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Bill Rogers (musician)
Augustus Hinds (1906 – 1984), who performed under the stage name Bill Rogers, was a Guyanese singer and songwriter, credited with developing shanto music. He was the first Guyanese musician to record internationally. Biography Born in 1906, he grew up in the multi-ethnic Charlestown area of south Georgetown, British Guiana. As a child he joined in family shows put on by his sisters. He made his first stage appearance aged five, wrote his first songs aged 13, and then organised his own vaudeville-style group, the Merry Makers, who toured in Suriname. He made his first radio broadcasts in 1929, and also incorporated comedy and magic into his stage act. In the late 1920s, he developed the concept of "shanto" music, which he described as "an improvisation of words and music with an Afro-West Indian beat, with satirical comments on people, events and things...". His songs were aimed at, and commented on issues relevant to the everyday lives of, the working-class urban popula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stage Name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individual's birth name. Though uncommon, some performers choose to adopt their stage name as a legal name. Nicknames and maiden names are sometimes used in a person's professional name. Reasons for using a stage name A performer will often take a stage name because their real name is considered unattractive, dull, or unintentionally amusing; projects an undesired image; is difficult to pronounce or spell; or is already being used by another notable individual, including names that are not exactly the same but still too similar. An example of this is pop singer Katy Perry, whose real name is Katheryn "Katy" Hudson, which would have caused confusion with the actress Kate Hudson. Sometimes a performer adopts a name that is unusual or outlandish t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown. Inhabited by Island Caribs, Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Amerindians, Spanish navigators took possession of Barbados in the late 15th century, claiming it for the Crown of Castile. It first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese Empire claimed the island between 1532 and 1536, but abandoned it in 1620 with their only remnants being an introduction of wild boars for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. An Kingdom of England, English ship, the ''Olive Blossom'', arrived in Barbados on 14 May 1625; its men took possession of the island in the name of James VI and I, King James I. In 1627, the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1906 Births
Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis. * January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany. * January 22 – The strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster. * January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths. * February 7 – is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany. * February 11 ** Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical ''Vehementer Nos'', denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. ** Two British members of a poll tax collecting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louise Bennett
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the practice of presenting poetry, folk songs and stories in patois ("nation language"), establishing the validity of local languages for literary expression. Early life Bennett was born on 7 September 1919 on North Street in Kingston, Jamaica. She was the only child of Augustus Cornelius Bennett, the owner of a bakery in Spanish Town, and Kerene Robinson, a dressmaker. After the death of her father in 1926, Bennett was raised primarily by her mother. She attended elementary school at Ebenezer and Calabar, continuing to St. Simon's College and Excelsior College, in Kingston. In 1943, she enrolled at Friends College in Highgate, St Mary where she studied Jamaican folklore. That same year her poetry was first published in the '' Sunday Gleaner''. In 1945, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic); the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some to the north-west. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it, renaming it ''Jamaica''. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike McKenzie (jazz Musician)
Oscar Grenville Hastings McKenzie (17 September 1922, British Guiana – December 1999, Spain), known as Mike McKenzie, was a Guyanese jazz pianist, bandleader, vocalist, composer and arranger, who performed in London from the 1950s to the 1980s. He covered a wide repertoire, from Habanera and Calypso, to trad jazz, swing and jazz standards. He led The Mike McKenzie Trio, Quartet and Quintet; Mike McKenzie's Habaneros; Mike McKenzie and his Rhythm; and The Mike McKenzie All Stars. Early years McKenzie was taught piano by his mother from the age of seven, and violin by his father from the age of 16. He played regularly in Georgetown, then moved to London in 1949. 1950s and 1960s At the beginning of the 1950s, McKenzie was working with producer Denis Preston at both the BBC and for the Melodisc and Parlophone record labels. Preston rapidly established McKenzie as a regular recording artist and contributor to radio and television broadcasts for at least a decade. Preston had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddy Grant
Frederick Josiah Grant (1905 – 1986) was a British Guiana-born jazz and calypso musician who played saxophone and clarinet. Between the mid-1930s and mid-1950s he was active in Britain, before moving to the United States. Biography Grant was born in British Guiana. He toured South America as a member of Vicente Gomez's band, before moving to Trinidad in 1933 where he joined the Trinidad Constabulary Band. In 1937, he moved to England, and worked with several jazz and swing bands, including those led by Joe Appleton, Fela Sowande, Rudolph Dunbar, Johnny Claes, and Cyril Blake. In 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force for two years, and on his discharge joined the bands led by Carlo Krahmer and Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, in 1945, he featured with his own band, the West Indian Calypsonians, in concerts organised by record producer Denis Preston, sometimes being billed as "Frederico and the Calypsonians", "Freddy Grant's Deme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Oliver
Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficionados of one of his specialties were not aware of his expertise in the other. He wrote some of the first scholarly studies of blues music, and his commentary and research have been influential. Early life and career Oliver was born in Nottingham, the son of architect W. Norman Oliver. In the late 1930s, his family lived in Pinner, in North London where he attended Longfield Primary School in Rayners Lane and then went to Harrow County School for Boys between 1938 and 1942. He attended Harrow Art School, where he met his wife Valerie. He initially trained as a painter and sculptor, but because of allergies to some art materials concentrated on graphic design. After a period in the War Office, Oliver gained his Art Teacher's Diploma at Golds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodisc Records
Melodisc Records was a record label founded by Emil E. Shalit in the late 1940s. It was one of the first independent record labels in the UK and the parent company of the Blue Beat label. History Melodisc records was founded by Austrian-born American citizen Emil Edward Shalit (24 December 1909 – 23 April 1983) and his business partner Jack Chilkes. Melodisc began trading in London, England, in August 1949 and soon became established as one of the first—and, at the time, the largest—independent record labels in the UK. Its offices were in Earlham Street, Covent Garden. The company was founded in 1949 when Shalit was still living in New York City, with the initial purpose of licensing American jazz for release in the UK. In London, Melodisc was managed by Jack Chilkes until a disagreement with Shalit led to his departure and a subsequent lawsuit in late 1952; According to Chilkes, Shalit had tricked him into believing that he owned the rights to material actually o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited (the Parlophone Co. Ltd.), which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss (who had set up the London branch of the company in 1923), the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith. In 1962, Martin signed the Beatles, a beat group from Liverpool who earlier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Preston
Sidney Denis Preston (''né'' Prechner, 16 November 1916 – 21 October 1979) was a British record producer, recording studio owner, radio presenter and music critic. He was particularly influential in the British jazz and associated skiffle scenes from the 1940s to the 1960s. Preston worked independently; he was not contracted to a particular record label and would often risk cutting a record before pitching for a deal. He has been described as "Europe's first independent record producer", and as "probably the most important figure to emerge from the British jazz business". Neil Ardley described him as "a rare Diaghilev like figure" who steered many of the key figures of the British jazz scene into the studio when nobody else would record them. Biography He was born Sidney Denis Prechner on 16 November 1916 in Stoke Newington, London, the son of Louis Prechner and Sarah ''née'' Hobsbaum. He changed his surname to Preston by deed poll in 1946. His cousin was the histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
