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I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
''Stormy Monday'', also known as ''I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water'', is the debut album of R&B singer Lou Rawls, released in 1962 on Capitol Records. Recorded in two sessions in February 1962, the album features a number of blues standard, blues and jazz standards chosen by Rawls and backed by the Les McCann Trio. ''Stormy Monday'' was reissued in 1990 by Blue Note records. History ''Excerpt from the album liner notes:'' In 1962, when this album was made and when he turned 26, Lou Rawls' rich baritone was unknown, except to a few gospel music fans and Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood Hipster (1940s subculture), hipsters who caught his act at local night clubs like ''P.J.'s'', ''The Troubador'', Shelly Manne's ''Manne-Hole'' or ''Brother's'' on Santa Monica Boulevard, Santa Monica and Vine Street, Vine. A year earlier, Capitol Records, Capitol A&R man Nick Venet had heard Rawls at ''Pandora's Box Coffee Shop'', where Rawls was playing there for $10 a night plus pizza in late 1959, ...
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Lou Rawls
Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine". He also worked as a film, television, and voice actor. He was a three-time winner of the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance Grammy Award. Early life Rawls was born in Chicago on December 1, 1933, and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the city's South Side. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older, and Curtis Mayfield. Career After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, he replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Sti ...
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Vine Street
Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has been redeveloped. Three blocks of the Hollywood Walk of Fame lie along this street with names such as John Lennon, Johnny Carson, and John Belushi. South of Melrose Avenue, Vine turns into Rossmore Avenue, a residential Hancock Park thoroughfare that ends at Wilshire Boulevard. Radio Row In contrast to other American cities, where it referred to a concentration of radio stores, in Los Angeles, Radio Row was understood in the 1940s and 1950s as the area around the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, where the broadcasting facilities of all four major radio networks were located. The last radio station to broadcast from a studio on Vine Street, KNX-AM, closed its Vine Street studio in 2005.Poo ...
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Andy Razaf
Andy Razaf (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo; December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was the American lyricist of such well-known songs as " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose". He was also a composer, poet and vocalist. Biography Razaf was born in 1895 in Washington, D.C., United States. His birth name was Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo. He was the son of Henri Razafinkarefo, nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of the Imerina kingdom in Madagascar, and Jennie Razafinkarefo (née Waller), daughter of John L. Waller, the first African American consul to Imerina. The French invasion of Madagascar (1894-95) left Henri dead, and forced pregnant 15-year-old Jennie to escape to the U.S.. Razaf was raised in Harlem, Manhattan. At age 16, Razaf quit school and took a job as an elevator operator in a Tin Pan Alley office building. A year later he penned his first song text, embarking on his career as a lyricist. During this time he spent many nights in the Greyhound Lin ...
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I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
"We Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" is a song originally recorded on September 3, 1936, by Piedmont blues musician Casey Bill Weldon. Weldon performed it as a solo piece, with vocals and acoustic guitar plus piano and double bass accompaniment. The song has been adapted and recorded by many other musicians, most often under the title "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", and sometimes simply "Outskirts of Town". In 1941, Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five recorded "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" ( Decca 8593), and the following year recorded another version as "I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town", with the writing credit given to Roy Jacobs and Casey Bill Weldon (Decca 8638). "Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five - 78 RPM - Discography", ''45World ...
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Ann Ronell
Ann Ronell (née Rosenblatt; December 25, 1905 – December 25, 1993) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards " Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933). Early life Ronell was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Morris and Mollie Rosenblatt, and graduated from Omaha's Central High School in 1923. She enrolled in Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, but transferred after her sophomore year to pursue a serious music education.Benjamin Sears"Ann Ronell" ''American National Biography Online'', 2000 She graduated from Radcliffe College, where she studied music under Walter Piston. While at Radcliffe, Ronell wrote music for college plays and contributed reviews and interviews to the school's music publication. After interviewing George Gershwin, she struck up a friendship with the composer, who hired her as a rehearsal pianist for his show '' Rosalie''. Gershwin suggested that she change her name from Rosenblatt to Ronell. Musi ...
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Willow Weep For Me
"Willow Weep for Me" is a popular song composed in 1932 by Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics. The song form is AABA, written in time,Zimmers, Tighe, E. (2009). ''Tin Pan Alley Girl: A Biography of Ann Ronell''. McFarland. pp. 19-22. although occasionally adapted for waltz time. One account of the inspiration for the song is that, during her time at Radcliffe College, Ronell "had been struck by the loveliness of the willow trees on campus, and this simple observation became the subject of an intricate song." The song was rejected by publishers for several reasons. First, the song is dedicated to George Gershwin. A dedication to another writer was disapproved of at the time, so the first person presented with the song for publication, Saul Bornstein, passed it to Irving Berlin, who accepted it. Other reasons stated for its slow acceptance are that it was written by a woman and that its construction was unusually complex for a composition that was targeted at a commercial ...
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Ma Rainey
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey ( Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the " Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". Gertrude Pridgett began performing as a teenager and became known as "Ma" Rainey after her marriage to Will "Pa" Rainey in 1904. They toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group, ''Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues''. Her first recording was made in 1923. In the following five years, she made over 100 recordings, including " Bo-Weevil Blues" (1923), "Moonshine Blues" (1923), " See See Rider Blues" (1925), the ...
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See See Rider
"See See Rider", also known as "C.C. Rider", "See See Rider Blues" or "Easy Rider", is a popular American 12-bar blues song that became a standard in several genres. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was the first to record it on October 16, 1924, at Paramount Records in New York. The song uses mostly traditional blues lyrics to tell the story of an unfaithful lover, commonly called an "easy rider": "See see rider, see what you have done", making a play on the word "see" and the sound of "easy". Background "See See Rider" is a traditional song that may have originated on the black vaudeville circuit. It is similar to " Poor Boy Blues" as performed by Ramblin' Thomas. Jelly Roll Morton recollected hearing the song as a young boy sometime after 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana, when he performed with a spiritual quartet that played at funerals. Older band members played "See See Rider" during get-togethers with their "sweet mamas" or as Morton called them "fifth-class whores". Big Bill Bro ...
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Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop music, pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating Phrase (music), phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and Jazz improvisation, improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond (record producer), John Hammond, who liked her voice. Holiday signed a recording contract with Brunswick Records, Brunswick in 1935. Her collaboration with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia Records, Columbia and Decca Records, Decca. H ...
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Arthur Herzog Jr
Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Italian it is Arturo. Etymology The earliest attestation of the name Arthur is in the early 9th century Welsh-Latin text ''Historia Brittonum'', where it refers to a circa 5th century Romano-British general who fought against the invading Saxons, and who later gave rise to the famous King Arthur of medieval legend and literature. A possible earlier mention of the same man is to be found in the epic Welsh poem ''Y Gododdin'' by Aneirin, which some scholars assign to the late 6th century, though this is still a matter of debate and the poem only survives in a late 13th century manuscript entitled the Book of Aneirin. A 9th-century Breton landowner named Arthur witnessed several charters collected in the '' Cartulary of Redon''. The Irish borrow ...
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God Bless The Child (Billie Holiday Song)
"God Bless the Child" is a song written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. in 1939. It was first recorded on May 9, 1941, by Billie Holiday and released by Okeh Records in 1942. Holiday's version of the song was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1976. It was also included in the list of ''Songs of the Century'', by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Billie Holiday recording sessions Billie Holiday recorded the song three times. First recording (Session #44, Columbia/Okeh): Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City, May 9, 1941, Eddie Heywood and his Orchestra with Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Jimmy Powell and Lester Boone (alto saxophone), Ernie Powell (trumpet), Eddie Heywood (piano), Johan Robins (guitar), Paul Chapman (guitar), Grachan Moncur II (bass), Herbert Cowans (drums), Billie Holiday (vocal). Origin and interpretation In her autobiography ''Lady Sings the Blues'' Holiday indicated that a ...
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T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 67 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Biography 1910–1941: early years Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in Linden, Texas. His parents, Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, were both musicians. His stepfather, Marco Washington (a member of the Dallas String Band), taught him to play the guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin, and piano. Walker began his career as a teenager in Dallas in the 1920s. His mother and stepfather were musicians, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, a family friend, sometimes came over for dinner. Walker left school at the age of 10, and by 15, he was a professional performer on the blues circuit. Initially, he was Jefferson's protégé and would guide hi ...
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