5/30/2014

Victoria Spivey - Black Snake Blues


Victoria Spivey was one of the more influential blues women simply because she was around long enough to influence legions of younger women and men who rediscovered blues music during the mid-'60s U.S. blues revival, which had been brought about by British blues bands as well as their American counterparts, like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop. Spivey could do it all: she wrote songs, sang them well, and accompanied herself on piano and organ, and occasionally ukulele.

Spivey began her recording career at age 19 and came from the same rough-and-tumble clubs in Houston and Dallas that produced Sippie Wallace. In 1918, she left home to work as a pianist at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. In the early '20s, she played in gambling parlors, gay hangouts, and brothels in Galveston and Houston with Blind Lemon Jefferson. Among Spivey's many influences was Ida Cox, herself a sassy blues woman, and taking her cue from Cox, Spivey wrote and recorded tunes like "TB Blues," "Dope Head Blues," and "Organ Grinder Blues." Spivey's other influences included Bobby "Blue" Bland, Sara Martin, and Bessie Smith. Like so many other women blues singers who had their heyday in the '20s and '30s, Spivey wasn't afraid to sing sexually suggestive lyrics, and this turned out to be a blessing nearly 40 years later given the sexual revolution of the '60s and early '70s.

She recorded her first song, "Black Snake Blues," for the OKeh label in 1926, and then worked as a songwriter at a music publishing company in St. Louis in the late '20s. In the '30s, Spivey recorded for the Victor, Vocalion, Decca, and OKeh labels, and moved to New York City, working as a featured performer in a number of African-American musical revues, including the Hellzapoppin' Revue. In the '30s, she recorded and spent time on the road with Louis Armstrong's various bands. By the '50s, Spivey had left show business and sang only in church. But in forming her own Spivey Records label in 1962, she found new life in her old career. Her first release on her own label featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist.

As the folk revival began to take hold in the early '60s, Spivey found herself an in-demand performer on the folk-blues festival circuit. She also performed frequently in nightclubs around New York City. Unlike others from her generation, Spivey continued her recording career until well into the '70s, performing at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973 with Roosevelt Sykes. Throughout the '60s and '70s, she had an influence on musicians as varied as Dylan, Sparky Rucker, Ralph Rush, Carrie Smith, Edith Johnson, and Bonnie Raitt.

Songs We Taught Your MotherSpivey's many albums for Spivey and other labels include the excellent Songs We Taught Your Mother (1962), which also includes contributions from Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, Idle Hours (1961), The Queen and Her Knights (1965), and The Victoria Spivey Recorded Legacy of the Blues (1970). In 1970, Spivey was awarded a BMI Commendation of Excellence from the music publishing organization for her long and outstanding contributions to many worlds of music. After entering Beekman Downtown Hospital with an internal hemorrhage, she died a short while later in 1976. Victoria Spivey is buried in Hempstead, New York.




5/28/2014

Ma Rainey - Prove it on me Blues

If Bessie Smith is the acknowledged “Queen of the Blues,” then Gertrude “Ma” Rainey is the undisputed “Mother of the Blues.” As music historian Chris Albertson has written, “If there was another woman who sang the blues before Rainey, nobody remembered hearing her.” Rainey fostered the blues idiom, and she did so by linking the earthy spirit of country blues with the classic style and delivery of Bessie Smith. She often played with such outstanding jazz accompanists as Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, but she was more at home fronting a jugband or washboard band.

A country woman to the core, Rainey was born in Columbus, Georgia, on April 26, 1886. She began performing at age 14 with a local revue and, in her late teens, joined the touring Rabbit Foot Minstrels. By all accounts, she was the first woman to incorporate blues into vaudeville, minstrel and tent shows. In fact, it is believed that Rainey coached a young Bessie Smith while touring with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After more than a quarter-century as a performer, Rainey was signed to Paramount Records in 1923, at age 38. She recorded over a hundred sides during her six years at Paramount. Her most memorable songs were often about the harsh realities of life in the Deep South for poor blacks, including such classics as “C.C. Rider,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Bo Weavil Blues.”

When the blues faded from popularity in the Thirties, the earthy Ma Rainey returned home to her Georgia hometown, where she ran two theaters until her death from a heart attack in 1939.






5/25/2014

Bessie Smith - After You've Gone



Bessie Smith, the "EMPRESS OF THE BLUES".

Born on April 15, 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Bessie Smith was one of ten children. Both of her parents had died by her eighth birthday, and she was raised by her older sister Viola and encouraged to sing and dance by her oldest brother Clarence. He soon joined the Moses Stokes traveling show, leaving Smith and their brother Andrew to sing for pennies on Chattanooga street corners.

Clarence later arranged an audition for Smith with the Moses Stokes Company and she was hired as a dancer in 1912. She became friends with an older Moses Stokes veteran, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, who was called the Mother of the Blues and likely exercised some influence over the young singer. Smith had her own voice, however, and owed her success to no one. Her heavy, throaty vocals were balanced by a delightful sense of timing. Her live shows were a blend of comedy and drama in song. Smith was popular in Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, but she was beloved in the South. In 1923, her vaudeville touring led her to Memphis, where she played packed houses at the Palace Theater on Beale Street.

On February 16, 1923, Smith recorded "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Down Hearted Blues," accompanied by Clarence Williams on piano. Although recorded by Memphis singer Alberta Hunter a year before, Smith's "Down Hearted Blues" sold more than 780,000 copies in six months. Her sales made her a blues star on par with Mamie Smith (no relation), a vaudeville singer who had ignited the race records market with her 1920 recording "Crazy Blues."

Although Smith recorded extensively for Columbia - nearly 160 songs between 1923 and her last session in 1933 - her live performances were equally successful. During the 1920s she commanded fees of $2,000 a week and played sold-out theaters across the South, North, and Midwest. Her stage success influenced women blues singers like Memphis Minnie, but male blues singers like Leadbelly, who only heard her on record, emulated her too. She recorded with the best jazz sidemen, including pianists Fletcher Henderson and James P. Johnson, clarinetists Benny Goodman and Buster Bailey, guitarist Eddie Lang, saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman, and cornetist Louis Armstrong. In May 1925, she made the first electronically recorded record, "Cake Walking Babies," by singing into the newly invented microphone.

During the Depression of the 1930s, Smith's drawing power in the large cities of the North and Midwest began to wane, but she remained popular in small towns and throughout the South. Furry Lewis proudly recalled playing with Smith in Chicago during the 1930s. She even made an early movie when W.C. Handy asked her to play the lead in a short film called "St. Louis Blues" loosely based on his song. On Sept. 26, 1937, after finishing a performance in Memphis, Smith and her manager were driving south on Highway 61, north of the Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi, when their car struck an oncoming truck. The crash nearly severed Smith's right arm. She was taken to G.T. Thomas Hospital (now the Riverside Hotel) in Clarksdale where she died the following morning.

Bessie Smith is buried in Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.







5/23/2014

Phil Collins - Do You Remember

While other major artists trudge painfully through a handful of over promoted releases each decade; this drummer/actor/singer/producer has been constantly active in all manner of contradictory and unlikely projects.  His history with Genesis is well documented from their art-house beginnings to multi-platinum status as the band grew up, lost Steve Hackett and then Peter Gabriel and ended up making videos with tongues firmly in their cheeks.  Collins launched his solo career twenty nine years ago with “Face Value” (‘81), followed by “Hello, I Must Be Going” (’82), “No Jacket Required” (’85), “…But Seriously” (’89), “Both Sides” (’93), “Dance Into The Light” (’96) and “Testify” (‘02) picking up numerous awards including 7 Grammy’s, 2 Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for “Two Hearts”.  After leaving Genesis in 1996 he released a “Hits” album in 1998.  Between Phil’s solo and Genesis recordings and excluding his other activities, Phil has sold over 200 million records.

His love of jazz inspired an early side-project when he co-founded the jazz-fusion band “Brand X” in 1975, an association which lasted seven years and produced several albums.  In the last few years he has formed his own “Big Band”, with the first tour featuring Tony Bennett and Qunicy Jones and the second with Oleta Adams and Gerald Albright as guests.  A live CD “A Hot Night In Paris” was released in 1999.

His acting CV reveals that he first trod the boards at 14 when he took the role of the Artful Dodger in a West End production of “Oliver”.  He also made childhood cameos in the Beatles “A Hard Days Night” (‘64) and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (’69).  Since then he’s starred with Julie Walters in “Buster” (’88), took the lead role as the arch-villain in “Frauds” (’92), made a brief appearance in Spielberg’s “Hook” (’92) and played the Greek owner of a chain of gay bath houses in “And The Band Played On” (’92).  In addition to this Phil “The Spiv” turned up in a 1985 episode of Miami Vice and four years later he took the part of Uncle Ernie in The Who’s rock opera “Tommy”.

As a studio producer, among those he’s worked with are Adam Ant, Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phil Bailey, John Martyn and Eric Clapton.  Notably, Phil was Robert Plant’s drummer of choice for his first two solo albums, and Phil played with the Led Zeppelin front man on his first solo tour.  He has also enjoyed many significant triumphs on stage, including Live Aid in 1985 when he flew from Wembley to Philadelphia to play solo sets in both places, plus appearing on drums for Eric Clapton and a reformed Led Zeppelin.

He has written songs for the Disney Feature’s “Tarzan” and “Brother Bear”.  “You’ll Be In My Heart” from “Tarzan” won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Song Written For A Film”.  This song, in addition to the soundtrack was also nominated in the Grammys and won for “Best Original Song In A Movie”.  Phil also won an Oscar for the same song in March 2000.

Following the success of the “Tarzan” movie, Phil went onto write several additional songs and incidental music for the Broadway musical production of “Tarzan” in which he was intimately involved in the production of.  And which ran successfully on Broadway for some time with an additional record breaking run in Holland and Germany, where it continues to be successful and is into its third year.

In November 2006, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford announced that Genesis would tour in 2007. Embarking on a massive sold-out tour of Europe and North America, the finale of the European tour was a free-concert attended by over 500,000 people at the Circo Massimo in Rome Italy. This concert was filmed for release on DVD and the resulting ‘When In Rome’ DVD became one of the biggest selling music DVD’s of 2008.

In March 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.  In June 2010 Phil was awarded the prestigious Johnny Mercer award and joined an elite company of writers including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Paul Simon.

Phil Collins released his most recent album, ‘Going Back’, in September 2010. The project, his first new studio album in eight years, is a personal labour of love that finds him recreating the soul gems that played such an influential role in his musical life.

“It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that I've finally made an album of my favourite songs,” explains Collins.  “These songs – along with a couple of Dusty Springfield tracks, a Phil Spector/Ronettes tune, and one by the Impressions – make up the tapestry, the backdrop, of my teenage years. I remember it as if it was yesterday, going to the Marquee Club in London's Soho and watching The Who, The Action, and many others, playing these songs. In turn I'd go out the next day to buy the original versions.”

‘Going Back’ immediately became a global hit, reaching #1 in the UK and #1 on the pan-European album chart. Selling strongly domestically where it remained in the Top 5 for weeks, ‘Going Back’ also hit the Top 10 in over twenty other territories including Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Spain and Ireland.

Phil Collins Official Web Site


5/18/2014

Charley Patton - I'm Goin' Home


Born in April 1891, between Edwards and Bolton in southern Mississippi, Charley Patton was the scrawny child of sharecropper parents. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the Delta and the Will Dockery Plantation. There Patton fell under the spell of guitarist Henry Sloan and would follow him to gigs. By 1910, he had become proficient as a performer and songwriter, having already composed "Down The Dirt Road Blues," a slow drag called "Banty Rooster Blues," and his theme song "Pony Blues."

After the turn of the decade Patton began playing with Willie Brown, a guitarist who would later become a regular on his recordings. Patton's music began to exert considerable influence; guitarist Tommy Johnson had moved to the Dockery vicinity circa 1913 and was soon playing Delta blues including Patton's "Pony Blues." Around 1914, Patton began playing his guitar with members of the Chatmon family, working picnics and frolics. Bo, Sam, and Lonnie Chatmon and guitarist Walter Vinson later would gain fame as the Mississippi Sheiks. Bo Chatmon also recorded many titles as soloist Bo Carter. Patton continued playing and rambling around the Delta, going north to Memphis and as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. By 1926, a young Robert Johnson had begun following Patton and Brown to gigs trying to learn from the veteran guitarists.

Patton made his first recording in June 1929, cutting fourteen songs for the Paramount label, all issued on 78s. Such was the success of his initial session that he was invited four months later to Paramount's new studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where he recorded twenty-eight additional tunes. Patton's polyrhythmic picking, accompanied by tapping the body of the guitar, created an intricate dance melody that its author could play for thirty minutes or more. Son House, who recorded in a 1930 session that also featured Patton and Brown, recalled that Charley "clowned" for an audience by playing the guitar behind his back or between his knees. Patton included regional landmarks in his tunes - places that a local record-buying audience would be familiar with, including a Moorehead, Mississippi railroad crossing, "Where The Southern Crosses The Dog," in "Green River Blues" and Parchman Farm in "A Spoonful Blues."

Howlin' Wolf, who moved to Dockery in 1926, recalled seeing Patton on the town square in Drew, not far from Dockery Plantation. Patton's hypnotic three-note songs also deeply influenced Clarksdale's John Lee Hooker, who recorded his own version of Patton's "Pea Vine Blues." Bukka White also cited a desire "to come to be a famous man, like Charley Patton," and demonstrated a similar knack for playing dance songs for extended periods. Patton's last recording session was in New York City in February 1934, two months before his death.

Charley Patton died April 28, 1934, at 350 Heathman Street in Indianola, Mississippi. Patton's grave is located in Holly Ridge, Mississippi, and the tombstone acknowledges his pivotal role in the development of the Delta Blues.



5/16/2014

Victoria Spivey - Sings the Blues


Victoria Spivey was one of the more influential blues women simply because she was around long enough to influence legions of younger women and men who rediscovered blues music during the mid-'60s U.S. blues revival, which had been brought about by British blues bands as well as their American counterparts, like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop. Spivey could do it all: she wrote songs, sang them well, and accompanied herself on piano and organ, and occasionally ukulele.

Spivey began her recording career at age 19 and came from the same rough-and-tumble clubs in Houston and Dallas that produced Sippie Wallace. In 1918, she left home to work as a pianist at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. In the early '20s, she played in gambling parlors, gay hangouts, and brothels in Galveston and Houston with Blind Lemon Jefferson. Among Spivey's many influences was Ida Cox, herself a sassy blues woman, and taking her cue from Cox, Spivey wrote and recorded tunes like "TB Blues," "Dope Head Blues," and "Organ Grinder Blues." Spivey's other influences included Bobby "Blue" Bland, Sara Martin, and Bessie Smith. Like so many other women blues singers who had their heyday in the '20s and '30s, Spivey wasn't afraid to sing sexually suggestive lyrics, and this turned out to be a blessing nearly 40 years later given the sexual revolution of the '60s and early '70s.

She recorded her first song, "Black Snake Blues," for the OKeh label in 1926, and then worked as a songwriter at a music publishing company in St. Louis in the late '20s. In the '30s, Spivey recorded for the Victor, Vocalion, Decca, and OKeh labels, and moved to New York City, working as a featured performer in a number of African-American musical revues, including the Hellzapoppin' Revue. In the '30s, she recorded and spent time on the road with Louis Armstrong's various bands. By the '50s, Spivey had left show business and sang only in church. But in forming her own Spivey Records label in 1962, she found new life in her old career. Her first release on her own label featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist.

As the folk revival began to take hold in the early '60s, Spivey found herself an in-demand performer on the folk-blues festival circuit. She also performed frequently in nightclubs around New York City. Unlike others from her generation, Spivey continued her recording career until well into the '70s, performing at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973 with Roosevelt Sykes. Throughout the '60s and '70s, she had an influence on musicians as varied as Dylan, Sparky Rucker, Ralph Rush, Carrie Smith, Edith Johnson, and Bonnie Raitt.

Songs We Taught Your MotherSpivey's many albums for Spivey and other labels include the excellent Songs We Taught Your Mother (1962), which also includes contributions from Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, Idle Hours (1961), The Queen and Her Knights (1965), and The Victoria Spivey Recorded Legacy of the Blues (1970). In 1970, Spivey was awarded a BMI Commendation of Excellence from the music publishing organization for her long and outstanding contributions to many worlds of music. After entering Beekman Downtown Hospital with an internal hemorrhage, she died a short while later in 1976. Victoria Spivey is buried in Hempstead, New York.

Victoria Spivey: piano and vocal
Produced by Maddalena Fagandini & Giles Oakley (BBC TV series)
Recorded in 1976
 


5/11/2014

Phil Collins - One More Night

While other major artists trudge painfully through a handful of over promoted releases each decade; this drummer/actor/singer/producer has been constantly active in all manner of contradictory and unlikely projects.  His history with Genesis is well documented from their art-house beginnings to multi-platinum status as the band grew up, lost Steve Hackett and then Peter Gabriel and ended up making videos with tongues firmly in their cheeks.  Collins launched his solo career twenty nine years ago with “Face Value” (‘81), followed by “Hello, I Must Be Going” (’82), “No Jacket Required” (’85), “…But Seriously” (’89), “Both Sides” (’93), “Dance Into The Light” (’96) and “Testify” (‘02) picking up numerous awards including 7 Grammy’s, 2 Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for “Two Hearts”.  After leaving Genesis in 1996 he released a “Hits” album in 1998.  Between Phil’s solo and Genesis recordings and excluding his other activities, Phil has sold over 200 million records.

His love of jazz inspired an early side-project when he co-founded the jazz-fusion band “Brand X” in 1975, an association which lasted seven years and produced several albums.  In the last few years he has formed his own “Big Band”, with the first tour featuring Tony Bennett and Qunicy Jones and the second with Oleta Adams and Gerald Albright as guests.  A live CD “A Hot Night In Paris” was released in 1999.

His acting CV reveals that he first trod the boards at 14 when he took the role of the Artful Dodger in a West End production of “Oliver”.  He also made childhood cameos in the Beatles “A Hard Days Night” (‘64) and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (’69).  Since then he’s starred with Julie Walters in “Buster” (’88), took the lead role as the arch-villain in “Frauds” (’92), made a brief appearance in Spielberg’s “Hook” (’92) and played the Greek owner of a chain of gay bath houses in “And The Band Played On” (’92).  In addition to this Phil “The Spiv” turned up in a 1985 episode of Miami Vice and four years later he took the part of Uncle Ernie in The Who’s rock opera “Tommy”.

As a studio producer, among those he’s worked with are Adam Ant, Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phil Bailey, John Martyn and Eric Clapton.  Notably, Phil was Robert Plant’s drummer of choice for his first two solo albums, and Phil played with the Led Zeppelin front man on his first solo tour.  He has also enjoyed many significant triumphs on stage, including Live Aid in 1985 when he flew from Wembley to Philadelphia to play solo sets in both places, plus appearing on drums for Eric Clapton and a reformed Led Zeppelin.

He has written songs for the Disney Feature’s “Tarzan” and “Brother Bear”.  “You’ll Be In My Heart” from “Tarzan” won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Song Written For A Film”.  This song, in addition to the soundtrack was also nominated in the Grammys and won for “Best Original Song In A Movie”.  Phil also won an Oscar for the same song in March 2000.

Following the success of the “Tarzan” movie, Phil went onto write several additional songs and incidental music for the Broadway musical production of “Tarzan” in which he was intimately involved in the production of.  And which ran successfully on Broadway for some time with an additional record breaking run in Holland and Germany, where it continues to be successful and is into its third year.

In November 2006, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford announced that Genesis would tour in 2007. Embarking on a massive sold-out tour of Europe and North America, the finale of the European tour was a free-concert attended by over 500,000 people at the Circo Massimo in Rome Italy. This concert was filmed for release on DVD and the resulting ‘When In Rome’ DVD became one of the biggest selling music DVD’s of 2008.

In March 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.  In June 2010 Phil was awarded the prestigious Johnny Mercer award and joined an elite company of writers including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Paul Simon.

Phil Collins released his most recent album, ‘Going Back’, in September 2010. The project, his first new studio album in eight years, is a personal labour of love that finds him recreating the soul gems that played such an influential role in his musical life.

“It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that I've finally made an album of my favourite songs,” explains Collins.  “These songs – along with a couple of Dusty Springfield tracks, a Phil Spector/Ronettes tune, and one by the Impressions – make up the tapestry, the backdrop, of my teenage years. I remember it as if it was yesterday, going to the Marquee Club in London's Soho and watching The Who, The Action, and many others, playing these songs. In turn I'd go out the next day to buy the original versions.”

‘Going Back’ immediately became a global hit, reaching #1 in the UK and #1 on the pan-European album chart. Selling strongly domestically where it remained in the Top 5 for weeks, ‘Going Back’ also hit the Top 10 in over twenty other territories including Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Spain and Ireland.

Phil Collins Official Web Site




5/09/2014

Victoria Spivey - Your Worries Ain't Like Mine


Victoria Spivey was one of the more influential blues women simply because she was around long enough to influence legions of younger women and men who rediscovered blues music during the mid-'60s U.S. blues revival, which had been brought about by British blues bands as well as their American counterparts, like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop. Spivey could do it all: she wrote songs, sang them well, and accompanied herself on piano and organ, and occasionally ukulele.

Spivey began her recording career at age 19 and came from the same rough-and-tumble clubs in Houston and Dallas that produced Sippie Wallace. In 1918, she left home to work as a pianist at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. In the early '20s, she played in gambling parlors, gay hangouts, and brothels in Galveston and Houston with Blind Lemon Jefferson. Among Spivey's many influences was Ida Cox, herself a sassy blues woman, and taking her cue from Cox, Spivey wrote and recorded tunes like "TB Blues," "Dope Head Blues," and "Organ Grinder Blues." Spivey's other influences included Bobby "Blue" Bland, Sara Martin, and Bessie Smith. Like so many other women blues singers who had their heyday in the '20s and '30s, Spivey wasn't afraid to sing sexually suggestive lyrics, and this turned out to be a blessing nearly 40 years later given the sexual revolution of the '60s and early '70s.

She recorded her first song, "Black Snake Blues," for the OKeh label in 1926, and then worked as a songwriter at a music publishing company in St. Louis in the late '20s. In the '30s, Spivey recorded for the Victor, Vocalion, Decca, and OKeh labels, and moved to New York City, working as a featured performer in a number of African-American musical revues, including the Hellzapoppin' Revue. In the '30s, she recorded and spent time on the road with Louis Armstrong's various bands. By the '50s, Spivey had left show business and sang only in church. But in forming her own Spivey Records label in 1962, she found new life in her old career. Her first release on her own label featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist.

As the folk revival began to take hold in the early '60s, Spivey found herself an in-demand performer on the folk-blues festival circuit. She also performed frequently in nightclubs around New York City. Unlike others from her generation, Spivey continued her recording career until well into the '70s, performing at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973 with Roosevelt Sykes. Throughout the '60s and '70s, she had an influence on musicians as varied as Dylan, Sparky Rucker, Ralph Rush, Carrie Smith, Edith Johnson, and Bonnie Raitt.

Songs We Taught Your MotherSpivey's many albums for Spivey and other labels include the excellent Songs We Taught Your Mother (1962), which also includes contributions from Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, Idle Hours (1961), The Queen and Her Knights (1965), and The Victoria Spivey Recorded Legacy of the Blues (1970). In 1970, Spivey was awarded a BMI Commendation of Excellence from the music publishing organization for her long and outstanding contributions to many worlds of music. After entering Beekman Downtown Hospital with an internal hemorrhage, she died a short while later in 1976. Victoria Spivey is buried in Hempstead, New York.

Victoria Spivey - vocals
Porter Grainger - piano
Lonnie Johnson - guitar
Recorded Nov, 1st 1927 New York City




5/04/2014

Marco Civil da Internet


Foi aprovado! E agora?
Leia aqui a reflexão do Professor Adriano Balaguer.


Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise

While other major artists trudge painfully through a handful of over promoted releases each decade; this drummer/actor/singer/producer has been constantly active in all manner of contradictory and unlikely projects.  His history with Genesis is well documented from their art-house beginnings to multi-platinum status as the band grew up, lost Steve Hackett and then Peter Gabriel and ended up making videos with tongues firmly in their cheeks.  Collins launched his solo career twenty nine years ago with “Face Value” (‘81), followed by “Hello, I Must Be Going” (’82), “No Jacket Required” (’85), “…But Seriously” (’89), “Both Sides” (’93), “Dance Into The Light” (’96) and “Testify” (‘02) picking up numerous awards including 7 Grammy’s, 2 Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for “Two Hearts”.  After leaving Genesis in 1996 he released a “Hits” album in 1998.  Between Phil’s solo and Genesis recordings and excluding his other activities, Phil has sold over 200 million records.

His love of jazz inspired an early side-project when he co-founded the jazz-fusion band “Brand X” in 1975, an association which lasted seven years and produced several albums.  In the last few years he has formed his own “Big Band”, with the first tour featuring Tony Bennett and Qunicy Jones and the second with Oleta Adams and Gerald Albright as guests.  A live CD “A Hot Night In Paris” was released in 1999.

His acting CV reveals that he first trod the boards at 14 when he took the role of the Artful Dodger in a West End production of “Oliver”.  He also made childhood cameos in the Beatles “A Hard Days Night” (‘64) and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (’69).  Since then he’s starred with Julie Walters in “Buster” (’88), took the lead role as the arch-villain in “Frauds” (’92), made a brief appearance in Spielberg’s “Hook” (’92) and played the Greek owner of a chain of gay bath houses in “And The Band Played On” (’92).  In addition to this Phil “The Spiv” turned up in a 1985 episode of Miami Vice and four years later he took the part of Uncle Ernie in The Who’s rock opera “Tommy”.

As a studio producer, among those he’s worked with are Adam Ant, Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phil Bailey, John Martyn and Eric Clapton.  Notably, Phil was Robert Plant’s drummer of choice for his first two solo albums, and Phil played with the Led Zeppelin front man on his first solo tour.  He has also enjoyed many significant triumphs on stage, including Live Aid in 1985 when he flew from Wembley to Philadelphia to play solo sets in both places, plus appearing on drums for Eric Clapton and a reformed Led Zeppelin.

He has written songs for the Disney Feature’s “Tarzan” and “Brother Bear”.  “You’ll Be In My Heart” from “Tarzan” won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Song Written For A Film”.  This song, in addition to the soundtrack was also nominated in the Grammys and won for “Best Original Song In A Movie”.  Phil also won an Oscar for the same song in March 2000.

Following the success of the “Tarzan” movie, Phil went onto write several additional songs and incidental music for the Broadway musical production of “Tarzan” in which he was intimately involved in the production of.  And which ran successfully on Broadway for some time with an additional record breaking run in Holland and Germany, where it continues to be successful and is into its third year.

In November 2006, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford announced that Genesis would tour in 2007. Embarking on a massive sold-out tour of Europe and North America, the finale of the European tour was a free-concert attended by over 500,000 people at the Circo Massimo in Rome Italy. This concert was filmed for release on DVD and the resulting ‘When In Rome’ DVD became one of the biggest selling music DVD’s of 2008.

In March 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.  In June 2010 Phil was awarded the prestigious Johnny Mercer award and joined an elite company of writers including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Paul Simon.

Phil Collins released his most recent album, ‘Going Back’, in September 2010. The project, his first new studio album in eight years, is a personal labour of love that finds him recreating the soul gems that played such an influential role in his musical life.

“It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that I've finally made an album of my favourite songs,” explains Collins.  “These songs – along with a couple of Dusty Springfield tracks, a Phil Spector/Ronettes tune, and one by the Impressions – make up the tapestry, the backdrop, of my teenage years. I remember it as if it was yesterday, going to the Marquee Club in London's Soho and watching The Who, The Action, and many others, playing these songs. In turn I'd go out the next day to buy the original versions.”

‘Going Back’ immediately became a global hit, reaching #1 in the UK and #1 on the pan-European album chart. Selling strongly domestically where it remained in the Top 5 for weeks, ‘Going Back’ also hit the Top 10 in over twenty other territories including Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Spain and Ireland.

Phil Collins Official Web Site




5/02/2014

Victoria Spivey - TB Blues


Victoria Spivey was one of the more influential blues women simply because she was around long enough to influence legions of younger women and men who rediscovered blues music during the mid-'60s U.S. blues revival, which had been brought about by British blues bands as well as their American counterparts, like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop. Spivey could do it all: she wrote songs, sang them well, and accompanied herself on piano and organ, and occasionally ukulele.

Spivey began her recording career at age 19 and came from the same rough-and-tumble clubs in Houston and Dallas that produced Sippie Wallace. In 1918, she left home to work as a pianist at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. In the early '20s, she played in gambling parlors, gay hangouts, and brothels in Galveston and Houston with Blind Lemon Jefferson. Among Spivey's many influences was Ida Cox, herself a sassy blues woman, and taking her cue from Cox, Spivey wrote and recorded tunes like "TB Blues," "Dope Head Blues," and "Organ Grinder Blues." Spivey's other influences included Bobby "Blue" Bland, Sara Martin, and Bessie Smith. Like so many other women blues singers who had their heyday in the '20s and '30s, Spivey wasn't afraid to sing sexually suggestive lyrics, and this turned out to be a blessing nearly 40 years later given the sexual revolution of the '60s and early '70s.

She recorded her first song, "Black Snake Blues," for the OKeh label in 1926, and then worked as a songwriter at a music publishing company in St. Louis in the late '20s. In the '30s, Spivey recorded for the Victor, Vocalion, Decca, and OKeh labels, and moved to New York City, working as a featured performer in a number of African-American musical revues, including the Hellzapoppin' Revue. In the '30s, she recorded and spent time on the road with Louis Armstrong's various bands. By the '50s, Spivey had left show business and sang only in church. But in forming her own Spivey Records label in 1962, she found new life in her old career. Her first release on her own label featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist.

As the folk revival began to take hold in the early '60s, Spivey found herself an in-demand performer on the folk-blues festival circuit. She also performed frequently in nightclubs around New York City. Unlike others from her generation, Spivey continued her recording career until well into the '70s, performing at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973 with Roosevelt Sykes. Throughout the '60s and '70s, she had an influence on musicians as varied as Dylan, Sparky Rucker, Ralph Rush, Carrie Smith, Edith Johnson, and Bonnie Raitt.

Songs We Taught Your MotherSpivey's many albums for Spivey and other labels include the excellent Songs We Taught Your Mother (1962), which also includes contributions from Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, Idle Hours (1961), The Queen and Her Knights (1965), and The Victoria Spivey Recorded Legacy of the Blues (1970). In 1970, Spivey was awarded a BMI Commendation of Excellence from the music publishing organization for her long and outstanding contributions to many worlds of music. After entering Beekman Downtown Hospital with an internal hemorrhage, she died a short while later in 1976. Victoria Spivey is buried in Hempstead, New York.