Antoine Domino Jr. was born on 26 February 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children. His father played violin and worked at the Fair Grounds Race Track in New Orleans. Young Antoine studied piano and credits Harrison Varrett, a former member of Papa Celestin’s band, with giving him the advice and encouragement to keep ...
(Piano, singer-songwriter, b. 1928) Signed to Imperial Records, New Orleans-born Antoine Domino’s first million-seller, ‘The Fat Man’ (1949) began a run of over 60 US pop and R&B hits by 1964, many written by Domino with Dave Bartholomew. Other million-selling classics included ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ (1955), ‘Bo Weevil’, ‘I’m In Love Again’ and ‘Blueberry Hill ...
(Piano, vocals, composer, 1904–43) Thomas Wright ‘Fats’ Waller developed his playing style during the early 1920s under the tutelage of Harlem stride pianists James P. Johnson and Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith. The son of a Baptist preacher, he began playing in the church and by the age of 15 was the house organist at the Lincoln Theatre. He ...
(Trumpet, 1923–50) Theodore ‘Fats’ Navarro died prematurely and left a limited recorded legacy, most of it as a sideman. Nonetheless, he stood alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis as one of the most significant trumpeters in bebop. He took over Gillespie’s chair in Billy Eckstine’s seminal big band in 1945, and enjoyed a brief but creative relationship ...
(Vocal group, 1950–65) The Dominoes were an R&B/pop vocal group led by Billy Ward, a child prodigy and army choir director who attracted singers like Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson to the group. The Dominoes’ biggest R&B hit was the raunchy ‘60-Minute Man’. The group’s version of ‘Stardust’ reached No. 12 on the pop charts in 1957. Ward’s strict-disciplinarian ...
Albert Clifton Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois in March 1907. As a young man he learned from Jimmy Yancey, who cast a long shadow over Chicago blues pianists through his work at rent parties, social functions and after-hours jobs. Ammons came to know other pianists and the blues specialists gathered together in Chicago to create a coterie ...
(Piano, vocals, 1927–80) Milburn was a Houston pianist whose rollicking piano-playing and versatile singing was a major influence on Fats Domino and others. Milburn’s first hit was the 1948 party classic ‘Chicken Shack Boogie’. Milburn could croon a soulful ballad, but made a bigger impact with horn-driven material such as ‘Roomin’ House Boogie’ and ‘Sax Shack Boogie’, along ...
(Organ, piano, arranger, 1916–96) William Ballard Doggett was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band he led was taken over by Lucky Millinder in 1940 and Doggett stayed on as pianist and arranger. After working with the Ink Spots, he played with Louis Jordan’s band from 1947–51. He was active as a studio pianist, organist and ...
Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas, on 7 September 1936. Buddy got a guitar in his mid-teens and started practising with friend, Bob Montgomery. They liked country and western but also had predilection for the blues. An Elvis gig in Lubbock in early 1955 alerted them to new possibilities. Buddy and Bob, as ...
(Trumpet, producer, composer, b. 1918) Davis Louis Bartholomew was born in Edgard, Louisiana. He was one of the most prominent bandleaders in New Orleans in the mid-1940s. He recorded for DeLuxe, King and Imperial during the 1940s and 1950s, but is best known as the producer, bandleader and songwriting partner of Fats Domino, ...
(Vocal group, 1958–present) Formed in New York’s Bronx in 1958 by Dion DiMucci, Angelo D’Aleo, Carlo Mastangelo and Fred Milano, this doo-wop group had had several US hits by 1960, including 1959’s ‘A Teenager In Love’, also a UK hit. Dion went solo in 1960, scoring more US hits, the biggest 1961’s million-selling US ...
(Drums, b. 1924) Earl Cyril Palmer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a member of Dave Bartholomew’s band, he played drums on the first Fats Domino session in 1949. He soon became the first – and sometimes only – call drummer for New Orleans R&B record dates, recording with a variety of artists that included Little ...
(Vocals, b. 1934) Supposedly directly descended from US pioneer Daniel Boone, Florida-born Charles Eugene Boone’s 55th US hit, ‘Speedy Gonzalez’, in 1962 followed 10 million-sellers and six US No. 1s since 1955. His early hits were tame white versions of black R&B hits by Fats Domino (‘Ain’t That A Shame’), Little Richard (‘Tutti Frutti’ and ‘Long Tall Sally’) ...
(Piano, 1918–80) A New Orleans native, Roy Byrd brought an irresistible Caribbean feel to his piano-playing. The shaggy-haired Byrd got the nickname Professor Longhair from a club owner in 1948. Longhair first recorded his signature ‘Mardi Gras In New Orleans’ in 1949, the national R&B hit ‘Bald Head’ in 1950, and ‘Tipitina’ in 1953. Longhair endured tough ...
A rollicking, fast piano style characterized by repetitive eighth-note bass figures in the left hand, meshed with sharp, bluesy single-note runs in the right hand, boogie-woogie was an infectious form that had an immediate appeal to dancers. While the left hand remained tied to the task of covering driving bass lines in a kind of ‘automatic pilot’ ...
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