” Legendary blues guitarist died on Thursday night at the age of 89.
Daughter Patty King said he died in Las Vegas of as-yet-undisclosed causes, two weeks after being placed in home hospice care while suffering from dehydration, according to CNN.”
” Born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, King was widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists and blues musicians of all-time. After starting out on street corners in Mississippi as a youngster, he hitchhiked to Memphis in 1947 and got an early break when he performed on radio there the next year.”
” He scored his first hit with 1952’s “Three O’Clock Blues” and soon began to tour extensively, logging an incredible 342 concerts in 1956. He released his first album, Singin’ the Blues, the next year, and during a career that spanned over six decades, he released more than 40 studio albums, in addition to over a dozen live albums.
With hundreds of songs in his catalog, the man nicknamed the King of the Blues is best known for such signature tracks as: “The Thrill Is Gone,” “Everyday I have the Blues,” “Why I Sing the Blues” and “How Blue Can You Get.” “
” There’s been considerable discussion about whetherBobby Darin should be classified as a rock & roll singer, a Vegas hipster cat, an interpreter of popular standards, or even a folk-rocker. He was all of these and none of these. Throughout his career he made a point of not becoming committed to any one style at the exclusion of others; at the height of his nightclub fame he incorporated a folk set into his act. When it appeared he could have gone on indefinitely as a sort of junior version of Frank Sinatra, he would periodically record pop/rock and folk-rock singles whose principal appeal lay outside of the adult pop market. At one point he started calling himself Bob Darin and recorded songs with vague anti-establishment overtones that could be said to be biting the largely bourgeois hands that fed his highest-paying gigs. It may be most accurate to say that Darin was, above all, a singer who wanted to do a lot of things, rather than make his mark as a particular stylist. That may have cost him some points as far as making it to the very top of certain genres, but also makes his work more versatile than almost any other vocalist of his era.”
” When Darin had his first hits in the late ’50s, he was a teen idol of sorts, albeit a teen idol with much more talent and mature command than the typical singer in that style. The novelty-tinged “Splish Splash” was his breakthrough smash, followed by “Queen of the Hop” and the ballad “Dream Lover.” There was a slight R&B feel to Bobby‘s delivery that may well have influenced R&B-pop/rock singers such as Dion, though it would be an exaggeration to call Darin a blue-eyed soul man. In late 1959, he found a new direction when the swinging “Mack the Knife,” a tune from Brecht–Weill‘s Threepenny Opera musical, made number one. The song came from an album of pop standards, heralding his move toward light big band jazz, which was consolidated by the Top Ten success of “Beyond the Sea” in 1960.”
” In the early ’60s, Darin had mostly abandoned rock for the adult pop market, becoming a huge success on the Vegas-nightclub circuit, and moving into the all-around entertainer mode with starring roles in movies (including one as a non-singing jazz musician in John Cassavetes’ Too Young Blues). He also continued to score regular hits with the likes of “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Things,” and “Lazy River.” To keep people guessing, there was also a hit cover of “What’d I Say” and some country tunes (one of which, “You’re the Reason I’m Living,” made it to number three on the pop charts). Around 1963, he put a folk section into his nightclub act that employed guitarist Roger McGuinn, then a couple of years away from fame as the leader of the Byrds.”Continue reading
” Jacobs was born in Marksville, Louisiana and raised in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where he first learned to play the harmonica. After quitting school by the age of 12, Jacobs left rural Louisiana and travelled around working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena, Arkansas and St. Louis. He honed his musical skills on harmonica and guitar performing with much older bluesmen such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards and others.”
” Arriving in Chicago in 1945, he occasionally found work as a guitarist but garnered more attention for his already highly developed harmonica work. According to fellow Chicago bluesman Floyd Jones, Little Walter’s first recording was an unreleased demo recorded soon after he arrived in Chicago on which Walter played guitar backing Jones. Jacobs reportedly grew frustrated with having his harmonica drowned out by electric guitarists, and adopted a simple, but previously little-used method: He cupped a small microphone in his hands along with his harmonica, and plugged the microphone into a public address system or guitar amplifier. He could thus compete with any guitarist’s volume. However, unlike other contemporary blues harp players such as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Snooky Pryor, who like many other harmonica players had also begun using the newly available amplifier technology around the same time solely for added volume, Little Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations, using the amplification to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica, or any other instrument. Madison Deniro wrote a small biographical piece on Little Walter stating that “He was the first musician of any kind to purposely use electronic distortion.”“
” Little Walter made his way north to Chicago via stops in New Orleans and Monroe, Louisiana; St. Helena, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and St. Louis, Missouri, arriving in the Windy City in 1947. That same year, he made his first recordings for the local Ora Nelle label. Little Walter and Muddy Waters first appeared on a session together when both backed Jimmy Rogers in 1949. Waters backed Little Walter on a session for Parkway Records in January 1950. That August, Little Walter first backed Muddy for the Chess label, and in October, they recorded the Waters classic “Louisiana Blues.”
” Nearly a year after Little Walter’s initial appearance on a Muddy Waters session for Chess, he used an amplified harmonica for the first time on a groundbreaking July 1951 session that yielded “She Moves Me.” Waters was among the earliest to recognize that blues possessed a formidable power when electrified, and with Jimmy Rogers on electric guitar and Little Walter on amplified harp, he had the hottest blues band in Chicago. Little Walter split from Waters’ band after an instrumental showcase of his that was popular with crowds – “Your Cat Will Play,” retitled “Juke” when he recorded it – became a huge solo hit. A classic juke-joint instrumental, “Juke” topped the R&B chart for eight weeks in the fall of 1952.”
” In addition to harmonica, Little Walter played guitar, sang and wrote songs. He recruited a backing band from the Chicago club scene (whom he rechristened the Jukes, after his big song), and they recorded and toured throughout the Fifties. On his own, Little Walter charted 14 Top Ten R&B hits for the Chess label’s Checker subsidiary. One of these, “My Babe” – written by Willie Dixon and featuring the melody from the spiritual “This Train” – went to Number One. Other sizable hits from Little Walter included “Sad Hours,” “Mean Old World,” “Blues With a Feeling,” “You’re So Fine,” “Oh, Baby” and ‘Last Night.” At Leonard Chess’s behest, Little Walter continued recording with Muddy Waters, too, adding his unmistakable harmonica to such classics as “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Trouble No More.” “
” By 1950, Walter was firmly entrenched as Waters‘ studio harpist at Chess as well (long after Walter had split the Muddy Waters band, Leonard Chess insisted on his participation on waxings — why split up an unbeatable combination?). That’s how Walter came to record his breakthrough 1952 R&B chart-topper “Juke” — the romping instrumental was laid down at the tail-end of a Waters session. Suddenly, Walter was a star on his own, combining his stunning talents with those of the Aces (guitarists Louis and David Myers and drummer Fred Below) and advancing the concept of blues harmonica another few light years with every session he made for Checker Records.”
” From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits, including “Sad Hours,” “Mean Old World,” “Tell Me Mama,” “Off the Wall,” “Blues with a Feeling,” “You’re So Fine,” a threatening “You Better Watch Yourself,” the mournful “Last Night,” and a rocking “My Babe” that was Willie Dixon‘s secularized treatment of the traditional gospel lament “This Train.” Throughout his Checker tenure,Walter alternated spine-chilling instrumentals with gritty vocals (he’s always been underrated in that department; he wasn’t Muddy Waters or the Wolf, but who was?).”
” Walter utilized the chromatic harp in ways never before envisioned (check out his 1956 free-form instrumental “Teenage Beat,” with Robert Jr. Lockwood and Luther Tucker manning the guitars, for proof positive). 1959’s determined “Everything Gonna Be Alright” was Walter‘s last trip to the hit lists; Chicago blues had faded to a commercial non-entity by then unless your name was Jimmy Reed.
Tragically, the ’60s saw the harp genius slide steadily into an alcohol-hastened state of unreliability, his once-handsome face becoming a road map of scars. In 1964, he toured Great Britain with the Rolling Stones, who clearly had their priorities in order, but his once-prodigious skills were faltering badly. That sad fact was never more obvious than on 1967’s disastrous summit meeting of Waters, Bo Diddley, and Walter for Chess as the Super Blues Band; there was nothing super whatsoever about Walter‘s lame remakes of “My Babe” and “You Don’t Love Me.”
” Walter‘s eternally vicious temper led to his violent undoing in 1968. He was involved in a street fight (apparently on the losing end, judging from the outcome) and died from the incident’s after-effects at age 37. His influence remains inescapable to this day — it’s unlikely that a blues harpist exists on the face of this earth who doesn’t worship Little Walter.”
” Though Little Walter’s studio performances of the late 1950s continued to produce first-rate material, his rough lifestyle began to take its toll. By the 1960s he bore facial scars from drunken altercations. As Muddy Waters told Paul Oliver during the 1960s in Conversation With the Blues, “He’s real tough, Little Walter, and he’s had it hard. Got a slug in his leg right now!” Walter’s street-hardened behavior resulted in his death, at his home, on February 15, 1968, from a blood clot sustained during a street fight. He was 37.”
” Upon his death, Little Walter left a recording career unparalleled in the history of postwar Chicago Blues. His musicianship has influenced nearly every modern blues harmonica player. In the liner notes to Confessin’ the Blues, Pete Welding wrote: “Honor Little Walter, who gave us so much and, who like most bluesmen, received so little.” But as a man who lived through his instrument, Walter knew no other source of reward than the mastery of his art and the freedom to create music of original expression.”
” One of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) (some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) and was known as “The Velvet Bulldozer”. He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.”
” He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas.Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed‘s band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named “Lucy”. King earned his nickname “The Velvet Bulldozer” during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.”
” King moved to Gary, Indiana in the early 1950s, then to Chicago in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records, but it was only a minor regional success. He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. During this period, he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar.He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit, “I’m a Lonely Man,” written by Little Milton, who was Bobbin Records A&R man, a fellow guitar hero, and responsible for King’s signing with the label.”
” Albert King is truly a “King of the Blues,” although he doesn’t hold that title (B.B. does). Along with B.B. and Freddie King, Albert King is one of the major influences on blues and rock guitar players. Without him, modern guitar music would not sound as it does — his style has influenced both black and white blues players from Otis Rush and Robert Cray to Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s important to note that while almost all modern blues guitarists seldom play for long without falling into a B.B. King guitar cliché, Albert King never does — he’s had his own style and unique tone from the beginning.”
” Albert King plays guitar left-handed, without re-stringing the guitar from the right-handed setup; this “upside-down” playing accounts for his difference in tone, since he pulls down on the same strings that most players push up on when bending the blues notes. King‘s massive tone and totally unique way of squeezing bends out of a guitar string has had a major impact. Many young white guitarists — especially rock & rollers — have been influenced by King‘s playing, and many players who emulate his style may never have heard of Albert King, let alone heard his music. His style is immediately distinguishable from all other blues guitarists, and he’s one of the most important blues guitarists to ever pick up the electric guitar.”
” Albert King left Bobbin in late 1962 and recorded one session for King Records in the spring of 1963, which were much more pop-oriented than his previous work; the singles issued from the session failed to sell. Within a year, he cut four songs for the local St. Louis independent label Coun-Tree, which was run by a jazz singer named Leo Gooden. Though these singles didn’t appear in many cities — St. Louis, Chicago, and Kansas City were the only three to register sales — they foreshadowed his coming work with Stax Records. Furthermore, they were very popular within St. Louis, so much so that Gooden resented King‘s success and pushed him off the label.”
” Following his stint at Coun-Tree, Albert King signed with Stax Records in 1966. Albert‘s records for Stax would bring him stardom, both within blues and rock circles. All of his ’60s Stax sides were recorded with the label’s house band, Booker T. & the MG’s, which gave his blues a sleek, soulful sound. That soul underpinning gave King crossover appeal, as evidenced by his R&B chart hits — “Laundromat Blues” (1966) and “Cross Cut Saw” (1967) both went Top 40, while “Born Under a Bad Sign” (1967) charted in the Top 50. Furthermore, King‘s style was appropriated by several rock & roll players, most notably Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, who copied Albert‘s “Personal Manager” guitar solo on the Cream song, “Strange Brew.” Albert King‘s first album for Stax, 1967’s Born Under a Bad Sign, was a collection of his singles for the label and became one of the most popular and influential blues albums of the late ’60s. Beginning in 1968, Albert King was playing not only to blues audiences, but also to crowds of young rock & rollers. He frequently played at the Fillmore West in San Francisco and he even recorded an album, Live Wire/Blues Power, at the hall in the summer of 1968.”
” In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, forming what was called an “87-piece blues band.” During the early Seventies, he recorded the album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers and an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does the King’s Things. King continued to tour throughout the Seventies, and in June 1970, he joined the Doors onstage at a show in Vancouver, Canada.”
” King’s sound underwent a major change in the Seventies, as he teamed up with the Bar-Kays and the Memphis Horns on the albums I’ll Play the Blues for You and I Wanna Get Funky. That partnership gave his music a much funkier sound than it had on his earlier recordings, and the former album’s title track became one of his signature songs. King also worked with Allen Toussaint and some of the Meters during this period.”
” If the annals are ever logged as to who the most influential guitar greats of all time were, then there would be no question regarding the inclusion of the three “Kings” of the Blues: B.B., Freddie and Albert. There is little doubt of the impact that each of these artists brought to the future sounds of Blues, Soul and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Albert King was a master of the single-string attack and was intrigued by Blues performers that he heard while growing up outside of Memphis. In turn, he influenced a new generation of guitar players that would include the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.”
” On February 1, 1968, Albert King shared a bill that included John Mayall and Jimi Hendrix for opening night at a new venue in San Francisco called The Fillmore Auditorium. This popular music hall would become a second home for King, and later that same year he returned to record a live album “Live Wire / Blues Power” became one of the best-selling Live Blue! recordings ever and helped establishKing’s career further. Two other albums were released in the early 1990s that were taped during these same performances (“Wednesday Night In San Francisco: Recorded Live At The Fillmore Auditorium” and “Thursday Night In San Francisco…” Though weaker than the original both serve as true testaments to the talents of Albert King’s guitar.”
” King continued to record with Stax, until the demise of the label in the mid-1970s. The output of this period included some strange mixtures for a Blues musician. In 1969, Albert became the first Blues performer to perform with a symphony orchestra in a concert that teamed him with the St. Louis Symphony. He recorded the album “Lovejoy “at Muscle Shoals with white Southern rockers and even released a tribute album to Elvis Presley, “Blues For Elvis: Albert King Does The King’s Things“. There was even an appearance on a comedy LP by Albert Brooks, “A Star Is Bought“. After Staxfolded, King would record for a number of labels that would include Tomato, Utopia and Fantasy, until he decided to retire in the mid-1980s. Though Albert King had given up on recording, he still managed to find time to perform. He made cameo appearances on albums by up-coming Bluesmen like Chris Cain (“Cuttin’ Loose“) and Gary Moore (“Still Got The Blues“). He also made frequent stops at Blues festivals around the world, continuing to influence new generations of guitarists including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray.”
” King played his final concert in Los Angeles on December 19, 1992. He died two days later at home in Memphis after suffering a sudden heart attack. After his funeral, a procession was led down Beale Street in a true New Orleans-style Jazz tradition, as the hearse bearing King’s body was led by the Memphis Horns playing “When The Saints Go Marching In“. King was laid to rest across the Mississippi River in the Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas, not far from where he spent his childhood.”
“Albert King has been honored by The Blues Foundation with his induction into their Hall of Fame. Both “Born Under A Bad Sign” and “Live Wire / Blues Power” are also honored as Classics of Blues Recordings. But, the real honor for King is the love and everlasting respect that so many of his peers have given him. Stevie Ray Vaughan would call him “Daddy” and John Lee Hooker named him as one of his all-time favorite guitarists. Michael Bloomfield once said, “Albert can take four notes and write a volume. He can say more with fewer notes than anyone I’ve ever known.” B.B. King stated in his autobiography “He wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues.” Albert King’s legend will live on. Every time a Blues or Rock combo is on stage, in an arena or small nightclub, or just playing in their garage and grinds into “Born Under A Bad Sign” or “Crosscut Saw“, his influence will be shining true.”
” Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the “First Lady of Song“, “Queen of Jazz“, and “Lady Ella”, was an American jazzvocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6). She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
” Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William and Temperance “Tempie” Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth, and Ella and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie’s longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald’s half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services,Bible study, and Sunday School.
In her youth, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, “My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it….I tried so hard to sound just like her.”
” In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack. Following thistrauma, Fitzgerald’s grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she ran away to her aunt and, at one point, worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx.However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory. Eventually she escaped and for a time was homeless.”
Early Career
” She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous “Amateur Nights”. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell’s “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection,” a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US$ 25.00.
In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, “reluctant to sign her….because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.” Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.”
Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed “Ella and her Famous Orchestra” with Ella taking on the role of nominal bandleader. Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 songs with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942, “the majority of them novelties and disposable pop fluff”.”
” Going out on her own, Ella Fitzgerald landed a deal with Decca Records. She recorded some hit songs with the Ink Spots and Louis Jordan in the early 1940s. Fitzgerald also made her film debut in 1942’s comedy western Ride ‘Em Cowboy with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Her career really began to take off in 1946 when she started working with Norman Granz. Granz orchestrated the Jazz at the Philharmonic, which was a series of concerts and live records featuring most of the genre’s great performers. Fitzgerald also hired Granz to become her manager.”
” Around this time, Fitzgerald went on tour with Dizzy Gillespie and his band. She started changing her singing style, incorporating scat singing during her performances with Gillespie. Fitzgerald also fell in love with Gillespie’s bass player Ray Brown. The pair wed in 1947, and they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald’s half-sister whom they named Raymond “Ray” Brown Jr. The marriage ended in 1952.”
The 1950s and ’60s proved to be a time of critical and commercial success for Fitzgerald. She even earned the moniker “The First Lady of Song” for her mainstream popularity and unparalleled vocal talents. Her unique ability to mimicking instrumental sounds helped popularize the vocal improvisation of “scatting” which became her signature technique.”
” In 1955, Fitzgerald began recording for Granz’s newly created Verve Records. She made some of her most popular albums for Verve, starting out with 1956’s Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book. Two years later, Fitzgerald picked up her first two Grammy Awards for two later songbook projects—Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book. She actually worked directly with Ellington on that album.”
” A truly collaborative soul, Fitzgerald produced great recordings with such artists as Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. She also performed several times with Frank Sinatra over the years as well. In 1960, Fitzgerald actually broke into the pop charts with her rendition of “Mack the Knife.” She was still going strong well into the ’70s, playing concerts across the globe. One especially memorable concert series from this time was a two-week engagement in New York City in 1974 with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie.”
” Ella continued to work as hard as she had early on in her career, despite the ill effects on her health. She toured all over the world, sometimes performing two shows a day in cities hundreds of miles apart. In 1974, Ella spent a legendary two weeks performing in New York with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Still going strong five years later, she was inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame, and received Kennedy Center Honors for her continuing contributions to the arts.”
” Outside of the arts, Ella had a deep concern for child welfare. Though this aspect of her life was rarely publicized, she frequently made generous donations to organizations for disadvantaged youths, and the continuation of these contributions was part of the driving force that prevented her from slowing down. Additionally, when Frances died, Ella felt she had the additional responsibilities of taking care of her sister’s family.
In 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. It was one of her most prized moments. France followed suit several years later, presenting her with their Commander of Arts and Letters award, while Yale, Dartmouth and several other universities bestowed Ella with honorary doctorates.”
” In September of 1986, Ella underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors also replaced a valve in her heart and diagnosed her with diabetes, which they blamed for her failing eyesight. The press carried rumors that she would never be able to sing again, but Ella proved them wrong. Despite protests by family and friends, including Norman, Ella returned to the stage and pushed on with an exhaustive schedule.”
” By the 1990s, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. In 1991, she gave her final concert at New York’s renowned Carnegie Hall. It was the 26th time she performed there.
As the effects from her diabetes worsened, 76-year-old Ella experienced severe circulatory problems and was forced to have both of her legs amputated below the knees. She never fully recovered from the surgery, and afterward, was rarely able to perform. During this time, Ella enjoyed sitting outside in her backyard, and spending time with Ray, Jr. and her granddaughter Alice. “I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh,” she said.
On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home. Hours later, signs of remembrance began to appear all over the world. A wreath of white flowers stood next to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a marquee outside the Hollywood Bowl theater read, “Ella, we will miss you.”
After a private memorial service, traffic on the freeway was stopped to let her funeral procession pass through. She was laid to rest in the “Sanctuary of the Bells” section of the Sunset Mission Mausoleum at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. “
” The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday changed the art of American pop vocals forever. More than a half-century after her death, it’s difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs; only blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey actually gave the impression they had lived through what they were singing. Billie Holiday‘s highly stylized reading of this blues tradition revolutionized traditional pop, ripping the decades-long tradition of song plugging in two by refusing to compromise her artistry for either the song or the band. She made clear her debts to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong (in her autobiography she admitted, “I always wanted Bessie‘s big sound and Pops‘ feeling”), but in truth her style was virtually her own, quite a shock in an age of interchangeable crooners and band singers.
With her spirit shining through on every recording, Holiday‘s technical expertise also excelled in comparison to the great majority of her contemporaries. Often bored by the tired old Tin Pan Alley songs she was forced to record early in her career, Holiday fooled around with the beat and the melody, phrasing behind the beat and often rejuvenating the standard melody with harmonies borrowed from her favorite horn players, Armstrong and Lester Young. (She often said she tried to sing like a horn.) Her notorious private life — a series of abusive relationships, substance addictions, and periods of depression — undoubtedly assisted her legendary status, but Holiday‘s best performances (“Lover Man,” “Don’t Explain,” “Strange Fruit,” her own composition “God Bless the Child”) remain among the most sensitive and accomplished vocal performances ever recorded. More than technical ability, more than purity of voice, what made Billie Holiday one of the best vocalists of the century — easily the equal of Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra — was her relentlessly individualist temperament, a quality that colored every one of her endlessly nuanced performances.
Billie Holiday‘s chaotic life reportedly began in Baltimore on April 7, 1915 (a few reports say 1912) when she was born Eleanora Fagan Gough. Her father, Clarence Holiday, was a teenaged jazz guitarist and banjo player later to play in Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra. He never married her mother, Sadie Fagan, and left while his daughter was still a baby. (She would later run into him in New York, and though she contracted many guitarists for her sessions before his death in 1937, she always avoided using him.) Holiday‘s mother was also a young teenager at the time, and whether because of inexperience or neglect, often left her daughter with uncaring relatives. Holiday was sentenced to Catholic reform school at the age of ten, reportedly after she admitted being raped. Though sentenced to stay until she became an adult, a family friend helped get her released after just two years. With her mother, she moved in 1927, first to New Jersey and soon after to Brooklyn.” Continue Reading
” Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadowsand The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music.
Moore’s greatest influence in the early days was guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green’s continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album, Moore played Green’s 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green’s request, so that “it would have a good home”.
” Skid Row would go on to issue several singles and albums (including 1970’s Skid and 1971’s 34 Hours), and although the group mounted a few tours of Europe and the U.S., it failed to obtain breakthrough commercial success, leading to Moore‘s exit from the group in 1972.Moore then formed his own outfit, the Gary Moore Band (along with members drummer Pearse Kelly and bassist John Curtis), for which the guitarist also served as vocalist. But after the trio’s debut album, 1973’s Grinding Stone, sunk without a trace, Moore hooked up once more with ex-bandmate Lynott in Thin Lizzy. Moore‘s initial tenure in Lizzy proved to be short-lived, however, as his fiery playing was featured on only a handful of tracks. Moore then set his sights on studio work (appearing on Eddie Howell‘s 1975 release, Gramaphone Record), before joining up with a prog rock/fusion outfit, Colosseum II.
” But once more, Moore‘s tenure in his latest outfit was fleeting; he appeared on only three recordings (1976’s Strange New Flesh, plus a pair in 1977, Electric Savage and War Dance), as Moore accepted an invitation by his old buddy Lynott to fill in for a Thin Lizzy U.S. tour, playing arenas opening for Queen.”
” Moore proved to be quite busy in 1978, as the guitarist appeared on three other artists’ recordings — Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Variations, Rod Argent’s Moving Home, and Gary Boyle’s Electric Glide. The same year, Moore issued his second solo release (almost five years after his solo debut), Back on the Streets, which spawned a surprise Top Ten U.K. hit in May of 1979, the bluesy ballad “Parisienne Walkways,” and featured vocal contributions by Lynott. Moore joined forces with his Lizzy mates once more in 1979, appearing on arguably the finest studio album of their career, Black Rose, which proved to be a huge hit in the U.K. (for a fine example of Moore’s exceptional guitar skills, check out the album’s epic title track). But predictably, Moore ultimately exited the group once more (this time right in the middle of a U.S. tour), as a rift had developed between Moore and Lynott. Undeterred, Moore lent some guitar work to drummer Cozy Powell’s solo release, Over the Top, in addition to forming a new outfit, G Force, which would only remain together for a lone self-titled release in 1980.”
” In the 1980s Gary established his reputation as one of the top guitarists on the heavy metal scene with a series of rock albums that showcased his skill. Kirk Hammett of Metallica, who cites Gary as one of his top 5 influences, sums up Gary’s style of playing very well: “Gary’s technique was very modern, but his guitar style was very blues-based. His phrasing was very, very blues-based. He played long, sustained notes coupled with really super fast-picked notes and he had a great legato style“.
” In 1990, Moore returned to his blues roots with ‘Still Got the Blues’, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans and was his biggest seller. He stayed with the blues format until 1997, when he decided to experiment with modern dance beats on Dark Days in Paradise; this left many fans, as well as the music press, confused. With Back to the Blues, Moore return to his tried and tested blues format in 2001. In 2002 he got back to more of a hard rocking style with the album Scars. He also returned to playing some of his metal-period material in the 2003 Monsters of Rock Tour. Then he continued on with the blues rock style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008).”
” The, Back To The Blues’ (2001) album saw him revisit The Blues with renewed vigour and determination, after the more experimental ‘Dark Days In Paradise’ (1997) and ‘A Different Beat’ (1999) albums. A ten-track collection that mixed excellent Moore originals, with gritty and intense covers of standards. But, in the tradition of keeping his fans and critics guessing, 2002 saw Gary Moore crashing back onto the music scene with what had to be his heaviest collection of songs since the late 1980’s, once again forcing people to reassess any opinions and preconceptions they might have had of him.”
” That time round though, Moore had decided to share the limelight, joining forces with ex-Skunk Anansie bassist Cass Lewis and Primal Scream drummer Darrin Mooney to form ‘Scars’, a true power trio in every respect. The ‘Scars’ album was completed in early 2002 and that line-up, then went on to record the ‘Live at the Monsters of Rock’ (2003) live CD and DVD, which featured the band’s set as performed on two separate nights on the UK Tour in May 2003. That live set encompassed a diverse range of material, from across Gary’s playing career.”
” 2004 saw possibly the rawest album yet, with ‘Power of the Blues’. The 10-track set, recorded mostly live in the studio, ranged from the hard rock/blues of the title track, via the upbeat swing of “Can’t find my baby”, to the haunting “Torn Inside”.
” Taking time out in August 2005, for a brief reunion with former Thin Lizzy band members, for a one off concert in Dublin, to mark the occasion of Phil Lynott’s birth. The evening was filmed for the 2006 DVD release, ‘Gary Moore and Friends, One Night in Dublin, A Tribute to Phil Lynott’.
” With his 2007 studio album ‘Close As You Get’, Gary continued in a direction not too dissimilar from ‘Old, New, Ballads, Blues’, released in 2006. Mixing original tunes with some interesting Blues covers that Gary had rediscovered, whilst researching for his award winning radio series, “Blues Power”, on Planet Rock (UK based digital/internet “radio” station). September 2008 saw the release of what would turn out to be Gary’s last studio album, “Bad for you Baby”. Again, a powerful collection of tracks, of original material and selected blues covers. After being on the road for most of 2008 and into 2010 with the “Blues” line up of the touring band. Gary returned from a tour of Russia and the Far East, and decided to reunite with his old sparring partner from the rock line up’s of the 1980’s, Neil Carter. The plan was to put together a “Rock” line up and dust off a selection of tracks from the mid to late 1980’s.”
“Adding Jon Noyce, (ex Jethro Tull/Sessions) on bass, some one who was also part of the, “One Night in Dublin” Tribute DVD in 2005, and Darrin Mooney (Primal Scream/Sessions) on drums, who was no stranger to the touring and recording line during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. This line up, hit the road in May of 2010, performing a live set based around a selection of tracks from the “Rock Years” of the 1980’s. This proved to be a real treat for fans, old & new, as many would have not heard Gary play these songs live, either for a very long time, or in many cases, at all. In addition to the older tunes, a number of new “Celtic Rock” style tracks were included in the show, which went down very well with the live audiences. Tracks, which Gary was planning to record and embellish, on his next studio project. A project that was ready to start when Gary returned from a short holiday break.”
” Unfortunately, that was not to be, as Gary passed away in his sleep in the early hours of February 6th, 2011, in Estepona, Spain. After being such a “force of nature” in the guitar-playing firmament, for many years, as part of a professional career that began when he was only 16. He leaves behind a huge hole for many, not just his close family and friends, but guitar fans around the world.”
” Of all the many tributes paid since Gary’s passing, maybe this one, from Gary’s friend and musical collaborator, Don Airey, might sum up the best of most people’s thoughts of Gary: “At the 1984 Donington Festival during the long solo in “Empty Rooms” the previously restive crowd went so quiet, you could hear a pin drop – everyone back and behind stage stopped whatever they were doing and just stood to listen open-mouthed. His artistry touched thousands of people over the years, not least those of us lucky enough to have shared a stage or a recording studio with him. Sleep tight old mate, you’ll be sorely missed.” “
” Although in his later years Muddy usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1915, he was actually born at Jug’s Corner in neighboringIssaquena County in 1913. Recent research has uncovered documentation showing that in the 1930s and 1940s he reported his birth year as 1913 on both his marriage license and musicians’ union card. A 1955 interview in the Chicago Defender is the earliest claim of 1915 as his year of birth, which he continued to use in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920, suggesting that his birth year may have been 1914. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the Social Security card application submitted after his move to Chicago in the mid-1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1913. Muddy’s gravestone gives his birth year as 1915.”
” Muddy’s grandmother, Della Grant, raised him after his mother died shortly following his birth. Della gave the boy the nickname “Muddy” at an early age because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. Muddy later changed it to “Muddy Water” and finally “Muddy Waters”.
The shack where Muddy Waters lived in his youth on Stovall Plantation is now located at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He started out on harmonica, but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties, emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, Son House and Robert Johnson.”
” On November 20, 1932, Muddy married Mabel Berry; Robert Nighthawk played guitar at the wedding, and the party reportedly got so wild the floor fell in. Mabel left Muddy three years later when Muddy’s first child was born; the child’s mother was Leola Spain, sixteen years old (Leola later used her maiden name Brown), “married to a man named Steven” and “going with a guy named Tucker”. Leola was the only one of his girlfriends with whom Muddy would stay in touch throughout his life; they never married. By the time he finally cut out for Chicago in 1943, there was another Mrs. Morganfield left behind, a girl called Sallie Ann.“
“Growing to manhood there, in the very heart of the region that had spawned this magnificent music, Waters was drawn early to its stark, telling, expressive power. He had been working as a farm laborer for several years when at thirteen he took up the harmonica, the instrument on which many blues performers first master the music’s rudiments. Four years later he made the switch to guitar. “You see, I was digging Son House and Robert Johnson.”
” The two were the undisputed masters of the region’s characteristic “bottleneck” style of guitar accompaniment. With this technique the Delta bluesman could utilize the guitar as a perfect extension of his voice, the sliding bottleneck matching the dips, slurs, sliding notes and all the tonal ambiguity of the voice as it is used in singing the blues.Within a year, Waters recalled, he had mastered the bottleneck style and the jagged, pulsating rhythms of Delta guitar. He had learned to sing powerfully and expressively in the tightly constricted, pain-filled manner that characterized the best Delta singers.”
” By the time a team of Library of Congress field collectors headed by Alan Lomax visited and recorded Waters for the Library’s folksong archives in 1941 (they were looking for Robert Johnson at the time, unaware of his death three years earlier), returning to record him further the following year, he had had several years’ local performing experience behind him.Providing the musical impetus for dancers at rough-and-tumble back country dances, in juke joints, and at picnics, houseparties and other rural entertainments had sharpened the young bluesman’s vocal and instrumental abilities to a keen edge. The recordings show the strikingly distinctive power of the young Waters, both as singer and master of Delta bottleneck guitar.”
” In 1943 Waters—like millions of other African Americans in the South who moved to cities in the North and West during the Great Migration from 1916 to 1970—relocated to Chicago. There he began playing clubs and bars on the city’s South and West sides while earning a living working in a paper mill and later driving a truck. In 1944 he bought his first electric guitar, which cut more easily through the noise of crowded bars. He soon broke with country blues by playing electric guitar in a shimmering slide style. In 1946 pianist Sunnyland Slim, another Delta native, helped Waters land a contract with Aristocrat Records, for which he made several unremarkable recordings. By 1948 Aristocrat had become Chess Records(taking its name from Leonard and Phil Chess, the Polish immigrant brothers who owned and operated it), and Waters was recording a string of hits for it that began with “I Feel Like Going Home” and “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” His early, aggressive, electrically amplified band—including pianist Otis Spann, guitarist Jimmie Rodgers, and harmonica virtuoso Little Walter—created closely integrated support for his passionate singing, which featured dramatic shouts, swoops, and falsetto moans. His repertoire, much of which he composed, included lyrics that were mournful (“Blow Wind Blow,” “Trouble No More”), boastful (“Got My Mojo Working,” “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”), and frankly sensual (the unusual 15-bar blues “Rock Me”). In the process Waters became the foremost exponent of modern Chicago blues.”
” Tours of clubs in the South and Midwest in the 1940s and ’50s gave way after 1958 to concert tours of the United States and Europe, including frequent dates at jazz, folk, and blues festivals. Over the years, some of Chicago’s premier blues musicians did stints in Waters’s band, including harmonica players James Cotton and Junior Wells, as well as guitarist Buddy Guy. Toward the end of his career, Waters concentrated on singing and played guitar only occasionally. A major influence on a variety of rock musicians—most notably the Rolling Stones (who took their name from his song “Rollin’ Stone” and made a pilgrimage to Chess to record)—Waters was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.”
” By the end of the ’50s, while Waters was still making fine music, his career was going into a slump. The rise of rock & roll had taken the spotlight away from more traditional blues acts in favor of younger and rowdier acts (ironically, Waters had headlined some of Alan Freed‘s early “Moondog” package shows), and Waters‘ first tour of England in 1958 was poorly received by many U.K. blues fans, who were expecting an acoustic set and were startled by the ferocity of Waters‘ electric guitar. Waters began playing more acoustic music informed by his Mississippi Delta heritage in the years that followed, even issuing an album titled Muddy Waters: Folk Singer in 1964. However, the jolly irony was that British blues fans would soon rekindle interest in Waters and electric Chicago blues; as the rise of the British Invasion made the world aware of the U.K. rock scene, the nascent British blues scene soon followed, and a number of Waters‘ U.K. acolytes became international stars, such as Eric Clapton,John Mayall, Alexis Korner, and a modestly successful London act who named themselves after Muddy‘s 1950 hit “Rollin’ Stone.”
” While Waters was still leading a fine band that delivered live (and included the likes of Pinetop Perkins on piano and James Cotton on harmonica), Chess Records was moving more toward the rock, soul, and R&B marketplace, and seemed eager to market him to white rock fans, a notion that reached its nadir in 1968 with Electric Mud, in which Waterswas paired up with a psychedelic rock band (featuring guitarists Pete Cosey and Phil Upchurch) for rambling and aimless jams on Waters‘ blues classics. 1969’s Fathers and Sons was a more inspired variation on this theme, with Waters playing alongside reverential white blues rockers such as Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield; 1971’s The London Muddy Waters Sessions was less impressive, featuring fine guitar work from Rory Gallagher but uninspired contributions from Steve Winwood, Rick Grech, and Georgie Fame.”
” Curiously, while Chess Records helped Waters make some of the finest blues records of the ’50s and ‘60s, it was the label’s demise that led to his creative rebirth. In 1969, the Chess Brothers sold the label to General Recorded Tape, and the label went through a long, slow commercial decline, finally folding in 1975. (Waters would become one of several Chess artists who sued the label for unpaid royalties in its later years.) Johnny Winter, a longtime Waters fan, heard the blues legend was without a record deal, and was instrumental in getting Waters signed to Blue Sky Records, a CBS-distributed label that had become his recording home.”
” Winter produced the sessions for Waters‘ first Blue Sky release, and sat in with a band comprised of members of Waters‘ road band (including Bob Margolin and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith) along with James Cotton on harp and Pinetop Perkins on piano. 1977’s Hard Again was a triumph, sounding as raw and forceful as Waters‘ classic Chess sides, with a couple extra decades of experience informing his performances, and it was rightly hailed as one of the finest albums Waters ever made while sparking new interest in his music. (It also earned him a Grammy award for Best Traditional or Ethnic Folk Recording.) “
” Waters also capitalized on the folk-music craze of the late Fifties and early Sixties with a series of albums that found him assaying acoustic blues on such albums as Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill (a tribute to rural bluesman Big Bill Broonzy, released in 1960), Muddy Waters, Folk Singer (1964) and The Real Folk Blues (1966). Less successful were attempts to contemporize his sound with such ill-advised efforts as “Muddy Waters Twist” (a 1962 single) and Electric Mud (an album of psychedelic blues from 1968). More satisfying by far were a couple of albums – Fathers and Sons (1969) and The London Muddy Waters Sessions (1972) – that found Waters accompanied by such vanguard rock musicians as Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton. His thirty-year tenure with Chess Records ended in 1975 with the release of The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album. From here, he moved to the Blue Sky label (a Columbia subsidiary). “
” Waters’ audience grew exponentially following his electrifying performance in The Last Waltz, a film documentary (produced by Martin Scorsese) of The Band’s farewell concert. Staged at San Francisco’s Winterland ballroom, the Thanksgiving 1976 event was a star-studded affair. Water’s scalding rendition of “Mannish Boy” – on which he was accompanied by The Band and Paul Butterfield on harmonica – was an unforgettable highlight. Subsequent to that, he kept the momentum going with a series of uncompromising albums for Blue Sky that were produced by longtime fan Johnny Winter. These included Hard Again (1977), I’m Ready (1978), Muddy Mississippi Waters Live (1979) and King Bee (1981). All were critical and popular successes. “
” In addition to his musical legacy, Waters helped cultivate a great respect for the blues as one of its most commanding and articulate figureheads. Drummer Levon Helm of The Band, who worked with him on The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album and at The Last Waltz, had this to say about him in a Goldmine magazine interview: “Muddy taught us to take things in context, to be respectful, and to be serious about our music, as he was. He showed us music is a sacred thing.”
” Waters, who remained active till the end, died of a heart attack in 1983. He was 68 years old. In the years since his death, the one-room cedar shack in which he lived on the Stovall Plantation has been preserved as a memorial to Waters’ humble origins”
” Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (b. 7 January 1929 d. March 1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (21 March1920 – 15 May 1985), a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton’s birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up with his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, who was stepfather to Patricia Clapton and her brother Adrian, believing they were his parents and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Clapton’s real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Rose’s first husband, Eric Clapton’s maternal grandfather). Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.
Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records.He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt he’d got it right.
After leaving Hollyfield School, in Surbiton, in 1961, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Artbut was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art. His guitar playing was so advanced that by the age of 16 he was getting noticed. Around this time Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, and the West End.In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group, “The Roosters”, whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness. He stayed with this band from January through August 1963.In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones & The Engineers. “
” By the time Eric Clapton launched his solo career with the release of his self-titled debut album in mid-1970, he was long established as one of the world’s major rock stars due to his group affiliations — the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith — which had demonstrated his claim to being the best rock guitarist of his generation. That it took Clapton so long to go out on his own, however, was evidence of a degree of reticence unusual for one of his stature. And his debut album, though it spawned the Top 40 hit “After Midnight,” was typical of his self-effacing approach: it was, in effect, an album by the group he had lately been featured in, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.
Not surprisingly, before his solo debut had even been released, Clapton had retreated from his solo stance, assembling from the D&B&F ranks the personnel for a group, Derek & the Dominos, with whom he played for most of 1970 and recorded the landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton was largely inactive in 1971 and 1972, due to heroin addiction, but he performed a comeback concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on January 13, 1973, resulting in the album Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert (September 1973). But Clapton did not launch a sustained solo career until July 1974, when he released 461 Ocean Boulevard, which topped the charts and spawned the number one single “I Shot the Sheriff.” “
” A January 1973 comeback concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre re-introduced him to public performing, but his solo career really commenced in earnest a year later with 461 Ocean Boulevard. Recorded in Miami, it was influenced by the mellower likes of J.J. Cale and Bob Marley. Striking a chord with the public, 461 Ocean Boulevard topped the album charts in 1974. Meanwhile, Clapton’s cover of “I Shot the Sheriff,” originally by Bob Marley and the Wailers, helped introduced reggae to a mass audience. Working with a steady band that included guitarist George Terry, Clapton pursued a mellow, song-oriented course that accentuated his husky, laid-back vocals. His Seventies output, including such albums as There’s One in Every Crowd (1975) and No Reason to Cry (1976) has been largely underrated and is ripe for rediscovery. Clapton again struck commercial paydirt in 1977 with Slowhand, a strong set that included Clapton’s definitive version of J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine” and the #3 hit “Lay Down Sally.”
Clapton remained a prolific artist throughout the Eighties, releasing a live double album that reached #2 (Just One Night), cutting two albums (Behind the Sun and August) with Phil Collins as producer, and launching his own label, Duck Records, in 1983, with one of his stronger studio efforts, Money and Cigarettes. In January 1987, he undertook the first of what would become an annual series of multi-night stands at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In 1992, his career received a major boost from his appearance on MTV’s Unplugged series. Returning to his roots on the heels of that acoustic folk-blues set, Clapton next cut a long-promised blues album, From the Cradle (1994). Throughout the Nineties, he continued to amass hits–no mean feat, given the shifting musical climate–including “Tears in Heaven,” a memorable elegy for his late son Conor; “Change the World,” a beatbox-driven collaboration with R&B artist/producer Babyface that won a Grammy for Record of the Year; and “My Father’s Eyes,” a ballad from his 1998 album Pilgrim.”
“ Tears in Heaven” was written after his son’s tragic death. It was co-written with Russ Titelman and acknowledged with a Grammy in 1993.
Most recently, Eric Clapton has organized a benefit concert in honor of Hubert Sumlin, the great bluesman, to take place at the Apollo Theater in New York on February 24, 2012. He will be joined by Jeff Beck, Keb Mo, Levon Helm, and Derek Trucks among others. Clapton is known to sponsor an array of charitable events and concerts. He has also established a rehabilitation clinic in Monserrat to help those with substance abuse problems.
‘ Clapton’ was released on September 27, 2010 by Reprise.
A live album titled Play The Blues Live At Lincoln Center performed with Wynton Marsalis was released on September 13, 2011 by Reprise.
Early 2013 saw the release of ‘Old Sock’, an album of 10 cover songs and two new originals, which was met with mixed reviews, some saying that it was lazy and unnecessary (“little commitment to the music here and even less enthusiasm”) whilst others appreciated the mastery he still exhibits over his craft (“winding down a legendary career with his typical class, reverence to the past and master’s touch”).
Eric Clapton is highly regarded as a premier musician, and continues to remain a force in music today.”
” Sarah Vaughan, in full Sarah Lois Vaughan, byname Sassy or the Divine One (born March 27, 1924, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died April 3, 1990, Hidden Hills, Calif.), American jazz vocalist and pianist known for her rich voice, with an unusually wide range, and for the inventiveness and virtuosity of her improvisations.
Vaughan was the daughter of amateur musicians. She began studying piano and organ at age seven and sang in the church choir. After winning an amateur contest at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theatre in 1942, she was hired as a singer and second pianist by the Earl Hines Orchestra. A year later she joined the singer Billy Eckstine’s band, where she met Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Vaughan’s singing style was influenced by their instruments—“I always wanted to imitate the horns.” Gillespie, Parker, and Vaughan recorded “Lover Man” together in 1945.”
” During the five-year contract with Columbia that marked her rise to stardom (1949-54), she recorded often with studio orchestras and only once in a jazz context (with Miles Davis in 1950). A new contract with Mercury (1954-9) allowed her to pursue a dual career: for Mercury she made commercial discs, including her hit Broken-Hearted Melody(1958), while for EmArcy, Mercury’s jazz subsidiary, she recorded with Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, the sidemen of Count Basie‘s orchestra, and other jazz musicians. She combined these activities under later contracts with Roulette, Mercury, and Columbia (1960-67). In 1971, after a five-year absence from recording, she began once again to make popular albums, occasionally employing a jazz-flavored accompaniment, as on her album with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson in 1978. In public performances Vaughan is accompanied by a trio of piano, double bass, and drums, either alone or as the nucleus of a big band or symphony orchestra. Among the distinguished members of her group have been Jimmy Jones (1947-52; 1954-8), Roy Haynes (1953-4), Richard Davis (late 1950s-early 1960s), Roland Hanna (early 1960s), Bob James (1965-8), Jan Hammer(1970-71), Jimmy Cobb(1970-78), Andy Simpkins (from 1979), and Harold Jones (from 1980). From 1978 to 1980 the trio became a quartet under the leadership of Vaughan’s then manager, conductor, and husband, Waymon Reed. In 1987, Vaughan recorded an album of Latin-jazz songs. “
” In 1958, Vaughan was earning a yearly income of $230,000. In July of the following year, she scored her first million-selling hit, “Broken Hearted Melody,” with the Ray Ellis Orchestra. A hit with both black and white audiences, “Broken Hearted Melody,” which was nominated for a Grammy Award, reached number five on the pop R&B charts.
When Vaughan’s contract with Mercury ended in the fall of 1959, she signed with Roulette Records and became, over the next few years, one the label’s biggest stars. Her 1960 sessions for Roulette included “The Divine One,” arranged by Jimmy Jones and a session with Count Basie Band featuring such talents as trumpeters Thad Jones and Joe Newman and saxophonists Frank Foster and Billy Mitchell. Featured in duet numbers with singer Joe Williams, the Basie Band session produced the sides, “If I Were a Bell” and “Teach Me Tonight.” “
” Her voice, which has four octaves and out-classes that of most operatic sopranos, came in unequal parts, a rich middle section, a little-girl high register, and a sometimes vulgar, echoing bottom range. She uses it like a horn . . . ” wrote Whitney Balliett, in New Yorker Magazine, July, 1977. (Balliett is a writer of America’s unique art form, jazz. His criticism is esteemed by fans and colleagues wherever music is performed.)”
” While most of the country is shivering in the cold, a theme park wants you to shiver with excitement at what it calls the world’s tallest and fastest “giga” coaster expected to make its debut later this month.
Carowinds, one of 11 amusement parks operated by Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair LP (NYSE: FUN), made the first test run Wednesday of its 325-foot-tall Fury 325 earlier this week. Its first passenger was a video camera, but when it opens March 27, 32 visitors in each open-air train car will be able to experience the climb to the top of the hill, a 81-degree drop and speeds of up to 95 miles an hour.
A giga coaster, a term coined by Cedar Fair’s first park, Cedar Point, has a drop from 300 to 399 feet. The next class is a “strata” coaster with a height of more than 400 feet.
In comparison, the Statue of Liberty stands 305 feet, 1 inch from the ground to the tip of the torch, according to the National Park Service.
When the Fury 325 opens, it will be among the five tallest roller coasters in the world, coming in at No. 3 or No. 5 depending on whether you’re including shuttle roller coasters, according to UltimateRollercoaster.com and EntertainmentDesigner.com. Steel-track shuttle coasters don’t travel a complete circuit.”
” New York City Drone Film Festival is the world’s first event exclusively dedicated to celebrating the art of drone cinematography. The festival provides a platform for aerial filmmakers to showcase their work (shot anywhere in the world), emphasizing innovative flight technique, aesthetic beauty, and more. Director, landscape photographer, and aerial cinematographer Randy Scott Slavin founded the festival in 2014 with a desire to change the perceptions of drones. “I’m tired of drones being synonymous with questionable legality and FAA regulation. I want to celebrate the art of aerial cinematography”
Submissions for the 2015 festival are closed.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Te 2015 New York City Drone Film Festival Will Take Place:
The Official After Party Is At 10:30PM @ FC Gotham 409 W 13TH ST, New York, NY 10014
On Sunday March 8th, The NYCDFF, New York City Drone Users Group And The AMA
will host an official fly-in. Bring your drones and come fly with the NYC drone scene.
1:00 PM Sunday March 8th at Sea View Rotary RC Club Calvert Vaux Park Entrance on Shore Parkway Service Road Gravesend Bay, Shore Parkway service road, Bay 44-Bay 49 Streets Brooklyn, NY “
Among the videos on view will be film clips from drone artists such as: Yeah Drones , Roberto Serrini , Corridor Digital , Jos Stiglingh , Jacob Southard , Gabriel Ng , Per Von Koch and Davey Orgill .
At the present time tickets are sold out but due to the high demand the producers are considering adding a second screening . You can show your interest and perhaps gain potential tickets by signing up to their mailing list here .
Below are the film categories to receive awards :
” The festival jury will present awards to films in various categories including:
-Narrative
-Landscape/Travel
-Reel
-FPV/Proximity/Technical Flying
-Architecture
-X-Factor
-Most epic Dronie
-Best In Show
-Audience choice award “
Fellow drone fans and pilots that , like ourselves , were not lucky enough to land tickets for this cool show can at least salve their wounded feelings with one of the cool T-shirts or the poster available from the on-line gift shop . one example of which is displayed below :
Of course if you are in the NY city area on the 7th , drive by the theater , who knows maybe there will be some scalpers to provide you with a ticket to his sold-out show .
” The amateur photographer who took a picture of a weasel on the back of a woodpecker mid-flight says it is “almost a dream”.
Martin Le-May took it while walking with his wife in Hornchurch Country Park in east London. He said “It’s almost a dream that you take a photograph that lots and lots of people not only look at but like”. “
Watching the video and hearing Mr Le-May explain the circumstances of the tiny weasel attempting to take down prey nearly twice it’s size immediately brought to mind this old Merry Melodies cartoon :
Like the weasel , this tiny chickenhawk had the “cojones” to tackle prey many times his size , namely Foghorn Leghorn … LOL
” This Viral video of an ice sled used for transportation across ice utilizes a John Boat and metal pipe runners. The old gas engine has a centrifigal clutch that engages the large saw blade that bites into the ice and gives it forward momentum. Forrunner to snowmobile.
Angling for Free Fishing Videos? Here is a video on Fishing Tips and Tricks, I do video on many species such as Catfish, Walleye, Muskie, Northern, Panfish, Salmon to include most freshwater and some saltwater fish. Information good from Fishing Pro to Novice angler will like this instruction where you can Discover Fishing when you are on the hunt for big fish. I will be talking about Fish, Fishing, Outdoors, lures, boats, motors, rods, reels, Bass, Boating, and wildlife.”
(Photo credit: Jonathan Nimerfroh – Instagram: @jdnphotography)
” The record-setting winter of 2015 has left us with all kinds of remarkable images, most of them of snow and ice. But a photographer on Nantucket found something most of us have never seen – nearly frozen waves.”
” Jonathan Nimerfroh was walking along a beach on the island recently when he saw these waves rolling in like slush. “ It looks like a big Slurpee rolling ashore,” Fisher said. “
” Drone footage gave a rare bird’s-eye-view of one of Russia’s many plane graveyards earlier in February, capturing amazing shots of the Central Air Force Museum located just 40 kilometres (24.
You can use the footage in all types of projects including commercial. Don’t forget to write/link our channel’s name in the description where video material .”
” It was certainly the catch of the day for a New York City teenager when he “caught the fish of a lifetime,” a 1,058-pound blue marlin, off the Kona coast on Wednesday.
” I would imagine that there’s not very many more things as exhilarating than catching a ‘grander’ in Kona,” said 16-year-old Kai Rizzuto.”
” The gargantuan marlin measured 11 feet from its jaw to tail and took Kai 30 minutes to reel in. “It was a 30-minute fight. I’ll tell you it was the hardest 30 minutes I’ve ever fought a fish,” said Rizzuto. “When I saw that fish at the end of line I was just thinking, don’t break off. Do not break off.” “
” HydraSports Custom is unveiling 53’ Sueños, the world’s largest, outboard powered, center console at the Miami International Boat Show in February 2015.”
” The most common question has been, “Why such a large boat?” The answer is simple according to Elias De La Torre III, CEO of HydraSports Custom boats, “We’ve sold 140 of the 42’ center consoles and our boat owners have requested a larger boat to move into.” After extensive market research and input from current HydraSports boat owners it seemed the market was finally ready. “
” As with all HydraSports Custom boats, 53’ Sueños, will have very limited production. The plan is to build no more than 12 of these boats per year for world-wide distribution via a network of factory direct test centers.”
” This boat features Advanced Combat Craft Construction leveraging two million dollars of US Navy funded research for their Advanced Combatant Craft. Developed by Structural Composites this technology has won numerous awards including three Congressional Medals of Merit.”
The specs are just as impressive as the photos …
” LENGTH 52′ 11″
BEAM 13′
DEADRISE TBD
WEIGHT 28,323 LBS DRY W/ QUAD SEVEN MARINE 557
HORSEPOWER RATING NO MAX
FUEL CAPACITY 1,000 STANDARD
FRESHWATER CAPACITY 100 GALLONS
LIVEWELL CAPACITY 2 @ 60 GALS EACH
DRAFT – ENGINES UP TBD
BRIDGE CLEARANCE WITH THE TOP TBD
OUTRIGGERS FOLDED ADD TBD “
We are particularly impressed with the “No Max Horsepower Rating” , meaning that as of now there is no combination of outboards manufactured that this boat cannot accommodate . Wow . Thousand gallon fuel capacity … Wow
This boat sets a new gold standard in center console fishing machines , from the flatscreen TV to the granite countertops the interior is not something one would expect on your normal fishing boat . Go to Hydrasports’ page for much more info and picture of this ground-breaking center console yacht .
Additional info on this massive open ride can be found at the following links:
” Corgis are now listed as a “vulnerable” breed in the United Kingdom, only a week after the Sunday Express newspaper reported Queen Elizabeth would no longer introduce more of the dogs in the royal household.
” Pembroke Welsh Corgis” are joining their cousins, the “Cardigan Welsh Corgis,” and 28 other breeds on the list, which is updated each year by the Kennel Club, a British organization promoting the health and welfare of dogs.
Last year, registration numbers for Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies were at 274, falling under the 300 threshold needed to stay off the list. They had been on a watch list for the past four years when the number fell under 450. While overall numbers of Corgis are estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Caroline Kisko from the Kennel Club told ABC News there had been a 16 percent drop since 2013.
Why are the numbers declining? Because celebrities aren’t buying Corgis, Kisko said. “It makes sense when you look at the increased popularity of exotic breeds: French bulldogs registrations have gone up from 350 in 2004 to 9,000 last year.”
“ People are daft,” Kisko said, “because celebrity isn’t a good reason to buy a dog. Corgis are for everyone. They are fun, intelligent and active. We want people to do their research before buying a dog.”
Not everyone believes in the celebrity factor. Diana King, chairwoman of the Welsh Corgi League, told ABC News she believes the decline is due to a 2007 ban on tail-docking (the practice of cutting off the animal’s tail) in the U.K.”
More on the fall from favor of the quintessential British dog at ABC News
” More than 200 snow and ice sculptures have been erected for the Sapporo Snow Festival, which opens Feb. 5. Among the main attractions this year in the city that hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics is a gigantic Disney-sponsored tribute to the classic sci-fi movie Star Wars , a marketing spectacle in advance of the next installment in the series, set to be released this coming December. “
” The design, approved by Lucasfilms, features the villainous Darth Vader wielding an icy lightsaber, flanked by a posse of three Stormtroopers. Following the festival’s tradition, Japanese army troops built Snow Star Wars, as it’s called.
With a squadron of bulldozers, the Hokkaido-based 11th Brigade of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force worked on the project for almost a month. “
While Darth and crew have stolen the show the video below gives the readers a taste of some of the the other fabulous happenings taking place at the Festival.
Click through to see a series of photos documenting the construction of Darth and his stormtroopers …
” Star Wars fans are sure to want to make of get their hands on this awesome Millennium Falcon drone that has been created by hobbyist and drone master builder and YouTube member, Oliver C, who’s next project is going to be a Tie Fighter.
The Millennium Falcon drone custom skin is constructed from lightweight foam and fits snuggle onto the original chassis of the drone. You can see it being tested as a prototype and flown outside in the videos below.”
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Sarah Vaughan
YouViewed/Editorial 