(Vocals, b. 1932) Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (named after the revered Civil War general) was born in Emerson, North Carolina. He grew up in poverty and suffered physical abuse at the hands of a cruel stepfather. After running away from home at 15 and serving a four-year stint in the US Navy, Jackson worked as a sharecropper in Georgia ...
(Vocals, banjo, c. 1890–1938) New Orleans-born Charlie Jackson brought a jazzman’s sophistication to an instrument still too often overlooked by blues historians. He alternated single-string solos with percussive chording and dexterous fingerpicking, allowing him to bridge styles and genres with rare facility. He released more than 60 sides of his own, and he also recorded with Freddie ...
(Tenor saxophone, vocals, 1919–89) Benjamin Joseph Jackson was born in Cleveland, Ohio and replaced Wynonie Harris as male vocalist with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra in 1945. From 1947 until the late 1950s he toured with his own group, the Buffalo Bearcats. He recorded for Queen/King from 1945; among his biggest hits were ‘I Love You, Yes ...
(Vibraphone, 1923–99) Milt Jackson diverged from his two great predecessors on vibes, Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, by developing a linear, rhythmically inflected approach rooted in bebop rather than swing. He preferred the slightly larger vibraharp to the more familiar vibraphone, and adjusted the oscillator to give a trademark rich, warm sound. He recorded as ...
(Vocals, b. 1937) Born in Maud, Oklahoma, Jackson was discovered by Hank Thompson and first recorded country for Decca in 1954. After appearing on shows with Elvis Presley and a label switch to Capitol, she cut several rockabilly classics. Jackson introduced much-needed glamour to the largely male world of rockabilly, and her rasping vocal style is ...
(Vocals, songwriter, guitar, b. 1958) Georgia-born Jackson moved to Nashville in 1985. His rise to fame came after a chance meeting between his wife, Denise, and Glen Campbell, and before long, he was a staff songwriter at Campbell’s music-publishing company. A traditionalist blue-collar act, he was the first signing to Arista’s Nashville branch ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1964–90, 2001, 2012–present) The last great Motown pop group, the brothers Jackson – Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Michael – signed in 1968 and were groomed for a year before their debut single ‘I Want You Back’ shot to US No. 1, followed by four more chart toppers in a row ...
(Vocals, b. 1966) Jackson’s music career started slowly, though she performed with the family firm aged seven. The youngest of The Jacksons of Michael etc. fame, she was also a child actor but it was her third collection Control (1986), which gained her musical recognition. Produced by ace production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – as all ...
(Vocals, b. 1954) Sharp-suited keyboardist and singer Jackson, from Portsmouth, rode the new wave with quirky love songs such as ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him’, and a varied US Top 20 album Look Sharp (1979). He then reverted to his musical background in jazz. With 1981’s Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive he updated big band swing. More ...
The self-proclaimed ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson (1958–2009) was the biggest star of the 1980s following the success of Thriller (1982), which remains the world’s best-selling album with sales of more than 110 million. The King Of Pop The youngest member of The Jackson Five, Jackson signed a solo deal in 1971 with Motown Records, aged 13. Within a ...
(Vocals, piano, guitar, 1945–2003) Kentucky-born Stewart first recorded in 1964, and was a member of rock band The Amps. He co-wrote Stonewall Jackson’s 1965 country hit, ‘Poor Red Georgia Dirt’, and several for Billy Walker and others before signing to RCA in 1973. His first country hit was a cover of The Allman Brothers Band’s ‘Ramblin’ ...
(Vocals, banjo, songwriter, 1939–2001) New York City-born, St. Louis, Missouri-raised John Hartford first made his mark in Nashville when he wrote and recorded a whimsical ballad called ‘Gentle On My Mind’, which became a massive country and pop hit for Glen Campbell in 1967. In the early 1970s, Hartford gravitated towards bluegrass music and emerged ...
The names of this array of landmark artists whose music either straddled or transcended specific genres, – Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Charley Pride and Buck Owens among others – have become synonymous with country music. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, country’s popularity penetrated ...
The Nashville sound, which has been as much praised as maligned, was a classic example of Nashville’s burgeoning record industry flexing its newfound muscles and making an intentional grab at the brass ring of increased record sales. Occasionally called ‘crossover country’, ‘easy-listening country’ or ‘countrypolitan’, the Nashville sound was as much a product of commercial calculation as artistic inspiration. ...
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started out in 1966 as a student jug band in Los Angeles, and in an early incarnation it included a teenage Jackson Browne. Among the group’s founder members was singer and guitarist Jeff Hanna. Both Hanna and multi-instrumentalist Jimmie Fadden are still Dirt Band members 40 years on. The extremely ambitious Will The Circle Be ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.