The man has dozens of albums and for years has made constantly different music on each. I've seen Gate go from hard core country to western swing to modern jazz with the 'greatest of ease'. He admired only one other musician, Duke Ellington and as a musical genius Gate does him proud.
I guess you only get this good by doing it for a lifetime. Composer, arranger, band leader, performer. Genius.
Until Berry Gordy founded Motown in 1960, Don Robey's Duke-Peacock, and its several subsidiary labels, was the largest black-owned record company inAmerica. Sonically, it was a diverse outfit. Robey never confined his roster to regional artists, and he released all styles of blues, soul, R&B and gospel, and even dabbled in jazz and white rock 'n' roll. As with other black-oriented indies, the emphasis was on singles, and the label produced its fair share of… more »
In the 19th century, the most popular instruments played by black musicians in America were the banjo and the fiddle, and black and white string bands had virtually indistinguishable sounds. By the early days of the recording industry, though, both were on the way out. Yet the fiddle in particular was still prevalent enough that a fair number of black players were recorded, particularly in blues and jazz, and that's a good thing. With its… more »
