Musicians Flashcards
Louis Armstrong
A very popular jazz singer and trumpeteer who grew up in New Orleans and began his jazz career in Chicago, eventually starting as the trumpeteer in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He started the jazz tradition of the solo with his improvised solos when he was playing in an ensemble. He also started the jazz music style of scat, wherein the singer replaces words in a song with nonsense syllables, and started a movement of this new singing.
Count Basie
Helped launch the swing era by playing in a big band, which started at Kansas City’s Reno Club. helped his popular Orchestra for almost 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump” and “April In Paris”.
The Beatles
A rock ‘n’ roll singing group from Liverpool, England that was phenomenally popular in the middle and late 1960s. The intense devotion of the groups fans, especially the hysterical screaming that the group provoked in large crowds of large teenagers was called ______mania. The four members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Among their many popular songs, most of which were written by Lennon and McCartney, were “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Hey, Jude.”
Irving Berlin
A twentieth-century American writer of popular songs (words and music). His songs include “God Bless America,” “White Christmas,” and “There’s no Business like Show Business.”
Chuck Berry
An African-American rock ‘n’ roll musician and composer, who influenced many musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Beatles and Bob Dyan.
Ray Charles
Known as the “Genius of Soul”; songwriter, arranger, keyboard player, and vocalist fluent in R&B, jazz, and mainstream pop.
Scott Joplin
An African-American ragtime pianist and composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer” are two of his best-known works.
Richard Rodgers
Composer of Oklahoma!, collaborated sometimes with Hart or Hammerstein composed for films and television. Best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. Compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day and have an enduring broad appeal.
Cole Porter
A twentieth-century American songwriter. His songs, such as “Anything Goes,” “I Get a Kick out of You” and “I’ve Got You Under my Skin,” are renowned for their witty, sophisticated lyrics.
George Gershwin
A twentieth-century American composer known for putting elements of Jazz into forms of classical music, such as the concerto. His works include Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and the music to the opera Porgy and Bess. Together with his brother, Ira, he wrote many musical comedies.
Bing Crosby
A twentieth-century American singer and actor. He appeared several times in films with Fred Astaire and Bob Hope and received an Academy award for his part in Going My ay in 1944. His most successful song recording was “White Christmas.”
Al Jolson
United States singer (born in Russia) who appeared in the first full-length talking film (1886-1950) Used blackface in performance.
Mamie Smith
-first female African American to record vocal blues recordings
Gertrude Rainey
Popularly known as the “Mother of the Blues,” was the first of the great women blues singers and had a direct influence on Bessie Smith.
Bessie Smith
Powerful, influential blues singer in the 1920’s, “Empress of Blues”
Blind Lemon Jefferson
East texas style, country blues.
Woody Guthrie
an American singer-songwriter, Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression.
Fletcher Henderson
pianist and composer; created first big band and was very commercially successful; first black musician to be hired by white band
Frank Sinatra
An American singer and actor. Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, ___ became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the “bobby soxers.”
Muddy Waters
Chicago; blues; guitar/singer; delta blues - in 1930s - field recording traditional blues; “Electric Blues” - rock guitar style; slide guitar (bottle neck)
