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jazz

Big Jay McNeely

Cecil James ("Big Jay") McNeely (born on April 29, 1927, in Los Angeles, California) is an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist. He grew up in the community of Watts, California, where he occasionally observed Simon Rodia constructing the Watts Towers. McNeely is known for his intense playing and his energetic and acrobatic stage performances. For example, at a 1949 concert in the old Wrigley Field baseball stadium in Los Angeles, he played while walking through the stands and then while crawling from home plate to first base on his back.

The Necks

The Necks are an experimental jazz trio from Sydney, Australia, comprising Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. The band plays improvisational pieces of up to an hour in length that explore repeating musical figures. As well as jazz, they are strongly influenced by Krautrock.

Typically, a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing something very simple. One by one, the other two will join with their own melodies, all three independent yet intertwined. A piece of music usually lasts about 45 minutes and over this time grows in volume and pace and complexity before petering out. They are quite simply an extraordinary live experience.

The Necks are also well known in Europe. Their soundtrack for The Boys was nominated for ARIA Best Soundtrack Album, AFI Best Musical Score and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for What's The Deal? (1997) and In the Mind of the Architect (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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Norah Jones

Norah Jones, born on March 30th 1979 in New York City, is one of the most popular contemporary jazz and jazz-influenced singers of our time. She was a member of Wax Poetic before her debut album Come Away With Me. She can still be heard singing with them on two tracks of their release, Nublu Sessions. Her debut album Come Away With Me was released in 2002 and sold 22 million copies worldwide. It won 5 Grammy Awards in 2003.

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu (born Erica Abi Wright on February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas) is an American R&B/hip hop artist whose work crosses over into jazz. She is best known for her singles "You Got Me" her collaboration with The Roots, as well as her own songs "Tyrone", "Love Of My Life", "On & On", "Bag Lady", "The Healer", "Honey" and "Soldier". Her lyrics are highly personal urban philosophy which throw emotional challenges in the face of the listener. She weaves unusual musical influences together creating a rich texture of sound.

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Royal Crown Revue

According to their own website, they are the founding fathers and absolute rulers of the neo-swing movement,­ the reigning kings of all that is sartorially and otherwise splendid in classic American music. They hit their big break in the mass-media with Hey Pachuco! used in the 1994 movie "The Mask" (it's the music Jim Carrey dances to with Cameron Diaz). Since 1991, they have released four studio albums and three live albums. They are based in Los Angeles, and frequently tour in the L.A. area, around the United States, and around the world.

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Candlesnuffer

Candlesnuffer is the physical incarnation of the music of David Brown. David's history around the Melbourne scene extends back to the mid-70's when fresh out of school he joined AC/DC, only to be given the boot three weeks later for excessive artistic endeavour. He later formed Signals with fellow fine art students David Wadelton and Chris Knowles. In 1987 and 1988 he was playing with Dumb and the Ugly.

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Katie Noonan

Over the last two years Katie Noonan and her new band ‘The Captains’ ( Cameron Deyell – guitar, Stu Hunter – keys/bass, Declan Kelly – drums) have been building a vessel of exciting new songs. A return to form for Katie, this band sees the songstress sailing towards a more beloved lush and organic sound with her trademark strong and inspired personal stories. Katie has co-written songs with a host of Anzac luminaries including Tim Finn, Don Walker, Sia Furler, Josh Pyke, Tom Shapcott and her fellow ‘Captains’ band mates.

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