Kool & the Gang, jazz musicians, is the optic that identifies the era of the 70s and 80s. There was great unrest in the country because of the war in Southeast Asia and the tidal wave of civil unrest following the Kent State confrontation with the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970. In 1969, Kool and the Gang produced three hit singles on the pop and R&B charts of Billboard magazine. This was the beginning of the "Kool" act that would be hard to follow.
The idea of creating music began in 1964 with Robert Bell who was only 13 at the time, his brother Ronald and five school friends in Jersey City, New Jersey. They created a band called Jazziacs, an instrumental band.
The band stayed on the move and in 1974, released two pace-setting albums, "Light Of The World" and "Spirit Of The Boogie" In 1979, J.T. Taylor joined the band as lead singer. Around this time, the band started working with the offshore influence of Brazillian fusion musician, Eumir Deodato as producer.
Kool And The Gang began to gravitate away from funk and set their course to rhythm & blues and pop music. What resulted from the Brazilian influence were The songs "Ladies' Night" and "Too Hot" were hits and the album was certified platinum by the RIAA.
The 1980s continued the arc with the compositions of "Big Fun", "Get Down on It", and "Joanna". The album, Emergency released in 1984, yielded four Top 20 pop hits, including "Fresh" and "Cherish".
Billie Holiday, jazz singer, probably best known for the song, "Strange Fruit", was born in 1915. The world enjoyed her work, music, and rare talent for nearly thirty years. Her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, not common in the jazz world, was considered an evolution in the art of jazz composition. At the tender age of eighteen, she was already the headline singing in small clubs in Harlem.
In 1935, Billie Holiday began recording with pianist Teddy Wilson. They put together several small jazz groups that included some of the best musicians in New York like Lester Young, Benny Goodman, and Ben Webster.
In late 1937, Holiday had a brief stint as a big-band vocalist with Count Basie. The traveling conditions of the band were often poor; they performed many one-nighters in clubs, moving from city to city with little stability.
Holiday chose the songs she sang and had a hand in the arrangements, I Must Have That Man", "Tra…
John Coltrane, jazz saxophonist, musician: In the 1940s and 1950s, numerous American jazz musicians looked to South Africa for inspiration, but it was John Coltrane, in 1961, who made one of the most profound statements about what South Africa stood for (spiritually), among jazz musicians in the United States.The man's playing is in essence, lyrical - even when he is at his most demoniacally complex.
Because of the breadth of his work, his technical innovations as an instrumentalist, and the stimulating combination of discipline and experiment he brought to the groups he led, John Coltrane became the most influential saxophonist on the jazz of the last four decades of the twentieth century, overtaking Charlie Parker as a universal role model.
Coltrane's career began substantially earlier than that of Ornette Coleman, the other dominant innovator in jazz saxophone playing of the 1960s. Although Coleman outlived him and continued to de…
Hugh Masekela - African & American Famous Jazz Musician
Hugh Masekela, whose middle name is "Romopolo", was born on April 4, 1939, in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He became a cornetist, composer, and singer. He is the father of American television host Sal Masekela. He is known for his jazz compositions, as well as for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home".
Hugh Masekela was a trumpeter in the first South African band that was created in the early 1960s. This was the first ever complete band of black musicians to make a record. That recording took place less than Coltrane'sAfrica. Dollar's Moods and Carol's Drive, two pieces from that early album was only re-released for the first time as a CD as recently as 1999.
Masekela is quoted, by Alyn Shipton..."We were only able to do one album. Not very many were pressed and it soon sold out. Then Sharpeville happened and gather…
produced three hit singles on the pop and R&B charts of Billboard magazine. This was the beginning of the "Kool" act that would be hard to follow.
" and "Too Hot
" were hits and the album was certified platinum by the RIAA.
", "Get Down on It
", and "Joanna". The album, Emergency released in 1984, yielded four Top 20 pop hits, including "Fresh" and "Cherish
".
