George Washington Benson is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section ; and to provide all or part of the harmony, i.e. the chords from a song's chord progression, where a chord is a group of notes played together. Therefore, the basic technique of rhythm guitar is to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming or fingerpicking rhythmically with the other hand. More developed rhythm techniques include arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos, and complex strums.
The Isley Brothers are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that started as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has been cited as having enjoyed one of the "longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".
Burt Freeman Bacharach is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.
Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won multiple awards and has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.
John Allan Jones is an American jazz and pop singer and actor. He is the son of actor/singer Allan Jones and actress Irene Hervey.
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz music venue in 1957. It has hosted many highly renowned jazz musicians since then, and today is the oldest operating jazz club in New York City.
Ronald Isley is an American recording artist, songwriter, record producer, and occasional actor. Isley is best known as the lead singer and founding member of the family music group The Isley Brothers.
Rai Thistlethwayte is an Australian rock, pop and jazz musician and songwriter. Thistlethwayte is an accomplished pianist, guitarist, and vocalist. He is the lead singer and primary songwriter in the Australian pop rock band Thirsty Merc. Since 2004, Thirsty Merc have released a string of hits in the Australian Music Charts including "In The Summertime", "Someday, Someday", "20 Good Reasons", "Those Eyes", "Emancipate Myself", "Wasting Time," "My Completeness", "When The Weather Is Fine", "The Hard Way", "Homesick", "Mousetrap Heart", "Tommy And Krista" and "All My Life". He is currently based in Los Angeles. As a solo artist, Thistlethwayte performs under the name 'Sun Rai.'
Christopher H. Jasper is an American singer, composer, and producer. Jasper is a former member of the Isley Brothers and Isley-Jasper-Isley and is responsible for writing and producing the majority of the Isley Brothers music (1973–1983) and Isley-Jasper-Isley music (1984–1987). He is also a successful solo musician and record producer, recording over 14 of his own solo albums, including 4 urban contemporary gospel albums, all written, produced and performed, both vocally and instrumentally, by Jasper. He also produces artists for his New York City-based record label, Gold City Records. Jasper's keyboard and Moog synthesizer work was a primary ingredient of the Isley Brothers' sound of the 1970s and 1980s when the Isley Brothers were a self-contained band.
"It's Your Thing" is a funk single by The Isley Brothers. Released in 1969, the anthem was an artistic response to Motown chief Berry Gordy's demanding hold on his artists after the Isleys left the label in late 1968.
"Cold, Cold Heart" is a country music and pop song recorded by Hank Williams. This blues ballad is both a classic of honky-tonk and an entry in the Great American Songbook.
Donald Gardner was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and drummer. His records included the 1962 pop hit "I Need Your Lovin'", with Dee Dee Ford.
"For the Love of You" is a song recorded by The Isley Brothers, who released the song as the second single off their 1975 album, The Heat Is On. The record showcased the two sides of the act, with the album's first single "Fight the Power" reflecting a fast-paced funk vibe while showcasing a ballad side on the latter. The song later became a crossover hit for the brothers.
Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles is a live tribute album by country singer Willie Nelson and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. It was recorded during concerts at the Rose Theater in New York City, on February 9 and 10, 2009. The album received mixed reviews, in which the instrumentation of Marsalis' orchestra was praised by the critics.
Kevin Jones is an American jazz percussionist and band leader. Jones's music is influenced by that of Cuba and Congo.
Jana Herzen is a singer-songwriter with folk, world, rock and jazz influences who founded Motéma Music, a Harlem-based record label focused on virtuosic jazz and world music. Prior to founding the label in 2003, she worked as a musician and as an art agent for Winston Smith, who designed the logo for Motéma. Herzen was instrumental in the publishing of Artcrime, Smith's 2nd volume of collected works on the Last Gasp publishing imprint.
"Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter James Taylor, from his 1972 album One Man Dog. It was released as the lead single from the album, and peaked at No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on January 13, 1973. It also reached No. 3 Easy Listening. In Canada, the song reached No. 18 on the Pop Singles chart and No. 7 AC.
LaKeith Lee Stanfield, sometimes credited as Keith Stanfield, is an American actor and musician. He made his feature film debut in the independent drama Short Term 12 (2013), an adaptation of the 2008 short film in which he had also appeared, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He received further recognition for his roles in numerous biopics such as civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in Selma (2014), Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton (2015), Patrick Haynes in Snowden (2016), and William O'Neal in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), for which he garnered an Academy Award nomination.
"I" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar featuring Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers. It was released on September 23, 2014 as the lead single from Lamar's third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly. The song utilizes music from "That Lady", written by and originally performed by R&B group The Isley Brothers, elements from which were re-recorded rather than being directly sampled from the original record. "i" won two awards at the 2015 Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.
