SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Ruth Brown
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(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 ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(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 ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(Guitar, vocals, 1900–52) An associate of Charley Patton, Brown was a part of the Mississippi blues scene in the early 1920s. While he started out playing with Patton and Tommy Johnson, he teamed up with Son House in 1926 and accompanied his Paramount session in May 1930, also cutting four songs of his own. Brown played ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Piano, vocals, 1922–99) Charles Mose Brown was born in Texas City, Texas and had extensive classical piano training as a youth. He moved to Los Angeles in 1943 and by September 1944 had become the vocalist-pianist in Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. The Blazers had several hits before Brown went solo in 1948 and scored success with songs such ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(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 ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Guitar, vocals, 1915–96) Walter Brown McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He learned to play guitar before his tenth birthday and dropped out of school to play throughout the state in the late 1920s. He met Sonny Terry in 1939 and they joined forces almost immediately. McGhee began recording for OKeh in 1940 and moved to New York. ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Guitar, violin, vocals, 1924–2005) Clarence Brown Jr. was born in Vinton, Louisiana and raised in Orange, Texas. By the age of 10 he had learned guitar and violin. After the Second World War he settled in the Houston, Texas area. He made his recording debut in 1947 for Aladdin and signed with Peacock Records in ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Trumpet, 1930–56) The tragic death of Clifford Brown in a road accident robbed jazz of one of its brightest young stars, but even his truncated legacy has established his standing as a major figure and profound influence. He took up the trumpet at the age of 13, drawing on the influence of bebop stars Dizzy Gillespie and Fats ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

(Vocals, b. 1929) Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He sang with a gospel group, the Heavenly Lights, which recorded for Savoy, but was convinced to try blues material in 1954 and had several hits, including ‘Don’t Be Angry’. He returned to singing gospel in the 1960s but was rediscovered in ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

There was a time during the western-swing revival of the 1970s when it looked as if the pioneering legacy of Milton Brown (1903–36) And His Musical Brownies would be entirely subsumed amid the accolades given to the music’s most popular, enduring figure, Bob Wills. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, though Wills continues to reign supreme in the popular ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

(Vocals, guitar, 1922–2003) In an era when every other singer was trying to sound like Bill Monroe or Carter Stanley, Hylo Brown sounded like no one else. An Ohio defence plant worker who moonlighted at hillbilly bars during the Second World War, Kentucky’s Frank Brown Jr. became renowned for a vocal range that went from a warm ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

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 ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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, ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Guitar, vocals, b. 1941) Discovered by TV producer Jack Good, guitarist Brown backed visiting American stars including Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, before launching his own career as a rocking Cockney with a handful of UK hit singles, before The Beatles changed the world. After appearing in British pop films and London theatre, Brown formed ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Like many early soul stars James Brown (born in South Carolina on 3 May 1933) came to music through the singing of his local church. He had his first success as frontman of The Famous Flames with the gospel R&B hit ‘Please, Please, Please’ in 1956. When 1958’s ‘Try Me’ hit the R&B No. 1 spot the floodgates opened ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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