Sunday Times June 28 2024

Wilco Evolving from a rough-and-tumble alt-country act into a mature and eclectic indie rock ensemble, Wilco have become critical favorites and cult heroes on the back of a stylistically diverse body of songs from founder Jeff Tweedy.

World-renowned archivist, author and blues educator Stefan Grossman learned from the greats during the folk and blues revival of the 1960s in the United States. He appeared on a few records in the mid-60s before releasing his debut album, How To Play Blues Guitar (Elektra, 1966).

The world-renowned fingerstyle guitarist and blues historian Stefan Grossman’s BBC recordings anthologised on 4CDs.

Julie London A sultry, smoky-voiced master of understatement, Julie London enjoyed considerable popularity during the cool era of the 1950s. London never had the range of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan, but often used restraint, softness, and subtlety to maximum advantage. An actor as well as a singer, London played with heavyweights like Gregory Peck and Rock Hudson in various films, and was married to Jack Webb of Dragnet fame for seven years before marrying songwriter Bobby Troup ("Route 66"). London performed her biggest hit, "Cry Me a River," in the Jayne Mansfield film The Girl Can't Help It. After recording her last album, Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, in 1969, she continued to act – playing a nurse on the NBC medical drama Emergency from 1974 until 1978. London left show biz altogether in the late '70s. In the mid-'90s she suffered a stroke, which led to a half-decade of poor health and ultimately contributed to her death on October 18, 2000.

A strong argument can be made that Faces were the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever. To be fair, that argument is strongest after a couple of pints or with the stereo at an appropriately loud volume (preferably both). But even in the most academic sense, it's easy to make a case that the band purely embodied the most essential elements of what made the early '70s rock 'n' roll landscape so exciting. Utterly unconcerned with being a supergroup (the remnants of the post-Steve Marriott Small Faces combining forces with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart from the Jeff Beck Group), and instead focused on delivering a loose, bluesy (and boozy) update on the Small Faces’ soulful psych-rock, Faces charted a back-to-basics course for other bands to follow out of the muck of the late '60s.

Few (if any?) opera singers have also been Academy Award nominees, let alone for Best Actor. But then again, there is only one Lawrence Tibbett (1896–1960). Described as dashing, Tibbett had a career as a movie actor, radio show personality and host, with sponsors such as Packard, Firestone, and Chesterfield. He was also one of the first “crossover” artists singing Gershwin, Kern, and Porter, and was a staple at the Met. A cogent and articulate advocate for artistic causes (rare in his day), he founded the American Guild of Musical Artists with Jascha Heifetz. But first and foremost, Lawrence Tibbett was an opera singer and one of the greatest baritones of all time.