If Jimmie Rodgers is the father of country music, Uncle Dave Macon its first radio star and the Carters its first family group, Roy Acuff (1903–92) has a claim to be called the father of the country-music business. Not only was he a key figure in the Grand Ole Opry – indeed, for many, its figurehead – ...
(Vocals, 1925–81) Roy James Brown was born in New Orleans and raised in Texas and Louisiana. A strong blues shouter, Brown was one of the first stars of New Orleans R&B. He led his own group, Roy Brown & his Mighty, Mighty Men, and wrote most of the material he recorded. He began recording for DeLuxe ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1939–88) Roy Buchanan’s use of harmonics and his melodic sense were incomparable. Raised on gospel and R&B, he performed with Johnny Otis, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and Ronnie Hawkins’ Hawks as a young man. A 1971 PBS documentary, The Best Unknown Guitarist In The World, together with adulation from the likes of John Lennon ...
(Entertainer, b. 1933) Voted CMA Entertainer Of The Year in 1973, Clark – apart from being a champion banjo player and electric guitarist – appeared regularly in the 1960s television series, The Beverly Hillbillies, and was the host of Hee Haw from its 1960 beginning. His sparkling show was greatly sought after in the 1970s and he ...
While Louis Armstrong remained a pre-eminent jazz symbol in the public mind through the 1930s, and inspired many imitators (Taft Jordan, Hot Lips Page, Wingy Manone), younger and better-schooled musicians were coming up who could navigate the trumpet with great agility and dexterity. They would break through the perimeters that Armstrong had established in the 1920s and take ...
(Trumpet, b. 1969) Encouraged by Wynton Marsalis while in high school in Dallas, Texas, Hargrove has a jauntier approach to trumpet than his mentor. He principally employs hard-bop vocabulary, but has also led the Latin jazz band Crîsol with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, recorded with hip hop/soul singer D’Angelo, and co-starred in Herbie Hancock’s New ...
1898–1979 American composer Born in a log cabin, Harris paid for his musical studies by driving a truck. He studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, but his rugged style owes as much to American folksong and hymn tunes as to his love of J. S. Bach. Of his 16 symphonies only the Third (1937), a work of epic striving ...
(Drums, b. 1925) Roy Haynes is a major jazz drummer in settings ranging from swing to jazz rock, taking in most genres of the music including free jazz. He spent three years with Charlie Parker (1949–52) and five with Sarah Vaughan (1953–58), and by the mid-1960s had also worked with Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, ...
(Drums, vocals, 1907–83) Roy Bunny Milton was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He had his own bands before moving to Los Angeles in 1935, where he formed the Solid Senders combo in 1938 and worked small clubs throughout the city. He began recording in 1945 and had a lengthy relationship with Specialty records throughout 1946–54, which produced ...
(Piano, bandleader 1899–1981) Roy Newman And His Boys was one of the most distinctive pre-war western-swing bands. Based out of Dallas radio station WRR, pianist Newman was even more heavily pop, jazz and blues-influenced than most contemporaries. The band owed its instantly recognizable sound largely to idiosyncratic clarinetist Holly Horton. Other key band members included fiddlers Cecil Brower ...
(Singer-songwriter, 1936–88) Born in Texas, the high-voiced Orbison first recorded with Norman Petty, but his first US chart success was 1956’s rockabilly ‘Ooby Dooby’ on Sun Records. After writing ‘Claudette’ (a 1957 hit for The Everly Brothers), he became a Nashville songwriter for Acuff-Rose, and restarted his recording career with 1960’s million-selling ballad ‘Only The Lonely’, setting ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1936–88) Orbison, in his distinctive dark glasses, became a major star during the 1960s as a result of a succession of hits in a rock-ballad style that was quite unique – and a contrast to the British beat-group craze of the period. Born in Vernon, Texas, he earlier performed rockabilly with his group ...
The Sons Of The Pioneers are one of the most influential vocal groups in American history – an impeccable hallmark of fluid precision and musical integrity since 1933, universally admired for their tight sound and gorgeous harmonies. The group also boasted two great American songwriters in Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan, and two of the most influential country instrumentalists ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1950) An exponent of acoustic and electric blues, California-based slide guitarist Rogers played with John Lee Hooker’s Coast To Coast band from 1982–86, before releasing his debut recording as a leader, Chops Not Chaps (1986). He followed up with 1988’s Slidewinder and in 1990 produced Hooker’s Grammy-winning comeback album The Healer. Rogers maintained ...
The legend of Sun Records seems to expand and shine brighter with every passing year, as successive generations discover the almost unbelievable array of musical gems that were created at that modest little studio at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis. Sun was the brainchild of one man and it is no exaggeration to say that without his contribution, not ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.