News & Updates — Celebrate Icons

The innovative American psych-folk artist Tim Buckley has always been a cult favorite. His music ranged from straight folk and blue-eyed soul to weird jazz and psychedelic vocal experiments. A singer and multi-instrumentalist, he quit college to sign with Elektra and his records included some intense lyrical content, both dark, personal statements and anti-war & topical themes. His classic albums are Happy Sad, Lorca and Starsailor. He died of a heroin overdose at 28. One of my faves from Buckley, his weird side on full display:

One of the Miami greats, Clarence Reid was a top songwriter and producer for many artists ("Rockin' Chair" and "90% Of Me" by Gwen McCrae, "A Woman Will Do Wrong" by Helene Smith, "Clean-Up Woman" by Betty Wright, "Sound Your Funky Horn" by KC & the Sunshine Band, "Freak In, Freak Out" by Timmy Thomas) as well as his own great cuts ("Nobody But You", "Masterpiece"). Really, there are just too many to mention here. Later he became the party-record superhero Blowfly, a persona he toured with until his death in 2016. Here's perhaps my personal favorite tunes he recorded...

Passing just two months after Charlie Parker was another genius of the saxophone, tenor player Wardell Gray. He was one of the bright lights of the West Coast scene of the late '40s/early '50s and it's a shame how relatively little-known he is compared to some of the other titans of the era, of which he surely should rank alongside. His style was flowing and melodic, not too heavy. He was one of the players who straddled the line between the swing and bop eras. His first instrument was clarinet but he was inspired upon hearing Lester Young to switch to...

Here's a birthday shout-out to the singing mailman, King Floyd. "Groove Me" was the big hit for this New Orleans soul singer, produced by Wardell Quezerque (and recorded at the same session that yielded "Mr Big Stuff" by Jean Knight!). After writing and singing "Groove Me" (originally a b-side) and a few others for the Atlantic stable, he made some records for T.K., but was largely quiet. Still, the tune remains a much-loved classic soul hit. Born King Floyd III, he was childhood pals with Willie Tee and Earl King and started playing professionally in '61 with local blues shouter...

The "left reverend" Eugene "Gene" McDaniels is largely known for three contributions to the popular consciousness. The first is his 1961 song "100 Pounds of Clay" heard on oldies stations to this day (released as Gene McDaniels). The second is his notoriety as a chart-topping song-writer ("Feel Like Makin' Love", by Roberta Flack and "Compared to What", popularized by Les McCann & Eddie Harris). And the third is his rare grove LP Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse, controversial at the time for songs that deeply examine the elite power structure (and the attempted banning of the album by the White...