1.
Olivier Toussaint
–
Olivier Toussaint is a French composer, pop singer, orchestra arranger, company manager, and record producer. He was born in Paris, in a family of classical musicians and his great-grandfather, Gilbert Duprez was a very well known Opera singer. His grandparents were opera singers, and his mother was a concert pianist who played in big orchestras in France. On the insistence of his mother, he studied Economics and Social Sciences at University in Paris, but as soon as he graduated, he was back making music. He worked professionally as a singer and musician, playing guitar, at the same time he was involved in writing music for television and the cinema. Classical music was a part of his due to his family background. Other than classical music, he was interested in jazz, easy listening, semi-classical. He started a partnership with the French composer, Paul de Senneville in 1968, soon after, they started to compose many songs together. They internationally sold more than 100 million records, Olivier Toussaint and Paul de Senneville also got involved in music production business and started up the group Pop Concerto Orchestra. In this group, Toussaint was a lead singer, then they launched a second rock and roll group Anarchic System. Over a period of 5 years, both of the groups sold several millions of records,1975 was the major breakthrough for both Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint with the triumph of Dolannes Melody which launched the trumpet player Jean-Claude Borelly. They collaborated with the French composer/arranger Gérard Salesses, in arranging many of titles for Jean-Claude Borelly, in 1976, Paul de Senneville and Olivier Tousaint set up their own record company, Delphine Productions. Delphine company is one of the leading French music exporters to the world market, soon after in 1976, they discovered Richard Clayderman, and established him as the top French record seller worldwide more than 65 millions of LPs sold. The year 1978 was Olivier Toussaints big success, attending in Monégasque entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 and it was succeeded as Monegasque representative at the 1979 Contest by Laurent Vaguener with Notre Vie CEst La Musique. In 1983, with the song Eden is a world, Olivier Toussaint got No.1 in the charts in France, Switzerland. Since then, Olivier Toussaint has been the manager to Delphine company, looking after over 40 employees. Delphine company is nowadays several groups representing 15 companies dealing with various activities, Olivier Toussaint is still passionately involved with Richard Claydermans career, managing his worldwide tours, producing his albums, etc
Olivier Toussaint
–
Olivier Toussaint in 1969
2.
New Orleans
–
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
New Orleans
–
From top left: A typical New Orleans mansion off
St. Charles Avenue, a streetcar passing by
Loyola University and
Tulane University, the skyline of the
Central Business District,
Jackson Square, and a view of Royal Street in the
French Quarter
New Orleans
–
The
Battle of New Orleans (1815)
New Orleans
–
Mississippi River
steamboats at New Orleans, 1853.
New Orleans
–
The starving people of New Orleans under Union occupation during the Civil War, 1862
3.
Gert Town, New Orleans
–
Gert Town is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. Local traditional definitions of the boundaries vary, the New Orleans City Planning Commission definition of the area includes the Zion City area, which many locals consider a separate neighborhood. According to the City Planning Commission definition, Gert Town is a subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, the surrounding streets are Washington Ave, Earhart Blvd, Carrollton Ave, Jefferson Davis Parkway. According to the United States Census Bureau, the district has an area of 0.73 square miles. A prominent figure in the community is Xavier University of Louisiana, a commercial strip lies along the section of Carrollton Avenue running through the neighborhood. In the 1990s, a portion of the facade of the Sealtest Dairy building was preserved and incorporated into a new post office, other small businesses are scatted along Washington Avenue, until Hurricane Katrina, Ultrasonic Studios was one of them. In the mid 20th century, a district developed around Jefferson Davis Boulevard, including the local Coca-Cola bottling plant. Manufacturing in this area declined in the late 20th century, and was ended in the Katrina flooding disaster. The businesses along Jeff Davis Parkway that have succeeded in rebuilding include the studios of television station WVUE, other neighborhood landmarks include the Gert Town Pool, a public swimming pool in a domed structure run by the New Orleans Recreation Department. The Gert Town Pool was demolished by Mayor Landrieus administration for Xavier University to eventually make way for a tennis court, the legality of the pool demolition is questionable as it was not approved by the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee. As of the census of 2000, there were 4,748 people,1,541 households, the population density was 7,558 /mi². As of the census of 2010, there were 3,614 people,1,060 households, in 1900 the Tulane St. Charles Belt streetcar line opened including the Gert Town section of Carrollton Avenue in its route, spurring development. Gert Towns odd street pattern is the result of land development that reflected the bends in the Mississippi River. With a lower elevation than other areas, the area was part of the swampy Back of Town. After some marginal residential development in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, older Uptown streets that were perpendicular to the river tended to meet in Gert Town. Many of the side streets in Gert Town remained unpaved longer than those in other neighborhoods. This fairly small area was cut off by the New Basin Canal. Because of its location, in some ways Gert Town seems to have been overlooked throughout its history, poverty and crime have been recurrent problems, like the majority of the city, Gert Town flooded from the levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005
Gert Town, New Orleans
–
Blue Plate Mayonnaise factory
4.
Louisiana
–
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
Louisiana
–
Louisiana entrance sign off
Interstate 20 in
Madison Parish east of
Tallulah.
Louisiana
–
Flag
Louisiana
–
Aerial view of Louisiana wetland habitats.
Louisiana
–
A field of yellow wildflowers in
Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana
5.
Madrid
–
Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
Madrid
–
From upper left: view of business districts of
AZCA and
CTBA,
Gran Vía street and
Metropolis Building, the
Palace of Communication, view of
Royal Palace and
Almudena Cathedral.
Madrid
Madrid
–
Plaza Mayor
Madrid
–
Puerta de Alcalá
6.
Rhythm and blues
–
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy. Lyrics focus heavily on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics, aspirations, the term rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s it was applied to blues records. This tangent of RnB is now known as British rhythm and blues, by the 1970s, the term rhythm and blues changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a style of R&B developed, becoming known as Contemporary R&B. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a term in the United States in 1948. It replaced the term race music, which came from within the black community. The term rhythm and blues was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, before the Rhythm and Blues name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with sepia series. In 2010 LaMont Robinson founded the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame Museum, writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans. He has used the term R&B as a synonym for jump blues, however, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of its stronger, gospel-esque backbeat. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm, according to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to music made by black musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, an associated with the modern popular music that rhythm. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords, there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone
Rhythm and blues
–
T-Bone Walker, American Folk Blues Festival 1972 (Heinrich Klaffs Collection 46)
Rhythm and blues
–
Louis Jordan, New York, N.Y., ca. July 1946 (William P. Gottlieb 04721).
Rhythm and blues
–
Big Joe Turner, Hamburg 1974 (Heinrich Klaffs Collection 86)
Rhythm and blues
–
The habanera rhythm shown as tresillo (lower notes) with the backbeat (upper note).
7.
Soul music
–
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
Soul music
–
James Brown
Soul music
–
Al Green, influential soul performer
Soul music
–
Levi Stubbs singing lead with the Four Tops in 1966
Soul music
–
Isaac Hayes performing in 1973
8.
Funk
–
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths. Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt, Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music, and drum and bass. It is also the influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk. The word funk initially referred to a strong odor and it is originally derived from Latin fumigare via Old French fungiere and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented, which, in turn, in early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another, Now, put some stank on it. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated, the style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented, a great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Browns rhythm section used it to great effect. Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines, like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap basss mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger popped high notes allowed the bass to have a rhythmic role. In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrixs improvised solos, Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an age by Jimi Hendrix himself. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown, on Browns Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, Jimmy Nolens guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure
Funk
–
George Clinton and
Parliament Funkadelic in 2006
Funk
–
Simple kick and snare funk motif. The kick first sounds two onbeats, which are then answered by two offbeats. The snare sounds the backbeat.
Funk
–
James Brown, one of the founding fathers of funk
Funk
–
George Clinton and P-Funk All Stars, Long Beach 2009
9.
Blues
–
Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
Blues
–
John Lomax (left) shaking hands with musician "Uncle" Rich Brown in Sumterville,
Alabama
Blues
–
Charley Patton, one of the originators of the Delta blues style, playing with a
pick or a
bottleneck slide.
Blues
–
Sheet music from "
Saint Louis Blues " (1914)
Blues
–
Bessie Smith, an early blues singer, was known for her powerful voice.
10.
Jazz
–
Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
Jazz
–
Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) is considered one of the pivotal musicians in jazz for his contributions as a trumpet player, composer and singer.
Jazz
–
Double bassist
Reggie Workman, saxophone player
Pharoah Sanders, and drummer
Idris Muhammad performing in 1978
Jazz
–
Albert Gleizes, 1915, Composition pour Jazz, gouache on cardboard, mounted on Masonite, 73 x 73 cm,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Jazz
–
In the late 18th-century painting
The Old Plantation, African-Americans dance to banjo and percussion.
11.
RCA Victor
–
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period
RCA Victor
–
Label of an RCA Victor 78 RPM record from the 1950s; RCA manufactured 78s alongside the 45 until 1958.
RCA Victor
–
RCA Records logo 1968–87; revived as of 2015
RCA Victor
–
Label of an RCA Victor 45 RPM record from the 1950s; RCA used this label for its 45 RPM records from 1954 to at least 1964.
RCA Victor
–
RCA used this label for its American 45 RPM records during the Dynagroove era.
12.
Reprise Records
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Reprise Records /rəˈpriz/ is an American major record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It was mostly inactive from 1976 to 1987 and it is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Bros. Reprise Records was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra in order to more artistic freedom for his own recordings. Hence, he garnered the nickname The Chairman of the Board, having left Capitol/EMI, and after trying to buy Norman Granzs Verve Records, the first album Sinatra released on Reprise was Ring-a-Ding-Ding. As CEO of Reprise, Sinatra recruited several artists for the label, such as fellow Rat Pack members Dean Martin and Sammy Davis. The original roster from 1961 to 1963 included Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Nancy Sinatra, Esquivel, the label still issues any Sinatra work recorded while on the label and, after his death in 1998, it had great success with his greatest hits collections. One of the founding principles under Sinatras leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom. This is the reason why recordings of early Reprise artists are distributed through other labels. In Martins case, his Reprise recordings were out of print for nearly 20 years before a deal was struck with Capitol Records, in 1963, as part of a film deal, Warner Bros. purchased Reprise from Sinatra, who nonetheless retained a 20% interest in the label. Many of the artists on the label were dropped by Warner Bros. Reprise president Mo Ostin was retained as the head of the label, warner-Reprise executives began targeting younger acts, beginning by securing the American distribution rights to the Pye Records recordings by the Kinks in 1964. Reprise would soon add teen-oriented pop acts like Dino, Desi & Billy to the roster, as well, Franks own daughter Nancy Sinatra would be retained by Ostin, becoming a major pop star starting in late 1965. The label moved almost exclusively to rock-oriented music in the late 1960s, rex, the Meters, John Cale, Gordon Lightfoot, Michael Franks, Richard Pryor, Al Jarreau, Fleetwood Mac, Fanny, and the Beach Boys. In 1976, the Reprise label was deactivated by Warner Bros. an unconfirmed explanation for this move is that Sinatra wanted to be the only artist on Reprise, and Young is said to have been the only Reprise act who refused to agree to a change in labels. In late 1985, some copies of the Dream Academys hit single Life in a Northern Town were pressed with Warner Bros. labels bearing a Reprise logo,1986 saw releases bearing Reprise labels from the Dream Academy as well as Dwight Yoakam. Vice President of Promotion Rich Fitzgerald was appointed as label Vice-President and it was formerly home to the Jimi Hendrix and the Barenaked Ladies catalogs in the U. S. When the Bee Gees back catalog was remastered by Rhino Records in the 2000s, neil Young stated in a documentary about his life that Marilyn Manson was turned down by Reprise. In September 2011, several took place at Reprise Records
Reprise Records
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"Tricolor" label, used by Reprise until 1968. (Label to
The Kinks '
Something Else.)
Reprise Records
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Reprise Records
Reprise Records
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"Two-tone orange" label used by Reprise during the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts merger from 1968 to 1969. (Label to
Jimi Hendrix 's
Smash Hits.) After the Kinney National Company took over Warner Bros. in 1969, the orange tone at the top of the label was changed to the same tone as on the rest of the label, the W7 box logo was removed and the circled:r logo became a boxed logo without the "Reprise" designation.
Reprise Records
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Red label, used by Reprise throughout the late 1970s. (Label to
Neil Young 's
Decade.)
13.
Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate mergers. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a minor player in the music industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003, these assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner. This independent company traded as the Warner Music Group before being bought by Access Industries in 2011, WMG is the smallest of the three major international music conglomerates and the worlds last publicly traded major music company. Cameron Strang serves as CEO of the company, artists currently signed to Warner Bros. At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros, pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswicks pressing plants. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The studio stayed out of the business for more than 25 years. Warner Bros. reëntered the record business in 1958 with the establishment of its own recording division, by this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance - the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s. Pictures sold off much of its library in 1948 and, beginning in 1949. Semenenko in particular had a professional interest in the entertainment business. With the record business booming - sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 - Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros, another impetus for the labels creation was the brief music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, to establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B
Warner Bros. Records
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The gold, black and red label design used for Warner Bros. stereo albums from 1958 to 1968 and mono albums from 1964 to 1968.
Warner Bros. Records
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The grey, black, white and yellow label design used for Warner Bros. mono albums from 1958 to 1964 when it switched to the same gold label as the stereo version.
Warner Bros. Records
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"Cream Puff War" (1967), the first Warner Bros. single by
The Grateful Dead, showing the orange label with chevron border used on WBR's American 45s for much of the 1960s.
Warner Bros. Records
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Beginning in 1968, Warner LP and single label designs became identical. From 1968 to 1970, the label was called Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records. The basic design and colour scheme of the W7 label were retained after the company name reverted to Warner Bros. Records and the "WB" shield in 1970 and remained in use until 1973.
14.
Nonesuch Records
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Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Bros. Records, and based in New York City, founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch has developed into a label that records critically acclaimed music from a wide range of genres. Robert Hurwitz has been president of the company since 1984, Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce fine records at the same price as a trade paperback, which would be half the price of a normal LP. To achieve this he initially licensed European recordings of music as it would be too expensive to record new material. Originally the label concentrated heavily on chamber and baroque music, often with unique repertory, upon its formation, Nonesuch operated as a subsidiary label of Elektra Records, which Holzman had launched in 1950. In 1970, Holzman sold Elektra and Nonesuch to Kinney National Company, in 2004, Warner Music Group became an independently owned, publicly traded company. Sterne oversaw several firsts for the label, including early electronic releases, under Sterne, Nonesuch helped spark a ragtime revival in the United States with the release of a series of Scott Joplin piano rags performed by Joshua Rifkin. Sterne also launched the groundbreaking Explorer Series, building the foundation for the field of world music, Sterne was replaced by the founders younger brother, Keith Holzman, a production chief who, for the next five years, operated the label from Los Angeles. Records-distributed jazz label ECM Records, to run Nonesuch Records, within the first two years under Hurwitzs leadership, Nonesuch released albums by such new music pioneers as Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass, John Zorn, and Kronos Quartet. Hurwitz established a roster at the label, which included Zorn, Wayne Horvitz. In 1994, Hurwitz hired David Bither, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Elektra Records, bithers first signing, Emmylou Harris, signaled a new direction for the label. Harris, previously signed to Warner Bros. Records and Elektra Records, though she had long been a highly regarded interpreter of other writers’ songs, her Nonesuch debut was distinguished by being her first album to primarily feature self-penned compositions. In the decade that followed, k. d, laurie Anderson has put out three discs with the label, and Nonesuch reissued her seminal Big Science album, an avant-garde project that became an unlikely pop hit in 1982. That recounting of the life and loves of former Filipino leader Imelda Marcos, was turned into an Off-Broadway musical at The Public Theater in the spring of 2013. Forward-thinking traditional groups Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers also joined the label, the Chocolate Drops, a group exploring the African-American roots of old-time music, won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for its Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig. Mandolinist and composer Chris Thile of Punch Brothers was named a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, receiving one of 23 “genius” grant awards to extraordinary practitioners in a variety of creative fields. As a solo artist, he has joined the classical ranks of the label. Nonesuch has been building a catalog of Broadway cast recordings, including works by multiple Tony
Nonesuch Records
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Nonesuch Records
15.
Elektra Records
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Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of folk music. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMGs Atlantic Records Group, after five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. The label has been run by Gregg Nadel since 2015 who officially became its president in 2017, Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzmans St. Johns College dorm room. The usual spelling of the Greek mythological Pleiad Electra was changed, Holzman famously explained, I gave her the ‘K’ that I lacked. He found the C in the name too soft but liked the solid bite of the letter K. The first Elektra LP, New Songs, was a collection of Lieder and similar art songs, Holzman also recorded Josh White, who was without a record deal as a result of McCarthyite blacklisting. In 1964, Elektra launched Nonesuch Records and this classical budget label was the best-selling budget classical label of the era. In 1965, Elektra began a joint venture with Survey Music called Bounty Records which was Elektras first foray into pop music. The most notable signing for Bounty was the Paul Butterfield Band who was moved over to Elektra when Bounty folded, the labels most important signings were the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Los Angeles bands Love and The Doors, and the Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5. Included in Elektras LA signings were Tim Buckley and Bread, in 1968, the label also signed pioneering rock guitar soloist Lonnie Mack to a three-album deal. Also in 1967, Elektra launched its influential Nonesuch Explorer Series, excerpts from several Nonesuch Explorer recordings were later included on the two Voyager Golden Discs which were sent into deep space in 1977 aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. Elektra, along with its Nonesuch Records subsidiary, was acquired by Kinney National Services in 1970, soon afterwards, Kinney consolidated their label holdings under the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic umbrella. Holzman remained in charge of Elektra until 1972, when it merged with Asylum Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records, Asylums founder, David Geffen, would head the newly combined label. Holzman, in the meantime, was appointed vice president and chief technologist for Warner — ushering the company into home video. Holzman also went on to acquire Discovery Records, in 1975, Geffen stepped down due to health problems. He would be replaced by Joe Smith, who went on to become CEO of Capitol Records. Although the company was listed as Elektra/Asylum Records on the label credits
Elektra Records
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Elektra Records logo
16.
Rounder Records
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Rounder Records is an American record label specializing in folk, bluegrass, blues, and other forms of American roots music. Its roster includes Alison Krauss and Union Station, Béla Fleck, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Rounders musicians have won over 40 Grammy Awards since the labels inception in 1970. The company also maintains book and video divisions, Rounder was founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, three college friends in Massachusetts who shared an interest in folk, old country, and bluegrass music. They gave the label its name for reasons, the shape of a vinyl record, the nickname for a hobo. In Rounders first three years, it released 19 records, starting in 1970 with an album by George Pegram, Rounders earliest success was George Thorogood and The Destroyers, a blues-rock band that sold half a millions copes of their 1978 album Move It On Over. Headquarters were moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, over the years, Rounder expanded its roster to include other genres such as reggae, and zydeco. The labels first Grammy was won by blues guitarist Clarence Gatemouth Brown in 1983 for the album Alright Again, Rounders most successful act is bluegrass singer and fiddler Alison Krauss. In 1991, at the age of 19, she won a Grammy Award for her second album, the album spawned singles, videos, and national TV exposure. Krauss has sold over 12 million albums and won 27 Grammy Awards, in 2012, Rounder was sold to Concord Music Group. Two years later, Rounder moved its headquarters to Nashville, list of record labels Official site The Never-Ending Revival, Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance by Michael F. Scully Radio Interview with founders Marian Leighton Levy and Ken Irwin
Rounder Records
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Rounder Records
17.
The Band
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The Band was a Canadian roots rock group, originally consisting of four Canadians—Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson —and one American, Levon Helm. The members of the Band first came together as they joined the rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkinss backing group, in 1964, they separated from Hawkins, after which they toured and released a few singles as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires. The next year, Bob Dylan hired them for his U. S. tour in 1965, because they were always the band to various frontmen, Helm said the name The Band worked well when the group came into its own. The group began performing as the Band in 1968 and went on to ten studio albums. Dylan continued to collaborate with the Band over the course of their career, the original configuration of the Band ended its touring career in 1976 with an elaborate live ballroom performance featuring numerous musical celebrities. This performance was immortalized in Martin Scorseses 1978 documentary The Last Waltz, the Band recommenced touring in 1983 without guitarist Robertson, who had found success with a solo career and as a Hollywood music producer. Following a 1986 show, Manuel committed suicide, Danko died of heart failure in 1999, after which the group broke up for good. Helm was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and was unable to sing for several years. He continued to perform and released several albums until he died in 2012. The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989, in 2004 Rolling Stone ranked them No.50 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2008 they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, The Weight was ranked 41st on Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, in 2014, the Band was inducted into Canadas Walk of Fame. While most of the Hawks were eager to join Hawkinss group and he had earned a college degree, planned on a career as a music teacher, and was interested in playing rock music only as a hobby. The Hawks were in awe of his wild, full-bore organ sound, Hudson finally relented, as long as the Hawks each paid him $10 per week to be their instructor, all music theory questions were directed to Hudson. While pocketing a little cash, Hudson was also able to mollify his familys fears that his education had gone to waste. The piano–organ combination was uncommon in rock music, and for all his aggressive playing, there is a view that jazz is evil because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest priests on 52nd Street, and on the streets of New York City were the musicians. They were doing the greatest healing work, and they knew how to punch through music which would cure and make people feel good. With Hawkins, they recorded a few singles in this period, Hawkins regularly convened all-night rehearsals following long club shows, with the result that the young musicians quickly developed great technical prowess on their instruments. In late 1963, the split from Hawkins over personal differences
The Band
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"Big Pink" in 2006
The Band
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The Band in 1969. Left to right:
Manuel,
Hudson,
Helm,
Robertson and
Danko.
The Band
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L to R:Danko, Helm and Manuel on tour in Hamburg, Germany in 1971
The Band
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Bob Dylan and The Band touring in Chicago in 1974. Left to right: Danko, Robertson, Dylan and Helm.
18.
Merry Clayton
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Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer and an actress. She provided a number of backing tracks for major performing artists in the 1960s. Clayton is featured in 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary about background singers, in 2013, she released The Best of Merry Clayton, a compilation of her favorite songs. Clayton was born in Gert Town, New Orleans, Louisiana, Clayton began her recording career in 1962 at the age of 14, singing Who Can I Count On. as a duet with Bobby Darin on his album Youre the Reason Im Living. In 1963 she recorded the first version of The Shoop Shoop Song, the same year that Betty Everetts version reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Early in her career Merry performed with Ray Charles, Pearl Bailey, Phil Ochs, Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Clayton is often credited as having recorded with Elvis Presley but her name does not appear in Elvis sessionographies. Clayton is best known for her 1969 duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter, the Stones had asked Bonnie Bramlett to sing on the song, but Bramletts husband, Delaney, refused to let her perform with the Stones. Clayton also sang backing vocals on Lynyrd Skynyrds Sweet Home Alabama, in 1970, Clayton recorded her own version of Gimme Shelter, and it became the title track of her debut solo album and peaked at #73, released that year. Her version would be the first of five singles under her name to crack the Billboard Hot 100, in 1971 she co-wrote the song Sho Nuff about her mother. She starred as the original Acid Queen in the first London production of The Whos Tommy in 1972, in 1973, she featured prominently on Ringo Starrs Oh My My, which reached Billboards Top 10 the following year. In the mid 1970s, Clayton sang on The Blackbyrds R&B hit Rock Creek Park and continued to release albums throughout the next decade. In 1987, Clayton co-starred with Ally Sheedy in the film Maid to Order, in 1989, she recorded a cover of Almost Paradise with Eric Carmen. In 1994 Clayton recorded backing vocals for and sang the Man with the Golden Gun bridge on Tori Amoss hit, in 2006, Clayton provided background vocals for Spartas album Threes on the songs Atlas and Translation. In 2014, Clayton provided vocals for G. Love & Special Sauces album Sugar, in 2015, Clayton was featured on two tracks on Coldplays album A Head Full of Dreams. Clayton was married to jazz artist Curtis Amy from 1970 until his death in 2002, Claytons brother is the Little Feat percussionist Sam Clayton. She had a miscarriage upon returning home from recording Gimme Shelter, on June 16,2014, Clayton was severely injured in a car accident in Los Angeles, California. Both of Claytons legs were later amputated at the due to her suffering profound trauma to her lower extremities as a result of the accident. Merry Clayton at the Internet Movie Database
Merry Clayton
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Clayton in December 2012 at a ceremony for
Carole King to receive a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
19.
Elvis Costello
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Declan Patrick MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. His critically acclaimed album, My Aim Is True, was released in 1977. Shortly after recording it, he formed the Attractions as his backing band and his second album, This Years Model, was released in 1978, and was ranked number 11 by Rolling Stone on its list of the best albums from 1967–1987. His third album, Armed Forces, was released in 1979 and his first three albums all appeared on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Costello and the Attractions toured and recorded together for the part of a decade. Much of Costellos work since has been as a solo artist, steeped in wordplay, the vocabulary of Costellos lyrics is broad. His music has drawn on many genres, one critic described him as a pop encyclopaedia. He has won awards in his career, including a Grammy Award. In 2003, Costello and the Attractions were inducted into the Rock, in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Costello has co-written several original songs for motion pictures, including God Give Me Strength from Grace of My Heart, for the latter, Costello was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Costello was born in 25 August 1954 at St Marys Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda and Ross MacManus, Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Archbishop Myers R. C. School, which is now St Marks Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow, with a musically inclined father, Costellos first broadcast recording was with his father in a television commercial for R. Whites Lemonade. His father wrote and sang the song, Costello provided backing vocals, the advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival. Costello moved with his Liverpool-born mother to Birkenhead, Cheshire, in 1971, there, he formed his first band, a folk duo called Rusty, with Allan Mayes. After completing secondary school at St. Francis Xaviers College he moved back to London where he formed a band called Flip City. They were active from 1974 through to early 1976, around this time, Costello adopted the stage name D. P. His father had performed under the name Day Costello, and Elvis has said in interviews that he took this name as a tribute to his father and he worked for a short period as a computer operator at the Midland Bank computer centre in Bootle. He continued to write songs and began looking for a recording contract
Elvis Costello
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Costello at the 2012
Riot Fest,
Chicago
Elvis Costello
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Costello performing at Glastonbury, 2005
Elvis Costello
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Costello's hand prints on the European Walk of Fame,
Rotterdam
20.
Lee Dorsey
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Irving Lee Dorsey was an African American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were Ya Ya and Working in the Coal Mine, much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint with instrumental backing provided by The Meters. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Dorsey was a friend of Fats Domino before moving to Portland. He served in the United States Navy in World War II, boxing as a lightweight in Portland in the early 1950s, he fought under the name Kid Chocolate and was reasonably successful. He retired from boxing in 1955 and returned to New Orleans and his first recording was Rock Pretty Baby/Lonely Evening on Cosimo Mattasas Rex label, in 1958. This was followed by the Allen Toussaint-produced Lottie Mo/Lover of Love and these efforts were unsuccessful, but around 1960 he was discovered by A&R man Marshall Sehorn, who secured him a contract with Fury Records, owned by Bobby Robinson. After meeting songwriter and record producer Allen Toussaint at a party, he recorded Ya Ya and it went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Although the follow-up Do-Re-Mi also made the charts, later releases on Fury were not successful, Dorsey returned to running his repair business, but also released singles on the Smash and Constellation labels in 1963 and 1964. He was then approached again by Toussaint, and recorded Toussaints song Ride Your Pony for the Amy label, Dorsey toured internationally, and also recorded an album with Toussaint, The New Lee Dorsey in 1966. In 1970 Dorsey and Toussaint collaborated on the album Yes We Can and it was later a hit for the Pointer Sisters under the title, Yes We Can Can. With declining sales, Dorsey then returned to his repair business. In 1976 Dorsey appeared on the album I Dont Want to Go Home by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, in 1980, he opened for English punk band The Clash on their US concert tour, and also toured in support of James Brown and Jerry Lee Lewis. Dorsey contracted emphysema and died on December 1,1986, in New Orleans, Dorseys songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Petula Clark and Devo. Ya Ya was covered on John Lennons Rock n Roll album, get Out of My Life, Woman was performed often by the Jerry Garcia Band, and Robert Palmer had a hit with Sneakin Sally Through The Alley. His version of the Allen Toussaint song Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky is referenced in the Beastie Boys song Sure Shot, Ya Ya was spoken by Cheech Marin in Cheech and Chongs Next Movie, as he was waiting for his girlfriend
Lee Dorsey
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Lee Dorsey
21.
Dr. John
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He performed a wildly theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes, and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack has recorded more than 20 albums and in 1973 scored a hit with Right Place Wrong Time. The winner of six Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted into the Rock, in May 2013, Rebennack was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Tulane University. He was jokingly referred to by Tulanes president, Scott Cowen, born in New Orleans in 1940, Dr. John has said that his French lineage took root there some time in the early 1800s. Growing up in the Third Ward, he found musical inspiration in the minstrel tunes sung by his grandfather. He did not take lessons before his teens, and only endured a short stint in choir before getting kicked out. Throughout his adolescence his fathers connections enabled him access to the rooms of burgeoning rock artists such as Little Richard. From these exposures he advanced into clubs and onto the stage with varying local artists, most notably, and I thought, Wow, I never seen nobody dressed like this guy. Just everything about the man was totally hip, and he had gloves on him, too, beautiful silk gloves. At age 16 he was hired by Johnny Vincent as a producer at Ace Records, There, he worked with artists like James Booker and Earl King, his musical experience expanding notably. He struggled through intermittent years of high school, while a student at Jesuit High School, he was already playing in night clubs, something the Jesuit fathers disapproved of. They told him to stop playing in clubs or leave the school. According to lore, this was the seed of his classic, Right Place, eventually he focused entirely on music. Thereafter an entry into heavy narcotics use would fuel his desire to get out of New Orleans and move to California where his character and he had a regional hit with a Bo Diddley-influenced instrumental called Storm Warning on Rex Records in 1959. During these days he was an A&R man producing, with Charlie Miller, monophonic singles on 45s for Johnny Vincent and Joe Corona for such labels as Ace, Ron, Ric. For these sessions he oversaw A&R and the section while Miller wrote the horn arrangements. It was a team until Miller decided to move to New York. After the injury, Rebennack concentrated on guitar before making piano his main instrument
Dr. John
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Dr. John at the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2007
Dr. John
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Dr. John at the 2006 Jazz à Vienne festival, in
Vienne,
France.
Dr. John
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Dr.John at the
Liri Blues Festival, Italy, July 2010.
22.
Etta James
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Etta James was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with such as The Wallflower, At Last, Tell Mama, Somethings Got a Hold on Me. She faced a number of problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse. James powerful, earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll and she won six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone magazine ranked James number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Hawkins was born on January 25,1938, in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 at the time. Her father has never been identified, James speculated that he was the pool player Rudolf Minnesota Fats Wanderone, whom she met briefly in 1987. Her mother was absent from their apartment in Watts, conducting relationships with various men. James referred to her mother as the Mystery Lady, under his tutelage, she suffered physical abuse during her formative years, with her instructor often punching her in the chest while she sang to force her to voice to come from her gut. As a consequence, she developed a strong voice for a child her age. She became a popular singing attraction, and Sarge tried unsuccessfully to pressure the church into compensating their family for her singing, Sarge, like the musical director for the choir, was also abusive. During drunken poker games at home, he would awaken Jamesetta in the morning hours. She was a bed-wetter and often soaked with urine on these occasions, the trauma of her foster father forcing her to sing under these humiliating circumstances led to difficulties for her to sing on demand throughout her career. In 1950, Mama Lu died, and Jamesettas biological mother took her to the Fillmore district of San Francisco, within a couple of years, she began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, the Creolettes. At the age of 14, she met the musician Johnny Otis, stories on how they met vary. In Otiss version, she came to his hotel after one of his performances in the city, another story was that Otis spotted the Creolettes performing at a Los Angeles nightclub and sought for them to record his answer song to Hank Ballards Work with Me, Annie. Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and he also gave the singer her stage name, transposing Jamesetta into Etta James. James recorded the version, for which she was given credit as co-author, in 1954, the original the name of the song was Roll with Me, Henry, but it was changed to avoid censorship due to the off-color title
Etta James
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James in 2006
23.
Labelle
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Labelle was an American all-female singing group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The founding members were Patti LaBelle, Cindy Birdsong, Nona Hendryx, as The Bluebelles, and later Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, the group found success with ballads in the doo-wop genre, most notably Down the Aisle, Youll Never Walk Alone and Over the Rainbow. After Birdsong departed to join The Supremes in 1967, the group, following the advice of Vicki Wickham, changed its look, musical direction and they are notable for being the first contemporary pop group and first black pop group to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. They were also the first black vocal group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, the group members each went on their own after the end of a tour in 1976, going on to have significant solo success. The group returned with their first new album in 32 years with 2008s Back to Now, in 1959, a fifteen-year-old teenager, Patricia Patti Holt won her first talent contest in high school. Following this, she sought to form her own singing group the year called the Ordettes. Holt formed the group with singers Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen, the group gained a local following. Dawson was eventually replaced by Sundray Tucker, by 1961, Jean Brown and Yvonne Hogan had ditched the group to get married and Patti and Sundray carried on as soloists. Later in 1961, Patti and Sundrays manager Bernard Montague contacted two singers from the Trenton, NJ singing group the Del-Capris, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, eventually Hendryx and Dash became official replacements for Brown and Hogan as the Ordettes. The group soon began working diligently by musician Morris Bailey, Bailey and Montagues schedule led to Tuckers parents to disband her from the group. Eventually, another singer, Cindy Birdsong, from Camden, New Jersey, was allowed to join the group after an audition, the group soon toured the chitlin circuit, gaining a following in the eastern U. S. In 1962, Chicago-based group The Starlets had traveled to Philadelphia to do sessions for producer Bobby Martin and record label owner Harold Robinson, one of the sessions included a cover of the standard, I Sold My Heart to the Junkman. At the time of the release, the group had a hit with the song Better Tell Him No and were unable to promote the song due to them being signed to another label. The song was credited under the name The Blue Belles, the Ordettes auditioned by singing the song. Before hearing the group, Robinson turned them down due to being unimpressed with Pattis looks but upon hearing Patti singing, he changed his mind, when I Sold My Heart became popular, Robinson sent the Ordettes to promote it under the assumed name of the Blue Belles. After a televised performance at American Bandstand featuring the Ordettes, the Starlets manager sued Harold Robinson, around the same time, Robinson was also sued for having another group use the name Blue Belles. Following the aftermath of the ordeals, Robinson gave Patti Holt a new name, Patti LaBelle, as a result, the record reached the top 40 on both the pop and R&B charts, formally launching the group to national stardom. Frequent performances at the Apollo Theater helped to give the group the nickname Sweethearts of the Apollo, Newtown released two albums on the group before Harold Robinson sold Newtown in 1963
Labelle
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LaBelle members (l-r,
Nona Hendryx,
Patti LaBelle and
Sarah Dash) in 1975.
24.
John Mayall
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John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, guitarist, organist and songwriter, whose musical career spans over fifty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1933, Mayalls father Murray Mayall, was a guitarist and jazz music enthusiast. Mayall spent three years in Korea for national service and, during a period of leave, he bought his first electric guitar, Back in England, he enrolled at Manchester College of Art and started playing with semi-professional bands. After graduation, he obtained a job as an art designer, in 1963, he opted for a full-time musical career and moved to London. His previous craft would be put to use in the designing of covers for many of his coming albums. Since the end of the 1960s Mayall has lived in the US, a brush fire destroyed his house in Laurel Canyon in 1979, seriously damaging his musical collections and archives. Mayall has been married twice, and has six grandchildren and his second wife, Maggie Mayall is an American blues performer, and since the early 1980s took part in the management of her husbands career. The pair divorced in 2011 and Maggie wrote online about the experience, in 2005 Mayall was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Honours List. In 1956, with college fellow Peter Ward, Mayall had founded the Powerhouse Four which consisted of men and other local musicians with whom they played at local dances. In 1962 Mayall became a member of the Blues Syndicate, the band was formed by trumpeter John Rowlands and alto saxophonist Jack Massarik, who had seen the Alexis Korner band at a Manchester club and wanted to try a similar blend of jazz and blues. It also included rhythm guitarist Ray Cummings and drummer Hughie Flint, in 1962 John and his band were frequent and popular artists at all night R&B sessions at the Twisted Wheel cellar club in central Manchester. Alexis Korner persuaded Mayall to opt for a musical career and move to London. In late 1963, with his band which was now called the Bluesbreakers, the line-up was Mayall, Ward, John McVie on bass and guitarist Bernie Watson, formerly of Cyril Davies and the R&B All-Stars. The next spring Mayall obtained his first recording date with producer Ian Samwell, the band, with Martin Hart at the drums, recorded two tracks, Crawling Up a Hill as well as Mr. James. Shortly after, Hughie Flint replaced Hart and Roger Dean took the guitar from Bernie Watson and this line-up backed John Lee Hooker on his British tour in 1964. Mayall was offered a contract by Decca and, on 7 December 1964. A later studio-recorded single, Crocodile Walk, was released along with the album, in April 1965 former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton replaced Roger Dean and John Mayalls career entered a decisive phase. In 1965, with Eric Clapton as their new guitar player and that summer the band cut a couple tracks for a single, Im Your Witchdoctor b/w Telephone Blues
John Mayall
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Mayall performing in 2007
John Mayall
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Mayall reunited for a brief tour in the early 1980s
John Mayall
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Mick Taylor during his return to the Bluesbreakers on tour in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1980s
John Mayall
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Mayall's "Pistoia Blues", Pistoia, Italy
25.
Paul McCartney
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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained fame with the rock band the Beatles, largely considered the most popular. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most celebrated of the post-war era, after the bands break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine. McCartney has been recognised as one of the most successful composers and performers of all time, More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles song Yesterday, more than any other copyrighted song in history. Wings 1977 release Mull of Kintyre is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr all received The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1965, McCartney has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty. He has married three times and is the father of five children, James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia, had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James McCartney, was absent from his sons birth due to his work as a firefighter during World War II. Paul has one brother, Michael. Though the children were baptised in their mothers Catholic faith, their father was a former Protestant turned agnostic, McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, with three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his home in Speke. The two quickly became friends, McCartney later admitted, I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger. McCartneys mother Mary was a midwife and the primary wage earner, her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton. She rode a bicycle to her patients, McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at about three in the morning streets, on 31 October 1956, when McCartney was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism. McCartneys loss later became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, McCartneys father was a trumpet player and pianist, who had led Jim Macs Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept a piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised Paul to take piano lessons
Paul McCartney
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Paul McCartney in 2010
Paul McCartney
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McCartney's former home,
20 Forthlin Road. The McCartney family moved into this address in 1955
Paul McCartney
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McCartney (second from left) with Lennon, Harrison and Starr, 1964
Paul McCartney
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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "the most famous cover of any music album", wrote Beatles biographer
Bill Harry.
26.
The Meters
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The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977, the band played an influential role as backing musicians for other artists, including Lee Dorsey, Robert Palmer, and Dr. John. The Meters acted as the band for Allen Toussaints New Orleans soul classics of the 1960s and are responsible for bringing New Orleans second line grooves into popular music. The Meters sound is defined by a combination of tight melodic grooves and highly syncopated New Orleans second-line rhythms under highly charged guitar. Their songs Cissy Strut and Look-Ka Py Py are considered funk classics, Art Neville, the groups frontman, launched a solo career around the New Orleans area in the mid-1950s while still in high school. The Meters formed in 1965 with a line-up of keyboardist and vocalist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr. and they were later joined by percussionist-vocalist Cyril Neville. The Meters became the band for Allen Toussaint and his record label. In 1969 the Meters released Sophisticated Cissy and Cissy Strut, both major R&B chart hits, Look-Ka Py Py and Chicken Strut were their hits the following year. After a label shift in 1972, the Meters had difficulty returning to the charts, in 1975 Paul McCartney invited the Meters to play at the release party for his Venus and Mars album aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones was in attendance at the event and was taken with the Meters. The Rolling Stones invited the band to open for them on their Tour of the Americas 75 and that same year, the Meters recorded one of their most successful albums, Fire on the Bayou. From 1976 to 77 they played in The Wild Tchoupitoulas with George and Amos Landry, Art and Cyril Neville left the band in early 1977, but The Meters still appeared on Saturday Night Live on March 19,1977, during the shows second season. After the Nevilles departure, David Batiste, Sr. took over on keyboards while Willie West joined as the lead singer. Porter left the later that year and by 1980 The Meters had officially broken up. In 1989 Art Neville, George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli reunited as The Meters, when Nocentelli left the group in 1994 they replaced him with guitarist Brian Stoltz, formerly of The Neville Brothers and renamed themselves The Funky Meters. They were referred to as the Funky Meters as early as 1989 and they were billed as such when playing in a tiny venue at Bordeaux & Camp Street behind Le Bon Temps Roule. The Funky Meters continued to play into the 2000s with Stoltz being replaced by Art Nevilles son, Ian Neville, Stoltz returned to the band permanently in 2011. In June 2011 The Original Meters along with Allen Toussaint and Dr. John played the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, the six men performed Dr. Johns album Desitively Bonnaroo which was originally recorded with the Meters, to a sold out crowd
The Meters
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The Meters Performing live in 2011.
27.
Bonnie Raitt
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Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk, in 1989, after several years of critical acclaim but little commercial success, she had a major hit with the album Nick of Time. Raitt has received 10 Grammy Awards and she is listed as number 50 in Rolling Stones list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 89 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Raitt was born in Burbank, California and she is the daughter of the Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, the pianist Marjorie Haydock, and was raised in the Quaker tradition. She began playing guitar at Camp Regis-Apple Jack in Paul Smiths, NY, later she gained notice for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. Raitt says she played a little at school and at camp, Camp Regis-Applejack, Raitt is of Scottish ancestry, with her ancestors being those who constructed Rait Castle near Nairn. After graduating from Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1967 Raitt entered Radcliffe College, majoring in social relations and she said her plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism. Raitt became friends with blues promoter Dick Waterman, during her second year of college Raitt took a semester off and moved to Philadelphia with Waterman and other local musicians. Raitt says it was an opportunity that changed everything, in the fall of 1970, while opening for Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from Newsweek, who began to spread the word about her performance. Scouts from major companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer from Warner Bros. which soon released her album, Bonnie Raitt. While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers and her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to universal acclaim, though many still regard it as her best work. 1973s Takin My Time was also met critical acclaim. Raitt was beginning to receive press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, in 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevons eponymous album with his friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Macs Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. 1977s Sweet Forgiveness album gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her remake of Runaway, recast as a heavy rhythm and blues recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitts version of Runaway was disparaged by many critics. However, the commercial success prompted a bidding war for Raitt between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records
Bonnie Raitt
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Bonnie Raitt performing in 2007
Bonnie Raitt
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Raitt performing at the
Berkeley Community Theater, 1976–1977
28.
Irma Thomas
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Irma Thomas is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success. In 2007, she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for After the Rain, born Irma Lee, as a teenager she sang with a Baptist church choir. She auditioned for Specialty Records at the age of 13, by the time she was 19, she had been married twice and had four children. Keeping her second surname, she worked as a waitress in New Orleans, occasionally singing with bandleader Tommy Ridgley. Her first single, Dont Mess with My Man, was released in late 1959, Imperial Records acquired Minit in 1963, and a string of successful releases followed. Her first four Imperial singles all charted on Billboards pop chart, unlike her contemporaries Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick, she never managed to cross over into mainstream commercial success. She recorded for Chess Records in 1967–68 with some success, her version of the Otis Redding song Good to Me reached the R&B chart. She then relocated to California, releasing records on various labels, before returning to Louisiana, and in the early 1980s opened her own club. Down By Law, the 1986 independent film by Jim Jarmusch features Its Raining in the soundtrack, the films actors Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi, whose characters fall in love in the movie, dance to this song. After several years break from recording, she was signed by Rounder Records, simply the Best, recorded in San Francisco. She subsequently released a number of gospel albums, together with more secular recordings. The album Sing It. was nominated for a Grammy in 1999, Thomas is still active as a performer, appearing annually at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. She reigned as Queen of the Krewe du Vieux for the 1998 New Orleans Mardi Gras season. She often headlined at her own club, but it went out of due to Hurricane Katrina. According to her website she is now back in her home in New Orleans, Thomas and her husband owned the Lions Den Club near the French Quarter of New Orleans. In April 2007, Thomas was honored for her contributions to Louisiana music with induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Also in 2007, Thomas accepted an invitation to participate in Goin Home, A Tribute to Fats Domino where, singing with Marcia Ball, Thomas was the subject of the 2008 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival poster
Irma Thomas
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Irma Thomas at the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006
Irma Thomas
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Thomas appearing with
James Taylor and others in 2008
29.
Musician
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A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music may also be referred to as a musician, Musicians can specialize in any musical style, and some musicians play in a variety of different styles. Examples of a musicians possible skills include performing, conducting, singing, composing, arranging, in the Middle Ages, instrumental musicians performed with soft ensembles inside and loud instruments outdoors. Many European musicians of this time catered to the Roman Catholic Church, providing arrangements structured around Gregorian chant structure, vocal pieces were in Latin—the language of church texts of the time—and typically were Church-polyphonic or made up of several simultaneous melodies. Giovanni Palestrina Giovanni Gabrieli Thomas Tallis Claudio Monteverdi Leonardo da Vinci The Baroque period introduced heavy use of counterpoint, vocal and instrumental “color” became more important compared to the Renaissance style of music, and emphasized much of the volume, texture and pace of each piece. George Frideric Handel Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Classical music was created by musicians who lived during a time of a middle class. Many middle-class inhabitants of France at the time lived under long-time absolute monarchies, because of this, much of the music was performed in environments that were more constrained compared to the flourishing times of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. This age included the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution, a revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry and art, but the common perception of the world. Some major Romantic Period precepts survive, and still affect modern culture, in 20th-century music, composers and musicians rejected the emotion-dominated Romantic period, and strove to represent the world the way they perceived it. Musicians wrote to be. objective, while objects existed on their own terms, while past eras concentrated on spirituality, this new period placed emphasis on physicality and things that were concrete. The advent of recording and mass media in the 20th century caused a boom of all kinds of music—popular music, rock music, electronic music, folk music. Singer Composer Music artist Tour Manager Media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons
Musician
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Guy Pratt, a professional
session musician, playing bass guitar.
30.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
Songwriter
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Songwriter and singer
Chris de Burgh.
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