Jerry Butler, the graceful singer and songwriter who served as the first leader of the Impressions before launching a long, hit-heavy solo career, died on Thursday at his home in Chicago. He was 85. His death was confirmed by his assistant, who said that Mr. Butler had Parkinson’s disease. Mr. …
To accompany this article, Adam Bradley created a playlist of the songs that define R&B’s new era. THE R&B SINGER-SONGWRITER Muni Long has a voice that people say could sing the dictionary and they’d still listen. In 2007, as a teen growing up in Gifford, Fla., she put that claim …
In Sly & the Family Stone’s prime, from 1968 to 1973, the band was one of music’s greatest live acts as well as a fount of remarkable singles including “Everyday People” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” There was a shining optimism to its sound, which mixed funk with the …
Rutherford Chang, a conceptual artist who turned his collection of the Beatles’ “White Album” into a meditation on the aging of a vinyl classic — and who, in another project, melted down 10,000 pennies into a copper block to make a statement about the value of each red cent — …
Gene Barge, one of the last surviving saxophonists of the golden age of R&B, whose career ran the gamut of 20th-century Black popular music, died on Sunday at his home in Chicago. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter Gina Barge. Known by the nickname Daddy G, …
The most awards at the 67th annual Grammys went to Kendrick Lamar, who swept the biggest song prizes with his Drake diss “Not Like Us” on his way to five trophies. But the story of the night was Beyoncé, who after losing album of the year four previous times, won …
Marianne Faithfull, who went from being a fresh-faced, feather-voiced pop star, as well as muse and girlfriend of Mick Jagger, to a homeless heroin addict, only to re-emerge radically altered in her early 30s as a critically acclaimed cabaret performer singing songs of dark honesty, died on Thursday in London. …
Garth Hudson, whose intricate swirls of Lowrey organ helped elevate the Band from rollicking juke-joint refugees into one of the most resonant and influential rock groups of the 1960s and ’70s, died on Tuesday in Woodstock, N.Y. He was 87 and the last surviving original member of the group. His …
They sure do grow up quickly, don’t they? Last week marked a milestone for the children’s brand Kidz Bop: The release of “Kidz Bop 50,” the company’s 50th album of sanitized, child-friendly covers of pop songs. The songs are sung by a small group of telegenic teenagers, who also appear …
One morning, when she was about 7 years old, Neko Case stood on her front porch, closed her eyes and wished with all her might to see a horse. It was a tall order. She and her parents lived in the coastal city of Bellingham, Wash., and none of their …