4/5/2011
The motorcycle revving, the startled cry of the protagonist, the somber bass drum beat following the inevitable accident - all of these contribute to one of pop's mini-masterpieces, the Shangri-Las' "L …
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4/5/2011
New Jack Swing wasn't just about sound; it was about style - a fashion sense that blended hip-hop with Harlem Renaissance; a whole roll call of syncopated dance moves, from the Running Man to the Roger …
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4/5/2011
Two decades away from New Jack's heyday, there remains a whole lot of hard-grooving history to uncover, beyond the handful of hits you still hear today. Father MC's "I'll Do 4 U" not only wrapped hip-h …
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4/5/2011
Who would've guessed that Willie Nelson would dip into Hoagy Carmichael's song bag for one of his most beloved tunes? Or that Natalie Cole would team with her late father for a truly "Unforgettable" pe …
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4/5/2011
The melding of electric rock and funk and soul elements to jazz, fusion has been as controversial as it's been popular. On the heels of Miles Davis' classic Bitches Brew, a number of his sidemen …
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4/5/2011
Lester Young and John Coltrane came from the South, Charlie Parker and Wardell Gray from the Midwest, Art Pepper and Paul Desmond from California, Sonny Rollins from New York. During the '50s, they wer …
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4/5/2011
Jump blues crossed the color line when it was still unfashionable - and even a little dangerous - to do so. With white practitioners such as Louis Prima and black artists like Louis Jordan, it directly …
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4/5/2011
The late-'90s revival of house music wasn't a surprise so much as inevitable, what with artists like Basement Jaxx and Herbert taking the genre's 4/4 pulse into uncharted, cross-breeding territories. K …
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4/5/2011
No humans were harmed in the making of "Leave Me Now," but Matthew Herbert did manage to sample hair, skin, and organs (the internal kind) in his pursuit of synchronized clicks and cuts. He's not the o …
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