News & Updates — Celebrate Icons

Born today, one of the kings of soul music, Marvin Gaye. Is there anyone in the world who doesn't like his music?

Minutemen guitarist & vocalist D. Boon died in a van accident at the far too young age of 27, but is still considered a punk rock icon. The band gained respect as one of the best and most inventive, as well as politically aware (evident in D. Boon's lyrical contributions) bands of the '80s underground. They toured heavily and recorded for SST Records, as well as New Alliance (a label started by the band). Musically they brought jazz, punk, funk & country together into short song blasts ("jam econo") and included some covers (parodies?) of classic rock tunes. It all...

Today is the birthday of one of my very favorites!! The poet/vocalist/songwriter/novelist Gil Scott-Heron was one of the great lyricists of all time, combining the personal and political, and as a vocalist he would weave his stories into the fantastic soul-jazz tunes he cooked up with Brian Jackson. The music contained elements of blues, jazz, Latin and funk, and he has been justly considered a precursor to hip-hop, with GSH's "rapping" delivery and socio-political consciousness. He was inspired by a performance he saw by the Last Poets and released Small Talk At 125th & Lennox in 1970. He started working...

The soulful blues guitarist with Cherokee/Choctaw roots, Lowell Fulson, was as great a representative of West Coast blues as there ever has been. Born in Oklahoma, he hit California in the mid-'40s and formed a band that employed youngsters Ray Charles & Stanley Turrentine. He cut records for Aladdin, Swing Time, Checker, Jewel, Kent, Bullseye and more in his long career. He was the composer of the standard "Three O'clock Blues" (1948), "Reconsider Baby" (1954) (recorded by Elvis in '60) and the awesomely funky "Tramp" ('67) which was covered by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Salt N' Pepa, The Mohawks...

Despite being two years younger than the other Sonny Boy Williamson (II), this one (born John Lee Curtis Williamson in Tennessee) was on the scene in the '30s and '40s before his murder in a robbery after a gig. He was only 34.  His early travels came alongside Sleepy John Estes and Yank Rachell. Settling in Chicago around '34, his first record was "Good Morning, School Girl" (1937), which became a blues standard for ever after. He cut a bunch of sides for the Bluebird label as a leader and also appeared as a sideman on hundreds of recordings. His...