A flamboyant showman and guitar picker in the style of T-Bone Walker, Johnny “Guitar” Watson was born John Watson, Jr. in Houston, Texas on February 3, 1935. Watson recorded throughout the 1950s and 1960s with some success. His creative reinvention in the 1970s with disco and funk overtones, saw Watson have hits with “Ain’t That a Bitch”, “I Need It” and “Superman Lover.” His successful recording career spanned forty years, with his biggest hit being 1977’s “A Real Mother For Ya”. Watson was known for his virtuosic guitar playing and inspired musicians ranging from Bobby Womack to Frank Zappa.
To learn more about his life and music, click here, and enjoy “A Real Mother For Ya” below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jr0qPqK3vw&w=420&h=315]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Posts published in “Jazz/Blues/Folk”
Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, commemorates the life and music of Nina Simone on the occasion of the singer’s 80th birthday and celebrates the iconic High Priestess of Soul as the label’s Artist of the Month for February 2013.
Nina Simone, who would’ve turned 80 on February 21, was a strong and vocal civil rights advocate who carried the message of universal rights and personal empowerment, freedom, equality and dignity throughout her career. Whether it was political or emotional or personal, she never failed to tell the truth through her music.
One of the most powerful and uncompromising artists of the 20th century, Nina Simone was a natural talent who developed into a virtuosic performer–an ineffable song stylist with concert hall piano skills and a transcendental on-stage presence. Singer, songwriter, arranger, and pianist, Nina wove classical, blues, jazz, pop, rock, R&B, folk, gospel, torch songs and world music into a body of work as eclectic as it is incomparable.
Perhaps you want to share the important history of African Americans with your children, but know you need to brush up on your facts first. So where should you begin?
Define it
The best way to start teaching yourself about Black History Month is to begin with the definition. What exactly is this 28-day tribute in February? Also known as African-American History Month, Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African-Americans in U.S. history. The event used to be known as Negro History Week and was extended to a month-long observance in 1976.
Read up
If your child is school-aged, he’s definitely being taught about the importance of Black History Month in his classroom. But there’s a lot you can do to reinforce the learning at home. To educate your little one — and yourself — about Black History Month, head to the library and check out one of the hundreds of books on the subject. Any of these options (and more) can start an important discussion about racial diversity between you and your child.
- The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane Derolf (age 3 and up)
- Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport (age 5-8)
- Who is Barack Obama? by Roberta Edwards (age 8-12)
- 50 Black Women Who Changed America by Amy Alexander (age 12 and up)
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker (age 14 and up)
Broadway star and film actress Etta Moten Barnett sang at the birthday party for President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 31, 1943, becoming the first African-American to perform at the White House.
She performed “Remember My Forgotten Man,” which she also sang in the movie Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), although she was not listed in the credits. A conaltro vocalist, she was best known for her starring role in the 1942 revival of Porgy and Bess on Broadway.
Barnett was born November 5, 1901, in Weimar, Texas. She married Claude Barnett, founder of the Associated Negro Press, in 1934. In her later years, Barnett was active in many community organizations including the National Council of Negro Women, the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the African American Institute. She passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 5, 2004, at age 102.
article by Britt Middleton via bet.com
Barnett was born November 5, 1901, in Weimar, Texas. She married Claude Barnett, founder of the Associated Negro Press, in 1934. In her later years, Barnett was active in many community organizations including the National Council of Negro Women, the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the African American Institute. She passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 5, 2004, at age 102.
article by Britt Middleton via bet.com
The Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California at Los Angeles has announced that jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter have joined the faculty of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance. The institute is a two-year graduate program for jazz performing artists. There are currently seven students enrolled in the program. Hancock and Shorter will work with the seven students individually and as a group on composition, improvisation, and artistic expression.
Professor Hancock stated, “Wayne and I look forward to working with and guiding the new class of Monk Fellows. These exceptionally gifted young artists are destined to become some of the most influential jazz musicians of their generation. The mentoring experience will be profound for us, as well. The gift of inspiration in the classroom that develops from the master-apprentice relationship enhances our personal creativity on the bandstand and in the recording studio.”
article via jbhe.com
Pioneering percussionist, composer, band leader, and drummer Max Roach was born Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach in North Carolina to parents Alphonse and Cressie, and worked with dozens of musical greats, including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie.
One hundred years ago, in the autumn of 1912, an African-American musician by the name of WC Handy published a song that would take the US by storm – Memphis Blues. It launched the blues as a mass entertainment genre that would transform popular music worldwide.
In 1903 William Christopher Handy was leading a band called the Colored Knights of Pythias based in Clarksdale, in Mississippi’s Delta country, when one day he paid a visit to the little town of Tutwiler.
“A lean loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me… His face had on it the sadness of the ages,” Handy writes in his 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues.
“As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars… The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.”
Bassist Esperanza Spalding is still wooing crowds with her peculiar style of music; blending jazz, R&B, and classical for one phenomenal sound.
She was awarded for her groundbreaking compositions at the first annual Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Awards. Artists in all categories, including technology, performing and visual arts, natural and physical sciences, education, historical scholarship, social progress and youth achievement were also recognized at a gala event at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. on November 28.
Herbie Hancock presented the award to Spalding, and said, “She is magnificent and poetic.”
Since stepping out onto the scene, Spalding has created a genre all her own, fascinating millions and winning over audiences with all types of musical interests. She’s been recently dubbed the “First Lady of Jazz,” and has played with Stevie Wonder for President Barack Obama.
article by Brittney M. Walker via eurweb.com
R.I.P. Terry Callier, Chicago singer and songwriter, who in the 1970s developed an incantatory style that mingled soul, folk and jazz sounds around his meditative baritone (his most well-known song is “Occasional Rain”), then decades later was rescued from obscurity when his work found new fans in Britain. To learn more about his life and music, read the nytimes.com article about Callier here and watch his collaboration with English trip hop duo Massive Attack below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QvZK-kG030&w=560&h=315]
“One of the guiding philosophies of music is to find your own voice.”
— Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist, “‘Round Midnight” composer, known as the “Founding Father of Modern Jazz”