News & Updates — blues

A Northern Soul legend, Popcorn Wylie was one of the earliest contributors to the Motown hit-making machine as an instrumentalist, composer, producer, A&R man and artist. A pianist from Detroit, he grew up with bassist James Jamerson and the two were in a band together as teenagers. That band, Popcorn & the Mohawks, would cut a few singles for Motown in the early '60s before both the future stars got absorbed into the house band, The Funk Brothers. Wylie played on several big hits such as "Shop Around" (the Miracles), "Please Mr Postman" (Marvellettes), as well as tunes by Marvin...

Groovy Guitarist Grant Green was a regular presence on Blue Note Records and with funky organ combos. He was rooted in bop, blues and R&B and adapted his sound and approach to many different styles. He was inspired mostly by horn players, although he rarely worked with them. He effortlessly laid down lots of fluid single-note runs, and the only guitarists he seems to have cited as influence were Charlie Christian and Jimmy Raney. From St Louis, was playing in gospel bands by 12, before getting into rock & roll and R&B. He first recorded in '59 with Jimmy Forrest...

Happy birthday to one of the greats, Curtis Mayfield! Singer, composer, guitarist, record label owner, businessman, civil rights hero, movie musician, talent scout, psych-soul songwriter, Black Power icon, Chicago legend and so much more.

A birthday shout-out to one of the early female blues stars, Memphis Minnie. Guitarist, banjo player, singer, composer and a tobacco-chewing lady, she was born in Louisiana and spent her early years outside of Memphis. At 13 she was busking and turning tricks on Beale Street and for a while she joined the circus. Starting around '29 she recorded for a host of labels, including Columbia, Vocalion, Decca, Bluebird, Okeh and Checker, having a hit with "Bumble Bee". She found herself in Chicago by the mid '30s, winning cutting contests and working as a session musician. She often recorded with...

Otha Turner upheld the fife & drum tradition in North Mississippi, the last surviving master, in one of the last regions for the style. A sharecropping Mississippi native who started playing around 1923, Turner made his fife out of rivercane (American bamboo) and taught himself several instruments, including guitar and percussion. He led some bands, including one with Jesse Mae Hemphill, and became a sought-out figure in documentation of the tradition. Indeed, several field recordings were made and a few articles were written about Turner and his regional traditional style. His group even appeared on an episode of Mr Rogers...