|
Challenge (album)
''Challenge!'' is the debut studio album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, then called Yuya Uchida & The Flowers, released in 1969. It features mainly cover songs, and was a means for Yuya Uchida to explore the emerging psychedelic rock movement outside his own career, and to introduce the work of upcoming Western bands such as Cream, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jefferson Airplane to a Japanese audience. It was named number 34 on ''Bounce''s 2009 list of 54 Standard Japanese Rock Albums. Overview Shocked after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform in London in 1967, Yuya Uchida returned home and wanted to introduce a similar sound to Japan. He formed "the Flowers" as a cover band with various group sounds musicians, and two vocalists; male singer Hiroshi Chiba and female singer Remi Aso. The album also gained notoriety for featuring all of the band members nude on the cover. Following its release, Uchida dropped all the members, except dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flower Travellin' Band
was a Japanese rock band that was formed in 1967. They were connected to Japan's counterculture movement and noted for their mixture of early heavy metal with psychedelic and progressive rock. They received wide acclaim from critics but failed to achieve commercial success and separated in 1973 to pursue individual careers. The band reunited in late 2007, but permanently disbanded after the 2011 death of vocalist Joe Yamanaka. While the band's releases have never sold well they continue to be held in high regard by the music industry. Their albums have never been out of print and they continue to be made available on new audiophile formats such as SHM-CDs. Former members of the Flower Travellin' Band continue to perform FTB songs live together under the name Flower Power with other musicians. History The band was initially started as a side-project by Yuya Uchida when he returned to Japan after visiting his friend John Lennon in England in the mid 1960s, where he was introd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hideki Ishima
is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and for creating the sitarla instrument. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2000 that combines aspects of a sitar with an electric guitar. Guitarists Akira Takasaki, Rolly, and Mikael Åkerfeldt have cited him as an influence. Career Ishima started playing guitar at 19, at the behest of a friend who wanted to be in a band. His first group was in his native Sapporo shortly after graduating high school. He moved to Tokyo and formed the group sounds band The Beavers in 1966, who had released four albums and one single but had not had major success. Ishima began playing sitar at 24, after researching Gábor Szabó at the suggestion of a woman and learning that the jazz guitarist also played this instrument he had never heard of. He taught himself from Ravi Shankar's 1968 book ''My Music, My Life'', looking up the Jap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'm So Glad
"I'm So Glad" is a Delta blues-style song originally recorded by American musician Skip James in 1931. Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft notes "This spiritual probably dates back to the beginning of the blues". Blues writer Stephen Calt describes it as "a Two-Step piece marked by fiendishly fast playing nan eight bar arrangement single measures." He adds it is not related to an earlier Lonnie Johnson tune. Paramount Records released James' "I'm So Glad" on the then standard 10-inch 78rpm shellac phonograph record in 1931. It is included on various compilations as well as ''Hard Time Killing' Floor'' (2005), a complete collection of James' recordings on compact disc, by Yazoo Records. James' song has been recorded by early blues artists, including Fred McDowell. Cream adaptation British rock group Cream reworked "I'm So Glad" using an electric blues rock arrangement. In September 1966, they recorded it for their debut album, ''Fresh Cream''. The song was a feature of their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the songs " Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit " Summertime". Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summertime (George Gershwin Song)
"Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera ''Porgy and Bess''. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel '' Porgy'' on which the opera was based, and Ira Gershwin. The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt ... one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote ... Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of blacks in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century". Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater". ''Porgy and Bess'' Gershwin began composing the song in December 1933, attempting to create his own spiritual in the style of the African American folk music of the period. Gershwin had completed setting DuBose Heyward's poem to music by February 1934, and spent the next 20 months completing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage presence. In 1967, Joplin rose to fame following an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, where she was the lead singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. After releasing two albums with the band, she left Big Brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the #1969–1970: Solo career, Kozmic Blues Band and then the Full Tilt Boogie Band. She appeared at the Woodstock festival and on the ''Festival Express'' train tour. Five singles by Joplin reached the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including a cover version, cover of the Kris Kristofferson song "Me and Bobby McGee", which reached number one in March 1971. Her most popular songs include he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Brother & The Holding Company (album)
''Big Brother & the Holding Company'' is the debut album of Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin, their main singer. Recorded during three days in December 1966 for Mainstream Records, it was released in the summer of 1967, shortly after the band's major success at the Monterey Pop Festival. Columbia took over the band's contract and re-released the album, adding two extra tracks, and putting Joplin's name on the cover. Several tracks on the album were released as singles, the most successful being " Down on Me" on its second release, in 1968. Recording The band signed to Bob Shad's local record label Mainstream Records while stranded in Chicago after a promoter ran out of money when their concerts did not attract the expected attendance. Initial recordings took place in Chicago in September 1966, but these were not satisfactory, and the band returned to San Francisco. The band recorded the tracks "Blindman" and "All Is Loneliness" in Los Angeles, and these were r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the largest online database of electronic music, the site now includes releases in all genres on all formats. After the database was opened to contributions from the public, rock music began to become the most prevalent genre listed. , Discogs contains over 15.7 million releases, by over 8.3 million artists, across over 1.9 million labels, contributed from over 644,000 contributor user accounts – with these figures constantly growing as users continually add previously unlisted releases to the site over time. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc. and located in Portland, Oregon, United States. History The discogs.com domain name was registered in August 2000, and Discogs itself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Andrew
Sam Houston Andrew III (December 18, 1941 – February 12, 2015) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, composer, artist and founding member and guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company. During his career as musician and composer, Andrew had three platinum albums and two hit singles. His songs have been used in numerous major motion picture soundtracks and documentaries. Music career Andrew was born in Taft, California. As the son of a military father, Andrew moved a great deal as a child. He developed a skill for music at a very early age. By the time he was seventeen living in Okinawa, he already had his own band, called the "Cool Notes", and his own weekly TV show, an Okinawan version of ''American Bandstand''. His early influences were Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard. He also listened to a great deal of Delta blues. His brother Leland Andrew frequently stated his brother was the "Benny Goodman of Japan". Shortly after he graduated from high scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheap Thrills (Big Brother And The Holding Company Album)
''Cheap Thrills'' is the second studio album by American rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. It was their last album with Janis Joplin as lead singer before she started a solo career. For ''Cheap Thrills'', the band and producer John Simon incorporated recordings of crowd noise to give the impression of a live album, for which it was subsequently mistaken by listeners. Only "Ball and Chain" was actually recorded in concert at Winterland Ballroom. ''Cheap Thrills'' reached number one on the charts for eight nonconsecutive weeks in 1968. History Big Brother obtained a considerable amount of attention after their 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival and had released their debut album soon after. The followup, ''Cheap Thrills'', was a great success, reaching number one on the charts for eight nonconsecutive weeks in 1968. Columbia Records offered the band a new recording contract, but it took months to get through since they were still signed to Mainstream Record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company Amazon or Amazone may also refer to: Places South America * Amazon Basin (sedimentary basin), a sedimentary basin at the middle and lower course of the river * Amazon basin, the part of South America drained by the river and its tributaries * Amazon Reef, at the mouth of the Amazon basin Elsewhere * 1042 Amazone, an asteroid * Amazon Creek, a stream in Oregon, US People * Amazon Eve (born 1979), American model, fitness trainer, and actress * Lesa Lewis (born 1967), American professional bodybuilder nicknamed "Amazon" Art and entertainment Fictional characters * Amazon (Amalgam Comics) * Amazon, an alias of the Marvel supervillain Man-Killer * Amazons (DC Comics), a group of superhuman characters * The Amazon, a ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
