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Steve March-Tormé
Steve March-Tormé (born January 29, 1953) is an American singer/actor/songwriter and radio host. He is the son of the singer Mel Tormé and actress Candy Toxton. They divorced and Toxton married actor/comedian Hal March who became Steve's stepfather. Apart from his father, March-Tormé's early musical influences include The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, The Temptations, Ricky Nelson, and Gene Pitney. Later influences include Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, and The Beatles. Biography Early life Steve Tormé was born on January 29, 1953, in New York City to Mel Tormé and the former model Candy Toxton. His parents divorced in 1956. He has a half-sister, Daisy, an actress/singer, and a half-brother, James, a singer, through Mel Tormé's marriage to British actress Janette Scott. He has another half brother Tracy, a writer through Mel's marriage to Arlene Miles. In 1956, Candy Toxton married actor/comedian Hal March, who was the host of ''The $64, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Academy Award, Oscar and Tony Award nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression. His parents' financial difficulties affected their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters, where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the United States Army Air Forces, Army Air Force Reserve, he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows. Among the latter were Sid Caesar's ''Your Show of Shows'' (where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving members re-formed Little Feat in 1987 and the band has remained active to the present. The band's music is a mixture of rock and roll, blues, country, R&B and jazz. Guitarist Jimmy Page stated that Little Feat was his favorite American band in a 1975 ''Rolling Stone'' interview. History Formative years Lowell George met Bill Payne when George was a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Payne had auditioned for the Mothers, but had not joined. They formed Little Feat along with former Mothers' bassist Roy Estrada and drummer Richie Hayward from George's previous band, The Factory. Hayward had also been a member of the Fraternity of Man whose claim to fame was the inclusion of their "Don't Bogart That Joint" on the million-selli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Barrere
Paul Barrere (July 3, 1948 – October 26, 2019) was an American musician most prominent as a member of the band Little Feat, which he joined in 1972 some three years after the band was created by Lowell George. Career Barrere recorded and performed with Taj Mahal, Jack Bruce, Chicken Legs, Blues Busters, Valerie Carter, Helen Watson, Chico Hamilton, Robert Palmer, Eikichi Yazawa, and Carly Simon. He can be seen in the 1979 Nicolette Larson Warner Brothers promotional video of "Lotta Love". Barrere's best known contributions to Little Feat as a songwriter include "Skin It Back", and "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" from the album ''Feats Don't Fail Me Now'', "All That You Dream" from '' The Last Record Album'', "Time Loves a Hero" from '' Time Loves a Hero'', and "Down on the Farm" from '' Down on the Farm''. Barrere was a swing man as a guitarist who played a wide variety of styles of music including blues, rock, jazz, and cajun music and was proficient as a slide guitaris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Tackett
Fred Tackett (born August 30, 1945) is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Originally a session player on guitar, mandolin, and trumpet, he is best known as a member of the band Little Feat. In addition to his work with Little Feat, Tackett has played and recorded with many notable artists, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Webb among them. He had an additional side project with another member of Little Feat; he performed as part of a duo with Paul Barrere, as Paul and Fred. Association with Little Feat Tackett's association with Little Feat goes back to a friendship with the founder of the band, Lowell George, at the time of its inception. Working as a session player for other musicians, he continued his friendship with the bandmates, and contributed a song ''Fool Yourself'' to their third album ''Dixie Chicken'' as well as acoustic guitar. He also contributed guitar to their sixth album ''Time Loves a Hero''. In 1979 he co-wrote songs with Lowell George for both George's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz Crusaders
The Crusaders (formerly known as The Jazz Crusaders) were an American jazz group that was successful from the 1960s to the 1990s. The group was known as the Jazz Crusaders from their formation in 1960 until shortening their name in 1971. The Crusaders were comfortable playing a wide assortment of genres, from straight ahead jazz, to urban R&B, to R&B-based jazz, to even blues. The band reached a commercial apex in 1979 with their hit single " Street Life", featuring lead vocals by Randy Crawford, and their accompanying album of the same name. History High school friends Joe Sample (piano), Wilton Felder (tenor saxophone) and Nesbert "Stix" Hooper (drums) formed their first band together, the Swingsters, in Houston, Texas in 1954. They played a mixture of jazz and R&B, and were joined by Wayne Henderson (trombone), Hubert Laws (flute), and Henry Wilson (bass). The group soon turned more to hard bop, and renamed themselves the Modern Jazz Sextet, but also recorded in a more R& ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilton Felder
Wilton Lewis Felder (August 31, 1940 – September 27, 2015) was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Want You Back" and "ABC" and on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". Biography Felder was born on August 31, 1940, in Houston, Texas and studied music at Texas Southern University. Felder, Wayne Henderson, Joe Sample, and Stix Hooper founded their group while in high school in Houston. The Jazz Crusaders evolved from a straight-ahead jazz combo into a pioneering jazz-rock fusion group, with a definite soul music influence. Felder worked with the original group for over thirty years, and continued to work in its later versions, which often featured other founding members. Felder also worked as a West Coast studio musician, mostly playing electric bass, for various soul and R&B musicians, and was one of the in-house bass players for Motown Recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Adams (singer)
Arthur Adams (born December 25, 1943) is an American blues guitarist from Medon, Tennessee. Inspired by B.B. King and other 1950s artists, he played gospel music before attending college. He moved to Los Angeles, and during the 1960s and 1970s he released solo albums and worked as a session musician. In 1985 he was tapped to tour on bass guitar with Nina Simone, and he staged a comeback in the 1990s when he released ''Back on Track'', and became a respected Chicago blues player and bandleader in B.B. King's clubs. A prolific songwriter, with a blues style that incorporated a variety of genres, and a vocalist with a funky, soul-driven sound, Adams is known for his collaboration with many of blues' elite and continues to perform to date. Early life Arthur Adams was born on December 25, 1943, in Medon, Tennessee. At the age of six, he sang in the church choir, but did not begin playing the guitar until he was a teenager. In the mid-1950s, he learned the instrument from his mother, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1959, United Artists released ''Forest of the Amazons,'' a cantata by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos adapted from the music he composed for MGM's ''Green Mansions'', with the composer conducting the Symphony of the Air. Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayão was the featured soloist on the unusual recording, which was released on both LP and reel-to-reel tape. United Artists releases included soundtracks and cover versions from the James Bond movies, ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), '' A Hard Day's Night'' starring the Beatles (1964), ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965), '' A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1966), '' Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971), and '' Man of La Mancha'' (1972). The soundtrack album of United Art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy (Grammy Legend Award), Oscar, and Tony ( EGOT). Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour. Daughter of actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, Minnelli was born in Los Angeles, spent part of her childhood in Scarsdale, New York, and moved to New York City in 1961 where she began her career as a musical theatre actress, nightclub performer, and traditional pop music artist. She made her professional stage debut in the 1963 Off-Broadway revival of ''Best Foot Forward (musical), Best Foot Forward''Scott Schechter (2004): ''The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook'', pp. 12–13. and received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for starring in ''Flora the Red Menace'' in 1965, which marked the start of her lifelo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983). She reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last Jedi'' (2017)—a posthumous release that was dedicated to her—and appeared in ''The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019), through the use of unreleased footage from ''The Force Awakens''. Fisher's other film credits include ''Shampoo'' (1975), ''The Blues Brothers'' (1980), '' Hannah and Her Sisters'' (1986), ''The 'Burbs'' (1989), '' When Harry Met Sally...'' (1989), ''Soapdish'' (1991), and '' The Women'' (2008). She was nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performances in the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock'' (2007) and the Channel 4 series ''Catastrophe'' (2017). Fisher wrote several semi-autobiographical novels, including '' Postcards from the Edge'' and an autobiographical one-woman pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film ''RoboCop''. Other film roles include Quigley in ''Blank Check'' (1994), Harbinger in ''Hot Shots! Part Deux'' (1993), Shan Yu in ''Mulan'' (1998), Eduardo Ruiz in ''Traffic'' (2000) and Vice President Rodriguez in ''Iron Man 3'' (2013). Ferrer's notable television roles include FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017), Tarakudo on ''Jackie Chan Adventures'' (2000–2005), Dr. Garret Macy on ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001–2007) and NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on '' NCIS: Los Angeles'' (2012–2017). Early life Ferrer was born on February 7, 1955, in Santa Monica, California, the oldest of five children of Academy Award-winning Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, who was of English, Irish and German descent. Ferrer's siblings were sisters Maria and Monsita, and brothers Gabriel (later the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
