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Specs Powell
Gordon "Specs" Powell (June 5, 1922 – September 15, 2007) was an American jazz drummer who began performing in the swing era. Career Specs was the first black staff musician hired by CBS in 1943. Born in New York City, he started on piano but became exclusively a drummer in the late 1930s. He worked with Edgar Hayes (1939), Benny Carter (1941–42), and Ben Webster. He played percussion on the ''Ed Sullivan Show'' in the early 1960s and remained active professionally until the 1970s. At some point in the early 1960s he approached the Latin percussion maker Martin Cohen and had Cohen make for him an early (perhaps the first) bongo stand. In 2004 he was inducted into the Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame. Powell was also a photographer, and his photographic archives of 2500 images are preserved in the Tom and Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge. He died in San Diego of kidney disease at the age of 85. Discography As leader * ''Movin' in'' (Roulet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz Drumming
Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion (predominantly the drum kit, which includes a variety of drums and cymbals) in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques and instrumentation of this type of performance have evolved over several periods, influenced by jazz at large and the individual drummers within it. Stylistically, this aspect of performance was shaped by its starting place, New Orleans, Gioia, T. (1997). ''The History of Jazz''. Oxford University Press: New York. as well as numerous other regions of the world, including other parts of the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa.Brown, T, D. (1976). ''A History and Analysis of Jazz Drumming to 1942''. University Microfilms: Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jazz required a method of playing percussion different from traditional European styles, one that was easily adaptable to the different rhythms of the new genre, fostering the creation of jazz drum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Esther Marrow
Queen Esther Marrow (born February 12, 1941) is an American soul and gospel singer. Biography Queen Esther Marrow was born in Newport News, Virginia. She began her career at the age of 22, when her vocal gifts were discovered by Duke Ellington and made her debut as a featured artist in his " Sacred Concert" world tour. Marrow and Ellington formed a long-life friendship during the next four years while touring together. Queen has since performed with such musicians as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea and Bob Dylan. In 1965, Marrow became active in the civil rights movement when she performed in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ''World Crusade.'' There she met her lifetime idol Mahalia Jackson, with whom she would later share the stage. Other political activists on the crusade were Jesse Jackson, Sidney Poitier and Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Marrow was also involved in musical theater, jazz, television and film. She played Auntie ‘Em on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott (March 14, 1934 – March 10, 2002) was an American jazz organist. Her music was noted for its mixture of bebop, blues, and gospel elements. She was known by the nickname "Queen of the Organ". Life and career Scott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father operated a jazz club in the basement of the family home and her brother played saxophone. At the age of eight, Scott began taking piano lessons. After enrolling at the Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she was awarded a scholarship, Scott switched to playing trumpet and performed in the all-city schools band. She received bachelor and master's degrees at Cheyney University in Cheyney, west of Philadelphia. Later in life, Scott returned to the university as a teacher. As a performer in the 1950s, she played the Hammond B-3 organ. Her recordings with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis included the hit " In the Kitchen". Influenced by gospel and blues, she played soul jazz in the 1960s with Stanley Turre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hustlers Convention (Lightnin' Rod Album)
''Hustlers Convention'' is an album recorded by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin under the pseudonym Lightnin' Rod. The album was a major influence on hip hop music and combined poetry, funk, jazz and spoken word. ''Hustlers Convention'' helped add a sociopolitical element to black music. The album narrates the story of two fictional hustlers, named Sport and Spoon. Track listing Personnel * Jalal = Lightnin' Rod (vocal) * Kool and the Gang * Full Moon (Neil Larsen, Buzzy Feiten) * Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree(guitar), King Curtis, Trevor Lawrence, Maurice Smith, Andrew Love, Lou Collins (tenor saxophone); Jimmy Mitchell (baritone saxophone); Charles Sullivan, Gerry Thomas, Wilbur "Dud" Bascomb, Wayne Jackson (trumpet); Jack Hale (trombone); Richard Tee, Truman Thomas (piano); Billy Preston (organ), Chuck Rainey, Jerry Jemmott, Fred Backmeier (bass guitar); George McCleary (drums, congas); Jimmy Johnson, Bernard Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an America ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lightnin' Rod
Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (July 24, 1944 – June 4, 2018) was an American poet and musician. He was one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City. He was born Lawrence Padilla in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Earlier in his career he used the names Lightnin' Rod and Alafia Pudim. He is sometimes called "The Grandfather of Rap". A devout Muslim, poet, acupuncturist, and martial art exponent (a practitioner of a form of Bak Mei), Nuriddin's talent and genius with words and rhythm are renowned and he produced some epic poems such as "Be-Yon-Der", an 18-minute piece on The Last Poets 1977 album ''Delights of the Garden'', which was originally released on Douglas Records, and later on Celluloid Records. Early life Jalal Mansur Nuriddin grew up in Fort Greene, a neighborhood of project buildings near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Running with a local gang, the Fort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Repp
Raymond Robert Repp (September 17, 1942 – April 26, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter credited with introducing folk music into Catholic Masses with his album ''Mass for Young Americans'' (1965), an album that formed the earliest stirrings of Contemporary Christian music. Biography Early life and education Repp was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Walter and Rita Kempf Repp, the eldest of their nine children. He was educated in Catholic schools: Seven Holy Founders Elementary School, St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, Cardinal Glennon College, and Kenrick Seminary, with graduate studies at St. Paul's Seminary, Ottawa, Canada. Later he studied music and languages in Vienna, Austria. Career After his 1965 album, Repp recorded 11 collections which have been translated into 28 languages, and won ASCAP's "Award for Special Contributions to the Field of Music" six times. His song collections include ''The Best of Ray Repp Vol. 1 & 2'' and ''Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow'', w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuck Rainey
Charles Walter Rainey III (born June 17, 1940) is an American bass guitarist who has performed and recorded with many well-known acts, including Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, and Quincy Jones. Rainey is credited for playing bass on more than 1,000 albums, and is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of recorded music. Early life Rainey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 17, 1940, and grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, Youngstown. His parents were both amateur pianists. He learned viola, piano, and trumpet as a child and majored in brass instruments in college. He attended Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Rainey began playing bass guitar in the military. Career After leaving the military, Rainey joined a local band. His first big professional gig was playing with Big Jay McNeely. He then joined up with Sil Austin to tour Canada and New York. In 1962, Rainey joined King Curtis and his All-Star band; in 1965, they opened for The Beatles' 1965 US tour. He joined Qui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soul Is
The soul is the purported immaterial aspect or essence of a living being. It is typically believed to be immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that describe the relationship between the soul and the body are interactionism, parallelism, and epiphenomenalism. Anthropologists and psychologists have found that most humans are naturally inclined to believe in the existence of the soul and that they have interculturally distinguished between souls and bodies. The soul has been the central area of interest in philosophy since ancient times. Socrates envisioned the soul to possess a rational faculty, its practice being man's most godlike activity. Plato believed the soul to be the person's real self, an immaterial and immortal dweller of our lives that continues and thinks even after death. Aristotle sketched out the soul as the " first actuality" of a naturally organized body—form and matter arrangement allowing natural beings to aspire to fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Purdie
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul, funk and jazz musician. He is known for his precise time-keeping and his signature use of Tuplet, triplets against a half-time backbeat: the Purdie shuffle (music), shuffle. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2013. Purdie recorded ''Soul Drums'' (1968) as a band leader and although he went on to record ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'', the album remained unreleased until ''Soul Drums'' was reissued on CD in 2009 with the ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' sessions. Other solo albums include ''Purdie Good!'' (1971), ''Soul Is... Pretty Purdie'' (1972) and the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film ''Lialeh'' (1973). In the mid-1990s he was a member of the 3B's, with Bross Townsend and Bob Cunningham (musician), Bob Cunningham. Biography Purdie was born on June 11, 1939, in Elkton, Maryland, the 11th of 15 children. At an early age he began hitting cans with stick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the The Recording Academy, Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, "the King of inside swing". Peterson worked in duos with Samuel Jones (musician), Sam Jones, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Joe Pass, Irving Ashby, Count Basie, and Herbie Hancock. He considered the trio with Ray Brown (musician), Ray Brown and Herb Ellis "the most stimulating" and productive setting for public performances and studio recordings. In the early 1950 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Norvo
Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville; March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His recordings included "Dance of the Octopus", "Bughouse", "Knockin' on Wood", "Congo Blues", and "Hole in the Wall". Career Red Norvo was born in Beardstown, Illinois, United States. His career began in Chicago with a band called The Collegians in 1925. He played with many other bands, including an all-marimba band on the vaudeville circuit, and the bands of Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Woody Herman. He recorded with Mildred Bailey (his wife from 1933 to 1942), Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra. Norvo and his wife were known as "Mr. and Mrs. Swing." He appeared as himself in the film '' Screaming Mimi'' (1958) and in '' Ocean's 11'', accompanying Dean Martin while he sang " Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose Murphy
Rose Murphy (April 28, 1913 – November 16, 1989) was an American jazz pianist and singer, famous for the song "Busy Line" and her unique vocal style.Brethour, Ross, sleevenotes to ''Busy Line'', a Rose Murphy best of compilation, Body and Soul, BS2418, 2003 Music career She was born in Xenia, Ohio, United States. Described by ''AllMusic'' Scott Yanow as having "a unique place in music history", Murphy was known as "the chee chee girl" because of her habit of singing "chee chee" in many of her numbers. She was also known as "the girl with the pale pink voice". Murphy began her musical career in the late 1930s, playing intermission piano for such performers as Count Basie, and became popular in the United States and United Kingdom in the late 1940s. She is best known for her high-pitched singing style, which incorporated scat singing, giggling, and percussive sound effects. "Busy Line", one of her most well-known songs, made use of perhaps her most famous vocal sound effect: the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
