(Mandolin, guitar, harmonica, violin, vocals, 1910–97) Rachell and fellow Brownsville, Tennessee musicians Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon played throughout the mid-South in the 1920s, eventually relocating to Memphis. Rachell and Estes partnered with pianist Jab Jones, recording for Victor as the Three J’s Jug Band. During the 1930s and 1940s, Rachell ...
(Piano, guitar, b. 1913) Belzoni, Mississippi’s Perkins performed throughout the Delta until 1949, when he relocated to Chicago to play with Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker through the 1950s. In 1969 he replaced Otis Spann in Muddy Waters’ band. Perkins stayed until 1980, when he, Calvin Jones (bass), Jerry Portnoy (harmonica) and Willie Smith (drums) ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1899–1977) John Adams Estes was born in Ripley, Tennessee. He teamed up with mandolinist Yank Rachell to work the area from 1919 until the late 1920s. His first recordings were made for Victor in 1929 and included his celebrated ‘Divin’ Duck Blues’. He left Brownsville for Chicago in 1931. With harmonica player Hammie Nixon, Estes ...
(Harmonica, vocals, 1914–48) John Lee Williamson was born in Jackson, Tennessee. He taught himself harmonica at an early age and left home in his mid-teens to hobo with Yank Rachell and Sleepy John Estes through Tennessee and Arkansas. He settled in Chicago in 1934 and made his recording debut for Bluebird in 1937. His first song, ‘Good ...
(Bandleader, trombone, trumpet, 1905–56) With the break-up of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey quickly hired the Joe Haymes Orchestra en masse and built a new band to his specifications. For all the talent it would attract, however, it would always be built around the leader’s warm trombone sound and flawless perfection on ballads. The ...
By the end of the 1930s, the Swing era was in full force, ushered in by big bands led by Benny Goodman, Chick Webb, the Dorsey brothers (Jimmy and Tommy) and Glenn Miller. New Orleans jazz and its stylistic off-shoot, Dixieland, had both largely faded from popularity. New Orleans pioneers King Oliver and Jelly Roll ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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