Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from black American music such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, as well as country music. While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. He is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style.
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the most famous being "Tiger Rag". In late 1917, the spelling of the band's name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray". He was often referred to as "the Genius". Charles was blinded during childhood, possibly due to glaucoma.
The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge, and bassist Clint Warwick. The group came to prominence playing rhythm and blues music. They made some changes in musicians but settled on a line-up of Pinder, Thomas, Edge, guitarist Justin Hayward, and bassist John Lodge, who stayed together for most of the band's "classic era" into the early 1970s.
Robert Calvin Bland, known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer.
"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American blues song of uncertain origin. Louis Armstrong made the song famous in his 1928 recording on which Don Redman was credited as composer; later releases gave the name Joe Primrose, a pseudonym of Irving Mills. The melody is 8 bars long, unlike songs in the classic blues genre, where there are 12 bars. It is in a minor key, and has a 4
4 time signature, but has also been played in 3
4.
The Miracles were an American rhythm and blues vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and influential groups in pop, rock and roll, soul and R&B music history.
The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie woogie, up-tempo jazz and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.
Warren Thomas "Pete" Moore was an American singer-songwriter and record producer, notable as the bass singer for Motown group The Miracles from 1955 onwards, and was one of the group's original members. He is also a 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, and a BMI and ASCAP award-winning songwriter, and was the vocal arranger on all of the group's hits.
Don Deadric Robey was an American record label executive, songwriter, and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for developing the careers of many rhythm and blues artists in the 1950s and 1960s.
"Texas Flood" is a blues song recorded by Larry Davis in 1958. Considered a blues standard, it has been recorded by several artists, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, who made it part of his repertoire.
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936. Although he is often credited as the songwriter, several songs have been identified as precedents. The song has become a popular anthem for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics. Numerous artists have interpreted the song in a variety of styles.
Bruce Iglauer is an American businessman and record producer who founded Alligator Records as an independent record label featuring blues music.
Fenton Lee Robinson was an American blues singer and exponent of the Chicago blues guitar.
Somebody Loan Me a Dime is a 1974 studio album by blues singer and guitarist Fenton Robinson, his debut under the Alligator Records imprint. Blending together some elements of jazz with Chicago blues and Texas blues, the album was largely critically well received and is regarded as important within his discography. Among the album's tracks is a re-recording of his 1967 signature song, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime". It has been reissued multiple times in the United States and Japan, including with bonus tracks.
Larry Davis was an American electric Texas blues and soul blues musician. He is best known for co-writing the song "Texas Flood", later recorded to greater commercial success by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Aron Burton was an American electric and Chicago blues singer, bass guitarist and songwriter. In a long career as a sideman he played with Freddie King, Albert Collins and Junior Wells and released a number of solo albums, including Good Blues to You. His recorded work was nominated four times for a Blues Music Award in the category Blues Instrumentalist—Bass.
