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Peter Bunetta
Lester Abrams (born 1945) is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and many others. Two of his co-compositions appeared on the Grammy Award–winning album ''Minute by Minute''. He has also composed songs for film and television; two of his works can be heard in the Oliver Stone–produced movie '' South Central''. Lester Abrams was also a member of and/or associated with several other bands and people, including Leslie Smith, Arno Lucas, Rick Chudacoff, The Les Smith Soul Band, L.A. Carnival, Crackin' and more recently, Connie Price and the Keystones. Biography Lester's maternal grandmother moved the Abrams family from the Southwest to Omaha in the early 1900s; Lester's multi-racial father met his bi-racial mother there. Lester was born in 1945, and, as a child, had serious problems explaining his cu ...
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Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. Wonder's single " Fingertips" was a No. 1 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1963, at the age of 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. ...
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Technical High School (Omaha, Nebraska)
Technical High School (Tech) was a public high school that was located at 3215 Cuming Street in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Opened in 1923, the school was said to be the largest high school west of Chicago. It was the largest in the Omaha area before it was closed in 1984. Today the building serves as the headquarters of Omaha Public Schools. About The five-winged building and large athletic field occupied three city blocks between Burt and Cuming Streets, from 30th to 33rd Streets in North Omaha. The new school opened on October 15, 1923, with nearly 2,400 pupils. By 1940 enrollment had reached 3,684. As a high school focused on technical education, Tech had many amenities designed to teach students in specific areas. It had two large gymnasiums and a swimming pool, which was for many years the only pool in any Omaha public school. The roof of the building featured a deck with a canopy that housed an exercise area. An entire floor was dedicated to classrooms for home ec ...
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Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. He led the group from its 1955 origins as "the Five Chimes" until 1972, when he announced his retirement from the group to focus on his role as Motown's vice president. However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. Robinson left Motown Records in 1990, following the sale of the company two years earlier. Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and was awarded the 2016 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for his lifetime contributions to popular music. In 2022, he was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. Early life and early career William Robinson Jr. was born to an African-American father and a mother of African-American and ...
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The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single " Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music. Featuring five male vocalists and dancers (save for brief periods with fewer or more members), the group formed in 1960 in Detroit under the name ''the Elgins''. The founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes. In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruf ...
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Robbie Dupree
Robert Dupuis (born December 23, 1946), known professionally as Robbie Dupree, is an American singer best known for his hit songs " Steal Away" (No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100) and " Hot Rod Hearts" (No. 15). Early life Robbie Dupree was born on December 23, 1946 in Brooklyn, as Robert Dupuis. While growing up, his biggest musical influences included R&B musicians Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. Career In 1981, he received a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist, losing to Christopher Cross. Dupree's final single to make the ''Billboard'' chart, "Brooklyn Girls", peaked at No. 54 in June 1981. In 1987, Dupree contributed the song "Girls in Cars" to '' Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2'', a collection of theme songs for World Wrestling Entertainment (then known as the World Wrestling Federation). The tag team Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel) used an instrumental version of "Girls in Cars" as their entrance music from 1987 to 1989. In 2010, Dupree signed with Sp ...
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HAIR
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine vellus hair. Most common interest in hair is focused on hair growth, hair types, and hair care, but hair is also an important biomaterial primarily composed of protein, notably alpha-keratin. Attitudes towards different forms of hair, such as hairstyles and hair removal, vary widely across different cultures and historical periods, but it is often used to indicate a person's personal beliefs or social position, such as their age, sex, or religion. Overview The word "hair" usually refers to two distinct structures: #the part beneath the skin, called the hair follicle, or, when pulled from the skin, the bulb or root. This organ is located in the dermis and maintains stem cells, which not only re-grow the hair after it falls out, bu ...
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Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis (born Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes; December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012) was an American singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, and talent scout. He was a seminal influence on American R&B and rock and roll. He discovered numerous artists early in their careers who went on to become highly successful in their own right, including Little Esther Phillips, Etta James, Alan O'Day, Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Ace, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John, Hank Ballard, and The Robins, among many others. Otis has been called the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues". Personal life Otis was born in Vallejo, California, to Greek immigrant parents, Alexander J. Veliotes, a Mare Island longshoreman and grocery store owner, and his wife, the former Irene Kiskakes, a painter. He had a younger sister, Dorothy, and a younger brother, Nicholas A. Veliotes, who became the U.S. Ambassador to Jordan (1978–1981) and Egypt (1984–1986). Johnny grew up in a predominantl ...
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Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. It de-emphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths. Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first b ...
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Ron Cooley
Lester Abrams (born 1945) is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and many others. Two of his co-compositions appeared on the Grammy Award–winning album ''Minute by Minute''. He has also composed songs for film and television; two of his works can be heard in the Oliver Stone–produced movie '' South Central''. Lester Abrams was also a member of and/or associated with several other bands and people, including Leslie Smith, Arno Lucas, Rick Chudacoff, The Les Smith Soul Band, L.A. Carnival, Crackin' and more recently, Connie Price and the Keystones. Biography Lester's maternal grandmother moved the Abrams family from the Southwest to Omaha in the early 1900s; Lester's multi-racial father met his bi-racial mother there. Lester was born in 1945, and, as a child, had serious problems explaining his c ...
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Omaha North High School
Omaha North High Magnet School is a public high school located at 4410 North 36th Street in the city of Omaha, Nebraska. The school is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) magnet school in the Omaha Public Schools district. North has won several awards, including being named a 2007 Magnet Schools of America "Magnet School of Excellence". History After a start to construction in 1922 at North 31st and Ames Avenues was hampered by unexpected groundwater, the present North High School was completed in 1924 at North 36th Street and Ames Avenue. Located on four acres, North opened as an eighth through twelfth grade school in September 1924, and had 650 students its first year. The building's first principal was Edward E. McMillan, who served until 1942. The junior high students were moved to other schools by 1929. The school began winning district and state awards in academic and athletic competitions in 1926, and in 1932, North High earned the top place at a na ...
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