Smile (Laura Nyro Album)
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Smile (Laura Nyro Album)
''Smile'' is the sixth album by New York singer, songwriter and pianist Laura Nyro. It was released in early 1976, following a four-year hiatus from the music industry during which time she both married and divorced, and lived away from the spotlight. She dedicated the album to her mother. The music of ''Smile'' is smooth jazz-pop music, pop, and Nyro was reunited with producer and arranger Charlie Calello, who had worked with Nyro on her 1968 opus ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession''. Musically, ''Smile'' finds Nyro exploring Chinese culture with traditional Asian instrumentation and lyric allusions, particularly on the mildly controversial "Children of the Junks". Elsewhere, she rails against the music industry ("Money") and sings of her new laidback lifestyle away from the glare of the media. Despite her long absence, Columbia Records had re-signed Nyro and the album became a small chart success during 1976, peaking at #60 on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200, then known a ...
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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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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Allan Schwartzberg
Allan Schwartzberg (born December 28, 1942) is an American musician and record producer. He has been a member of the rock band Mountain, Peter Gabriel's first solo band, toured with Brecker Brothers' Dreams, B.J. Thomas, Linda Rondstadt, Stan Getz band, and the Pat Travers band. He has experienced success as a prolific session musician, through recordings made from the 1970s through today. He has also played on multi genre hits such as Gloria Gaynor "Never Can Say Goodbye", considered the first disco record, James Brown's "Funky President" (his beat has been sampled on 808 different records), Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle", Tony Orlando & Dawn's ''Tie A Yellow Ribbon'', Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", the Spinners' "Workin' My Way Back to You", the ''Star Wars'' theme, and Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook series including the hit "What A Wonderful World". He has played with musicians and singers including John Lennon, Diana Ross, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, ...
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Chris Parker (musician)
Chris Parker is an American drummer. During his childhood, Parker's father, artist Robert Andrew Parker, attached wooden blocks to the hi-hat and bass drum pedals, so that Parker's feet could reach the pedals to play the drums along with records. His father, who was also a jazz drummer, introduced young Parker to the music of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Leadbelly, Ray Charles, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. When he became a teenager he began practicing with friends and finding out the nostalgia of rock and roll by listening to such jazz drummers as Roger Hawkins, D. J. Fontana, and New Orleans icons such as Earl Palmer, Smokey Johnson and James Black. His enthusiasm grew as he went to New York City's School of Visual Arts to study painting, where he saw an ad for a drummer. He became a member of a band called Holy Moses when he moved to Woodstock, New York. That band was short lived during which Parker recorded ...
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Bob Babbitt
__NOTOC__ Robert Andrew Kreinar (November 26, 1937 – July 16, 2012), known as Bob Babbitt, was a Hungarian-American bassist, most famous for his work as a member of Motown Records' studio band, the Funk Brothers, from 1966 to 1972, as well as his tenure as part of MFSB for Philadelphia International Records afterwards. Also in 1968, with Mike Campbell, Ray Monette and Andrew Smith he formed the band Scorpion, which lasted until 1970. He is ranked number 59 on ''Bass Player'' magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time". Babbitt traded off sessions with original Motown bassist James Jamerson. When Motown moved to Los Angeles, Babbit went in the opposite direction and ended up in New York as well as making occasional trips to Philadelphia. In this new city he worked on recordings for Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Gloria Gaynor, Robert Palmer, and Alice Cooper. During this time his most notable successes were " Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knig ...
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Richard Davis (bassist)
Richard Davis (born April 15, 1930) is an American jazz bassist. Among his best-known contributions to the albums of others are Eric Dolphy's ''Out to Lunch!'', Andrew Hill's '' Point of Departure'', and Van Morrison's ''Astral Weeks'', of which critic Greil Marcus wrote (in ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll''), "Richard Davis provided the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album." Music career Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Davis began his musical career with his brothers, singing bass in his family's vocal trio. He studied double bass in high school with his music theory teacher and band director, Walter Dyett. He was a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (then known as the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago) and played in the orchestra's first performance at Chicago's Orchestra Hall on November 14, 1947. After high school, he studied double bass with Rudolf Fahsbender of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra while attending VanderCook Colleg ...
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Will Lee (bassist)
Will Lee is an American bassist known for his work on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' as part of the CBS Orchestra and before that " The World's Most Dangerous Band" when Letterman hosted the NBC " Late Night" show. Lee has recorded and toured with many artists. He appeared on the Mark & Clark Band's hit record '' Worn Down Piano''. He performs with his Beatles tribute band, The Fab Faux, which he co-founded in 1998. Career Beginnings in music Lee was greatly influenced to pursue music because of his parents. His father, William Franklin Lee III played piano, trumpet and the upright bass professionally. Lee's mother Lois sang with big bands. Lee took up drums after seeing the Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', and by the time he was 12 had formed his first band in Miami. The band members each earned $9 a night playing the popular surfing tunes characteristic of the 60s. With the great numbers of drummers in Miami, Lee shifted to bass, an instrument that offered mo ...
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Joe Beck
Joe Beck (July 29, 1945 – July 22, 2008) was an American jazz guitarist who was active for over 30 years. Biography Born in Philadelphia, Beck moved to Manhattan in his teens, playing six nights a week in a trio setting, which gave him an opportunity to meet various people working in the thriving New York music scene. By the time he was 18, Stan Getz hired him to record jingles, and in 1967 he recorded with Miles Davis. By 1968, at age 22, he was a member of the Gil Evans Orchestra. Beck described his early success in an interview near the end of his life: My career happened because I happened to be in the right place at the right time in a very unique time of jazz music. ...when I would finish a gig around two in the morning I would go around the corner to the Playboy Club and sit in with Monty Alexander and let Les Spann take a breather and I would finish the gig for him. Then we would go and listen to Kenny Burrell play around the corner or we would go up to Mintons and lis ...
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Hugh McCracken
Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally an arranger and record producer. Biography Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, McCracken grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey. Especially in demand in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, McCracken appeared on many recordings by Steely Dan, as well as albums by Donald Fagen, Jimmy Rushing, Billy Joel, Roland Kirk, Roberta Flack, B. B. King, Hue and Cry, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Monkees, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Idris Muhammad, James Taylor, Phoebe Snow, Bob Dylan, Linda McCartney, Carly Simon, Graham Parker, Yoko Ono, Eric Carmen, Loudon Wainwright III, Lou Donaldson, Aretha Franklin, Bob James, Van Morrison, The Four Seasons, Hall & Oates, Don McLean, Hank Crawford, Jerry Jemmott, Gary Wright and Andy Gibb. In the middle 1960s, McCr ...
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John Tropea
John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American guitarist. Career Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz guitar, harmony, musical composition, and big band arranging. After arriving in Boston, Tropea began playing jazz and R&B with local bands, including The Three Degrees. He was influenced by Wes Montgomery, Johnny Smith, Luiz Bonfá, Pat Martino, and George Benson. Among his mentors were Hammond B3 organ players Jack McDuff and Jimmy Smith. After Berklee, Tropea recorded and toured with Eumir Deodato. Moving to New York City in 1967, he became one of the most sought after session players. In 1974, he played on Van Morrison's " Bulbs" and "Cul de Sac" included on the album ''Veedon Fleece'' and issued as the single. Tropea wrote and produced three critically acclaimed solo albums for TK Records. His first solo album ''Tropea'', was released in 1975, follow ...
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Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson (née Vanderpool; May 29, 1935 – September 29, 2011) was an American singer, record producer, and record label executive. Robinson achieved success as a performer on two R&B chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with the 1957 single "Love Is Strange", and her solo record "Pillow Talk" in 1973. She later became known for her work as founder and CEO of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. Robinson is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the hip hop genre: "Rapper's Delight" (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang, and " The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, both of which she produced. Several publications have dubbed her as " The Mother of Hip Hop". At the 11th Annual Rhythm and Blues Awards Gala in 2000, she received a Pioneer Award for her career in singing and for founding Sugarhill Records and in 2022, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Ahmet Ertegun Award category for being a major ...
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Ray, Goodman & Brown
Ray, Goodman & Brown is an American R&B vocal group. The group originated as The Moments, who formed in the mid-1960s and whose greatest successes came in the 1970s with hits including "Love on a Two-Way Street", "Sexy Mama", and "Look at Me (I'm in Love)". In 1978, they changed their name to Ray, Goodman & Brown and had further hits, including " Special Lady". The original Moments Early years The original members of the Moments were Eric Olfus Sr., Richard Gross (often incorrectly listed as "Richard Horsley"), and John Morgan. The Moments formed in Washington, D.C. during the mid-1960s. In 1965, at Washington D.C.'s Howard University, the Mizell Brothers and Freddie Perren (along with schoolmate Toby Jackson) founded Hog Records and signed the harmony group as the Moments. The Moments recorded "Baby I Want You" and "Pray for Me" for Hog. The lineup consisted of Olfus, Gross, and Morgan. Mark Greene joined after the single's release. The group then signed with the newly establ ...
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