Kobe Bryant | tl

Both virtuosos and innovators on their respective instruments, steel guitar player Speedy West and guitarist Jimmy Bryant recorded genre-shattering instrumental music in the 1950s that combined country music with bebop jazz music. Blisteringly fast tempos, pleasing melodic phrasing coupled with startling technique, an undying sense of playfulness, and unusual sounds squeezed out of their instruments were their forte--and their recordings together are actually the first recordings ever featuring a solid-body electric guitar. .

For us all, the hip-hop group Opus Akoben stands up with their weapon — the weapon against clichés which often times are set up by those which are withdrawn from the real world. A weapon forged within a wide musical culture with a strong identity. Washington D.C., the federal capital of the United States, is the place where the band’s three vocalists, Carl Walker (aka Kokayi), Terence Nicholson (aka Sub-Z) and Joshua Culbreath (aka Black Indian) started out. They met through their involvement in the Freestyle Union which was founded in 1994 by Toni Blackman and Monty Taft. This creative...

Willie Bryant (August 30, 1908 – February 9, 1964) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues bandleader, singer, and disc jockey. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926. He worked in various vaudeville productions for the next several years, and in 1934 he appeared in the show Chocolate Revue with Bessie Smith. In 1934, he put together his first big band, which at times included Teddy Wilson, Cozy Cole, Johnny Russell, Benny Carter, Ben Webster,...