La Diva (Aretha Franklin Album)
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La Diva (Aretha Franklin Album)
''La Diva'' is the twenty-fifth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on September 6, 1979, by Atlantic Records. The album marked the end of her 12-year tenure with Atlantic and a run of 19 original albums. The album was a commercial flop as the singer attempted to make a comeback by recording a disco-oriented project with producer Van McCoy. It was McCoy's final work as he died in June of that year; the record was released as disco was running its course. It stands as the lowest charting and poorest selling album of Franklin's entire Atlantic Records catalogue. "Ladies Only" reached number 33 on '' Billboard''s R&B singles chart while the follow-up, "Half A Love", stalled at number 65. This album was recorded at Franklin's vocal peak and features three of her own compositions, as well as a song by her eldest son Clarence Franklin. Although remembered as Franklin's failed disco LP, ''La Diva'' also includes substantial funk and R&B tracks such as The E ...
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Studio Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at  revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ...
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Ticknor & Fields
Ticknor and Fields was an American publishing company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as a bookstore in 1832, the business would publish many 19th century American authors including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. It also became an early publisher of ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''North American Review''. The firm was named after founder William Davis Ticknor and apprentice James T. Fields, although the names of additional business partners would come and go, notably that of James R. Osgood in the firm's later years. Financial problems led Osgood to merge the company with the publishing firm of Henry Oscar Houghton in 1878, forming a precursor to the modern publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Houghton Mifflin revived the Ticknor and Fields name as an imprint from 1979 to 1989. Company history Early years In 1832 William Davis Ticknor and John All ...
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Ken Bichel
Ken Bichel is an American actor, composer, conductor, pianist, and synthesizer musician. Musical career Bichel attended the Juilliard School where he graduated with a master's degree in piano performance in 1969. While at Juilliard he met Gershon Kingsley and Robert Moog, the inventor of the music synthesizer. He became a founding member of Kingsley's First Moog Quartet, a live performance synthesizer ensemble, and was recognized as the preeminent synthesizer authority in the New York recording industry from that time on. Although Bichel is a classically trained pianist, he has spent most of his career playing and recording jazz, rock, and other forms of contemporary music on the piano and the synthesizer. Bichel became a member of the New York-based band Stories is the early 1970s with whom he recorded several hit songs on three different albums until the band broke up in 1973. Bichel also played and/or conducted several Broadway shows. In 1975, he was hired as the musical di ...
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Paul Griffin (musician)
Paul Griffin (August 6, 1937 – June 14, 2000) was an American pianist and session musician who recorded with hundreds of musicians from the 1950s to the 1990s. Career Born in Harlem, New York, he began as the touring pianist in the backing band for King Curtis and eventually worked with Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, Don McLean, the Isley Brothers, Van Morrison, the Shirelles, and Dionne Warwick. He may be best known for his colourful and distinctive playing on the Bob Dylan albums ''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde'', and also on Steely Dan's ''Aja (album), Aja''. He is extensively featured playing a virtuoso performance of gospel piano on Don McLean's single, "American Pie (song), American Pie" He is credited as co-author of the song "The Fez" on Steely Dan's ''The Royal Scam''. He was an arranger for ''The Warriors (film), The Warriors'' (1979) and ''Four Friends (1981 film), Four Friends'' (1981) and performed in ''On Location: Robert Klein at Yale'' (1982) and on th ...
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Richard Tee
Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", "Slip Slidin' Away", "Just the Two of Us", "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow (Than I Was Today)", "Crackerbox Palace", "Tell Her About It", " Don't Give Up" and many others. Biography Tee was born in Brooklyn, New York to Edward James Ten Ryk (1886–1963), who was from Guyana, and Helen G. Ford Skeete Ten Ryk (1902–2000), of New York. Tee spent most of his life in Brooklyn and lived with his mother in a brownstone apartment building. Tee graduated from The High School of Music & Art in New York City and attended the Manhattan School of Music. Though better known as a studio and session musician, Tee led a jazz ensemble, the Richard Tee Committee, and was a founding member of the band Stuff. In 1981, he played the piano and Fender Rhodes for Simo ...
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Kenneth Ascher
Kenneth Lee Ascher (born October 26, 1944 in Washington, D.C.) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who is active in jazz, rock, classical, and musical theater genres — in live venues, recording studios, and cinema production.''Who's Who in Rock Music'', by William York, Charles Scribner's Sons (1982); With Paul Williams, he wrote the song "Rainbow Connection" for ''The Muppet Movie''. Both Williams and Ascher received Oscar nominations for the 1979 Academy Awards for Best Original Song ("Rainbow Connection") and Best Original Score (''The Muppet Movie'' Soundtrack). The song was also nominated for the Golden Globes for " Best Original Song" that same year. His work Ascher's work through the years has included keyboard parts and string arrangements on John Lennon's albums '' Mind Games'', ''Walls and Bridges'' and ''Rock 'n' Roll'' and Yoko Ono's ''A Story'', music for several songs from Barbra Streisand's remake of '' A Star Is Born'' (where he also se ...
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Zulema Cusseaux
Zulema Cusseaux (January 3, 1947 – September 30, 2013),Biography)))">Allmusic (((Zulema>Biography)))Accessed May 25, 2010 and attended Howard W. Blake High School. She and her school friend Brenda Hilliard joined a local group called The 5 Crystals, before the two formed the trio the Lovelles, together with fellow Tampa native Albert Bailey. When they met producer Van McCoy and were signed by Maxwell Records, the group's name was changed to Faith, Hope and Charity. Their song "So Much Love" hit #15 on the R&B chart and #60 on the pop chart in 1970. Zulema left Faith, Hope and Charity in 1971 shortly after a label switch to Sussex Records. Bailey and Hilliard would occasionally sing backing vocals on Zulema's albums, though. Her self-titled solo album included the song "American Fruit, African Roots" and a cover of "If This World Were Mine." Zulema started touring as opening act for major stars like Bill Withers. She appeared on a bill with Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Gl ...
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Charles H
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was '' Ċearl'' or ''Ċeorl'', as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as ''Karolus'' (as in ''Vita Karoli Magni''), later also as '' Carolus''. Some Germanic languages, for example Dutch and German, have retained the word in two separate senses. In the particular case of Dutch, ''Karel'' refers to the given name, whereas the noun ''kerel'' means "a bloke, fellow, man". Etymology The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun ''*karilaz'' meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ''ċeorl''), which developed its de ...
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Zulema
Zulema Cusseaux (January 3, 1947 – September 30, 2013),Biography)))">Allmusic (((Zulema>Biography)))Accessed May 25, 2010 and attended Howard W. Blake High School. She and her school friend Brenda Hilliard joined a local group called The 5 Crystals, before the two formed the trio the Lovelles, together with fellow Tampa native Albert Bailey. When they met producer Van McCoy and were signed by Maxwell Records, the group's name was changed to Faith, Hope and Charity. Their song "So Much Love" hit #15 on the R&B chart and #60 on the pop chart in 1970. Zulema left Faith, Hope and Charity in 1971 shortly after a label switch to Sussex Records. Bailey and Hilliard would occasionally sing backing vocals on Zulema's albums, though. Her self-titled solo album included the song "American Fruit, African Roots" and a cover of "If This World Were Mine." Zulema started touring as opening act for major stars like Bill Withers. She appeared on a bill with Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, G ...
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The Emotions
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ...
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Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ...
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Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular with Italian Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans and Black Americans "'Broadly speaking, the typical New York discothèque DJ is young (between 18 and 30) and Italian,' journalist Vince Lettie declared in 1975. ..Remarkably, almost all of the important early DJs were of Italian extraction .. Italian Americans have played a significant role in America's dance music culture .. While Italian Americans mostly from Brooklyn largely created disco from scratch .." in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music ...
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