RAY CHARLES

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”

The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.

Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"

Birth name: Ray Charles Robinson

Born: September 23, 1930. Albany, Georgia, United States

Origin: Greenville, Florida, United States

Died: June 10, 2004 (aged 73), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.

Genres: Rhythm and blues, soul, blues, soul blues, rock and roll, jazz, vocal jazz, country, pop, gospel

Occupations: Composer, musician, arranger, bandleader

Instruments: Vocals, piano, keyboards, alto saxophone, trombone

Years active: 1947–2004

Labels: Atlantic, ABC, Warner Bros., Swing Time, Concord, Columbia, Flashback

Associated acts: The Raelettes

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Ray trailer

Concert:

Ray Charles Live At Montreux JAZZ FESTIVAL

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Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962) 

AMY WINEHOUSE

AMY WINEHOUSE 1

Amy Winehouse was a five-time Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter known for such hits as 'Rehab' and 'You Know I'm No Good' among her other works.

She was born Amy Jade Winehouse, on September 14, 1983, in Enfield, London, England to a Jewish family with Russian ancestry on her mother's side. Her father, Mitchell Winehouse, was a taxi driver; her mother, Janis Winehouse (nee Seaton), was a pharmacist. Her family shared her love of theater and music. Amy was brought up on jazz music; she played her brother's guitar and received her own guitar at age 13. Young Amy Winehouse was a rebellious girl. At age 14, she was expelled from Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London. At that time she pierced her nose and tattooed her body. She briefly attended the BRIT School in Croydon, and began her professional career at 16, performing occasional club gigs and recording low cost demos. At age 19, she recorded her debut, Frank (2003), a jazz-tinged album that became a hit and earned her several award nominations. During the next several years, she survived a period of personal upheaval, a painful relationship, and has been struggling with substance abuse. Her 2006's album 'Back on Black' was an international hit, and 'Rehab' made No. 9 on the US pop charts.

Her big break came in 2008. Amy Winehouse became the first British female to win five Grammy Awards on the same night, February 10th, 2008, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year for 'Rehab'. Her Grammy performance was broadcast from London via satellite, because she was unable to appear in person in Los Angeles due to temporary problems with her traveling visa. Following her success at the Grammy Awards, Winehouse gave a string of highly successful performances during the year 2008. In June, she was suddenly hospitalized with a serious lung condition. However, she left hospital for one evening to perform for Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday celebration in London's Hyde Park. She sang her hits Rehab and Valerie, drawing cheers and applause form the crowds and a smile from Mandela. Winehouse also performed for Roman Abramovich's party in Moscow; there she earned $2 million for her one-hour gig.

Amy Winehouse developed a distinctive style of her own. Her signature beehive hairstyle has become the model for fashion designers, while her vulnerability, her fragile personality and self-destructive behavior has been regular tabloid news, and subject of criticism and controversy. In April 2008 she was named the second greatest "ultimate heroine" by the British population at large, and a month later was voted the second most hated personality in the UK. George Michael called her the "best female vocalist he has heard in his entire career," while Keith Richards warned that she "won't be around long" if her behavior doesn't change.

Musically, Amy Winehouse created a cross-cultural and cross-genre style. She experimented with an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, pop, reggae, world beat and R&B. She had a special ability to channel hurt and despair into her performances. Her voice, phrasing and delivery sometimes sounded like a mix between Billy Holliday, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and coupled with similarities in personal problems, she at times resembled another incarnation of legendary "Lady Blues".

Amy Winehouse died at the age of 27, on 23 July 2011, in her London home. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes were laid to rest in Edgwarebury Jewish Cemetery in London, United Kingdom. Her death caused considerable mourning worldwide.

www.imdb.com

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Amy Winehouse - Rock in rio 2008 - Full Schow

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Amy Winehouse - Frank 2003 - Full Album

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ERIC CLAPTON

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

Birth name: Eric Patrick Clapton

Also known as: Slowhand

Born: 30 March 1945 (age 67), Ripley, Surrey, England

Genres: Rock, blues rock, blues, psychedelic rock, hard rock

Occupations: Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, artist

Instruments: Vocals, guitar

Years active: 1962–present

Labels: Warner Bros., Reprise, Polydor, RSO, Atco, Apple, Deram

Associated acts: The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Powerhouse, Cream, Free Creek, The Dirty Mac, Blind Faith, J.J. Cale, The Plastic Ono Band, Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Derek and the Dominos, Sheryl Crow, The Beatles, Phil Collins, The Rolling Stones, Luciano Pavarotti, The Band, Freddie King, B.B. King, Mark Knopfler, Brian Wilson, John Mayer, Roger Waters, Dire Straits.

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Eric Clapton & Friends COMPLETO

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Eric Clapton - Slowhand (1977) Full Album

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FLEETWOOD MAC

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in 1967 in London.

The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood. Despite band founder Peter Green naming the group by combining the surnames of two of his former bandmates (Fleetwood, McVie) from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, bassist John McVie played neither on their first single nor at their first concerts. The keyboardist, Christine McVie, who joined the band in 1970 while married to John McVie, appeared on all but two albums, either as a member or as a session musician. She also supplied the artwork for the album Kiln House.

The two most successful periods for the band were during the late 1960s British blues boom, when they were led by guitarist Peter Green and achieved a UK number one with "Albatross"; and from 1975 to 1987, with more pop-orientation, featuring Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four U.S. Top 10 singles (including Nicks' song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only U.S. number one) and remained at No.1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth highest selling album of all time.

The band enjoyed more modest success in the intervening period between 1971 and 1974, with the line-up including Bob Welch, and also during the 1990s which saw more personnel changes before the return of Nicks and Buckingham in 1997, and more recently, the departure of Christine McVie.

Origin: London, United Kingdom

Genres: Rock, blues, blues rock, pop rock, soft rock

Years active: 1967–present

Labels: Blue Horizon, Reprise, Warner Bros.

Associated acts: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eddie Boyd, Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Buckingham Nicks, Duster Bennett

Members: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks.

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Fleetwood Mac - Mirage Tour - Live 1982 Full Concert 

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Fleetwood Mac - Tusk Full Album

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NINA SIMONE

 Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years.

After 20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the US.

Birth name: Eunice Kathleen Waymon

Born: February 21, 1933. Tryon, North Carolina, United States

Died: April 21, 2003 (aged 70), Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

Genres: Jazz, blues, R&B, folk, gospel

Occupations: Singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, activist

Years active: 1954–2003

Labels: Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA Victor, CTI, Legacy Recordings.

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Nina Simone - Live at Ronnie Scott's 1985 full concert

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NINA SIMONE the second album Side One

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JOE COCKER

Joe Cocker

John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE (born 20 May 1944) is an English rock and blues singer, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of the Beatles.

He is the recipient of several awards, including a 1983 Grammy Award for his #1 hit "Up Where We Belong", a duet he performed with Jennifer Warnes. He was ranked #97 on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest singers list.

Birth name: John Robert Cocker

Also known as: Vance Arnold, "The Sheffield Soul Shouter"

Born: 20 May 1944 (age 67), Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK

Genres: Blues, rock, blues-rock, blue-eyed soul

Occupations: Musician, songwriter, actor

Instruments: Vocals, harmonica, guitar, drums

Years active: 1960–present

Labels:Regal Zonophone, A&M, Capitol, EMI, Decca

Associated acts: The Grease

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Joe Cocker in Concert Live in Baden-Baden, "Organic Tour" 1996

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