News & Updates — Video

Perhaps best known to casuals as the bassist of Cream, the Scottish virtuoso Jack Bruce in fact had a long and varied career that included rock, blues, jazz, classical, third stream, Latin, world music and fusion. He could play electric & upright bass, cello, piano, harmonica and was a singer/songwriter as well. Growing up listening to jazz, he studied classical cello and was kicked out of music school for playing jazz on the side. In the early '60s he toured Europe in a big band and joined the legendary Blues Incorporated in '62, which splintered off into the Graham Bond...

Most people may not know his name but they will know his work. Norman Whitfield is one of the most important producers of R&B/funk/disco due to his imaginative work with Motown and his later disco material. He was originally from Harlem but moved to Detroit as a teenager and started hanging around the Motown studios. As early as 1963 he was being credited as a songwriter and wrote for Marvin Gaye, The Velvelettes and the Marvelettes ("Too Many Fish In The Sea"). His 1966 breakout hit "Ain't To Proud To Beg" with The Temptations afforded him the role as their...

Cockney-accented singer/songwriter/actor Ian Dury was a great punk poet, talented lyricist and cult hero. After getting polio at 8, he went to a school for the disabled that "toughened" him up. Indeed he strutted the stage with confidence, despite the handicap. His first band was Kilburn and the High Roads, who toured with The Who and broke up in '75. His next band was the entertaining music-hall spirited Ian Dury & the Blockheads and they had some lasting hits (mostly in the UK) of the new wave era. Their music was influenced by funk, reggae, disco and jazz and Dury...

An important voice in Cuba, Lázaro Ros is virtually unknown outside of Yoruba-oriented circles. One of Cuba's major Akpwons (praise singer), he was a Lucumí folkloricist and mentor to young singers & scholars serious about Santeria. Havana born, started singing at festivals at 13 and was singing on the radio by '49, around which time he was initiated. The new government formed the cultural/musical entity Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba and with this program Ros got to record and tour Europe, Mexico and the USA. In the '80s he lent his powerful voice, deep knowledge and blessing to a project...

One half of the greatest soul music singing duo of all time, the Dave of Sam & Dave was the deeper-voiced of the two. Dave Prater came from Georgia and sang gospel, both as a child in church and professionally with the Sensational Hummingbirds. He hooked up with Sam Moore in '61 and they signed to Roulette, releasing a clutch of tunes often with Dave singing the lead and sometimes composing. In '64 they signed with Atlantic and made their records in Memphis at the famous Stax studio and the house band Booker T & the MG's. For a four-year...