Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane

Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane

Angus and Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane

We argue about a lot of things, but never about music, says Julia about the relationship she has with her brother Angus. We don’t get on a lot of the time but when it comes to making music it’s always pretty simple for us.

It’s this language of music that forms the basis of Angus & Julia’s debut album A Book Like This a collection of thirteen heartfelt and organic songs that share their experiences and observations with listeners. Together, and with respective singer/songwriter talents, Angus & Julia Stone form two halves of a musical act whose words and music reveal a pure and genuine love of music, and a talent for telling beautiful and beguiling stories.

Raised in the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia, Angus & Julia’s love of music was inextricably intertwined with their experiences of growing up in their musical family. Music was an integral aspect of family life, with music as the bloodline through both their mother and father’s families. A long line of musicians made for an environment that encouraged the duo to express themselves using their voice and any of the many instruments lying around the house.

Mum listened to Janis Ian a lot, but a big part of our childhood was listening to dad’s covers band it was music from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, says Julia of their early influences. It was everything from Van Morrison to The Eagles and The Beatles. We didn’t know any of those bands, we just knew the songs as dad had sung them. It was only a couple of years ago that we listened to The White Album, and thought to ourselves, oh right, these guys are a band – dad didn’t write these songs! ‘

Music continued to play a role in their lives throughout their teenage years. Living at their dad’s place and being unemployed’ish ‘ a state that saw Angus working at odd-jobs as a labourer, and Julia teaching-trumpet the two musicians treated their music as a personal discovery and outlet for their thoughts and observations. When Julia returned home after a year of travelling she encouraged Angus to play his music at some local open-mic nights, and not long after, having helped him out with some backing harmonies, she joined him on stage to play some of her own compositions. That was a mere three years ago. Eventually it worked out that we were doing a split-set, says Julia. It seemed very normal for us and there was no reason not to record together also. It was just easy. Natural, I suppose.
Read more…..take40.com

Picture source…..hangout.altsounds.com

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I Like Big Butts – Sir Mix-A-Lot

I Like Big Butts – Sir Mix-A-Lot

I Like Big Butts - Sir Mix-A-Lot

Inextricably linked with his pop culture touchstone “Baby Got Back,” Sir Mix-A-Lot parlayed a gonzo tribute to women with large buttocks into hip-hop immortality, even despite his failure to score another hit of its magnitude. But even before he struck crossover gold, Sir Mix-A-Lot was one of rap’s great D.I.Y. success stories. Coming from a city — Seattle — with barely any hip-hop scene to speak of, Mix-A-Lot co-founded his own record label, promoted his music himself, produced all his own tracks, and essentially pulled himself up by the proverbial American bootstraps.

Even before “Baby Got Back,” Mix-A-Lot was a platinum-selling album artist with a strong following in the hip-hop community, known for bouncy, danceable, bass-heavy tracks indebted to old-school electro. However, it took signing with Rick Rubin’s Def American label — coupled with an exaggerated, parodic pimp image — to carry him into the mainstream. Perceived as a one-hit novelty, he found it difficult to follow his breakout success, but kept on recording, and even toured as part of a rap-rock supergroup called Subset, a collaboration with the Presidents of the United States of America.

Sir Mix-A-Lot was born Anthony Ray in Seattle on August 12, 1963. An eclectic music fan but a rabid hip-hop devotee, he was already actively rapping in the early ’80s, and co-founded the Nastymix record label in 1983 with his DJ, Nasty Nes, who also hosted Seattle’s first hip-hop radio show. His first single was 1987’s “Posse on Broadway,” which referred to a street in Seattle, not New York; it became a local hit, and paved the way for his first LP, 1988’s Swass, which also featured the popular novelty “Square Dance Rap,” and a Run-D.M.C.-style cover of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” with backing by Seattle thrashers Metal Church. The video for “Posse on Broadway” landed some airplay on MTV, and became Sir Mix-A-Lot’s first national chart single in late 1988; that in turn pushed Swass into the Top 20 of the R&B album chart, and by 1989, it had sold over a million copies. Also in 1989, Mix-A-Lot released his follow up album Seminar, which produced three charting singles in “Beepers,” “My Hooptie,” and “I Got Game”; while none were significant crossover hits with pop or R&B audiences, all performed well on the rap singles chart, and helped Seminar become Mix-A-Lot’s second straight platinum album.
Read More…allmusic.com

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Big Mountain – Baby I Love Your Way

Big Mountain – Baby I Love Your Way

Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way

Big Mountain evolved from a San Diego, Californian reggae band, the Rainbow Warriors, in the mid-80s. They toured the USA playing gigs to the uninitiated, introducing a diluted form of reggae to American ears. The multicultural line-up, featuring Quino (vocals), Gregory Blakney (drums), Jerome Cruz (guitar), Lance Rhodes (drums, percussion), Manfred Reinke (keyboards) and Lynn Copeland (bass), released 1992’s Wake Up on the Quality label.

A revamped line-up, featuring Quino, Copeland, Santa Davis (drums), James McWhinney (percussion), Billy Stoll (keyboards), Michael Hyde (keyboards), and leading Jamaican session player Tony Chin (lead guitar), convened to record their second album. In 1994, they released a version of Peter Frampton’s ‘Baby, I Love Your Way’, which when featured in the movie Reality Bites became an international bestseller, peaking at UK number 2 and US number 6. The single also featured a Spanish version, enabling the band to enjoy successful sales in the South American market. The hit was followed by ‘Sweet Sensual Love’, performed in both English and Spanish, although it only reached number 51 in the UK pop chart. Unity followed, selling over a million copies worldwide.

The band’s accomplishment led to successful appearances at Jamaica’s 1994 and 1995 Reggae Sunsplash festivals. They have since been unable to match the success of their first hit, but have continued to record with a number of Jamaica’s top session men, including Sly And Robbie and Handel Tucker. In 1995, the single ‘Caribbean Blue’ failed to make an impression in either the reggae or pop charts. Free Up featured singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow on co-writing credits.

Source:  http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Big-Mountain.html

 

Sing Sing Sing Benny Goodman

Sing Sing Sing Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

About Benny Goodman

His passion was music and his big band sound quickened the pulse of a generation ready to shrug off the Depression and dance. With clarinet in hand, Benny Goodman was transformed from a child in Chicago’s impoverished Jewish ghetto into the king of swing, greeted with near pandemonium wherever his band played. Goodman led jazz into the commercial mainstream and brought with him an extraordinary group of gifted and original musicians. Band members Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton were some of the first to break the big band color barrier. Held together by the force of Goodman’s personality and a willingness to put their music above all else, the Benny Goodman Band created a kingdom of swing with enthusiastic fans from coast to coast.

It could have been a far different life, had destiny not intervened. Struggling to raise a family of eleven on sweatshop wages, Benny Goodman’s father believed music might be a ticket out of poverty for his eldest sons. He enrolled them in free music classes at a local synagogue when Benny was just ten. His older brothers were given a tuba and a trombone, but Benny, the smallest, got a clarinet. From the outset, he was a prodigy of unmistakable talent. As a youth, he had frequented the jazz halls on the south side of Chicago, soaking in some of the greatest musicianship in the world. By the time he was fifteen, Goodman had dropped out of school and already established himself as a professional musician. It was then that the Ben Pollack Orchestra asked him to move to California and join the band.

Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/benny-goodman/about-benny-goodman/615/

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Big Jay McNeely-There Is Something On Your Mind

Big Jay McNeely-There Is Something On Your Mind

Big Jay McNeely-There Is Something On Your Mind

“Rock ‘n’ roll saxophone pretty much begins with Big Jay Mc Neely. He’s the king of the honkin’, squealin’, bar walkin’, flat-on-his-back Blowin’ tenor men -the Number One “real gone guy” of the 50’s. Black & White Blues (the Book)

Tenor saxophonist Cecil “Big Jay” McNeely has been “the king of the honkers” for over 60 years, and he’s still going strong. Born in Watts, California, on April 29, 1927, he formed his own band with jazz legends Sonny Criss (alto sax) and Hampton Hawes (piano) while still in high school. But in late 1948, when he was asked to record for Savoy Records, he abandoned jazz for something more raucous and struck paydirt when his second release, a honked-up instrumental called “Deacon’s Hop,” went to 1 on the national R&B charts in February 1949.

For the next several years, Big Jay, according to The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, “was famed for his playing-on-his-back acrobatics and his raw, hard-swinging playing.” During his act he’d leave the stage, walk across the top of the bar, and sometimes walk out the door of the club, often with a line of people following him. Once, in San Diego, during one such “walk,” he was arrested on the street for disturbing the peace; inside the club, his band kept playing until someone could rush down to the police station, post Big Jay’s bail, and bring him back to finish his song.

Read More…..www.bigjaymcneely.com

Picture Source…..www.jazzwax.com

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