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Jesse Cahn
Barbara Jean Spillman (May 12, 1927 – October 20, 2024), known professionally as Barbara Dane, was an American folk, blues, and jazz singer, guitarist, record producer, and political activist. She co-founded Paredon Records with Irwin Silber. "Bessie Smith in stereo," wrote jazz critic Leonard Feather of Dane in the late 1950s. ''Time'' wrote of Dane: "The voice is pure, rich ... rare as a 20-carat diamond" and quoted Louis Armstrong's exclamation upon hearing her at the Pasadena jazz festival: "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser!" On the occasion of her 85th birthday, ''The Boston Globe'' music critic James Reed called her "one of the true unsung heroes of American music." Early life Dane's parents were from Arkansas, and arrived in Detroit where she was born in the 1920s. Her father Gilbert Spillman was a pharmacist who ran his own store, and her mother Dorothy (Roleson) Spillman was a professional bridge player. She was the oldest of three children. In the 1930s, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of United States cities by population, 26th-most populous city in the United States and the largest U.S. city on the Canada–United States border. The Metro Detroit area, home to 4.3 million people, is the second-largest in the Midwestern United States, Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area and the 14th-largest in the United States. The county seat, seat of Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County, Detroit is a significant cultural center known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive and industrial background. In 1701, Kingdom of France, Royal French explorers Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty founded Fort Pontc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alvino Rey
Alvin McBurney (July 1, 1908 – February 24, 2004), known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader. Career Alvin McBurney was born in Oakland, California, United States, but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Early in life he had a knack for music and electronics. When he was eight, he built his first radio, and within a couple years he was one of the youngest amateur radio operator, ham radio operators in the country. In his teens, he was given a banjo as a birthday present. His professional career began in 1927 when he got a job playing banjo with Cleveland bandleader Ev Jones. During the following year, he became a member of the Phil Spitalny Orchestra. He switched from banjo to guitar, then changed his name to Alvino Rey to take advantage of the popularity of Latin music in New York City at the time. From 1932 to 1938 he was a member of Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights. He drew attention to himself and the band when he started playing steel gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Hodes
Arthur W. Hodes (November 14, 1904 – March 4, 1993), was a Russian-born American jazz and blues pianist. He is regarded by many critics as the greatest white blues pianist. Biography Hodes was born in Nikolaev, in the Russian Empire (now Mykolaiv, Ukraine). His family settled in Chicago, Illinois, when he was a few months old. His career began in Chicago clubs, but he did not gain wider attention until moving to New York City in 1938. In New York, he played with Sidney Bechet, Joe Marsala, and Mezz Mezzrow. Later, Hodes founded his own band in the 1940s and it would be associated with his hometown of Chicago. He and his band played mostly in that area for the next forty years. In the late 1960s, Hodes starred in a series of TV shows on Chicago style jazz called ''Jazz Alley'', where he appeared with musicians such as Pee Wee Russell and Jimmy McPartland. Episodes of the show have been released on DVD. Hodes was editor of the magazine, ''The Jazz Record'', for five years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an United States, American jazz Trombone, trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played in Louis Armstrong's All-Stars. Early life Jack Teagarden was born in Vernon, Texas, the oldest of four children. His siblings also pursued musical careers: Charlie Teagarden, Charlie played trumpet, Norma Teagarden, Norma played piano, and Clois ("Cub") played Drum kit, drums. Teagarden's father, Charles, worked in the oil fields and played cornet part-time, while his mother, Helen, was a semi-professional pianist who accompanied silent films in local theaters. Charles encouraged Teagarden to play the baritone horn. At age eight, Jack received his first trombone as a Christmas gift, transitioning from the Tenor horn, tenor-valve horn to the trombone. His first public performances were in his local theaters, helping his mother provide mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Gleason
Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series ''The Honeymooners''. He also developed ''The Jackie Gleason Show'', which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there. Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats (character), Minnesota Fats in 1961's ''The Hustler'' (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the ''Smokey and the Bandit'' trilogy from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds). Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebony (magazine)
''Ebony'' is a monthly magazine that focuses on news, culture, and entertainment. Its target audience is the Black-American community, and its coverage includes the lifestyles and accomplishments of influential black people, fashion, beauty, and politics. ''Ebony'' magazine was founded in Chicago in 1945 by John H. Johnson, for his Johnson Publishing Company. He sought to address African-American issues, personalities and interests in a positive and self-affirming manner. Its cover photography typically showcases African-American public figures, including entertainers and politicians, such as Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, former U.S. senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Tyrese Gibson, and Tyler Perry. Each year, ''Ebony'' selects the "100 Most Influential Blacks in America". After 71 years, in June 2016, Johnson Publishing sold both ''Ebony'' and '' Jet'', another Johnson publication, to a private ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Brother Montgomery
Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery (April 18, 1906 – September 6, 1985) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer. Largely self-taught, Montgomery was an important blues pianist with an original style. He was also versatile, working in jazz bands, including larger ensembles that used written arrangements. He did not read music but learned band routines by ear. Career Montgomery was born in Kentwood, Louisiana, United States, a sawmill town near the Mississippi border, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, where he spent much of his childhood. Both his parents were of African-American and Creek Indian ancestry. As a child he looked like his father, Harper Montgomery, and was called Little Brother Harper. The name evolved into Little Brother Montgomery, and the nickname stuck. He started playing piano at the age of four, and by age 11 he left home for four years and played at barrelhouses in Louisiana. His main musical influence was Jel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estelle Yancey
Estelle "Mama" Yancey (January 1, 1896 – April 19, 1986) was an American blues singer. She was nominated four times for Blues Music Awards as Traditional Blues Female Artist. Life and career Yancey was born Estella Harris in Cairo, Illinois, and grew up in Chicago, where she sang in church choirs and learned to play the guitar. In 1925, when she was 29, she married Jimmy Yancey, who had traveled in the United States and Europe as a vaudeville dancer. She often sang with him at informal gatherings and house parties in the 1940s and performed with him at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Jimmy Yancey was a boogie-woogie and blues piano player, and Estelle recorded several times with him. In 1943, the Yanceys recorded for Session Records. They recorded the album ''Pure Blues'' for Atlantic Records in 1951, just a few months before Jimmy Yancey's death that same year. Estelle continued to perform and record. In her later years, she often performed with Chicago pianist Erwin Helfer Erwin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clara Ward
Clara Mae Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American gospel singer who achieved great artistic and commercial success during the 1940s and 1950s, as leader of the Famous Ward Singers. A gifted singer and arranger, Ward adopted the lead-switching style, previously used primarily by male gospel quartets, creating opportunities for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group, while giving virtuoso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to perform the lead vocal in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (among the first million-selling gospel hits), " How I Got Over" and "Packin' Up". Career Ward's mother, Gertrude Mae Ward (née Murphy; 1901–1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called, variously, the Consecrated Gospel Singers or the Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter, Willarene Mae ("Willa," 1920-2012). Ward recorded her first solo song in 1940, and conti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude". Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, copying local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson."His thick heavy voice, the dark colouration of his tone, and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote the music historian Peter Guralnick in ''Feel Like Going Home'', "but the embellishments, which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson." In 1941, Alan Lomax and Professor John W. Work III of Fisk University recorded him in Mississippi for the Library of Congress. In 1943 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues. Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of his most famous compositions includes "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Little Red Rooster", "My Babe", "Spoonful", and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover". These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and were performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Bo Diddley; they influenced a generation of musicians wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis Slim
John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other artists. He made over 500 sound recording and reproduction, recordings. He was Posthumous recognition, posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989. Biography Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman, in Memphis, Tennessee. For his first recordings, for Okeh Records in 1940, he used the name of his father, Peter Chatman (who sang, played piano and guitar, and operated juke joints); it is commonly believed that he did so to honor his father. He started performing under the name "Memphis Slim" later that year but continued to Music publisher (popular music), publish songs under the name Pete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
