Blues Industry

JERRY WEXLER

Jerry Wexler was a man who knew how to make an impact. As a journalist he is credited with inventing the term ‘R&B’; as joint head of Atlantic Records he helped a lot of Black artists cross into the mainstream; as a shrewd businessman he made a lot of money; as an A&R man his…

KEN BURNS

This renowned American documentary film-maker has produced many important cultural reports on the elements that have come together to form modern American society. He has addressed The Civil War, Baseball, Prohibition, Jazz and in 2012, a look at the American Justice system based on the case of The Central Park Five. Ken uses archive film…

ALAN LOMAX

Writer, film-maker and musicologist Alan worked with his father John making field recordings of all kinds of folk music for the Library of Congress. He was responsible for discovering and promoting many Blues performers and went on to cast his net wide across the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean, promoting…

ROBERT FRANKLIN PALMER

This son of Little Rock, Arkansas was a respected music writer and journalist, a contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine and the first Rock Correspondent for the New York Times. He taught at the Universities of Mississippi and Memphis State, at Yale and the Smithsonian; he produced Blues albums for RL Burnside among others and…

LES PAUL

Les Paul invented the first effective solid bodied electric guitar. The Gibson Corporation rejected ‘The Log’, an electric guitar Les put together after hours in the Epiphone factory where Les worked in 1940, but when Leo Fender put out his ‘Esquire’ ten years later, they called him back! Les designed the guitar that carries his…

JOHNNY OTIS

Few people have contributed more to R&B than Johnny Otis. All round musician, bandleader, DJ, promoter, talent scout, song-writer, label owner and producer, he found time to become a TV host, preacher, politician, author and organic farmer. He also crossed the colour-line at a time when that was very rare. The ambitious Greek teenager from…