1901–53 American composer In the early part of her career, Ruth Crawford was associated with experimental ‘ultra-modern’ American composers such as Cowell. Her music from the 1920s and early 1930s is bold and original; and includes a widely played string quartet (1931). After marrying her teacher Charles Seeger in 1932, she then turned, as she put it, ...
(Vocals, b. 1928) Ruth Alston Weston was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was heard performing in Washington, DC, where she was recommended to Atlantic Records. Her 1950 R&B number one ‘Teardrops From Your Eyes’ was followed by four more, including ‘(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean’, and she was so successful that the fledgeling label became ...
Two crucial figures in Gluck’s operatic career were the controller of the Viennese theatres Count Durazzo and the Francophile poet and librettist Raniero de’ Calzabigi. Both were intent on the reform and revitalization of Italian opera. In Gluck they found their perfect musical collaborator. Some of Gluck’s Italian stage works had already begun to integrate solos and chorus, but it ...
(Vocals, 1928–2006) Beginning in 1949 Ruth Brown’s soulful voice put Atlantic Records on the map with a string of R&B classics like ‘So Long’, ‘Teardrops In My Eyes’ and ‘(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean’. Two-dozen hits later in 1960 Brown left the music business, enduring difficult times before resurging in the mid-1970s as a Broadway star. Her attempts ...
1897–1965 American composer From his childhood, Cowell was interested in ‘New Musical Resources’ – also the title of an influential book he published in 1930 – experimenting in his teens with tone-clusters (groups of adjacent notes played on the piano with the fist, palm or forearm) and, not long after, with plucking or strumming the piano’s strings. ...
European culture lay in ruins after the end of World War II. There were many who, in company with the philosopher Theodor Adorno, felt that Nazi atrocities such as Auschwitz rendered art impossible, at least temporarily. Others, though, felt that humanity could only establish itself anew by rediscovering the potency of art, including opera. On ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1893–1958) A powerful guitarist and prolific composer, Big Bill Broonzy linked the Mississippi delta blues of Robert Johnson with the electrified Chicago sound of Muddy Waters and others. Broonzy was recognized early on by the nascent folk music movement in the 1940s. Underappreciated in America, he gained a wide following in Europe through live performances ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1903–82) Joe Lee Williams was born in Crawford, Mississippi to tenant farmer parents and by the age of five he was playing a homemade guitar. He left home in 1915 to hobo through the South. Williams worked tent shows and medicine shows with a jug band and as a soloist from 1918–24. Often accompanied by Little ...
(Vocals, songwriter, steel guitar, b. 1929) An integral contributor to the West Coast scene of the post-war years, Billy Mize hosted a variety of radio and television shows, including his own Chuck Wagon Show (with songwriting partner and musician Cliff Crawford) where, purportedly, 16-year-old Merle Haggard made his television debut. He was also a ...
(Alto saxophone, b. 1945) One of the most instantly recognizable and widely imitated voices in jazz during the 1980s, Sanborn emerged from the New York studio session scene – and a seat in Gil Evans’s orchestra – to gain crossover success worldwide on the strength of seven R&B-infused outings for Warner Bros., beginning with 1980’s breakthrough album Hideaway. ...
(Vocals, 1924–63) Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and raised in Chicago. She joined Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943 and made her first recordings that year. Included were the hits ‘Salty Papa Blues’ and ‘Evil Gal Blues’. She left Hampton in 1945 and signed with Mercury records in 1946. Her recorded output included all kinds of material ...
(Vocals, 1924–63) Dinah Washington influenced countless R&B and jazz singers, including Nancy Wilson and Esther Phillips. Born Ruth Lee Jones, the young singer moved quickly from her gospel roots to become a pro pianist, big band singer with Lionel Hampton and jazz and blues solo artist. After Washington’s ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ became a major ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1948) Robillard’s grasp of blues and jazz has kept him in demand since he founded Roomful of Blues in 1967. He was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island and was influenced by Bill Doggett, T-Bone Walker and many others, absorbing the fine details of playing and arranging. He left Roomful in 1979 for a ...
(Vocals, b. 1937) While still a student at the University of North Carolina, this smooth singer scored a pop hit with ‘A Rose And A Baby Ruth (1956)’. Moving to Nashville, Hamilton had his first country hit in 1963 with the ballad ‘Abilene’, which also did well in the pop charts. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, while ...
Muddy Waters was without question the creator of the Chicago blues sound, the most important figure in post-war blues and the greatest influence on the British blues movement that followed. The Rolling Stones even went as far as to name themselves after a Muddy song. Muddy’s music blended the downhome essence of Mississippi Delta blues with the sophistication of Chicago’s ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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