News & Updates — vintage footage

While he was much more than a two-trick pony, Junior Walker nevertheless can be immediately recognizable as a distinct saxophonist for the tunes "Shotgun" by his Jr Walker & the All-Stars and his guest appearance with his iconic solo on Foreigner's "Urgent". He got his professional start playing jazz & R&B in his hometown of South Bend, IN before moving onto to Battle Creek, MI. His group signed with Harvey Fuqua as a producer in '61, with the group now being called Junior Walker & the All-Stars, before being bought out by Motown in '64. With members of the Funk...

Congolese rumba/soukous superstar Papa Wemba (Shungu Wembadio before 1975) was "the King of Rumba Rock". A singer, musician, bandleader (indeed his entourage of hundreds ultimately got him into trouble--look it up for yourself) and fashion icon, he had a long and successful international career. He had several ensembles in his early career that blended Congolese folk sounds with Caribbean and pop music. He blew up worldwide in the early '80s with his afro-pop group Viva La Musica (a named inspired by seeing the Fania All-Stars in Kinshasa), which had young Koffi Olomide as a composer. In '77 he started the Molokai...

An OG proto-punk, Chester Burnett aka "Howlin' Wolf" was born on this day in 1910. In my opinion, one of the meanest sounds to ever grace records was his distinctively nasty growling voice and his raging tunes. "Smokestack Lightnin", "Moanin' At Midnight", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Killin Floor"...dosn't get any sicker! He came from Mississippi and learned guitar from Charley Patton, learned harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson II and his vocal style was influenced by Jimmie Rodgers. In '51 he recorded for Sam Phillips in Memphis and moved to Chicago the next year to record for Chess. In the '50s he learned...

Otha Turner upheld the fife & drum tradition in North Mississippi, the last surviving master, in one of the last regions for the style. A sharecropping Mississippi native who started playing around 1923, Turner made his fife out of rivercane (American bamboo) and taught himself several instruments, including guitar and percussion. He led some bands, including one with Jesse Mae Hemphill, and became a sought-out figure in documentation of the tradition. Indeed, several field recordings were made and a few articles were written about Turner and his regional traditional style. His group even appeared on an episode of Mr Rogers...

One of the great figures of post-punk, Martin Hannett virtually shaped the Joy Division sound at Strawberry Studios. A famed producer of many great UK groups of the era, he was also co-founder of Factory Records. He utilized loops, echos, delays, synths with a meticulous obsession for getting the drum sounds exactly as he heard them in his head. He would put the young groups through torture to get what he needed artistically. From about '77 til his early death he produced Joy Division, The Durutti Column, Basement 5, Magazine, Buzzcocks, Psychedelic Furs, A Certain Ratio, New Order, Section 25,...