Ike & Tina Turner were the R&B/soul-rock duo of American guitarist/bandleader Ike Turner and his then-wife, singer Tina Turner. They came together in the late 1950s when Ike hired Tina as a backing vocalist for his band, the Kings of Rhythm. She first sang lead on the 1960 Sue Records single “A Fool In Love,” […]
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), […]
Cal Tjader (July 16, 1925 — May 5, 1982) was an American Latin-jazz vibraphonist from St. Louis with a recording career that spanned more than three decades, starting with a 1949–53 stint in the Dave Brubeck Trio. As a bandleader, Tjader made eight albums in the late Fifties on Fantasy Records and eleven on Verve […]
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 […]
