Rock

Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964. New York, USA) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, guitarist and actor whose retro amalgam of rock, pop, funk, and even techno is inspired by such music icons as David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. Like Prince and Sly Stone before him, Kravitz uses a multi-ethnic, mixed-gender backing band.

Kravitz plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, and sitar. He often plays these instruments on each recorded track, but frequently collaborates with other musicians as well when recording.

His 1989 debut album Let Love Rule was a moderate success. In 1991 he released his second album, Mama Said, which reached the top 40 of the Billboard album charts. In 1993, the album Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 and Kravitz earned a Brit Award for best international male artist in 1994. He released the Circus album in 1995, which reached number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement. With 5 (1999), Kravitz embraced digital technology such as Pro Tools and samplers for the first time. He would win the first of his four consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1999.

His cover version of The Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2000. Kravitz released a Greatest Hits compilation in 2000. It proved to be his most successful album. The single "Again" would earn him his third consecutive Grammy for the Best Male Rock Vocal in the Grammy Awards of 2001. Kravitz released his sixth album Lenny in October 2001. He won his fourth consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal at the Grammy Awards of 2002. Kravitz's seventh album Baptism was released in May 2004. His album, It Is Time For A Love Revolution was released in 2008. He has always edited his albums on Virgin Records America. The lead single from Kravitz’s ninth album, Black and White America, "Stand" was released on June 3, 2011. (Stand Songfacts).

He is the son of Ukrainian-Jewish American NBC television news producer Sy Kravitz, and Bahamian American actress Roxie Roker, best known as her character Helen Willis on the hit 1970s television sitcom The Jeffersons. Black and White America's title track is an autobiographical look back at his upbringing in New York. (Black and White America Songfacts).

Artist website: www.lennykravitz.com
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The Jezabels are an indie rock band from Sydney, New South Wales that formed in 2007. They classify their music as 'intestindie' as it contains a mixture of different genres. The group's members are Hayley Mary (vocals), Samuel Lockwood (guitar), Heather Shannon (piano/keyboard) and Nik Kaloper (drums).

We are a thing that came out of a few chance meetings at Sydney University. You see, Heather and Hayley had been playing music together for a while. Inevitably came the journey south from Byron - being their place of youth - to Sydney for a foray into higher education. Nik and Sam were studying at Sydney University also. And you know, for some reason you just meet people...

We don't have a manifesto as such, but we do have definite intentions in what we do. We wish to play pop, but with a recognizable element of self-awareness. We wish to be emotional, but with a sense of certainty that our audiences won't walk away thinking that we take ourselves too seriously. What is paramount is an attempt to push this thing called the culture industry in some direction which makes it more human. (I guess this is all too ambitious but oh well... We do try)

Heather studies piano at the conservatorium and reads a bit too much Russian literature. Hayley looks toward her personal canon of pop ballads for guidance in all situations and believes we must return to the way life was prior to the poker machine epidemic. Nik is a science student who imbues his drumming with formulas and mathematical complexities. Sam is a country music-playing, Marx-spouting communist with a love of all things meaningfully subversive.

The Jezabels have released 3 EPs: Dark Storm (2010), The Man is Dead (2009) and She's So Hard (2009).

Their debut album Prisoner was released in September 2011. The Jezabels won the 2012 ARIA Award for Best Independent Release for their album, Prisoner.

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Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is a two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer from the United States. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards. Rickie Lee Jones is a singer songwriter whose style leans on jazz and pop/R&B timing and personification.

Jones settled in LA at the age of nineteen, doing the classic waiting tables stuff until she landed a recording contract with Warners. Her self-titled debut album in 1979 was a big success, as was the single, Chuck E.'s in Love, about her musician friend Chuck E. Weiss. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, she won a Grammy for Best New Artist, and also received four more nominations: for Record of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female; and Song of the Year (for "Chuck E.'s in Love"). While none of her subsequent recordings achieved the same level of commercial success, Jones has continued releasing critically acclaimed albums that have explored a variety of sonic terrain from jazz standards to trip hop influenced works.

Jones' pursuit of jazz standards led to the recording of "The Moon Is Made of Gold" and "Autumn Leaves" for Rob Wasserman's album Duets in 1985. The latter track earned her another Grammy nomination. And in 1990, her duet with Dr. John, a cover of "Makin' Whoopee", earned the artist her second Grammy Award, this time in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group.

At the time of recording her debut album, Jones was in a romantic relationship with Tom Waits; she is the girl draped over the car on the cover of his 1978 album Blue Valentine.

Early in her career, Jones was known for her drinking and substance abuse. She eventually tempered those demons, and came to terms with herself, and her own uncertain spirituality, and has maintained respect of her musical peers.

She's devoted to her talents, beyond music, one of which is raising her teenage daughter, and has even run her own political website and made music critiquing the Bush administration. She is involved in left-wing politics and community activism, partly through her web community, Furniture for the People (http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/).

A greatest hits collection on Rhino called The Duchess of Coolsville was released in 2005.

In 2007 she signed to New West Records releasing The Sermon On Exposition Blvd, a record exploring lyrical territory inspired by Lee Cantelon's 1991 book The Words, which attempted to translate Christ's teachings into a more accessible contemporary format. Cantelon's friend, Guitarist Peter Atanasoff was instrumental in the creation of the eventual record.

Discography

1979: Rickie Lee Jones – Warner Bros.
1981: Pirates – Warner Bros.
1983: Girl at Her Volcano (EP) – Warner Bros.
1984: The Magazine – Warner Bros.
1989: Flying Cowboys - Geffen
1991: Pop Pop - Geffen
1993: Traffic From Paradise - Geffen
1995: Naked Songs - Reprise
1997: Ghostyhead – Warner Bros.
2000: It's Like This - Artemis
2001: Live at Red Rocks - Artemis
2003: The Evening of My Best Day – V2
2005: Duchess of Coolsville - Rhino
2007: Sermon On Exposition Boulevard - New West
2009: Balm in Gilead
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