Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
High fidelity is the high-quality reproduction of sound, which most faithfully reproduces the original source material. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. High-fidelity audio strives for the least possible amount of noise and harmonic distortion, and a relatively flat, neutral and uncolored frequency response within the human hearing range.
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of a piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number-one US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".
Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high-fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, and headsets for personal, professional, and business applications. The company's head office is located in Wedemark, near Hanover, and the company is represented in more than 50 countries worldwide.
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."
Gerald Rydel Simpson, better known as A Guy Called Gerald, is a British record producer and musician. He was an early member of the electronic group 808 State, contributing to their debut LP Newbuild (1988) and hit single "Pacific State" (1989). He also achieved solo success with his 1988 hit single "Voodoo Ray", which became a touchstone of Manchester's acid house scene and reached No. 12 in the UK charts. He embraced breakbeat production in the 1990s, with his 1995 album Black Secret Technology becoming a "much-touted candidate for 'best jungle album ever.'" He also ran the London-based independent record label Juice Box Records from 1991 to 1998.
Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.
Frederick Anthony Jackson is an American singer. Originally from New York, Jackson began his professional music career in the late 1970s with the California funk band Mystic Merlin. Among his well–known R&B/soul hits are "Rock Me Tonight " (1985), "Have You Ever Loved Somebody" (1986), "Jam Tonight" (1986), "Do Me Again" (1990), and "You Are My Lady" (1985). He contributed to the soundtrack for the 1989 film, All Dogs Go to Heaven with the Michael Lloyd-produced duet "Love Survives" alongside Irene Cara. He also appeared in the movie King of New York.
Blue Room Released was an electronic music record label from London, England. It operated from 1994 until 2002. and was run by Simon Ghahary.
Bowers & Wilkins, commonly known as B&W, is a British company that produces consumer and professional loudspeakers and headphones.
Rotel is a family-owned Japanese manufacturer of hi-fi audio and video equipment: home theater, amplifiers, compact disc players, etc. Rotel was started by Tomoki Tachikawa in Tokyo Japan in 1957 as a hi-fi electronics manufacturer. It is currently run by the nephew, Peter Kao.
Musical Fidelity is a British producer of high-end audio equipment focusing on streaming music players, and its core product range of amplifiers of various types. Other products have included headphones, Digital-Analog Converters (DACs), CD players, Bluetooth Receivers, ‘all-in-one systems’. Founded in the United Kingdom in 1982, they are known for their unusual industrial design, Nuvistor tube use and Class-AB amplifiers.
Robert Laurence Albert Simpson, known professionally as Ronny Jordan was a British guitarist and part of the acid jazz movement at the end of the twentieth century. Jordan described his music as "urban jazz", a blend of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B.
Darragh Morgan is an Irish violinist.
Sav Remzi is a creative entrepreneur, record producer and impresario. He is responsible for a number of imprints over the past three decades, including the music label Nuphonic Records, the Blue Note ClubShoreditch, Xfm's London Xpress radio shows, Tirk Records, the Lovebox Festival, and the discovery of various hit artists including New Young Pony Club and Fujiya & Miyagi.
Surendran Reddy was a South African composer and pianist.
Simon Ghahary is an English born artist, brand architect and lifestyle engineer from the United Kingdom known primarily for his unconventional speaker designs. Inspired by art, nature and technology he refers to his fantastical sculptural pieces as functional art. Developing new forms to accompany new ways of living, he has approached audio product design as an art in and of itself. His aesthetic is not only about the combination of performance and design but the space an object can create when not in use.
Irving M. "Bud" Fried, was an American audiophile of the "Golden Age" of stereophonic reproduction, along with Saul Marantz and David Hafler.
Morten Villiers Warren is a British industrial designer. Warren founded Native Design, a design and innovation company, in 1998 and remains the principal creative and CEO.
