Black Sam Rivers

Steve Masakowski is jazz guitarist, educator, and inventor. He invented the guitar-based keytar and the switch pick and has designed three, custom-built seven-string guitars. He developed an approach to playing the guitar by using his pick design, allowing him to switch from fingerpicking to flatpicking. He has released solo albums and has worked with Johnny Adams, Mose Allison, Dave Liebman, Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Carl Fontana, Rick Margitza, Bobby McFerrin, Nicholas Payton, Dianne Reeves, Sam Rivers, Woody Shaw, Alvin Tyler, and Bennie Wallace. Since 1987, he has been a member of the band Astral Project.

Few others besides avant-garde composer/instrumentalist Elliott Sharp could record a collection of blues songs and make them sound like a new genre altogether, a sort of blues/folk/jazz/new age sound with droning keyboards, slinky reverbed vocals, sinuous guitar parts, and angstful horns. The album is by turns haunting, sexy, volatile, and soothing

Triodes is a genre-jumping instrumental group that traces it roots to the upbeat instrumental r&b, soul, and funk of groups such as Booker T and the MGs, The Meters, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, but with generous nods to early reggae and ska, modern jam bands, experimental rock, jazz, and electronica. With a repertoire that puts an emphasis on solid grooves and an intriguing palette of sounds, the fun and funk of Triodes is delivered by Michael Occhipinti (guitar), Paul Neufeld (keyboards), Roberto Occhipinti (bass/producer), and Doan Pham (drums), with guests Jeff Coffin (saxophonist with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones & The Dave Matthews Band), rapper PHATT al, and percussionist Luis Orbegoso.

10-CD box set that contains 250 original Rockabilly recordings. Featuring Jonny Cash, Carl Phillips, Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Thompson, Faron Young, Bill Haley & The Saddlemen and many others. All the tracks were recorded between 1947 and 1960 but with the vast majority coming from the 1950's.

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.