News & Updates — vintage footage

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...

She was the lady who swings the band. Mary Lou Williams may be not be considered a major jazz star but her contributions as a pianist, arranger, composer, teacher, radio host and historian are immense. She has been a professional since she was a little girl in Pittsburgh and was playing with Duke Ellington's Washingtonians at 13. She married saxophonist John Williams in 1927 and formed a band with him in Memphis before they both joined Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy in Oklahoma City in '29, with whom Mary Lou made her first recordings as the band's pianist, composer...

One of my favorites in recent years, the wonderful Sharon Jones captivated growing legions of audiences in the new millennium with her high-energy, charming personality and powerful voice on stages around the globe. A former security guard who made the big time, despite being told she was "too short, too fat, too old and too black", she worked hard for all of her success. Born in Augusta GA, she grew up in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. She contributed backing vocals to recording sessions before her work on a Lee Fields studio date convinced the producers that they had a special talent in...