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Marlena Shaw Live At Montreux
''Marlena Shaw Live at Montreux'' (also released as ''Marlena Shaw Live: Cookin' with Blue Note at Montreux'') is a live album by American vocalist Marlena Shaw recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1973 and released on the Blue Note label.Blue Note Records discography accessed January 24, 2011 Shaw's introduction to the track "Woman of the Ghetto" was sampled for St. Germain's album '''' (2000), Blue Boy's " [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlena Shaw
Marlena Shaw (born Marlina Burgess, September 22, 1942) is an American jazz, blues and soul music, soul singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in Hip hop music, hip hop music, and used in television commercials. Early life Marlena Shaw was born in New Rochelle, New York. She was first introduced to music by her uncle Jimmy Burgess, a jazz trumpet player. In an interview with ''The New York Times'', she told the reporter: "He [Jimmy Burgess] introduced me to good music through records – Dizzy Gillespie, Dizzy [Gillespie], Miles Davis, Miles [Davis], a lot of Gospel music, gospel things, and Al Hibbler, who really knows how to phrase a song." In 1952, Burgess brought her on stage at the Apollo Theatre, Apollo Theater in Harlem to sing with his band. Shaw's mother did not want Marlena to go on tour with her uncle at such a young age. Shaw enrolled in the New York State Teachers College in Potsdam (now known a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include ''Oklahoma!'', '' Carousel'', '' South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new maturity by popularizing musicals that focused on stories and character rather than the lighthearted entertainment that the musical had been known for beforehand. He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote ''Show Boat''), Vincent Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone (a lamellophone with a keyboard & pickups). The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929 ''Neo- Bechstein'' electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was Lloyd Loar's Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gaffney
George Gaffney (c.1941 – December 4, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, noted as an accompanist for vocalists. Gaffney listed Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Bill Evans, Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones as his major influences. Gaffney said of his playing that "...in each solo, you can play a line or a chord that has the effect of pulling the carpet out from under the listener, that will give some deeper emotional meaning to it all." Life Born in New York City, Gaffney started studying the piano at the age of 10, but played the trombone by time he entered the United States Marine Corps in 1958. Gaffney left the Marines in 1961, and resumed playing the piano on his return to New York. Gaffney became noted as a backer and arranger for Jazz vocalists, and moved to the Chicago area in the late 1960s. It was during the 1960s that Gaffney first met Jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan, when he was musical director of the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gaffney moved to California in the early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul". Gaye's Motown songs include "Ain't That Peculiar", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". Gaye also recorded duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross. During the 1970s, Gaye recorded the albums '' What's Going On'' and ''Let's Get It On'' and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of a production company. His later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo soul. "Sexual Healing", released in 1982 on the album ''Midnight Love'', won him his first two Grammy Awards. Gaye's last televised appearances we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Cleveland
Al Cleveland (born Alfred W. Cleveland; March 11, 1930 – August 14, 1996) was an American songwriter for the Motown label. Among his most popular co-compositions are 1967's "I Second That Emotion" and 1969's " Baby, Baby Don't Cry" performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and 1971's " What's Going On" performed by Marvin Gaye. Cleveland was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, to Alfred W. and Dorothy Cleveland. Al has two sisters, Edna Grate and Mamie Jett, as well as one brother, Robert Cleveland. His sons Alfred D Cleveland and Theodore Mills survive him. He had a long and distinguished writing career, initially for New York artists on the Scepter/Wand labels such as Dionne Warwick(e) and Tommy Hunt, as well as Gene Pitney before moving to Motown, where he provided songs for Smokey & The Miracles, the Marvelettes, David Ruffin, the Four Tops and Chuck Jackson Chuck Jackson (born July 22, 1937) is an American R&B singer who was one of the first artis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaldo Benson
Renaldo "Obie" Benson (June 14, 1936 – July 1, 2005) was an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member and the bass singer of Motown group the Four Tops, which he joined in 1953 and continued to perform with for over five decades, until April 8, 2005. He also co-wrote " What's Going On" which became a No. 2 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971, and which Rolling Stone rated as No. 4 on their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in 2004. Biography Early career 1954–1964 Benson attended Northern High School in Detroit, Michigan with Lawrence Payton. The pair met Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir while singing at a friend's birthday party in 1954 and decided to form a group called the Four Aims. Roquel Billy Davis, who was Payton's cousin, was a fifth member of the group for a time and a songwriter for the group. Davis played an instrumental role in the group being signed by Chess Records who were mainly interested ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Save The Children (song)
"Save the Children" is a 1971 song written by Al Cleveland, Renaldo Benson and Marvin Gaye and issued on Marvin's 1971 album, '' What's Going On''. While not issued as a single in the United States, the song was issued as a single by the Tamla-Motown label in the United Kingdom where it peaked at No. 41 on the charts in December 1971, whereas the other major US single releases initially failed to chart in Europe. The song would later be covered by Diana Ross in a medley featuring the jazz song, "Brown Baby", on her 1973 album, ''Touch Me in the Morning''. Gaye sang this song briefly while touring Europe in 1976 as part of his ''What's Going On'' medley. Lyrics The song was a continuation of the message " What's Going On" delivered, about love, this time, for the children. Marvin later joked on the liner notes of the album "not let (this song) influence anyone". Marvin recorded both a spoken word recitation of the song and a vocal version mixing the two vocals together featuring ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Dorough
Robert Lrod Dorough (December 12, 1923 – April 23, 2018) was an American bebop and cool jazz vocalist, pianist, composer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Dorough became famous as the composer and performer of songs in the TV series ''Schoolhouse Rock!'', as well as for his work with Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, and others. Early life Robert Lrod Dorough was born in Cherry Hill, Polk County, Arkansas and grew up in Plainview, Texas. During World War II, he participated in Army bands as pianist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and arranger. After that, he attended North Texas State University, where he studied composition and piano. Career From 1949 to 1952 Dorough was a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, and on the side played piano at local jazz clubs. He was hired for a tour by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, who had interrupted his boxing career to pursue music. In Paris from 1954 to 1955 he worked as a musician and musical director, recording with jazz vocal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie Ross
Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Early life Ross was born in Surrey, England, the daughter of Scottish vaudevillians John "Jack" Short and Mary Dalziel Short (née Allan). Her brother was Scottish entertainer and theatre producer and director Jimmy Logan. She first appeared on stage at age three. At the age of four, she travelled to New York by ship with her family; she later recalled that they "got the cheapest ticket, which was right in the bowels of the ship". Shortly after arriving in the city, she won a token contract with MGM through a children's radio contest run by Paul Whiteman. She subsequently moved with her aunt, Scottish-American singer and actress Ella Logan, to Los Angeles, and her mother, father and brother returned to Scotland. She did not see her parents again until fourteen years lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray (February 13, 1921 – May 25, 1955) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods. Biography Early years Gray was born in Oklahoma City, the youngest of four children. He spent his early childhood years in Oklahoma, before he and his family moved to DetroitJoop Visser, "Dexter Gordon: Settin' the Pace", Proper Records, p23 in 1929. In early 1935, Gray began attending Northeastern High School, then transferred to Cass Technical High School, noted for having Donald Byrd, Lucky Thompson and Al McKibbon as alumni. He left in 1936, before graduating. Advised by his brother-in-law Junior Warren, as a teenager he started on the clarinet, but after hearing Lester Young on record with Count Basie, he was inspired to switch to tenor saxophone. Gray's first musical job was in Isaac Goodwin's small band, a part-time outfit that played local dances. When auditioning for another job, he was heard by Dorothy Patton, a young pianist who wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twisted (Annie Ross Song)
"Twisted" is a 1952 vocalese song with lyrics by Annie Ross, set to a tenor saxophone solo of the same name by Wardell Gray that was recorded in 1949. It has been covered by Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, and many others. Background "Twisted" is a whimsical account of the protagonist's insanity that satirises psychoanalysis. In 1952, Ross met Prestige Records owner Bob Weinstock, who asked her to write lyrics to a jazz solo, in a similar way to King Pleasure, a practice that would later be known as vocalese. The next day, she presented him with "Twisted", a treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray's 1949 composition of the same name, a classic example of the genre. She later said of the inspiration for the song: The song, first released in 1952 and later collected on the album ''King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings'', was an underground hit, and resulted in her winning '' DownBeat''s New Star award. Ross released a second version with the vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
