Posts about music

Junior Wells was one of the most dynamic harmonica players and vocal stylists of the postwar Chicago blues. A street-honed performer with a sharp sense[…]

Herman “Junior” Parker—often billed as Little Junior Parker—was one of the velvet-voiced architects of postwar Memphis blues. A gifted singer and harmonica player with an[…]

Josh White (1914–1969) was a pathbreaking blues and folk singer-guitarist whose supple tenor voice, crisp Piedmont-style guitar runs, and fearless topical repertoire helped move Black[…]

Johnny Winter (1944–2014) was a searing Texas blues guitarist, singer, and producer whose slide-guitar ferocity and high-octane stagecraft helped carry electric blues into arena-sized rock[…]

Johnny Hartman (1923–1983) was an American baritone whose velvety tone and unerring diction made him one of the most cherished interpreters of romantic ballads in[…]

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose distinctive style left an indelible mark[…]

John William Coltrane (1926–1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer whose innovations in harmony, rhythm, and spiritual expression reshaped modern music. Rising from[…]

J. J. Johnson was the pivotal modern trombonist who proved that the slide trombone could speak bebop’s fast, harmonically intricate language as fluently as saxophones[…]

Jimmy Rushing—affectionately nicknamed “Mr. Five by Five”—was one of the most commanding blues and jazz voices of the 20th century. Best known as the featured[…]

Jimmy Rogers (born James A. Lane; June 3, 1924 – December 19, 1997) was one of the architects of post-war Chicago blues. As Muddy Waters’s[…]