Showing 851 - 872 of 872
Artist: Derrick May
Of the Belleville Three, the cadre of early Detroit producers who tested the limits of spirit within electronic dance music and changed the integrity of the form forever, Derrick May's reputation as an originator remained intact despite more than a decade of recording inactivity. While Juan Atkins is rightly looked at as the godfather of techno,... [+] Read More
Artist: Sir Henry Joseph Wood
If any one conductor can be said to have paved the way for the British musical renaissance of the early 20th century, it was Sir Henry Wood. As a conductor -- who also prepared performing editions of many difficult Baroque-era pieces -- and teacher, leader of the London Promenade Concerts, and pioneering recording artist, he was in the forefront... [+] Read More
Artist: Peter Saville
As the graphic designer for the legendary Factory label, Peter Saville revolutionized the look and feel of music packaging, transforming the humble cardboard LP sleeves of pop's past into postmodernist objects d'art. Cryptic and enigmatic yet lush and often beautiful, Saville's groundbreaking work for bands like Joy Division, New Order, Pulp and... [+] Read More
Artist: Herivelto Martins
Herivelto Martins was one of the most successful singers and composers of Brazilian Popular Music. His compositions became true classics: in 1936, "Acorda, escola de samba" (with Benedito Lacerda), recorded by Sílvio Caldas through Odeon; "Duas lágrimas" (with Benedito Lacerda), recorded by Nestor Amaral through Odeon; "Se o morro não descer"... [+] Read More
Artist: Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes
When Lonnie Liston Smith made the transition from sideman to leader in 1973, that was the beginning of a fusion/crossover/post-bop band that he dubbed Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes. The acoustic pianist/electric keyboardist, who was born in Richmond, VA, on December 28, 1940, and should not be confused with soul-jazz/hard bop organist... [+] Read More
Artist: Steve Huey
Steve Huey first joined the All Music Guide staff in the summer of 1994, while attending Michigan State University. In 1997, after completing his B.A. in English with a thesis on Frank Zappa, he accepted a full-time position as an assistant editor and staff writer. He departed in the summer of 2001 seeking adventure in faraway lands, but has... [+] Read More
Artist: Richard Strauss
In addition to being perhaps the most important composer of the first half of the twentieth century, Richard Strauss was a conductor of vast skill and reputation. In purely historical terms, he was the first composer of note -- and the only composer of his standing -- to leave behind his own recordings of virtually all of his major orchestral... [+] Read More
Artist: The Easy Riders
The Easy Riders aren't mentioned in any reference books on folk music -- indeed, one will find no entry on them in any reference work on popular music of the 20th century, despite the fact that they had a massive hit in early 1957 with the song "Marianne," and also wrote songs that were recorded by everyone from the Kingston Trio to Dean Martin... [+] Read More
Artist: Leadbelly
Huddie Ledbetter, known as Leadbelly, was a unique figure in the American popular music of the 20th century. Ultimately, he was best remembered for a body of songs that he discovered, adapted, or wrote, including "Goodnight, Irene," "Rock Island Line," "The Midnight Special," and "Cotton Fields." But he was also an early example of a folksinger... [+] Read More
Artist: The New Christy Minstrels
When the definitive popular history of post-World War II folk music is written, the chances are excellent that the Kingston Trio will be mentioned prominently along with Peter, Paul & Mary and that the the Brothers Four and the Highwaymen will also rate mentions. Less clear will be the fate of the New Christy Minstrels. The group received... [+] Read More
Artist: Cat Butt
Seattle's Catbutt was known for its supergroup lineup. Its original members consisted of two parts U-Men, one part 64 Spiders, and one part Girl Trouble. They were all bands that had created a stir in the Northwest punk scene during the mid- to late '80s. With two separate lineups, Catbutt lasted a total of two years, churning out garage rock... [+] Read More
Artist: Norrie Paramor
Norrie Paramor was one of EMI's top producers in pop music and rock 'n roll up thru the end of the 1960's. For a time in England, he was the only record producer whose name teenagers might reasonably have been expected to recognize, because of his work in that capacity for more than a decade with pop-rock star Cliff Richard and his backing band,... [+] Read More
Artist: Dorsey Burnette
Dorsey Burnette is best remembered today as the brother of Johnny Burnette and a member of the Johnny Burnette Trio, and as the father of Billy Burnette. He had a solo career of his own, however, during the early '60s, and also wrote over 350 songs covered by the likes of Rick Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, and Stevie... [+] Read More
Artist: Rick Hall
As the owner and chief producer at legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Rick Hall was the General Patton of the music industry in the '60s, assembling an army of talented songwriters, musicians and producers that virtually conquered the world of soul music and gave birth to the so-called Muscle Shoals Sound. Under Hall's meticulous... [+] Read More
Artist: Lamartine Babo
Lamartine Babo had the privilege of having a musical family. His father, Leopoldo de Azeredo Babo, was a chorão (member of a choro group), and his home was frequented by Ernesto Nazareth and Catulo da Paixão Cearense. His mother, Bernardina Gonçalves Babo, and his sisters, played the piano in those times prior to the electric... [+] Read More
Artist: Clyde McPhatter
Clyde McPhatter was one of the most influential R&B singers of the '50s and early '60s. In his own time, his name and voice loomed so much larger than that of the group the Drifters, which he founded, that it took five years for them to recover from his departure. McPhatter was idolized by Black audiences as few singers before or since ever... [+] Read More
Artist: Ted Lewis
It's difficult to believe, based on a paltry pair of compact discs of Ted Lewis' music that exist, that from the beginning of the '20s until the mid-'30s, he was one of the most popular music acts in the world, cutting million-selling records when those scarcely happened more than once a year. It's even harder to comprehend that Lewis maintained... [+] Read More
Artist: Jeanette MacDonald
Singer-actress Jeanette MacDonald is a perfect example of what, decades after her death, became known as a classical crossover" artist. In her films, radio and television appearances, concerts, and recordings, she sang opera, operetta, art songs, and show tunes, often with an eye toward popularizing classical music for the masses. This was a... [+] Read More
Artist: Thomas A. Edison
Thomas A. Edison was not a musical artist. Edison was also partly deaf, owing to an accident suffered in childhood when he attempted to hop aboard a train. But Edison deserves inclusion as part of the All Music Guide, as he invented the very medium we primarily use to transmit music -- sound recording.
In the summer of 1877, Edison was looking... [+] Read More
Artist: W.C. Fields
No comedian upset the conventions of his day and paved the way for the comedy of the future more than W.C. Fields. In a time when all comedians would do their show biz best to ingratiate themselves with their audience, Fields created a public persona in firm keeping with his own personal outlook that stood all such performing niceties on their... [+] Read More
Artist: Tommy Steele
You'd never know it to look at film of him today, but during the summer of 1956, Tommy Steele became England's first home-grown rock 'n roller. Or he wasn't a rock 'n roller at all. Some 43 years after he first charted a record, many pop-music scholars still question whether Tommy Steele belongs on a list of rock 'n roll performers. But whatever... [+] Read More
Artist: Jane Russell
Actress/singer Jane Russell is best known as Marilyn Monroe's brunette sidekick in the 1953 movie adaptation of the 1949 musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and for her other appearances in films of the 1940s and '50s, notably her debut in the racy (for its time) The Outlaw. But her sexy screen image was belied by her devout Christian faith and... [+] Read More
