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Sledgehammer Blues
Sledgehammer Blues is an audiophile record label owned by Valley Entertainment. It was formerly named AudioQuest Music. Audioquest Music was founded in 1990 by Joe Harley of the audio cable company Audioquest to demonstrate the quality of its cables. Harley made one album, by blues guitarist Robert Lucas, that was so successful he decided to release more jazz and blues. Its catalogue included work by Charles Fambrough, Victor Lewis, James Newton, Edward Simon, and Larry Willis. From the label's website: "The blues label was founded in the late 1980s with the mission to create the highest standard audiophile recordings based on the technology available. These are analog recordings using custom built tube electronics and eschewing noise reduction, compression, equalization or sound limiters. By recording the most proficient artists available at the highest possible standards, these recordings have been adapted to every subsequent audiophile platform-XRCD, SACD Super Audio CD ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valley Entertainment
Valley Entertainment is an American independent record label and music distributor based in New York City, United States. The company was founded in 1994 by Barney Cohen and Jon Birge. In 2001, it acquired the prestigious back catalogue of space, ambient, and new-age music from Hearts of Space Records. , it has a catalogue of about 375 releases. History In 1979, Barney Cohen founded Valley Media (a separate company) and opened Valley Record Distributors in 1984. In 1994, he stepped down from Valley Media to focus on the proprietary independent music label he had started: Valley Entertainment, founded in 1994 by Barney Cohen and Jon Birge.Ambient News"Valley Entertainment Announces Acquisition of Hearts of Space Records!"(scroll down), via Archive.org In 2001, they acquired from Stephen Hill the prestigiousSande, Steve (2004)"The sky's the limit with ambient music" ''San Francisco Chronicle'', January 11, 2004, p. PK-18, at SFGate.com via Archive.org: " ..the Sausalito record la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bennie Wallace
Bennie Wallace (born November 18, 1946) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Biography He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Wallace began playing in local clubs with the encouragement of East Ridge, Tennessee High School band director and drummer Chet Hedgecoth and professional reed player Billy Usselton, who appeared as a guest at a stage band festival, and heard Wallace with the East Ridge High School Swing Band. After studying clarinet at the University of Tennessee, Wallace settled in New York in 1971 with the encouragement of Monty Alexander, who hired him and recommended him to the American Federation of Musicians local, which virtually guaranteed his entry. Wallace played with Barry Harris, Buddy Rich, Dannie Richmond. His debut recording was done with Flip Phillips and Scott Hamilton in 1977. He has cited Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins among many major saxophone influences. He recorded on the revived Blue Note label in 1985; the label's earlier issu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherman Robertson
Sherman Robertson (October 27, 1948 – January 28, 2021) was an American blues guitarist and singer who has been described as "one part zydeco, one part swamp blues, one part electric blues and one part classic rhythm and blues." Biography Robertson was born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. At the age of 13, he watched a performance on television by Hank Williams. Duly inspired and equipped with a cheap guitar purchased by his father, he started playing the songs previously performed by Freddie King and Floyd London. As he lived close to the Duke/Peacock recording studio, Robertson took the opportunity to acquaint himself with some of the musicians who recorded there. At the same time, in his late teens, Robertson played in a band in various bars of his Fifth Ward, Houston neighborhood. In 1982, Clifton Chenier heard Robertson's band playing at the Crosstown Blues Festival. Robertson moved back to Louisiana, learned to play slide guitar, and toured ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Robillard
Michael John "Duke" Robillard (born October 4, 1948) is an American guitarist and singer. He founded the band Roomful of Blues and was a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Although Robillard is known as a rock and blues guitarist, he also plays jazz and swing. Career He played in bands as Mike "Honey Bear" Robillard and worked for the Guild Guitar Company. In 1967, he and Al Copley founded the band Roomful of Blues. He spent over ten years with Roomful of Blues before departing in 1979, becoming the guitarist for singer Robert Gordon and then a member of the Legendary Blues Band. He started the Duke Robillard Band in 1981, eventually adopting the name Duke Robillard and the Pleasure Kings, with whom he toured throughout the 1980s and recorded for Rounder Records. He became a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1990 to replace Jimmie Vaughan. Although he was a member of bands, Robillard simultaneously pursued a solo career in which he toured and recorded solo albums in ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calvin "Fuzz" Jones
Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (June 9, 1926 – August 9, 2010) was an American electric blues bassist and singer. He worked with many blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, the Legendary Blues Band, Mississippi Heat, James Cotton, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Little Walter and Elmore James. He contributed to the collaborative 1996 album ''Eye to Eye'', which also featured Pinetop Perkins, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Ronnie Earl and Bruce Katz. Life and career Jones was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and raised on a farm near Inverness, Mississippi. In his childhood he learned to play the violin and the acoustic bass, later switching to the electric bass guitar, which became his instrument of choice. He joined the backing band of Muddy Waters in 1970 and played with the group until 1980. He played on the albums ''They Call Me Muddy Waters'' (1971), '' Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live'' (1979), and '' King Bee'' (1981). He became known for his "strong electric bass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Willie Lee "Big Eyes" Smith (January 19, 1936 – September 16, 2011) was an American electric blues vocalist, harmonica player, and drummer. He was best known for several stints with the Muddy Waters band beginning in the early 1960s. Biography Born in Helena, Arkansas, Smith learned to play harmonica at age 17 after moving to Chicago, Illinois. His influences included listening to 78's and the KFFA King Biscuit radio show, some of which were broadcast from Helena's Miller Theater, where he saw guitar player Joe Willie Wilkins, and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II. On a Chicago visit in 1953 his mother took him to hear Muddy Waters at the Zanzibar club, where Henry Strong's harp playing inspired him to learn that instrument. In 1956, at the age of eighteen he formed a trio. He led the band on harp, Bobby Lee Burns played guitar and Clifton James was the drummer. As "Little Willie" Smith he played in the Rocket Four, led by blues guitarist Arthur "Big Boy" Spires, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinetop Perkins
Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. Life and career Early career Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi and raised on a plantation in Honey Island, Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a knife fight with a chorus girl in Helena, Arkansas in the 1940s. Unable to play the guitar, he switched to the piano. He also moved from Robert Nighthawk's radio program on KFFA to Sonny Boy Williamson's ''King Biscuit Time''. He continued working with Nighthawk, however, accompanying him on "Jackson Town Gal" in 1950. In the 1950s, Perkins joined Earl Hooker and began touring. He recorded "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" at Sam Phillips's Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Evans (musician)
Terry Evans (August 14, 1937 – January 20, 2018) was an American R&B, blues, and soul singer, guitarist and songwriter. He worked with many musicians including Ry Cooder, Bobby King, John Fogerty, Eric Clapton, Joan Armatrading, John Lee Hooker, Boz Scaggs, Maria Muldaur and Hans Theessink. Cooder stated that he always thought that Evans made a better "frontman." Between 1994 and his death, Evans released seven solo albums, including ''Blues for Thought'' (1994) ''Come to the River'' (1997) and ''Fire in the Feeling'' (2005). Evans' career was inspired by Elmore James, Little Walter, Albert King, and B.B. King. Songs he wrote were recorded by Pops Staples and Louis Jordan. Life and career Terry Lee Evans was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States, and sang in his local church choir. His parents were keen for him to concentrate purely on gospel music, although Evans found exposure to the work of mainstream blues musicians. He worked semi professionally with an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joey Calderazzo
Joseph Dominick Calderazzo (February 27, 1965) is a jazz pianist and brother of musician Gene Calderazzo. He played extensively in bands led by Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis, and has also led his own bands. Early life Calderazzo was born in New Rochelle, New York. He began studying classical piano at age eight. His brother, Gene, got him interested in jazz. He studied with Richard Beirach and in the 1980s continued his studies at Berklee College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. At the same time, he was playing professionally with David Liebman and Frank Foster. Later life and career At a music clinic he met saxophonist Michael Brecker and became part of his quintet beginning in 1987. In 1990, he signed with Blue Note Records. Brecker produced Calderazzo's first album, ''In the Door'', which featured Jerry Bergonzi and Branford Marsalis, his brother's roommate in Boston. They played on his second album, ''To Know One'', which included Dave Holland and Jack DeJo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Binney
David Binney (born August 2, 1961) is an American alto saxophonist and composer. Early life Binney was born in Miami, Florida, and was raised in Carpinteria, California. From his parents, who loved music, he was exposed to albums by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, and Jimi Hendrix. He took saxophone lessons in Los Angeles. Career When he was nineteen, he moved to New York City and studied with saxophonists George Coleman, Dave Liebman, and Phil Woods. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts helped him record his first album, ''Point Game''. In the 1990s, he started his own label, Mythology Records. He has been of several bands, including Lost Tribe, Jagged Sky, Lan Xang, the Gil Evans Orchestra, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and Medeski Martin & Wood. He has also worked with Adam Rogers, Alex Sipiagin, Ben Monder, Ben Perowsky, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Brian Blade, Cecil McBee, Craig Taborn, David Gilmore, Donny McCaslin, Edward Simon, Eiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kei Akagi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist. In particular, he is known for his work with the Airto Moreira/ Flora Purim group and in Miles Davis's band in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was born in Japan, but lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for part of his childhood, until he moved back to Japan at the age of 12. He later returned to the United States at 22. He is associated with the Californian jazz scene at present. He is the Chancellor Professor of Music at the University of California, Irvine. Discography As leader/co-leader As sideman With Miles Davis * '' Dingo'' with Michel Legrand (Warner Bros., 1991) – soundtrack * '' Miles in Paris'' (Warner Bros., 1991) – live recorded in 1989 * '' Live Around the World'' (Warner Bros., 1996) – live recorded in 1988–91 With Frank Gambale * ''Brave New Guitar'' (Legato, 1985) * ''A Present for the Future'' (Legato, 1987) * '' Live!'' (Legato, 1989) – live recorded in 1988 * '' Thunder From Down Under'' (Victor, 1990) – reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doug MacLeod (musician)
Doug MacLeod (born April 21, 1946 in New York City, United States) is an American storytelling blues musician. Although now associated with his home in Memphis, he has lived and worked in North Carolina, St. Louis, New York, Los Angeles, and Norfolk, Virginia, where he was stationed in the United States Navy. He became acquainted with the blues in St Louis in his teens and started his career playing country blues on acoustic guitar, finding that singing eased a stutter and helped him to manage it. Although predominantly associated with acoustic guitar, his skills were developed as a blues bass player, and honed by his subsequent journeys into jazz and electric blues. Influences MacLeod's formative blues instruction is attributed to a man he knew as Ernest Banks who also gave him the guiding principles of his music and performances: *''"Never play a note you don't believe"'' *''"Never write or sing about what you don't know about"'' He also formed a strong friendship with George " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
