Ann Peebles is an American soul singer from St. Louis who released seven albums between 1969 and 1977, including the Hi Records classics Straight From the Heart and I Can’t Stand the Rain. She landed R&B hits with “Part Time Love,” “I Pity the Fool,” “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” and […]
Surprise was an American symphonic/art-rock band from the St. Louis area that released the 1977 album Assault on Merryland through self-press Carousel Records. Members: Rick Bess (electric guitar, bass, twelve-string acoustic guitar), Blair Blake (Hammond organ, grand piano, MiniMoog, Moog Taurus bass pedals, ARP string ensemble, celeste), Dave Kelly (drums, timpani, orchestra bells, gongs, triangle, guiro), […]
Smoke was an American soul group from Kansas City, Missouri, that released the 1976 album Risin’ on local-press J.Bridge Records. Members: Ernest Malone, Arthur Malone, Melvin Manning, Larry Brown For the West Coast soul-funk band behind the 1976 album BlackSmoke, click here. Background Smoke coalesced when Kansas City brothers Ernest and Arthur Malone teamed with […]
Dry Jack was an American jazz-rock band active between 1972 and 1982. They released two albums, Magical Elements and Whale City, both in 1979 on Inner City Records. Members: Dwight Rucker (vocals, 1973-75), Rod Fleeman (guitar), John Lamb (guitar), Clint Swank (guitar), Rocco Marshall (guitar), Bill Bergman (guitar), Tony DePaolo (guitar), Chuck Lamb (piano, Moog, […]
Topper was an American psych-rock band from Independence, Mo., that released the 1977 album At Last on the self-run Scot label. They used drummer-singer Jim Hodges’ Riverside nightclub Cosmos as a performance base and recording site. Drummer Bob Brown recorded earlier with the Winamill Music Band. Keyboardist Rudy Passonno later cut the album Mama Mama in […]
Estus was an American hard-rock band behind a 1973 self-titled album on Columbia, produced by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, whose contemporary stateside credits include recordings by Sunday Funnies and Brett Smiley. Drummer Marc Bell hailed from Dust and later surfaced in Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Guitarist/keyboardist Tom Nicholas preceded Estus with […]
Grant Green (June 6, 1935 — Jan. 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer from who released more than 20 albums on Blue Note between 1961 and his death in 1979 at age 43. Background Grant Green was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He received early guitar instructions from his father, […]
Oliver Nelson (June 4, 1932 — Oct. 28, 1975) was an American post-bop/jazz-funk saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader from St. Louis. He began recording as a leader on Prestige in 1959 and established his best-known composition, “Stolen Moments,” on the 1961 Impulse! album The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Nelson arranged Sixties sessions for Jimmy […]
