” Beck grew up in Wallington, England. His mother’s piano playing and the family’s radio tuned to everything from dance to classical made sure Beck was surrounded by music from a young age.
“ For my parents, who lived through the war, music was a source of comfort to them. Life was tense and music helped them forget about their troubles. I’m sure that made an impression on me,” recalls Beck. “I was really small when jazz broke through in England and I can still remember sneaking off to the living room to listen to it on the radio—much to my parent’s disapproval.”
Inspired by the music he heard, it wasn’t long before Beck picked up a guitar and began playing around London. He briefly attended Wimbledon’s Art College before leaving to devote all of his time to music. Beck worked as a session player, with Screaming Lord Sutch – the British equivalent to Screaming Jay Hawkins – and the Tridents before he replaced Eric Clapton as the Yardbirds’ lead guitarist in 1965.”
Much of Beck’s recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound and his releases have spanned genresranging from blues-rock, heavy metal,jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates.
All About Jazz is celebrating Jeff Beck’s birthday today!
” Jeff Beck isn’t your typical guitar legend. His goal, in fact, is to make you forget that he plays guitar. “I don\’t understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound,” says Beck.”Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off… Read more. “
” This Jeff Beck recordings listing is arranged in chronological order, except for the recordings he made with the Yardbirds. Jeff Beck was a member of the Yardbirds for two years and some of the recordings he made with them were not released until 14 years later. All records listed are US and England, unless otherwise specified.”
25 December1995, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (lung cancer and emphysema)
Birth Name
Dino Paul Crocetti
Nickname
Dino King Leer (given to him by Life magazine)
Height
5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Biography
” Though best known for the 51 films he made, Dean Martin was a prizefighter, steel mill laborer, gas station attendant and card shark before seeing the first glimmer of fame. It came when he teamed up with comedian Jerry Lewis in 1946. Films such as At War with the Army (1950) sent the team toward superstardom. After teaming with Lewis, Martin – born Dino Paul Crocetti – became a dramatic actor and the star of a long-running television variety show. Personality conflicts broke up the comedy duo in 1957. Few thought that Martin would go one to achieve solo success, but he did, winning critical acclaim for his role in The Young Lions (1958) with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. A succession of films followed for the singer-actor, including Some Came Running (1958) with Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra. All would later be members of the “Rat Pack.” Martin learned well and proved potent at the box office throughout the 1960s, with films such as Bells Are Ringing (1960) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), again with Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra. During much of the 1960s and 1970s Martin’s movie persona of a boozing playboy prompted a series of films as secret agent Matt Helm and his own television variety show. Airport (1970) followed, featuring Martin as a pilot. He also played a phony priest in The Cannonball Run (1981). His last public role was a return to the stage, for a cross-country concert tour with Davis and Sinatra. He spoke affectionately of his fellow Rat Packers. “The satisfaction that I get out of working with these two bums is that we have more laughs than the audience has”, Martin said. “
Trade Mark
Cigarette and a glass of alcohol whenever he was doing his night club acts
Trivia
” His son, Dean Paul Martin (Dino), was killed in a plane crash in March 1987.
” Much of the “booze” that he drank on stage during his famous “Rat Pack” performances was really apple juice. (Son Dean Paul Martin spilled this secret, after the variety show ended production, stating that his father couldn’t have performed if he’d really drunk that much liquor.)”
” He and Frank Sinatra were best friends, a fact he held very dear to his heart. The two didn’t speak much, in the years after Dean quit the “Rat Pack Reunion” tour, but they did reconcile a few months before his death, over dinner – and a breadroll fight.”
” Dean is one of few actors who have received not just one, but three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for Motion Pictures at 6519 Hollywood Blvd., one for Television at 6651 Hollywood Blvd, and a third for his recording career.”
” Dean’s TV career began in 1950 with The Martin & Lewis Show on The Colgate Comedy Hour, which ran through 1955. He hosted various other shows before reluctantly taking the 1965 gig which turned into a 19-year success under various names.”
” Under the tutelage of his imposing father, himself a historian and economist, John Stuart Mill began his intellectual journey at an early age, starting his study of Greek at the age of three and Latin at eight. Mill’s father was a proponent of Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy of utilitarianism, and John Stuart Mill began embracing it himself in his middle teens.
Born in 1806, John Stuart Mill was the eldest son of James Mill and Harriet Barrow (whose influence on Mill was vastly overshadowed by that of his father). A struggling man of letters, James Mill wrote History of British India (1818), and the work landed him a coveted position in the East India Company, where he rose to the post of chief examiner. When not carrying out his administrative duties, James Mill spent considerable time educating his son John, who began to learn Greek at age three and Latin at age eight. By the age of 14, John was extremely well versed in the Greek and Latin classics; had studied world history, logic and mathematics; and had mastered the basics of economic theory, all of which was part of his father’s plan to make John Stuart Mill a young proponent of the views of the philosophical radicals.
By his late teens, Mill spent many hours editing Jeremy Bentham’s manuscripts, and he threw himself into the work of the philosophic radicals (still guided by his father). He also founded a number of intellectual societies and began to contribute to periodicals, including the Westminster Review (which was founded by Bentham and James Mill). In 1823, his father secured him a junior position in the East India Company, and he, like his father before him, rose in the ranks, eventually taking his father’s position of chief examiner.”
” It was not until 1843 that John Stuart Mill became known as a philosopher. In this same year he published System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, his most systematic work.
Whatever is known to us by consciousness, is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels. No science is required for the purpose of establishing such truths; no rules of art can render our knowledge of them more certain than it is in itself. There is no logic for this portion of our knowledge. But we may fancy that we see or feel what we in reality infer.
Attacking “intuitionist” philosophy, he argues in favour of logic as the most adequate method of proof. Despite the fact that truth “may seem to be apprehended intuitively,” Mill stresses the fact that, “it has long been ascertained that what is perceived by the eye, is at most nothing more than a variously colored surface.” It thus the object of logic to “distinguish between things proved and things not proved, between what is worthy and what is unworthy of belief.”
In 1848, Mill published Principles of Political Economy, which soon became the most important text of his time. The book examines the conditions of production, namely labour and nature. Following Ricardo and Malthus, he emphasizes the possibility of change and social improvement and examines environmental protection needs. In order for these to be obtained, he considers a limitation of both economic growth and population growth, as the polis itself is indispensable. Furthermore, Mill argued in favour of worker-owned cooperatives, which clearly reflect his views.
On Liberty, published in 1859, caused the greatest controversy of John Stuart Mill’s career and has since become a classic of liberal thought. Written and developed in close collaboration with his wife, Harriet Taylor, Mill examines the nature of power and argues for an absolute freedom of thought and speech. For Mill it is only through such “freedom” that human progress can be attained and preserved. As he states: “The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, […] but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” He thus asserts a„very simple principle“: “that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others[…] The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” “
” John Stuart Mill’s view onliberty, which was influenced by Joseph Priestley and Josiah Warren, is that the individual ought to be free to do as he wishes unless he harms others. Individuals are rational enough to make decisions about their good being and choose any religion they want to. Government should interfere when it is for the protection of society. Mill explains,
“The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right…The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns him, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
Freedom of speech
An influential advocate of freedom of speech, Mill objected to censorship. He says:
I choose, by preference the cases which are least favourable to me – In which the argument opposing freedom of opinion, both on truth and that of utility, is considered the strongest. Let the opinions impugned be the belief of God and in a future state, or any of the commonly received doctrines of morality… But I must be permitted to observe that it is not the feeling sure of a doctrine (be it what it may) which I call an assumption of infallibility. It is the undertaking to decide that question for others, without allowing them to hear what can be said on the contrary side. And I denounce and reprobate this pretension not the less if it is put forth on the side of my most solemn convictions. However, positive anyone’s persuasion may be, not only of the faculty but of the pernicious consequences, but (to adopt expressions which I altogether condemn) the immorality and impiety of opinion. – yet if, in pursuance of that private judgement, though backed by the public judgement of his country or contemporaries, he prevents the opinion from being heard in its defence, he assumes infallibility. And so far from the assumption being less objectionable or less dangerous because the opinion is called immoral or impious, this is the case of all others in which it is most fatal. “
Hayek served in World War I and said that his experience in the war and his desire to help avoid the mistakes that had led to the war led him to his career. Hayek lived in Austria, Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and became a British subject in 1938. He spent most of his academic life at the London School of Economics (LSE), the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg.
” If any twentieth-century economist was a Renaissance man, it was Friedrich Hayek. He made fundamental contributions in political theory, psychology, and economics. In a field in which the relevance of ideas often is eclipsed by expansions on an initial theory, many of his contributions are so remarkable that people still read them more than fifty years after they were written. Many graduate economics students today, for example, study his articles from the 1930s and 1940s on economics and knowledge, deriving insights that some of their elders in the economics profession still do not totally understand. It would not be surprising if a substantial minority of economists still read and learn from his articles in the year 2050. In his book Commanding Heights, Daniel Yergin called Hayek the “preeminent” economist of the last half of the twentieth century.”
Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political EconomyDenationalisation of Money: An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of Concurrent Currencies (1976)
” Ma Rainey wasn’t the first blues singer to make records, but by all rights she probably should have been. In an era when women were the marquee names in blues, Rainey was once the most celebrated of all; the “Mother of the Blues” had been singing the music for more than 20 years before she made her recording debut (Paramount, 1923). With the advent of blues records, she became even more influential, immortalizing such songs as “See See Rider,” “Bo-Weavil Blues,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Like the other classic blues divas, she had a repertoire of pop and minstrel songs as well as blues, but she maintained a heavier, tougher vocal delivery than the cabaret blues singers who followed.Rainey‘s records featured her with jug bands, guitar duos, and bluesmen such as Tampa Red and Blind Blake, in addition to the more customary horns-and-piano jazz-band accompaniment (occasionally including such luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and Fletcher Henderson).
Born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, Ma Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett) began singing professionally when she was a teenager, performing with a number of minstrel and medicine shows. In 1904, she married William “Pa” Rainey and she changed her name to “Ma” Rainey. The couple performed as “Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues” and toured throughout the south, performing with several minstrel shows, circuses, and tent shows. According to legend, she gave a young Bessie Smith vocal lessons during this time. By the early ’20s, Rainey had become a featured performer on the Theater Owners’ Booking Association circuit.” Continue reading
” J.B. Hutto — along with Hound Dog Taylor — was one of the last great slide guitar disciples of Elmore James to make it into the modern age. Hutto‘s huge voice, largely incomprehensible diction, and slash-and-burn playing was Chicago blues with a fierce, raw edge all its own. He entered the world of music back home in Augusta, GA, singing in the family-oriented group the Golden Crowns Gospel Singers. He came north to Chicago in the mid-’40s, teaching himself guitar and eventually landing his first paying job as a member of Johnny Ferguson & His Twisters. His recording career started in 1954 with two sessions for the Chance label supported by his original combo the Hawks (featuring George Mayweather on harmonica, Porkchop Hines on washboard traps, and Joe Custom on rhythm guitar), resulting in six of the nine songs recorded being issued as singles to scant acclaim. After breaking up the original band, Hutto worked outside of music for a good decade, part of it spent sweeping out a funeral parlor! He resurfaced around 1964 with a stripped-down version of the Hawks with two guitars and drums but no bass, working regularly at Turner’s Blue Lounge and recording blistering new sides for the first time in as many years.” Continue reading
” Best known as a traveling companion of Robert Johnson, Johnny Shines‘ own contributions to the blues have often been unfairly shortchanged, simply because Johnson‘s own legend casts such a long shadow. In his early days, Shines was one of the top slide guitarists in Delta blues, with his own distinctive, energized style; one that may have echoed Johnson‘s spirit and influence, but was never a mere imitation. Shines eventually made his way north to Chicago, and made the transition to electrified urban blues with ease, helped in part by his robust, impassioned vocals. He was vastly under-recorded during his prime years, even quitting the music business for a time, but was rediscovered in the late ’60s and recorded and toured steadily for quite some time. A 1980 stroke robbed him of some of his dexterity on guitar, but his voice remained a powerfully emotive instrument, and he performed up until his death in 1992.
John Ned Shines was born April 26, 1915, in Frayser, TN, and grew up in Memphis from the age of six. Part of a musical family, he learned guitar from his mother, and as a youth he played for tips on the streets of Memphis with several friends, inspired by the likes of Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, and the young Howlin’ Wolf. In 1932, he moved to Hughes, AR, to work as a sharecropper, keeping up his musical activities on the side; in 1935, he decided to try and make it as a professional musician. Shines had first met Robert Johnson in Memphis in 1934, and he began accompanying Johnson on his wanderings around the Southern juke-joint circuit, playing wherever they could find gigs; the two made their way as far north as Windsor, Ontario, where they appeared on a radio program. After around three years on the road together — which made Shines one of Johnson‘s most intimate associates, along with Johnson‘s stepson Robert Jr. Lockwood — the two split up in Arkansas in 1937, and never saw each other again before Johnson‘s death in 1938.”Continue reading
” Big Walter Horton, sometimes known as Shakey Walter Horton, is one of the most influential blues harmonica players of all time, and a particular pioneer in the field of amplified harmonica. He isn’t as widely known as his fellow Chicago blues pioneers Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson II, due mostly to the fact that, as a rather shy, quiet individual, he never had much taste for leading his own bands or recording sessions. But his style was utterly distinctive, marked by an enormous, horn-like tone, virtuosic single-note lines, fluid phrasing, and an expansive sense of space. Horton‘s amplified harp work graced sides by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Rush, Johnny Shines, Tampa Red, and many others; he was frequently cited as an inspiration by younger players, and most accounts of his life mention a testimonial from legendary bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, who once called Horton“the best harmonica player I ever heard.”
Horton was born April 6, 1918, in Horn Lake, MS, near Memphis. He began teaching himself to play the harmonica — a gift from his father — at age five, and moved with his mother to Memphis not long after, where he played in Handy Park (near the famed Beale Street) for tips. During his preteen years in the late ’20s, he played — and likely recorded at least a couple of sides — with the Memphis Jug Band(as Shakey Walter); he also learned more about his craft from Will Shade, the Jug Band‘s main harmonica player, and Hammie Nixon, a cohort of Sleepy John Estes. Horton played wherever he could during the Depression — dances, parties, juke joints, street corners — and teamed up with the likes of Robert Johnson, Johnny Shines, Homesick James, and David “Honeyboy” Edwards, among others; he also worked as a sideman in several touring blues bands, including those of Ma Rainey and Big Joe Williams, and spent his first brief period in Chicago. In 1939, he backed guitarist Charlie “Little Buddy” Doyle on some sessions for Columbia. Around the same time (according to Horton himself), he began to experiment with amplifying his harmonica, which if accurate may have made him the first to do so. ” Continue reading
” 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.”
Happy Birthday To Johnny “Clyde” Copeland , Robert “Jr” Lockwood , Leroy Carr & A Woman Who , While More Of The Jazz World Than That Of The Blues , Was A True Giant Of Music , Ms Sarah Vaughan
” Considering the amount of time he spent steadily rolling from gig to gig, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland‘s rise to prominence in the blues world in the early ’90s wasn’t all that surprising. A contract with the PolyGram/Verve label put his ’90s recordings into the hands of thousands of blues lovers around the world. It’s not that Copeland‘s talent changed all that much since he recorded for Rounder Records in the ’80s; it’s just that major companies began to see the potential of great, hardworking blues musicians like Copeland. Unfortunately, he was forced to slow down in 1995-1996 because of heart-related complications, yet he continued to perform shows until his death in July of 1997.
Johnny Copeland was born March 27, 1937, in Haynesville, Louisiana, about 15 miles south of Magnolia, Arkansas (formerly Texarkana, a hotbed of blues activity in the ’20s and ’30s). The son of sharecroppers, his father died when he was very young, but Copeland was given his father’s guitar. His first gig was with his friendJoe “Guitar” Hughes. Soon after, Hughes “took sick” for a week and the young Copeland discovered he could be a frontman and deliver vocals as well as anyone else around Houston at that time.
His music, by his own reasoning, fell somewhere between the funky R&B of New Orleans and the swing and jump blues of Kansas City. After his family (sans his father) moved to Houston, a teenage Copeland was exposed to musicians from both cities. While he was becoming interested in music, he also pursued boxing, mostly as an avocation, and it is from his days as a boxer that he got his nickname “Clyde.” ” Continue reading
” Robert Lockwood, Jr., learned his blues firsthand from an unimpeachable source: the immortal Robert Johnson. Lockwood was capable of conjuring up the bone-chilling Johnson sound whenever he desired, but he was never one to linger in the past for long — which accounts for the jazzy swing he often brought to the licks he played on his 12-string electric guitar.
Born in 1915,Lockwood was one of the last living links to the glorious Johnson legacy. When Lockwood‘s mother became romantically involved with the charismatic rambler in Helena, AR, the quiet teenager suddenly gained a role model and a close friend — so close that Lockwood considered himself Johnson‘s stepson. Robert Jr. learned how to play guitar very quickly with Johnson‘s expert help, assimilating Johnson‘s technique inside and out.
Following Johnson‘s tragic murder in 1938, Lockwood embarked on his own intriguing musical journey. He was among the first bluesmen to score an electric guitar in 1938 and eventually made his way to Chicago, where he cut four seminal tracks for Bluebird. Jazz elements steadily crept into Lockwood‘s dazzling fretwork, although his role as Sonny Boy Williamson‘s musical partner on the fabled KFFA King Biscuit Time radio broadcasts during the early ’40s out of Helena, AR, probably didn’t emphasize that side of his dexterity all that much.
Settling in Chicago in 1950, Lockwood swiftly gained a reputation as a versatile in-demand studio sideman, recording behind harp genius Little Walter, piano masters Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Boyd, and plenty more. Solo recording opportunities were scarce, though Lockwood did cut fine singles in 1951 for Mercury (“I’m Gonna Dig Myself a Hole” and a very early “Dust My Broom”) and in 1955 for JOB (“Sweet Woman from Maine”/”Aw Aw Baby”). “Continue reading
” The term “urban blues” is usually applied to post-World War II blues band music, but one of the forefathers of the genre in its pre-electric format was pianist Leroy Carr. Teamed with the exemplary guitarist Scrapper Blackwell in Indianapolis, Carr became one of the top blues stars of his day, composing and recording almost 200 sides during his short lifetime, including such classics as “How Long, How Long,” “Prison Bound Blues,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” and “Blues Before Sunrise.” His blues were expressive and evocative, recorded only with piano and guitar, yet as author Sam Charters has noted, Carr was “a city man” whose singing was never as rough or intense as that of the country bluesmen, and as reissue producer Francis Smith put it, “He, perhaps more than any other single artist, was responsible for transforming the rural blues patterns of the ’20s into the more city-oriented blues of the ’30s.”
Born in Nashville, Leroy Carr moved to Indianapolis as a child. While he was still in his teens, he taught himself how to play piano. Carr quit school in his mid-teens, heading out for a life on the road. For the next few years, he would play piano at various parties and dances in the Midwest and South. During this time, he held a number of odd jobs — he joined a circus, he was in the Army for a while, and he was briefly a bootlegger. In addition to his string of jobs, he was married for a short time.” Continue reading
Finally , happy birthday to one of the most beautiful voices to ever grace God’s green earth , Ms Sarah “Sassie” Vaughan while know for her jazz singing ” I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues”
” Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century, Sarah Vaughan ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon of female jazz singers. She often gave the impression that with her wide range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she could do anything she wanted with her voice. Although not all of her many recordings are essential (give Vaughan a weak song and she might strangle it to death), Sarah Vaughan‘s legacy as a performer and a recording artist will be very difficult to match in the future.
Vaughan sang in church as a child and had extensive piano lessons from 1931-39; she developed into a capable keyboardist. After she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater, she was hired for the Earl Hines big band as a singer and second vocalist. Unfortunately, the musicians’ recording strike kept her off record during this period (1943-44). When lifelong friend Billy Eckstine broke away to form his own orchestra, Vaughan joined him, making her recording debut. She loved being with Eckstine‘s orchestra, where she became influenced by a couple of his sidemen, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom had also been with Hines during her stint. Vaughan was one of the first singers to fully incorporate bop phrasing in her singing, and to have the vocal chops to pull it off on the level of a Parker and Gillespie.”Continue reading
” Pianist and singer/songwriter Marcia Ball is a living example of how East Texas blues meets southwest Louisiana swamp rock. Ball was born March 20, 1949, in Orange, Texas, but grew up across the border in Vinton, Louisiana. That town is squarely in the heart of “the Texas triangle,” an area that includes portions of both states and that has produced some of the country’s greatest blues talents: Janis Joplin, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Queen Ida Guillory, Lonnie Brooks, Zachary Richard, Clifton Chenier, and Kenny Neal, to name a few. Ball‘s earliest awareness of blues came over the radio, where she heard people like Irma Thomas, Professor Longhair, and Etta James, all of whom she now credits as influences. She began playing piano at age five, learning from her grandmother and aunt and also taking formal lessons from a teacher.
Ball entered Louisiana State University in the late ’60s as an English major; in college, she played in the psychedelic rock & roll band Gum. In 1970, Ball and her first husband were headed West in their car to San Francisco, but the car needed repairs in Austin, where they had stopped off to visit one of their former bandmates. After experiencing some of the music, sights, and food in Austin, the two decided to stay there. Ball has been based in Austin ever since.
Her piano style, which mixes equal parts boogie-woogie with zydeco and Louisiana swamp rock, is best exemplified on her series of excellent recordings for the Rounder label. They include Soulful Dress (1983), Hot Tamale Baby (1985),Gatorhythms (1989), and Blue House (1994). Also worthy of checking out is her collaboration with Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton on the Antone’s label, Dreams Come True(1990). Ball, like her peer Strehli, is an educated business woman fully aware of all the realities of the record business.Ball never records until she feels she’s got a batch of top-notch, quality songs. Most of the songs on her albums are her own creations, so songwriting is a big part of her job description. ” … Continued
” As a founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughan was one of the leading Austin, Texas guitarists of the late ’70s and ’80s, responsible for opening the national market up for gritty roadhouse blues and R&B. Influenced by guitarists like Freddie King, B.B. King, and Albert King,Vaughan developed a tough, lean sound that became one of the most recognizable sounds of ’70s and ’80s blues and blues-rock. For most of his career, Vaughan co-led the Fabulous Thunderbirds with vocalist Kim Wilson. It wasn’t until 1994 that he launched a full-fledged solo career.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Jimmie Vaughan began playing guitar as a child. Initially, Vaughan was influenced by both blues and rock & roll. While he was in his teens, he played in a number of garage rock bands, none of which attained any success. At the age of 19, he left Dallas and moved to Austin. For his first few years in Austin, Vaughan played in a variety of blues bar bands. In 1972, he formed his own group, the Storm, which supported many touring blues musicians.
In 1974, Vaughan met a vocalist and harmonica player named Kim Wilson. Within a year, the pair had formed the Fabulous Thunderbirds along with bassist Keith Furguson and drummer Mike Buck. For four years, the T-Birds played local Texas clubs, gaining a strong fan base. By the end of the decade, the group had signed a major label contract with Chrysalis Records and seemed bound for national stardom. However, none of their albums became hits and they were dropped by Chrysalis at the end of 1982.
Happy birthday to two great Texas blues musicians who have made our lives brighter with their fabulous talents . Here’s wishing you both a wonderful day .
” Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins‘ nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour.
Hopkins‘ brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. In 1920, he met the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson at a social function, and even got a chance to play with him. Later, Hopkins served as Jefferson‘s guide. In his teens, Hopkins began working with another pre-war great, singer Texas Alexander, who was his cousin. A mid-’30s stretch in Houston’s County Prison Farm for the young guitarist interrupted their partnership for a time, but when he was freed, Hopkins hooked back up with the older bluesman.
The pair was dishing out their lowdown brand of blues in Houston’s Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. She had already engineered a pact with Los Angeles-based Aladdin Records for another of her charges, pianist Amos Milburn, and Cullum saw the same sort of opportunity within Hopkins‘ dusty country blues. Alexander wasn’t part of the deal; instead, Cullum paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson “Thunder” Smith, sensibly re-christened the guitarist “Lightnin’,” and presto! Hopkins was very soon an Aladdin recording artist.”
” B. 6 March 1893, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA, D. 14 September 1981, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Walter “Furry” Lewis was a songster, a blues musician, a humorist and an all-round entertainer. Raised in the country, he picked up the guitar at an early age and moved into Memphis around 1900 where he busked on the streets. After he ran away from home, he had experience working on traveling medicine shows under the influence of Jim Jackson. He worked with W.C. Handy and claimed that Handy presented him with his first good guitar. Hoboing across country in 1916, he had an accident while hopping a train and consequently lost a leg. After this he moved to Memphis and, while performing and recording, he supplemented his income by sweeping the streets. Apart from periods working on riverboats and with medicine shows in the 20s, this remained the style of his life for approximately the next 40 or more years.
He recorded 11 titles for Vocalion Records in 1927, eight for Victor Records in 1928 and four more for Vocalion in 1929. He had a guitar style that incorporated aspects of both the Mississippi county style and the lighter, more ragged Memphis sound, supplemented by some impressive slide work. His voice was clear and his approach to lyrics often self-mockingly humorous. Several of his recordings were ballads and his treatment of these was equally original. Well known around the city, he sometimes appeared as part of the Memphis Jug Band. He was one of the first pre-war blues artists to be “rediscovered”, and from 1959 he pursued a second successful career on the college circuit and played in several movies, including an unlikely appearance with Burt Reynolds in W.W. And The Dixie Dance Kings. Still an able performer he made many recordings during this period and was confirmed an Honorary Colonel of the State of Tennessee in 1973.”
” Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked No. 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list), and he was ranked No. 17 in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time”.According to Edward M. Komara, King “introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed.”King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname “The King of Blues”, and one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with Albert King and Freddie King). King is also known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at 250-300 concerts per year until his seventies. In 1956 it was noted that he appeared at 342 shows. King continues to appear at 100 shows a year.
Over the years, King has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarists’ vocabulary. His economy and phrasing has been a model for thousands of players. King has mixed blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In King’s words, “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.”
” A singer and guitarist born into a sharecropping family on September 16, 1925, in Itta Bena, Mississippi, B.B. King—born Riley B. King—became one of the best-known blues performers, an important consolidator of blues styles, and a primary model for rock guitarists. Following his service in the U.S. Army, he began his career as a disc jockey in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed “the Beale Street Blues Boy.” That nickname was soon shortened to “B.B.”
King made his first recording in 1949, and the next year began a 12-year-long association with Kent/RPM/Modern, for which he recorded a string of rhythm and blues hits, including “You Know I Love You,” “Woke Up This Morning” and “Three O’Clock Blues,” his first national hit. He also toured the nightclub circuit continuously, averaging more than 300 shows annually for over 30 years. His style of music earned him the title “King of the Blues.”
Coincidentally, the year that King made his first recording was also the same year that he named his beloved guitar. King attended a dance in Twist, Arkansas, that had a barrel lit with kerosene in the middle of the dance floor, used to keep the crowd warm late at night. While there, a fight broke out and the barrel was knocked over, causing a fire to spread throughout the venue. Everyone evacuated, including King, but he rushed back inside to retrieve his prized guitar. Luckily, he managed to escape with his guitar as the building collapsed around him. King later learned that the fight erupted because of a woman who worked at the venue named Lucille. From then on, King named his guitar “Lucille” to remind himself never to do anything so foolish again.”
” After serving briefly in the army, King moved in with his cousin Booker (Bukka) White, also a blues guitarist. King’s attempts to copy Bukka’s playing helped him develop his own style. He sought out Sonny Boy Williamson, who had a radio show on WDIA in West Memphis, and asked to play a song for him. Williamson was so impressed with King that he offered King his own radio show and a chance to play regularly at Miss Annie’s 16th Street Grill. King was able to advertise his upcoming concerts on the radio, and soon he and his trio had become popular. Known on the radio as the “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which was shortened to “Bee-Bee,” and then to his famous initials, King decided he wanted to make records.”
” King was signed to Bullet Records and in 1949 recorded four songs at the radio station, including “Miss Martha King” and “I’ve Got the Blues.” He also continued to perform in the area. Musician and talent scout Ike Turner (1931–) connected King with the Kent/Modern/RPM record label, and King’s King’s 1951 single for his new label, “Three O’Clock Blues,” became a hit. He scored several other hits during these years, and by the mid-1950s he was playing about three hundred shows a year. He would maintain this schedule for over twenty years.”
” The 1950s saw King establish himself as a perennially formidable hitmaking force in the R&B field. Recording mostly in L.A. (the WDIA air shift became impossible to maintain by 1953 due to King‘s endless touring) for RPM and its successor Kent, King scored 20 chart items during that musically tumultuous decade, including such memorable efforts as “You Know I Love You” (1952); “Woke Up This Morning” and “Please Love Me” (1953); “When My Heart Beats like a Hammer,” “Whole Lotta’ Love,” and “You Upset Me Baby” (1954); “Every Day I Have the Blues” (another Fulson remake), the dreamy blues ballad “Sneakin’ Around,” and “Ten Long Years” (1955); “Bad Luck,” “Sweet Little Angel,” and a Platters-like “On My Word of Honor” (1956); and “Please Accept My Love” (first cut by Jimmy Wilson) in 1958. King‘s guitar attack grew more aggressive and pointed as the decade progressed, influencing a legion of up-and-coming axemen across the nation.”
” In 1960, King‘s impassioned two-sided revival of Joe Turner‘s “Sweet Sixteen” became another mammoth seller, and his “Got a Right to Love My Baby” and “Partin’ Time” weren’t far behind. But Kent couldn’t hang onto a star like King forever (and he may have been tired of watching his new LPs consigned directly into the 99-cent bins on the Biharis‘ cheapo Crown logo). Kingmoved over to ABC-Paramount Records in 1962, following the lead of Lloyd Price, Ray Charles, and before long, Fats Domino.
In November of 1964, the guitarist cut his seminal Live at the Regal album at the fabled Chicago theater and excitement virtually leaped out of the grooves. That same year, he enjoyed a minor hit with “How Blue Can You Get,” one of his many signature tunes. “Don’t Answer the Door” in 1966 and “Paying the Cost to Be the Boss” two years later were Top Ten R&B entries, and the socially charged and funk-tinged “Why I Sing the Blues” just missed achieving the same status in 1969. “
” Although B.B. King was a huge star in the African-American music community by 1965 he was still mostly unknown in the White community. This would change in 1965 when Elektra Records released Paul Butterfield’s first Butterfield Blues Band album, featuring the late Mike Bloomfield on guitar. Bloomfield became a star, almost overnight, and when he was asked where he learned to play the way he did, he replied, “By copying B.B.’s licks.” No one knew who “B.B.” was. And when they asked, “B.B.” who? Bloomfield replied, “The real monster; B.B. King.” After this happened B.B. King’s popularity soared. In short order “The Thrill Is Gone” became a big hit, he stopped having to play the “chitlin circuit” small town black clubs and started playing larger jazz clubs, dining rooms of luxury resort hotels, college concerts and rock palaces such as Filmore East .”
” In 1969 B.B. made his first appearance on network television on Johnny Carson’s the “Tonight Show.” In 1971 B.B. sang and played on Ed Sullivan’s show. By this time Sidney A. Seidenberg had come on board as B.B.’s new manager, he helped re-negotiate his old recording contracts with ABC/MCA records and got him major new bookings.
Since the 1970’s B.B. King’s career has moved at a rapid pace up hill. He has recorded over 75 records, has received seven Grammy Awards, including its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, 1984, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1987, become a Member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, 1990, received the Presidential Medal of the Arts, 1990, the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award, 1991, the Kennedy Center Honors, 1995, Presidential Medal of Freedom, American Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment of the Arts, Three NAACP Image Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, 1989/89, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and many, many more.
He has won 22 Downbeat Music Magazine Readers and Critics Poll Awards, 5 Guitar Player Magazine Awards, he has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Yale University and fathered 15 children. He has toured with U2 as the super rock group’s opening act and had a song, “When Love Comes to Town, written for him by U2’s star, lead singer, Bono. B.B. King still works between 250 and 300 days a year, calling himself a “music workaholic.” He lives ( when he takes time to rest ) in Las Vegas, Nevada. and currently plays a Gibson ES-355, a guitar he has been playing for over 25 years. He has played all over the world including Africa, Europe, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and is properly referred to everywhere as “The Ambassador of the Blues,” a title he so richly deserves.”
” B.B. King has influenced the guitar playing of; Eric Clapton, the late Mike Bloomfield, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert Collins, Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. He is one of this country’s living, national treasures, a humble but proud, spiritual and beautiful human being, and still “King of the Blues.” “
” Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being “Bumble Bee”, “Nothing in Rambling”, and “Me and My Chauffeur Blues“. Her performances and songwriting made her well known in a genre dominated mostly by men. She died on August 6, 1973, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Early life
Lizzie Douglas was born on June 3, 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana. She was the eldest of 13 siblings. Her parents Abe and Gertrude Douglas nicknamed her “Kid” during her early childhood. Her family called her “Kid” throughout her childhood because she never liked the name “Lizzie”, and when she first began performing she played under the name Kid Douglas.
When she was 7 she and her family moved to Walls, Mississippi, a town a little to the South of Memphis. The following year she received her first guitar for Christmas, and learned to play banjo by the age of 10 and guitar by the age of 11, when she started playing local parties. The family later moved to Brunswick, Tennessee, but after Minnie’s mother died in 1922 her father moved back to Walls, where he died thirteen years later in 1935.
Career
In 1910, at the age of 13, she ran away from her home to live on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. She played on street corners for most of her teenage years, although she would periodically return to her family’s farm when she ran out of money. Her sidewalk performances led to a four-year tour of the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1916 to 1920. Eventually she came back to Beale Street and got involved in the blues scene. At the time, women, whiskey, and cocaine were high in demand with the people and places she would be around. She made her money by playing guitar, singing, and prostitution, which was not uncommon at the time, since many female performers also worked as prostitutes because of financial desperation.
In 1929 she and Kansas Joe McCoy, her second husband, began to perform together. They were discovered by a talent scout of Columbia Records in front of a barber shop where they were playing for dimes. When she and McCoy went to record in New York, they were given the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie by a Columbia A and R man. During the next few years she and McCoy released a series of records, performing as a duet. In February 1930 they recorded the song “Bumble Bee”, which they had already recorded for Columbia but which had not yet been released, for the Vocalion label. This became one of Minnie’s most popular songs, and she eventually recorded five versions of it. Minnie and McCoy continued to record for Vocalion until August 1934, when they recorded a few sessions for Decca, with their last session together being for Decca in September. They divorced in 1935. She and McCoy introduced country blues to the urban environment and became very well known.
A famous anecdote from Big Bill Broonzy‘s autobiography Big Bill Blues recounts a cutting contest between Minnie and Broonzy. It took place in a Chicago Nightclub on June 26, 1933, for the prize of a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of gin. Each singer was to sing two songs, and after Broonzy sang “Just a Dream” and “Make My Getaway”, Minnie won the prize with “Me and my Chauffeur Blues” and “Looking the World Over”. Paul and Beth Garon, in their book Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie’s Blues, suggest that Broonzy’s account may have combined various contests at different dates, as these songs of Minnie’s date from the 1940s rather than the 1930s.
By 1935 Minnie was established in Chicago, and had became one of the group of musicians who worked regularly for record producer and talent scout Lester Melrose. Back on her own after a divorce from Kansas Joe, Minnie began to experiment with different styles and sounds. She recorded four sides for the Bluebird label in July 1935, then in August of that year she returned to the Vocation label, and then in October of the same year recorded another session for Bluebird, this time accompanied by Casey Bill Weldon. By the end of the 1930s, in addition to her output for Vocalion, Minnie had recorded nearly 20 sides for Decca Records and eight sides for Bluebird Records. During the 1930s Minnie also toured extensively, mainly in the South.
In 1938 Minnie returned to recording for the Vocation label, this time accompanied by Charlie McCoy, Kansas Joe’s brother, on mandolin. Around this time she married guitarist and singer Earnest Lawlars (a.k.a. Little Son Joe) and began recording material with him in 1939, with Son’s playing adding a more rhythmic backing to Minnies’s guitar. Minnie and Little Son Joe also began to release material on Okeh Records in the 1940s, and the couple continued to record together throughout the decade. In May 1941 Minnie recorded her biggest hit, “Me And My Chauffeur Blues.” A follow-up date produced two more blues standards, “Looking The World Over” and Joe’s “Black Rat Swing” (issued as by “Mr. Memphis Minnie”). At the dawn of the 1940s Minnie and Joe continued to work at their “home club”, Chicago’s popular 708 club where they were often joined by Big Bill, Sunnyland Slim, or Snooky Pryor. They also played at many of the other better known Chicago nightclubs. During the 1940s Minnie and Son Joe performed both together and on separate gigs in the Chicago and Indiana areas. Minnie often played at “Blue Monday” parties at Ruby Lee Gatewood’s on Lake Street. The poet Langston Hughes, who saw Minnie perform at the 230 club on New Year’s Eve 1942, wrote of her “hard and strong voice” being made harder and stronger by amplification, and described the sound of her electric guitar as “a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill”.
Later in the 1940s Minnie lived in Indianapolis, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan, returning to Chicago in the early 1950s. By the late 1940s, clubs began hiring younger and cheaper artists to play shows at their venues and Columbia began dropping Blues artists including Memphis Minnie.
Later life and death
Memphis Minnie’s grave (2008)
Minnie continued to record into the 1950s, but her health began to become a problem for her. With public interest in her music declining, she retired from her musical career and in 1957 she and Lawlars returned to Memphis. Periodically, she would appear on Memphis radio stations to encourage young blues musicians. As the Garons wrote in Women With Guitar, ‘She never laid her guitar down, until she could literally no longer pick it up.’ She suffered a stroke in 1960, which caused her to be wheelchair-bound. The following year her husband, Earnest “Little Son Joe” Lawlars died, and Minnie had another stroke a short while after. She could no longer survive on her social security income so magazines wrote about her and readers sent her money for assistance. She spent her last years in the Jell Nursing Home in Memphis where she died of a further stroke in 1973. She is buried at the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Walls, DeSoto County, Mississippi. A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on 13 October 1996 with 35 family members in attendance including her sister, numerous nieces (including Laverne Baker) and nephews. The ceremony was taped for broadcast by the BBC.
Her headstone is marked:
Lizzie “Kid” Douglas Lawlers
aka Memphis Minnie
The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:
“The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie’s songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own.“
Character and personal life
Minnie was known for being a polished professional, and an independent woman who knew how to take care of herself. Although she portrayed herself to the public as being feminine and “lady-like” by wearing expensive dresses and jewelry, she was aggressive when she needed to be and was not shy when it came to fighting. According to bluesman Johnny Shines, “Any men fool with her she’d go for them right away. She didn’t take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she’d use it”. According to Homesick James she chewed tobacco all the time including whenever she sang or played her guitar, and always had a cup at hand in case she wanted to spit. Most of the music she made was autobiographical; Minnie expressed a lot of her personal life through her music.
Minnie was married three times. Although no evidence has been found of any marriage certificates, her first husband is usually said to have been Will Weldon whom she married in the early 1920s. Her second husband was guitarist and mandolin player Joe McCoy (aka Kansas Joe McCoy) whom she married in 1929. They filed for divorce in 1934, with McCoy’s jealousy of Minnie’s rise to fame and success often being said to be the reason. In 1939, she met guitarist Earnest Lawlars (aka Little Son Joe). He became her new musical partner and they married shortly thereafter. Son Joe dedicated songs to her including “Key to The World” in which he addresses her as “the woman I got now” and calls her “the key to the world.” Minnie was also reported to have lived with a man known as “Squirrel” in the mid- to late 1930s.
Minnie was not religious and rarely went to church; the only time she was reported to have gone to church was to see aGospel group perform. While she was baptised shortly before she died, this was probably done to please her sister Daisy Johnson. The home she once lived in still exists at 1355 Adelaide Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Legacy
Memphis Minnie has been described as “the most popular female country blues singer of all time”, while Big Bill Broonzy said that she could “pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I’ve ever heard.” Minnie lived to see her reputation revived in the 1960s as part of the general revival of interest in the blues. She was an influence on later singers such as Big Mama Thornton and Jo Ann Kelly, and was inducted into the Blues Foundation‘s Hall of Fame in 1980.
” On his paper route in Glendale, California, Marion and Duke would stop to visit the local firemen at the fire station. The firemen would always say “here comes Big Duke,” referring to the Airedale, “and Little Duke,” referring to Marion Morrison.
The nickname Duke stuck with Marion Morrison/John Wayne for the rest of his life.”
11 June1979, Los Angeles, California, USA (lung & stomach cancer)
Birth Name
Marion Robert Morrison
Nickname
Duke JW (family nickname)
Height
6′ 4″ (1.93 m)
Mini Biography
” John Wayne (born Marion Morrison) was the son of pharmacist Clyde Morrison and his wife Mary. Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern California, where they tried ranching in the Mojave Desert. Until the ranch failed, Marion and his younger brother Robert E. Morrison swam in an irrigation ditch and rode a horse to school. When the ranch failed, the family moved to Glendale, California, where Marion delivered medicines for his father, sold newspapers and had an Airedale dog named “Duke” (the source of his own nickname). He did well at school both academically and in football. When he narrowly failed admission to Annapolis he went to USC on a football scholarship 1925-7. Tom Mix got him a summer job as a prop man in exchange for football tickets. On the set he became close friends with director John Ford for whom, among others, he began doing bit parts, some billed as John Wayne. His first featured film was Men Without Women (1930). After more than 70 low-budget westerns and adventures, mostly routine, Wayne’s career was stuck in a rut until Ford cast him in Stagecoach (1939), the movie that made him a star. He appeared in nearly 250 movies, many of epic proportions. From 1942-43 he was in a radio series, “The Three Sheets to the Wind”, and in 1944 he helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing political organization, later becoming its President. His conservative political stance was also reflected in The Alamo (1960), which he produced, directed and starred in. His patriotic stand was enshrined in The Green Berets (1968) which he co-directed and starred in. Over the years Wayne was beset with health problems. In September 1964 he had a cancerous left lung removed; in March 1978 there was heart valve replacement surgery; and in January 1979 his stomach was removed. He received the Best Actor nomination for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and finally got the Oscar for his role as one-eyed Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969). A Congressional Gold Medal was struck in his honor in 1979. He is perhaps best remembered for his parts in Ford’s cavalry trilogy – Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950).”
Most published sources refer to Wayne’s birth name as Marion Michael Morrison. His birth certificate, however, gives his original name as Marion Robert Morrison. According to Wayne’s own statements, after the birth of his younger brother in 1911, his parents named the newborn Robert Emmett and changed Wayne’s name from Marion Robert to Marion Michael. It has also been suggested by several of his biographers that Wayne’s parents actually changed his birth name from Marion Robert to Marion Mitchell. In “Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne” (1985), Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer state that when Wayne’s younger brother was born, “the Duke’s middle name was changed from Robert to Mitchell. . . . After he gained celebrity, Duke deliberately confused biographers and others by claiming Michael as his middle name, a claim that had no basis in fact.”
His production company, Batjac, was originally to be called Batjak, after the shipping company owned by Luther Adler‘s character in the filmWake of the Red Witch (1948). A secretary’s typo while she was drawing up the papers resulted in it being called Batjac, and Wayne, not wanting to hurt her feelings, kept her spelling of it.
In the comic “Preacher”, his ghost appears in several issues, clothed in his traditional gunfighter outfit, as a mentor to the hero of the series, Jesse Custer.
Great-uncle of boxer/actor Tommy Morrison, aka “The Duke”.
An entry in the logbook of director John Ford‘s yacht “Araner”, during a voyage along the Baja peninsula, made a reference to one of Wayne’s pranks on Ward Bond: “Caught the first mate [Wayne] pissing in [Ward] Bond’s flask this morning – must remember to give him a raise.”
He and his drinking buddy, actor Ward Bond, frequently played practical jokes on each other. In one incident, Bond bet Wayne that they could stand on opposite sides of a newspaper and Wayne wouldn’t be able to hit him. Bond set a sheet of newspaper down in a doorway, Wayne stood on one end, and Bond slammed the door in his face, shouting “Try and hit me now!” Wayne responded by sending his fist through the door, flooring Bond (and winning the bet).
His favorite drink was Sauza Commemorativo Tequila, and he often served it with ice that he had chipped from an iceberg during one of his voyages on his yacht, “The Wild Goose”.
The evening before a shoot he was trying to get some sleep in a Las Vegas hotel. The suite directly below his was that of Frank Sinatra (never a good friend of Wayne), who was having a party. The noise kept Wayne awake, and each time he made a complaining phone call it quieted temporarily but each time eventually grew louder. Wayne at last appeared at Sinatra’s door and told Frank to stop the noise. A Sinatra bodyguard of Wayne’s size approached saying, “Nobody talks to Mr. Sinatra that way.” Wayne looked at the man, turned as though to leave, then backhanded the bodyguard, who fell to the floor, where Wayne knocked him out by crashing a chair on top of him. The party noise stopped.
He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
His spoken album “America: Why I Love Her” became a surprise best-seller and Grammy nominee when it was released in 1973. Reissued on CD in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it became a best-seller all over again.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued on Friday, March 23rd, 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Wayne as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach (1939). The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Gone with the Wind (1939).
Upon being cast by Raoul Walsh in Fox’s The Big Trail (1930) the studio decided his name had to be changed. Walsh said he was reading a biography on General “Mad” Anthony Wayne and suggested that name. The studio liked the last name but not the first and decided on “John Wayne” as the final rendition.
In 1973 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the National Football Foundation for his days playing football for Glendale High School and USC.
Arguably Wayne’s worst film, The Conqueror (1956), in which he played Genghis Kahn, was based on a script that director Dick Powell had every intention of throwing into the wastebasket. According to Powell, when he had to leave his office at RKO for a few minutes during a story conference, he returned to find a very enthused Wayne reading the script, which had been in a pile of possible scripts on Powell’s desk, and insisting that this was the movie he wanted to make. As Powell himself summed it up, “Who am I to turn down John Wayne?”.
Among his favorite leisure activities were playing bridge, poker, and chess.
He was buried at Pacific View Cemetery in Corona del Mar, California, (a community within his hometown of Newport Beach). His grave finally received a plaque in 1999.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1974.
Because his on-screen adventures involved the slaying of a slew of Mexicans, Native Americans and Japanese, he has been called a racist by his critics. They believe this was strengthened by a Playboy Magazine interview in which he suggested that blacks were not yet qualified to hold high public office because “discrimination prevented them from receiving the kind of education a political career requires”. Yet all of his three wives were of Latin descent.
He was voted the 5th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Just on his sheer popularity and his prominent political activism, the Republican party in 1968 supposedly asked him to run for President of the USA, even though he had no previous political experience. He turned them down because he did not believe America would take a movie star running for the President seriously. He did however support Ronald Reagan‘s campaigns for governor of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.
Wayne was initiated into DeMolay in 1924 at the Glendale Chapter in Glendale California.
Received the DeMolay Legion of Honor in 1970.
He was a Master Mason. In other words, he was a good man who became a member of the Masonic Fraternity.
Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued on Thursday, September 9th, 2004. The first-day ceremonies were held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. “
” 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 Shadows and 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”.[2]
” 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.”
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” 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.” “
” 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.[10] 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).[11] Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany,[12] leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.[13]
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.[13] Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently.[13] 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.[14] 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.[14][15]
After leaving Hollyfield School, in Surbiton, in 1961, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but 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.[15] Around this time Clapton began busking aroundKingston, Richmond, and the West End.[16] In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey.[15] 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.[17] In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones & The Engineers.[17]“
” 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, Claptonhad 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 Claptondid not launch a sustained solo career until July 1974, when he released461 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 Marsellis 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.
Today March 2 is the birthdate of two of the greatest guitarists to ever live : Rory Gallagher who , had he lived would have been celebrating his 65th birthday today and Larry Carlton who turns 65 . Happy Birthday to them both and thank you for your tremendous contributions to the world of music .
” Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal; his father, Daniel, was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board, who were constructing a hydro-electric power plant on the Erne River above the town. The family moved, first to Derry City, where his younger brother Dónal was born in 1949, and then to Cork, where the two brothers were raised, and where Rory attended the North Monastery School. Their father had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceile Band whilst in Donegal; their mother Monica was a singer and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon. The Theatre in Ballyshannon where Monica once acted is now called the Rory Gallagher Theatre.
Both sons were musically inclined and encouraged by their parents. At age nine, Gallagher received his first guitar from them. He built on his burgeoning ability on ukulele in teaching himself to play the guitar and perform at minor functions. After winning a talent contest when he was twelve, Gallagher began performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar he bought with his prize money. However, it was his purchase three years later of a 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 that became his primary instrument and most associated with him for the span of his lifetime.[7]
Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio. Donegan frequently coveredblues and folk performers from the United States. He relied entirely on radio programs and television. Occasionally, the jazz programs from the BBC would play some blues numbers, and he slowly found some song books for guitar, where he found the names of the actual composers of blues pieces. While still in school, playing songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, he discovered his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. Subsequently, Gallagher began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music. Unable to find or afford record albums, Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most.[8] Influences he discovered, and cited as he progressed, included Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lead Belly. Initially, Gallagher struck out after just an acoustic sound.[7] Singing and later using a brace for hisharmonica, Gallagher taught himself to play slide guitar. Further, throughout the next few years of his musical development, Gallagher began learning to play alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the coral sitar with varying degrees of proficiency.[9] By his mid-teens, he began experimenting heavily with different blues styles.[10] “
” Carlton was born in Torrance, California. He started learning to play guitar when he was six years old, studying under Slim Edwards near his Torrance home. Taking an interest in jazz while at high school, his playing style was influenced by Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel, and B.B. King. Saxophonist John Coltrane has also made a notable impression on Carlton, and Carlton’s live albums have featured cuts from Miles Davis‘ Kind of Blue.
His solo career took a twist in 1985 when he signed with MCA Master Series for an acoustic jazz album. The result was Alone / But Never Alone, which included a rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer“. During this time Carlton worked with musicians from around the world, including Japanese guitarist Hideshi Takatani. From 1985 to 1990 Carlton did various solo projects including the 1986 liveLast Nite. He won another Grammy for his cover of the McDonald/Abrams song “Minute by Minute,” from the successful LP Discovery.”
While we are unfamiliar with Theodore Geisel’s politics and have no idea if he would have approved we couldn’t resist passing this along from … 100 Percent FED Up
” We must, therefore, emphasize that ‘we’ are not the government; the government is not ‘us.’ The government does not in any accurate sense ‘represent’ the majority of the people. But, even if it did, even if 70 percent of the people decided to murder the remaining 30 percent, this would still be murder and would not be voluntary suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority.”
Jules Verne (1828-1905), noted French scientific author wrote Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1869);
“You like the sea, Captain?”“Yes; I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the ‘Living Infinite,’ as one of your poets has said. In fact, Professor, Nature manifests herself in it by her three kingdoms–mineral, vegetable, and animal. The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature. The globe began with sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is supreme tranquillity. The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears. Ah! sir, live–live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There I am free!”–Ch. 10
Through his series of Les Voyages Extraordinaires and the fantastic and detailed illustrations which accompanied them, Verne predicted the use of hydrogen as an energy source (in From the Earth to the Moon) and many future modern conveniences and technological inventions such as skyscrapers, submarines, helicopters, and airplanes. The pioneering ways of travel and exploration which he wrote so much about are now common-place for us, such as exploration of the moon, the north and south poles, and the use of hot air balloons for long-distance voyages. In his time Verne was a true inventor and visionary; the names of his inventions and characters such as Captain Nemo, Phileas Fogg, and the submarine Nautilus have entered, and remain, a part of our popular culture. Verne’s works have been translated from the French to numerous languages but unfortunately in the earlier English editions much of his scientific detail is lost; they are often abridged, sometimes censored. Because of this, there is much mis-perception about Verne, and claims of racism and anti-semitism. Scholars continue to study Verne’s life and works to bring to light the authentic man and his extraordinary vision of the future.
Jules Gabriel Verne was born on 8 February 1828 in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France, the first of five children born to Sophie Henriette Allotte de la Fuye (d. 1887) and Pierre Verne (1799-1871), attorney. In the busy maritime port city and summers spent on the Loire River, Verne was exposed to the comings and goings of schooners and ships that sparked his imagination for travel and adventure. After attending boarding school during which he started to write short stories and poetry, Verne settled in Paris to study law, as his father had done. However, upon obtaining his degree in 1850, he was much more interested in theatre, to his father’s disappointment. Living a bohemian life, he wrote and collaborated on numerous plays, dramas, and operettas including Blind Man’s Bluff (1852), often collaborating with his friend and musician Jean Louis Aristide Hignard (1822-1897).”
” As made interactively evident by a retro-futuristic Google doodle, Tuesday would have been the 183rd birthday of Jules Verne. Had he lived to see 2011, the French science fiction writer also would have seen many of his fanciful inventions made real—more or less.
In perhaps his most famous novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,Verne’s Captain Nemo travels the world’s oceans in a giant electric submarine, the Nautilus—the inspiration for the portholed Jules Verne Google doodle.
Aside from its organ, formal dining room, and other luxuries, the Nautilus isn’t all that different from some modern subs, such as the circa-1964, three-passengerAlvin (pictured), which is powered by lead-acid batteries.
Like Alvin, the Nautilus was fully powered by electricity, “which at that time had a kind of magical aura,” said Rosalind Williams, a historian of technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In the book Captain Nemo describes electricity as “a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to every use, and reigns supreme on board my vessel.” “
” Criticized H.G. Wells for inventing cavourite, a substance impervious to gravity, for his 1865 novel “The First Men in the Moon“. Verne thought Wells violated a cardinal rule that the logic of the story must not contradict contemporary scientific knowledge: “I sent my characters to the moon with gunpowder, a thing one may see every day. Where does Mr. Wells find his cavourite? Let him show it to me!”.
On 9 March 1886, as Verne was coming home, his nephew, Gaston, charged at him with a gun. As the two wrestled for it, it went off. The second bullet entered Verne’s left shin. He never fully recovered. Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.
Son, Michel Jean Pierre (4 August 1861-1925). A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne’s objections, and had two children by his underage mistress. It seemed to take his father’s death for Michel to finally grow up. He oversaw publication of Verne’s last novels, “Invasion of the Sea” and “The Lighthouse at the End of the World” (both 1905).
His father was so outraged when he learned Jules was not going to continue law (both he and his father were lawyers), he cut off all financial support. Verne eventually became a stockbroker.
In 1863, he wrote “Paris in the 20th Century” about a young man who lives in a world of skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness, and comes to a tragic end. His publisher thought the novel’s pessimism would damage Verne’s career, and declined to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989.
” Author . One of the most energetic and innovative writers of the 19th century, pioneer of both science-fiction and the adventure story (‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’, ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, ‘Five Weeks in a Balloon’, ‘ Michael Strogoff’, etc.). Many of his works are now better -known as the films they inspired. From 1888 until 1904 he was also a town councilor of Amiens. His extraordinary tomb was sculpted by Albert Roze and shows him bursting out of the grave bound for resurrection. “
Cause of death: illness following diabetes
Burial:
La Madeleine Cemetery Amiens Departement de la Somme Picardie, France Plot: Section N
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