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Benjamin F. Wright
Benjamin Wright, Jr. (born July 11, 1946) is an American producer and composer. As an arranger, he has conducted hits for many artists including Justin Timberlake, OutKast, Brandy, Destiny's Child, Dru Hill, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, James Ingram, Richard Ashcroft, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson. Early life Music director and arranger Benjamin F. Wright, Jr. was born on July 11, 1946, in Greenville, Mississippi. Wright started his music career while in high school, performing as a drum major in the marching band, and singing doo-wop in a group he and his friends started. After high school, Wright embarked on his first major musical tour with big Rhythm and Blues icon, Ted Taylor. During the tour, Wright played piano and sang backup for the band. The Ted Taylor tour allowed Wright to experience music arrangement for the first time. His subsequent success within the industry took him on the road with icons like James Brown, Otis Redding, Billy Stewart and Gladys Kni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 34,400 at the 2010 census. It is located in the area of historic cotton plantations and culture known as the Mississippi Delta. History Early history This area was occupied by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. When the French explored here, they encountered the historic Natchez people. As part of their colony known as ''La Louisiane'', the French established a settlement at what became Natchez, Mississippi. Other Native American tribes also lived in what is now known as Mississippi. The current city of Greenville is the third in the State to bear the name. The first, (known as Old Greenville) located to the south near Natchez, became defunct soon after the American Revolution, as European-American settlement was then still concentrated in the eastern states. The second Greenville was founded in 1824 by American William W. Blanton, who filed for land from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's " Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records. Established and run by two Jewish immigrant brothers from what was then Poland, Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many singles and albums regarded as central to the rock music canon. The musician and critic Cub Koda described Chess as "America's greatest blues label". Chess was based at several locations on the south side of Chicago, initially at South Cottage Grove Ave. The most famous was 2120 S. Michigan Avenue, from May 1957 to 1965, immortalized by the Rolling Stones in " 2120 South Michigan Avenue", an instrumental re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Barge
James Gene Barge (born August 9, 1926) is an American tenor and alto saxophonist, composer in several bands, and actor. Biography Born in Norfolk, Virginia in August 1926, he was a founding member of the 1960s band The Church Street Five, which recorded for the locally based label, Legrand Records, operated by Frank Guida. The band included Gene Barge (sax), Ron "Junior" Farley (bass), Willie Burnell (piano), Leonard Barks (trombone), and Emmet Shields (drums). In 1961, the Dovells reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a song called " The Bristol Stomp", which refers to Bristol, Pennsylvania, and includes the line "We ponied and twisted and we rocked with Daddy G". Since Gene Barge had earlier co-written "A Night With Daddy 'G' - Part 1" and "A Night With Daddy 'G' - Part 2" (Legrand LEG 1004), many applied the pseudonym 'Daddy G' to him. It is not known whether the 'Daddy G' of that 1961 song lyric was intended to be Gene Barge or Bishop 'Daddy' Grace, a Norfolk, Virginia ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donny Hathaway
Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of " A Song for You", "For All We Know", and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of many collaborations with Roberta Flack. He has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations. Hathaway was also posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Dutch director David Kleijwegt made a documentary called ''Mister Soul – A Story About Donny Hathaway'', which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2020. Early life Hathaway, the son of Drusella Huntley, was born in Chicago ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Stepney
Charles Stepney (March 26, 1931– May 17, 1976) was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and musician. Stepney is noted for his work with artists such as The Dells, Ramsey Lewis, Rotary Connection and Earth, Wind & Fire. Career He started his musical career as a jazz piano and vibraphone player, and began work for Chess Records as a musician and arranger.Paul Bowler, "The Engine Room: Charles Stepney", ''Record Collector'', No.516, March 2021, p.128 In 1966, Charles Stepney and Marshall Chess, son of Chess Records' co-founder Leonard Chess, created the band Rotary Connection. Stepney went on to produce the group on the Chess vanity label Cadet Concept."Introduction" These were their 1967 self titled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Impressions
The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, doo-wop, R&B, and soul. The group was founded as the Roosters by Chattanooga, Tennessee natives Sam Gooden, Richard Brooks and Arthur Brooks, who moved to Chicago and added Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield to their line-up to become Jerry Butler & the Impressions. By 1962, Butler and the Brookses had departed, and after switching to ABC-Paramount Records, Mayfield, Gooden, and returning original Impressions' member Fred Cash collectively became a top-selling soul act. Mayfield left the group for a solo career in 1970; Leroy Hutson, Ralph Johnson, Reggie Torian (born Reginald Torian), and Nate Evans (Twinight Records) were among the replacements who joined Gooden and Cash. Inductees into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Impressions had a string of hits in the 1960s, many of which were heavily influenced by gospel music and served as i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.Curtis Mayfield , Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "…significant for the forthright way in which he addressed issues of black identity and self-awareness. …left his imprint on the Seventies by couching social commentary and keenly observed black-culture archetypes in funky, danceable rhythms. …sounded urgent pleas for peace and brotherhood overextended, -funk tracks that laid out a fresh musical agenda for the new decade." Accessed 28 November 2006. Dubbed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Butler
Jerry Butler Jr. (born December 8, 1939) is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the Rhythm and blues, R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 ''Billboard'' Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart", "Let It Be Me (The Everly Brothers song), Let It Be Me" and "Only the Strong Survive (song), Only the Strong Survive". He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. He served as a Commissioner for Cook County, Illinois, from 1985 to 2018. As a member of this 17-member county board, he chaired the Health and Hospitals Committee and served as Vice Chair of the Construction Committee. Biography Early life Butler was born in Sunflower, Mississippi, United States, in 1939. When Butler was three years old, the fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chi-Lites
The Chi-Lites (, ) are an American R&B/soul vocal quartet from Chicago, Illinois, United States. Forming at Chicago's Hyde Park High School in 1959, The group's original lineup consisted of singers Robert Lester, Eugene Record, Creadel Jones, Clarence Johnson, Burt Bowen, Eddie Reed and Marshall Thompson. The Chi-Lites' greatest fame came during the late 1960s through the early 1970s (with members Record, Jones, Lester and Thompson), scoring eleven Top Ten R&B hits from 1969 until 1974. The group also charted 21 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Chart, and had chart hits in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, as well as in the U.S. History Forming and early career The original members were lead singer Eugene Record, Robert "Squirrel" Lester, Clarence Johnson, Burt Bowen, and Eddie Reed of the Chanteurs. The group was formed at Hyde Park Academy High School where majority of the members attended (Record attended Englewood High School and Thompson would late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer and performer of the 1950s and 60s. He was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Nicknamed "Mr. Excitement", he was considered a master showman and one of the most dynamic singers and performers in soul, R&B, and rock and roll history. Wilson gained initial fame as a member of the R&B vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes. He went solo in 1957 and scored over 50 chart singles spanning the genres of R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop, and easy listening. This included 16 Top 10 R&B hits, six of which ranked as number ones. On the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Wilson scored 14 top 20 pop hits, six of which reached the top 10. Wilson was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He is also inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. Two of Wilson's recordings were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. He was honored with the Rhythm and Blue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syl Johnson
Sylvester Johnson (born Sylvester Thompson; July 1, 1936 – February 6, 2022) was an American blues and soul singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. His most successful records included "Different Strokes" (1967), " Is It Because I'm Black" (1969) and " Take Me to the River" (1975). Biography Early life and recording debut Born near Holly Springs, Mississippi, the sixth child of a harmonica-playing farmer, he moved with his family in about 1950 to Chicago, where blues guitarist Magic Sam was his next-door neighbor. Mark Winegardner, "Syl Johnson", ''Oxford American'', November 21, 2011 Retrieved February 8, 2022 Johnson sang and played with Magic Sam and other blues artists, such as |
