Lita Rossana Ford (b. 1958) was born in London. After her family settled in Los Angeles in the 1960s, she took up guitar at the age of 11, inspired by Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. When she was 16, she met novelty-music producer Kim Fowley, who helped recruit her, along with Joan Jett, Sandy West, ...
1852–1924 British composer Born in Dublin where he studied the organ, Stanford moved to London at the age of 10 to study the piano with Ernst Pauer. At Cambridge he was organist of Trinity College (1873–92) and founder-conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society, where he gave the premieres of many of Brahms’ works. He also studied in Leipzig ...
(Vocals, harmonica, guitar, 1899–1982) DeFord Bailey was a member of the original Grand Ole Opry and was its first big star, until he was dismissed from the troupe in 1941 because allegedly he either could not or would not learn new material. His ‘Pan American Blues’, a harmonica train imitation, was one of the early Opry’s ...
(Bandleader, arranger, 1902–47) While working as a music teacher in Memphis, Mississippi-born Lunceford formed a band called the Chicksaw Syncopators. They first recorded in 1930 and after four years of touring gained a residency at the Cotton Club and became the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Renowned for its polished stage presence, the band was nevertheless musically tight and ...
(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 ...
(Bass, cello, composer, 1922–60) Oscar Pettiford was the first bass player to develop the new melodic and rhythmic concepts of bebop on his instrument and was an accomplished cellist and composer. He was of mixed African-American and Native American extraction and had a famously irascible temperament, frequently falling out with his many collaborators. He worked with Duke ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1951) Robben Ford was born into a musical family on the coast of northern California. His father, Charles, was a guitarist who encouraged Robben to teach himself the instrument at the age of 13. Ford has two musical brothers, drummer Pat and harmonica player Mark. Influenced by Mike Bloomfield, Robben and Pat ...
(Vocals, banjo, guitar, fiddle, 1937–2001) Hartford is best known as the writer of ‘Gentle On My Mind’, a pop and country hit for Glen Campbell and much-recorded standard, but he was a gifted and devoted bluegrass musician who helped launch the new acoustic music movement with his 1971 album Aero-Plain. He celebrated America’s rivers as both ...
(Vocals, comedian, author, 1919–91) A native of Bristol, Tennessee, Ernest Jennings Ford began his career on the West Coast as a dj after military service, catching the attention of Cliffie Stone, who made him a regular on the Hometown Jamboree radio and television shows. He began recording for Capitol in 1948 and initially made ...
(Vocals, banjo, songwriter, 1939–2001) New York City-born, St. Louis, Missouri-raised John Hartford first made his mark in Nashville when he wrote and recorded a whimsical ballad called ‘Gentle On My Mind’, which became a massive country and pop hit for Glen Campbell in 1967. In the early 1970s, Hartford gravitated towards bluegrass music and emerged ...
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, ...
1907–82 English pianist Curzon studied in Berlin and Paris. He toured Europe from 1932 and America from 1939. He gave the first performance of works by Lennox Berkeley and Alan Rawsthorne, but was associated mainly with the Classical repertory, especially Mozart. His recordings include the First Piano Concerto by Brahms, conducted by Szell. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2007–present) An English folk-rock quartet from West London led by Marcus Mumford and featuring fellow multi-instrumentalists Ben Lovett, Ted Dwayne and ‘Country’ Winston Marshall. Their debut album Sigh No More (2009) peaked at No. 2 in the UK but topped the charts in Ireland and Australia. They received two Grammy nominations in 2010 and their second album ...
(Vocals, comedian, record producer, bandleader, 1917–98) Native Californian Cliffie Stone – the son of country comedian Herman the Hermit (a.k.a. Herman Snyder) – was a West Coast, one-man industry during the 1940s. Hard to pinpoint any particular activity, he began to get his name known on Stuart Hamblin’s Covered Wagon Jamboree before establishing ...
(Singer, comedian, dj, actor, b. 1927) One of the first Bakersfield entertainers, Missouri-born Ferlin Husky moved to the town after serving in the Merchant Marines and first found work as a dj before signing with Four Star and recording as Terry Preston. Cliffie Stone put him on the Hometown Jamboree (as a replacement for ’Tennessee’ Ernie ...
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