On the Airs

allmusic: The child of a Sephardic Jew and a Trinidadian Creole, pianist and vocalist Belasco made his first recording in Trinidad in 1914. He was one of the artists responsible for the hybrid of styles–taken from disparate sources including European classical music, waltzes, jazz, pop, and African and Caribbean folk music–that became known as calypso.

Cecilia Todd : This exceptional voice of the Venezuelan and Latin-American singing was born in Caracas. When she was four, she started playing the cuatro, instrument which she soon would master to perfection and which, completes her musical personality.

OLDIES.com : The Jesters were representative of the classic New York style of doo-wop characterized as ‘greasy’, in which the vocal harmony was in a rock ‘n’ roll style, extremely expressive, loaded with exotic flourishes, and usually supporting a falsetto lead.

Marilyn Lerner : Exhilarating jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her groundbreaking recordings have garnered recognition, including “Best Western Jazz Recording 2004” for her “Special Angel” duo with legendary guitarist Sonny Greenwich.

Tom Simon : Gogi Grant was a very good singer in the 50’s and 60’s, and beyond. She is most closely identified with a giant hit that she recorded for Era Records in the mid-50’s. In 1955 Gogi Grant, as she was now known, signed with Era Records. In the Fall of that year, recording with an orchestra conducted by Buddy Bregman, she managed to put her first record for Era in the top ten, Suddenly There’s A Valley. She followed that with The Wayward Wind, a song about a lost love that became a monster hit, rising to the number one spot in June, 1956 and remaining there for eight weeks.

McCoy Tynerr : McCoy Tynerr’s second release for the McCoy Tynerr Music label is scheduled for a summer 2008 release. The recording features the stellar rhythm section of Tyner, Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette with four modern guitarists (and one banjo) of our time: Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, and Bela Fleck.

Harry Owens on Wikipedia : The big turning point in his career came in 1934 with his arrival in Hawaii and his appointment as music director of The Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He set to learning all he could about the local culture by mixing and working with native Hawaiians. He learned many traditional and more modern Hawaiian songs and tunes which he wrote down and orchestrated using Western notation for the first time. Many had never been written down before, much less orchestrated.

The Hard Bop Homepage : The Three Sounds were part of the trio explosion. Begun in 1956 in Benton Harbor, Michigan as the Four Sounds and consisting of Gene Harris on piano, Andrew Simpkins on bass and Bill Dowdy on drums (the saxophonist was dropped by the time the group moved to Washington, D.C. in 1957). The “Sounds” eventually migrated to New York City where they were ‘discovered’ by Lou Donaldson.

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