Artie Shaw was the greatest white
clarinetist of jazz, save perhaps, Benny Goodman. Like Goodman, Shaw was a
classically trained musician that excelled at playing other styles of music
besides jazz. Shaw had his own orchestra which rivaled Benny Goodman’s
orchestra in popularity during the Thirties. Shaw had a huge pop hit with the
song, “Begin the Beguine” in 1939.
Shaw was born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City. He faced a
great deal of anti-Semitic discrimination during his youth in New Haven, Connecticut,
so anglicized his name as Shaw. During the Thirties and Forties, Shaw was the
rival of fellow clarinetist and band leader, Benny Goodman.
Shaw’s best work was with the small band he
assembled called, The Gramercy Five. The Gramercy Five recordings are
considered by jazz critics to be among the best ever jazz recordings.
Essential recordings by Shaw include the
following studio albums and collections: The Great Artie Shaw” (1959), “This is
Artie Shaw” (1971), “The Complete Gramercy Five Recordings” (1989) and “The
Chronological Classics: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 1938” (1998), and “The
Chronological Classics: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 1939” (1999).
Camel is a progressive rock band from Guildford, England.
The band came together in 1971, and had guitarist Andrew Latimer, bassist Doug
Ferguson, drummer Andy Ward, and keyboardist Peter Bardens as original members.
Their first album, the fine “Camel” was
released in 1973. The debut album was a very solid example of progressive rock
with tightly performed selections relying heavily on keyboards and lengthy
tracks that allowed the musicians space to solo and improvise. “Slow Yourself
Down” and “Mystic Queen” are standout tracks from this one.
Camel’s second album, “Mirage” (1974), proved
to be the band’s masterpiece with inspired arrangements, playing and songs.
“Free Fall,” “Supertwister,” and “Lady Fantasy” are the highlights here. The
album is one of the all-time classics of progressive rock.
Camel’s next two albums, “The Snow Goose”
(1975) and “Moonmadness” (1976) were both stellar efforts, and come close to
reaching the heights achieved on Mirage. The former album is an instrumental
showcase for the more brilliant arrangements and ensemble playing, and is
conceived as a concept album about the life cycle of the snow goose. The latter
album is more keyboard-driven, but is just as memorable. Camel’s outstanding
live album, “A Live Record” (1978), with its spot on live renditions of studio
material amply demonstrated the brilliance of this band’s individual members.
After falling on hard times in the Eighties,
Camel bounced back in the Nineties with several solid albums including, “Harbor
of Tears” and “Rajaz.”
Bob Seger was
one of the most popular and mainstream of the rock singers of the Seventies.
Seger, born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1944, had, in his initial
incarnation, been a blues-rock/soul singer in a band called “The Bob Seger
System.” This band came together in 1968 and played gritty blues rock and R&B.
The band’s debut album, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” (1969), was a fine effort that
had the title track become a minor hit. The band would record two more albums
before folding in 1970.
Seger would
reemerge as a solo artist, and several early Seventies albums were released
under his name that garnered little commercial or critical attention. That
would all change with Seger’s next supporting outfit, “The Silver Bullet Band.”
Seger and his new backing band came together in 1974, and Seger would finally
find the commercial and critical success that he had long been striving for.
The first release of Seger and The Silver Bullet Band was a superb live album,
“Live Bullet,” from 1976. The album features the new band playing a number of
Seger’s older songs in inspired performances.
The band’s next
release, “Night Moves,” (1976) would be the breakthrough that would turn Seger
into an overnight success more than a decade after his career had begun. The
album consisted of hard rock gems such as “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” “Come
to Poppa,” and “The Fire Down Below,” but it was the folk-flavoured title
track, “Night Moves,” that would become a massive hit. Another fine track,
“Mainstreet” would become a minor hit.
Seger would
follow-up one classic album with another with the release of “Stranger in Town”
(1978). Like its predecessor, this album was a huge commercial and critical
success thanks to outstanding tracks such as, “Hollywood Nights,” “Still the
Same,” “Feel Like a Number,” and the hit ballad, “We’ve Got Tonight.”
Seger would
record several more solid albums such as “Against the Wind” (1980) and “Nine
Tonight” (1981) before drifting from the spotlight.
The great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie,
was one of the musicians at the forefront of the development of be-bop music in
the Fifties. He was born John Birkes Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina,
in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker, “Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality
and antics while performing.
After hearing the great Roy Eldridge on the
radio as a child, Gillespie decide then and there that he, too, wanted to be a
jazz trumpeter. Gillespie got his start in New York City, in 1935, playing in the bands
of Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes. It was with the Teddy Hill Orchestra that
Gillespie would make his first recording, “King Porter Stomp.” Gillespie stayed
with Hill for one year and then freelanced with several bands for a while
before finally winding up in Cab Callaway’s Orchestra in 1939. Calloway would
fire Gillespie three years later following an altercation between the two men.
In 1943, Gillespie would join Earl Hines
band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create a new music
which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie Ekstine band,
which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band because he
wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.
In the mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and
other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny
Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was
at these jams that bebop was born.
Gillespie would become a member of the
“Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles
Mingus and Max Roach. Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie
would form his own Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.
Among the best of the classic sides that
Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties are: “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca,” “Perdido,” and
“Night and Day.”
Gillespie’s best albums begin with the
Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at Massey Hall” is perhaps the
best moment of many brilliant moments on that live recording of the Quintet’s
only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include, “Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For
Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960), “Groovin’ High” (1953).
After Gillespie had had his fill of bebop,
he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie died in 1993.
Caravan, from Canterbury, England,
was a progressive rock band that reached the peak of its creative and
commercial success in the late Sixties and early Seventies. The band was one of
the cornerstones of the “Canterbury
scene” of English progressive rock. They produced melodic and generally upbeat
music which displayed great musicianship on songs that revealed a very active
and ribald sense of humor.
On their third album, “The Land of Grey and
Pink” (1971), Caravan made the full transition to progressive rock material.
The album is often cited as their masterpiece, and includes a wide selection of
inspired tracks. In 1973, they produced the last of their classic albums, “For
Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night.”
Bob Marley is the most famous figure in the history of reggae music and the first “Third World” music superstar. Marley was not the first star of the indigenous Jamaican music, reggae, but he is largely responsible for it becoming internationally-known.
Marley was born in Nine Mile, Saint Anne Parish, Jamaica, and lived in the rough Trench Town part of Kingston. At the age of eighteen, he formed the band that would forever be associated with his name, “The Wailers.” The Wailers consisted of Marley as vocalist and guitarist, Bunny Livingston as singer and percussionist, and Peter Tosh as singer and guitarist. Livingston and Tosh would leave the Wailers in 1973 to pursue solo careers and would become reggae stars themselves. The band featured numerous other supporting musicians who came and went during the subsequent years. Guitarist Junior Murvin was a notable member during the final incarnation of the band.
During the Sixties, the Wailers recorded a number of hit singles in Jamaica including “Simmer Down,” “Love and Affection,” and an early version of “One Love,” the song that would become an international anthem in the Seventies. When these songs were released, the term, “reggae,” hadn’t been coined, and this jaunty dance music was referred to as “ska, and was later dubbed, “rocksteady.”
During the Seventies, the Wailers began to record albums on Upsetter Records with Lee “Scratch” Perry as producer. It was under Perry’s direction that the band began to distinguish itself from its ska/reggae competitors.
In 1971, the band released its first classic album, “Soul Revolution.” Another classic album followed in 1973, with “Catch a Fire,” containing the well-known Marley song, “Stir it Up.” By this time, the Wailers had been signed to Island records. The following year, 1974, saw the release of “Burnin,’” another solid effort containing the classic songs, “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff,” a song that would soon become a chart hit in a version by Eric Clapton.
By this time, Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh had left the band to pursue solo careers, and Bob Marley was left in full control. Marley was beginning to attract international acclaim, aided greatly by Eric Clapton’s success with “I Shot the Sheriff.” He would try to build on this foundation by adding rock record production and studio polish to his successive albums, but he never lost the gritty, soulful essence of his music. The Wailers’ next four albums, “Natty Dread,” Live,” “Rastaman Vibration,” and “Exodus” would see Marley at the height of his creative powers. It was during this run of albums that Marley would achieve international stardom.
“Exodus” (1977) is generally regarded as Marley’s finest original album with its catchy songs, fine arrangements, and its pop production values. Marley had practically made reggae a crossover genre with this album by rendering reggae palatable to pop music fans. Exodus contained a bevy of classic songs such as the song, “Exodus,” “Jammin’,” “Three Little Birds,” “Waiting in Vain,” and an updated version of “One Love.” Marley titled the album “Exodus” in recognition of his flight to sanctuary in England following an attempt on his life in Jamaica.
Another solid live album, “Babylon by Bus” followed in 1978, and then his final studio release, “Uprising,” appeared in 1981. “Redemption Song” from the latter album is especially haunting as it is the last song on the last album that Marley recorded.
Charlie
Poole was one of a handful of individuals recording country music in the days
before The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers made the music popular in the late Twenties.
Poole and his band, “The North Carolina Ramblers,” were one of the most popular
and prolific of the “hillbilly” bands to record in the mid-Twenties. Traditional
country was rich and colorful, and Poole was one of the best from its early
days.
Poole was
born in Eden, North Carolina, in 1892. He was a banjo player, and he and his
band, the North Carolina Ramblers, made their first recording, “Don’t Let Your
Deal Go Down.” in 1925. Poole wrote songs that reflected the harsh realities of
life for the southern poor and his own struggles with alcoholism, a disease
which would eventually kill him.
Songs
such as "You Ain't Talking To Me," “Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight Mister,” “Take a Drink on Me,” and
“All Go Hungry Hash House” paint vivid pictures of that life. Poole even
dabbled in the political arena with his classic, “White House Blues.”
Several
compilations exist with these songs and many more.
Frankie
Trumbauer, born in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1901, is one of the first great
jazz saxophonists. He became famous as a player of the rare C-melody saxophone,
an instrument with a pitch that falls between an alto and tenor saxophone. Trumbauer
was a saxophonist of considerable influence who is credited by many later
greats of the instrument as an inspiration. Trumbauer was often referred to by
the moniker, “Tram.”
Trumbauer
began his career with the Paul Whiteman Band in the early twenties. When he
switched to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, he met the great cornetist Bix
Beiderbecke with whom he would later become a close friend and collaborator.
In 1927,
Trumbauer formed his own orchestra and with Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang and Jimmy
Dorsey produced some of the best jazz ever recorded. In a series of legendary
sessions, the Frankie Trumbauer Orchestra would record, “Singing the Blues,”
“Clarinet Marmalade,” “For No Reason at all in C,” “Riverboat Shuffle,” Ostrich
Walk,” and others. Bix Beiderbecke’s work on these recordings is considered to
be his best ever work. On the brilliant side, “Trumbology,” Trumbauer delivers
one of the first true saxophone tour de forces in recorded jazz. Trumbauer died
in 1956.
Trumbauer’s
recordings can be found on the “Chronological Classics” series of jazz
compilations and his recordings with Beiderbecke were considered good enough to
warrant inclusion on the venerable collection of early jazz recordings, “The
Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz” (1973).
James Brown,
born in Macon, Georgia, in 1938 was known by a number of titles including “The
Godfather of Soul,” “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” “Soul Brother
Number One,” and “Mr. Dynamite.” Brown is considered one of the most
influential figures in the history of American popular music. In addition to
being a major figure in the creation of funk music, Brown was a businessman and
an inspirational leader in the American civil rights movement.
A number of musicians spent time in his back-up bands before finding success as
solo artists including, Bootsy Collins,
Maceo Parker, and Hank Ballard.
Brown is frequently cited as an influence by hip hop artists, and he may be the
single most sampled artist by hip hop producers.
James
Brown was born in Barnwell, North Carolina, in 1933. He was born into abject
poverty and was sent to live with an aunt. He dropped out of school in the seventh
grade and began working odd jobs such as shoe shining and singing for the World
War Two troops that were stationed at Camp Gordon near his aunt’s home. During
this time, Brown taught himself to play the harmonica and received guitar
lessons from the legendary bluesman, Tampa Red.
When he
saw a film of the great jump blues master Louis Jordan performing his hit,
“Caledonia,” Brown resolved to pursue a professional music career. However,
when he was sixteen, Brown was charged with armed robbery and sent to a
juvenile detention center. While serving a three-year sentence in a detention
center, Brown became acquainted with Bobby Byrd, a future R&B star whose
family arranged for Brown’s release from the center. After stints as a
semi-professional baseball player and boxer, Brown focused his attention back
on music.
In 1955,
Brown joined his friend Bobby Bird as a member of Byrd’s singing group, the
Avons. With Brown now a member, the Avons changed their name to the Flames and
signed to Federal Records. Brown’s first recording, “Please. Please, Please”
would come as a member of the Flames and present him as a soul singer of great
depth and intensity.
Brown
would record several more singles with the Flames during the Fifties, and the
group would eventually become known as “James Brown and the Famous Flames.”
Among thier big hits were the songs, “I’ll Go Crazy,” “Think,” “Lost Someone,”
“Night Train,” and “Caledonia.” In 1965, Brown, in the opinion of many, would
invent funk music with his hit, “Papa’s got a Brand New Bag.” For its
recording, Brown told his band to “play it on the one,” transforming the
traditional 2/4 beat heard in R&B recordings and giving the world something
new.
Brown
continued recording hit singles and albums consistently until the Nineties.
Among Brown’s later hits were the songs, “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “It’s a Man’s
Man’s Man’s World,” “Licking Stick,” “Say it Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud,”
“Cold Sweat,” “Sex Machine,” and “Living in America.”
Brown
died on Christmas Day, 2006, leaving behind him an awesome catalogue of
recorded work.
Among
Brown’s best studio albums and compilations are: “Please Please Please” (1956),
“Live at the Apollo” (1963), “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (1965), “I Got You (I
Feel Good)” (1966), “James Brown Live at the Garden” (1967), “I Can’t Stand
Myself When You Touch Me” (1968), “Say it Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1969),
“Sex Machine”(1970), “Revolution of the Mind” (1971), “The Payback” (1974),
“Love Power Peace, Live at the Olympia, Paris1971” (1992), “James Brown Soul
Classics” (1972), “Solid Gold 30 Golden Hits” (1977), “In the Jungle Groove”
(1986), “Star Time” (1991), and “Gold” (2005)
Led Zeppelin was one of the first hard rock
supergroups, and a band which enjoyed unprecedented popularity in the hard rock
arena. The band came together from the ashes of the last incarnation of the
Yardbirds, which featured the young guitar hero, Jimmy Page. Page teamed up
with bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, but the new band needed a
lead singer to round out its line-up. Terry Reid was considered at first, but
when he proved to be unavailable, Robert Plant was brought in.
The new band was initially called, “The New
Yardbirds,” but changed their name to “Led Zeppelin” as a response to one
observer who predicted their doom by stating, “They’ll go down like a lead
balloon.” Like most other early hard rock bands, Zeppelin had a solid grounding
in the electric blues of Chicago,
especially where Hubert Sumlin, Otis Rush and Howlin’ Wolf were concerned.
The band’s debut album, “Led Zeppelin”
(1968), clearly revealed that influence as the band recorded revolutionary
takes on a number of Chess standards such as “You Shook Me,” “I Can't Quit You,”
and “How Many More Times” with over-amplified bass, guitar and drums and the banshee-like
vocals of Robert Plant. The album remains today one of the all-time classics of
hard rock.
Their next effort, the superb “Led Zeppelin
2” (1969), contained fewer covers and moved more toward a mainstream hard rock
sound with classic tracks such as “Heartbreaker,” “Whole Lotta Love,” and
“Ramble On.” Their third release, “Led Zeppelin 3” (1970), was a more eclectic
affair featuring several acoustic performances by Page and the hard-driving,
“Immigrant Song.”
The band’s next release, “Led Zeppelin 4” (1971),
would ultimately become their masterpiece due in large part to the presence of
one of the most popular rock tracks ever, “Stairway to Heaven.” In addition to
this hard rock anthem, there were other gems such as the folk-rock of “The Battle
of Evermore,” featuring a vocal duet between Plant and former Fairport
Convention lead singer, Sandy Denny. This album remains one of the best-selling
and most-praised rock albums in history.
The first Led Zeppelin album to actually
bear a proper title, “Houses of the Holy” (1973), followed next. It was yet
another outstanding offering, containing the standout tracks, “The Song Remains
the Same,” and “Over the Hills and Far Away.” The double album, “Physical
Graffiti,” was next and continued Led Zeppelin’s almost unprecedented run of
fine albums. Another diverse release, the album contained the epic track, “Kashmir.”
The very solid, “Presence,” was released in
1976, followed by the somewhat disappointing, “In Through the Out Door,” in
1979. An excellent live album of material from the Seventies, “How the West was
Won,” would appear out of the blue in 2003.
Jazz
singer/songwriter/pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller was born in New York City, in
1904. While he is not a household name to the extent of fellow jazz legends,
Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, and Goodman, Fats Waller was no less important or
influential. In the opinion of his fellow musicians, especially Louis
Armstrong, he was a giant among giants.
As a
youth in New York City, Waller sought out the Harlem stride piano legend, James
P. Johnson, and became the great pianist’s understudy. Soon thereafter, Waller
was one of the best stride pianists in the city. The stride style is sort of
the jazz version of boogie-woogie, and as such, it is quite palatable to the
ears of rock music fans. Waller would eventually become one of the very best
pianists that jazz ever produced. Only the likes of Art Tatum, Earl Hines,
Teddy Wilson and Oscar Peterson could match his virtuosity.
In addition to being one of the finest musicians in early jazz, Waller was one
of the best and most prolific songwriters in jazz, penning the standards,
“Honeysuckle Rose” and “Ain't Misbehavin.” Many of Waller’s compositions are
humorous, and display his penchant for writing clever lyrics laden with
double-meanings.
Waller’s first recording was made as early as 1922, with the sides, “Muscle Shoals
Blues” and “Birmingham Blues” recorded for the General Phonograph Company.
After a few more recording sessions in 1923, Waller’s recording career would
begin in earnest in 1927 with a solid string of classic sides that would
continue until his death in 1943.
Waller’s
first big hit, “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” appeared in 1929, and was followed by scads
of others including, “African Ripples,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Viper’s Drag,”
“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie,”
“S’Posin’,” “You’re Feets Too Big,” “All That Meat and No Potatoes,” “The Joint
is Jumpin’,” and “A Good Man’s Hard to Find.”
These
recordings and more can be found on several excellent compilations of Waller’s
music such as the multi-volume “The Complete Fats Waller,” “The Very Best of
Fats Waller” (2000), and “The Centennial Collection” (2004).
Jazz
singer/songwriter/pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller was born in New York City, in
1904. While he is not a household name to the extent of fellow jazz legends,
Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, and Goodman, Fats Waller was no less important or
influential. In the opinion of his fellow musicians, especially Louis
Armstrong, he was a giant among giants.
As a
youth in New York City, Waller sought out the Harlem stride piano legend, James
P. Johnson, and became the great pianist’s understudy. Soon thereafter, Waller
was one of the best stride pianists in the city. The stride style is sort of
the jazz version of boogie-woogie, and as such, it is quite palatable to the
ears of rock music fans. Waller would eventually become one of the very best
pianists that jazz ever produced. Only the likes of Art Tatum, Earl Hines,
Teddy Wilson and Oscar Peterson could match his virtuosity.
In addition to being one of the finest musicians in early jazz, Waller was one
of the best and most prolific songwriters in jazz, penning the standards,
“Honeysuckle Rose” and “Ain't Misbehavin.” Many of Waller’s compositions are
humorous, and display his penchant for writing clever lyrics laden with
double-meanings.
Waller’s first recording was made as early as 1922, with the sides, “Muscle Shoals
Blues” and “Birmingham Blues” recorded for the General Phonograph Company.
After a few more recording sessions in 1923, Waller’s recording career would
begin in earnest in 1927 with a solid string of classic sides that would
continue until his death in 1943.
Waller’s
first big hit, “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” appeared in 1929, and was followed by scads
of others including, “African Ripples,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Viper’s Drag,”
“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie,”
“S’Posin’,” “You’re Feets Too Big,” “All That Meat and No Potatoes,” “The Joint
is Jumpin’,” and “A Good Man’s Hard to Find.”
These
recordings and more can be found on several excellent compilations of Waller’s
music such as the multi-volume “The Complete Fats Waller,” “The Very Best of
Fats Waller” (2000), and “The Centennial Collection” (2004).
Fletcher Henderson
was a jazz pianist and bandleader born in Cuthbert,
Georgia, in
1897. Henderson
was the leader of one of the best African-American jazz bands of the Twenties.
Henderson
was born to a middle-class family that valued education, and Henderson would go
on to earn a degree in chemistry from Atlanta University. When he moved to New
York in 1920, he was rejected by employers in the chemistry field due to his
skin colour. He went to work for W.C. Handy’s music publishing company and then
became a manager at the Black Swan recording label.
In 1922, Henderson led a band at a club which would
become the legendary Roseland Ballroom. Henderson and his band, which would
later become known as the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, would stay on at the
Roseland for ten years. Henderson’s Orchestra featured some of the best
musicians in jazz and included at various times, Coleman Hawkins, Louis
Armstrong, Joe Smith, and many other star soloists. With stellar members such
as Hawkins and Armstrong, the Henderson Orchestra made some of the finest sides
of jazz in the Twenties including, “Sugar Foot Stomp,” “Shanghai Shuffle,” “Jim
Town Blues,” “Christopher Columbus,” “Stealin’ Apples,” “King Porter Stomp,”
and “Stampede.”
The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra continued to tour
and record until 1939 when Henderson joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra as the
pianist and arranger. The hiring of Henderson by Goodman was a watershed moment
in jazz, as it was the first time that a white band had hired a black musician
as arranger. Henderson’s participation would help secure Goodman’s reputation
as the “King of Swing,” a music which Henderson had pioneered with his work
with his own orchestra years before.
Henderson died in 1952, following several years with
heart problems. The classic sides of the Henderson Orchestra can be fairly
easily found on several compilations of the band’s work, and on compilations of
classic early jazz, including the series, “The Chronological Classics: Fletcher
Henderson.” (1996).
Johnny
Cash, originally from the cotton country of Kingsland, Arkansas, began his
career in music in Memphis, Tennessee as a rockabilly performer with Sam
Phillip’s legendary Sun Records label which had among the musicians on its
roster, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
Cash recorded
his first single, “Cry, Cry, Cry,” in 1955, His first major hit, “I Walk the
Line,” followed in 1956. These early singles would be collected with others on
his debut album, “Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!” (1956). In the
late Fifties, Cash would switch to country music and record a number of classic
songs including, “Big River,” “Ring of Fire,” “Give My Love to Rose,” “A Boy
Named Sue,” “Long Black Veil,” and “I Still Miss Someone.”
In the
late Sixties, Cash recorded two live albums in prisons, “At Folsom Prison”
(1968) and “At San Quentin” (1969). The tremendous popularity of these albums
led to a successful TV variety show which was canceled after only two seasons.
Both albums have been described as two of the best live albums of music recorded
in the 20th century.
In 1971,
Cash recorded the album, “Man in Black.” The title track would later be
attached to Cash as a title of sorts. Cash’s career was in decline, however,
and the rest of the Seventies would be lean in terms of hit recordings. The
mid-Eighties saw Cash return to prominence with the outlaw country group, “The
Highwaymen,” but solo success continued to escape him. In 1986, Cash entered
The Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to painkillers.
In 1994, Cash teamed up with producer Rick Rubin, and recorded an album of
mostly cover songs, “American Recordings.” The album introduced Cash’s music to
a whole new generation of fans. Three more critically acclaimed volumes of American
Recordings would follow.
Cash had been sick with diabetes for several years, but he still managed to
record the fourth American Recordings album which was released in 2002.Cash
succumbed to diabetes the following year.
James
Price Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1894. He was a ragtime
turned stride pianist whose composition, “The Charleston,” became one of the
anthems of the “jazz age” of the Twenties. Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton were
probably the two pianists most responsible for taking ragtime music and turning
it into jazz via the piano.
Although
he started out playing ragtime music in the tradition of Scott Joplin, Johnson
became the innovator of a jazz sub-genre of piano playing that was dubbed, “stride.”
This piano style got its name from the walking or “striding” sound produced by
the pianist’s left hand. Stride piano incorporated elements of the blues and it
allowed for on the spot improvisation which is an essential characteristic of
jazz music. Ragtime was a rigidly composed form of music which stifled improvisation.
Johnson
was a prolific composer, and he wrote some of the most familiar compositions of
the roaring Twenties. Aside from the Charleston, he penned, “You’ve Got to Be
Modernistic,” “If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight,” “Carolina Shout,”
“Keep Off The Grass,” and “Old Fashioned Love,” among others. In addition to
jazz and pop tunes, Johnson wrote waltzes, ballets and symphonic pieces.
Johnson’s
finest recordings can be found on a number of compilation albums including the
multi-volume “Chronological Classics: James P. Johnson” (1996) series and “Snowy
Morning Blues” (1991), “Harlem Stride Piano” (1992), and “Father of Stride
Piano” (2001).
The
Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers are the two artists most responsible for the early
development of the country music industry. Before them, the folk music of the
Appalachian region of the United States was folk music played by locals for
their own amusement, and it remained a regional art form. The music was casually
referred to as just “Hillbilly Music.” The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers
were not the first country artists to record, Charlie Poole, Ernest Stoneman,
Eck Robertson and others had made recordings before them, but Rodgers and the
Carters turned hillbilly music into pop music.
The
original Carter F
amily consisted of the sisters, guitarist Maybelle, and lead
singer Sara, and occasional back-up singer A.P., Sara’s husband. The family
hailed from Clinch Mountain, Virginia.
The
Carter Family first recorded in Bristol, Tennessee for record producer, Ralph
Peer, in 1927. They were paid 50 dollars for each song they recorded. Among
those songs were “Wandering Boy” and “Poor Orphan Child” which Victor released
as a single in the fall of 1927.
The next
year, 1928, saw the Carter Family in the Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey,
where they recorded their classics, “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “Can the Circle
be Unbroken,” “Wildwood Flower,” “River of Jordan,” and many others. They were
not paid for these recordings, but were promised royalties based on sales. By
1930, the Carter Family had sold over 300, 000 records in the United States.
Not only
are these recordings historically significant, they are aesthetically pleasing,
too. The Carters were a great string band that displayed technical brilliance
and perfectly sung harmonies. Mother Maybelle was a brilliant guitarist who
invented a guitar picking technique that was adopted by scads of country
guitarists in subsequent years.
The Carter Family is one of the most important artists of the 20th century, and
they must be heard by anyone who wishes to understand the development of
American popular music. The best compilations of the Carter Family’s classic sides
include the following releases: The Original and Great Carter Family” (1962),
“In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain” (2000), “Wildwood Flower” (2000), and
“1927-1934” (2002).
In 1968,
Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman were members of the Byrds and with their band
had recorded the classic album, “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” the first official
“country-rock” album. Parsons and Hillman left the Byrds shortly after and with
Chris Ethridge, a bassist, and “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar player,
formed the Flying Burrito Brothers, the band that would spread the gospel of
this new genre.
The band
would produce a brilliant debut album, a decent sophomore album and then
Parsons would be gone to pursue a solo career leaving Hillman to continue the
band without him.
In 1969,
that brilliant debut, “The Gilded Palace of Sin,” was released. The album was a
soulful synthesis of rock and country featuring aching vocal harmonies and
atmospheric pedal steel work by Pete Kleinow. The album contained the
unforgettable tracks “Christine’s Tune,” “Sin City,” “My Uncle,” and an utterly
original take on the soul classic, “Dark End of The Street.”
The next
year, 1970, saw the release of the follow-up, “Burrito Deluxe,” a solid
offering with standout tracks, “Wild Horses,” “God’s Own Singer,” and “Older
Guys.” In 1971, the Burrito Brothers, minus Parsons, released a fine album,
“The Flying Burrito Brothers” featuring a fine version of “White Line Fever”.
The band
continued to release albums throughout the Seventies with Hillman as the sole
original member, but nothing they did even came close to their great debut.
Black
Sabbath is a seminal band in the history of rock music. The band played a brand
of hard rock that would tragically spawn much of the regrettable heavy
metal/death metal music of recent years. Black Sabbath’s music in their early
years, however, was majestic hard rock rooted in the blues and played with
skill and precision.
The band,
comprised of singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tommy Iommi, bassist Geezer
Butler, and drummer Bill Ward came out of Birmingham,
England, in
1968. The band’s first four albums were outstanding efforts and all remain
classics of the hard rock genre. The band’s eponymous debut, “Black Sabbath”
(1970), was a showcase for the fine guitarist Iommi, and the haunted, intense
vocals of Osbourne. The album is spellbinding from start to finish, especially
on the title track, “Black Sabbath” and “The Wizard.”
The
band’s sophomore release, “Paranoid” (1970), was the equal to the impressive
debut and features some progressive rock influences such as the track,
“Electric Funeral.” The album’s best known track, “Iron Man,” is probably the
weakest track on the album. “Master of Reality” (1971), another classic of the
genre, followed next. It contains the classic marijuana anthem, “Sweet Leaf.”
Sabbath
next released “Volume 4” (1972), an album that is much more experimental and includes
frequent use of synthesizers. The best track here is the ballad, “Changes,”
featuring an unforgettable vocal performance by Osbourne.
Black
Sabbath would release another decent album, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (1973),
before their descent to heavy metal mediocrity and the eventual departure of
Ozzy Osbourne.
Louis Armstrong is one of the most
important figures in the history of Western popular music, and likely the most
important figure in the history of jazz music. He is not only the most famous
jazz musician, but he is considered by many to be the most brilliant musician
who ever played the music. It was Armstrong’s innate genius as a cornet soloist
during the Twenties that helped transform jazz from disposable dance music to
the art form that it has become.
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana,
in 1901. His father abandoned the family shortly thereafter, leaving little
Louis to live with his mother and sister. Armstrong and his mother lived in a
section of New Orleans
which was so violent, that it was referred to as “The Battlefield.”
By the time Armstrong was around five-years-old, he was already performing on New Orleans street corners,
and he later landed a job hauling a junk wagon. Sometimes, Armstrong would
fetch coal, which could be used for warmth on cold nights, for local
prostitutes. His employer, the Karnofsky family, provided him with the money to
buy his first cornet, and Armstrong took the instrument home and taught himself
to play.
On New Years’s Day, 1912; Armstrong was
arrested for firing a pistol into the air on New Years’s Eve. Armstrong was
known to local police for his often colourful behavior, and he was removed from
his home and sent to the “Colored Waif's Home for Boys.”
At the waif’s home Armstrong received music lessons on the cornet from musician
Peter Davis, and eventually became the leader of the Waif's Home Band. He was
released in 1914, and during a coal delivery to the Storyville district, met
Joe “King” Oliver, the best-known cornet player in the New Orleans. Oliver became Armstrong’s
mentor, and helped him get work with a number of local bands.
By 1918, Armstrong was a member of the Kid Ory band with Oliver as its leader.
When Oliver moved to Chicago,
Armstrong took over the leadership of the band. The next year Armstrong was
hired by Fate Marable to play in his band aboard Mississippi
River steamboats.
In 1922, Armstrong was lured to Chicago by
Oliver to join his band, “King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band,” which featured a
stellar lineup of musicians including Oliver on cornet, Kid Ory on trombone,
Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Baby Dodds on drums, Charlie Jackson on banjo, and
Lil Hardin on piano. Armstrong became the second cornetist and with Oliver,
created a sensation at the city’s LincolnGardens with the
brilliance of their cornet duets.
Armstrong made his first recordings with the
Creole Jazz Band for the Gennett label in 1923. The first recording Armstrong
appeared on was “Chimes Blues” which featured a brilliant Armstrong solo. With
Armstrong on second cornet, The Creole Jazz Band made some of the best and most
influential recordings of early jazz including, “Mandy Lee Blues,” “Dippermouth
Blues,” “Just Gone,” and “Canal Street Blues.”
Armstrong married the band’s pianist, Lil Hardin, in 1924. Later that year, he
moved to New York City and joined Fletcher
Henderson’s orchestra and continued to perform and record superb solos for Henderson. During this
period, Armstrong established himself as the premier blues sideman on
recordings with Bessie Smith, Bertha “Chippie” Hill, and others. Perhaps the
most famous of Armstrong’s blues collaborations is the session with Bessie
Smith that produced “St. Louis Blues” and “Reckless Blues.”
Despite achieving much in New
York, Armstrong quit Fletcher Henderson’s band and returned to Chicago in 1925 to make
his first recordings for Okeh with his recording group, “Louis Armstrong and
His Hot Five.”
Although it didn’t seem possible for
Armstrong to outdo his work with Oliver, he did just that with a set of
recordings of unparalleled brilliance, “The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens.” With
support from former Creole Jazz Band members, Johnny Dodds, Baby Dodds, Lil
Hardin, and Kid Ory, plus banjo player Johnny St. Cyr, Armstrong redefined jazz
music on colourful recordings with equally colourful titles such as “Struttin’
with Some Barbeque,” Skid-Dat-De-Dat,” “Cornet Chop Suey,” “Big Butter and Egg
Man,” and “Yes! I’m in the Barrel.”
Armstrong would be heard singing for the
first time on these recordings and revealed that in addition to being the best
jazz instrumentalist, he was also a vocalist of exceptional ability. Armstrong
was credited with creating the wordless singing style of “scat” during a Hot
Five recording session for “Heebie Jeebies” when he dropped the paper which
contained the words to the song. Instead of stopping, Armstrong improvised some
wordless vocalization.
By the late Twenties, The Hot Five had
expanded to the Hot Seven with the addition of the great Earl Hines on piano
and some shuffling of the original Hot Five lineup. This new outfit continued
to produce sides of jazz genius such as, “Willie the Weeper,” “Potato Head
Blues,” “Wild Man Blues,” “Alligator Crawl,” and the recording which has been
cited by many jazz critics as the single most brilliant recording of jazz
music, “West End Blues.”
While recording with the Hot Five,
Armstrong worked with Erskine Tate and the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra. Armstrong
moved with Dickerson to New York City
in 1929, and appeared the same year in the Broadway musical; “Hot Chocolates.” In
1931, Armstrong appeared in his first film, “Ex-Flame.”
Armstrong was gradually becoming a nationally-known music star, and his fame
began to spread abroad largely due to the success of the Hot Five and Hot Seven
recordings. He toured the United States
and Europe throughout the Thirties. During the
Forties, his appearances in films and exposure via radio solidified and magnified
his star status. He would perform at Carnegie Hall, in New York City, in 1947.
Armstrong continued to be an extremely
popular figure in jazz throughout the evolutions of the music through swing,
bebop, and the avant-garde. While many of the musicians who were with him
during the creation of the music had been forgotten, Armstrong never ceased to
have a viable career. He continued to tour the world, including visits to
Eastern Europe and Africa. He also continued
to record with his fellow jazz musicians. His health began to deteriorate in
1959, however, when he was hospitalized following a heart attack in Italy.
In 1964, Armstrong’s single “Hello, Dolly!” became the number one hit on Billboard’s
pop charts, just as the Beatles were first experiencing “Beatlemania” in
America. Armstrong’s hit with Hello Dolly was the last time a jazz recording
would top the pop charts before rock and roll took full control of them.
Armstrong continued making movie and
television appearances, in addition to performing live, despite continuing
heart problems, hospital stays and advice from his doctors to rest. Armstrong’s
rendition of the song, “What a Wonderful World,” became a hit in 1968. The song
would become a hit again in 1988, when it was included in the film, “Good
Morning Vietnam.” In 1971, after performing at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, Armstrong died
in his sleep at his home.
Armstrong’s best recorded works are from
the Twenties, but fortunately, these recordings are quite well-preserved. Even
his first recordings with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band are quite
high-fidelity considering they were recorded before the use of microphones.
Several excellent compilations of the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens and Armstrong’s
later Twenties work are available from Columbia,
and they all feature excellent sound quality. Good compilations can also be
found of Armstrong’s recordings with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band.
Armstrong started recording full-length
albums in the Fifties, and his best albums include, “Louis Armstrong Plays WC
Handy” (1954), “Satch Plays Fats” (1955), “Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar
Peterson” (1959), and “Satchmo Plays King Oliver” (1960).
