Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, comedian, DJ, and television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera Coronation Street (2005-2015). He presented the gladiator-style game show Robot Wars from 1998 to 2004, and narrated the comedy endurance show Takeshi's Castle. As a DJ, he appears on BBC Radio 6 Music.
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.
The Cat Empire are an Australian jazz/funk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1999. For most of the band's duration, the core members were Felix Riebl, Harry James Angus, Will Hull-Brown (drums), Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala, Ollie McGill and Ryan Monro. Monro retired from the band in March 2021, while Angus, Hull-Brown and Khadiwhala all left in April 2022. They are often supplemented by The Empire Horns, a brass duo composed of Ross Irwin (trumpet) and Kieran Conrau (trombone), among others. Their sound is a fusion of jazz, ska, funk and rock with heavy Latin influences.
Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE, better known as Gilles Peterson, is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brownswood Recordings in 2006. He was awarded an honorary MBE in 2004, the AIM Award for Indie Champion and the Mixmag Award for Outstanding Contribution To Dance Music in 2013, the PRS for Music Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio in 2014, and The A&R Award from the Music Producers Guild in 2019.
WOMAD is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance.
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs, jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals.
WRTC-FM is a non-commercial FM radio station based in Hartford, Connecticut, which primarily serves the metropolitan Hartford market. WRTC broadcasts a diverse format featuring nearly 60 weekly programs ranging from rock, jazz, Caribbean, Latin, and soul to hip hop, funk, gospel, blues, and Broadway. The station, owned by Trinity College, can be found on the dial at 89.3 MHz.
Robbie Vincent is an English radio broadcaster and DJ. As a champion of jazz, funk and soul music in the UK during the late 1970s he made an important contribution both live in clubs and on radio. In 1995 he was voted Independent Radio Personality of the Year at the Variety Club of Great Britain annual awards.
Big Boss Man is an English funk and Latin band formed in 1998 in London, England. It consists of Nasser Bouzida a.k.a. "The Bongolian" on organs, percussion and vocals, Badger Burgess on bass guitar, Trevor Harding on electric guitar and Desmond Rogers on drums.
The Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra is a Leeds-based afrobeat band that takes its influence from Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band amongst many others. Although their music uses Afrobeat rhythm and language, they also owe part of their sound to the space Jazz pioneers of the 1970s and the free jazz trailblazers of the 1960s. The band have been quoted as crediting James Brown and Tony Allen for having a large influence on their music.
Dan Webb, is an Australian musician, entrepreneur, music journalist and critic.
Nick Pride and the Pimptones are a funk/jazz/soul band based in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Pimptones were formed in 2007 by guitarist, composer, and arranger Nick Pride. Their record label Record Kicks describes them as "a deep funk/jazz-dance outfit playing original music in the style of The Meters, JTQ and Charlie Hunter. The group is equally at home in a noisy nightclub or intimate jazz setting, and is most likely to bring the roof of either down with their heavy dancefloor grooves, big breaks and sophisticated jazz numbers."
Third Coast Kings was an American funk / soul band based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Kings were formed in 2007 by drummer James Keovongsak and bassist Nate Ayers. Their record label Record Kicks describes them as "an eight element proper deep funk and soul outfit from Detroit/Ann Arbor, Michigan, that is influenced by the great James Brown, as well as the many artists from the 60s and 70s whose music was carefully salvaged by the crate digging revolution.". The Kings disbanded just short of their 10 year anniversary.
Smoove & Turrell are a British group hailing from Gateshead in the North East of England. They play a style of music they describe as "Northern Funk" - a contemporary fusion of funk, soul, northern soul, hip-hop and electronica.
Major League Productions is a record label from the United Kingdom based in Oxfordshire. It was founded in 1991 and operates in 100 different countries. As of 2013, it had 39 employees. Following a reduction of live services, in 2020 the company announced it was focusing only on its back-catalogue work and talked of the possibility of new vinyl releases to signed artists.
King Bee is a jazz-funk band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne UK in 2011. Its members consist of Dave Wilde, Chris Jelly (Vibraphone), Dan Brady (Bass), Martin Douglas (Drums), Richard Burns (Trumpet), Steve Glendinning (Guitar).
Diane Shaw from Manchester, England is a British soul singer, who has been touring and performing for 20 years. In that time Shaw has gained a considerable following around the UK, particularly on the British Modern soul and Northern soul scene.
"You Don't Know" is a song by Smoove & Turrell, released both as a CD and 12 inch single, including remixes by Kraak & Smaak as well as Featurecast, on Jalapeño Records in 2009. It was also released as a track on the Smoove & Turrell 2009 album Antique Soul, as well as on the compilation album, Wavemusic: Soul Ya 3. "You Don't Know" was written by Jonathan Scott Watson, John Turrell, Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue, and sampled the track "Water" from de Paul's debut album, Surprise.
Tia Brazda is a Canadian singer and songwriter, known for performing jazz music that incorporates elements of swing, blues, rockabilly, soul, electro and pop. She has been recognized as a notable figure in the electro-swing movement, and has performed at prominent international jazz festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.
Levanna McLean, known as the 'Northern Soul Girl', is a British disc jockey and dancer.
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