News & Updates — classic albums

Happy birthday to that Peruvian songbird with the five-plus octave vocal range, Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo, aka Yma Sumac. Not truly an Inca princess but her name does mean "beautiful" in Quechua and she became a '50s pop music icon. She started her singing career on the radio in '42 and made her first records the following year. After moving to NYC in the late '40s she signed to Capitol and proceeded to become one of the major stars of the "exotica" craze. In the early '50s she toured Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. She worked...

British singer/songwriter John Martyn was my favorite kind of folkie: a guy who took in a lot of different influences (jazz, folk, rock, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, blues) and tried new things with them. From his funky rock-inspired stuff to the dub-washed material from his time hanging at Lee Perry's Black Ark to the later trip-hop material, you could always count on Martyn for some of the most experimental ideas of the Brit-folkers. Born to opera singing parents, his birth name was Iain David McGeachy. He was part of the fertile Brit-folk scene of the mid-'60s, along with Nick Drake, Bert Jansch,...

In keeping with my tradition of profiling underrated reedsmen, we have to give the birthday nod to Prince Lasha! Pronounced "la-shay", our subject came from Fort Worth TX, where he played in the high school band with future icons Ornette Coleman, King Curtis, Dewey Redman, Charles Moffett and John Carter. One of the great (if underknown) flautists in progressive jazz, his music sometimes displayed Eastern-tinged qualities He may remind some of Eric Dolphy, another multi-reedsman with whom Lasha collaborated, and he played alto sax and clarinet in addition to flute. (He also was a capable singer, as they say he...

You know those people who's music everyone knows but they've never heard of it's creator? Meet Raymond Scott, one of the wackiest composers out there. He was a dada-inspired jazz bandleader, an instrument-builder, a pioneer in electronics and the composer of the Looney Tunes (arranged by Carl Stalling) and Ren & Stimpy music. Born Harry Warnow in Brooklyn to a family of Russian Jews, he started working for his brother in the CBS Radio house band as a pianist, changing his name to "Raymond Scott" (how to avoid claims of nepotism) before forming his spin-off Quintette in 1936. (It was...

Happy birthday to Elvin Jones! The amazing polyrhythmic "heavy bop" drummer from Detroit was already a seasoned veteran of many years before he ever hooked up with John Coltrane. His intense drumming style largely changed the swing dynamic in jazz to a more African-inspired one, subsequently influencing a million drummers along the way, including rock legends Ginger Baker (whom he has played with) and Mitch Mitchell (Jimi: 'my Elvin Jones"). He came from Detroit, son of an auto worker and youngest brother to well-known pianist Hank and trumpeter Thad Jones (both of whom he'd collaborate with professionally). He played in...