|
Don't Explain (song)
"Don't Explain" is a song written by jazz singer Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. It was Holiday's final song. Overview In her 1956 autobiography, Holiday cites the infidelity of her first husband, Jimmy Monroe, as the inspiration for this song; specifically, an instance in which Monroe's woeful attempt to explain away lipstick on his collar elicits Holiday's disgusted response: "Take a bath, man; don't explain." Recording session Session #52: New York City, November 8, 1944, Decca, Toots Camarata and His Orchestra, with Russ Case (trumpet), Hymie Schertzer, Jack Cressey (alto saxophone), Larry Binyon and Dave Harris (tenor saxophone), Dave Bowman (piano), Carl Kress (guitar), Haig Stephens (bass), George Wettling (drums), Billie Holiday (vocals), and six strings. Notable cover versions * Helen Merrill (1954) * John Coltrane (1957) * Abbey Lincoln (1957) * Charlie Byrd (1958) * Wes Montgomery (1959) * Anita O'Day – for her album '' Trav'lin' Light'' (1961) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop music, pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating Phrase (music), phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and Jazz improvisation, improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond (record producer), John Hammond, who liked her voice. Holiday signed a recording contract with Brunswick Records, Brunswick in 1935. Her collaboration with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia Records, Columbia and Decca Records, Decca. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anita O'Day
Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self-proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances that shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough", slang for money. Early career Anita Belle Colton (who later took the surname "O'Day") was born to Irish parents, James and Gladys M. (née Gill) Colton in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Colton took the first chance to leave her unhappy home when, at age 14, she became a contestant in the popular Dance marathon, Walk-a-thons as a dancer. She toured with the Walk-a-thons circuits for two years, occas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabrielle Goodman
Gabrielle Goodman (born 1964 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American jazz singer, composer, author, and associate professor of voice at Berklee College of Music.Symkus, Ed. (August 1, 2007)Goodman will jazz up the Fort ''Roslindale Transcript''. She began working as a backup vocalist for Roberta Flack while at the Peabody Institute and later sang with Michael Bublé and Chaka Khan. Early life She was raised in Baltimore in a musical family. Her mother was a classical singer and her father was a jazz trombonist. She attended Peabody preparatory school and briefly Oberlin College. She transferred to the Peabody Institute conservatory, where she studied under the direction of Alice Gerstl Duschak and Gordon Hawkins and graduated in 1990. Career Goodman, a protege of Roberta Flack began her international performance career as a backing singer for Flack in the mid-1980s and continued to tour and record with the legend for several years opening for Miles Davis, Ray Charles, the Crusade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Take A Look (Natalie Cole Album)
''Take a Look'' is a 1993 album by American singer Natalie Cole, released on June 9, 1993, by Elektra Records. Cole won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for ''Take a Look'' at the 36th Grammy Awards. The single, "Take a Look", peaked at No. 68 on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart and No. 35 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1993. Track listing Personnel Musicians * Natalie Cole – lead vocals, backing vocals (5, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17) * Roger Kellaway – acoustic piano (1, 5, 12) * Alan Broadbent – acoustic piano (2, 3, 9, 10, 13-15, 17), arrangements (4, 7, 15, 16) * Clare Fischer – acoustic piano (4) * Mike Melvoin – acoustic piano (7, 16) * Herbie Hancock – acoustic piano (8, 18), Fender Rhodes (11) * John Chiodini – guitar (1-18), arrangements (14), guitar solo (15) * John Clayton – bass guitar (1, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18), arrangements (2, 10, 13) * Jim Hughart – bass guitar (2-4, 6, 9, 10, 13-15, 17), arrangements (9) * Jeff Hamil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut album Inseparable (album), ''Inseparable'' (1975), along with the song "This Will Be, This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", and the album's Inseparable (song), title track. Its success led to her receiving the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards, for which she became the first African-American recipient as well as the first R&B act to win the award. The singles "Sophisticated Lady (She's a Different Lady), Sophisticated Lady" (1976), "I've Got Love on My Mind", and "Our Love (Natalie Cole song), Our Love" (1977) followed. After releasing several albums, she departed from her R&B sound and returned as a Pop music, pop singer on the 1987 album Everlasting (Natalie Cole album), ''Everlasting'', along with her cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Sings The Blues (soundtrack)
''Lady Sings the Blues'' is the soundtrack to the Billie Holiday biopic of the same name, which starred Diana Ross in her 1972 screen debut. It became Ross' first number 1 album (eventually selling over 2 million US copies), though the only one as a solo artist. It was certified gold in the UK for sales of over 100,000 copies. It was the fourth best-selling R&B album and fifth best-selling Pop album of 1973 in the US. Music writers said Ross emulated Billie Holiday's voice while retaining her own individual sound. This soundtrack album was the only Motown album to have a special designed label to match the album cover on the vinyl release, rather than Motown's usual "Map of Detroit" design. This label design would also turn up on the single releases from the soundtrack. Track listing Side one #"The Arrest" – 0:15 #" Lady Sings the Blues" – 1:03 #"Baltimore Brothel" – 0:25 #"Billie Sneaks into Dean and Dean's/Swinging Uptown" – 0:49 #" 'Taint Nobody's Bizness If I D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of 12 number-one pop singles on the Billboard Hot 100, U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo music career with the release of her Diana Ross (1970 album), eponymous debut solo album. She went on to release 26 studio albums, including ''Touch Me in the Morning (album), Touch Me in the Morning'' (1973), ''Diana Ross (1976 album), Diana Ross'' (1976), ''Diana (album), Diana'' (1980), ''Why Do Fools Fall in Love (album), Why Do Fools Fall in Love'' (1981) and ''Swept Away (Diana R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine". He also worked as a film, television, and voice actor. He was a three-time winner of the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance Grammy Award. Early life Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the city's South Side. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older, and Curtis Mayfield. Career After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, he replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Sti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics. Early life and education McRae was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. Her father, Osmond, and mother, Evadne (Gayle) McRae, were immigrants from Jamaica. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. When she was 17 years old, she met singer Billie Holiday. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life", was, through their influence, recorded in 1939 by Wilson's long-time collaborator Billie Holiday.Brian Berger"Carmen McRae" HiLobrow, April 8, 2015. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence. Early career In her late te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Let It All Out
''Let It All Out'' is an album by Nina Simone, released by Philips Records in February 1966. The song "Chauffeur" is an adaptation of Memphis Minnie's " Me and My Chauffeur Blues" (1941), which Simone first heard Big Mama Thornton sing. Thornton released her version as "Me and My Chauffeur" on the B-side of her "Before Day" single on James Moore's Sharp label in 1964. Simone's version is credited to Andy Stroud, her husband and manager at the time, who adapted it and "Nearer Blessed Lord" for her. "Images", sung a cappella by Simone, is based on a poem by Waring Cuney. Track listing #"Mood Indigo" (Irving Mills, Barney Bigard, Duke Ellington) #"The Other Woman" (Jessie Mae Robinson) #" Love Me or Leave Me" ( Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn) #" Don't Explain" (Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog, Jr.) #" Little Girl Blue" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) #"Chauffeur" (Andy Stroud) #"For Myself" (Van McCoy) #" The Ballad of Hollis Brown" (Bob Dylan) #"This Year's Kisses" (Irving Berlin) #"I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nina Simone
Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop. Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.. The sixth of eight children born into a respected family in North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a local fund set up in her hometown, she enrolled at Allen High School for Girls, then spent a summer at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, preparing to apply for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She failed to gain admission to Curtis,Liz Garbus, 2015 documentary film, '' What Happened, Miss Simone?'' which she attributed to racism, though staff have pointed out th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
