Famous Artists of Soul Music:

Otis Redding

Like way too many of the soul legends on this list, Otis Redding died tragically
young. He was just 26 when his plane crashed into a Wisconsin field following
a Cleveland concert. Months earlier he was introduced to a wider audience
when he played a now-legendary set at the Monterey Pop Festival, and days
earlier he had finished work on "(Sittin' On The) Dock Of The Bay" which
went on to become the most famous song of his career. The Georgia native cut
most of his most famous songs including "I Can't Turn You Loose," "That's
How Strong My Love Is" and "Try A Little Tenderness" with the Stax house
band Booker T. & the MGs.

Al Green

Al Green was raised on the music of Sam

Cooke, Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson. In
the early Seventies he joined their ranks
when a released a stunning series of soul
singles, including "Let's Stay Together,"
"Take Me To The River" and "Tired Of
Being Alone." In the Eighties Green
began devoting his life to god, and he
exclusively recorded gospel music until
the mid-Nineties. "Al Green has helped
overpopulate
the
world,"
Justin
Timberlake told Rolling Stone in 2004.
"He's got some serious babymaking
music. But what makes him such an
inspiration is the raw passion, the
sincerity and the joy he brings to his
music. People are born to do certain
things, and Al was born to make us
smile."

Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke was just 33 when he was shot to death in

1964 in the lobby of a seedy Los Angeles motel. By that
point he was easily one of the greatest soul singers the
world had ever seen. Like many great singers of his
era, Cooke began his career singing gospel music. He
switched to secular music in 1956 with the release of
his first solo single "Lovable." Over the next few years
he released "You Send Me," "Chain Gang," "Cupid,"

"Twistin' The Night Away," "Another Saturday Night," "A

Change Is Gonna Come" and many more. "Sam Cooke
was grounded in a very straightforward singing style: It
was pure, beautiful and open-throated, extraordinarily
direct and unapologetic," Art Garfunkel told Rolling
Stone in 2004. "He had fabulous chops, but at the same
time fabulous taste. I never felt that he was overdoing
it, as I often feel with singers today. He stayed rhythmic
and fluty and floaty; he always showed brilliant vocal
control."

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye's musical accomplishments

from his late Fifties run in the
Moonglows
through
his
Eighties
comeback with "Sexual Healing" are
simply staggering. During the Sixties he
was one of Motown's most reliable
hitmakers, scoring with "How Sweet It Is
(To Be Loved By You," "Ain't That
Peculiar," "I Heard It Through The
Grapevine" and "Thinking About My
Baby." He also cut a series of classic
dues with Tammi Terrell ("Ain't No
Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing
Like The Real Thing") and even played
drums on "Please Mr. Postman" for the
Marvelettes. After Terrell's death in 1970,
he switched gears and began recording
the politically charged LP What's Going
On which is widely regarded as one of
the greatest albums of all time. Gaye
was in the midst of a career renaissance when he was shot to death
by his father in April of 1984 after they got into a vicious argument.

Ray Charles

He was known simply as the Genius. During his six-decade career, Ray
Charles played nearly every kind of music imaginable from soul to rock to
country to jazz. He kicked off an incredible series of hits with "Mess Around"
in 1953. Over the next 20 years he was constantly on the charts, scoring
with "I Got A Woman," "Night Time Is The Right Time," "Georgia On My Mind"

and "Hit The Road Jack." His final album, 2004's Genius Loves Company, won
a Grammy for Album of the Year. "Ray Charles is proof that the best music
crosses all boundaries, reaches all denominations," Van Morrison told Rolling
Stone. "He could do any type of music, and he always stayed true to himself.
It's all about his soul. There's a reason they called Ray Charles 'the Genius.'
Think of how he reinvented country music in a way that worked for him. He
showed there are no limitations, not for someone as good as he is. Whatever
Ray Charles did, whatever he touched, he made it his own. He's his own
genre. It's all Ray Charles music now."

BLUES
Definition:
BLUES is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in
the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The
genre developed from roots in African-American work songs and EuropeanAmerican folk
music. Blues
incorporated spirituals, work
songs, field
[3]
hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues
form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized
by
the call-and-response pattern,
the blues
scale and
specific chord
progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue
notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also
an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the
trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and
instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line
repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that
the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern,
consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next
four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues
frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles
experienced in African-American society.

Origin:
The term blues may have come from "blue devils", meaning
melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is in George
Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). The phrase blue devils may also
have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the
"...intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol
withdrawal". As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, and "it
came to mean a state of agitation or depression." By the 1800s in the United
States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which
survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibit the sale of alcohol on
Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be

older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas
Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics the phrase is
often used to describe a depressed mood. Some sources state that the
term blues is related to "blue notes", the flatted, often microtonal notes used
in blues, but the Oxford English Dictionary claims that the term blues came
first and led to the naming of "blue notes".

Famous Artists of Blues Music:

Chuck Berry

Born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis,

Missouri, Chuck Berry had early exposure to
music at school and church. As a teen, he was
sent to prison for three years for armed
robbery. He began producing hits in the
1950s, including 1958's "Johnny B. Goode,"
and had his first No. 1 hit in 1972 with "My
Ding-a-Ling." With his clever lyrics and
distinctive sounds, Berry became one of the
most influential figures in the history of rock
music.
Fats Domino

Fats Domino was born in 1928, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Introduced to music early in life, he began performing in
clubs in his teens and in 1949 was discovered by Dave
Bartholomew, who became Domino's exclusive arranger.
His first recording, The Fat Man (1949), was one of a
series of rhythm-and-blues hits that sold 500,000 to
1,000,000 copies. He found success in mainstream
America with his 1955 song "Ain't It A Shame, which was
retitled to its now widely known, "Ain't That A Shame." The
next year, his cover of Blueberry Hill became his highest
charting hit. He solidified his popularity with teenagers
when he appeared in two films, Shake, Rattle &
Rock and The Girl Can't Help It. During his career,
Domino endured the challenges of racial discrimination to
become one of the defining pioneers of rock and roll
music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1986.
Tina Turner

Born in Tennessee in 1939, Tina Turner began

performing with musician Ike Turner in the
1950s. They became known as the Ike and
Tina Turner Revue, achieving popular acclaim
for their live performances and recordings like
the top 5 hit "Proud Mary," until Tina left
in the 1970s after years of abuse. Following a

slow start to her solo career, Turner achieved massive success with her
1984 album Private Dancer. She went on to deliver more chart-topping
albums and hit singles, and was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1991. The revered singer later became involved in the
spiritual Beyond project, and married longtime boyfriend Erwin Bach in July
2013.

Stevie Wonder

Born on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan,

singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
Stevie Wonder made his recording debut at age
11, becoming a 1960s force to be reckoned
with via chart hits like "Fingertips, Pt. 2," "I Was
Made to Love Her" and "My Cherie Amour."
Over the next decade, Wonder had an array of
No. 1 songs on the pop and R&B charts,
including "Superstition," "You Are the Sunshine
of My Life," "Higher Ground," "Boogie on
Reggae Woman," "Sir Duke" and "I Wish" from
the albums Talking
Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life.
Wonder continued to churn out hits into the 1980s, including "I Just Called to
Say I Love You," the Paul McCartney duet "Ebony and Ivory" and "Part-Time
Lover." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and has
continued to record and tour.

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on

April 15, 1894. She began to sing at a young age and in
1923 signed a contract with Columbia Records. Soon
she was among the highest-paid black performers of
her time with hits like "Downhearted Blues." By the end
of the 1920s, however, her popularity had lessened,
though she continued to perform and made new
recordings at the start of the Swing Era. Her comeback
and life were cut short when she died on September
26, 1937 from injuries sustained in an automobile
accident outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

SPIRITUAL
Definition:
Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are generally Christian songs that were
created by African slaves in the United States. Spirituals were originally an
oral tradition that imparted Christian values while also describing the
hardships of slavery. Although spirituals were originally unaccompanied
monophonic (unison) songs, they are best known today in harmonized choral
arrangements. This historic group of uniquely American songs is now
recognized as a distinct genre of music.
Spiritual, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly
associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States.
The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythmic
structure, and the pentatonic scale of five whole tones, is, above all, a deeply
emotional song. The words are most often related to biblical passages, but
the predominant effect is of patient, profound melancholy. The spiritual is
directly related to the sorrow songs that were the source material of the
blues (see jazz), and a number of more joyous spirituals influenced.

Origin:
The term, "spiritual", is derived from "spiritual song", from the King
James Bible's translation of Ephesians 5:19, which says: "Speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord." Slave Songs of the United States, the first
major collection of Negro spirituals, was published in 1867.
Musicologist George Pullen Jackson extended the term "spiritual" to a
wider range of folk hymnody, as in his 1938 book, White Spirituals in the
Southern Uplands, but this does not appear to have been widespread usage
previously. The term, however, has often been broadened to include
subsequent arrangements into more standard European-American hymnodic
styles, and to include post-emancipation songs with stylistic similarities to
the original Negro spirituals.
Although numerous rhythmical and sonic elements of Negro spirituals
can be traced to African sources, Negro spirituals are a musical form that is
indigenous and specific to the religious experience in the United States of
Africans and their descendants. They are a result of the interaction of music
and religion from Africa with music and religion of European origin. Further,

this interaction occurred only in the United States. Africans who converted to
Christianity in other parts of the world, even in the Caribbean and Latin
America, did not evolve this form.

Famous Artists of Spiritual Music:

Paul Robeson

Born on October 18, 1926, in St. Louis,

Missouri, Chuck Berry had early exposure to
music at school and church. As a teen, he was
sent to prison for three years for armed
robbery. He began producing hits in the
1950s, including 1958's "Johnny B. Goode,"
and had his first No. 1 hit in 1972 with "My
Ding-a-Ling." With his clever lyrics and
distinctive sounds, Berry became one of the
most influential figures in the history of rock
music.
Fats Domino

Fats Domino was born in 1928, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Introduced to music early in life, he began performing in
clubs in his teens and in 1949 was discovered by Dave
Bartholomew, who became Domino's exclusive arranger.
His first recording, The Fat Man (1949), was one of a
series of rhythm-and-blues hits that sold 500,000 to
1,000,000 copies. He found success in mainstream
America with his 1955 song "Ain't It A Shame, which was
retitled to its now widely known, "Ain't That A Shame." The
next year, his cover of Blueberry Hill became his highest
charting hit. He solidified his popularity with teenagers
when he appeared in two films, Shake, Rattle &
Rock and The Girl Can't Help It. During his career,
Domino endured the challenges of racial discrimination to
become one of the defining pioneers of rock and roll

music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame in 1986.

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on

April 15, 1894. She began to sing at a young age and in
1923 signed a contract with Columbia Records. Soon
she was among the highest-paid black performers of
her time with hits like "Downhearted Blues." By the end
of the 1920s, however, her popularity had lessened,
though she continued to perform and made new
recordings at the start of the Swing Era. Her comeback
and life were cut short when she died on September
26, 1937 from injuries sustained in an automobile
accident outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

CALL AND RESPONSE

Definition:
In music, a CALL AND RESPONSE is a succession of two
distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second
phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. It
corresponds to the call-and-response pattern in human communication and is
found as a basic element of musical form, such as verse-chorus form, in
many traditions.
Call and Response involves a style of singing in which the call by one
singer, that is the melody of one singer is responded or sung by another. It
involves two different phrases, played by two musicians where the second

melody is a response to the first phrase. The call and response forms the
basis of verse-chorus traditions in many cultures. Call and response in music
echoes similarities to the call and response form of communication between
the speakers call and the listeners responses.
Call and response patterns between two musicians are common
in Indian Classical Music, particularly in the style of Jugalbandi. Call and
response is likewise widely present in parts of the Americas touched by the
trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is extensively used in Cuban music, both in the
secular rumba and in the African religious ceremonies (Santera).

Origin:
Call and Response singing has its origin in Sub-Saharan Africa where
the tradition continues to be used effectively during large gatherings and
tribal meetings. Slaves brought from Africa transported the tradition of call
and response music with them and in fact used it as a means
of communication with each other. Black communities found call and
response singing a great mode of combating their illiteracy. Typically, a lead
singer would sing the main lines which were responded by the congregation
eliminating the need of any hymn books.
Call and response is a music form identified with African music and
culture though it also commonly used in musical traditions of other cultures.
Apart from being used in music call and response is used as a mode
of communication in rituals such as hymn singing in churches. Call and
response music can exist in verbal or nonverbal format and are equally
interesting to the ear. It is not necessary that one has to understand the
language of the song or music to enjoy it. The tone and melody of the rhythm
often explain the nature of the song and hence can be enjoyed
across cultures. Call and response music have been successfully recorded and
marketed across the world owing to its aesthetic appeal.
It has been adapted to suit various needs by all kinds of people in
the world. Teachers dealing with young children may use call and response
songs to help children understand and remember mew concepts of a lesson.
Protesters often use the call and response format to sing or voice their
protests during rallies. In African cultures call and response patterns is widely
used in public gatherings and in rituals apart from vocal and non-vocal
expressions of music. Call and response is dominant in Cuban music and is
also extensively used in Indian Classical music in the form of Jugalbandi.

Famous Artists of Call & Response

Music:
Edwyn Collins

Edwyn Stephen Collins is a Scottish

musician, producer and record label
owner from Edinburgh, Scotland. Collins

was the lead singer for the 1980s post-punk band Orange Juice, which
he co-founded. Following the group's split in 1985, Collins started a
solo career. His 1994 single "A Girl Like You" was a worldwide hit.
David Bowie

Born and raised in South London, Bowie developed an

interest in music as a child, eventually studying art, music
and design before embarking on a professional career as a
musician in 1963. "Space Oddity" became his first top-five
entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969.
After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972
during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and
androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was
spearheaded by the success of his single "Starman" and
album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
from Mars, which won him widespread popularity. In 1975,
Bowie's style shifted radically towards a sound he
characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his
UK devotees but garnering him his first major US crossover
success with the number-one single "Fame" and the
album Young Americans. In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult
film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to
Station. The following year, he further confounded musical
expectations with the electronic-inflected album Low (1977),
the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that would
come to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977)
and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top
five and received lasting critical praise.

Post Malone

After leaving college, Malone moved from Dallas,

Texas to Los Angeles, California, with his
longtime friend, named Jason Stokes. He met 1st
and Rich from FKi Music, who did some of
the production work on several of Malone's
tracks, one of which was titled "White
Iverson". Malone recorded the song two days
after he wrote it.[5] "White Iverson" is in part, a
reference
to
the
professional
basketball
player Allen Iverson. In February 2015, upon
completion,
it
was
uploaded
to
Post's
SoundCloud account. On July 19, 2015, Malone
released a music video for "White Iverson",
which has received over 205 million views since
its release. After the initial hype of "White Iverson", Post released several
other popular singles through his SoundCloud, including "Too Young",
"What's Up" and "Tear$". All of which experienced similar levels of
popularity. After hitting one million views within a month of releasing

"White Iverson", Post quickly garnered attention from record labels. In

August 2015, he signed a recording contract with Republic Records.
Paul Simon

Is
an
American
musician, singersongwriter and
actor.
Simon's
fame,
influence, and commercial success began as
part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in
1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel.
Simon wrote nearly all of the pair's songs,
including three that reached No. 1 on the
U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence",
"Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge over Troubled
Water".
In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African
township music. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick
Pony (1980) and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman (1998)
with the poet Derek Walcott.
Simon has earned twelve Grammys for his solo and collaborative work,
including a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the
"100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. In 2011, Rolling
Stone magazine named Simon as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. In
2015 he was named as one of The 100 Greatest Songwriters by Rolling
Stone Magazine.] Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient
of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. In
1986, Simon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree
from Berklee College of Music, where he currently serves on the Board of
Trustees

Ella Jenkins

In 1956, Jenkins decided to become a full-time freelance

musician, a vocation she has pursued for over 50 years.
She began her career as a childrens musician touring
school assemblies in the United States, often sleeping in a
different place each night and encountering racial
discrimination. As she performed in more varied venues,
she began to write music about her experiences. Later that
year, a friend recommended that she bring a demo tape
to Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. Asch was
receptive to her music and in 1957, her first album, CallAnd-Response: Rhythmic Group Singing, was released by
Folkways. Since then, Folkways Records and, more
recently, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings have released
39 albums, including the popular Youll Sing a Song and Ill
Sing a Song. Her 1995 album Multicultural Children's

Songs is the most popular Smithsonian Folkways release to

date. She has not only been an important force in
childrens lives, but in the lives of parents and fellow music
educators as well. She has participated in many
conferences on music education, and has offered
workshops for music educators, parents, and caregivers all
over the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY