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Middle Man (album)
''Middle Man'' is the ninth studio album by Boz Scaggs released by Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs hired members of the band Toto as session musicians and shared songwriting credits with them, returning to the commercial, soul-influenced rock of ''Silk Degrees'' (1976). The album reached No. 8 in the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart, and two singles reached the ''Billboard'' Hot 100: "Breakdown Dead Ahead" at No. 15 and " Jojo" at No. 17.Boz Scaggs Chart History Billboard.com. Retrieved January 9, 2012. Reception Writing for ''Smash Hits'' in 1980, David Hepworth described ''Middle Man'' as an "impeccably tasteful collection of sophisticated white soul" that was "useful as background music in the more sedate kind of nite spot". Acknowledging that the album was "well done", Hepworth noted that Scaggs' previous albums were "thrilling as well as perfectly formed". Hepworth went on to say that the album sounded as though "they designed the sleeve first and then made the record to g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until his 1976 album ''Silk Degrees'' peaked at number 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and produced the hit singles " Lido Shuffle" and " Lowdown". Scaggs produced two more platinum-certified albums in ''Down Two Then Left'' and ''Middle Man'', the latter of which produced two top-40 singles "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and " Jojo". After a hiatus for most of the 1980s, he returned to recording and touring in 1988, joining The New York Rock and Soul Revue and opening the nightclub Slim's, a popular San Francisco music venue until it closed in 2020. He has continued to record and tour throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, with his most recent album being 2018's '' Out of the Blues''. Scaggs is credited for helping the formation of Toto. For his 1976 al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smash Hits
''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand for a Spin-off (media), spin-off Smash Hits (TV channel), digital television channel, now named Box Hits, and website. A Smash Hits Radio, digital radio station was also available but closed on 5 August 2013. Overview ''Smash Hits'' featured the lyrics of latest hits and interviews with big names in music. It was initially published monthly, then went fortnightly. The style of the magazine was initially serious, but from the mid-1980s became increasingly irreverent. Its interviewing technique was novel at the time and, rather than looking up to the big names, it often made fun of them, asking strange questions rather than talking about their music. Created by journalist Nick Logan, the title was launched in 1978 and appeared monthly for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Fast
Lawrence Roger Fast (born December 10, 1951) is an American synthesizer player and composer. He is best known for his 1975–1987 series of synthesizer music albums (''Synergy'') and for his contributions to a number of popular music acts, including Peter Gabriel, Foreigner, Nektar, Bonnie Tyler, and Hall & Oates. Biography Fast grew up in Livingston, New Jersey and attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where he obtained a degree in History. There he took his previous training in piano and violin and melded them with computer science to become interested in synthesized music and to build his own primitive sound-making electronic devices. He was introduced to Rick Wakeman, the keyboard player from the band Yes, during a local radio interview, and traveled to the UK to work with Yes on their 1974 album ''Tales from Topographic Oceans''. It was there that he got a recording contract with Passport Records. The Synergy project Fast recorded a series of pioneering synth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Boddicker
Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthesizer" and MVP Emeritus, he was awarded a Grammy as a songwriter for "Imagination" from ''Flashdance'' in 1984. He is the president of The Lehmann Boddicker Group. Early life and education Boddicker grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His parents, Arlene Estelle (née Reyman) and Gerald "Jerry" Valentine Boddicker operated a music school and store in Cedar Rapids, which served students in all of Eastern Iowa. His mother was a nationally recognized accordionist. While still attending Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids in 1971, Boddicker enrolled full-time at the local Coe College, studying electronic music. By 1972, he continued studies at Coe College, focused on music composition and he started taking jazz studies at the University of Wis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clavinet
The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tensioned string, and was designed to resemble the Renaissance-era clavichord. Although originally intended for home use, the Clavinet became popular on stage, and could be used to create electric guitar sounds on a keyboard. It is strongly associated with Stevie Wonder, who used the instrument extensively, particularly on his 1972 hit "Superstition", and was regularly featured in rock, funk and reggae music throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Modern digital keyboards can emulate the Clavinet sound, but there is also a grass-roots industry of repairers who continue to maintain the instrument. Description The Clavinet is an electromechanical instrument that is usually used in conjunction with a keyboard amplifier. Most models have 60 keys ranging ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores include '' Pretty Woman'' (1990), '' The Fugitive'' (1993), ''Space Jam'' (1996), ''Peter Pan'' (2003), ''King Kong'' (2005), ''The Dark Knight'' (2008) which he composed with Hans Zimmer, and ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (2016). He has collaborated extensively with directors M. Night Shyamalan and Francis Lawrence, having scored eight of Shyamalan's films since ''The Sixth Sense'' (1999) and all of Lawrence's films since '' I Am Legend'' (2007). Early life and career Howard was born in Los Angeles. He is from a musical family; his grandmother was a violinist. His father was Jewish but he did not want his children to know he was, so he changed his last name from Horowitz to Howard. Howard began studying music as a child, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Organ
An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed into several types of instruments: * Hammond-style organs used in pop, rock and jazz; * digital church organs, which imitate pipe organs and are used primarily in churches; * other types including combo organs, home organs, and software organs. History Predecessors ;Harmonium The immediate predecessor of the electronic organ was the harmonium, or reed organ, an instrument that was common in homes and small churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In a fashion not totally unlike that of pipe organs, reed organs generate sound by forcing air over a set of reeds by means of a bellows, usually operated by constantly pumping a set of pedals. While reed organs have limited tonal quality, they are small, inexpensive, self-po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Paich
David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the band's three most popular songs: " Hold the Line", " Rosanna" and "Africa". With Toto, Paich has contributed to 17 albums and sold over 40 million records. He and guitarist and singer Steve Lukather are the only members to appear on every studio album. In addition, Paich has worked as a songwriter, session musician and producer with a host of artists including Boz Scaggs and Michael Jackson. Paich is the son of jazz composer, musician and arranger Marty Paich. Career Toto A prolific writer of chart-performing songs, Paich wrote or co-wrote such tracks as " Hold the Line", " 99", " Lowdown", " Lido Shuffle", " Georgy Porgy", " Rosanna", " Hydra", "Holyanna", "Pamela", "Got To Be Real", " Lady Love Me (One More Time)", and "Miss Sun". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Grolnick
Don Grolnick (September 23, 1947 – June 1, 1996) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and record producer. He was a member of the groups Steps Ahead and Dreams, both with Michael Brecker, and played often with the Brecker Brothers. As a session musician, he recorded with John Scofield, Billy Cobham, Roberta Flack, Harry Chapin, Dave Holland, Bette Midler, Marcus Miller, Bob Mintzer, Linda Ronstadt, David Sanborn, Carly Simon, J. D. Souther, Steely Dan, and James Taylor. Career Grolnick was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Levittown, New York. He began his musical life on accordion but later switched to piano. His interest in jazz began as a child when his father took him to a Count Basie concert, and soon after they also saw Erroll Garner perform at Carnegie Hall. He attended Tufts University with a major in philosophy. After he left Tufts, he formed the jazz-rock band Fire & Ice with Ken Melville on guitar and Stuart Schulman, his friend since childhood, on bass guitar. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a steady flow of session work beginning in the 1970s that has since established him as a prolific session musician, recording guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums spanning a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger and producer. Notably, Lukather played guitar on Boz Scaggs' albums ''Down Two Then Left'' (1977) and ''Middle Man'' (1980), and was a prominent contributor to several studio albums by Michael Jackson, including '' Thriller'' (1982). Lukather has released eight solo albums, the latest of which, '' I Found the Sun Again'', was released in February 2021. Influenced by such blues-rock guitarists as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, and such jazz fusion players as Al Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Lasley
David Eldon Lasley (August 20, 1947 – December 9, 2021) was an American recording artist, singer, musician and songwriter. He was best known as a touring background singer for James Taylor, as a session singer on recordings by artists including James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Luther Vandross, Chic (band), Chic, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Dusty Springfield and Boz Scaggs; as a songwriter for artists including Bonnie Raitt, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Maxine Nightingale, Rita Coolidge, Crystal Gayle, and Luther Vandross; and for his solo albums, albums with his 1970s vocal group Rosie, and for his early years in Detroit with his vocal group The Utopias. His best known songs include Maxine Nightingale's "Lead Me On (Maxine Nightingale song), Lead Me On" (co-written with Allee Willis), The Manhattan Transfer's "Shaker Song" (co-written with Willis and Jay Beckenstein), and Boz Scaggs' "Jojo (Boz Scaggs song), Jojo" (co-written with Scaggs and David Foster. In 1980, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Foster
David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans more than five decades, mainly beginning in the early 1970s as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark. Early life and career Foster was born in Victoria, British Columbia, the son of Maurice "Maury" Foster, an office worker, and Eleanor May Foster (née Vantreight), a homemaker. In 1963, at the age of 13, he enrolled in the University of Washington music program.Encyclopedia.com: "Foster, David" Contemporary Musicians , 1995 , Shelton, Sonya In 1965, he auditioned to lead the band in an Edmonton nightclub owned by jazz musician |
