Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of Strata-East Records.
Strata-East Records first gained notoriety outside the world of jazz after the British label Soul Jazz Records put out three anthologies of their recordings in the 1994-1997 period.
I give you “Travelin’ Man” (1974) in its first version.
Has anyone besides me noticed the likeness to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes?
Harold Budd was an American composer working primarily in ambient music.
His two collaborations with Brian Eno, 1980’s The Plateaux of Mirror and 1984’s The Pearl, established his trademark atmospheric piano style.
Update: it took a Facebook comment of David Toop to bring Budd’s best work to my attention:”Bismillahi ‘Rrahman’ Rrahim” (1975):
Budd’s track on the Marion Brown Vista album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjNqksj0mkk&ab_channel=ishimats
and Budd’s own recording of that track on The Pavillion of Dreams.
Howard Wales was a keyboardist best known for his collaborations with Jerry Garcia in the early 1970s.
However, solo, he produced little gems such as this “Rendez-Vous With The Sun, Part. 2” on his album of almost the same name in 1976.
The tracks is also included in DJ Harvey’s cult mix “Sarcastic Disco Volume 2” which you will find on Soundcloud.
RIP and thank you for the music.
Jerry Jeff Walker was an American musician best known for writing “Mr. Bojangles“.
Walker recorded “Mr. Bojangles” too, but when I hear that song I’m invariably only reminded of the heavily orchestrated version by the great Nina Simone.
The Nina Simone version wormed itself into my head in 2006 via the compilation Nova Classics 07 released on Radio Nova, keepers of musical taste in the early 2000s.
Nina first released on her cover album Here Comes the Sun from 1971.
Eddie Van Halen was a Dutch-American guitarist and songwriter working in hard rock. He enjoyed crossover success with “Jump” (1983), a song that was discouraged from being broadcast on American radio because during 9/11 Americans had witnessed too many jumpers.
In my universe he is known for his guitar solo on “Beat It” (1982) by Michael Jackson.
Mac Davis was American singer-songwriter best-known for writing “In the Ghetto“.
Roy C was an American singer-songwriter best known for writing the song “Impeach the President” (1973) which was sampled hundreds of times in hip hop songs.
Ronald Bell was an American composer and saxophonist best-known as the founder of Kool & the Gang.
He wrote and produced many of the band’s songs including “Celebration”, “Cherish”, “Jungle Boogie”, “Summer Madness”, and “Open Sesame”.
Simeon Coxe (1938 – 2020) was an American composer and musician known as a founding member of the electronic rock ensemble Silver Apples.
I guess I first stumbled upon Silver Apples when I bought the Underground Moderne cd by Nova Records. It had the track “Gypsy Love” on it, and I always skipped it. Silver Apples were undeniably of great influence, but none of their records would end up in my desert island selection.