Steve Khan
Steve Khan (born Steven Harris Cahn; April 28, 1947) is an American jazz guitarist. Career Steven Harris Cahn was born in Los Angeles. His father, lyricist Sammy Cahn, "loved to hear any and all versions of his songs". He took piano lessons as a child and played drums for the surf rock band the Chantays. The band's guitarist exposed him to the albums ''Tough Talk'' by The Crusaders (Houston group), The Crusaders and ''Movin' Wes'' by Wes Montgomery. In his late teens he quit the drums and started playing guitar. He was a member of the R&B band Friends of Distinction, recorded with keyboardist Phil Moore, then played on the album ''Bullitt'' by Wilton Felder ("one of my heroes"). Despite his father's advice to avoid a career in the music business, he graduated from UCLA with a degree in music composition and theory. Early in his career, Khan changed the spelling of his surname in order to "create a separate identity from [his] famous father" and because he was "so hurt and angry wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3,878,704 residents within the city limits , it is the List of United States cities by population, second-most populous in the United States, behind only New York City. Los Angeles has an Ethnic groups in Los Angeles, ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a Metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024). Greater Los Angeles, a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18.5 million residents. The majority of the city proper lies in Los Angeles Basin, a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Colin Larkin (writer)
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of '' The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book '' All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited the ''Guinness Who's Who of Jazz'', the ''Guinness Who's Who of Blues'', and the ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock''. He has over 650,000 copies in print. Early life Larkin was born in Dagenham, Essex. He spent much of his early childhood attending the travelling fair where his father, who worked by day as a plumber for the council, moonlighted on the waltzers to make ends meet. It was in the fairground, against a background of Little Richard on the wind-up 78 rpm turntables, that Larkin acquired his passion for the world of popular music. Larkin studied at the South East Essex County Technical High School and at the London College of Printing, where he took typography and graphic design. Art and publishing Larkin's company Scorpi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen chose to stop performing live by the end of 1974 and continued Steely Dan as a studio-only duo, utilizing a revolving cast of session musicians. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine named them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies". Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians and began recording music. Their debut album, '' Can't Buy a Thrill'' (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, and bluesAllMusic Steely Dan: Biography with sophisticated studio production and cryptic, irony-infused lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commerci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Billy Joel
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s. From 1971 to 1993, he released 12 studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical compositions. With over 160 million records sold worldwide, Joel is one of the world's List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists and is the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States. His 1985 compilation album, ''Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II'', is one of the List of best-selling albums in the United States, best-selling albums in the United States. Joel was born in the Bronx in New York City and grew up in Hicksville, New York, Hicksville on Long Island, where he began taking piano lessons at his mothe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes (born David Goldstein; February 24, 1947) is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles " Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). He is also known for his musicals '' The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', which earned him two Tony Awards, and ''Curtains'', his AMC television series ''Remember WENN'', and his novel '' Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide''. Life and career Holmes was born David Goldstein in Northwich, Cheshire, England. His father, Leonard Eliot Goldstein, was a United States Army warrant officer and bandleader. His mother, Gwendolen Mary (''née'' Pynn), was English, and both were musical. Holmes has dual British and American citizenship. The family moved when Holmes was six years old to the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, where Holmes grew up and attended nearby Nyack High School and then the Manhattan School of Music (majoring in cla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ashford & Simpson
Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting, production and recording duo composed of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946). Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, and Simpson in the Bronx, New York City. Ashford's family relocated to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he became a member of Christ Temple Baptist Church. While there, he sang with a group called the Hammond Singers (named after the founding minister, James Hammond). Later, Ashford attended and graduated from Willow Run High School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, before pursuing his professional career, when he would ultimately meet his wife, Valerie Simpson. They met at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church in 1964. After having recorded unsuccessfully as a duo, they joined an aspiring solo artist and former member of The Ikettes, Joshie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label, where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap ("Never Had It S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock music. Coryell was also a music teacher and a writer, penning a monthly column for ''Guitar Player'' magazine from 1977 to 1989. He collaborated with a number of other high-profile musicians, including John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitouš, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Emily Remler, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía, Steve Morse and others. Early life Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He was raised by his stepfather Gene, a chemical engineer, and his mother Cora, who encouraged him to learn piano when he was four years old. In Coryell's teens, he switched to guitar. After his family moved to Richland, Washington, he took lessons from a teacher who lent h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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"(1969) and "ABC" (1970) and on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On"(1973). 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 play ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound. Montgomery often worked with his brothers Buddy Montgomery, Buddy (Charles F.) and Monk Montgomery, Monk (William H.), as well as organist Melvin Rhyne. His recordings up to 1965 were oriented toward hard bop, soul jazz, and post bop, but around 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that found mainstream success. His later guitar style influenced jazz fusion and smooth jazz. Early life and education Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana. According to NPR, the nickname "Wes" was a child's abbreviation of his middle name, Leslie. The family was large, and the parents split up early in the lives of the children. Montgomery and his brothers moved to Columbus, Ohio, with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Crusaders (Houston Group)
The Crusaders (formerly known as The Jazz Crusaders) were an American jazz/jazz fusion group performing from the 1960s to the 2010s. The group was known as the Jazz Crusaders from their formation in 1960 until shortening their name in 1971. The Crusaders played a wide assortment of genres, including straight ahead jazz, urban R&B, R&B-based jazz, and the 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. Career 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&B vein as the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Chantays
The Chantays, sometimes billed as Chantay's, is an American surf rock band formed in Orange County, California. They are known for their 1963 hit instrumental "Pipeline". Their sound combines electronic keyboards with surf guitar, creating a unique ghostly sound. History The Chantays were formed in 1961 by five high-school friends. Bob Spickard, Brian Carman (co-writers of "Pipeline"), Bob Welch, Warren Waters and Rob Marshall were all students at Santa Ana High School in California. In December 1962, the group recorded and released "Pipeline", which peaked at No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in May 1963. The track also peaked in the UK Singles Chart in 1963 at No. 16. The Chantays recorded their first album in 1963, also titled ''Pipeline'', which included "Blunderbus" and "El Conquistador". Their follow-up album was ''Two Sides of the Chantays'' in 1964. The Chantays toured Japan and the United States, joining the Righteous Brothers and Roy Orbison on a few occas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Surf Rock
Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys. Dick Dale developed the surf sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a spring reverb, and rapid alternate picking characteristics. His regional hit " Let's Go Trippin', in 1961, launched the surf music craze, inspiring many others to take up the approach. The genre reached national exposure when it was represented by vocal groups such as the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Dale was quoted on such groups: " ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |