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Roscoe Gordon
Rosco N. Gordon III (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002), sometimes billed as Roscoe Gordon, was an American blues singer, pianist, and songwriter. He is best known for his hit songs "Booted," (1952), " No More Doggin'" (1952), and " Just a Little Bit" (1960). Gordon was a pioneer of the Memphis blues style. He played piano in a style known as the "Rosco rhythm," with the emphasis on the off-beat. This rhythm was an influence on later musical styles such as Jamaican ska and reggae. Biography Gordon was born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 10, 1928, the youngest of eight children. He learned to play piano from his sister who took lessons. Gordon became associated with Johnny Ace, Bobby Bland and B.B. King, sometimes referred to as the Beale Streeters. In 1946, Gordon moved to Chicago "after getting in trouble in Memphis." He returned to Memphis in 1949, and won first place at an amateur show at the Palace Theatre on Beale Street in 1950. Emcee of the show Rufus Thoma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tennessee, second-most populous city in Tennessee, the fifth-most populous in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the List of United States cities by population, 28th-most populous in the nation. Memphis is the largest city proper on the Mississippi River and anchors the Memphis metropolitan area that includes parts of Arkansas and Mississippi, the Metropolitan statistical area, 45th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. with 1.34 million residents. European exploration of the area began with Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. Located on the high Chickasaw Bluffs, the site offered natural protection from Mississippi River flooding and became a contested location in the colonial era. Modern Memphis was founded in 181 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first popular song to use the word ''reggae'', effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. Reggae is rooted in traditional Jamaican Kumina, Pukkumina, Revival Zion, Nyabinghi, and burru drumming. Jamaican reggae music evolved out of the earlier genres mento, ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political commentary. It is recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rocksteady; from the latter, reggae took over the use of the bass as a percussion instrument. Stylistically, reggae incorporates some of the musical elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, mento (a celebratory, rural folk form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RPM Records (United States)
RPM Records was an American Los Angeles–based record label launched in 1950. This is not the same RPM used by Tony Bennett, nor is it related to labels in the UK and South Africa. RPM was a subsidiary of Modern Records and part of the Bihari Brothers record empire. Ike Turner, who was a talent scout for the Bihari Brothers, arranged for many blues musicians such as Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, and Roscoe Gordon to record for the Biharis. King released many successful singles on the RPM label. Paul Anka released his first single on RPM in 1956. In 1957, the Bihari Brothers announced that they were halting all album releases on both Modern and RPM, and that their released and scheduled albums for Modern and RPM would be issued on their Crown Records label. The catalogs and master tapes were sold to Ace Records (UK) in the 1990s. Selected discography See also * List of record labels File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg File:Bingola1011b.jpg Lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Records
Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Hadda Brooks, Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee Hooker. The label released some of the most influential blues and R&B records of the 1940s and 1950s. History In the beginning, Modern bought master recordings from other small labels, as with the purchase of 32 unreleased Gold Star Records master recordings by Lightnin' Hopkins and Lil' Son Jackson for $2,500 from Bill Quinn in 1951. The Biharis also often used pseudonyms to give themselves writing credit on songs. Saul Bihari, for example, (whose middle name was Samuel) used the name Sam Ling as a songwriting pseudonym. Having started as an R&B label, Modern was later one of the few R&B labels to routinely cover rhythm and blues hits on other labels, apparently in an attempt to broaden their appeal and reach the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bihari Brothers
The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origin. They founded Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. They were significant figures in the transformation of black oriented rhythm and blues into rock and roll which appealed to more white audiences in the 1950s. Origins The brothers' parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary to the U.S. Edward Bihari (1882–1930) was born in Budapest. Esther "Esti" Taub (1886–1950) was born in Homonna, Hungary (now Humenné, Slovakia). They were married in Philadelphia (U.S.) in 1911. The couple had four sons: :Lester Louis Bihari (May 12, 1912, Pottstown, Pennsylvania – September 9, 1983, Los Angeles) :Julius Jeramiah Bihari (September 9, 1913, Pottstown – November 17, 1984, Los Angeles) :Saul Samuel Bihari (March 9, 1918, St. Louis, Missouri – February 22, 1975, Los Angeles) :Joseph Bihari (May 30, 1925, Mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ike Turner
Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Turner began playing piano and guitar as a child and then formed the Kings of Rhythm as a teenager. His first recording, " Rocket 88" (credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats), is considered a contender for the distinction of first rock and roll song. During the 1950s, Turner also worked as a talent scout and producer for Sun Records and Modern Records. He was instrumental in the early careers of various blues musicians such as B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. In 1954, Turner relocated to East St. Louis where his Kings of Rhythm became one of the most renowned acts in Greater St. Louis. He fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American disc jockey, songwriter and record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Howlin' Wolf. Phillips played a major role in the development of rock and roll during the 1950s, launching the career of Presley. In 1969, he sold Sun to Shelby Singleton. Phillips was the owner and operator of radio stations in Memphis; Florence, Alabama; and Lake Worth Beach, Florida. He was also an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels and an advocate for racial equality, helping to break down racial barriers in the music industry. Early life Phillips was the youngest of eight children, born on a 200-acre farm near Florence, Alabama to Madge Ella ( Lovelace) and Charles Tucker Phillips. Sam's parents owned their farm, though it was mortgaged. As a child, he picke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WDIA
WDIA (1070 AM) is a radio station based in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since 1947, it soon became the first radio station in the United States that was programmed entirely for African Americans. It featured black radio personalities; its success in building an audience attracted radio advertisers suddenly aware of a "new" market among black listeners. The station had a strong influence on music, hiring musicians early in their careers, and playing their music to an audience that reached through the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast. The station started the WDIA Goodwill Fund to help and empower black communities. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station's studios are located in Southeast Memphis, and the transmitter site is in North Memphis. History WDIA went on the air June 7, 1947, from studios on Union Avenue. The owners, John Pepper and Bert Ferguson, were both white, and the format was a mix of country and western and light pop, as well as "homemaker shows", network shows an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufus Thomas
Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels, including Chess Records and Sun Records in the 1950s, before becoming established in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records. His dance records, including " Walking the Dog" (1963), " Do the Funky Chicken" (1969), and " (Do the) Push and Pull" (1970), were some of his most successful songs. According to the Mississippi Blues Commission, "Rufus Thomas embodied the spirit of Memphis music perhaps more than any other artist, and from the early 1940s until his death . . . occupied many important roles in the local scene." He began his career as a tap dancer, vaudeville performer, and master of ceremonies in the 1930s. He later worked as a disc jockey on radio station WDIA in Memphis, both before and after his recordings became successful. He rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are major tourist attractions in Memphis. Festivals and outdoor concerts frequently bring large crowds to the street and its surrounding areas. History Beale Street was created in 1841 by entrepreneur and developer Robertson Topp (1807–1876), who soon named it later in the decade for Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a military hero from the Mexican–American War. (The original name was Beale Avenue.) Its western end primarily housed shops of trade merchants, who traded goods with ships along the Mississippi River, while the eastern part developed as an affluent suburb. In the 1860s, many black traveling musicians began performing on Beale. The first of these to call Beale Street home ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Musical ensemble, bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All-Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar, and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as compact discs (CDs) replaced LP record, LPs and cassette (format), cassettes as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it, he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
