Music Artists

Posts Tagged ‘Band’

“The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time (although some may vote for Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday). Blessed with a beautiful voice and a wide range, Fitzgerald could outswing anyone, was a brilliant scat singer, and had near-perfect elocution; one could always understand the words she sang. The one fault was that, since she always sounded so happy to be singing, Fitzgerald did not always dig below the surface of the lyrics she interpreted and she even made a downbeat song such as “Love for Sale” sound joyous. However, when one evaluates her career on a whole, there is simply no one else in her class.One could never guess from her singing that Ella Fitzgerald ’s early days were as grim as Billie Holiday’s. Growing up in poverty, Fitzgerald was literally homeless for the year before she got her big break. In 1934, she appeared at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, winning an amateur contest by singing “Judy” in the style of her idol, Connee Boswell. After a short stint with Tiny Bradshaw, Fitzgerald was brought to the attention of Chick Webb by Benny Carter (who was in the audience at the Apollo). Webb, who was not impressed by the 17-year-old’s appearance, was reluctantly persuaded to let her sing with his orchestra on a one-nighter. She went over well and soon the drummer recognized her commercial potential. Starting in 1935, Fitzgerald began recording with Webb’s Orchestra, and by 1937 over half of the band’s selections featured her voice. “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” became a huge hit in 1938 and “Undecided” soon followed. During this era, Fitzgerald was essentially a pop/swing singer who was best on ballads while her medium-tempo performances were generally juvenile novelties. She already had a beautiful voice but did not improvise or scat much; that would develop later.On June 16, 1939, Chick Webb died. It was decided that Fitzgerald would front the orchestra even though she had little to do with the repertoire or hiring or firing the musicians. She retained her popularity and when she broke up the band in 1941 and went solo; it was not long before her Decca recordings contained more than their share of hits. She was teamed with the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys for some best-sellers, and in 1946 began working regularly for Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic. Granz became her manager although it would be nearly a decade before he could get her on his label. A major change occurred in Fitzgerald’s singing around this period. She toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, adopted bop as part of her style, and started including exciting scat-filled romps in her set. Her recordings of “Lady Be Good,” “How High the Moon,” and “Flying Home” during 1945-1947 became popular and her stature as a major jazz singer rose as a result. For a time (December 10, 1947-August 28, 1953) she was married to bassist Ray Brown and used his trio as a backup group. Fitzgerald’s series of duets with pianist Ellis Larkins in 1950 (a 1954 encore with Larkins was a successful follow-up) found her interpreting George Gershwin songs, predating her upcoming Songbooks series.After appearing in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues in 1955, Fitzgerald signed with Norman Granz’s Verve label and over the next few years she would record extensive Songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer. Although (with the exception of the Ellington sets) those were not her most jazz-oriented projects (Fitzgerald stuck mostly to the melody and was generally accompanied by string orchestras), the prestigious projects did a great deal to uplift her stature. At the peak of her powers around 1960, Fitzgerald’s hilarious live version of “Mack the Knife” (in which she forgot the words and made up her own) from Ella in Berlin is a classic and virtually all of her Verve recordings are worth getting.Fitzgerald’s Capitol and Reprise recordings of 1967-1970 are not on the same level as she attempted to “update” her singing by including pop songs such as “Sunny” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” sounding quite silly in the process. But Fitzgerald’s later years were saved by Norman Granz’s decision to form a new label, Pablo. Starting with a Santa Monica Civic concert in 1972 that is climaxed by Fitzgerald’s incredible version of “C Jam Blues” (in which she trades off with and “battles” five classic jazzmen), Fitzgerald was showcased in jazz settings throughout the 1970s with the likes of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass, among others. Her voice began to fade during this era and by the 1980s her decline due to age was quite noticeable. Troubles with her eyes and heart knocked her out of action for periods of time, although her increasingly rare appearances found Fitzgerald still retaining her sense of swing and joyful style. By 1994, Ella Fitzgerald was in retirement and she passed away two years later, but she remains a household name and scores of her recordings are easily available on CD. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
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Say Anything is the pop-punk brainchild of singer/songwriter Max Bemis, who founded the band while its initial members were still attending high school in Los Angeles. Although the lineup has featured rotating cast of characters throughout its existence, Bemis remains at the band’s core, spinning tales of insecurity and frustation with help from longtime drummer Coby Linder. Say Anything first appeared with two self-released and self-produced EPs — Junior Varsity! and Menorah/Majora, the latter being released online — and a full-length album, 2003’s Baseball. These releases saw the band leaning toward the emo rock/pop-punk formula made popular by bands like blink-182 and Saves the Day. Bemis soon grew tired of the genre and revamped his band’s sound for …Is a Real Boy, their debut on Doghouse Records in 2004. A self-described punk rock musical, the album was fittingly produced by Tim O’Heir (Dinosaur Jr., the All-American Rejects) and Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), with Bemis playing nearly every instrument on the record. Bemis’ bipolar disorder proved to be increasingly disruptive, however, plaguing both the recording of the album and its aftermath. Struggled with crippling stress, the singer suffered a nervous breakdown that ultimately led Say Anything to drop off two tours in 2005, including an opening slot with the band’s idols, Saves the Day. Despite the setback, the band signed with J Records that same year and reissued …Is a Real Boy in February 2006. The re-release boasted two discs, pairing the original record with a bonus EP containing demos, re-recordings of previous songs, and sessions from a never-released AIDS benefit record. A national headlining tour followed the reissue, and the single “Alive with the Glory of Love” found some success on radio and the MTV networks. Momentum continued to build as the band toured into 2007, eventually pairing with Saves the Day for a second attempt at touring. The effort was successful this time around, and Say Anything released a two-disc concept album, In Defense of the Genre, that October. ~ Corey Apar & Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
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A Day to Remember is a post-hardcore band from Ocala, Florida, formed in 2003. Their music generally consists of growled verses, clean pop-punk style choruses and breakdowns.

Early years (2003-2006)
After all playing in different bands in the Ocala music scene, singer Jeremy McKinnon, guitarists Neil Westfall and Tom Denney, bassist Joshua Woodard, and drummer Bobby Scruggs came together in 2003. Soon after, the band embarked on a “DIY” tour, playing well over 200 shows, making a name for themselves. They were signed to Indianola Records, from which they recorded their first full length, titled And Their Name Was Treason in May 2005. The album sold 8,000 copies on word of mouth alone, but the band felt that bigger and better things were to come. “A friend of mine said he had the AIM screenname of someone at Victory Records,” Woodard said. “I didn’t believe him, but I still started communicating with the guy. We IM’ed back and forth for about six months, and it happened that we were playing with the band On The Last Day in a town outside of Chicago—and this guy was going to be there filming it. It was our first time we ever played in Illinois, yet the 50-60 kids there were singing along to our tunes like they’d been fans all their lives.

Victory Records (2007-present)
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Power pop quintet The Click Five formed in Boston in mid-2003. Lead guitarist Joe Guese, bassist Ethan Mentzer, and keyboardist Ben Romans were students at the Berklee School of Music when they captured the attention of svengali manager Wayne Sharp, a longtime jazz promoter whose first attempt at creating a pinup-ready pop combo, Candy (featuring future Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke), ended in commercial disaster when the group’s hotly tipped 1985 debut, Whatever Happened to Fun, flopped at retail. After signing Guese, Mentzer, and Romans, Sharp added another Berklee student, drummer Joey Zehr, who recommended childhood friend Eric Dill to fill the band’s frontman slot. Upon receiving their Sharp-issued matching mod-influenced suits and salon-styled haircuts, the Click Five began honing their chops on the Boston nightclub circuit, and in the spring of 2004 cut their first two-song demo session. A four-song tape quickly followed, and within a month the group signed to Lava Records, soon after touring the U.S. in support of Ashlee Simpson and releasing an EP, Angel to You (Devil to Me). The Click Five’s debut LP, Greetings from Imrie House, followed in the summer of 2005 amid a flurry of licensed lunchboxes, trading cards, and hair products. The album was also supported via tour dates in support of the Backstreet Boys. After replacing Dill with singer/guitarist (and fellow Berklee alum) Kyle Patrick, Modern Minds and Pastimes followed in 2007. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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Leslie Feist (born February 13, 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia) is a canadian singer. She performs as a solo artist under the name Feist and also as a member of Broken Social Scene.

Raised in Regina and Calgary, Feist got her start in music as the lead vocalist for a punk band called Placebo (not the more famous British band Placebo), who won a local Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded the opening slot at a Ramones concert. After five years of touring, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from voice damage. She moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1998 and took up guitar; by 1999, she was the guitarist for By Divine Right. She also released her debut solo album, Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down), that year. The album was financed by a grant from the Canadian government.

In 2000, Feist moved in as a roommate with Peaches and Gonzales, and appeared as a guest vocalist on The Teaches of Peaches and Presidential Suite. She then joined the recording sessions for Broken Social Scene’s albums Feel Good Lost and You Forgot It in People.

Feist then moved to Paris, and while in Europe, she collaborated with Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience as a guest vocalist on their album Riot on an Empty Street. Feist recorded her second solo album, Let It Die, in Paris in 2002 and 2003. That album, a combination of jazz and bossa nova was hailed as one of the best Canadian pop albums of 2004 and got her two Juno Awards (The Canadian equivalent of the Grammys). This album also helped her to gain a significant international audience.
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