Posts about blues

Freddie King (1934–1976) — often called the “Texas Cannonball” — fused Texas bite and Chicago muscle into a modern electric-blues language that galvanized both U.S.[…]

Eric Patrick Clapton (born March 30, 1945) is one of the most influential guitarists and singer-songwriters in modern music. Over six decades he has defined[…]

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899–1974) was a pianist, bandleader, and composer whose output and influence tower over American music. Over a 50-year career he led[…]

Django Reinhardt (born Jean Reinhardt, January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian-born, Romani-French guitarist and composer who became one of jazz’s first[…]

Art Tatum (1909–1956) is widely regarded as one of the most astonishing pianists in jazz history—an improviser whose technique, harmonic imagination, and rhythmic command reset[…]

Art Blakey (1919–1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader—one of the defining architects of hard bop—whose group, the Jazz Messengers, doubled as a finishing[…]

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893–1929) stands as one of the first country-blues superstars and a defining architect of the Texas blues sound. Emerging in the mid-1920s[…]

Sleepy John Estes (John Adam Estes) was one of country blues’ most expressive singer-songwriters, famed for a high, pleading vocal delivery and story-songs drawn from[…]

Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James (1902–1969) was a singular voice in American music—a Delta blues guitarist, pianist, and singer whose eerie falsetto, complex guitar figures, and[…]

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) was a gospel singer, electric-guitar trailblazer, and one of the most consequential architects of early rock ’n’ roll. Long before the[…]