I just put on the new Kanye West and Jay-Z album... It sounds like Kanye called up Jay-Z Monday and said "hey you wanna make an album" then Jay says "ya sure sounds good man" K-"ok i have some raps lets put it out this Wednesday" It is just horrid... not a fan of any of their songs... So i decided to turn that off and listen to me some... Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense (live dvd) ripped the music from it Such an amazing live show.
Average White Band - Average White Band Average White Band (also AWB) is a Scottish funk and R&B band, who had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They are best known for their million selling song, "Pick Up the Pieces". The band name was initially proposed by Bonnie Bramlett. They have influenced others such as the Brand New Heavies, and been sampled by various musicians including the Beastie Boys, TLC, The Beatnuts, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Arrested Development. As of 2010, and almost forty years after their formation, they continue to perform. AWB was formed in early 1972 by Alan Gorrie, and Malcolm "Molly" Duncan, with Onnie McIntyre, Hamish Stuart, Roger Ball and Robbie McIntosh, joining them in the original line-up. Duncan and Ball, affectionately known as the Dundee Horns, studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (now part of the University of Dundee), and were previously members of Mogul Thrash. Gorrie and McIntyre had been members of Forever More. McIntyre and McIntosh were used as session musicians on Chuck Berry's recording of "My Ding-a-Ling". The band's breakthrough was a support slot at Eric Clapton's comeback concert in 1973. MCA Records released their debut album, Show Your Hand, which sold poorly Bruce McCaskill, who was Clapton's tour manager, liked the band's music and agreed to manage them. He borrowed money to take them to the US and to promote them. McCaskill had many contacts from his days with Clapton and managed to get Atlantic Records to sign them. The band relocated to Los Angeles, signed to Atlantic and released the follow-up, AWB, better known as "The White Album". This album was the first of many with renowned producer Arif Mardin, and reached #1 in the US Hot 100 chart. McIntosh died of an accidental heroin overdose at a Los Angeles party on 23 September 1974. Gorrie also overdosed, but Cher kept him conscious until medical help arrived. The NME reported in January 1975 that AWB played a benefit show for McIntosh's widow at the Marquee Club in London. McIntosh was replaced by Steve Ferrone (previously of Bloodstone, and, like McIntosh, previously with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express). In 1975, the single "Pick Up The Pieces" - taken from the #1 AWB album - reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song knocked Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" out of #1 and sold over one million copies. It was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in March 1975.] The band followed up with LPs Cut the Cake (1975) and Soul Searching (1976), both big sellers and yielding further Top 40 singles. Cut the Cake was dedicated by the surviving band members to McIntosh's memory. Their next LP, Benny & Us, was a collaboration with Ben E. King. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_White_Band
Nat King Cole - The Unforgettable Nat King Cole (born March 17, 1917, Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.—died February 15, 1965, Santa Monica, California) American musician hailed as one of the best and most influential pianists and small-group leaders of the swing era. Cole attained his greatest commercial success, however, as a vocalist specializing in warm ballads and light swing. Cole grew up in Chicago where, by age 12, he sang and played organ in the church where his father was pastor. He formed his first jazz group, the Royal Dukes, five years later. In 1937, after touring with a black musical revue, he began playing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles. There he formed the King Cole Trio (originally King Cole and His Swingsters), with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince (later replaced by Johnny Miller). The trio specialized in swing music with a delicate touch in that they did not employ a drummer; also unique were the voicings of piano and guitar, often juxtaposed to sound like a single instrument. An influence on jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson, Cole was known for a compact, syncopated piano style with clean, spare, melodic phrases. During the late 1930s and early '40s the trio made several instrumental recordings, as well as others that featured their harmonizing vocals. They found their greatest success, however, when Cole began doubling as a solo singer. Their first chart success, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (1943), was followed by hits such as “Sweet Lorraine,” “It's Only a Paper Moon,” “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” and “Route 66.” Eventually, Cole's piano playing took a backseat to his singing career. Noted for his warm tone and flawless phrasing, Cole was regarded among the top male vocalists, although jazz critics tended to regret his near-abandonment of the piano. He first recorded with a full orchestra (the trio serving as rhythm section) in 1946 for “The Christmas Song,” a holiday standard and one of Cole's biggest-selling recordings. By the 1950s, he worked almost exclusively as a singer, with such notable arrangers as Nelson Riddle and Billy May providing lush orchestral accompaniment. “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Too Young,” “A Blossom Fell,” and “Unforgettable” were among his major hits of the period. He occasionally revisited his jazz roots, as on the outstanding album After Midnight (1956), which proved that Cole's piano skills had not diminished. Cole's popularity allowed him to become the first African American to host a network variety program, The Nat King Cole Show, which debuted on NBC television in 1956. The show fell victim to the bigotry of the times, however, and was canceled after one season; few sponsors were willing to be associated with a black entertainer. Cole had greater success with concert performances during the late 1950s and early '60s and twice toured with his own vaudeville-style reviews, The Merry World of Nat King Cole (1961) and Sights and Sounds (1963). His hits of the early '60s—“Ramblin' Rose,” “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer,” and “L-O-V-E”—indicate that he was moving even farther away from his jazz roots and concentrating almost exclusively on mainstream pop. Adapting his style, however, was one factor that kept Cole popular up to his early death from lung cancer in 1965. The prejudices of the era in which Cole lived hindered his potential for even greater stardom. His talents extended beyond singing and piano playing: he excelled as a relaxed and humorous stage personality, and he was also a capable actor, evidenced by his performances in the films Istanbul (1957), China Gate (1957), Night of the Quarter Moon (1959), and Cat Ballou (1965); he also played himself in The Nat “King” Cole Musical Story (1955) and portrayed blues legend W.C. Handy in St. Louis Blues (1958). His daughter Natalie is also a popular singer who achieved her greatest chart success in 1991 with “Unforgettable,” an electronically created duet with her father. http://www.biography.com/articles/Nat-King-Cole-9253026
Nat Adderley - Work Song Nat Adderley may have spent a significant part of his career in the shadow of his better known older brother, the alto saxophonist Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, but he was always a major contributor to their shared projects, and achieved a great deal in his own right after his brother's death in 1975. He was born Nathaniel Adderley, and took up trumpet as a teenager in 1946. He began playing in local bands in Florida, and made what became a career long switch to the smaller cornet in 1950. He did so against the prevailing tide. Cornet had been the horn of choice for New Orleans trumpet players in the early days of jazz, but had fallen out of fashion in favour of trumpet by the bop era. Adderley evolved a distinctive signature on the instrument, blending a rich tone and earthy warmth with the horn's inherent touch of astringency to great effect. He played in an army band for a time during his military service from 1951-3, then joined the band led by vibraphonist Lionel Hampton in 1954, his first association with an established jazz figure. He remained with Hampton until 1955, and cut his earliest recordings for the Savoy and EmArcy labels that same year. Cannonball Adderley had made an early mark in New York when he sat in with bassist Oscar Pettiford at the Cafe Bohemia in Greenwich Village in 1955, but that did not translate into immediate success when the brothers joined forces in Cannonball's Quintet the following year. He broke up the group in 1957, and Nat worked with trombonist J. J. Johnson and bandleader Woody Herman before reuniting with his brother in 1959. The earlier lack of success quickly evaporated. The band's funky, gospel-tinged jazz became one of the most successful sounds on the hard bop and soul jazz circuit, and they even scored an unexpected chart hit with 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' in 1966. Cannonball had featured alongside John Coltrane in Miles Davis's classic Sextet which made the legendary Kind of Blue album in 1959, and that association provided the boost he needed to take off as a star in his own right, with the cornetist very much his right hand man. Nat had continued to record under his own leadership, and made his most famous record for the Riverside label in January, 1960, with a band which featured guitarist Wes Montgomery. The resulting album, Work Song , included the tune which remains his best known composition, 'The Work Song'. Its bluesy call-and-response chorus was an emblematic example of the hard bop style of the period, and is still widely played. It became a mainstay of the Adderley's as well as the hard bop repertoire, but was not the only composition by the cornetist to do so. His significant contributions as a composer also include widely performed tunes like 'Jive Samba', 'Hummin'', 'Sermonette', and 'The Old Country'. His role as a soloist was no less significant, and he was equally adept at uptempo hard bop excursions and richly delineated ballads. Miles Davis had been an early influence on his style, but he developed a highly individual and very expressive voice of his own, which included a sparing but effective use of the very low registers of the horn. Nat remained a central part of his brother's various projects until the saxophonist's unexpected and premature death from a stroke in 1975. Their collaboration included an ambitious but very uneven "folk musical" based on the tale of the mythical black hero figure, John Henry, with lyrics by Diane Lampert and Peter Farrow. It was released on record as Big Man (Fantasy) in 1975, with the late Joe Williams singing the title role, and soul diva Randy Crawford making her recording debut as Big John's woman, Carolina. A concert performance was given at Carnegie Hall the following year as a tribute to the saxophonist, and a full theatrical production under the title Shout Up A Morning was eventually staged at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington and the La Jolla Playhouse in California in 1986. The cornetist had formed his own band shortly before his brother's death, and he continued to lead it until 1997, when his right leg was amputated following complications from diabetes, which would eventually lead to his death. Bassist Walter Booker was a virtual ever-present in the band, but Adderley was equally open to the younger generation of players, and featured the likes of pianist Rob Bargad and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring for extended periods. He was appointed artist in residence to the faculty of Florida Southern College in 1996, and was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City in 1997. If he made his classic contributions to the music in the early 60s, he remained a highly resourceful and always musical performer throughout his long career, and left a rich recorded legacy in his many albums with his brother, under his own leadership, and as a sideman. His son, Nat Adderley, Jr, is also a musician. He is also survived by his wife, Ann; his daughter, Alison; and five grandchildren. http://www.jazztrumpetsolos.com/Nat_Adderley_Biography.asp
Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West http://www.tangento.net/WoVTPressRescue.html Wall of Voodoo was an American new wave group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit "Mexican Radio". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone. Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene. Marc Moreland, guitarist for The Skulls began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a New Wave band. In 1977, with the addition of Skulls members Bruce Moreland (Marc Moreland's brother) as bassist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along with Joe Nanini, who had been the drummer for Black Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of Wall of Voodoo was born. The band was named Wall of Voodoo before their first gig in reference to a comment made by Joe Berardi, a friend of Ridgway's and member of The Fibonaccis. Berardi was listening to some of the Acme Soundtracks music Ridgway and Moreland had created in their studio. When Ridgway jokingly compared the multiple-drum-machine- and Farfisa-organ-laden recordings to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, Berardi commented it sounded more like a "wall of voodoo", and the name stuck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Voodoo
Stan Ridgway - Black Diamond Stanard 'Stan' Ridgway (born April 5, 1954) is an American multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter known for his distinctive baritone voice, dramatic lyrical narratives and eclectic solo albums and was the original lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo. Ridgway embarked on a solo career in 1983, shortly after Wall of Voodoo's appearance and break up at the US Festival that same year. After collaborating on the song, "Don't Box Me In" with Stewart Copeland from The Police for the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish starring Mickey Rourke, Matt Dillon and Dennis Hopper, he released his first proper solo album, The Big Heat (1986), which included the top 5 European (and UK) hit "Camouflage". This was followed by numerous other solo recordings: Mosquitos (1989), Partyball (1991), Black Diamond (1995), and Anatomy (1999), The Way I Feel Today (1998), a collection of big band standards, and Holiday in Dirt (2001), a compilation of outtakes and previously unreleased songs. Ridgway's album Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs (2005), features the narrative song, "Talkin' Wall Of Voodoo Blues Pt. 1", a history of his former band in song that is especially poignant, having followed the recent deaths of guitarist Marc Moreland and drummer Joe Nanini. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Ridgway This album features the song - Big Dumb Town
The Ink Spots - The Anthology Background information Origin Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. Genres Vocal Years active 1931 – 1964 Labels Victor, Decca Past members Jerry DanielsBill KennyCharlie FuquaDeek WatsonHoppy JonesBernie MackeyHuey LongBilly BowenCliff GivensHerb Kenny The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop. They and the Mills Brothers, another black vocal group of the same period, gained much acceptance in the white community. Their songs usually began with a guitar riff, followed by the tenor, who sang the whole song through. After the tenor finished singing, the bass would either recite the first half, or the bridge of the song, or would speak the words, almost in a free form, that were not part of the song, commonly using the words "Honey Child", or "Honey Babe", expressing his love for his darling in the song. This was followed by the tenor, who finished up singing the last refrain or the last half of the song. Early years The Ink Spots formed in the early 1930s in Indianapolis. The original members were :- Orville "Hoppy" Jones (b. 17 February 1902, Chicago, Illinois – d. 18 October 1944, New York City) (bass) (Played cello in the manner of a stand up bass) Ivory "Deek" Watson (b. 18 July 1909, Mounds, Illinois – d. 4 November 1969, Washington, D.C.) (tenor) (Played guitar and trumpet) Jerry Daniels (b. 14 December 1915 – d. 7 November 1995, Indianapolis, Indiana) (tenor) (Played guitar and ukulele) Charlie Fuqua (b. 20 October 1910 – d. 21 December 1971, New Haven, Connecticut) (baritone) (Played guitar) As "Kyle and Charlie", Daniels and Fuqua had formed a vocal duo performing in the Indianapolis area around 1931. About the same time, Jones and Watson were part of a quartet, "The Four Riff Brothers", who appeared regularly on radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1933, that group disbanded, and Watson, Daniels and Fuqua got together to form a new vocal, instrumental and comedy group, which was initially called "King, Jack, and Jester". They continued to appear regularly on radio in Ohio, and became a foursome when Jones was added to the group the following year. In July 1934 they accepted a booking at the Apollo Theater, New York, supporting Tiny Bradshaw. At that point they changed their name to "The 4 Ink Spots" at the request of bandleader Paul Whiteman, to avoid confusion with his vocal group "The King's Jesters". Later that year, The Ink Spots achieved international success touring the UK with Jack Hylton's Orchestra. They first recorded for Victor Records in 1935, but although the group was growing rapidly in popularity their early record releases were not commercially successful. The following year Daniels left, and was replaced by Bill Kenny (b. 12 June 1914, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – d. 23 March 1978, Vancouver, British Columbia). Also in 1936, they appeared on the first NBC demonstration television programs. For the next two years, their popularity grew through radio programs and tours. After a series of unsuccessful recordings for Victor Records and Decca Records, they had their first smash hit with "If I Didn't Care", a song written by Jack Lawrence, on Decca, in 1939. They released such other Decca singles as "Address Unknown" (1939), "My Prayer" (1939), "When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano" (1940), "Whispering Grass" (1940), "Do I Worry" (1940), "Java Jive" (1940), "Shout, Brother, Shout" (1942), "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (1942), "I Can't Stand Losing You" (1943), "Cow-Cow Boogie" (1944 - with Ella Fitzgerald), "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall"/"I'm Making Believe" (1944 - both with Ella Fitzgerald), and "The Gypsy" (1946). Many of these records made # 1 on early versions of the US pop charts - "The Gypsy" was their biggest chart success, staying at the # 1 position for 13 weeks. They also recorded for Grand Award Records (two records in 1955, one in 1956-1957 and one in 1958). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ink_Spots
