
Powell. He performed with other bands and even formed one of his own in 1979,
Alias. The group released one album, Contraband. He later joined forces with
other Skynyrd members in the Rossington-Collins Band and then hung on when it
became simply the Allen Collins Band. Next, around 1985, Powell joined a
Christian group called Vision.
In 1987, when the surviving Skynyrd members got together to do a reunion, Powell was there, touring with the group, and over the next few years, releasing some new tunes for old and new fans alike. Powell has also made a debut solo album, Second Time Around, recorded under the Accent Records label.
John Martyn
(
Biography by Brett
Hartenbach & Thom Jurek
Singer/songwriter/guitarist
John Martyn was born Iain David McGeachy on
While on the road,
Martyn continued to experiment with his sound, adding various effects to his
electrified acoustic. One such effect, the Echoplex, allowed him to play off of
the tape loops of his own guitar, enveloping himself in his own playing while
continuing to play leads over the swelling sound. This would become an integral
part of his recordings and stage performances in the coming years. He also met
Beverley Kutner, a singer from
The next couple of
years saw Martyn continuing to expand on his unique blend of folk music, drawing
on folk, blues, rock, and jazz as well as music from the
During this period,
Martyn's well-publicized bouts with alcoholism came to the forefront and began
to affect his career somewhat. He became an erratic and at times
self-destructive performer. He might perform an evening of electronic guitar
experiments for a crowd of folkies or a set of traditional, acoustic ballads
when playing to a rock audience. His shows would also range from the odd night
of falling over drunk to sheer brilliance, as captured on the independently
released Live at
Following Sunday's
Child (1974), the live record, and a 1977 best-of collection, Martyn, for the
most part, abandoned his acoustic guitar on record for a sort of rock, world,
and jazz fusion. Although his style was moving away from its folk roots, his
songs retained the passion and structure of his best early work. Grace and
Danger (1980), his first release since 1977's One World, painfully and honestly
depicted the crumbling of John and Beverley's marriage in some of his most
powerful material in years. It also seemed to garner interest in Martyn's
sagging career. With this new momentum and the help of friend Phil Collins,
Martyn signed to WEA, where he recorded two records, Glorious Fool (1981) and
Well Kept Secret (1982). Glorious Fool, a superb effort, produced by Collins and
featuring Eric Clapton on guitar and Collins on drums, piano, and vocals, looked
to be his best shot at mainstream success, but failed to extend his cult status.
Martyn released his second independent live record, the magnificent Philentropy,
before returning to Island Records for two studio releases, a live album and a
12" single which featured a version of Bob Dylan's "Tight Connection to My
Heart." He was dropped by the label in 1988.
Continuing to battle
his alcoholism, Martyn resumed his career in 1990 with The Apprentice and 1992's
Cooltide. He also released an album of his classic songs re-recorded with an
all-star cast featuring Phil Collins, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, and Levon
Helm of the Band, as well as various compilations and live recordings. After a
four-year layoff, Martyn issued And, an album with strong jazz, trip-hop, and
funk overtones, followed in 1998 by The Church with One Bell, a collection of
diverse covers. In 1999 he also released a live double album which documented a
classic concert at
Martyn recorded a
surprise studio comeback effort called Glasgow Walker at the turn of the century
that was very well received, and had his entire Island catalog remastered and
reissued two of his albums, One World, and Grace and Danger, were given the
Universal "deluxe" treatment with bonus discs. In 2003, a cyst burst in Martyn's
leg due to septicemia brought on by diabetes. The end result was an amputation,
but he continued to tour the world with the same tireless energy and
restlessness, performing with his band from a wheelchair. Martyn, shrugged it
all off, typified by this infamous quote: " "I've been mugged in
In 2007 two DVDs
appeared, a Live at the BBC set recorded in the 1970s, and Voiceprint's The Man
Upstairs documentary. 2008 saw Martyn's name surface once more with some real
regularity due to a flurry of activity by the man and his touring schedule, but
also because of new releases. His One World label issued a pair of catalogued
live dates, the best of these being Simmer Dim , and, in December,
Universal/Island released a four-disc retrospective box entitled Ain't No Saint.
In January, 2009 Martyn was awarded the OBE (Order of the
With his characteristic backslap acoustic guitar playing, his effects-driven experimental journeys, or his catalog of excellent songs, as well as his jazz-inflected singing style, John Martyn will remain an important and influential figure in both British folk and rock.
Bennie
Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. (
Biography
by Thom Jurek
With
an unmistakable blues wail, full of emotion and poignancy, altoist Hank Crawford
bridges the gap between that tradition and that of jazz more completely than any
other living horn player. Born in
Dewey
Martin (
Biography
by Bryan Thomas
Dewey
Martin born Walter Milton Dwayne Midkiff grew up in the
Estelle
Bennett (July 22, 1941 February 2009) - singer for The
Ronettes
Biography
by
The
Ronettes weren't the most commercially successful girl group, but their music
was some of the most groundbreaking in the field, thanks to their association
with the legendary Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector. Their biggest hit, "Be
My Baby," is widely regarded as one of the crowning achievements of Spector's
oeuvre, and of girl-group pop in general. In fact, many critics have deemed it
one of the most supremely romantic records of the rock & roll era; Spector's
production frames the song's yearning lyrics and Ronnie Bennett's sweetly sultry
vocals in a sweeping, near-symphonic level of emotion. Even though the Ronettes
never managed another hit as big as "Be My Baby," many of their subsequent
singles boasted the same kind of creative synergy between Spector and Bennett.
It apparently carried over into real life as well, since the two were married in
1968, not long after Bennett went solo. Unfortunately, the union was an unhappy
one, as Spector soon turned reclusive and controlling, largely preventing her
from recording (or even leaving the house). After their divorce, she recorded
sporadically without much success, but became something of a female rock icon
when she published her survivor's-tale autobiography.The Ronettes were formed in
the Washington Heights/Spanish Harlem area of
Tom Brumley (11 December 1935 3 February 2009) - steel guitarist
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Pedal
steel guitarist Tom Brumley remains best remembered for his six-year stint as a
member of Buck Owens' famed backing group the Buckaroos his contribution to
the Owens classic "Together Again" is widely celebrated as among the greatest
pedal steel solos in country music history. Born in Powell, MO, in 1935, he was
the son of gospel giant Albert E. Brumley, the composer behind such staples as
"I'll Fly Away," "Turn Your Radio On," "I'll Meet You in the Morning," and "He
Set Me Free" all six of the Brumley children possessed musical talent of their
own, and when Al Jr. relocated to Bakersfield, CA, to join the cast of KERO-TV's
daily country music showcase The
Harsh
noise in the concert hall; one can only imagine the impact of Max Neuhaus'
realization of John Cage's open score "Fontana Mix" back in 1965-1966. An
overtaking slab of not-quite-controlled feedback, his piece (subtitled "Feed")
consisted of a set of parameters determined through the chance operations
prescribed by Cage's score. He chose to use contact microphones resting on top
of tympanis. The instruments are placed in front of loudspeakers. The ambient
sound of the room triggers the first reactions; sonic entropy does the rest.
Neuhaus sits at a mixing desk, controlling the potentiometers of four channels
of feedback, changing them according to his realization of the score. The piece
ends when he gets up and switches off the amplifier: The feedback loops
disintegrate. In each live performance the piece takes a different form, as the
feedback loops are influenced by many factors (the size of the room being the
most drastic) that are not all controllable. Sometimes the piece remains quiet,
humming gently (although still forcefully the feedback engulfs the whole room,
coming from all directions at once, and its multi-layered nature gives birth to
a number of subcurrents of sounds). In other situations it roars, one wave of
feedback crashing over the other in an assault that must have left audience
members breathless and temporarily deaf! The original LP, released in the last
days of 1966, presented four versions of the piece, recorded live between April
1965 and December 1966. This LP was reissued as is by the Italian label Alga
Marghen in 2002. A CD version came out a few months later, this one with two
extra versions: one from June 1968 recorded in the Columbia Records Studios, and
another from 1965 recorded in the studios of West German radio. They have better
sound quality, especially the latter, which rings beautifully in the high
registers. Even 35 years (and dozens of Merzbow albums) later, Neuhaus' music
sounds visionary, provocative, and surprising. And it can still teach a few
lessons.
Lux Interior
(
Biography by Mark
Deming
Conjuring a fiendish
witches' brew of primal rockabilly, grease-stained '60s garage rock, vintage
monster movies, perverse and glistening sex, and the detritus and effluvia of 50
years of American pop culture, the Cramps are a truly American creation much in
the manner of the Cadillac, the
The saga of the
Cramps begins in 1972 in
While working at a
record store, Interior made the acquaintance of fellow employee Greg Beckerleg,
who had recently arrived from
In 1979, Miles
Copeland signed the band to his fledgling new wave label I.R.S. Records, and
their first 12" release was an EP featuring the material from their
self-released singles, entitled Gravest Hits. That same year, the band traveled
to
In 1981, the Cramps
filed suit against I.R.S. Records over unpaid royalties; the court case
prevented the band from recording new material for two years, and when they
returned to
Only a year later,
the Cramps were back with a new studio album, Look Mom No Head!, but in a
surprising move Nick Knox had left the band, and was replaced by
In 2001, Lux
Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Cramps
by taking the matters of record-making into their own hands; they revived the
long-dormant Vengeance label and reissued their entire post-I.R.S. album catalog
(except for Flamejob) on expanded and remastered CDs and colored vinyl LPs. A
new Cramps album followed in 2003, Fiends of Dope
Blossom
Dearie (28 April 1924 7
February 2009) - jazz singer/pianist
Biography
by John Bush
A
distinctive, girlish voice, crisp, impeccable delivery, and an irrepressible
sense of playful swing made Blossom Dearie one of the most enjoyable singers of
the vocal era. Her warmth and sparkle ensured that she'd never treat standards
as the well-worn songs they often appeared in less capable hands. And though her
reputation was made on record with a string of excellent albums for Verve during
the '50s, she remained a draw with
Actually
born with the name Blossom Dearie in the New York Catskills, she began playing
piano at an early age and studied classical music before making the switch to
jazz while in high school. After graduation, she moved to
After
hearing Dearie perform in
On
her next few records, Dearie stuck to her focus on standards and small groups,
though her gift for songwriting emerged as well with songs like "Blossom's
Blues." She performed in solo settings at supper clubs all over
Finally,
in the early '70s, she formed her own Daffodil Records label and began releasing
her own work, including 1974's Blossom Dearie Sings and the following year's My
Favorite Celebrity Is You. She also performed at Carnegie Hall with Anita O'Day
and Joe Williams, billed as the Jazz Singers. She continued to perform and
record during the 1980s through to the early 2000s, centered mostly in
Mollie
Gene Beachboard, aka Molly Bee/Muncy (18
August 1939 7 February 2009) - country singer
Biography
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Molly
Bee had several hits in the early '60s, crafting a showy stage persona, ideal
for clubs. Raised in
When
she was 13, Bee signed with Capitol Records, releasing her first single,
"Tennessee Tango." However, it was "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," released
late in 1952, that was her first major success. In 1953, she recorded "Don't
Start Courtin' in a Hot Rod Ford," a duet with Tennessee Ernie Ford. The
following year, she left Pinky Lee's show for Ford's daytime television show.
Bee's career continued to grow, as she had more hit singles including "Young
Romance," "Don't Look Back," and "5 Points of a Star" and appeared on a
variety of television shows. By the late '50s, her live shows were drawing
large, record-breaking crowds.
In
the early '60s, Bee began to move her talents to other areas, acting in several
musical plays (The Boy Friend, Finian's Rainbow, Paint Your Wagon) and movies
(Chartreuse Caboose, The Young Swingers), as well as becoming a fixture in Las
Vegas. However, her recording career began to decline after she signed to
Liberty Records in 1962. After two unsuccessful years there, she moved to MGM in
1965, releasing the It's Great...It's Molly Bee album. Bee found her greatest
success at MGM the following year with "Losing You"/"Miserable
Me."
By
the late '60s, Bee had fallen prey to drug addiction and had to take several
years off the road as she rebuilt her life. She re-emerged in 1975 with Good
Golly Ms. Molly, this time on Cliffie Stone's Granite record label. Her comeback
was successful, producing two charting singles: "She Kept on Talking" and "Right
or Left at
Vic
Lewis (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Although
not a major musician himself, Vic Lewis has been an important force in British
jazz since the 1930's, leading bands that have covered a wide range of styles. A
rhythm guitarist (he started when he was three) and an occasional cornetist and
trombonist in his early days, Lewis gained early experience leading a band that
included the teenage George Shearing. When he first visited the
Mathieu Schwartz (18 June 1924 12 February 2009) - Dutch jazz accordionist
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Throughout
his career, Mat Mathews fought an uphill battle to get the accordion accepted in
bop-oriented jazz. He learned to play music during the Nazi occupation, and
after the war ended, Mathews was inspired to play jazz when he heard a radio
broadcast of Joe Mooney. He worked locally in
Coleman
Mellett (27 May 1974 12 February 2009) - jazz guitar, Chuck Mangione
Gerry
Niewood (6 April 1943 12 February 2009) - jazz saxophonist, Chuck Mangione
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Gerry
Niewood is best known for his association with Chuck Mangione, Niewood is a
talented multi-instrumentalist who has appealing sounds and styles on tenor,
soprano and flute. Niewood attended the
Louie Bellson
(
Biography by Scott
Yanow
One of the great
drummers of all time (and one of the few whose name can be said in the same
sentence with Buddy Rich), Louie Bellson has the rare ability to continually
hold one's interest throughout a 15-minute solo. He became famous in the 1950s
for using two bass drums simultaneously, but Bellson was never a gimmicky or
overly bombastic player. In addition to being able to drive a big band to
exciting effect, Bellson can play very quietly with a trio and sound quite
satisfied.
Winner of a Gene
Krupa talent contest while a teenager, Bellson was with the big bands of Benny
Goodman (1943 and 1946), Tommy Dorsey (1947-1949), and Harry James (1950-1951)
before replacing Sonny Greer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. A talented
writer, Bellson contributed "Skin Deep" and "The Hawk Talks" to Ellington's
permanent repertoire. Bellson married Pearl Bailey in 1952, and the following
year left Ellington to be her musical director. Bellson toured with Jazz at the
Philharmonic (1954-1955), recorded many dates in the 1950s for Verve, and was
with the Dorsey Brothers (1955-1956), Count Basie (1962), Duke Ellington
(1965-1966), and Harry James (1966). He continued to be active, leading big
bands (different ones on the East and
Joe Cuba (22 April 1931 15 February 2009) - percussionist, Father of Latin Boogaloo
http://shindiggit.blogspot.com/2008/05/joe-cuba-sextet-el-pito-tico-t-470.html
Biography
by Max Salazar
Joe
Cuba's music career started with La Alfarona X in 1950. In 1955 the Joe Cuba
Sextet came into being and his vibraharp sound caught on. In 1962, when the
group recorded "To Be with You" for Seeco Records, the band began to soar to
popularity because of Nick
Kelly
Groucutt (
Biography
by Bruce Eder
Kelly
Groucutt was one of the longer tenured supporting players in the lineup of the
Electric Light Orchestra, serving as the latter group's bassist and one of its
most visible singers for almost a decade, from 1974 until 1983. He was born
Michael "Kelly" Groucutt in 1945 in Coseley, Staffordshire. Music interested him
from an early age, and he started out as a singer at age 15, when he joined his
first band. He took up the guitar at 17, and then, at 21, started learning the
bass. He passed through several early bands, including
He
pursued a solo career from that point on, under his established name and, for a
time, under the group alias "Player," which included his old ELO bandmate Mik
Kaminski. Eventually, he and Kaminski began working under the name "OrKestra"
performing ELO songs with which they were associated, and cut a pair of albums,
Beyond the Dream and Roll Over Beethoven. They also played for a time with Bev
Bevan's Electric Light Orchestra Part II in the early '90s, and eventually
became full-time members of that band. In addition to his work with them,
Groucutt was known for doing one-off one-man shows in the
http://www.laid-back.be/blog/?p=689
The
mainstream audience may remember him from his work for Belgian national radio
and television and his variety music, but Fats Sadi Lallemand was one of the
most important jazzmen in Belgium and a well known musician in the European
modern jazz scene.
Born
in
His
career started with Sadis Hot Five, a combo playing mainly for the American
troops during the occupation. After the Second World War, he moved to Liθge, the
heart of jazz in
The
heydays of modern jazz
In
1951, Sadi followed fellow Belgian jazzmen Bobby Jaspar and Benoξt Quersin (b)
to
Two
years later, Sadi is able to work his way up in the
A
career of duality
At
the end of the fifties, when the heydays of jazz in
The
sixties and early seventies were a period of duality for Sadi. From touring the
world with commercial artists such as Caterina Valente and having his own
TV-shows on one hand, to writing European and Belgian jazz history by recording
beautiful and timeless sessions under his own name or as a sideman with jazz
legends like Sahib Shihab, on the other. It is this duality that makes him
withdraw himself from music. In the book Dictionnaire du jazz ΰ Bruxelles et en
Wallonie, Jean-Pol Schroeder writes that Sadis answer to the question what
are your current activities, in a questionnaire preceding the book, was:
Sleeping. This era doesnt suit me.
Fats
Sadi Lallemand passed away from the consequences of a virus in the night of
Thursday the 19th to
The
following tracks will be played as a tribute in Pulsations on LDBK Radio: The
Fats Sadi Combo Sadisme The Fats Sadi Combo Thanks A Million The Fats Sadi
Combo Laguna Leap The Fats Sadi Combo Ad Libitum The Fats Sadi Combo
Ridin High Fats Sadi Ensadinado The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band
Peters Waltz.
John
Cephas (
Biography
by Richard Skelly
Both
were born in
"
The
pair met at a jam session at a friend's house in
The
duo's albums include several critically acclaimed releases for Marimac
Recordings, Flying Fish Records and most recently, Cool Down for the
Chicago-based Alligator Records. The pair's Flying Fish releases from the 1980s
include Dog Days of August, Guitar Man and Flip, Flop and Fly. All are great
examples of state-of-the-art, acoustic
Biography
by Michael Erlewine
Hank
Locklin (born Lawrence Hankins Locklin), one of country music's great tenors,
was born February 15, 1918, in the small town of McLellan, located in the
lumbering district of the Florida Panhandle. The youngest son of four children,
he went to a one-room schoolhouse and was musical even as a young child. Locklin
was injured at the age of eight in an accident and the long recovery process was
the time when he first begin to learn music. Although interested in the guitar
early on, it wasn't until his mid-teens that he really began to master that
instrument. Locklin was active in music in high school (which he never
finished), and at 18 won first prize in a talent show. He went on to do spots on
the local radio station as he became more and more interested in entertaining.
By the mid-'40s he was playing on the radio and doing in-person performances in
Locklin
was exempted from military service due to his old leg injury, and during the war
he began playing guitar in various bands around
It
was Locklin's association with a group called the Four Leaf Clover Boys that led
to the formation of his first group. In the wake of their breakup, Locklin
formed the Rocky Mountain Boys in 1947. The group's lineup later changed
radically, but it was this original outfit Locklin on vocals and guitar, Clint
Holmes on rhythm guitar, "Tiny" Smith on bass, Felton Pruett on steel guitar,
and
They
soldiered on, recording for Gold Star and later Royalty without much success,
and eventually the band broke up (Holmes and Pruett hooked up with Hank Williams
soon after). Locklin ended up based in Houston and signed to Four Star, where he
had his first major regional hits with such songs as "The Same Sweet Girl" and
"Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On." In those days, Locklin's sound was that
of Texas-style dance band, and lacked the smooth, romantic commercial veneer of
his later Nashville-based recordings for RCA. In 1953, he finally achieved
national recognition with a number one country hit, "Let Me Be the One." His
success, however, was still sporadic, particularly in the face of an awkward
contractual arrangement that had Locklin recording for Decca but belonging to
Four Star and largely restricted to recording Four Star-owned songs. This didn't
change until 1955.
His
career took off when he joined the RCA Victor label in the spring of 1955.
Locklin's work with RCA has the added advantage that almost all of it was
produced by Chet Atkins, often with Atkins himself on rhythm or lead guitar and
with the added trills and fill-ins of Floyd Cramer on piano. The extreme
simplicity of his early works makes the combination of his clear voice and these
particular sidemen very effective. Everyone knows Locklin's big hits "Send Me
the Pillow That You Dream On" (written by Locklin), "Geisha Girl," and "Please
Help Me I'm Falling" but real fans are in love with his very simple heartfelt
tunes like "Who Am I to Cast the First Stone," "A Good Woman's Love," "Seven or
Eleven," "I'm Tired of Bummin' Around," "Golden Wristwatch," "Sitting Alone at a
Table for Two," and many others. These early songs are characterized by
Locklin's crystal-clear tenor, the ultra-simplicity of the songs themselves, and
their straight-to-the-heart emotional plea. (Kitty Wells has this same kind of
gift.) The result is a group of incredible songs that, first released as
singles, later became available on
Locklin
helped pioneer the idea of concept albums; his albums Foreign Love and Irish
Songs, Country Style are examples. He also recorded an album tribute to Roy
Acuff, A Tribute to Roy Acuff, King of Country Music. His Irish songs are pretty
near definitive. As time goes by, the vocal chorus begins to creep into the
Locklin albums a little more than purists might like, but his crystal-clear
tenor never deserts him.
Locklin
hit the Top Ten charts again in the 1968 with "The Country Hall of Fame." In the
1970s he toured overseas often, was very popular in
Willie
King (
Biography
by Richard Skelly
While
he's only come to a national audience in recent years, Alabama-based bluesman
Willie King sets himself apart from many of today's modern bluesmen and
blueswomen by his insistence on addressing topical and political issues in his
songwriting. But in reality, the blues has a long tradition of protest songs or
other songs written to bring about societal change. King's 2001 debut for the
Rooster Blues label, Freedom Creek, with his band, the Liberators, opens with
"Second Coming," a song about the immortal nature of the spirit, and invokes
civil rights activists John Brown and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., certainly
great spirits whose thoughts and deeds live on in
A
guitarist and singer/songwriter, King was born in
In
1967, King moved to
In
1987, Rooster Blues founder
If there's any justice in this world, in coming years this prolific songwriter and powerful singer and guitar player should continue to be well recorded. King and his Liberators are a vital part of a long tradition of social and civil activism in the blues form. King's raw guitar sound and soulful vocals and his band's simple yet complex message songs need to be brought to more festivals like the Chicago Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and other festivals of international prominence.
Lester
"Mad Dog"
Biography
by Bill Dahl
Until
1992, Lester Davenport's chief claims to blues fame were the 1955 Bo Diddley
Chess session he played harp on (it produced "Pretty Thing" and "Bring It to
Jerome") and a lengthy, much more recent stint holding down the harmonica slot
with the multi-generational Gary, IN, band, the Kinsey Report. That instantly
changed with the issue of
Now,
about that "Mad Dog" handle: it seems that
Kent
Henry (
Biography by
A sorely
underappreciated veteran of the New Orleans R&B scene,
singer/songwriter/producer/pianist Eddie Bo evolved into one of the city's
foremost funk players during the late '60s and early '70s, although he never had
a national hit commensurate with his musical standing. Born Edwin Joseph Bocage
on September 20, 1930, Bo was raised in the Algiers and Ninth Ward sections of
New Orleans by a musical family; uncles Peter and Charles and cousin Henry all
played in post-WWI jazz orchestras (including A.J. Piron's), and his mother was
a pianist in the Professor Longhair style. Bo served in the Army after high
school, and returned to
Bo cut his first
record in 1955 for the Ace label, and would go on to release more singles than
any other
New Orleans R&B
took a commercial downturn during the '60s, and Bo was largely relegated to
cutting records for a long string of small local labels, most of which weren't
distributed nationally. As the '60s wore on, Bo's piano style not only got
funkier, but brought back more and more of his jazz training, creating a
distinctive sound that helped lay the groundwork for New Orleans' own brand of
funk (along with artists like the Meters and Willie Tee). His biggest hit, "Hook
and Sling, Pts. 1 & 2," was recorded for Scram and reached the Top 40 on the
R&B charts in 1969. By this time, however, Bo was tired of being at the
music industry's mercy for his livelihood; he subsequently formed his own
Bo-Sound label and in 1971 scored another hit with "Check Your Bucket." Other
early-'70s sides for Bo-Sound, such as "Pass the Hatchet," cemented Bo's future
standing as a lost funk treasure.
Bo worked in music
only sporadically after the early '70s, instead setting up his own renovation
business, although he did record two self-produced albums, Another Side of Eddie
Bo and Watch for the Coming, in the late '70s. He recorded with the Dirty Dozen
Brass Band during the late '80s, when he also toured
Mel
Brown (7 October 1939 20 March 2009) - blues guitarist
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Best
known for his decade-plus stint in support of Bobby "Blue" Bland, Mel Brown
channeled elements of soul, funk, and jazz to create one of the most distinctive
guitar styles in contemporary blues. Born
Reg
Isidore (
Trower's
first drummer and he played on the Robin Trower Band's first two albums Twice
Removed From Yesterday and
Manny
Oquendo (1 January 1931 25 March 2009) - percussionist, played
bongos for Tito Puente
Biography
by Max Salazar
Manny
Oquendo began percussion studes in 1945 and gained drumming experience with the
bands of Carlos Valero, Luis del Campo, Juan "El Boy" Torres, Jose Budet,
Juanito Sanabria, Marcelino Guerra, Jose Curbelo and Pupi Campo before becoming
Tito Puente's bongo player in 1950. Four years later Oquendo was with Tito
Rodriquez and with Vicentico Valdes in 1955. For the following six years,
Oquendo freelanced and recorded for
Dan Seals
(
Biography by
After scoring
several hits as part of the soft rock duo
Duane
Jarvis (
Biography
by Philip Van Vleck
Singer/songwriter
Duane Jarvis has been on the move most of his life. Born in the
His
musical background is quite eclectic. Jarvis began his advanced music education
with the John Burroz Blues Band in
After
11 years in
Bud
Shank (
Biography
by Chris Kelsey
Bud
Shank began his career pigeonholed as a cool-schooler, but those who have
listened to the altoist progress over the long haul know that he has become one
of the hottest, most original players of the immediate post-Parker generation.
Lumped in with the limpid-toned West Coast crowd in the '50s, Shank never ceased
to evolve; in the '90s, he has more in common with Jackie McLean or Phil Woods
than with Paul Desmond or Lee Konitz. Shank's keening, blithely melodic, and
tonally expressive style is one of the more genuinely distinctive approaches to
have grown out of the bebop idiom.
Shank
attended the
Shank
ensconced himself in the
In
the '70s, Shank formed the
Charles
Sumner "Charlie" Kennedy (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
A
talented alto-saxophonist best-known for his solos with Gene Krupa's big band,
Charlie Kennedy's early retirement from music has resulted in him becoming an
obscure name in jazz history. He started playing clarinet when he was 12,
growing up in
Rubin
"Zeke" Zarchy (
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Zeke
Zarchy looms large among the premier trumpeters of the swing era. A vital
component of big bands led by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby, he
remains best remembered for his celebrated tenure with Glenn Miller, and was the
last surviving member of Miller's now-legendary Army Air Force Band. Born Rubin
Zarchy in
Buddy
Biography
by Scott Yanow
The
youngest of the three
Jay
Walter Bennett (
Biography
by Linda Seida
Jay
Bennett, a multi-instrumentalist who was a prominent presence in Wilco, broke
off from the group late in 2001. Before his departure, he began writing songs
with Edward Burch and the two put out The Palace at
Koko Taylor
(
Biography by
Accurately dubbed
"the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko
Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters
alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big
Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age.
Koko was born Cora
Walton on
By the early '70s,
Chess Records was floundering financially, and eventually went under in 1975.
Tragedy struck in
1988.
Sam
Butera (
Biography
by Bruce Eder
Sam
Butera spent much of his career leading Louis Prima's band, but his career
continued long after Prima's death, coming to include sounds and styles far
beyond Prima's brand of
He
was born in
Butera
formed his own group inspired by Gayten's band after returning to
He
played some R&B shows, including a celebrated tour as part of Alan Freed's
first East Coast rock & roll showcase, and Butera's loud, wild sax sound won
him an enthusiastic following. By 1955, however, he was back doing jazz with
Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Bellson. He finally hooked up with Louis Prima and
spent the next 20 years leading his band, the Witnesses. Butera's own record
releases were cut short, with only a handful of his Groove sides (including a
vocal performance, "Giddyap Baby") ever issued at the time.
Butera
achieved financial security over the next 20 years working for Prima, and only
then, in the mid-'70s, began re-emerging as a performer in his own right.
Hugh Hopper
(
Biography by Dave
Lynch
Hugh Hopper was best
known as the electric bassist for Soft Machine during the band's most creative
and critically acclaimed period, but his musical career extended far beyond his
time spent with that particular group. He arguably manifested the Canterbury
scene's progressive spirit at least on the instrumental side of the equation
longer than any other musician, from the late '60s through to nearly the end of
the new millennium's first decade, a period spanning over 40 years, although he
took a break from music for a brief stretch. Hopper was also the indisputable
king of the fuzz bass, introducing the instrument's sustained burning tones into
early Soft Machine's sonic palette and laying the groundwork for other bassists'
fuzzed and buzzed excursions across subsequent decades on both sides of the
Born in
However, nascent
experimentation with poetry and jazz and travels to the Continent were not
bearing fruit, and in 1964 Hugh and his older brother Brian (in the same Simon
Langton class as Ratledge, incidentally) formed the Wilde Flowers, now seen as
forerunners of pretty much anything that later gained notice under the
Canterbury rubric. The Wilde Flowers, initially including Hopper brothers Hugh
and Brian on bass and guitar/sax, respectively, along with vocalist Kevin Ayers
and rhythm guitarist Richard Sinclair, were a beat group that played Chuck
Berry, Beatles, Kinks, and Dave Clark Five along with some original material,
although they reportedly also had some inclinations toward Monk, Coltrane, and
Ellington on the side. Their first live gig, at the Bear and Key Hotel in
Whitstable on January 15, 1965, garnered some favorable local press, and
scattered gigs and a bit of recording were forthcoming, but the Wilde Flowers
began splintering in fairly short order, going through a number of lineup
changes notably the departures of Wyatt and Ayers to join the Soft Machine
quartet with Ratledge and Allen, and the arrivals of vocalist/guitarist Pye
Hastings and drummer Richard Coughlan (both of whom would later form Caravan
with Richard Sinclair).
While not exactly
engaged in groundbreaking endeavors at this particular time, Hugh Hopper was at
least displaying the songwriting side of his musical personality, penning the
bluesy and soulful ballad "Memories" that would not only be performed by both
the Wilde Flowers and Soft Machine, but also appear on the album One Down by
Bill Laswell's Material in 1982, featuring the first-ever lead vocal performance
on record by a then 18-year-old Whitney Houston. Hopper would remain with the
Wilde Flowers until early 1967 by then playing sax with the group instead of
bass and then fall in with the Softs, whose first incarnation came together in
August 1966. Almost incredibly given his later bass contributions to the group,
Hopper's first involvement with Soft Machine came not as a bandmember but as
road manager, responsible for equipment haulage while enduring the general
craziness associated with two legendary
However, following
the recording of Soft Machine's debut album, Kevin Ayers departed the band,
leaving the duo of Ratledge and Wyatt to seek someone to replace him after the
band's record label, Probe, sought a second album and more touring from the
group. In December 1968 Hugh Hopper met with Ratledge and Wyatt to set a future
course, and a new Soft Machine trio was born. It was then that Hopper's
signature fuzz bass was employed, as noted in author Graham Bennett's 2005 Soft
Machine biography Out-Bloody-Rageous, essentially to match musical wits with
Ratledge's fuzzed-up Lowrey organ. Although he first heard fuzz bass used by
Paul McCartney on the Beatles track "Think for Yourself" (a George Harrison tune
on Rubber Soul) and never claimed to have invented the technique of plugging an
electric bass into a fuzz box, Hopper was certainly unique in making the fuzz
bass such an important part of any group's sound to that point. And Hopper
brought a keen melodic sensibility that enabled the fuzz bass to serve as a lead
instrument at times, scattered throughout many of the short tracks on Soft
Machine's Volume Two (1969), appearing prominently during the second portion of
Wyatt's "Moon in June" and elsewhere on Third (1970), and significantly
contributing to the overall atmosphere of Fourth (1971).
This period is
viewed by many as Soft Machine's creative apex, as the group graduated from
short pop song forms (albeit combined into suites and with both instrumental
prowess and eccentricity on display) into longer-form jazz and contemporary
avant-garde explorations, although there would always be listeners who would
pine for the earlier psychedelic pop days with Ayers on vocals and bass.
Moreover, starting in October 1969 the Softs had expanded from a trio to a
septet with the addition of soprano saxophonist/flutist Lyn Dobson and three
members of the Keith Tippett Group front line: saxophonist Elton Dean, cornetist
Marc Charig, and trombonist Nick Evans. The lineup would later shrink to a
quintet and then quartet with the departures of all the reed/brass players aside
from Dean, although an expanded lineup including the aforementioned and others
(e.g.,
Hopper, like
Ratledge, would rise to the challenge of composing and arranging for these more
jazz-based aggregations, in fact contributing "Facelift" the group's first
side-long opus to the landmark Third. "Facelift" which spliced together two
separate live performances and ended with backwards and sped-up tape effects
demonstrating Hopper's most experimental side was a manifesto of sorts,
showcasing Ratledge's explosive organ playing like never before on record and
bridging the piece's two live sections with an overlapping interlude in proto-DJ
mix fashion, while also allowing Dobson (who actually left the band between the
recording of "Facelift" and the release of Third) and especially Dean to display
their jazz chops at length. With this opening salvo, Soft Machine had suddenly
become a Brit jazz-rock enterprise that could challenge Miles and his fusioneers
on the other side of the pond, and although some of the recording techniques
employed produced a sound quality that could be charitably viewed as less than
top-notch, "Facelift" was a bold statement of its era and has held up remarkably
well over the subsequent decades. Both Ratledge and Wyatt also contributed
side-long pieces to Third, but Hopper was the only bandmember to continue this
practice on the next LP, with his "Virtually" suite on Fourth a somewhat more
abstract and textured work, heavy on improvisation for sax, clarinet, and double
bass, and with plenty of fuzz bass creating a subdued trippy ambience, true acid
jazz unlike the generally accepted style that arrived nearly 20 years
later.
To many, the Soft
Machine consisting of Hopper, Ratledge, Dean, and Wyatt were and will always be
"the classic quartet" notably the first "popular music group" to play the BBC
Proms classical music festival at Royal Albert Hall (during August of 1970, two
months after the release of Third). The band membership would continue to
change, however, with the departure of Wyatt and arrivals of (briefly) Phil
Howard and (more lastingly) John Marshall on drums prior to Fifth (1972) and the
exit of Dean and entry of reedman/keyboardist Karl Jenkins prior to Six (1973).
The inevitable changes in direction and mainly a perceived diminishment of the
band's "weirdness" according to a quote in Out-Bloody-Rageous led to Hopper's
departure before the release of Seven (1974), in which Roy Babbington debuted as
the Softs' new bassist (having guested on Fourth). Roughly concurrent with
Hopper's exit from Soft Machine came the release of his first solo album, 1973's
1984, inspired by the George Orwell novel and believed by some to be one of the
strangest albums ever issued by a major label (Columbia Records affiliate CBS,
which acquiesced to releasing the album but didn't finance the studio costs).
1984 harked back to Hopper's early interest in tape loops, and in this case the
bassist interspersed lengthy experimental bass-and-loop pieces with shorter
tunes featuring a more standard band lineup and drawing from another area of
inspiration, the soul-funk of James Brown. The album was favorably reviewed for
the most part, although Hopper subsequently noted in the liners of the 1998
Cuneiform reissue that Fred Frith, who had reviewed the LP under a pseudonym,
was less than enamored by the presence of the short tunes that interrupted the
abstraction occurring elsewhere.
Although Hopper had
left Soft Machine due at least in part to dissatisfaction with the band's
particular jazz-rock direction, during the '70s following the release of 1984 he
could be found handling bass duties with a pair of notable jazz-rock ensembles
with overlapping personnel, Stomu Yamashta's East Wind (Freedom Is Frightening,
1973; One by One, 1974) and Isotope (Illusion, 1975; Deep End, 1976; Golden
Section, recorded live in 1974-1975 and released by Cuneiform in 2008). Hopper
also fronted his own Monster Band in 1974 and played bass on Robert Wyatt's
classic Rock Bottom released that year, and toured with the Carla Bley Band in
1976 and 1977 (as heard on European Tour 1977, which also includes Elton Dean in
the lineup).
In the midst of his
mid-'70s work, Hopper recorded what many believe to be one of his finest solo
achievements, Hopper Tunity Box, recorded between May and July 1976 at the
Mobile Mobile studio with Mike Dunne (Jon Anderson, Yes) engineering. Hopper
assembled some of Britain's finest jazz and Canterbury-associated musicians,
including keyboardist Dave Stewart, Softs compatriot Dean, cornetist Charig,
reedman Gary Windo, and Isotope drummer Nigel Morris to record tracks ranging
from a concise revisit of 1984's "Miniluv (Reprise)" to a cover of Ornette
Coleman's "Lonely Woman." Sonically adventurous and challenging yet highly
focused and even tuneful, Hopper Tunity Box remains in the upper echelon of
Hopper releases, and although the original vinyl LP on the Compendium label in
1977 suffered from some sonic shortcomings (which carried over to the first CD
issue on Culture Press), the album was remastered from the original master tapes
and reissued by Cuneiform in 2007.
As the '70s drew to
a close, Hopper involved himself in various collaborative endeavors, and unlike
other Soft Machine alumni who might have seemingly wished to keep their distance
from anything "Softs" (a few reported grudges resulting from the band's somewhat
tortured history), the bassist never seemed dismissive of his Canterbury past.
In 1978 Hopper formed the Soft Heap quartet along with saxophonist Dean,
keyboardist Alan Gowen, and drummer Pip Pyle; they released an eponymous album
on Charly and have been further documented by the Reel Recordings label, which
in 2008 released Al Dente, a live recording of a 1978 show in
By the end of the
'70s and into the early '80s, Hopper had largely stopped playing altogether and
his recorded output, even as a sideman, was intermittent at best. However, by
the mid-'80s he was prepared to reenter the music world, and began appearing
live and on recordings as a member of bands led by Canterbury scene friends like
Phil Miller and Pip Pyle. He also formed his own "Franglodutch Band" featuring
guitarist Patrice Meyer, keyboardist Dionys Breukers, saxophonist Frank Van Der
Kooij, and drummer Pieter Bast. Live gigs from 1987 and 1989 by this outfit were
documented on the Wayside Music Archive Series 1991 limited-edition release
Meccano Pelorus (later reissued by Cuneiform) and 1994's studio effort Carousel
(also on Cuneiform), an album that included Kim Weemhoff on drums as a
replacement for the departing Bast.
The '90s saw Hopper
hitting more peaks, notably his collaboration with fellow "fuzzaholic" bassist
Fred Chalenor, vocalist/keyboardist/accordionist Elaine diFalco, and drummer
Henry Franzoni of the U.S. Pacific Northwest avant rock band Caveman Shoestore.
Hopper had read about Chalenor's fuzz fixation in an Italian fanzine and
contacted the
Hopper remained
active throughout the 2000s, releasing a number of solo and collaborative
recordings on independent labels such as Burning Shed, Voiceprint affiliate
Blueprint, Moonjune, and old stalwart Cuneiform. And while continuing to find
new collaborators such as Doctor Nerve guitarist Nick Didkovsky and Forever
Einstein drummer John Roulat (who joined with the bassist under the moniker Bone
for 2003's Uses Wrist Grab), he continued to revisit his Canterbury roots,
perhaps even more strongly than ever. Hopper played bass on the PolySoft Tribute
to Soft Machine CD recorded live at Le Triton in Les Lilas, France, in 2002, and
also contributed bass to the Delta Saxophone Quartet's own Softs tribute,
Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening, released in 2007. Hopper also
participated in a pair of quartets featuring Soft Machine alumni, the first
under the name Soft Works and featuring guitarist Allan Holdsworth (from the
Softs' Bundles lineup) along with Hopper, Dean, and Marshall (Abracadabra, 2003)
and the second entitled Soft Machine Legacy with guitarist John Etheridge
replacing Holdsworth (Live at the New Morning: The Paris Concert and Soft
Machine Legacy, both 2003) and with saxophonist Theo Travis replacing Elton Dean
following Dean's death in 2006 (Steam, released by Moonjune in 2007). One of
Hopper's strongest improvisational endeavors, Numero d'Vol, arrived from
Moonjune in August of 2007, and the label also issued another noteworthy release
in July of 2009 with Dune by the HUMI duo, consisting of Hopper on bass and
keyboardist/vocalist Yumi Hara Cawkwell.
In June of 2008 Hugh
Hopper was diagnosed with leukemia and canceled his scheduled appearances to
undergo chemotherapy. In December of that year a benefit for Hopper was held at
Barry
Edward Beckett (
Biography
by Ed Hogan
As
a keyboardist with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Barry Beckett can be heard
on hits on Stax Records (the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There," number one
R&B for four weeks, number one pop in spring 1972, and on Paul Simon's
"Kodachrome," number two pop for two weeks in spring 1973). As a producer,
Beckett's credits include Mary MacGregor (the gold single "Torn Between Two
Lovers," number one pop for two weeks in late 1975), Alabama's "If I Had You,"
Kenny Chesney's "When I Close My Eyes," and Bob Dylan (the LPs Dylan, Slow Train
Coming, Saved), and Neal McCoy's "No Doubt About It."
The years spent recording hits with the renowned group of studio musicians with producer Rick Hall at Alabama-based Fame Recording Studio helped Beckett to hone an organic approach to pop music. An approach that colored his producing in later years was having each record (whether it's for a solo recording artist, a group, or a band) sound as if it was done by a band, not just a bunch of uninvolved, clock-watching hack musicians.
In
1985, Beckett left Muscle Shoals, AL, for an A&R position with the
Other
Beckett-associated releases are Mel and Tim's "Starting All Over Again" (number
four R&B in summer 1972); Neal McCoy's "No Doubt About It"; Glenn Frey's
"Sexy Girl"; the Forester Sisters' "You Again"; Bob Segar's "We've Got Tonite"
(number 13 pop in fall 1978) and "Fire Lake" (number six pop in early 1980) and
the LPs Night Moves (number eight pop in early 1977) and Stranger In Town
(number four pop in summer 1978); Terry Graham's "Cool Water"; and Delbert
McClinton's "Giving It Up for Your Love" (number eight pop in late 1980). He
also produced tracks on two LPs from the Muscle Shoals Horns: Born to Get Down
(Bang, 1976) and Doin' It to the Bone and
Huey
Long (
Biography
by Eugene Chadbourne
Huey
Long's surname is tailor-made to describe all manner of phenomena, but in the
case of this jazz instrumentalist it sums up the most remarkable aspect of his
career. In 2004, at the age of 100, he was still manning a black history exhibit
in
He
is of course not to be confused with the governor and songwriter Huey P. Long;
in some references the jazzman's initial is brought into play in order to
distinguish the two: Huey C. Long. There was also a long list of musical
relatives in the latter Long's family, including his three brothers, Jewell
Long, Herbert Long, and Sam Long. Starting out on piano, Huey Long was within
two years longing for something different, mainly a banjo. By the mid-'20s he
was featured on such in Frank Davis' Louisiana Jazz Band and Dee Johnson's
Merrymakers. Long moved to
Long's
recordings follow this pattern from the early '30s, continuing in the ensuing
decade with better-known leaders such as Fletcher Henderson and Earl Hines. His
company in the Hines outfit included some of the jazz genre's most noted
dignitaries, including Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy
Gillespie. He was also involved with musicians who were more interested in
rocking than swinging, playing in 1933 with Jesse Stone, who would later write
the hit "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Mastering these diverse influences and
polishing his formal musical skills, Long by the end of the decade was assistant
arranger and conductor for concert bands as well as swing big bands.
He
had his own three-piece combo together in 1944, enjoying a long residency at the
Three Deuces Cafe on
This
isn't the end of his involvement with the Ink Spots, however. Meanwhile, bebop
was catching on and Long showed his mastery of the idiom, as far from the Ink
Spots as a freshly dry-cleaned vest, in a studio session with trumpeter Navarro,
tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and a rhythm section consisting of Al
Haig, Gene Ramey, and Denzil Best. Long was back as a sideman in the early '50s
with Snub Mosley, the Ravens, and others. He briefly tried returning to college
studies, freelanced in
Following
another freelance period in
Jerome
"Jack" Nimitz (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Although
he has had a long and productive career, Jack Nimitz has long been underrated,
not getting a chance to lead his own record session until a 1995 set for Fresh
Sound, when he was already 65. He started on the clarinet when he was 12,
switching to alto two years later, and gigging locally at 15. In 1949, Nimitz
started specializing on the baritone and soon was playing with such territory
bands as those led by Bob Astor, Johnny Bothwell, and Daryl Harpa. From
1952-1953, he was back in Washington, D.C., before touring with Woody Herman
(October 1953 to September 1955) and a few months with Stan Kenton (1955-1956).
He was a regular in the house band at the
Robert
Lenard "Bob" Bogle (
Biography
by John Bush
Not
the first but definitely the most popular rock instrumental combo, the Ventures
scored several hit singles during the 1960s most notably "Walk-Don't Run" and
"Hawaii Five-O" but made their name in the growing album market, covering hits
of the day and organizing thematically linked LPs. Almost 40 Ventures' albums
charted, and 17 hit the Top 40. And though the group's popularity in America
virtually disappeared by the 1970s, their enormous contribution to pop culture
was far from over; the Ventures soon became one of the most popular world-wide
groups, with dozens of albums recorded especially for the Japanese and European
markets. They toured continually throughout the 1970s and '80s influencing
Japanese pop music of the time more than they had American music during the
'60s.
The
Ventures' origins lie in a
The
Ventures went into the studio in 1959 with an idea for a new single they had
first heard on Chet Atkins' Hi Fi in Focus LP. Released on Blue Horizon in 1960,
the single "Walk-Don't Run" became a big local hit after being aired as a news
lead-in on a
Two
singles, "Perfidia" and "Ram-Bunk-Shush," hit the Top 40 during 1960-61, but the
Ventures soon began capitalizing on what became a trademark: releasing LPs which
featured songs very loosely arranged around a theme implied in the title. The
group's fourth LP, The Colorful Ventures, included "Yellow Jacket," "Red Top,"
"Orange Fire" and no less than three tracks featuring the word "blue" in the
title. The Ventures put their indelible stamp on each style of '60s music they
covered, and they covered many twist, country, pop, spy music, psychedelic,
swamp, garage, TV themes. (In the '70s, the band moved on to funk, disco,
reggae, soft rock and Latin music.) The Ventures' lineup changed slightly during
1962. Howie Johnson left the band, to be replaced by session man Mel Taylor;
also, Nokie Edwards took over lead guitar with Bob Bogle switching to
bass.
One
of the few LPs not arranged around a theme became their best-selling; 1963's The
Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull featured a cover of the number one
instrumental hit by the British studio band the Tornadoes and produced by Joe
Meek. Though their cover of "Telstar" didn't even chart, the album hit the Top
Ten and became the group's first of three gold records. A re-write of their
signature song entitled "Walk-Don't Run '64" reached number eight that year.
By the mid-'60s however, the Ventures appeared to be losing their touch.
Considering the volatility of popular music during the time, it was quite
forgivable that the group would lose their heads-up knowledge of current trends
in the music industry to forecast which songs should be covered. The television
theme "Hawaii Five-O" hit number four in 1969, but the Ventures slipped off the
American charts for good in 1972. Instead, the band began looking abroad for
attention and in
Nokie
Edwards left the Ventures in 1968 to pursue his interest in horse racing for a
time, and was replaced by Gerry McGee; though he returned by 1972, Mel Taylor
left the group that year for a solo career, to be replaced by Joe Barile.
(Taylor returned also, in 1979.) By the early '80s, the Ventures' core quartet
of
Charlie
Mariano (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Charlie
Mariano's career can easily be divided into two phases. Early on he was a
fixture in
The
second phase of his career began with the formation of his early fusion group
Osmosis in 1967. Known at the time as a strong bop altoist with a sound of his
own developed out of the Charlie Parker style, Mariano began to open his music
up to the influences of folk music from other cultures, pop, and rock. He taught
again at Berklee, traveled to
Ali
Akbar Khan (
Biography
by Craig Harris
The
son of influential Hindustani musician Allaudin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan was one of
the Eastern world's greatest musicians. A master of the sarod, a 25-stringed,
lute-like, Indian instrument, Khan brought the Northern Indian classical music
to the international stage. A five-time Grammy nominee, Khan was called, by
Yehudi Menuhin, "an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world."
Tracing his ancestral roots to Mian Tansen, a 16th century musician in the court
of Emperor Akbar, Khan began studying music at the age of three. Initially
studying vocal music with his father, he studied drums with his uncle, Fakir
Aftabuddin. Although he tried playing a wide variety of instruments, he felt
most comfortable on the sarod. Training and practicing 18 hours a day, he slowly
mastered the instrument. In 1936, he made his public debut during a concert in
In
1955, Khan accepted an invitation from Menuhin to perform in the
In
1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in
Eddie
Preston (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Although
Eddie Preston is best known for his stints with Charles Mingus,
Michael Jackson
(
Biography by
Michael Jackson was
unquestionably the biggest pop star of the '80s, and certainly one of the most
popular recording artists of all time. In his prime,
Michael Joseph
Jackson was born
In 1977, Jackson
landed a starring role alongside Diana Ross in the all-black film musical The
Wiz, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz; here he met producer/composer Quincy Jones
for the first time. Encouraged by the success of the
No group could have
contained
Showing no signs of
slowing down, Thriller just kept spinning off singles, including "Wanna Be
Startin' Somethin'," the airy ballad "Human Nature," and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young
Thing)"; in all, seven of its nine tracks wound up in the Top Ten, obliterating
conventional ideas of how many singles could be released from an album before it
ran its course. Thriller stayed on the charts for over two years, spent 37
non-consecutive weeks at number one, and became the best-selling album of all
time; it went on to sell 29 million copies in the U.S. alone, and around another
20 million overseas. Naturally,
Even at this early
stage, wild rumors about
During his long
layoff between records,
Jackson took another
long hiatus between albums, giving the media little to focus on besides his
numerous eccentricities; by this time, the British tabloids delighted in calling
him "Wacko Jacko," a name he detested. When
In 1995,
In late 1996,
From that point,
On the afternoon of
Jackie
Washington (12 November 1919 - 27 June 2009) - Hamilton, Ontario
bluesman
Biography
by Bruce Eder
Jackie
Washington has had such a long career, and in so many musical idioms, that it's
not surprising that he reached his eighties as a fairly enigmatic figure. Across
50 years, he's crossed paths professionally with everyone from Duke Ellington,
Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee to Bob Dylan. Born Jackie Washington Landron in
1919 to a family of West Indian and Puerto Rican descent in
In
the early '60s he made the leap into a new musical idiom when he became part of
the folk revival. He sang blues, which was a short jump to folk music, and with
his strong singing and guitar skills, and as a black Canadian, Washington was
able to fill the role of a down-north folk-bluesman, a kind of Canadian Josh
White. He was signed to Vanguard Records in the early '60s, and began performing
extensively in the
The unfortunate part about Washington's recording career for Washington was that Vanguard never really pushed his recordings; the label was evidently content to let the music filter into the folk and blues communities and in those days, they hardly ever even released singles, and weren't a very big presence in the radio marketplace. On the other hand, their relative complacency meant that Washington got to record many of the songs that he was doing on-stage at the time, thus leaving behind a fairly substantial percentage of that end of his repertory (though with a total of 1,200 songs at his fingertips, one suspects it would be futile to try and make too big a dent in any corner of his song bag). The totality of Washington's work also transcended the limitations of the folk scene, bringing him into contact in Canada across the decades with Duke Ellington, Clark Terry, and Lionel Hampton, among other jazz giants, as well as Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Lonnie Johnson in blues. He continued to perform and record blues through the 1970s, and he was the subject of a biographical book in the 1980s. In more recent years, Washington has taken on the role of elder statesman in Canada's jazz, blues, and folk music communities especially in Ontario and, in his eighties, still performed occasionally in the early 2000s.
James
Forbes "
Biography
by Ron Wynn
Drums.
Drummer best knownn for his work with Red Norvo in the '40s, plus sessions with
Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey in '50s. Chapin begin playing piano and clarinet
as a child, then left college at 18 to begin playing professionally on drums. He
started with Norvo in 1943, following a string of jobs with various bands.
Chapin's group was a regular Monday night attraction at Birdland from '54 to
'56. He later played with Marshall Grant in
Gordon Waller
(
Biography by Richie
Unterberger
In June 1964, Peter
& Gordon became the very first British Invasion act after the Beatles to
take the number one spot on the American charts with "A World Without Love."
That hit, and their subsequent successes, were due as much or more to their
important connections as to their talent. Peter Asher was the older brother of
Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's girlfriend for much of the 1960s. This no doubt
gave Asher and Gordon Waller access to Lennon-McCartney compositions that were
unrecorded by the Beatles, such as "A World Without Love" and three of their
other biggest hits, "Nobody I Know," "I Don't Want to See You Again," and
"Woman" (the last of which was written by McCartney under a pseudonym). But
Peter & Gordon were significant talents in their own right, a sort of Everly
Brothers-styled duo for the British Invasion that faintly prefigured the
folk-rock of the mid-'60s. In fact, when Gene Clark first approached
Asher and Waller had
been singing together since their days at
Some scattered folky
B-sides showed that Asher and Waller may have been capable of developing into
decent songwriters, but like many of the less talented British Invaders, their
lack of songwriting acumen and ability to move with the times would eventually
work against them. They did continue to hit the charts for a couple of years,
with updates of the oldies "
After Peter &
Gordon broke up in 1968, Asher became an enormously successful producer, first
as the director of A&R at the Beatles' Apple Records (where he worked on
James Taylor's first album). Relocating to
John
Collins Dawson IV, aka Marmaduke (16
June 1945 21 July 2009)
- leader of New Riders of the Purple Sage
John
Dawson was born in
By
1969,
During
this same period,
In
the years that followed, Dawson and Nelson led a gradually evolving lineup of
musicians in the New Riders of the Purple Sage, playing their psychedelic
influenced brand of country rock and releasing a number of studio and live
albums. In 1982, David Nelson and Buddy Cage left the band. John Dawson and the
New Riders carried on without them, taking on more of a bluegrass influence with
the addition of multi-instrumentalist Rusty Gauthier to the group. NRPS
continued to tour intermittently and released the occasional album. Then, in
1997,
In
2005, David Nelson and Buddy Cage revived the New Riders of the Purple Sage,
without
Biography
by Richard S. Ginell
While
George Russell has been very active as a free-thinking composer, arranger, and
bandleader, his biggest effect upon jazz has been that of the quieter role of
theorist. His great contribution, apparently the first by a jazz musician to
general music theory, was a book with the intimidating title The Lydian
Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, where he concocted a concept of playing
jazz based on scales rather than chord changes. Published in 1953, Russell's
theories directly paved the way for the modal revolutions of Miles Davis and
John Coltrane and Russell even took credit for the theory behind Michael
Jackson's huge hit "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin,'" which uses the Lydian scale
(no, he didn't ask for royalties). Russell's stylistic reach in his own
compositions eventually became omnivorous, embracing bop, gospel, blues, rock,
funk, contemporary classical elements, electronic music, and African rhythms in
his recent, ambitious extended works most apparent in his large-scale 1983
suite for an enlarged big band, The African Game. Like his colleague Gil Evans,
Russell never stopped growing, but his work is not nearly as well-known as that
of Evans, being more difficult to grasp and, in any case, not as well-documented
by
Russell's
first instrument was the drums, which he played in the Boy Scout Drum and Bugle
Corps and at local clubs when he was in high school. At 19, he was hospitalized
with tuberculosis, but he used the enforced inactivity to learn the craft of
arranging from a fellow patient. Once back on his feet, he played with Benny
Carter, but after being replaced on drums by Max Roach, Russell began to zero in
on composing and arranging. He moved to
While
working on his Lydian theories, Russell dropped out of active musicmaking for
awhile, working at a sales counter in Macy's when his book was published. But
when he resumed composing in 1956, he had established himself as an influential
force in jazz. Russell's connection with Gunther Schuller resulted in the
commission of All About Rosie for the 1957
Finding
the American jazz scene too confining for his music, Russell left for
Billy
Lee Riley (
Biography
by Cub Koda
Billy Lee Riley is a rockabilly singer and multi-instrumentalist. An alumnus of Sun Records, he was one of the most crazed, unabashed rockers that label had to offer in the company of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Sonny Burgess, that's saying a lot. Proficient at harmonica, guitar, bass, and drums, Riley contributed as a sideman to many a classic Sun session, and his combo, the Little Green Men (most notably guitarist Roland Janes and drummer J.M. Van Eaton), in time became the Sun house band. Riley recorded for a number of labels in a variety of styles, especially effective with blues. Though never commercially successful, Riley's Sun recordings of "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll" and "Red Hot" (both covered in wooden renditions by Robert Gordon) remain landmarks of the genre.
Willie "Mink"
Deville (
Biography by Craig
Harris
The roots of
American music, including the blues, R&B, and Cajun music, gave Willy
DeVille's (born William Borsey) late-'70s punk band, Mink DeVille, its unique
flavor. A quarter of a century later, DeVille continued to blend musical
traditions and postmodern intensity. A self-taught guitarist, DeVille found his
early inspiration in the blues of John Hammond Jr., Muddy Waters, and John Lee
Hooker. Determined to become a musician, he moved to
Willy DeVille has
remained active since the breakup of Mink DeVille in the mid-'80s. His debut
solo album, Miracle, was produced in 1987 by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and
included such guests as guitarist Chet Atkins. One tune, "Storybook Love," used
in Knopfler's score for the film The Princess Bride, was nominated for an
Academy Award. Residing in
Mike Seeger
(
Biography by Ronnie
D. Lankford, Jr.
Born into one of the
first families of American folk music, it was probably inevitable that Mike
Seeger would become a musician and folklorist. His father and mother, Charles
and Ruth Crawford Seeger, assisted John and Alan Lomax at the Archive of Folk
Song in the Library of Congress. Mike's half-brother, Pete Seeger, performed in
both the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, while his sister Peggy Seeger was
highly regarded in traditional music circles. There was little surprise, then,
when Mike Seeger, at the age of 25, joined Tom Paley and John Cohen to form the
New Lost City Ramblers.
It is perhaps ironic
that a traditional performer like Seeger was born in
In the early '50s,
Seeger began to conduct his own field recordings and perform at square dances in
the
In 1962, when Tracy
Schwarz replaced Paley in the Ramblers, Seeger became involved in a number of
solo projects. He recorded Mike Seeger for Vanguard in 1964 and Tipple, Loom
& Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the South for Folkways in 1965. In
the late '60s, Seeger, Dickens, Alice Gerrard, and Lamar Grier formed the
Strange Creek Singers (Arhoolie released Strange Creek Singers: Get Acquainted
Waltz in 1975, reissued in 1997). He also became involved in the Newport Folk
Festival and, in 1970, became the director of the Smithsonian Folklife Company.
In 1970, he married Gerrard, though they later divorced.
Seeger continued to
involve himself in a multitude of projects. Beginning in the 1970s, he recorded
a string of albums for Rounder, and he continued to compile scholarly projects
such as Southern Banjo Sounds (1998) and True Vine (2003) both for Smithsonian
Folkways. He was nominated for three Grammys, won a Guggenheim Fellowship in
1984, received the Rex Foundation's Ralph Gleason Award in 1995, and an Award of
Merit from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) the same year.
"I feel there's just as much fun in old-time music as there's ever been," Seeger
told Dirty Linen in 1997. "People ask me, don't you get tired of it? And some
people do, but I think I could have three more lifetimes and not get tired of
it." Seeger's 2007 album Early Southern Guitar Sounds was released on
Smithsonian Folkways.
Kitty White (
Kitty
recorded mostly on the West Coast with top jazz musicians like Buddy Collette,
Gerald Wiggins, Chico Hamilton, Bud Shank and Red Callender. Kitty also sang
many demo recordings for her friend, the prolific
Rashied
Ali (born Robert Patterson) (
Biography
by Chris Kelsey
The
task of following Elvin Jones as drummer with John Coltrane must have been one
of the most daunting situations ever entered into by a jazz musician. In the
mid-'60s, most jazz listeners would have assumed that Jones was the only drummer
alive who possessed the requisite imagination, intensity, and powerful sense of
swing necessary to drive Coltrane's passions. As it turned out, even Elvin had
limitations, and since Coltrane was all about transcending limitations, it seems
proper that he would complement Jones' polymetric intractability with the
addition of Rashied Ali's skittish, asymmetrical flexibility. The two drummers
shared the bandstand briefly, before Jones, reportedly disgusted, left the band.
It's not difficult to understand why the pairing proved ill-fated. Jones was an
innovator, but he was bound to tradition specifically, the tradition of
ground-beat swing. He was the last stage in the evolution of the
drummer-as-timekeeper; he reiterated swing's primal importance, even as he
extended the drummer's role in terms of interaction with the ensemble. For his
part, Ali almost completely abandoned a steady pulse, adopting instead a
rhythmically irregular, textural, hyperactive approach that propelled the music
in a manner at odds with Jones' more literal style. The addition of Ali and the
departure of Jones marked Coltrane's last and most extreme step away from the
jazz tradition. The removal of a steady beat, and the multitude of implied
meters set by Ali and bassist
Ali
studied at
Les
Paul (9 June 1915 - 13 August 2009) - guitarist, inventor
Biography by Richard
S. Ginell
Les Paul has had
such a staggeringly huge influence over the way American popular music sounds
today that many tend to overlook his significant impact upon the jazz world.
Before his attention was diverted toward recording multi-layered hits for the
pop market, he made his name as a brilliant jazz guitarist whose exposure on
coast-to-coast radio programs guaranteed a wide audience of susceptible young
musicians. Heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt at first, Paul eventually
developed an astonishingly fluid, hard-swinging style of his own, one that
featured extremely rapid runs, fluttered and repeated single notes, and chunking
rhythm support, mixing in country & western licks and humorous
crowd-pleasing effects. No doubt his brassy style gave critics a bad time, but
the gregarious, garrulous Paul didn't much care; he was bent on showing his
audiences a good time. Though he couldn't read music, Paul had a magnificent ear
and innate sense of structure, conceiving complete arrangements entirely in his
head before he set them down track by track on disc or tape. Even on his many
pop hits for Capitol in the late '40s and early '50s, one can always hear a jazz
sensibility at work in the rapid lead solo lines and bluesy bent notes and no
one could close a record as suavely as Les. And of course, his early use of the
electric guitar and pioneering experiments with multi-track recording, guitar
design, and electronic effects devices have filtered down to countless jazz
musicians. Among the jazzers who acknowledge his influence are George Benson, Al
DiMeola, Stanley Jordan (whose neck-tapping sound is very reminiscent of Paul's
records), Pat Martino, and Bucky Pizzarelli.
Paul's interest in
music began when he took up the harmonica at age eight, inspired by a
By 1937, Paul had
formed a trio, and the following year, he moved to
Meanwhile, in 1947,
after experimenting in his garage studio and discarding some 500 test discs,
Paul came up with a kooky version of "Lover" for eight electric guitars, all
played by himself with dizzying multi-speed effects. He talked Capitol Records
into releasing this futuristic disc, which became a hit the following year.
Alas, a bad automobile accident in
Aside from a pair of
wonderfully relaxed country/jazz albums with Chet Atkins for RCA in 1976 and
1978, and a blazing duet with DiMeola on "Spanish Eyes" from the latter's 1980
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Mostly
a nonsoloing rhythm guitarist throughout his career, Lawrence Lucie was on many
important recording sessions and had a lengthy playing career. As a child he
learned banjo, mandolin and violin, playing with a family band at dances. After
moving to
Larry Knechtel (4 August 1940 20 August 2009) - session guitarist, Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Doors, and Elvis Presley, and member of Bread
Joseph
Gabriel Esther "Joe" Maneri (
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Microtonal
innovator Joe Maneri was born in
Chris Connor
(
Biography by Alex
Henderson
Along with June
Christy, Helen O'Connell, and Julie London, Chris Connor epitomized cool jazz
singing in the 1950s. Influenced by Anita O'Day, the torchy, smoky singer wasn't
one for aggression. Like Chet Baker on the trumpet or Paul Desmond and Lee
Konitz on alto sax, she used subtlety and restraint to their maximum advantage.
At the
Edward
Haydn Higgins (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
A
solid bop-based pianist, Eddie Higgins has never become a major name, but he has
been well-respected by his fellow musicians for decades. After growing up in
Eddie
Locke (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
Eddie
Locke was part of the very fertile
Sam
Hinton (
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
Folksinger,
educator and marine biologist Sam Hinton was born
Hinton's first commercial recording, "Old Man Atom," followed on Columbia in 1950; over the next several years he also made a number of singles for Decca's Children's Series, and in 1952 issued his first LP, Folk Songs of California. After three more efforts for Decca 1955's Singing Across the Land, 1956's A Family Tree of Folk Songs and 1957's The Real McCoy he moved to Folkways for 1961's Whoever Shall Have Some Peanuts and 1967's The Wandering Folksong. None of Hinton's musical projects distracted him from his academic duties, however, and from 1948 onward he taught UCSD courses in biology and folklore; for the National Education Television network, he also hosted a 13-part series on folk music, and for several years even wrote a regular newspaper column, "The Ocean World," for the San Diego Union. Hinton additionally co-wrote two books on marine research, Exploring Under the Sea and Common Seashore Animals of Southern California.
Jim
Carroll (
Biography by Jason
Ankeny
To rock audiences,
The product of a
working-class background, Carroll was born and raised in
Inspired by the
success of his friend Patti Smith, who also married a background in poetry with
a career in rock music, Carroll began writing songs; in 1978, backed by the San
Francisco band Amsterdam (comprised of guitarists Terrell Winn and Brian
Linsley, bassist
After a move back to
As the 1990s dawned,
Carroll was frequently approached to return to music, but he remained firmly
dedicated to his spoken word work; his first solo album was Praying Mantis
(1991), a collection of spoken word performances, not new songs. While he
occasionally performed as a musician, his primary focus remained his literary
pursuits. Notably, Carroll was one of the first poet/rockers to break down the
barriers between poetry/spoken word and mainstream rock music. He participated
in various readings beginning in the mid-'80s, but his 1994 performance on
MTV'sUnplugged was most moving, with a soon to be legendary poem, "8 Fragments
for Kurt Cobain," a mesmerizing tribute.
In 1993 he published
Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems of
In 1999, a
comprehensive tribute release entitled Put Your Tongue to the Rail: The Philly
Compilation for Catholic Children showcased 25 local artists from
Mary Travers
(
Biography by Craig
Harris & Bruce Eder
With her long,
flowing, blonde hair, and crystal-clear soprano vocals, Mary Travers was a major
influence on the folk music of the 1960s and early '70s. A founding member of
Peter, Paul and Mary, Travers not only became one of the most commercially
successful folk performers, but used her position to become an inspirational
political spokesperson. Together with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey,
Travers performed at civil rights rallies with Dr. Martin Luther King in
A native of
She juggled music
and work, including a stint as a model and sometime sales girl at the legendary
Elaine Starkman Boutique on Bleecker Street (Starkman later a pioneer in the
SoHo arts community also designed the dress that Travers wore for her wedding
to photographer Barry Feinstein), and she made her professional stage debut in
the chorus of a short-lived Broadway show. She later balanced work in the
literary and advertising fields with appearances in
Shortly after
releasing a greatest-hits album, Ten Years Together, in May 1970, the trio
members announced their separation. The mother of two daughters Erika, born in
1960, and Alicia, born in 1966 Travers nonetheless remained the most musically
active of the three as a soloist, at least in terms of recording; across a
four-year period, she released the albums Mary (1971), Morning Glory (1972), All
My Choices (1973), and Circles (1974) on Warner Bros., in addition to performing
at colleges and clubs throughout the United States. Travers also lectured at
colleges on "Society and Its Effect on Music"; hosted a music and interview show
on Radio Pacifica (KPFK) in
Travers reunited
with Stookey and Yarrow in 1978 for a benefit concert, Survival Sunday, that
Yarrow organized and produced at the Hollywood Bowl. Their performance was so
encouraging that they agreed to resume their partnership, commencing with the
Arthur
Ferrante (
Biography
by Eugene Chadbourne
Arthur
Ferrante, known solely by his surname as part of the piano duo of Ferrante &
Teicher, can certainly be said to have demonstrated great loyalty in his lengthy
music career. He has been associated with one other performer and one other
performer only: Louis Teicher, younger by only a few years, a fellow child
prodigy and a classmate at the Juilliard School of Music. The listening public's
reaction to the music created by Ferrante & Teicher can be considered a
quite typical expression of loyalty or lack of it.
The
recordings made by these two pianists, and there were a lot of them, were Top
Ten fare in the '60s. "Theme from The Apartment," "Exodus," and "Tonight" were
among the huge hits during that decade for the duo, who had started out their
career as a concert act in 1947. It was a half a century later when the pair
finally called it quits, retiring together to a snowbird community in
Yet
Arthur Ferrante and his pal did much more than just play easy listening music.
The duo left few genres untouched: they did not play rap or Scottish bagpipe
music but they did play both classical and folk, psychedelic cover versions, and
their own arrangements of boogie-woogie piano. With so much ground covered, the
actual historic status of the duo in reality depends on what aspect of Ferrante
& Teicher's career is examined. Albums cut for labels such as
Ferrante & Teicher started out as a simple piano duo performing in small clubs. Eventually the show involved an orchestra and the plotting of backing arrangements. The venues became larger and the repertoire evolved from classical nuggets to Tin Pan Alley favorites. The United Artists label signed the duo in the '60s, the far-out lounge sounds from the previous decade were abandoned, and the pianists revealed a knack for staying on top of trends, milking the public's enthusiasm for hit movies of the day, shadow-boxing the evolution of rock music itself. By 1972 there was no longer room on the charts for any of these stylistic moves. Ferrante & Teicher ran their own record label in the final decade of the duo's career.
Biography by Stewart
Mason
Although he'll
probably forever be known as the guy who changed the name of the New Rhythm and
Blues Quintet to the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet when he left NRBQ after two
albums,
Born in
After touring behind
Jack Salmon and Derby Sauce,
Abu
Talib (February 24, 1939 October 8, 2009) - blues/jazz guitarist, harmonica
Talib
is best known for his work with musicians as diverse as Little Walter, Howlin
Wolf and
Russell
Allen "Rusty" Wier (3 May 1944
9 October 2009) -
songwriter
Biography
by Linda Seida
Wier
found out that he liked to bring smiles to an audience when he was just three
years old and galloping on a toy stick horse among the tables of his father's
Cecil
"Sonny" Bradshaw (
Biography
by
It is almost impossible to imagine where modern Jamaican music might be without the presence of island jazz pioneer Sonny Bradshaw. A skilled trumpeter (he also plays piano, flόgelhorn, clarinet, trombone, and saxophone), Bradshaw has distinguished himself in a long six-decade career (he was born in 1926) as a musician, bandleader, composer, producer, arranger, and promoter as well as a journalist, teacher, and broadcaster. His Sonny Bradshaw 7, formed in the '50s, became a training ground for countless Jamaican musicians, and the long-running Jamaican Big Band, also assembled by Bradshaw in the '50s to play the swing and jazz he loved, served a similar function. Teenage Dance Party, Bradshaw's early-'60s radio show, was instrumental in getting local Jamaican music played on the airwaves. He served for 25 years as the president of the Jamaican Federation of Musicians and is the founder and director of the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival. He is married to the singer and actress Myrna Hague.
Dickie
Peterson (
Biography
by William Ruhlmann
San
Francisco-based Blue Cheer was what, in the late '60s, they used to call a
"power trio": Dickie Peterson (b. 1948,
Norris
Jones (aka Sirone) (
Biography
by Ron Wynn
An
excellent technician and underrated composer, Sirone was part of the great
Revolutionary Ensemble trio in the '70s, and has also worked with many other
free bandleaders and groups. His prominent tone and decisive playing expertly
meshed with Leroy Jenkins' and Jerome Cooper's on Ensemble recordings and in
concert. Sirone worked in
Norton
Buffalo (
Biography
by Jason Ankeny
One
of the most versatile harpists in contemporary music, Norton Buffalo earned his
greatest success in blues circles, but also proved himself adept in areas
ranging from rock to country to even new age. Born September 28, 1951 in
Oakland, California, he earned perhaps his greatest success as a member of the
Art
D'Lugoff (2 August 1924 - 4 November 2009) - owner of NYC Greenwich
Village club, The Village Gate
Art
D'Lugoff was an American jazz impresario. He opened The Village Gate, a jazz
club in
D'Lugoff
turned away Bob Dylan, prompting the latter to write music in the basement of
the club. He also fired a young Dustin Hoffman for providing poor table service.
Playwright Sam Shepard once bused tables. D'Lugoff styled himself on the famous
showman Sol Hurok. His avant-garde programming also set the stage for theatrical
nudity in
Financial
reverses led D'Lugoff to declare bankruptcy in 1991. He closed the club in 1994.
In the wake of The Village Gate's closing, D'Lugoff dreamed of opening a new
jazz club near
D'Lugoff
won the Paul Robeson Award in 1992.
In
2008 the Village Gate re-opened under the name "Le Poisson Rouge", with D'Lugoff
as a consultant.
On
D'Lugoff's
wife, Avital D'Lugoff, worked as a photographer. The couple had four children:
Dick
Katz (
Biography
by Scott Yanow
A
versatile pianist and arranger, Dick Katz has been responsible for many
stimulating and memorable recordings through the years, often as an important
sideman and/or producer. He studied at the Peabody Institute, the Manhattan
School of Music, and Juilliard, in addition to taking piano lessons from Teddy
Wilson. In the 1950s, he picked up important experience as a member of the house
rhythm section of the Cafι Bohemia, with the groups of Ben Webster and Kenny
Dorham, the Oscar Pettiford big band, and later with Carmen McRae. Katz was part
of the popular J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding Quintet (1954-1955) and Orchestra
Natalicio
Lima (died
Biography
by Alvaro Neder
Certainly
the most uncommon duo of Brazilian artists to have a solid international career,
Los Νndios Tabajaras was formed by the brothers Antenor Moreyra Lima (Muηaperκ)
and Natalνcio Moreyra Lima (Erundi). In the
Indians
from the Tabajara tribe, they left Cearα with their people in 1933, traveling on
foot the almost 2,000 km to
Jeffrey
Ovid 'Jeff' Clyne (
Clyne
worked with Ronnie Scott, Blossom Dearie, Stan Tracey (Under Milk Wood LP), Ian
Carr, Gordon Beck, John McLaughlin, Dudley Moore, Zoot Sims, Norma Winstone,
John Burch and Marion Montgomery. Member of Nucleus, Isotope, Gilgamesh, Giles
Farnaby's Dream Band and Turning Point in the 1970s.
Biography
by Bradley Torreano
Nucleus began its long jazz-rock journey in 1969, when it was originally formed by trumpeter Ian Carr. They attracted a following after a successful performance at the Montreux International Festival in 1970, which led to the critical success of albums Elastic Rock and We'll Talk About It Later. The other members consisted of saxophonist Karl Jenkins, drummer John Marshall, and guitarist Chris Spedding. Spedding split after the first two albums, but the rest of the lineup lasted until 1972, when Jenkins and Marshall both left to join Soft Machine. Belladonna was the first album with only Carr, and although he enlisted the help of guitarist Allan Holdsworth, the band eventually became a solo venture for his music. They finally broke up in the mid-'80s after several Carr-only albums.
Allen
Shelton (2 July 1936 - 21 November 2009) - five-string banjo
player,
Haydain
Neale (3 September 1970 22 November 2009) - lead singer of jacksoul
(
Biography
by Charlotte Dillon
The
group Jacksoul formed around the middle of the '90s in
In
1996 Jacksoul released its debut album, Absolute. Success came almost instantly,
with encouraging reviews pouring in from music critics. A sophomore offering,
Sleepless was completed for 2000 under the Vik./BMG label. It was produced by
Jon "Rabbi" Levine and carries tracks like "Don't Tell Me," "Never Give Your
Love Away," "Let Me Call You Baby," "I Remember," and "I Know What You Want."
The lead single, "Can't Stop," from the second album found its way on to the
music charts almost over night, helped out some by the exposure the music video
for the tune gained the group on
Pim
Koopman (
Biography
by Paul Collins
With
their instrumental prowess and keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel's facility at
writing lyrics in English, you might be forgiven for mistaking Kayak for a bunch
of clever proggers from
Like most progressive bands, Kayak never had a terribly stable lineup; at one point they went through three bassists in as many years. With Scherpenzeel as the sole constant, Kayak's first lineup also proved to be their finest; but Koopman's asthma forced him to retire in 1976, and Werner was so tortured by stage fright and unfounded doubts over his singing ability that he demanded the vacated drum chair for himself, leaving the vocals duties to new member Edward Reekers. Scherpenzeel's central role in the band eventually wore on the others, and Kayak fell apart in 1980. Scherpenzeel continued on to work with the English band Camel and now composes primarily for the theatre. Koopman and Reekers work in music production and performance; Werner left the stage to become a postal worker, and van Leeuwen has become-of all things a prominent lawyer. The band reunited in 1997 for a Dutch TV special, though no new recordings have yet emerged.
Al Alberts (10 August 1922 27 November 2009) - singer, Four Aces
Biography
by John Bush
One
of the most successful pre-rock vocal groups, the Four Aces did well during the
early '50s with a narrow range of pop material but burned out before decade's
end. Founded by Navy shipmates Al Alberts and Dave Mahoney, the act added Lou
Silvestri and Sol Vaccaro before making a name for themselves around their
native
For several singles during 1955, the group had been billed as the Four Aces Featuring Al Alberts; one year later, he departed for a solo career (but never even reached the charts). Along with the rise of rock & roll, the Four Aces appeared to be doomed. They scraped the charts with a novelty song ("Bahama Mama") and a rock take-off ("Rock and Roll Rhapsody"), but failed to come through with any hits after 1959. Al Alberts continued to perform into the '90s, leading a newer edition of the act.
Weldon
E. "Big Bill" Lister (5 January 1923
1 December 2009) - honky tonk
singer, Hank Williams Drifting Cowboys Band
Biography
by Stacia Proefrock
Big Bill Lister turned his early 1950's stint as Hank Williams' opening act and rhythm guitarist into several hits when he recorded versions of Williams' songs, "Countryfied," "The Little House We Built Just Over the Hill," and, most memorably, "There's a Tear in My Beer. His skill as a performer kept his career afloat long after he stopped producing hit songs, and his honky-tonk style drew from across the country spectrum. His somewhat raw sound may have kept him from being a commercial smash, but his nearly 50-year career kept soldiering on anyway.
Eric Woolfson
(
Biography by James
Christopher Monger
Born in
Yvonne
King Burch (died
Rex
Yetman (1933
The
York County Boys, who originally came together in 1954, were one of the earliest
Canadian bluegrass bands. The group consisted of Mike Cameron (guitar and
vocals), Rex Yetman (mandolin and vocals), "Big John" McManaman (banjo), Brian
Barron (fiddle) and Alfred Leger (bass); Cameron, Yetman and McManaman were the
founding members, while Barron and Leger joined later on. Based out of
Blue
Grass Jamboree, recorded in 1959, was one of the first bluegrass records cut by
a Canadian group. "Gotta Travel On" is a cover of one of bluegrass pioneer Bill
Monroe's signature tunes, while "Down The Road Blues" is an uptempo instrumental
which showcases the quintet's tight ensemble playing. The plaintive ballad "You
Done Me Wrong" (my favourite number here) is another (thinly disguised)
James
Gurley (
Biography
by Bruce Eder
Big
Brother & the Holding Company weren't known for their precision as
performers the band was notoriously sloppy on-stage and in the studio, and the
one album they ever did with Janis Joplin was so chaotic to record that it was
like pulling teeth for producer John Simon to get it out of them. They made up
for it with sheer bravado, however, and a wild instrumental style that could
carry them past any rough spots. At the center of that style was James Gurley,
their resident guitar virtuoso, who was playing with Peter Albin before the
latter ever thought of getting Big Brother together with Sam
Andrew.
Gurley
was the son of a Detroit-based stunt car driver, and one of the highlights of
his childhood was serving as a live "hood ornament" during his father's events,
riding the front of cars driven by the elder Gurley as they plunged through
walls of fire and other obstructions. Somewhere in the midst of that adventurous
youth, Gurley took up guitar he wore out Lightnin' Hopkins discs listening to
them to learn how to play, and he learned how to coax new, strange sounds out of
the electric guitar during the early '60s, when he ended up in San Francisco and
began establishing himself as part of that city's booming folk music
"underground." He was already known to Albin for his strange, proto-psychedelic
sound on his instrument when the latter started putting together an electric
folk band to have been called Blue Yard Hill in 1965. The latter group never
quite solidified, but with guitarist Sam Andrew coming aboard during its
formative stages, it became the core for Big Brother & the Holding Company,
with Gurley greatly enhancing the band's range.
His
presence ensured that the group would stand out in concert, his guitar
responsible for wilder solo flights during live performances. He was
overshadowed by the presence of singer Janis Joplin once she joined Big Brother
in June of 1966, but he can be heard out in front on most of the extant live
recordings of
Biography by John
Bush
Though Michael Stipe
had been a fan of Vic Chesnutt since the late '80s, producing his first two
full-lengths, it took the Sweet Relief Two tribute album to make a star of him
in mid-1996. The album featured artists such as Madonna, Hootie & the
Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M. covering the songs of Chesnutt, a
paraplegic who was injured in a car accident when he was 18. The
singer/songwriter began playing contemporary acoustic folk around
After Sweet Relief
Two was released in July 1996, Capitol signed Chesnutt and released About to
Choke, his major-label debut, in the fall of that year. The Salesman and
Bernadette followed in 1998 on Capricorn and featured Lambchop as his backing
band. The record's poor sales led him to be dropped by that label, but Chesnutt
continued to record, cutting an album with Kelly and Nikki Keneipp called
Merriment, which was issued in 2000. That same year, he teamed up with longtime
friend and admirer Kristin Hersh for a series of
Biography
by Ron Wynn
Technique
rather than solo brillance has been the hallmark of traditional jazz player and
educator Rusty Dedrick. Dedrick studied to become a teacher at
Donald
Washington Sr. was a well-known Philadelphia-area jazz saxophonist and retired
Food Fair worker from
Roc
Raida - DJ/turntablist for The X-Ecutioners
Biography
by Brad Mills
Roc Raida started DJing hip-hop at the age of ten with his father's help. From there he's gone on to found one of the most prolific turntablist crews the world has yet to see, with partners Mista Sinista, Rob Swift, and Total Eclipse. Collecting championship titles and awards across the world, he's brought an art form back that may well have been slowly motioned to obscurity, creating excitement by injecting pure passion into his mixes.
Johnny
Almond - blues/jazz musician of Mark-Almond, worked with John
Mayall
Biography
by Bruce Eder
John
Almond (also sometimes referred to as Johnny Almond) was a ubiquitous figure on
the British blues-rock scene of the '60s, playing with the likes of Alan Price
and John Mayall before partnering up with multi-instrumentalist Jon Mark in the
Mark-Almond Band. Born in