Contemporary Era

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(Vocals, composer, b. 1930) Lincoln caps her long, diversified singing and acting career as an iconic songwriter and performer. Her first record, in the 1950s, was with Benny Carter’s orchestra; in the 1960s she recorded politicized material with then-husband Max Roach. In the mid-1980s she re-emerged, paying tribute to Billie Holiday and embodying an African-American feminism. Employing top younger instrumentalists in her bands, she has also become a model for younger ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
102 Words Read More

(Guitar, gurkel, n’jarka, vocals, 1939–2006) Touré based his distinctive style on the music of his native Mali and on American blues and R&B – in particular John Lee Hooker, whose simple yet inimitable hypnotic drones are echoed in Touré’s songs. Five earlier albums had made Touré a cult favourite when his 1994 Grammy-winning collaboration with slide guitarist Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu, elevated him to éminence grise of the world music scene. Styles ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
92 Words Read More

(Vocals, b. 1945) This raw-edged songstress emerged from the same Austin, Texas scene that yielded Stevie Ray Vaughan, with her 1986 debut Stranger Blues. Strehli, who was born in Lubbock, perfected her slow phrasing and dynamic attack at the famed Antone’s nightclub, learning from visiting artists Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Albert Collins and Albert King. She helped to start the influential Antone’s record label. In recent years Strehli has incorporated more ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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(Piano, orchestra leader, b. 1960) Arturo O’Farrill is the pianist and music director of the Latin jazz orchestra his father, Chico O’Farrill, organized upon his comeback in the mid-1990s; he has also worked with keyboardist-composer-bandleader Carla Bley, trumpeter Lester Bowie and the Fort Apache Band. Upon Chico’s death in 2000, Arturo inherited his bandbook and legacy. In 2003 he was named leader of Jazz@Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. Styles & Forms | ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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(Piano, b. 1966) The son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart, Bill Charlap was inducted into professional jazz by Gerry Mulligan and has been critically acclaimed for his deft playing, superb taste and unfailing swing feel. In 2004 he succeeded pianist Dick Hyman as director of the long-established, prestigious jazz series at New York’s 92nd Street Y (Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association). Styles & Forms | Contemporary ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
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(Guitar, b. 1951) A distinctive electric guitar stylist, Frisell evokes longing and wonder through melodic selectivity, legato attack and strategic outbursts. Originally a clarinetist, then inspired by Wes Montgomery, he studied at Boston’s Berklee School of Music and with Jim Hall. He recorded for ECM and won fame in the New York noise/improv scene, exploring pastoral Americana imagery in his own projects. Besides playing in Paul Motian’s trio with Joe Lovano, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
102 Words Read More

(Harmonica, vocals, b. 1951) Branch began playing harmonica at the age of 10, before polishing his onstage technique in Chicago with Big Walter, James Cotton, Junior Wells and Carey Bell. In 1975 he became a sideman for Willie Dixon and then formed Sons of Blues with Lurrie Bell (guitar). Branch continues to front the band and is a respected blues educator. He also appears in the Robert Mugge-directed concert film Hellhounds ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
120 Words Read More

(Guitar, b. 1966) A French gypsy, Lagrene was hailed as Django Reinhardt’s heir upon the release of his first album at the age of 13. He has performed gypsy jazz in the company of swing veterans Benny Carter, Benny Goodman and Stéphane Grappelli, but has also developed a personal, fusion-oriented style and mixes both approaches in collaborations with guitarists John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía, Larry Coryell, Philip Catherine, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
103 Words Read More

(Guitar, bass, harmonica, b. 1940) Rush’s mix of vaudeville stage antics and soul-blues grooves has made him the king of the modern chitlin circuit. Born in Homer, Louisiana, Rush moved with his family to Chicago in 1953, already mesmerized by Muddy Waters and Louis Jordan. He emerged from the West Side blues scene in the 1960s and his career took off with 1971’s ‘Chicken Heads’, after which he spent the next ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
126 Words Read More

(Vocals, composer, b. 1955) Raised in Mississippi, smoky contralto Wilson sang R&B and folk music, but emerged in New York in the early 1980s as a member of the M-Base Collective and with Henry Threadgill’s band. Her breakout album Blue Skies (1988) reprised jazz standards and she starred in Wynton Marsalis’ oratorio Blood on the Fields, but the cornerstone of her mature style is Blue Light ’Til Dawn (1993), in which ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
105 Words Read More

(Guitar, b. 1967) The leading exponent ‘acid jazz’, guitarist Charlie Hunter has learned to emulate the organ-bass runs of his inspiration, Larry Young, on a customized guitar. Raised in Berkeley, California, the son of a guitar repairer, he was a street musician in Europe prior to founding Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in the early 1990s – the first of his series of popular combos, which draw on the R&B, soul, alternative ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
107 Words Read More

(Various saxophones, b. 1971) A Chicago native, Chris Potter emerged professionally in bebop trumpeter Red Rodney’s combo, before moving on to featured roles in the Mingus Big Band and bassist Dave Holland’s quintet and big band. Potter became the youngest musician to win Denmark’s prestigious and financially valuable Jazzpar Prize in 2000. Personally self-effacing, Potter is a virtuosic instrumentalist with an adventurous frame of melodic mind, equal to any musical challenge. Styles ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
92 Words Read More

(Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, b. 1964) Multi-talented King began in the footsteps of his father – Baton Rouge, Louisiana juke bluesman Tabby Thomas. King has mastered traditional electric and acoustic blues. He also performs and records rock- and rap-blues hybrids. In 2000 he appeared as Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. He also played Lowell Fulson in the Ray Charles biopic Ray (2004) and Blind Willie Johnson in ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
122 Words Read More

(Piano, b. 1941) Chucho remained in Cuba after his father, pianist Bebo Valdés, defected in the late 1950s. In his mid-20s Chucho established Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, which became the much-recorded, internationally touring jazz showband Irakere; he turned it over to his son in 1998. A large man with huge hands, Valdés is capable of sweeping ballads as well as dazzling fast display. He teaches at Havana’s Beny Moré School ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
112 Words Read More

(Guitar, vocals, b. 1969) Harris was discovered on the streets of New Orleans playing acoustic blues. Soon after his debut, 1995’s Between Midnight And Day, the Denver, Colorado native began incorporating rock, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean and African influences into his repertoire, creating a distinctive fusion. The electric Greens From The Garden (1999) and Mississippi To Mali (2004), a collaboration with musicians from Mississippi and Africa, tied to his appearance in a similarly ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel
101 Words Read More
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