Stevie Wonder. Gil Scott-Heron. Gene McDaniels. Eugene McDaniels - "Cherrystones" Donny Hathaway. Donny Hathaway - A Song For You. Minnie Riperton. Isaac Hayes. Bill Withers. Early life[edit] Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia.
Raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia, he was thirteen years old when his father died.[2] Withers enlisted with the United States Navy at the age of eighteen and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs. Discharged from the Navy in 1965, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career.[3] Career[edit] Sussex Records[edit] The album was a success and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Benorce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap.
Bill Withers - Grandma's Hands (live at Carnegie Hall) [audio] Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine. Roy Ayers. Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player.
Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk.[1] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Career[edit] Ayers was responsible for the highly regarded soundtrack to Jack Hill's 1973 blaxploitation film Coffy, which starred Pam Grier. In 1977, Ayers produced an album by the group RAMP, Come Into Knowledge, commonly and mistakenly thought to stand for "Roy Ayers Music Project".[2] That Fall, he had his biggest hit with "Running Away".
In late 1979, Ayers scored his only top ten single on Billboard's Hot Disco/Dance chart with "Don't Stop The Feeling," which was also the leadoff single from his 1980 album "No Stranger to Love", whose title track was sampled in Jill Scott's 2001 song "Watching Me" from her debut album Who Is Jill Scott? Roy Ayers - Searchin. Shuggie Otis - Strawberry Letter 23. Teddy Pendergrass. Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass (March 26, 1950[1] – January 13, 2010)[2] was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter.
Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade. In 1982, he was severely injured in an auto accident in Philadelphia, resulting in his being paralyzed from the chest down. After his injury, he founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a foundation that helps those with spinal cord injuries.
Pendergrass commemorated 25 years of living after his spinal cord injury with star filled event, 'Teddy 25 - A Celebration of Life' at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. His last performance was on a PBS special at Atlantic City's Borgata Casino in November 2008. Early life[edit] Pendergrass played drums for several local Philadelphia bands, eventually becoming the drummer of The Cadillacs.
Teddy Pendergrass - Love TKO. Barry White. Barry White - Your Sweetness Is My Weakness. Barry White - Can't get enough of your Love, Babe. Mayer Hawthorne - Green Eyed Love. Nina Simone. Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/ (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) 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. 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,[3] and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic contralto. 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.[4] 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 old.[5]
Nina Simone - Sinnerman full lenght. Nina Simone - For All We Know. Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me. Nina Simone - Ain't Got No...I've Got Life. Aretha Franklin. Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.[1] Franklin has been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which she became the first female performer to be inducted.
She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Aretha Franklin - Respect / Dr. Feelgood / Think / Save Me - 7" EP Israel - 1968. The Weight - Aretha Franklin (1969) Otis Redding. Otis Ray Redding, Jr.
(September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in popular music and a major artist in soul and rhythm and blues. His singing style was powerfully influential among soul artists of 1960s and helped exemplify the Stax Sound. Redding's premature death devastated Stax. Already on the verge of bankruptcy, the label soon discovered that Atlantic Records owned the rights to his entire catalog.
Otis Redding - I've Got Dreams To Remember.wmv. Curtis Mayfield. Early years and The Impressions[edit] Two significant characteristics distinguish Mayfield's sound.
First, he taught himself how to play guitar, tuning it to the black keys of the piano, thus giving him an open F-sharp tuning—F#, A#, C#, F#, A#, F#---that he used throughout his career.[3] Second, he primarily sang in falsetto register, adding another flavor to his music. This was not unique in itself, but most singers sing primarily in the modal register. Mayfield was a prolific songwriter in Chicago even outside his work for The Impressions, writing and producing scores of hits for many other artists.
He also owned the Mayfield and Windy C labels which were distributed by Cameo-Parkway, and was a partner in the Curtom (first independent, then distributed by Buddah then Warner Bros and finally RSO) and Thomas labels (first independent, then distributed by Atlantic, then independent again and finally Buddah). Curtis Mayfield - Superfly. Curtis Mayfield - So In Love. Curtis Mayfield ~ Freddies Dead. Sam Cooke. Sam Cooke[1] (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), born Samuel Cook, was an American recording artist, singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.[4] He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music.
Sam Cooke - You Send Me. Sam Cooke - Summer time (w/ Lyrics)