Tag Archives: New York Blues

Tiny Grimes was among the first jazz electrical guitarists to become influenced by Charlie Christian, and he developed his very own swinging style. In early stages, he was a drummer and proved helpful being a pianist in Washington. In 1938, he began playing guitar, and 2 yrs afterwards he was …

Lucky Millinder was essentially a frontman, an intermittent singer who conducted many amazing big bands. Millinder was raised in Chicago, worked well like a dancer, and became a bandleader in 1931, using his initial name of Lucius Venable, which he quickly transformed. He freelanced until 1934 when he required over …

Though endlessly puzzled with the singer Big Joe Turner, pianist Joe Turner originated from a totally different direction, following a James P. Johnson/Fat Waller stride custom, armed with an excellent technique and an excellent sense of golf swing. Given birth to in Baltimore, he began to find out the piano …

For the wieners who love wieners as well as the weirdos who love weird melody titles, all Frank Culley had to accomplish was fry up some “Flying Sausages” for RCA in the first ’50s to earn circumstances of eternal grace. For the even more discerning, tenor saxophonist Culley could be …

A talented high-note trumpeter and a favorite bandleader, Erskine Hawkins was nicknamed “the 20th Hundred years Gabriel.” He discovered drums and trombone before switching to trumpet when he was 13. While going to the Alabama Condition Teachers University, he became the first choice of the faculty music group, the ‘Bama …

A sophisticated stylist in alto saxophone who vacillated throughout his profession between leap blues and jazz, bald-pated Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (he shed his hair in early stages following a botched bout using a lye-based hair-straightener) also possessed a playfully distinctive vocal delivery that stood him in great stead with blues …

Her mountainous stature matching the sheer soulful power of her substantial vocal skill, Big Maybelle was among the leading R&B chanteuses from the 1950s. Her deep, gravelly tone of voice was as singular as her documented result for Okeh and Savoy, which ranged from down-in-the-alley blues to pop-slanted ballads. In …