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블루스 명곡모음 앨범 전곡듣기 Feel the Blues Vol.Ⅶ-2
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Macy Gray - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Macy Gray parlayed an utterly unique voice and an outlandish sense of style into R&B stardom at the turn of the millennium, appealing to audiences of all colors in search of a fresh alternative to mainstream soul. Gray was actually born Natalie McIntyre in Canton, OH, and grew up a shy, awkward youngster who was frequently teased about her odd-sounding voice. She studied classical piano for seven years, but also soaked up the music of soul legends like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Aretha Franklin, not to mention old-school hip-hop; at boarding school as a teenager, she was exposed to a variety of white rock & roll as well. She moved to Los Angeles to enroll in USC's screenwriting program, where one day she agreed to write lyrics for a musician friend's original songs. A demo session was scheduled to get the songs on tape, and when the singer failed to show up, Gray -- having adopted the full name of an elderly neighbor in Canton as her creative alias -- wound up singing on the recordings herself, in spite of her distaste for her own voice. one of the songs was never overdubbed with another vocal, and when the tapes started making the rounds of the local music scene, Gray's raspy growl attracted a lot of attention, much to her surprise. She was offered a job singing jazz and pop standards with a band that performed in hotels around Los Angeles, and her continued work as a demo singer created a buzz around the unlikely diva.
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Gray organized an after-hours club called the We Ours, which took place in a small coffeehouse; in addition to welcoming open-mike acts, Gray and her jazz group performed there regularly. She signed with Atlantic Records, who declined to release the album she recorded for them. Devastated by this rejection and the breakup of her marriage (her third child was on the way at the time), Gray retreated to Canton. However, her demo tape continued to make the rounds, and she returned to L.A. to accept a publishing deal with Zomba. This in turn helped lead to a new record contract with Epic in April 1998, and Gray spent the next year recording what was to become her debut album, On How Life Is. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is won glowing reviews and great word of mouth, but in spite of all that -- plus a moderate hit single in "Do Something" -- the record was initially slow to catch on. That all changed early the next year, when Gray received two Grammy nominations (for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal), and the single "I Try" started to take off on radio. "I Try" proved to be an enormous hit, and On How Life Is suddenly sold like hotcakes, entering the Top Ten and going triple platinum by the end of 2000. Gray scored a smaller follow-up hit with "Why Don't You Call Me," and also raised eyebrows with the album track "I've Committed Murder," in which the protagonist gets away with her crime. Although Gray lost out her first time at the Grammys, she was nominated again the following year for Best Female Pop Vocal thanks to "I Try," and this time won (although the song lost out on Record of the Year and Song of the Year honors).
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In late 2000, Gray contributed two vocal tracks to Fatboy Slim's Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars album; she subsequently recorded with the Black Eyed Peas, cut a duet with rap legend Slick Rick for the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack ("The World Is Yours"), and made her screen acting debut in the Denzel Washington police drama Training Day. By the time she had begun work on her second album, Gray was developing a reputation for surreal public appearances and interviews, culminating in an August 2001 incident in which she was booed for apparently stumbling over the lyrics to the national anthem. Released the following month, The Id was a determined effort to play up the crazy side of Gray's image; it entered the charts at number 11 and quickly went gold on the strength of lead single "Sweet Baby." However, in spite of guest appearances by Erykah Badu and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante, among others, its sales stalled much sooner than expected. During 2002, Gray appeared as herself in the blockbuster film Spider-Man and also guested on Santana's Shaman. one year later, her third album -- The Trouble with Being Myself -- arrived on the shelves, although it was also a flop in commercial terms (it just barely missed the Top 40). With a new production team, including will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas and his confederate Ron Fair, Gray returned with a slicker, Tom Joyner-approved version of soul on 2007's Big, featuring collaborations with Natalie Cole and BEP's Fergie. It didn't perform much better on the charts; it debuted (and peaked) at number 39. The Sellout, a 2010 release on the Concord label, featured some self-composed songs and guest spots for Bobby Brown and the Velvet Revolver.
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Album Title: on How Life Is [1999년] |
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1 Why Didn't You Call Me 3:14
2 Do Something 4:57
3 Caligula 4:38
4 I Try 3:59
5 Sex-O-Matic Venus Freak 3:57
6 I Can't Wait to Meetchu 5:18
7 Still 4:15 
8 I've Committed Murder 4:59
9 A Moment to Myself 4:00
10 The Letter 5:38 |
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Album Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Macy Gray is such an assured, original vocalist that it's hard to believe On How Life Is is her debut album. She recalls a number of other vocalists, particularly jazz singers like Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, but she is unquestionably from the post-hip-hop generation, which is evident not just from the sound of the record, but the style of her songwriting, which is adventurous and unpredictable. Thankfully, she's worked with a producer (Andrew Slater, who pulled a similar trick with Fiona Apple's debut, Tidal) that lets her run wild and helps her find sounds that match her ideas. That's not to say that On How Life Is is a perfect album -- at times, Gray attempts more than she can achieve -- but it's always captivating, even during its stumbles. And when it works, it soars higher than most contemporary R&B. |
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Gene Deer - Discography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Album Title: Livin' With The Blues [1998년]
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1 Just Shoulda' Lay'd Off'a the Booze 2:40
2 Too Far Gone 4:59
3 I Want Out 4:22
4 one Foot on the Road 3:41
5 Good With the Bad 4:18
6 Livin' With the Blues 5:29 
7 Smokestack Lightning 4:31
8 Potato Soup 3:19
9 Can't Afford to Pay the Rent 4:21
10 Blues in the Afternoon 3:56
11 Morristown 3:49
12 Dream 4:48 |
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[ 참 조 ] ▒ ▒ ▒ Mike Zito - Discography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Album Title: Superman [2006년]
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Album Title: America's Most Wanted [2006년]
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Album Title: Slow It Down [2006년] |
Album Title: Today [2008년] |
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Album Title: Pearl River [2009년] |
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[ 참 조 ] ▒ ▒ ▒ Blues Etílicos - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
The Blues Etílicos is the best-selling Brazilian blues band. In 1987, the group had its formation changed with the inclusion of guitarist/vocalist Greg Wilson and drummer Gil Eduardo. The first album came in 1988, Blues Etílicos (Satisfaction), and immediately sold out, being re-released on CD in 1996. Blending Brazilian rhythms with rock and blues, the group continued its trajectory after the founder Flávio Guimarães began to develop his solo career in 1995. Having recorded a total of six albums, Dente de Ouro (1996) brings capoeira and baião sounds in their singular blues-rock mix. The band's biggest hit is "Safra de 63."
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Album Title: Ao Vivo [2002년]
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Album Title: Cor Do Universo [2003년] |
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Koko Taylor - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
블루스의 여왕 코코 테일러(Koko Taylor)가 80세(2009년 6월 현재) 나이로 생을 마감했다.
블루스 레코드 레이블인 엘리게이터 레코드(Alligator Records)는 3일(이하 현지시각) 홈페이지를 통해 그녀가 고향인 미국 시카고에서 사망했다고 발표했다. AP는 테일러의 음반사인 앨리게이터 레코드의 홍보 담당자인 마크 립킨의 말을 인용해 테일러가 위장 출혈로 수술을 받은 지 약 2주 만인 3일 노스웨스턴 메모리얼 병원에서 사망했다고 이날 보도했다.
테일러의 음악 경력은 50년여에 이른다. 그녀는 광범위한 주류에서 성공하지 못했지만 많은 블루스 애호가로부터 존경받고 사랑받았다. 베스트 셀링 곡인 '왕 당 두들(Wang Dang Doodle)'을 비롯해 '왓 카인드 오브 맨 이즈 디스(What Kind of Man is This)', '아이 갓 왓 잇 테이크스(I Got What It Takes)' 등 그녀의 곡들은 전세계적으로 인정받았다.
생전 "블루스는 나의 인생"이라고 말한 테일러는 1년에 적어도 100회의 공연을 펼쳤다. 총 8번 그래미 어워드 후보에 오른 그녀는 1984년에 수상했다.
윌리 딕슨에게 발탁돼 1960년대 데뷔한 코코 테일러는 1965년 발매한 첫 싱글 'Wang Dang Doodle'을 빅히트시키며 블루스의 길을 걸었다. 1975년 엘리게이터 레코드사로 옮긴 코코 테일러는 2007년 발매한 '올드 스쿨(Old School)'까지 이 레코드사에서 총 9장의 앨범을 발매했다.
지난 2009년 5월 7일 '29회 블루스 뮤직어워드(Blues Music Award)'에 참석한 것이 코코 테일러의 마지막 모습이었으며, 그녀는 당시 올해의 여성 블루스 아티스트상을 수상했다.
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Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age. Taylor's rough, raw vocals were perfect for the swaggering new electrified era of the blues, and her massive hit "Wang Dang Doodle" served notice that male dominance in the blues wasn't as exclusive as it seemed. After a productive initial stint on Chess, Taylor spent several decades on the prominent contemporary blues label Alligator, going on to win more W.C. Handy Awards than any other female performer in history, and establishing herself as far and away the greatest female blues singer of her time.
Koko was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1928, on a sharecropper's farm in Memphis, TN. Her mother died in 1939, and she and her siblings grew up helping their father in the fields; she got the nickname "Koko" because of her love of chocolate. Koko began singing gospel music in a local Baptist church; inspired by the music they heard on the radio, she and her siblings also played blues on makeshift instruments. In 1953, Koko married truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor and moved with him to Chicago to look for work; settling on the South Side, Pops worked in a slaughterhouse and Koko got a job as a housemaid. The Taylors often played blues songs together at night, and frequented the bustling South Side blues clubs whenever they could; Pops encouraged Koko to sit in with some of the bands, and her singing -- which reflected not only the classic female blues shouters, but contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf -- quickly made a name for her. In 1962, Taylor met legendary Chess Records songwriter/producer/bassist Willie Dixon, who was so impressed with her live performance that he took her under his wing. He produced her 1963 debut single, "Honky Tonky," for the small USA label, then secured her a recording contract with Chess.
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Taylor made her recording debut for Chess in 1964 and hit it big the following year with the Dixon-penned "Wang Dang Doodle," which sold over a million copies and hit number four on the R&B charts. It became her signature song forever after, and it was also the last Chess single to hit the R&B Top Ten. Demand for Taylor's live act skyrocketed, even though none of her follow-ups sold as well, and as the blues audience began to shift from black to white, the relatively new Taylor became one of the first Chicago blues artists to command a following on the city's white-dominated North Side. Eventually, she and her husband were able to quit their day jobs, and he served as her manager; she also put together a backing band called the Blues Machine. With the release of two albums -- 1969's Koko Taylor, which featured a number of her previous singles; and 1972's Basic Soul -- Taylor's live gigs kept branching out further and further from Chicago, and when she played the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, the resulting live album on Atlantic helped bring her to a more national audience.
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By the early '70s, Chess Records was floundering financially, and eventually went under in 1975. Taylor signed with a then-young Chicago-based label called Alligator, which grew into one of America's most prominent blues labels over the years. Taylor debuted for Alligator in 1975 with I Got What It Takes, an acclaimed effort that garnered her first Grammy nomination. Her 1978 follow-up, The Earthshaker, featured several tunes that became staples of her live show, including "I'm a Woman" and "Hey Bartender," and her popularity on the blues circuit just kept growing in spite of the music's commercial decline. In 1980, she won the first of an incredible string of W.C. Handy Awards (for Best Contemporary Female Artist), and over the next two decades, she would capture at least one more almost every year (save for 1989, 1997, and 1998). 1981 brought From the Heart of a Woman, and in 1984, Taylor won her first Grammy thanks to her appearance on Atlantic's various-artists compilation Blues Explosion, which was named Best Traditional Blues Album. She followed that success with the guest-laden Queen of the Blues in 1985, which won her a couple extra Handy Awards for Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year (no "female" qualifier attached). In 1987, she released her first domestic live album, Live in Chicago: An Audience With the Queen.
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Tragedy struck in 1988. Taylor broke her shoulder, collarbone, and several ribs in a van accident while on tour, and her husband went into cardiac arrest; although Pops survived for the time being, his health was never the same, and he passed away some months later. After recuperating, Taylor made a comeback at the annual Chicago Blues Festival, and in 1990 she issued Jump for Joy, as well as making a cameo appearance in the typically bizarre David Lynch film Wild at Heart. Taylor followed it in 1993 with the aptly titled Force of Nature, after which she took a seven-year hiatus from recording; during that time, she remarried and continued to tour extensively, maintaining the stature she'd achieved with her '80s work as the living Queen of the Blues. In 2000, she finally returned with a new album, Royal Blue, which featured a plethora of guest stars: B.B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnnie Johnson, and Keb' Mo'. Health issues forced another seven-year hiatus before she returned with the album Old School in 2007. Koko Taylor died in Chicago in June 2009 after experiencing complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding. She was 80 years old.
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Album Title: Royal Blue [2000년]
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1 Save Your Breath 4:09
2 Hittin' on Me 3:32
3 Bring Me Some Water 5:21
4 But on the Other Hand Baby 4:43
5 Don't Let Me Catch You (WithYour Drawers Down) 4:12
6 Blues Hotel 4:04 
7 Fuel to Burn 3:51
8 The Man Next Door 5:15
9 Old Woman 4:31
10 Ernestine 5:04
11 Keep Your Booty Out of My Bed 4:38
12 Keep Your Mouth Shut and Your Eyes Open 3:48 |
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Album Review by Al Campbell
Royal Blue is the first Alligator release from Koko Taylor since 1993's Grammy nominated Force of Nature. This is a mainly up-tempo set with excellent support from several guest appearances by B.B. King, Johnny Johnson, Ken Saydak, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd who contributes some scorching guitar on the Melissa Ethridge-penned hit "Bring Me Some Water." Taylor not only co-produced this release but wrote four of the 12 tracks, including the acoustic "The Man Next Door." on this track, the combination of Koko's passionate voice with Keb Mo's gritty Delta slide guitar makes you wish she would move further in this direction on future releases. Royal Blue proves Koko Taylor is still the undisputed queen of the blues. |
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