Results for "Vocalist"

Charles Brown

Born: September 13, 1922

Charles Brown was the pioneer originator of the immensely influential postwar California blues style. Though identified with his classic “Driftin’ Blues,” he was not committed to just the blues, and was comfortable as a popular crooner as well. His efforts as a vocalist, pianist, and composer helped create the music that would become rhythm and blues, and he was one of the principals in bringing about a shift in the mainstream of African-American music, one that would bring vocalists to the forefront and largely eclipse the instrumental art of jazz. Brown was a premier entertainer in the 1940s and 1950s, influencing a host of later performers including Ray Charles. Brown was born on September 13, 1922 (some sources give the year as 1920), in Texas City, Texas

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Born: May 27, 1950

Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Oliver Award (Best Actress in a Musical Lady Day), won three Grammy® Awards (1998’s Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal for "Cottontail" Slide Hampton, arranger "Dear Ella", and Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Eleanora Fagan: To Billie with Love from Dee Dee, 2011), and France’s 1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album), as well as induction into France's Haute Conseil de la Francophonie, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, and Officier des Arts et des Lettres

Carmen Bradford

Born: July 19, 1960

2022 Grammy Nominee, and recipient of the Los Angeles Jazz Society's Jazz Vocalist Award, Carmen Bradford, was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Altadena, California. Carmen Bradford grew up with music in her home and in her heart. It was only natural that Carmen would follow in the footsteps of her great family legacy being the daughter of legendary coronetist/composer Bobby Bradford and world-renown jazz vocalist/composer/author Melba Joyce. Her grandfather Melvin Moore sang with Lucky Millender and his Big Band; Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band in the 1940's; and sang with the Ink Spots, making Carmen the third generation of incredible musicians. She has carved out a place in music history for herself and is playing an integral role in this uniquely American art form called Jazz

Clea Bradford

Born: 1941

Clea Bradford, 67, a versatile jazz singer who toured the Soviet Union with Earl "Fatha" Hines and recorded with Clark Terry in the 1960s, died Aug. 19 of complications from breast cancer at Holy Cross Hospital. She lived in Silver Spring. Ms. Bradford, who settled into a second career as a voice coach in the Washington area after two decades of touring, was not a big star but a "huge twinkle," as she once joked to The Washington Post, and was a favorite of critics. She performed locally in the 1970s and '80s, and reviewers found her compelling, noting her range, versatility and hornlike phrasing

Al Bowlly

Born: January 7, 1899

The most popular vocalist in Britain during the 1930s, Al Bowlly showcased a range of material unsurpassed by any contemporary other than Bing Crosby. He was also a true international recording artist: born in Mozambique to Greek and Lebanese parents, he was raised in Johannesburg, but gained his musical experience singing for a dance band led by Jimmy Liquime in India and Singapore during the mid-'20s. Just one year after his 1927 debut recording date in Berlin, Bowlly arrived in London for the first time, as part of Fred Elizalde's orchestra. That year, "If I Had You" became one of the first popular songs by an English jazz band to become renowned in America as well, and Bowlly had gone out on his own by the dawn of the '30s

Ron Boustead

Ron Boustead first emerged on the jazz scene in Cincinnati, Ohio in the early 1980s, where he recorded his initial solo LP, “First Light” with the Steve Schmidt trio for Mopro Records. It was a hard-swinging outing featuring lyrics Ron had written to solos and compositions by jazz greats like Chet Baker, Clare Fischer, Chick Corea and Freddy Hubbard. His vocalese version of “Autumn Leaves” landed him in heavy rotation on national jazz radio. As a fan and student of Mark Murphy, Boustead delved deeply into the be-bop repertoire, which he brought with him when he moved to Los Angeles in 1983. Boustead began collaborating with Contemporary keyboard wizard, Gregg Karukas soon after, and together they wrote and recorded songs like “Sound of Emotion” and “In My Dreams”, which were hits in the early days of the Quiet Storm format

Lillian Boutté

Born: August 6, 1949

Lillian Boutté - vocalist When singer Lillian Boutté was named "New Orleans Musical Ambassador" in 1986, she was the second jazz legend in the city's history to be accorded this honor - the first having been none other than Louis Armstrong. “Ambassador Lillian” is a loquacious and outspoken defender of her hometown. She has been working extensively to help Katrina victims, doing benefits and organizing relief funds for musicians, many of whom have lost everything. Also very active in this cause is her brother John Boutté a highly heralded singer in his own right and possessor of one of the finest voices in America

Connee Boswell

Born: December 3, 1907

Constance Foore "Connee" Boswell was an American female vocalist born in Kansas City but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With her sisters, Martha and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell, she performed in the 1930s as The Boswell Sisters and became a highly influential singing group during this period via recordings and radio. Connee herself is widely considered one of the greatest jazz female vocalists and was a major influence on Ella Fitzgerald who said, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her." In 1936, Connee's sisters retired and Connee continued on as a solo artist (having also recorded solos during her years with the group). The Boswells came to be well known locally while still in their early teens, making appearances in New Orleans theaters and radio

Sandra Booker

Sandra Booker - Jazz vocalist Sandra Booker is undoubtedly one of the new masters in the jazz genre. Highly respected for her virtuosic scat ability, impeccable timing, crystalline tone and bold musical individuality, Booker is in a league of her own. A native of the world’s greatest jazz city New Orleans, she sings in a style reminiscent of one who speaks in a native tongue revealing her deep Southern roots in jazz as well as gospel (Negro spirituals), rhythm and blues and Caribbean and Brazilian influences while demonstrating her classical training through precise intonation and uncompromising technical agility. She has collaborated and performed with some of the great veterans and emerging stars of jazz including Billy Higgins, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Lalo Schifrin, WDR Big Band, Nils Landgren, Harry Connick, Jr., Mike Melvoin, Billy Mitchell, Willie Jones, III, Phil Upchurch, Ernie Watts, Barbara Morrison, Gerald Wiggins, Thania Sanz, Black Note, Patrice Rushen, Tamir Hendelman, John Leftwich, Wolfgang Haffner, Dan Lutz, Dale Fielder, Roberto Miranda, Larry Koonse, Pepesito Reyes and Ryan Cross. As a little girl in New Orleans, growing up near the corner of St

Lucille Bogan

Born: April 1, 1897

Hardcore might be the best way to describe the Blues singing of Lucille Bogan. While many of the Classic Blues singers of the 1920s tackled risqué and controversial issues in their songs, Bogan almost exclusively focused on explicit sexual themes, like prostitution, adultery and lesbianism, and social ills such as alcoholism, drug addiction and abusive relationships. Bogan was born April 1, 1897 in Mississippi but grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1923 she made her first recordings for the Okeh label in Atlanta, Georgia. The records apparently didn't sell well because she didn't record again until 1927 for the Paramount and Brunswick labels after moving to Chicago