Sarah VAUGHAN

⬇️ SARAH VAUGHAN ⬇️

(Sarah Lois Vaughan)

DISCOGRAPHY 1947-2021 (154CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

       

Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by music critic Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."

Nicknamed "Sassy", "The Divine One" and "Sailor" (for her salty speech), Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.

Sarah Vaughan's father, Asbury "Jake" Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and piano. Her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir.

Jake and Ada Vaughan had migrated to Newark from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only biological child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan..... (Wikipedia)

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CHRONOGICAL CLASSICS

CC 1101-Sarah Vaughan (1947-49) @FLAC

CC 1166-Sarah Vaughan (1949-50) @FLAC

CC 1296-Sarah Vaughan (1951-52) @FLAC

Nina SIMONE

⬇️ NINA SIMONE ⬇️

(Eunice Kathleen Waymon)

(February 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003)

DISCOGRAPHY 1957-2025 (162CD/DVD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born into a poor family in North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, despite a well received audition, she was denied admission, which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist.

She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She released her first hit single in the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice .... (Wikipedia)

NEW!

1964-In Concert [LP-Verve) @FLAC24-192

1978-Baltimore (LP) @FLAC24-192

1998-The Very Best Of Nina Simone (1967-72) Sugar In My Bowl (2CD) @FLAC

2003-Anthology @FLAC

2003-Simply Simone (CD) @FLAC

2012-At the Village Gate (CD-14T) @FLAC

2013-Nina At Newport (Jazz & Blues) @FLAC24-96

2015-The Hits @FLAC24-96

2019-Feeling Good The Very Best Of Nina Simone @FLAC

2025-Nina at Newport (Remastered) @FLAC24

2025-The Best Of Nina Simone (Mississippi River Records) (3CD) @FLAC24

VERVE JAZZ MASTERS

VJM 17 - Nina Simone-Bad Habits @FLAC

Helen HUMES

⬇️ HELEN HUMES ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1947-2024 (36CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

        

Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 9, 1981) was an American jazz and blues singer.

Humes was successively a teenage blues singer, band vocalist with Count Basie, saucy R&B diva and a mature interpreter of the classy popular song.

Humes was born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, was spotted by the guitarist Sylvester Weaver and made her first recordings in 1927, her true young voice consorting oddly with bizarre material like "Garlic Blues".

She moved to New York City in 1937 and became a recording vocalist with Harry James' big band. Her swing recordings with James included "Jubilee", "I Can Dream Can't I", Jimmy Dorsey's composition "It's The Dreamer In Me", and "Song of the Wanderer"..... (Wikipedia)

Billie HOLIDAY

⬇️ BILLIE HOLIDAY ⬇️

(Eleanora Fagan)

DISCOGRAPHY 1937-2022 (299CD/DVD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

        

Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly thirty years.

Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisation skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education. While there were other jazz singers with equal talent, Billie Holiday had a voice that captured the attention of her audience..... (Wikipedia)

NEW!

1999-The Billy Holiday Collection (2CD) @FLAC

2003-Blue Moon @FLAC

2017-Classic Lady Day (5CD) @FLAC

Tiny GRIMES

⬇️ TINY GRIMES ⬇️

(Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes)

DISCOGRAPHY (44LP/CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes (July 7, 1916 – March 4, 1989) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He was a member of the Art Tatum Trio from 1943 to 1944, was a backing musician on recording sessions, and later led his own bands, including a recording session with Charlie Parker. He is notable for playing the electric tenor guitar, a four-stringed instrument.

Grimes was born in Newport News, Virginia, United States, and began his musical career playing drums and one-fingered piano. In 1938 he took up the electric four-string tenor guitar. In 1940 he joined the Cats and the Fiddle as guitarist and singer. In 1943 he joined the Art Tatum Trio as guitarist and made a number of recordings with Tatum.

After leaving Tatum, Grimes recorded with his own groups in New York and with a long list of leading musicians, including vocalist Billie Holiday. He made four recordings with his own group, augmented with Charlie Parker: "Tiny's Tempo", "Red Cross", "Romance Without Finance", and "I'll Always Love You Just the Same", the latter two featuring Grimes' singing.

In the late 1940s, he had a hit on a jazzed-up version of "Loch Lomond", with the band billed as Tiny "Mac" Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders and appearing in kilts. This group included tenor saxman Red Prysock and singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Grimes continued to lead his own groups into the later 1970s and he recorded on Prestige Records in a series of strong blues-based performances with Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Pepper Adams, Roy Eldridge and other noted players including, in 1977, Earl Hines.

With Paul Williams, he co-headlined the first Moondog Coronation Ball, promoted by Alan Freed in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 21, 1952, often claimed as the first rock and roll concert. In 1953 he may have played on the Crows one-hit wonder, "Gee", that has been called the first original rock and roll record by an R&B group.

Grimes died in March 1989 in New York City from meningitis at the age of 72. (Wikipedia)

Milt BUCKNER

⬇️ MILT BUCKNER ⬇️

(Milton Brent Buckner)

DISCOGRAPHY 1962-2023 (24CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Milton Brent Buckner (July 10, 1915 – July 27, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and organist, who in the early 1950s popularized the Hammond organ. He pioneered the parallel chords style that influenced Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. Buckner's brother, Ted Buckner, was a jazz saxophonist.

Milton Brent Buckner was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents encouraged him to learn to play piano, but they both died when he was nine years old. Milt and his younger brother Ted were sent to Detroit where they were adopted by members of the Earl Walton band: trombonist John Tobias, drummer George Robinson fostered Milt and reedplayer Fred Kewley (né Fred Cecil Kewley; 1889–1953) fostered Ted. Buckner studied piano for three years from the age 10, then at 15 began writing arrangements for the band, he and his brother going on to become active in the Detroit jazz world in the 1930s.

Buckner first played in Detroit with the McKinney's Cotton Pickers and then with Cab Calloway. In 1941, he joined Lionel Hampton's big band, and for the next seven years served as its pianist and staff arranger. Buckner was part of a Variety Revue of 1950 organized by Lionel Hampton at the Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. on June 25, 1950. He led a short-lived big band of his own for two years, but then returned to Hampton's in 1950.

In 1952, he formed his own trio and pioneered the use of the electric Hammond organ. He often played in Europe in the late 1960s. His last studio session took place in Paris on July 4, 1977. Milt Buckner is also known for the use of his song "The Beast" in the film Mulholland Drive and in the title menu of the video game Battlefield: Bad Company.

Buckner died of a heart attack in July 1977, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 62.  (Wikipedia)

Mahalia JACKSON

⬇️ MAHALIA JACKSON ⬇️

(Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 - January 27, 1972)

DISCOGRAPHY 1955-2021 (78LP/CD/DVD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Mahalia Jackson (born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 - January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable and unexpected success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world.

The granddaughter of enslaved people, Jackson was born and raised in poverty in New Orleans. She found a home in her church, leading to a lifelong dedication and singular purpose to deliver God's word through song. She moved to Chicago as an adolescent and joined the Johnson Singers, one of the earliest gospel groups. Jackson was heavily influenced by musician-composer Thomas Dorsey, and by blues singer Bessie Smith, adapting Smith's style to traditional Protestant hymns and contemporary songs. After making an impression in Chicago churches, she was hired to sing at funerals, political rallies, and revivals. For 15 years she functioned as what she termed a "fish and bread singer", working odd jobs between performances to make a living.

Nationwide recognition came for Jackson in 1947 with the release of "Move On Up a Little Higher", selling two million copies and hitting the number two spot on Billboard charts, both firsts for gospel music. Jackson's recordings captured the attention of jazz fans in the U.S. and France, and she became the first gospel recording artist to tour Europe. She regularly appeared on television and radio, and performed for many presidents and heads of state, including singing the national anthem at John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Ball in 1961. Motivated by her experiences living and touring in the South and integrating a Chicago neighborhood, she participated in the civil rights movement, singing for fundraisers and at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. She was a vocal and loyal supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. and a personal friend of his family.

Throughout her career Jackson faced intense pressure to record secular music, but turned down high paying opportunities to concentrate on gospel. Completely self-taught, Jackson had a keen sense of instinct for music, her delivery marked by extensive improvisation with melody and rhythm. She was renowned for her powerful contralto voice, range, an enormous stage presence, and her ability to relate to her audiences, conveying and evoking intense emotion during performances. Passionate and at times frenetic, she wept and demonstrated physical expressions of joy while singing.

Her success brought about international interest in gospel music, initiating the "Golden Age of Gospel" making it possible for many soloists and vocal groups to tour and record. Popular music as a whole felt her influence and she is credited with inspiring rhythm and blues, soul, and rock and roll singing styles ... (Wikipedia)

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ESSENTIAL CLASSICS

Vol. 457 Mahalia Jackson (2CD) @FLAC

Carmen McRAE

⬇️ CARMEN McRAE ⬇️
(Carmen Mercedes McRae)
DISCOGRAPHY 1954-2020 (97CD/DVD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

        

Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable.

McRae drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums, enjoying a rich musical career, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

McRae was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home.....

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ESSENTIAL CLASSICS

Vol. 287 Carmen McRae (2CD) @FLAC

Abbey LINCOLN

 ⬇️ ABBEY LINCOLN ⬇️

(Anna Marie Wooldridge)

DISCOGRAPHY 1960-2023 (51LP/CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Anna Marie Wooldridge (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010), known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist and songwriter. She was a civil rights activist beginning in the 1960s. Lincoln made a career out of delivering deeply felt presentations of standards, as well as writing and singing her own material.

Born on August 6, 1930, in Chicago, but raised in Calvin Center, Cass County, Michigan, Lincoln was one of many singers influenced by Billie Holiday. Lincoln's 1956 debut album, Abbey Lincoln's Affair... A Story of a Girl in Love, was followed by a series of albums for Riverside Records.

In 1960, she sang on Max Roach's landmark civil rights-themed recording We Insist! (subtitled Freedom Now Suite), "regarded as the earliest full-scale protest record in jazz", as historian Nat Hentoff observed. Lincoln's lyrics were often connected to the civil rights movement in America. In 1970, the short film Max and Abbey profiled Lincoln as a composer, vocalist, actress, writer, and activist, as well as Roach's creative partner. Stan Lathan directed the documentary, broadcast on Black Journal.

After a tour of Africa in the mid-1970s, she adopted the name Aminata Moseka.

During the 1980s, Lincoln's creative output was smaller and she released only a few albums. Her song "For All We Know" is featured in the 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy. During the 1990s and until her death, she fulfilled a 10-album contract with Verve Records.

These albums are highly regarded and represent a crowning achievement in Lincoln's career. Devil's Got Your Tongue (1992) featured Rodney Kendrick, Grady Tate, Yoron Israel, J.J. Johnson, Stanley Turrentine, Babatunde Olatunji and The Staple Singers, among others. In 2003, Lincoln received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award.

Her lyrics often reflected the ideals of the civil rights movement and helped in generating passion for the cause in the minds of her listeners. In addition to her musical career, she ventured into acting as well and appeared in movies such as The Girl Can't Help It (1958), Nothing But a Man (1964) and For Love of Ivy (1968). Lincoln explored more philosophical themes during the later years of her songwriting career and remained professionally active until well into her seventies. She often visited the Blue Note jazz club in New York City.... (Wikipedia)

Jelly Roll MORTON

⬇️ JELLY ROLL MORTON ⬇️

(Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe)

DISCOGRAPHY 1975-2024 (74 LP/CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (September 20, c. 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre.

Morton also wrote "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last being a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century.

Morton's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 was criticized. Music critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Jelly Roll Morton did himself a lot of harm posthumously by exaggerating his worth...Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really need to stretch the truth." Gunther Schuller says of Morton's "hyperbolic assertions" that there is "no proof to the contrary" and that Morton's "considerable accomplishments in themselves provide reasonable substantiation".

Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe into the Creole community in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans around 1890, and he claimed to have been born in 1885. Both parents traced their Creole ancestry four generations to the 18th century. Morton's birth date and year of birth are uncertain, given that no birth certificate was ever issued for him. The law requiring birth certificates for citizens was not enforced until 1914.

His parents were Edward Joseph (Martin) Lamothe, a bricklayer, and Louise Hermance Monette, a domestic worker. His father left his mother when Morton was three (they were never married). When his mother married William Mouton in 1894, Ferdinand adopted his stepfather's surname, anglicizing it to Morton.

At the age of fourteen, Morton began as a piano player in a brothel. He often sang smutty lyrics and used the nickname "Jelly Roll", which was African-American slang for female genitalia. While working there, he was living with his churchgoing great-grandmother. He convinced her that he worked as a night watchman in a barrel factory. After Morton's grandmother found out he was playing jazz in a brothel, she disowned him for disgracing the Lamothe name.

"When my grandmother found out that I was playing jazz in one of the sporting houses in the District, she told me that I had disgraced the family and forbade me to live at the house...She told me that devil music would surely bring about my downfall...." The cornetist Rex Stewart recalled that Morton had chosen "the nom de plume 'Morton' to protect his family from disgrace if he was identified as a whorehouse 'professor'." ... (Wikipedia)

NEW!

1991-Blues and Stomps from Rare Piano Rolls @FLAC

2002-Saga Jazz- Originator of Jazz @FLAC

2004-Classic Jazz Archive (2CD) @FLAC

2019-After You've Gone @FLAC

2020-Hot Jazz @FLAC

2020-Jazz The Essential Collection Vol.2 @FLAC

2020-The Hot Jazz of Jelly Roll Morton (Remastered) (3CD) @FLAC

2022-Jazz Notes @FLAC

2023-Crazy Cords @FLAC

2023-The Glory of Love @FLAC

2024-A Career Anthology Vol.2 (1929-40) (3CD) @FLAC

2024-The Jelly Roll Blues @FLAC

BD JAZZ

Jelly Roll Morton @FLAC

CHRONOGICAL CLASSICS

Jelly-Roll Morton-Chronogical Classics (1928-29) @FLAC+

Jelly-Roll Morton-Chronogical Classics (1929-30) @FLAC

Willis 'Gator' JACKSON

 ⬇️WILLIS 'Gator' JACKSON⬇️ 

DISCOGRAPHY 1959-2002 (15CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Willis "Gator" Jackson (April 25, 1932 – October 25, 1987) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Born in Miami, Florida, Jackson joined Duke Ellington alumnus Cootie Williams's band in 1949 as a teenager, after being discovered by Eddie Vinson.

During the 1950s he participated in R&B and jazz recordings, primarily as a session musician. He also toured as leader of the backing band of singer Ruth Brown, whom he married. Jackson joined Prestige Records in 1959, making a string of jazz albums which proved to an influence on the burgeoning soul jazz movement.

During this era, Jack McDuff and Pat Martino became famous through association with Jackson. Jackson's main influences were Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet.

Jamaican ska innovator Prince Buster has cited Jackson's song "Later for the Gator" as one of the first ska songs.

Jackson died in New York one week after heart surgery, in October 1987, at the age of 55.

'Brother JACK McDUFF

 'BROTHER' 
⬇️ JACK McDUFF ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1960-2004 (40CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, Illinois, McDuff began playing bass, appearing in Joe Farrell's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 50s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige Records while still with Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson, Red Holloway on saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums.

McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige including his debut solo Brother Jack in 1960, The Honeydripper (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and guitarist Grant Green, and Brother Jack Meets The Boss (1962), featuring Gene Ammons, and Screamin’ (1962).

After his tenure at Prestige, McDuff joined the Atlantic Records label for a brief period and then in the 70s recorded for Blue Note. To Seek a New Home (1970) was recorded in England with a line-up featuring blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and some of Britain's top jazz musicians of the day, including Terry Smith on guitar and Dick Morrissey on tenor sax.

The decreasing interest in jazz and blues during the late 70s and 1980s meant that many jazz musicians went through a lean time and it wasn't until the late 1980s, with The Re-Entry, recorded for the Muse label in 1988, that McDuff once again began a successful period of recordings, initially for Muse, then on the Concord Jazz label from 1991. George Benson appeared on his mentor’s 1992 Colour Me Blue album.

Despite health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and toured Japan with Atsuko Hashimoto in 2000. "Captain" Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at the age of 74 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Eddie 'Lockjaw' DAVIS

⬇️ EDDIE 'Lockjaw' DAVIS ⬇️

(Edward Davis)

DISCOGRAPHY 1955-2012 (43CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Edward Davis (March 2, 1922 – November 3, 1986), who performed and recorded as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Davis played with Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Eddie Bonnemere, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, as well as leading his own bands and making many recordings as a leader. He played in the swing, bop, hard bop, Latin jazz, and soul jazz genres. Some of his recordings of the 1940s also could be classified as rhythm and blues.

His 1946 band, Eddie Davis and His Beboppers, featured Fats Navarro, Al Haig, Huey Long, Gene Ramey and Denzil Best.

In the 1950s he was playing with Sonny Stitt, while from 1960 to 1962 he and fellow tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin led a quintet. From the mid-60s, Davis and Griffin also performed together as part of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, along with other, mainly European, jazz musicians.

Davis may be heard playing on the 1973 CBS album Ella Fitzgerald at the Newport Jazz Festival Live at Carnegie Hall on the song "Young Man with a Horn".

Lou DONALDSON

⬇️ LOU DONALDSON ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1952-2012 (41CD/DVD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.

His first recordings were with the Charlie Singleton Orchestra in 1950 and then with bop emissaries Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk in 1952, and he participated in several small groups with other jazz luminaries such as trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer Art Blakey.

In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown, and Philly Joe Jones. He was a member of Art Blakey's Quintet and appeared on some of their best regarded albums, including the two albums recorded at Birdland in February 1954 Night at Birdland.

He has recorded in the bop, hard bop, and soul jazz genres. For many years his pianist was Herman Foster.

Grant GREEN

⬇️ GRANT GREEN ⬇️
DISCOGRAPHY 1959-2007 (54CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Grant Green (St. Louis, Missouri, June 6, 1935 – New York, January 31, 1979; some sources erroneously give the birth year as 1931) was a jazz guitarist and composer.

Recording prolifically and almost exclusively for Blue Note Records (as both leader and sideman) Green performed well in hard bop, soul jazz, bebop and Latin-tinged settings throughout his career.

Critics Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn write, "A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar ... Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist. Critic Dave Hunter described his sound as "lithe, loose, slightly bluesy and righteously groovy".

He often performed in an organ trio, a small group with an organ and drummer.

Apart from Charlie Christian, Green's primary influences were saxophonists, particularly Charlie Parker, and his approach was therefore almost exclusively linear rather than chordal. The simplicity and immediacy of Green's playing, which tended to avoid chromaticism, derived from his early work playing rhythm and blues and, although at his best he achieved a synthesis of this style with bop, he was essentially a blues guitarist and returned almost exclusively to this style in his later career.

Green used a Gibson ES-330, then a Gibson L7 with a Gibson McCarty pickguard/pick-up, an Epiphone Emperor (with the same pick-up) and finally had a custom built D'Aquisto. George Benson said he would turn all the bass and treble off the amp, and max the midrange. This way he could get his signature punchy, biting tone.

Sam 'The Man' TAYLOR

⬇️ SAM 'The Man' TAYLOR ⬇️

DISCOGRAPHY 1957-2015 (35CD)

 BIOGRAPHY 

Sam Taylor (July 12, 1916 – October 5, 1990) best known as the tenor saxophonist Sam "The Man" Taylor, was an American jazz and blues player, whose honking style set the standard for tenor sax solos in both rock and roll and rhythm and blues.

Taylor attended Alabama State University, where he played with the Bama State Collegians. He worked with Scatman Crothers, Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Buddy Johnson, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner. He was one of the most requested session saxophone players in New York recording studios in the 1950s.

Taylor also replaced Count Basie as the house bandleader on Alan Freed's 'Camel Rock 'n Roll Dance Party' radio series over CBS.

Taylor's saxophone solo appeared on Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll". He also played on "Money Honey", recorded by Clyde McPhatter with The Drifters in 1953, and on "Sh-Boom" by The Chords.

During the 1960s, he led a five-piece band, the Blues Chasers. In the 1970s, he frequently played and recorded in Japan.

Taylor died in 1990 in Lexington, Tennessee.