(Vocals, 1932–72) McPhatter was among the first singers to make the transition from gospel singer to R&B and pop star, and his emotional singing set the stage for vocalists like Jackie Wilson and Smokey Robinson. McPhatter started out with Billy Ward’s Dominoes, and left in 1953 to form and lead The Drifters. His Drifters hits included ‘Money Honey’ ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1937–97) The Houston guitarist played with bluesman Joe ‘Guitar’ Hughes before forming his own band in the late 1950s. Relocating to New York in 1974, Copeland debuted on Rounder Records with 1977’s Copeland Special. In 1985 he recorded a guitar summit meeting with Albert Collins and Robert Cray (Showdown!) and in 1986 recorded Bringin’ It ...
(Singer-songwriter 1934–84) Detroit-born Jackie Wilson, an ex-amateur boxer, sang with gospel groups before replacing Clyde McPhatter in Billy Ward and The Dominoes in 1953. His first solo success came with 1957’s UK and US hit, Reet Petite’, co-written by Berry Gordy Jr., who went on to found Motown Records. His first US Top 40 hit was 1958’s ...
(Bandleader, saxophonist, 1908–75) During the big-band era saxophonist Jordan was burning up the R&B charts with his small group, The Tympany Five. Jordan’s music combined jazz and blues with salty, jive-talking humour. People called the sound ‘jump blues’ or ‘jumpin’ jive’, and from 1942 to 1951, Jordan scored 57 R&B chart hits. Jordan’s best-loved songs include ...
(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 ...
(Vocal group, 1953–present) Formed in 1953, various versions of The Drifters have existed ever since. Among the significant members of the group among the dozens who have been involved are Clyde McPhatter (lead vocalist 1953–54), Johnny Moore (lead vocalist 1955–57, 1963–78, 1985–98), Ben E. King (lead vocalist 1958–60, 1981–85) and Rudy Lewis (lead vocalist 1960–64). Signed ...
Rhythm & blues (R&B) music evolved out of jump blues rhythms during the late-1940s, but it also had riffs and lyrics that were beginning to point more towards the emergence of rock’n’roll. Using sparser instrumentation than jump blues, R&B was based upon traditional blues chord changes played over a steady backbeat. R&B placed more emphasis on the singer ...
Lester Flatt (1914–79) was relieved when Dave ‘Stringbean’ Akeman left Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945, for Flatt felt the group was better off without a banjo, which had been hindering their efforts to play faster and cleaner than anyone had before. But Monroe agreed to audition a 21-year-old banjoist from western North Carolina, and Earl Scruggs ...
(Keyboards, vocals, b. 1943) Real name Clive Powell, his million-selling ‘Yeah Yeah’ in 1964 triggered a chart run that included two more UK No. 1s in the self-composed ‘Get Away’ and – also a US Top 10 entry – 1967’s ‘Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde’. Though there have been no more hits since 1971’s ‘Rosetta’ (with ex-Animal Alan ...
(Vocals, guitar, harmonica, 1910–68) Clyde Julian ‘Red’ Foley was born in Blue Lick, Kentucky, and was central to the surge in country music’s popularity in the 1940s and early 1950s with hits like ‘Smoke On The Water’ (1944), ‘Tennessee Saturday Night’ (1948), ‘Chattanoogie Shoeshine Boy’ (1950) and ‘Birmingham Bounce’ (1950). For three decades, Foley headlined ...
Although Robert Cray’s clean, good looks, precise guitar lines and slick presentation earned him some knocks from critics early on in his career (hardcore blues aficionados tended to dismiss him as ‘blues lite’ for yuppies), he later gained their respect for his smart songwriting and razor-sharp guitar licks, along with an intensely passionate vocal style reminiscent of the ...
(Songwriter, bandleader, fiddle, vocals, 1894–1964) Shelly Lee Alley is best remembered for writing the classic ‘Traveling Blues’ for Jimmie Rodgers in 1931. Texan Alley led his own pop and jazz orchestras in the 1920s, but also enjoyed success as a western-swing bandleader a decade later. At various times, his Alley Cats included such stars as ...
(Vocals, b. 1979) This Harlem-born daughter of Texas bluesman Johnny ‘Clyde’ Copeland apprenticed onstage with her father. She emerged as a solo artist in 1997, beginning a run of albums that made her one of the most popular artists in contemporary blues. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until 2002’s Dr. John-produced Talking To Strangers that the quality of Copeland’s songs ...
(Alto saxophone, b. 1956) Chicago native Coleman worked in funk and R&B bands before switching to jazz and learning under tenor sax great Von Freeman. He moved to New York in 1978 and worked with the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra and Sam Rivers. He had a key tenure in the early to mid-1980s with Dave Holland before forming his own ...
The temptation is to think of bluegrass as an ancient music, for its repertoire and instrumentation stretch back into the shadowy mists of the nineteenth century. But in many ways bluegrass was a radical innovation, a music of the modern world, a sound invented just a decade before rock’n’roll. It was a new/old music, and that central ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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