News & Updates — folk

Charles Mingus, along with Israel "Cachao" Lopez and William Parker, are my favorite bassists of all time. Add that Mingus is one of the greatest composers to ever walk the planet and his notoriously prickly personality and you have a genuine one-of-a-kind icon of insane genius. Deeply bluesy, gospel-inspired, funky and experimental, his music brought "jazz" to a whole 'nother level. As with Duke Ellington, he wrote compositions for specific players in mind, while engaging every member of the band. His music was also deeply politicized. Coming from Watts, he grew up poor but still learned the cello. He started...

The Muslim-American multi-instrumentalist and folklorist Chief Bey contributed some heavy percussion to the ethno-jazz scene from the '50s until just weeks before his death in 2004. He was born James Hawthorne Bey in the area of Beaufort SC and grew up in Brooklyn & Harlem. In the '50s he toured internationally in a production of Porgy & Bess (with Cab Calloway and Leontyne Price. Around 1951 he cut his first session as a bandleader, although it was credited to "Cawanda's group" (the exotica cash-in LP Taboo). In '59 he appeared on Olatunji's Afro smash-hit record Drums of Passion and went...

The original hippy, the mystical eden ahbez wrote a tune called "Nature Boy" and by chance was able to hand it to Nat King Cole who turned it into a mega-hit in 1948. He looked like a hippy long before it was a thing and lived outdoors in Los Angeles. He lived under the "L" of the Hollywood sign and held a job as a piano player in a raw foods store. He was a vegetarian, straight edge and an anti-vaxer and wore a white robe. This lifestyle inspired "Nature Boy", and after the hit by Cole, ahbez became an...

A fine vibraphonist (and pianist) and a visionary producer, conductor and arranger, Charles Stepney was the psychedelic soul man over at Chess Records and their subsidiary Cadet Concept. Producer of classics by Ramsey Lewis, Minnie Ripperton, The Howlin' Wolf Album, Muddy Waters (Electric Mud), Terry Callier, Marlena Shaw, The Dells, The Emotions, Phil Upchurch and more, he was co-founder of Rotary Connection and Earth, Wind & Fire (although due to his contract with Chess could not always be listed in the credits). As a sideman he performed on many Chess songs, as well as played on albums by Eddie Harris,...

Here's a birthday tribute to Eddie James House, Jr! His high-emotion and intense style as a vocalist and slide player are about as heavy as classic blues got. As well, he mixed in a capella spirituals into his performances. Born in the Mississippi Delta, Son House was a nomadic preacher for some time. Coming out of the church, he went blues in '27 after initially disapproving of it due to his former position. This happened after he was entranced while hearing someone play bottleneck guitar. He was already 25 when he picked up a guitar for the first time. After killing...