Posts about blues

Anderson Meade "Lux" Lewis, commonly known as Meade Lux Lewis, was one of the defining piano voices of American boogie-woogie. A powerful and percussive pianist,[…]

Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator whose innovations helped define modern[…]

Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was one of the most versatile, tireless, and influential figures in[…]

Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976) was an American country blues singer, guitarist, and songster whose repertoire stretched far beyond what many[…]

Mamie Smith (born Mamie Robinson; May 26, 1891) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, and pioneering recording artist whose 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues” helped[…]

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest and most influential professional blues singers in[…]

Luther Sylvester Allison (August 17, 1939 – August 12, 1997) was a fiercely passionate and dynamic blues guitarist and singer whose career bridged the electric[…]

Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American alto-saxophonist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader whose witty, tight ensemble recordings and stagecraft[…]

Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs) reshaped the sound of postwar Chicago blues. With a bullet mic cupped to his harmonica and a small amp[…]

Koko Taylor—born Cora Ann Walton—rose from Tennessee sharecropper roots to become the undisputed “Queen of the Blues.” With a volcanic, sandpapered voice and a fearless[…]