"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera. The song tells of a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld from the musical named Macheath, the "Mack the Knife" of the title.
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and conductor. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion. He is widely known for performing and recording regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes.
Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation.
Juan Luis Guerra Seijas is a Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. He has sold 15 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 24 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and one Latin Billboard Music Award. He won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including Album of the Year. In 2012, he won the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year.
Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion band founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, California.
Robert Joseph Bare Sr. is an American country singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Marie Laveau", "Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician.
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his album Simple Pleasures (1988). It was the first a cappella song to reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. Originally released in conjunction with the film Cocktail, the song peaked at number-one on September 24, 1988, displacing "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses.
John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz", while Time dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive". Al Jarreau called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been".
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt is a 1989 American documentary film that tells the story of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, with a musical score written and performed by Bobby McFerrin, the film focuses on several people who are represented by panels in the Quilt, combining personal reminiscences with archive footage of the subjects, along with footage of various politicians, health professionals and other people with AIDS. Each section of the film is punctuated with statistics detailing the number of Americans diagnosed with and dead from AIDS through the early years of the epidemic. The film ends with the first display of the complete Quilt at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the 1987 Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
James Gregory Scheffer, known professionally as Jim Jonsin, is an American record producer from South Florida. He has produced for numerous musical artists, including Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, Usher, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, Eminem, Pitbull, Yelawolf, Nelly, Mary J. Blige, Wiz Khalifa, Danity Kane and Jamie Foxx, among others. He won a Grammy Award for his work on Lil Wayne's 2008 single "Lollipop," and received a nomination for Best Rap Album for his work on "Whatever You Like" by T.I. that same year. Furthermore, both songs peaked the Billboard Hot 100.
Vocalese is the ninth studio album by Jazz band The Manhattan Transfer, released in 1985 on the Atlantic Records. Recording sessions took place during 1985. Production came from Tim Hauser and Martin Fischer. This album is considered to be The Manhattan Transfer's most critically acclaimed album. It received 12 Grammy nominations, making it second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller as the most nominated individual album. It also received extremely high ratings from music critics, including a 4.5 out of 5 stars rating from Allmusic. The album peaked at number 2 on the Top Jazz Albums and number 74 on the Billboard 200. The album's title Vocalese refers to a style of music that sets lyrics to previously recorded jazz instrumental pieces. The vocals then reproduce the sound and feel of the original instrumentation. Jon Hendricks, proficient in this art, composed all of the lyrics for this album.
Larry Klein is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is based in Los Angeles.
The Door is a studio album by Delta blues artist Keb' Mo', released in 2000.
Wayne Wilkins is a British record producer, songwriter, record engineer and record mixer. He has produced and written for artists such as Rick Astley, Natasha Bedingfield, Beyoncé, Cheryl Cole, and Jordin Sparks ("Battlefield").
Janis Siegel is a multiple grammy-winning American jazz singer, best known as a member of the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.
"No Debes Jugar" is a song recorded by American recording artist Selena and released as the lead single from her first live album Live! (1993). It was composed by Selena y Los Dinos keyboardist Ricky Vela and Selena's brother and principal record producer A.B. Quintanilla III and produced by Quintanilla III and Argentine music producer Bebu Silvetti. It is an uptempo Mexican cumbia song with influences of Rock en Español which is centered on female empowerment. Lyrically, the song describes a woman who threatens to leave her unappreciative boyfriend.
Simple Pleasures is the fourth studio album by American singer and musician Bobby McFerrin, released in 1988 by Manhattan Records.
The Spin is an album by the American jazz band Yellowjackets, released in 1989. The album title refers to the Earth's rotation. The band supported the album with a North American tour.
"Come Sunday" is a piece by Duke Ellington, which became a jazz standard. It was written as a part of the first movement of a suite entitled Black, Brown and Beige. Ellington was engaged for a performance at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, for which he wrote the entire composition. In 1958 he revised the suite and recorded it in its entirety for that year's album titled after the suite. "Come Sunday" was originally a centerpiece for alto saxophone player Johnny Hodges; the 1958 album, which contained a vocal version of the piece with new lyrics by Ellington featuring gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, greatly increased its popularity.
Don Rosler is an American lyricist, songwriter and record producer.
